Governenment

The Unity Corporation is a corporate state that has existed on Old Earth for over five hundred years. The Corporation started functioning as a state entity before the founding of the Pax Imperium. In fact the House of Athena forced the creation of the Pax Imperium as a superstructure of government over the Unity at the end of the [TK] war.

Although it has state powers, the Unity still functions as a corporation with every citizen forced to work as an employee. This form of government developed out of its mission as a public corporation which was to attain as much capital as possible for its shareholders. At the time of its ascendance the Unity and a few other corporate players recognized that holding state power was a means by which they could best further their mission. After a period of struggle the Unity became the sole victor and ruler of all of Old Earth. However, the mission had not changed, and the Unity already held many off-world companies and large tracts of real estate. Unity ambitions soon turned to consolidating the whole galaxy under its control. Its drive to control the galaxy was only checked when the Kingdom of Athena and other state entities fought a bloody war that ended with the creation of the Pax Imperium.

The Unity is nominally controlled by its citizens who are all supposedly shareholders of the corporation. In truth it is run by a small oligarchy known as the board of the Directors. Jockeying for position among the members of the board is a violent and often bloody affair. The winner of these affairs is often appointed as CEO of the corporation and chairman of the board of directors. The old fashioned notion that a corporate board of directors is to provide oversight to the management of the company has long disappeared as the two groups are often synonymous.