Nations, Conglomerates, and Orders: A Space Opera Universe
I. Premise
It is the year 2150, and the world continues to be harsh.
There was no clear winner in the past century’s conflicts, whether it be nation against nation, multinational pact against multinational pact, or various corporations against each other and other obstacles to their ‘bottom line’. Even the ‘next superpowers’, China and India, were merely a part of a new multipolar order of several Great Powers, an order challenged by a resurgent United States and Europe which seek to reclaim their old glory. But just because no one has won yet does not mean there hasn’t been change.
Environmental degradation and the effects of climate change have prompted a mass exodus from Earth, a mass exodus enabled by the development of the ‘Imp-Drive (Impossibility Drive)’, a form of propulsion that allows for relatively easy travel to other parts of the Solar System. Now, Humanity has expanded up to the Asteroid Belt, with the colonization of Jupiter’s Moons being seriously considered.
But to knit Human civilization together, the traditional structures of the Nation-State had to cooperate with organizations which claimed to transcend borders and peoples, organizations which entire countries had railed against for many decades. These organizations were composed not just of the much-reviled ‘Corporations’, but also charities, political parties, and other, seedier movements. In time, however, the increasingly far-flung holdings of Humanity would see the rebirth of a concept long-thought dead and buried: The Military Order.
Born from charities seeking protection for their activities, PMCs seeking moral legitimacy, and a hodgepodge of adventurers and ideologues seeking power for their competing visions as to how Humanity should be, the various space-age Military Orders became the main source of peace, order, and vital services in the colonies, rivalling traditional corporations and Nation-States which attempted to assert their authority. For the Military Orders had the geographic reach of the former and the military force of the latter, and a zeal driven by a vision of themselves as the future of Humanity and the old forms of organizing society as ‘stale’, ‘self-interested’, and ‘disconnected from the masses’.
Eventually, war came, and just like the previous century, there were no clear winners. The Military Orders gained legal recognition and the Geneva Convention was altered so that their forces didn’t count as ‘mercenaries’ or ‘enemy combatants’ in war, but they were bloodied into a stalemate by resurgent nation-states and corporations. Now, yet another Cold War looms, with a kaleidoscope of factions jockeying for power in an uncertain yet wondrous world...
I. Premise
It is the year 2150, and the world continues to be harsh.
There was no clear winner in the past century’s conflicts, whether it be nation against nation, multinational pact against multinational pact, or various corporations against each other and other obstacles to their ‘bottom line’. Even the ‘next superpowers’, China and India, were merely a part of a new multipolar order of several Great Powers, an order challenged by a resurgent United States and Europe which seek to reclaim their old glory. But just because no one has won yet does not mean there hasn’t been change.
Environmental degradation and the effects of climate change have prompted a mass exodus from Earth, a mass exodus enabled by the development of the ‘Imp-Drive (Impossibility Drive)’, a form of propulsion that allows for relatively easy travel to other parts of the Solar System. Now, Humanity has expanded up to the Asteroid Belt, with the colonization of Jupiter’s Moons being seriously considered.
But to knit Human civilization together, the traditional structures of the Nation-State had to cooperate with organizations which claimed to transcend borders and peoples, organizations which entire countries had railed against for many decades. These organizations were composed not just of the much-reviled ‘Corporations’, but also charities, political parties, and other, seedier movements. In time, however, the increasingly far-flung holdings of Humanity would see the rebirth of a concept long-thought dead and buried: The Military Order.
Born from charities seeking protection for their activities, PMCs seeking moral legitimacy, and a hodgepodge of adventurers and ideologues seeking power for their competing visions as to how Humanity should be, the various space-age Military Orders became the main source of peace, order, and vital services in the colonies, rivalling traditional corporations and Nation-States which attempted to assert their authority. For the Military Orders had the geographic reach of the former and the military force of the latter, and a zeal driven by a vision of themselves as the future of Humanity and the old forms of organizing society as ‘stale’, ‘self-interested’, and ‘disconnected from the masses’.
Eventually, war came, and just like the previous century, there were no clear winners. The Military Orders gained legal recognition and the Geneva Convention was altered so that their forces didn’t count as ‘mercenaries’ or ‘enemy combatants’ in war, but they were bloodied into a stalemate by resurgent nation-states and corporations. Now, yet another Cold War looms, with a kaleidoscope of factions jockeying for power in an uncertain yet wondrous world...