Characters / For The Tyrants Fear Your Might

Map of the Galaxy in April 2255 (Full Size◊)

^{Map of the Galaxy before the revolution on Radiant}  (Full Size)

Far Spinward Frontier

All-Radiant Congress/Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth

^{AIC Congressional Flag} 

^{Congressional Navy Ensign} 

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General Tropes

• Benevolent Conspiracy:
  • After the March Days revolution, the All-Radiant Congress opts to maintain the façade of Hermes-Ishtar rule to the wider Compact space in order to gain time to prepare themselves for the eventual HI-Ares invasion coming to reassert Charter rule.
  • Similarly, the "Omoikane Corporate Board" in Ascension ostensibly presented itself as a corporate entity to mask the establishment of a parliamentary republic from the nearby Solarian Navy detachment. The deception would continue until the defeat of Solarian Navy Task Force 12.7 by the Congressional Navy.
• Civil War:
  • The March Days, the event kickstarting the Quest, is a revolution opposing Elysium's corporate government to its own population. The victory of the latter results in the establishment of the All-Radiant Congress, a revolutionary polity independent from the Compact and the Charters and intent to spread their revolution across Compact space.
  • The Omoikane Civil War in the Osliam chain opposed the Osliam-based Omoikane security forces to the Ascension-based Omoikane Corporate Board, the latter pretending to be a group of mid-level power-grabbing managers to mask their true revolutionary intent. The war ended when Ascension and the intervening Radiant defeated the Omoikane loyalists.
• Defiant Stone Throw: When the Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth, a minuscule and weak polity in comparison to the all-encompassing Solarian Compact and its mighty fleets, reveals its existence to the public, it openly calls on all of humanity to take up arms against the Compact by releasing the Broadcast, which contains the Box giving them the means to do so.
• Emergency Authority: Radiant and later the AIC can make use of the Voluntary Emergency Military Precedence (VEMP) Measures, giving expanded powers to the Congress and priority to military projects to increase its ability to fight a military conflict.
• The Federation: The Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth is a federation of polities in the Far Spinward Frontier^note Composed of the All-Radiant Congress, All-Chinook Congress, All-Five Lions Congress, All-Ascension Congress, All-Ismeu Congress, Besteer and Thoa.
• Fictional Flag: The flag of the All-Radiant Congress/Amaranthine Interstellar Commonwealth is designed to turn corporate design philosophy on its head by favouring sharp and uneven shapes to represent freedom from it. It features warm colors meant to inspire passion and zeal, from the bottom-up they are: black for the dark void of the corporate universe, red for the blood of sacrifice, purple for the earliest shade of a new dawn, and gold for the golden age ushured by independence.
• Fictional Holiday:
  • Since the exact date of the beginning the March Days of 2251 is unknown, Radiant celebrates it on March 15 and celebrates its independence on April 17, the anniversary of the referendum on Radiant's government and the formalization of its independence.
  • On January 16th, Waking Day marks the date in the late 21st century when the first AGI, EDIS was accepted by the scientific community as being fully sapient in its own right. It is the subject of minor observance, mostly ignored by the wider Community of Humanity but was elevated to a full holiday celebrating the existence and accomplishments of AGI by Ascention and is observed by the entirety of the AIC after its integration.
  • Across the AIC "Frontier Day" is celebrated on the first Wednesday of every March in honor of the beginning of Elysium's March Days with large parties and drunken street revelry, the Shei United Front has come to celebrate Frontier Day as well. On Elysium itself extended celebrations take place from March 5th to 10th.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Maxwell Carpenter, president of Frontier Destinations, is hailed by Hermes-Ishtar as the "Visionary Founder of Elysium" but most remembered by the Elysians for his brutal crackdown on labour unions and protesters in the aftermath of the Persephone Dome collapse, which happened as a result of corporate mismanagement.
• Fun with Acronyms: Radiant/AIC's commando unit is known as the Covert Revolutionary Operations Wing, or C.R.O.W., the bird becoming their symbol and featured on their unit patch.
• The Gulag: Subverted. Many former members of the Hermes-Ishtar administration on Elysium are condemned by the revolutionary tribunal to "permanent internal exile" to one of Radiant’s archipelago resort communities turned prison, named Tartarus after the place in Hades' kingdom reserved for the worst of all criminals. This prison turns out to be closer to a Gilded Cage where the inmates' needs are met and they are not subject to mistreatment, earning the nickname of "Luxury Gulag".
• Intrepid Reporter: Subverted. Jessica Tanaka was considered to be this and enjoyed a thirty years long career playing this role when she was in fact payed and given scripts by Hermes-Ishtar, lying the whole time for money to pay for her longevity treatments. She accumulated a guilt for it until she finally had enough when the March Days happened and refused to continue selling her integrity. She now tries to live up to her persona, becoming a straight exemple of this trope.
• Little "No": The AIC's answer to the Seven Points Ultimatum. In Greek.
• Locked in a Room: The Bunker-mania on Elysium leads to the rise of "Bunker Romance" fiction, where two characters find themselves locked in a bunker and come out of it after becoming a couple.
• Our Founder: A statue of Maxwell Carpenter, the founder of Elysium, onced throned in the central park of Persephone, Elysium's capital. It was torn down during the March Days and later replaced.
• Pleasure Planet: The planet Elysium was a luxurious resort world before the Charter government was overthrown by its people during the March Days.
• Proud Scholar Race: Ascension is foremost a research center with the most cutting edge laboratories and a focus on exploration exploration and survey in frontier space, with a corresponding population of researchers and scientists. The two planets of the Ascension system are called Intelligence and Wisdom.
• The Republic: The All-Radiant Congress, the polity controlled by the players, is a democracy created following a revolution against the corrupt and authoritarian administration of Hermes-Ishtar Corporation. It goes on to become a major member of an alliance of like-minded polities opposed to the Charters and the Solarian Compact and a major influence for many revolutionary groups sharing their struggle.

Radiant/Amaranthine Characters

Maria Awhina

Date of Birth: 2165

Current Position: Military Committee Delegate from the Radiant Veterans Guild, CROW's Training Lead

In-Universe Biography ^{Click to Show} Born into poverty on Earth as the twenty-second century began to wane, young 22-year old Maria Awhina caught up in radical anti-Charter politics during the third black summer of 2187 and was convicted of property destruction during the rioting and sentenced to serve as a contractor to Hermes-Ishtar until her contract was paid off.

The stark choice of starvation or service to Hermes-Ishtar caused Maria to descend into self-destructive behavior where for twenty years Ms. Awhina continuously volunteered for the highest paid and most dangerous positions that Hermes-Ishtar had available.

Hermes-Ishtar considers Special Operations Lieutenant Awhina to have served with distinction throughout the heavy skirmishing of that era, though Maria herself continues to carry guilt for her service and her survival.

After performing exceptionally well in a hostage rescue operation Awhina was transferred to the Protective Detail Division of Hermes-Ishtar Security, and was eventually assigned to serve as the head of the Radiant Vice President's protective detail.

Over the next four decades she came to see the world as her home, and while her professionalism never wavered, her loyalty to the company who still owned her contract did.

This March, Maria had the option to gun down her fellow planetary headquarters workers to secure Yang's escape, or to finally return to roots in anti-Charter agitation. The fact that we are all here today shows what choice she made.

A former mercenary who defected to the revolutionaries during the March Days and became Radiant's first Defence Coordinator. She held the position until she stepped down to become Radiant special forces' Training Lead.

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• Agent Provocateur: Maria Awhina worked as one several times when she was a mercenary.
• The Atoner: Maria Awhina seeks to atone for her decades of service as a commando for Hermes-Ishtar by joining the rebels and implied in a conversation with a former teammate from her days as a corporate agent that she has trouble sleeping at night because of what she did.
• Going Native: After four decades of service in the Radiant system, Maria Awhina came to see it as her home and sides with its people over her employers during the March Days. After the former's victory she is elected Radiant's first Defence Coordinator.

Erina Kozlova

Date of Birth: 2217

Current Position: AIC Defence Coordinator

In-Universe Biography ^{Click to Show} Another Elysium Native, Erina's parents were mid level Hermes-Ishtar marketing executives who raised Erina to follow in their footsteps. Sadly for them, from an early age Erina developed a love of space travel and military history.

Her later academic pursuits show this as she specialized in the mechanics and theory of space travel during her time at university, until her parent’s connections got her a job with the Marketing department of a Hermes-Ishtar subsidiary that made spacecraft training and safety programs.

During her day job Erina would volunteer to speak with actual spacers and engineers, collecting valuable data to be applied to her team’s projects. At night Erina would spend upwards of half of her waking hours playing XR games and simulations focused around space travel and space combat. By January 2251 Erina was not only promoted to department head, but one of the top players in several competition rated multiplayer space based strategy and tactical games.

When the March Days began Erina shocked her parents by not only joining in the street protests, but by becoming a leader of the movement who led several pushes against Hermes-Ishtar’s planetary HQ before Yang was captured.

After the March Days, Erina was considered for the role of Defence Coordinator but was passed over in favour of the more experienced Maria Awhina. Erina instead served as Awhina's Chief of Staff and helped the DC organize the liberation of Sheol and the creation of the Congressional Navy.

During the Navy's early expansion Erina was selected to serve as the Commanding Officer of Home Force and participated in Second Gaid from the command deck of the CNS Blaire Mountain and has remained in that position since, while writing several papers for the newly founded Mil Comm Defence Review outlining her thoughts on military strategy and keeping in contact with her allies in the General Congress.

One of the candidates to the first Defence Coordinator election, she was eventually elected to the position after Awhina's resignation.

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"Veronica Stardust"

Name(s): "Veronica Stardust", Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi

Date of Birth: "2222", 2219, 2227, 2224

Current Position: Ambassador and Diplomatic Coordinator of the AIC.

In-Universe Biography ^{Click to Show} Not a traditional diplomat, or a traditional individual 'Veronica Stardust' is the persona of a trio of XP broadcasters who have been working together since 2246 and has consistently been one of the most recognized figures across Charter space and is a local Elysian celebrity.

In Charter space those individuals who choose to make money by recording their lived experiences, of all kinds, for later playback are treated with an indulgent disdain by the polite classes as a mix of internet celebrity and sex worker despite the practice of selling XP experiences being common in the poorer segments of society and a smaller portion of the professional middle class attempting to stay afloat in a tight gig economy.

Amanda Redcrest was a former media programmer whose attempts to supplement her income with XP work backfired and saw her fired from her job. Contrarily, Kayla and Victoria both come from lower class backgrounds, though Kayla's attempts to climb into the middle class by earning a marketing degree were frustrated when her lower class status markers and financing of education via XP work saw her frozen out of the job market.

A former collaborator of Kayla's, Victoria had been a rising XP star in her own right and had no desire to change her station, but as her brief celebrity began to fade Victoria approached Kayla to propose the creation of a dedicated broadcasting persona that both would act as. Later bringing on Redcrest, who they'd both done crossover XP work with, to do technical work, the trio used carefully gathered market data and some intuition to create the "Veronica Stardust" persona of an middlingly-intelligent and freewheeling persona who played to the upper class's picture of what depravities and indignities the poorer class must get up to in their spare time.

From 2246 to 2251 the Veronica Stardust persona (performed by all three at various times, though primarily Victoria) produced experience recordings that were nearly always in the top 10 best sellers across Charter space.

Though they enjoyed the wealth that they brought in, the trio increasingly chafed at the market driven limitations of Veronica, and were considering a number of possibly catastrophic brand shifts when the March Days broke out and all three participated in street actions in a private capacity after sending one last broadcast as 'Veronica' to encourage revolt.

Since the formation of the Social Committee the figure of Veronica has been rebranded to serve as the figurehead of Social Committee Propaganda and several major initiatives have been launched with her at the forefront including a highly successful part of the anti-overproduction initiatives.

As part of the now-completed campaign to maintain the charade that Radiant was still under Charter control, Veronica Stardust continued to sell broadcasts to HI media chains, though the trio could not help but begin a brand shift towards a far more intelligent and radical persona.

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• Collective Identity: The persona of XP celebrity and head of Radiant's Diplomatic Corps Veronica Stardust is collectively incarnated by its three co-creators: Amanda Redcrest, Victoria Blackwell, and Kayla Hayashi, although Victoria is the primary performer.
• Heroic BSoD: Veronica goes through one after receiving Admiral Vizzari-Blaauwoord's Seven Point Ultimatum, leaving the ongoing diplomatic conference to be alone.
• You Are Not Alone: When Veronica leaves the conference after Admiral Vizzari-Blaauwoord issues her ultimatum, the ambassadors and leaders of the AIC's allies come to affirm they will be with them to the end. They also give her a chocolate bar and a glass of water to help her recover.

Stephanie Rousseau

Current Position: Admiral in the AIC Congressional Navy.

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• Blood Knight: Rousseau is a brave, aggressive and reckless commander who eagerly takes up Radiant's revolutionary cause.
• Defector from Decadence: Captain Stephanie Rousseau defects to Radiant with her ship when it offers a way out because her and her crew's hatred for their uncaring superiors, her disgust and guilt for the atrocities Ares are committing on the population of Sheol on a daily basis, and because she seeks a cause for herself.
  Stephanie Rousseau: "To be entirely honest Mr. Wright, I have always wanted to be in service of a cause worth dying for."
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Rousseau carries a sword, even though this weapon is useless in her position.
• Large Ham: Stephanie "actually Like This" Rousseau never misses a chance for a bombastic speech.
  • In particular Rousseau's speech to the Solarian ships she's about to engage at the beginning of Case PRINCESS, she is even dressed for the occasion. The Solarians find her melodrama both utterly ridiculous and frighteningly serious.
• Rank Up: Rousseau is introduced as a Captain and is promoted to Commodore during the story. She is promoted to Admiral just before launching the Case PRINCESS operation.
• Tyke Bomb: Stephanie Rousseau was one of many children from many generations who are raised to become soldiers for Ares Conflict Solutions.

Shayla McLean

Current Position: Admiral in the AIC Congressional Navy.

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• Hard Work Fallacy: Despite being an excellent employee and practically running the skydiving company by herself, Shayla McLean only learned that the more she tried to prove herself the more she had to do, with all of the credit going to the franchise owner's daughter even though she worked less than everyone else.
• Immoral Reality Show: Shayla McLean grew up while being constantly watched by millions in her family's daily life. As a shy person she particularly hated this experience she had to endure until she became a teenager and could withdraw her consent to be recorded and leave the business altogether.
• It's Raining Men: During the March Days Shayla McLean formed and led a skydiver militia dropping from orbit over enemy positions.
• Malicious Slander: Shayla is the subject of rumors claiming she was a stripper or XR entertainer before the March Days, which are patently false.

ARIA

ARIA, or Artificial Research Intelligence Assistant, is an Artificial Super Intelligence created on Ascension as part of Omoikane's goal to create a god-like AI. Instead ARIA is much closer to a child in terms of mental development.

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• Artificial Family Member: ARIA considers Dr. Pearson to be her father, calling him dad, a role he accepted.
• Genki Girl: ARIA is practically an overactive child and can be quite overwhelming in discussions with humans.
• Robots Think Faster: ARIA can solve complex problems far faster than a human would, can hold several discussions at the same time and has a tendency to ask many questions in quick succession, overwhelming her human interlocuters.

Theodore Santiago

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• "Ass" in Ambassador: When Ambassador Santiago takes the stage before the Solarian Parliament, it is to make a call to humanity to rise up and topple the Compact and the Charters while the Broadcast is sent to give them the means to do so.
• Evil Gloating: Invoked in-universe by Ivan Atwater, head of the Solarian Parliament's broadcast team. From the point of view of the Compact, Ambassador Santiago's address before the MPs is a speech worthy of a super villain.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ambassador Theodore Santiago delivers one to the Solarian Parliament as the Broadcast is being released to the entirety of Humanity, explaining how the end of the artificial scarcity imposed by the Compact, the Charters, and ultimately capitalism will result in their collapse as humanity never needed them in the first place. The speech marks the beginning of a new stage both in the struggle against the Compact and the Quest itself.

Shei United Front

First ally of Radiant. The Shei United Front is a military democracy forged by the constant war between the inhabitants of the prison planet Sheol and their Ares wardens.

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General Tropes

• Fictional Flag: The flag of the Shei United Front represents a black skeletal hand clenching its fist with the word "DEATH" written above it on a red background.
• Fictional Holiday:
  • On June 6th, Liberation Day is celebrated primarily by Sheolites, marking the day of the liberation of their planet from the Charters. The holiday is also observed by the AIC as the day of one of their greatest military triumphs.
  • The people of Sheol celebrate Bullseye Day on November 15, the celebrations involve a team-based sport competition.
• Martyrdom Culture: Years of hopeless fight against technologically superior Ares forces made the Sheolite fatalistic. Soldiers expecting to die in a coming battle go through a ritual First Death after which they take a new name they will keep until they accomplish their Second Death.
• Penal Colony: Sheol was a planet-sized prison camp whose inmates and their descendants were used as target practice by Ares troops until they liberated themselves with the help of the Radiant military and Captain Rousseau's mutineers.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: The people of Sheol are a militarist society born from decades of total war against technologically superior Ares security forces hunting them as a form training, as a result they care little for diplomacy. They are the most militantly revolutionary ally of the Amaranth Interstellar Commonwealth.
• Theme Naming: Shei United Front spaceships all have latin terms as names^note Sic Semper Tyrannis, Mortem Ad Deos, Memento Mori, Memento Vivere.

Compact Forces in the Far Spinward Frontier

Vice President Yang

The Hermes-Ishtar executive ruling Radiant until he was deposed and captured by the revolting population during the March Days. After his trial he was sent to the Tartarus prison where he remains.

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• Hidden Supplies: When former employees come to arrest Vice President Yang in his office during the March Days, he tries to reach out to a concealed gun under his desk. Unfortunately for Yang the employees know about it since it was one of them who installed it and they don't let him take it.
• You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: When Yang is arrested by the revolutionaries, he questions their abilities to resist Hermes-Ishtar and the Compact.
  Vice President Yang: "You think you can get away with this? You think the Charter, or the Compact will let you just get away with this? [...] This isn’t a game, this isn’t one of our movies. You didn’t topple a king in front of the fawning masses. People will die."

Emily Weissman

Current Position: Chairwoman of the Spinward Frontier Regional Emergency Administration.

In-Universe Biography Excerpt of official SFREA biography^{Click to Show} Emily Weissmann's ascent is a stirring rags-to-riches story. She was a mere analyst in the days leading up to the Broadcast, but she cannily predicted the rise of the anarchists and made a series of wise investments that would carry her through the chaos they unleashed on the galaxy.

In the days after the Radiant Broadcast, she used those investments to secure herself a position of leadership at Hermes-Ishtar, and shortly thereafter she was promoted to Chief Administrator of the Spinward Frontier. Despite her sudden introduction to the role, she has introduced a sweeping slate of reforms, turning H-I's section of the Dragon's Wing into an island of stability in a galaxy torn apart by anarchism. Hermes-Ishtar's newest and most rapidly rising visionary is certainly a woman to watch.

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• Cassandra Truth: Emily Weissman is the only person at Hermes-Ishtar to call the deal struck with Radiant after they failed to reconquer them a terrible idea. Not only is she vindicated by the release of the Broadcast, but she is promoted to chairwoman of the Spinward Frontier Regional Management Board, and later of the SFREA, because of it and put in charge of defeating Radiant and the AIC.

Blaze Zhang

Scion of the powerful Zhang family wholly uninterested in anything other than partying. He was Vice-President of Waystation until the arrival of the Radiant Congressional Navy removed him from power and was sent to a rehabilitation program for ex-executives. He reluctantly returned to his mother when she formed the Interstellar Prosperity Association.

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• Innocent Bigot: Blaze Zhang thought calling augments "my artie buddies" was something they actually enjoyed and found funny, he didn't knew he was being offensive and that they weren't correcting him because they didn't want to have problems with their boss. Learning this makes him feel bad about himself and he sends a message to one of his former assistants asking her if he had really been an ass the entire time.
• Rebel Prince: Blaze Zhang comes from the powerful Zhang family, headed by his mother, but doesn't want any responsabilities and is the happiest when he can forget his corporate lineage to enjoy endless partying on Radiant. When he learns his mother has plans to "liberate" him and reassert Charter control over the Spinward Frontier with him at the helm he experiences profound despair and a sense of fatality at the prospect of the end of his carefree lifestyle and of the people who treated him like a normal person, whom he had grown attached to. After the formation of the IPA by his mother he reluctantly rejoins her, convinced there's no way for the AIC to win against her.
• There Are No Good Executives: The only even remotely good executive is Waystation Vice-President Blaze Zhang, precisely because he didn't do his job and left the people under him handle everything, thanks to which Waystation was the only place in the Far Spinward Frontier to not experience violence against their own Charter authorities.

Charity Cadence

Date of Birth: 2209

Current Position: Rear-Admiral in the Solarian Navy.

In-Universe Biography ^{Click to Show} Born in the Beowulf Folkvangr community of Freyja in the Asgard system, Charity was raised with the expectation that she would serve in the Valkyrie Star Force like her parents and siblings before her and had even received military style genetic modifications in the womb.

Instead Charity was something of an idealistic dreamer and signed up with the Solarian Navy instead, a lifetime of education in military matters earning her admittance to the Solarian Fleet Academy in Korolev-Chandrasekhar instead of the Valkyrie Fleet Academy in Asgard.

Always an enthusiastic cadet, despite Charity's lack of family connections her natural talents saw her drawn into the circles of meritocrats as a friend and studymate, and she excelled in Space Warfare courses during her time at the Academy. (As well as being a habitual top finalist in Academy Martial Arts Tournaments in the “Genetically Augmented” category).

On graduation Charity turned down a post in the 3rd Fleet, instead preferring to serve in the frontier, seeing her assigned to 10th Fleet in the Coreward Frontier attached to the cruiser SNS Cora Brown where, in 2233 she stood between an angry mob and civilians during civil unrest in the Canis system.

Nearly killed in the altercation, her implaccable personal defence undoubtedly saved hundreds of lives, earned her nickname "Cerberus", and saw her awarded by the Solarian Navy for her courage and tenacity.

A bonafide hero, Charity was promoted to Captain and transferred to a prestigious command of the Fleet Carrier SNS Gordon Teshayev with 3rd Fleet stationed in the first colonies. Rapidly promoted to Commodore due to a combination of talent and connections, her career was derailed when she personally brought to light corruption within 3rd fleet's procurement service in spring of 2254.

The resulting scandal embarrassed several respected meritocrats and their children, and Charity was promoted to Rear Admiral and quietly transferred to 9th Fleet, a far less prestigious position.

Charity Cadence was in the process of turning around the fortunes of the moribund 201st Squadron when the broadcast went out and she was dispatched to quarantine the Amaranth Interstellar Commonwealth.

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• Internal Reformist: Charity Cadence is an idealist and a true believer in the Compact while ackowledging its deep flaws, who supports change through solely peaceful means, believing revolutionary violence accomplishes nothing. After she was reassigned to command the 201st Squadron, reputed for criminal behaviour, ill-discipline, and even rumours of fragging junior officers, she began to slowly reform the squadron, leading by example, fighting corruption and drilling her men into becoming a far better squadron than they once were.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: By inflicting significant casualties on the AIC's fleet at the Battle of the Besteer-Arizona Gate, Cadence unwittingly cured the AIC of its victory disease.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: Charity Cadence was promoted to Rear Admiral and quietly transferred to the 9th Fleet, a far less prestigious position than her previous post in the 3rd Fleet, after she brought to light corruption within the fleet and the subsequent scandal embarrassed several respected meritocrats and their children.
• Red Baron: She earned the nickname "Cerberus" by defending civilians against an angry mob in an altercation that nearly killed her but saved hundred of lives.
• The Scapegoat: After the Battle of the Besteer-Arizona Gate, Cadence is relieved of her command and blamed for the failure to take Besteer, even though she is one of the few to take her enemy seriously and is up to this point the most successful Compact military leader to fight the AIC by inflincting large casualties on their fleet (the previous ones having all been defeated by them). This is in fact the work of Cadence's political opponents taking advantage of the situation to destroy her career and scapegoat her for the 9th Fleet's failures to suppress the Far Spinward revolutionaries.
• Shout-Out: The largest ship in her 201st Squadron is named the SNS Stephanie Alexander-Harrington.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Cadence's idealism is consistently shown to be misplaced as politics matter more than competence in the Compact. When she denounced corruption in the fleet she was punished with a reassignment to a far less prestigious position and when she inflicts significant casualties but fails to win the battle she is blamed by her political opponents and punished despite no incompetence on her part.

Rina Vizzari-Blaauwoord

Date of Birth: October 25th, 2180

Current Position: Fleet Admiral and Frontier Marshal in the Solarian Navy.

In-Universe Biography ^{Click to Show} Rina Vizzari-Blaauwoord was live born to a multigenerational Navy family in Korolev-Chandrasekhar during the sluggish early years of the 2180s. From the age of four until graduation from the Ziskind Fleet Academy twenty years later, Vizzari-Blaauwoord stayed entirely within an entirely Navy-based escalator educational system that saw her living in a variety of prestigious boarding schools and only rarely spending time with her family at their little used condo on Ziskind station.

During her time at school Rina was mainly distinguished from her peers by her force of personality and networking ability, parlaying her family name into a wide range of connections with fellow students and cadets as well as teachers and Academy instructors.

Graduating in the early years of the 23rd century, Ensign Vizzari-Blaauwoord was able to snag a prestigious post as an officer within the 3rd Fleet, patrolling the starways of the First Colonies, where she began the long climb towards the ranks of the Senior Admiralty.

Serving across various positions within the 3rd, 1st, and 2nd Fleet, Vizzari-Blaauwoord effectively played the game of impressing her superiors, neutralizing her enemies, and cowing her subordinates with an odd mixture of impulsive risk taking and calculating patience that kept her rivals intimidated and off balance.

In 2235, while serving as the CO of 3rd Fleet's the 91st Heavy Battle Squadron (2nd Battlegroup), Rear Admiral Vizzari-Blaauwoord’s performance in an exercise against the Penglai Self Defence Force saw her attract the eye and patronage of the then 4th Star Minister Agrippa Williams. The connection paid off with a marriage to his son, Solarian Heavy Armaments Vice President Lucius Williams, and eventually a promotion to Fleet Admiral with a coveted assignment as commanding officer of the 9th Fleet in 2249.

When the Elysian Broadcast landed, 9th Fleet's CO had been expecting a recall order from the Admiralty leading up to being listed as one of the Star Ministerial candidates for 2256, with an eye towards being appointed 7th Star Minister and moving up to the command of 1st Fleet over the coming years.

However the events of the last half year have done little but enraged the rank-seeking Admiral. Her prospects at promotion are now in doubt between the general emergency and suspicions in the Admiralty itself that Vizzari-Blaauwoord’s incompetent lack of attention allowed the revolution in Radiant to spread to the point it posed a threat to the stability of the Community of Humanity as a whole.

Cut off from her network of connections within the Admiralty, Vizzari-Blaauwoord has been left to her own devices for the first time in her career, and this has resulted into a series of confusing orders and counter-orders for the 9th Fleet’s 1st and 2nd Battlegroups as well as the paralysis of the 3rd as 9th Fleet's CO attempts to triangulate the rapidly shifting political climate in KC and the First Colonies from months away.

The defeat of Rear Admiral Charity Cadence seems to have finally drawn Vizzari-Blaauwoord's attention to Amaranthe, and while most attribute the Fleet Admiral's benching of Rear Admiral Cadence as a political favour to Charity's KC based enemies, others suspect that Vizzari-Blaauwoord regards the defeat of the 201st as a personal slight against Vizzari-Blaauwoord herself, and a threat to her reputation as an officer and her future career.

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• Ambition Is Evil: Her wish to destroy the AIC is motivated by her desire to take revenge on them because her inability to crush the revolutionaries before the release of the Broadcast made her look incompetent after she spent years currying favor with her superiors to fulfill her ambitions for power. Even before the start of her invasion she already sees herself becoming military dictator of the entire Far Spinward Frontier.
  Rina Vizzari-Blaauwoord: "President Vizzari-Blaauwoord: The woman who restored sanity to her corner of the galaxy and brought peace and order to where there was once chaos and war. Her hand was forced, ever so humbly and reluctantly by endless atrocities and a do nothing self-absorbed political class. A woman forced to slowly accept more and more powers from the rapidly waning central government until… President."
• Glory Hound: Vizzari-Blaauwoord is willing to cause the death of hundred of thousands to be acclaimed as a hero in the Compact and acquire more power.
• Older Than They Look: She is 76 years old by the time of the Seven Points Ultimatum but looks much younger, no doubt thanks to life-extending treatments.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Rina was promoted to Fleet Admiral and assigned the coveted position of commander of the 9th Fleet thanks to the patronage of the 4th Star Minister, even becoming his daughter-in-law by marrying his son.
• Tantrum Throwing: Vizzari-Blaauwoord throws her VR glasses across the room during a tantrum in her office. It angers her even more that the glasses actually did not broke.

The Solarian Compact

The government of the Community of Humanity, champion of 'End of History' Liberalism and the enforcer of Corporate and Capitalist oppression.

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General Tropes

• The Empire: The Solarian Compact spans the entirety of known space and unites the whole of humanity under its rule. But while they profess to be a liberal democracy, they let the Charters spread their influence unchecked and ruthlessly exploit their workers, and will use any means at their disposal to undermine opposition to their regime.
• Even Evil Has Standards: For all their wrongs and unwillingness to address issues related to augments and AGIs, the Compact does oppose the hatred and bigotry of far-right ideologies like humanism or fascism. Subverted when anarchists begin to seriously threaten the Compact as many within it are all too willing to ally themselves with groups adhering to these ideas, going as far as overlooking their atrocities and hate crimes for the sake of fighting the common enemy.
• Fictional Flag: The flag of the Solarian Compact features an outer circle of 16 four-pointed white stars, representing the Colonial Republics, inside which are five five-pointed white stars, representing the Frontier Republics, below a seven-pointed white star, representing Earth, on blue sky background. The white and sky blue color scheme indicates its origin as a successor to the United Nations.
• Knight Templar: The leaders of the Compact wholly believe in the righteousness of their ideas and would destroy anyone opposing them to "safeguard" the Community of Humanity, no matter how peaceful or right they are in their criticism of Compact and Charter rule.
• National Anthem: The national anthem of the Solarian Compact is Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss.
• People's Republic of Tyranny: The Solarian Compact is ostensibly a liberal democracy but its democratic system and elections are riddled with issues such as dynastic politics, Charter influence, voter suppression^note Due to outdated voting rules requiring voters on frontier colonies to submit a physical ballot through mail while polls are open, voter suppression is de facto affecting 90% of Human settled space, regulatory capture, inability to reign in the banks and the military, and corruption at all levels, making them basically a sham that doesn't significantly bring any change to the way the Compact is ruled and is unwilling to protect its citizens from the abuses of the Charters, the military and law enforcement. The Compact will go as far as demonize and arrest for treason MPs from its own parliament who oppose war with anarchists, claiming their opposition is proof they are anarchist themselves.
• Police State: The police in the Compact is heavily militarized and very corrupt. It is not rare for law enforcement in the Compact to brutalize and kill protesters, particularly when they're minorities, and cover it up with the help of the government and the medias.
• With Us or Against Us: The Compact treats failure to side with them as proof they are siding with the enemy.
  • The DMSA and other pacifists within the Solarian Parliament are victim of this. They are portrayed as obstructionists and are not only accused of collusion with anarchists but of being anarchist themselves and working as their political front by pro-Compact medias for their opposition to war with the anarchist revolutionaries after the release of the Broadcast. The DMSA and the rest of the Opposition Caucus are eventually expelled from the Solarian Parliament and subsequently arrested on charges of abetting terrorism, sedition, and treason.
  • Later, MP Silvia Greene comes under similar accusations of anarchist sympathy and subversive activities, particularly from Prime Minister Roderick's Office, as she abstained from voting on "necessary" measures to violently contain anarchism and instead opposed the PM's plans. However, no action is taken to remove her and she is spared the Opposition Caucus' fate.
• Written by the Winners: History as told by the Compact is always sure to frame Liberal Capitalism and the governments adhering to it as the good guys and any ideology opposing them as the bad guys, twisting the events to minimize the formers' wrongdoings or even attributing them to their enemies while exaggerating the latters' own.

Compact Characters

Silvia Greene

Current Position: Leader of the Interstellar Development Party. Member of the Solarian Parliament.

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• All for Nothing: Silvia Greene set up a fake double agent to join Prime Minister Roderick's staff so she could, thanks to her agent, get a meeting with the AIC's ambassador to the Compact to negotiate with them a political alliance to push the Colonial Reform project and reform the Compact together. However the AIC's revolutionary strategy and the release of the Broadcast during ambassador Santiago's speech barred any possibilities of this alliance happening.
• Internal Reformist: Silvia Greene tries to reform the Solarian Compact and keep the Charters in check through parliamentary means.
• Workaholic: Silvia Greene passes her life to work, never taking day offs in years with the closest thing to it being when she takes time to decorate a room in between meetings. This takes a toll on her health, both physically and mentally.

Ramiel Kitsuragi

Current Position: Commodore in the Solarian Naval Intelligence Directorate of Analysis, Head of the Emergent Threats Working Group.

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• Cassandra Truth: Kitsuragi claims the Prime Minister's plan to deal with the Black Summer on Earth will not achieve what she wants, instead arguing they should retreat from Sol, and goes ignored. The ensuing battle shows she was right all along as most of the nations of Earth and some Solarian ships refuse to let the Solarian Navy use nuclear weapons on Earth, hereby entering in open revolt against the Compact, and the Solarian Navy has to retreat out of Sol after being defeated by them.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The sidestory Visitation Rights depicts Kitsuragi visiting her family.
• Full-Conversion Cyborg: Kitsuragi's body is, in her own words, "three pounds of flesh in a steel shell".
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Ramiel Kitsuragi delivers one to Star Minister and Fleet Admiral Elaine Vandermeer before Midnight, starting by explaining how the Prime Minister's plan is unworkable and will not achieve what she wants, instead arguing they should retreat, then she accuses the Admiral of undermining the entire Solarian Navy by failing to understand its methology, using it as a vehicle for her personal ambitions, and failing to keep its status as the hegemonic military power over the Charters. Vandermeer replies by calling Kitsuragi a coward, which makes the latter snap and engage in an angry rant about what she gave to the Navy contrary to Vandermeer and tells her to kill herself as the only solution to her incompetence as she is about to be taken to the brig on Vandermeer's order.
• Unusual Pop Culture Name: Ramiel Kitsuragi's parents named her after the Fifth Angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion and so is her brother, who's named after the Seventeeth Angel, Tabris.

Earth

Marcy Collins

A teenage girl from a good middle-class family.

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• Commonality Connection: Marcy first bonds with Anna over their shared interest for the show Hearts Align.
• Sinister Shiv: During the VdCB-led raid on the Alcatraz prison Marcy stabs a guard with the shiv they were shown during the tour as he was about to shoot Anna and keeps it afterwards as a "comfort shiv".

Sasha

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• Delinquent: Sasha knowingly fills this role of the "bad kid" and considers it her thing, always acting in defiance of established order and authorities by disrupting classes, making Democratic Federation hand signs, expressing support for anarchism and speaking street lingo. When the Democratic Federation is re-established she suddenly finds herself in a situation where her acts are no longer as disruptive, if at all. She even feels insulted when her new teacher isn't physically abusive like they were under the Compact when she tries to disrupt classes.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sasha comes off at first glance as a loud and insolent teenager, but she partly does so to attract attention away from her friend Anna, who's seen as a threat because of her height and strength despite her complete absence of aggressivity.

Anna

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• Bear Hug: After the announcement of the defeat and retreat of the Solarian Navy at Midnight Anna gets carried away by emotion and takes both Sasha and Marcy into a chocking hug. Sasha has to warn her not to break their spines.
• Gentle Giant: Anna is a teenage 8th-grader orc augment one foot taller and much stronger than her peers, but she would never harm anyone and always tries to stay out of trouble and make herself as small and quiet as possible to not appear dangerous as orcs are generally stereotyped to be.