Corporations
Corporations in the world of Facsimile are large business often with branch offices spread between the Cities. From myriad products sporting their logos to subtle statements found all over the Network, the influence of corporations is omnipresent in the lives of those from the Cities, that is, unless one is to come from Saenctum. A corporation thrives in the thin stability afforded by a City's Central Districts, guarded by the watchful eyes of their respective City Authorities among whom many have some form of corporate connection or other. Graduates from the Vertassin Academy find acquiring jobs at corporate entities much easier than those who have only studied at the Authority's Public Education facilities, who themselves have a great edge above those with neither.
Firmament Corporation
"Harness the Star, Power the Future"
Firmament Corporation is a company centralized around its energy enterprise, managing the massive Central Reactors that form the most important positions in the Cities. Based in Dyon, the company hires only those who pass through its difficult screening tests and interviews that filter away all but the best among the Cities. Any information about the comings and goings within the company is heavily restricted, and those who work for it stubbornly refuse to disclose anything further than their “good working conditions.” It is still not uncommon for their employees to inexplicably disappear after signing on, though any attempts at charging them with responsibility simply fail with a message that the person was alive, safe, and sound. Firmament Corporation has also expanded itself into other industries, such as its Implant business which focuses on creating Implants that last with long battery life and energy efficiency.
Firmament Corporation Patents
Integrated Sub-battery - A small Implant typically placed into the user’s dominant hand. With its usage, one may use the sub-battery to charge the user’s handheld devices or their Implants, though it is utterly incompatible with GIB’s nerve-integrated Implants.
Plasma Weaponry - By releasing high amounts of electrical charge into a controlled structure, it is possible to produce plasma that may be employed in military applications, either in gout-launchers that spew plasma as one would bursts of flame, or contained structures that sacrifice its destructive potency for a more accurate weapon.
Charge Infusion - Allows for the usage of certain amounts of stunning electricity to be manifested on the edge of certain weapons that take upon the appearance of a lightning bolt wreathing its effector.
Overcharger - Infuse a certain Implant or device with an additional burst of energy that enhances the effect of its usage by an immense factor.
Energy Shielding - By projecting reflective fields of energy into geometric webs, incoming strikes and Storm currents may be deflected by the presence of a projected barrier.
Firmament Corporation Hierarchy
Executive Board - Group of rich leaders who guides the direction of the full company and votes to appoint new Chief Officers. Each Executive is also an officer of their own right, granted full authority over their own branch facilities so long as they remain in service of the company.
Chief Executive Officer - The figurehead leader of the whole corporation, though still holds much sway upon its movement. Think of this dynamic like a President and Congress of the US. May approve proposals made by managers and other executives or prevent them from moving on with a revocal order, although is largely restricted by the Board to ensure continued hold on the position.
Vice Heads - Second-in-commands of most Board Executives, although still hold vast influence over certain aspects of branch departments. Relay orders from higher Executive staff to lower grades.
Proctors - Managers of individual teams within the company tasked with the authority to command their underlings.
Specialists - More experienced employees with the company given tasks for the more tenured, and expected to teach their newer arrivals.
Agents - Individual employees of teams within the company handed down tasks by Proctors within a certain department.
General Implanted Bionics (GIB)
General Implanted Bionics, also known as GIB, is a prominent Implant manufacturer based in Perenost, and its inventions have remained trusted and widely used even after the Cataclysm. It was said that their company had preceded the fall of the Old World, and their neurally-linked Implants are known to have the least number of malfunctions recorded. It is said that the implants manufactured by GIB begin to feel like parts of the user’s body with enough use. Unlike Firmament Corporation, GIB is known to offer jobs to people even with lower credentials, though its Product Testers usually find themselves signing long and convoluted contracts that eventually result in a small sum of “condolence funding” for their families. The company holds many interests in objects found in the Warrens, though certain strange requests may involve retrieving Implants from corpses in the depths.
GIB Patents
Neural Subprocessor - By implanting an additional computer into the recipient’s head, the user’s thoughts may be additionally accelerated by transferring certain processes to the added hardware.
Synaptic Overloader - Enhancement of a user’s internal nerve firings may enhance their quick reaction speed, although the effects of usage cause strain to the user’s mind.
Limit Breaker - By suppressing the user’s innate instinctual pain avoidance, the user may exert strength that far exceeds that of before, though at the cost of needless recklessness.
Memory Replicator - By extracting certain memories from others, it is possible to transmit memories to their full extent as a digital representation, allowing for knowledge to be quickly transferred between different people.
Muscle-Assistive Fibers - With a harsh replacement surgery that removes the muscle fibers of human limbs and replaces them with an intricate system of metallic fibers carefully linked to the nervous system, Implants of this nature enable for users to exhibit feats of strength that far outmatch that of other people, though many such users have reported pain or soreness stemming from the Implant's adhesion layers to the rest of their bodies.
Arkworth Pharmaceuticals
Arkworth Pharmaceuticals is centralized around Metem and focuses on producing medicines, sedatives, and many essentials for medical treatment. The company conducts top-notch medical experiments within its facilities, funded by revenue generated from sales of its medicines and services at its hospitals. Hidden beneath lines upon lines of contractual language, those who seek treatment from their facilities also opt into medical studies involving their problem, which the company takes little responsibility for any negative outcomes following them. Arkworth primarily employs the Academy for its medical and research staff and refuses all underqualified applicants. Though they hold little interest in most artifacts from the Warrens and the outside, old storages of nanite pods or other similar objects are of great interest to the company, and sell for more at their branches than to most other companies.
Arkworth Pharmaceuticals Patents
Nanotriage - With a small injection of this substance near a recipient’s wound, it will immediately release a colony of medical nanobots to help heal the patient’s wounds to a minor degree. Given the nanobots’ low life capacity after repairing the wound, the process is quick, though will do little more than staunch the bleeding and prevent further spread on greater wounds. Despite this, it may still be key to saving one’s life in a bind.
Storm Panacea - The effects of ingesting too much of the rampant Oneirum in the atmosphere from having an extended stay beyond the Containment Fields projected by the Walls may cause negative health effects, such as an increased risk of Aberrancy or corruption, unexplained pains, or altered biology, among many other potential life-altering effects remains an issue for most caravaneers traveling beyond the Walls. The Storm Panacea is capable of suppressing such effects to the point of reversing them in the case of lesser stages of Storm Disease and is also capable of curing many other diseases that afflict the human population.
Mutagen - Though A-Corp may be a manufacturer of medicines for treating Storm Disease, it may be noted that they are also capable of creating substances that may exert a similar effect, and in a far more concentrated manner than that of continuous exposure. Mutagens are developed for this purpose, to modify the human body on a genetic level to accept certain traits that have been discovered since the wake of the Storm. Some reports have stated that injection of a Mutagen, though capable of producing far greater and more concentrated effects than that of a typical Oneirum-granted ability, has driven its users mad with usage.
Cyberkend
Another prominent Implant manufacturer based in Lind, primarily exports prosthetic replacements for humans or other modifications for Synthetics. They hold a reputation for creating durable and multi-purpose hardware, though typically, the lack of a proper neural link makes them somewhat cumbersome for most humans. Some say Synthetics are more suited for using Cyberkend’s devices, as their adaptations to electronic powering require little added cost. Aside from its products, it is also known to search for the remnants of the old robotics factories of Harkemann above anything else or buy any of its artifacts for a high price. It is said its chief executive believes strongly in transforming humanity to Synthetic forms as the next step of evolution.
Cyberkend Patents
Duralloy Manufacturing - This marvelous alloy is a product of combining regular Earth materials with a carefully regulated alteration powered by Oneirum. The result is a powerful metal many times more durable than the strongest of steel and far more resistant to heat. Though Duralloy’s mystical origins do mean that it requires an additional source of Oneirum at hand, due to its unnatural origins.
Nanorepair Modules - A reverse-engineered technology taken from the Harkemann Robotics self-repair modules on its Synthetics. Nanorepair Modules from Cyberkend can rapidly repair objects, though require a readily available supply of raw or processed materials nearby.
Motor-Assisted Skeletal Systems - By replacing several parts of the human body with motorized movement systems, it is possible to accelerate and strengthen the human body's movements such that they may bear loads that far supercede a human's typical limits.
Hermes Transportation Solutions
Centered around Pallantium, Hermes Transportation Solutions provides and maintains crucial systems that bind together the Cities, from the Teleportation Pads to inter-city hover ships and hyperrail services. The company also sells armored vehicles for expeditions to the Outside and is also known for its advancements in Containment Field technology only rivaled by the Old World’s projection screens behind which the Cities cower from the Storm. Despite its large reach, its employees for the large part consist of public transportation operators, and it shows little interest in delving into the Old World, though many companies do business with them to venture beyond the Walls.
Hermes Transportation Solutions Patents
Integrated Thruster Modules - By applying small, micro-sized, thruster modules into a body, it is possible to accelerate a person’s movements with a thruster’s assistance.
Integrated Fuelpods - A set of small and high-efficiency batteries that provide enhanced energy storage best for usage with the energy-consuming thrusters used by H-Corp’s Implants.
Hovership Manufacturing - What one may consider a car that flies, the Hovership is a versatile mobile unit that may fly up to thirty feet off of the ground and continue to retain its typical horizontal velocity.
Hyperrail Train Systems - For the facilitation of fast travel within sprawling Cities, Hyperrail systems enable extremely quick travel between specific stations spread across them.
Teleportation Modules - Powerful devices capable of facilitating instantaneous travel between two specific locations marked by Teleportation Anchors. Though the risks are relatively low, there have been certain incidents involving faulty transports that have either resulted in a vanished passenger or a far more gruesome result.
Titan Courier Services
Centered around Satria Majori, Titan Courier Services enables the transportation of goods quickly and efficiently across the sprawling landscapes of the Cities. The company seems to enable its own manners of vehicles, employing large hoverships of their own construction, said to be a modernized version of the archaic blimp once employed in the ancient days that predated even the Old World. Many of their administrative and warehouse services are held in the midst of the sky in a given City’s Central districts, where deliveries are sent by drone carriers. Their drones seem to follow a similar design pattern as those of Iris Association, implying a close connection between the companies for the Patent Office to not have stepped in between yet. In comparison to Hermes Transportation's hoverships, however, Titan's lumbering hulks are capable of flying at far higher heights and can carry heavy loads across extremely long distances. This has made Titan a preferable manufacturer for a steadily growing number of aircraft fielded in the inter-city transport and defense sectors.
Titan Courier Services Patents
Levitator Field Emitter - By projecting a series of overlapping energy fields, these handy objects are capable of lifting even the heaviest objects into the air with a minuscule expenditure of power, enabling for easy travel through the air without height restriction. Although, one notes that such objects are typically not very maneuverable.
Carrier Drone - A large, yet agile, flying drone capable of transporting packages placed inside kept in complete stasis to ensure that all transported objects are transferred in pristine condition. As such, one may note that they hold technologies that can preserve an object’s condition perfectly.
Stasis Prism - A small prism of an object that can capture a target and hold it in complete suspended animation. Outside effects may not affect the imprisoned object until either the Prism runs out of energy, or its outer container is damaged, which remains to be rather difficult due to the Prism itself’s permanence. Individuals trapped within the Prism continue to experience time, though are utterly unable to do anything while inside its confines. As such, this technology is employed well with numerous Authority security forces in the case of particularly dangerous individuals. The Stasis Prisms require a large apparatus for use, typically in the shape of a heavy levitator ship equipped with state-of-the-art energy generation mediums, due to its massive size and immense energy cost.
Onelight Soft Systems
As Yangshan's headquartered corporation, this company provides much of the software services and Network maintenance across the Cities. With their main servers placed in Yangshan, the company also maintains various broadcasting systems to maintain connection across the Cities, and has been granted a significant amount of power due to its control over the remnants of the worldwide Network. Onelight also involves itself deeply into the entertainment industry through its subsidiary companies, managing many news distribution channels, live broadcasting, online gaming, and various other services.
Onelight Soft Systems Patents
Terminal - With a Terminal, it provides a connection to the Network for Aberrants, and offers greater computing power than a typical birth Implant or built in Synthetic processor. Terminals act much like a portable computer, consisting of a small device that projects a larger screen into a holographic interactive device.
Metatransmitter - A series of Metatransmitter relays may rapidly transfer information from one endpoint to another. Each relay is large, and requires a significant amount of space and maintenance to ensure continued transmission efficiency, although these constructions enable the continued speed and integrity of the Network.
Neurointerface Pod - Constructed in a joint venture with GIB’s neurally-integrated Implantation technology, this kind of pod enables for a person’s senses to be converted entirely into a digital avatar, enabling for complete immersion into digital spaces for training purposes, or for high-end entertainment experiences.
Cal-Terra
A once-expansive interstellar corporate entity whose primary service was the creation of fertile, earthlike, worlds out of the myriad planets beyond the solar system along with offering efficient systems for hydroponic cultivation aboard space stations, Cal-Terra has fallen on especially hard times after the wake of the Cataclysm. Ever since the bulk of the Old World's food production moved off of the lands of Earth blanketed in the world-city, Cal-Terra prospered by building the foundations of which the expanse of human domination could be sustained. Yet cut off from the bulk of their capital spread between the stars after the Storm enveloped Earth, Cal-Terra has faced a rapid decline over the decades since the event that ended the Old World. When the Cataclysm hit, the company underwent rapid restructurings that transformed earthbound food warehouses into farms for vegetable, fruit, and lab-grown protein products. A significant amount of agricultural industry from Cal-Terra is used in Dyon, likely due to the proximity of their holdings to what was once the East Coast's largest spaceport. Yet despite the crucial nature of food in the wake of the apocalypse, Cal-Terra remains a struggling company on the verge of financial collapse.
U-IDOL Entertainment Co.
An entertainment company that operates primarily within the bounds of Dyon, U-IDOL is primarily known for managing the city's, if not the world's, most prominent idol groups, along with many other popular performers. A close partnership with Onelight Soft Systems has permitted U-IDOL a special channel feature on the Network's 24/7 broadcast, and as such, the performances of those beneath U-IDOL's umbrella are streamed all across the globe. It is a fairly common occurance for the performers in question to be requested by other corporations to serve as brand ambassadors, paid in great sums for their appearances on advertisement material. Naturally, however, such a prominent entertainment company is bound to have a rigorous, and perhaps even ruthless, filtering process for aspiring performers. Each year the company holds a televised program upon which prospective applicants are wrung through a training program fit with virtual reality stages and artificial-intelligence tutors before being judged by a panel of judges consisting of other celebrity figures from the company along with assorted representatives from their investors.