Factions and Polities

Details about the major and minor factions in the Starrunners universe — polities, guilds, professions, subcultures, and other organized groups whose existence and character were shaped by the long shadow of the Wildcode Crisis.

Guilds, Orders & Certification Bodies

Chartered institutions of trust and skill that operate across factional borders, often holding regulatory or quasi-regulatory authority under the Mandel framework.

• Keepers of the Blue Fire: The chartered Order that fabricates, ignites, audits, and decommissions every Hard-Seal Architecture core in legitimate service — gatekeepers of certified compute across the Terran Sphere.
• Guilds of the Sphere: The Pilots’, Astrogators’ and Engineers’ guilds, bound together by the Concord of Halls and the Hall Peace. Their tickets and oaths are written into port law, and guildhalls are neutral ground.

Professions & Subcultures

Working communities defined as much by their tools and operational environments as by any formal charter.

• Data-Divers (Grey-Scavengers): Analog-equipped recovery specialists who physically infiltrate Wildcode-active “Hot Zones” to extract Pre-Crash data cores.

Major Polities

The four blocs of the 2433 Ceres Conference settlement, each holding its own sphere of interest. Colonial polities beyond Sol are, for now, treated generically.

• Earth Commonwealth: The federal union seated at Geneva and Shackleton, with the largest navy and the issuing authority for compute-ton licences. Legalistic, ceremonial and proud of its Clerk Statutes.
• Jovian Directorate: The technocracy of Callisto’s Valhalla Deep, ruled by boards of engineers. Sol’s fuel exporter, rich in abundant He-3 and short of ore and glass.
• Outer Rim Confederacy: The consensus federation of Saturn’s moons, Uranus, Neptune and the dredging grounds, sole source of antimatter nuggets and masters of running cold.
• Solaris Colonial Authority: The treaty body that charters colonies and runs the Interface Ports. It has procedure and a registry but no navy.

Companies & Combines

Corporate and craft-owned powers whose output the blocs cannot do without.

• Lagrange Foundry Combine: The shop-holds of the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 points, which make nearly all of Sol’s seedglass under the posted price and an Earth Commonwealth guarantee.
• Vesta Prime Consortium: The Belt mining consortium behind Psyche Works, with its fleet of rock-hauling tugs. It supplies about 40% of Sol’s structural metal.

Outlaws & Grey Markets

• Grey Syndics: Brokers without a capital or a head, arbitrated by the Tally. They sell hot nodes, forged licences and grey glass to clients priced out of the legal market. Antagonists, not villains, and they hold one line: no live wildcode.