Zym Cartels
The Zym Cartels are only a shell of the former power that once dominated the Outer Rim before the Age of Silence. Formed out of the corruption and bloat that permeated the Zym Hegemony, the Zym Cartel now reaches its tendrils outwards, trying to reclaim the influence and power they once held onto so dearly.
Many scholars studying the inner workings of the Cartels will find the process at the same time frustratingly difficult, but incredibly simple. When stripped down to its bare bones, the Cartels to many, are a system designed around funneling wealth, power and land to the top of its rigid caste society.
With one of the largest populations and some of the most resource rich systems in the galaxy, the Zym Cartels are one of the fierciest and most threatening entities in the galaxy. However, the Cartel rarely is able to move in one direction. The dictators, oligarchs and demagogues who control the cartel are as likely to fight one another as they are to turn towards their outside neighbors. While this leaves them disorganized, they are quick to respond to outside threats that begin to encroach on their own territory.
Most often, the Cartels operate as an entity of destablization in most other galactic regions. They are happy to sell arms to both sides of any conflict, and are quick to look for oppurtunities to exploit systems for their material wealth. The Zym also renowned for exploiting their culture throughout the settled systems, being the ethnic homeworld of all Zymnic people.
Structure
While the cartel is painted as a rogue state by the likes of the Colonial Earth Empire, it more closely resembles to corporatocracy, where the most powerful indsutrial Cartels control the various aspects of society.
Their balance of power is a careful one. The top of the heirarchy are the Particians. They make up the executive boards, robber barons, and capitalists, andn they all find their way to Proxima Zym, where they maintain a regular palace or manse. The Princeps sit under the Particians in the cartel structure, and usually carry out their will around the edges of the expanding cartel space.
The Cartel takes all kinds, and the inner workings of its governenance is intentionally obtuse and complicated. There are a strict set of legal codes and laws, although these usually are circumvented with enough money and political clout. However, laws that break order and peace within the cartel itself is seen as barbaric, and is dealt with swiftly by the various enforcement options available to the Particians.
Now, the Zym Cartel exhibits a structure that closely resembles Corpo-feudalism. Powerbases are centered around corporate heads, and so long as they stay in line with the top of the pyramid, they are free to operate how they want to.
History
The story of the Zym Cartel begins with the Flight of the Lost. One of the original ten destinations, Proxima Zym, became home to what would become an intergalactic power that could rival the might of the Colonial Earth Empire. The initial colonization of Zym was quick, and the people soon began to spread rapidly throughout their section of galaxy, colonizing the Mid and Outer Rim under the Zym Hegemony.
With the invention of the Fusion Drive and arrival of the Empire, the Zym Hegemony was slow to adapt, their aging noble structure, bloated with inefficiency, nepotism and corruption. While the Hegemony could survive the intial onslaught of the Empire, they could not survive the Age of Silence.
The aristocrats and greedy demagogues tried to carve out mighty kingdoms of their own when the Silence fell, and the Mechanicus Jihad tore them apart even further. Years of chaos ensued, only to be rescued by a collective of enterprising capitalists who had partnered with a coalition of former Hegemony military officers, and a smattering of desperate neo-liberal fledgling polities.
The Zym Cartel came about through a series of aggressive mergers, aquisitions, and takeovers that essentially created the overarching Zym Cartel that you now see. Former congolomerates, noble houses and rogue-military assets were brought under the control of the cartel during the span of the Age of Silence. They were able to bring first the core systems around Proxima Zym to heel. However, many of the Hegemony territories in Free and Sovereign Space were out of their reach during the silence.
When the Interstellar Gates began to come back online, the Cartel looked at the galaxy with a hunger for growth. They quickly went about to expanding their influence, and now a good chunk of Wild Space is under cartel control. They now turn towards Far Space, and even towards their former holdings in the Mid and Outer Rims, claiming their are Zymnic people waiting to be re-united with their brothers and sisters.
Founding Date
192
Type
Illicit, Cartel
Subsidiary Organizations
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
