Founder's Culture is a term used to reference the attitudes and influences brought into the Delta Space by a large group of terrans, called the Founders, upon their arrival and eventual settlement of the area. The Founder's initial goal was to explore and map out as much of the Delta Spac as possible, in this they were mostly successful, though much of their information has been lost to time.
When their initial goals were completed, many of the Founder's decided to stay in the areas and regions in which they liked the most. Settling down on numerous habited and uninhabited worlds, some on the edges of known space butting up against the dangers of Unknown Space, others on lush planets like Phorbaceus Imperia. Regardless the Founders and their approach to navigating life, politics, and trade would spread far and permeate most of the Delta Space.
Once the Founders had settled down, they agreed that they were then freed from the rules and regulations they had agreed to upon the signing of the Agreement of the First Cartographers. This new freedom of conduct allowed them to manage their lives and business as they saw fit, without the restraints of having to remain impartial during their interactions with their new neighbours. And because of this, the Founders began to expand rapidly, bringing new ideas of technology, business, and politics to everywhere they visited and settled.
And while these ideals weren't always adopted they laid a seed that would spark a massive expansion in business and political entities. As these Founders settled, they developed a fairly uncommon tactic, designated borders in space to their perceived territories. Claiming large swathes of space and the planets within them as under their own governance.
This started a chain reaction of planets to form new, larger, and more modern political and military structures that were able to mobilize quickly and establish newly expanded borders to which they could protect and lay claim.
This would continue for generations, and because of this simple introduction of the idea of space-bound territorial governance, the Delta Space would be spun into generations of boundary conflicts and war. All of these would settle to the current era's political entities called the Territorial Governances, large swathes of space that are sworn to one political governing body. And even these more stable boundaries are still commonly squabbled over.
The Founders would also introduce the concept of large intergalactically owned and operated companies, ones that could traverse and trade across huge areas. The operation and management of which these businesses were often ruthless and focused more on profit than fairness.
And while this wasn't always the case with Founder led companies, it was more common and would spread and grow as time went on, and they tended to survive and thrive more frequently due to their often disregard for sustainability and human rights. Many of these companies would go on to form the basis of today's MegaCorpos.
Overall, Founder's Culture brought with it a certain kind of attitude that would greatly affect all of Delta Space, much of which has been controversial and arguably negative. But others would argue that the changes brought upon by the Founder's pushed the Delta Space into a modern age of technology and economic prosperity, and despite its flaws is better than the foregone alternative.
The Founders are a loosely connected bi-pedal terran species that originated far away from the Delta Space. They entered the sector in the hopes of mapping an unknown and mysterious place. Upon the completion of this mission to the best of their abilities, many of them decided to stay within the Delta Space, settling down across the breadth and width of the map.
Over the years, their original culture and history have been lost to time, being replaced by new cultures and shared histories amongst the planets and peoples they settled amongst. Now, the Founders are typically only identified as a loosely affiliated species, one whose major effect lies in the influences they introduced to native inhabitants of the Delta Space thousands of years ago.
A common argument amongst those that still discuss the influences of the Founders on modern Delta Space is whether or not the first Founder settlers were justified in abandoning their original agreements drafted within the Agreement of the First Cartographers. The main point of contention argued upon is the introduction of vast trade accessible to technology to the whole of the Delta Space, regardless of the technological levels of the species being traded with.
The original agreement states that no cartographer of the Founders should interfere or trade with any species that does not understand or have the equivalent level of technology being offered already available to them. And that their doing so could be considered to have had a negative, cruel, or unnatural effect on the development of those species involved. Of course, all of this discussion is purely for the sake of debate as the effects have long since been felt.
"And on this day, we thank the Founders for granting us the gifts of... *checks notes*... Capitalism and War." Love that these guys had such lofty cartography ideals and just threw 'em out as soon as they weren't relevant anymore. I'd be very interested in hearing more about how sharing advanced technology affected the less advanced cultures. DID it have a "negative, cruel, or unnatural effect" on these species?
People have definitely been taken advantage of and treated cruelly by those descended from the original Founders. I'll definitely have to give it more a think about technology sharing specifically though, certainly an interesting thought. Thanks!