The Plutocracy

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Descended from fugitives and criminals, the Plutocracy thrives beyond the reach of law, where knowledge is bought, stolen, or encoded in currency; in the cold outer dark of the Kuiper Belt there is only one rule: power belongs to whoever can afford it.

The Plutocracy is the most distant human organisation in the solar system. Its people are the descendants of criminals, outlaws and fugitives who did whatever they could to get far away from the rest of humanity and the Solar Supremacy. The Plutocracy controls Pluto and much of the Kuiper belt, but it is less a unified nation than a loose collection of families and syndicates. They almost ignore stellar law and have a reputation for being cruel and spiteful.

Their economy centres on the movement of digital currency. The richest leaders bid for positions on a semi-formal council that makes larger decisions about shared threats. The only things they fully agree on are keeping the Kuiper belt to themselves and keeping outsiders far from their orbit. Their music is popular throughout the solar system, and disillusioned youths of other nations often adopt their dress and culture.

One thing that marks them out is their use of digital downloaded consciousness, which is done for most people before death. If your digital consciousness is held by a loving family member, you can hope for a digital false-life of pleasure and of advising your grandchildren and living family. At worst it is used as a terrible eternal punishment for those held in contempt. The projection of such a consciousness is a hologhast.

The shipyards of Hydra, the moon of Pluto, belong to a syndicate of their own that builds the stealthy Hydra class and sells it exclusively to Plutarchs. The Plutocracy has connections throughout the solar system, and its intelligence and knowledge are as much a strength as its flotillas. In the Free Void, the distinction between pirate and authority is a thin one.

The council and the Kuiper belt

The richest leaders of the Plutocracy bid for seats on their semi-formal council in Sovereigns, the untraceable cryptocurrency left behind by Sovereign itself, which almost everyone in the Kuiper belt uses for everything. See Sovereigns.

The council agrees on little, except that the Kuiper belt is theirs. Above all, that means keeping stellar law out, along with NOVA and anyone else who would enforce it. Anyone else is welcome. Independent ventures of every kind live and work in the Kuiper belt, and many thrive there, so long as they pay for "protection".

"Protection" in the Kuiper belt works like any mafia's, except that there is no police to appeal to. A sensible Plutarch knows not to push too hard, though. Plenty of small mining operations, and plenty of more illicit businesses, go on under the Plutarchs' eye. The Plutarchs themselves do not work. They only take.

Synthworlds and digital afterlives

In the Plutocracy, synthworlds are big business. Anyone who can pay can escape into a digital existence for a voyage, a holiday or longer. For the right price, the Plutocracy will even sell you an afterlife, where you can "exist in bliss rather than falling into the abyss", as the jingles go. Most other nations outlaw such immersion, which only makes the trade more profitable.

But if a digital world can give you an eternity of pleasure while your body rots, it can just as easily give you an eternity of pain. Cross a Plutarch, and they may decide to send you to hell. There are whispers of Plutarchs who keep entire libraries of digitised minds, belonging to people who once got on their wrong side. Some are said to exist in endless torment. Others have no senses at all, and simply exist in nothing, forever.

Body modification

Body modification is part of Plutocracy culture: a visible upgrade is a mark of wealth or status rather than something to hide. See Cybernetics and body modification.

Youth culture and influence

Among teenagers across the solar system, Plutocracy culture is often wildly popular. Their music reaches every nation, and their style of dress is taken up by belligerent youths who want to stand out. The Plutocracy knows this and makes use of it: through espionage they recruit such children as spies or as seeds of rogue elements inside other societies. Most adults elsewhere look down on anyone who dresses that way, which only makes some teenagers keener not to conform.

The Dead Men

Deep within the Plutocracy there is an order that goes by many names, though its members call themselves simply 'dead men'. Like the foreign legions of old Earth, the legion takes anyone, from anywhere, and asks no questions. Those who join have every trace of their old existence wiped away and are given a new life: new records, new data, even a new face. The price is everything. From that day on, a dead man belongs to the legion, a slave in the eyes of the law and, as far as anyone knows, for the rest of their life.

The legion boasts that its people are the finest mercenaries in the solar system. That may not be true, but its reputation for viciousness and cold, emotionless professionalism is well earned. Dead men serve aboard the legion's own ships, sometimes in whole flotillas, and they're a favourite of the Plutarchs, though they've been known to sell their services elsewhere. Never to NOVA, though: slavery of any kind is forbidden under stellar law.

Dark rumours follow the legion. Some say its soldiers are no longer the people who signed away their lives, but empty sleeves worn by digital intelligences, while the minds of the recruits are downloaded into a paradise digital existence. Nobody has ever proved it, and the dead men are not saying.

Named characters and flotillas

• The heiress (unnamed): An ambitious Plutocracy flotilla commander pushing into the deep void. See the account below.
• Her hologhast great-grandfather (unnamed): Her great-grandfather's downloaded consciousness, taken from the family catacombs.
• Void Dons: A Void Don is the title used for a lesser Plutarch in the free void, they set up a secure base of operations in the void and keep it for themselves. They charge tolls and protection money, and enforce their rule with a powerful flotilla.
• Dagger Patrols: Serving the shadowy interests of the Plutocracy, this patrol type harasses trade and settled colonies in controlled space they are typically confused with pirates.