The Duncinae Cartel

Eldrytch Suns Part 5

The Duncinae Cartel is a polity trailing of Zazarah in the Ea Subsector. As a polity, it only governs seven systems, but among those systems are six Agricultural, one Garden and two Rich systems. The Cartel is, to say the least, very economically prosperous.

It’s centralized position in Reaver’s Deep makes the Cartel a breadbasket for the entire region. There are, of course, other Agricultural, Garden, and Rich worlds throughout the Sector and stretching rimward to Dark Nebula Sector, but the Duncinae Cartel is a consolidated agricultural cartel that has economic resources that matches the economies of much larger polities in the sector.

The Combine

The mercantile institution that distributes the agricultural resources of the Duncinae Cartel, is simply referred to as “the Combine”. The combine isn’t just the systems that belong to the Duncinae Cartel, it is an organization comprised of hundreds of companies, regional farm and ranch associations, national and planetary markets. The Combine sets prices for most food throughout the region. If the regional markets threaten to slip out of the Combine’s control, they can flood the region with cheap food to drive out competition and maintain their control.

The Combine Guilds

• Inver Agricultural Soils
  • Based in the Invermory System (parsec 1622 Ea Subsector), IAS is a “family buisness”, wholly owned and directed by the former rulers of the system, the Mah Darain family. As the complexities of governance demanded a wider and complex bureaucracy, the Mah Darain quietly handed the reins of government to the engine of bureaucracy, and stepped back to direct the IAS, of which they hold overwhelming corporate control.
  • IAS exports fertile “seed soil” from the continental agricultural belts of Invermory. Seed soil doesn’t replace a planet’s biome with a soil that can support agriculture, rather, spreading seed soil in a region, can greatly boost it’s agricultural productivity. Invermory’s native soil is especially potent and commands a premium in the market.
• Suulatt Aquaculture
  • Suulatt is based out of Fulton System (Parsec 1524 Ea Subsector). It processes and exports agricultural foodstuffs from the rich seas of Fulton. Aquacultural goods are often based on single-cell life. These foods can be nutrient-dense and survive the preservation and packing technologies demanded or interstellar export.
• Duncinae Luxury Foods
  • A guild made possible on the strengths of the other agricultural worlds of the Duncinae Cartel, Duncinae Luxury Foods specializes in the cryogenic transport of fresh foodstuffs, especially processed livestock. This is an expensive process, maintianing tissue stability while avoiding water crystalization or dehydration (which are both viable means of preservation, but the quality of product falls through the floor. Think of your average real-world frozen dinner or reconstituted dehydrated meal against a near-fresh experience). Duncinae Luxury Foods exports both premium-grade meat and seafood that is cryogenically preserved to markets with a healthy, luxury class of consumer. This is how “Deep Kraken” from Fulton can be served at a noble’s table in the neighboring sectors.
• Vincit Milling
  • Based in the Vincit system (Parsec 1327, Ea Subsector), Vincit Milling processes grain imported from throughout the Duncinae cartel (including abundant, local agri-grain yeilds) and stabilizes the meal for interstellar export. Vincit Milling products are shelf-stable for over ten standard years.
  • Vincit Milling produces a line of multigrain, enriched meal that is especially well-suited for sustaining populations in environments hostile to agricultural development. One such product, “Firuah Meal” is marketed to the Aslan populations where fresh meat is too expensive or difficult to cultivate. Aslan who have had to survive off Firuah Meal use the same descriptive language that most peoples use for survival rations. They often complain of eating Firuah Meal and still feeling hungry (even when flavored with the meat-and-blood compounds that simulate fresh meat).
• Fulton Salt and Ice
  • Fulton S&I exports desalinated Icewater and ocean salt to worlds in need of potable water and consumable salt. Fulton S&I also manufactures and exports desalinating engines to systems that cannot manufacture their own. Fulton S&I also exports refined hydrogen fuel (as a byproduct of the desalination process) to markets that lack both water and gas giants.
• Kherhyss Slig Ranches
  • Sligs, a high-yield omnivorous meat animal, is a common livestock in the Spinward sectors of Charted Space. These animals are large (ranging between 1 and 2 tons of mass, being up to 3 meters tall and 5 meters long.) and resemble a cross between a slug and a swine. They can eat nearly anything organic (and, like goats, really try to eat some inorganic things too). They are easy to herd and raise as livestock, being bred over thousands of years for docility and yield. Slig meat is versatile and widely palatable, especially among humans, vargr and several minor ethnicities. Aslan can eat slig, but do not enjoy it, since uncooked slig is an unpleasant dining experience, and slig are too docile to give an Aslan any hunting satisfaction.
  • Kherhyss Slig Ranches own several industrial ranches in every Agricultural system in the Duncinae Cartel. There are always smaller Slig ranches thorughout the Buffer (and charted space. Several Agricultural Megacorps have entire divisions dedicated to Slig production). Kherhyss Slig Ranches maintain their corporate headquarters in Ranald systems (Parsec 1526, Ea Subsector)

There are of course many many other guilds within the Combine, both large like the six mentioned above, and small.

Fort William

The Fort William system (Parsec 1521, Ea Subsector) is the anomaly of the Duncinae Cartel, its not Agricultural by any stretch of the term. Fort William is a poor wasteland with a hellish atmosphere and is governed by the Duncinae Cartel’s Military High Command.

It is at Fort William where direct negotiations with Kath Mercenary elements are held, and military strategy is developed. Since the Duncinae Cartel has historically maintained a limited native military complex and has relied heavily on mercenary armies, the officers of High Command are entirely political, and not career military. But, so far as the Mercenary Regiments are concerned, the money is good, and the contracts are easy.

Ground forces are light, mostly directing training maneuvers for Combine security elements. Space forces are, by necessity, more robust, and are dedicated to convoy escort missions and anti-piracy. The Cartel Navy is a combination of System Defense fleets, Combine monitors and Customs frigates.

The strategic strength and venerability of the Duncinae Cartel

The Duncinae Cartel’s strategic strength comes from a couple of sources, it’s close relationship with Kath, it’s protectorate relationships with The Principality of Caledon and the Carellian Assembly, but it’s most powerful strategic card is it’s control of the agricultural trading mains throughout Reaver’s Deep and into the Dark Nebula sectors.

These contribute to it’s strategic vulnerabilities. Caledon and the Carellian Assembly are at least 2 jumps (and more practically 3 or 4 jumps away). In a moment of strategic crisis, help is more than a standard month or more away. Relying on mercenaries for strategic defense, even if the treasury is overflowing always carrys a risk. After all, Mercenaries are a business first and there is no amount of currency that can buy loyalty to the point of annihilation. Finally, while the Combine’s dominance of Agriculture makes the Duncinae Cartel invaluable to the entire buffer, also makes the Cartel a tempting prize for ambitious empires in the region. Controlling the food of the Buffer goes a very far way towards dominating the Buffer itself.