Rise of the Corporations
| Mass Effect: From the Ashes | |
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The Citadel and Galactic Governance Council Races Factbook Rise of Corporations · Rise of Dragons The Matrix · Technological Advancements | |
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| House Rules · Character Gen Rules |
The monolithic "enemies" of the Shadowrun world (borrowing heavily from cyberpunk mythos) are the Corporations, dubbed "Megacorporations", "Megacorps", or simply "megas" or "corps" for short. Megacorporations in the 23rd century are massively galactic, with all but the smallest corps owning multiple subsidiaries and divisions around the galaxy. They are the superpowers of the setting, with the largest corporations having far more political, economic, and military power than even the most powerful nation-states.
In Shadowrun, corporations are effectively "ranked" by the amount of assets under their control, including material, personnel, and property, as well as profit. These ranks are A, AA, and AAA; AAA corporations are top tier. Most corporations in the AA and AAA level are immune to domestic law, responsible only to themselves, and regulated only by the Corporate Court, an assembly of the ten AAA-rated corporations.
All AAA-rated and most AA-rated corporations also exhibit a privilege known as “extraterritoriality”, meaning that any land owned by the corp is sovereign territory only to the corp and immune to any laws of the country within. Corporate territory is not foreign soil but corporate soil, just like its employees are corporate citizens, though dual citizenship in a corporation and a nation is common.
The AAA corps, and numerous minor corporations, fight each other not only in the boardroom or with tricky deals, but with physical destruction, clandestine operations, hostile extraction or elimination of vital personnel, and other means of sabotage. Because no corporation wants to be held liable for damages, it has to be done by deniable assets: shadowrunners, invisible to the system where every citizen is tagged with a System Identification Number (SIN). They are outcasts, from the streets or disillusioned ex-corp/government/military personnel who threw off the shackles of corp society to achieve freedom. They chose or were forced to work in the shadows cast by the gigantic corporate buildings to support their living. The anonymous conmen, who will hire shadowrunners are called Mr. Johnsons for their favourite alias-name. Players of Shadowrun generally assume the role of these shadowrunners.
(I've used the Shadowrun corporations for ease of use; all the existing Mass Effect corporations may be subsidiaries, allied with, absorbed by the AAA, or AA corporations themselves.)
The Big Ten
The Big Ten are all AAA Megacorporations and members of the Corporate Council (as of 2236). Not all AAA Megacorporations are members, and the Council does occasionally re-assess membership based on perceived power of the corporation and its declared (and known undeclared) assets.
- Ares Macrotechnology, Detroit-based conglomerate of arms (Ares Arms, the original company), hover vehicle (General Motors), and space (AresSpace, the former NASA) industries. Ares also owns Knight Errant Security, and Apple Computer, amongst its numerous divisions. The first American-based Megacorp—currently led by Damien Knight—also trumps up its “mom and apple pie” image, fostering strong brand image within the Alliance as a Earth-based success story that has broken out into the galactic economic scene.
- Ahztechnology, a corporation from Ahztlan, a Salarian colony, heavily involved in consumer goods, chemistry and biology-related technologies. The least-liked megacorp in the shadows, due to its nasty secret research projects. For humans, it has a culture eerily similar to ancient Aztec.
- Evo Corporation, a Salarian-backed corporation, that focuses on nano- and bio-technology, genetics research and other transhumanist technologies, and “metasalarian factors engineering” (products made specifically for non-salarians).
- Horizon, human colonial corporation, the first AAA human corporation not based on Earth. Horizon is a media and PR corporation that lists Illium among its clients. While they are primarily invested in media and entertainment they are also strong in consumer goods, real estate, and pharmaceuticals.
- Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, started as money laundering operation for the volus criminal cartel but soon surpassed their investors' income by a very large margin. Focuses largely on robotics, heavy machinery, element zero/biotic-based products, and computers.
- NeoNET, created from multiple Earth corporations who pioneered the new wireless Matrix, to form this powerhouse in the Matrix sector, but with diversified holdings in many other sectors. First to fight for and be granted megacorporate sovereignty (later called extraterritoriality): exemption of law on foreign soil.
- Renraku Computer Systems, a Turian-Volus corporate powerhouse, mainly computer and arms-producing giant from Palaven. Slowly rebuilding Palaven with its immense profits.
- Saeder-Krupp Heavy Industries, formerly Elkoss Combine, the galaxy's largest corp. A Volus conglomerate based on the production of steel, heavy-industrial goods, hover vehicles, arms and communication in Alliance and Turian space. Its majority shareholder and chairman is an Elkoss, a Great Dragon, who bought and merged numerous companies using resource of Elkoss Combine that were hoarded during the Reaper War.
- Shiawase Corporation, an old business founded by the Shiawase Asari Republic (SAR), which survived the turmoils of the early 23rd century unscathed, quickly able to expand in energy production, biotech and environmental procedures. Unusual among megacorps, all of its citizens are shareholders, and vice-versa. Buying Shiawase shares makes you a SAR citizen after one year, though this is extended only to sentient beings and not corporations. Corporations who control shares must nominate a proxy citizen who exercises that corporation's votes. Shiawase citizen-shareholders are also granted the right to live in territories controlled by the SAR on Thessia and other planets and colonies.
- Wuxing Inc., an Illium-based company that joined the AAA-corps primarily due to money its unique position in the Terminus systems, heavily focused on shipping and finance, and recently chipping into the biotic-goods market.
Shadowrunners are likely to have frequent contact with one non-AAA corporation, Lone Star Security Services (formerly Blue Sun). Lone Star is a corporation that has taken many law enforcement contracts around the galaxy. Lone Star tends to avoid unprofitably dangerous areas in their patrol areas, creating (or allowing) pockets of lawlessness and crime that are populated by the impoverished and the criminally-inclined in their contract areas.