The Founders

This is the proudest of all the Great Clans, even more than the Spartans. Founders believe themselves to be direct lineal descendants of ancient human rulers, and are the norm against which other humans are compared. Their history is intertwined with that of the empire, and they are closely related to the old Aristocracy. Their capitol, Safe Harbour, was once the capitol of the entire empire. While their former glory has diminished, they remain one of the most powerful of the great clans, with influence almost everywhere humans are known.

History

According to the official history of the Founders, Safe Harbour was first settled in the early days of the Human Federation as an official project of the Scandinavian Alliance, then based on ancient Terra. For hundreds of years it was a quiet backwater farming planet. With the outbreak of the Great War it began industrial development, and after the collapse of the Terran Sphere it gained new importance as the transplanted centre of the Scandinavian Alliance. Over the course of thousands of years it gained moderate prominence because of its stability and location, contributing to the war effort yet spared the worst traumas of the war. The Founders themselves claim that the government of the Human Federation migrated here after the fall of Terra and that they are thus the direct continuation of humanity's oldest rulers, but this is unsubstantiated by any other history.

The Founders as a Clan date their birth precisely to the date IY-562.207, when a brilliant young engineer named Lars Willemsen set out on a test flight from Safe Harbour accompanied by government ministers, generals and ambassadors of the Spacers' Guild. Willemsen was the upcoming star of a very powerful and rich family of Safe Harbour industrialists. Even so, to achieve this demonstration he had spent his family's entire private fortune and more, and stretched his political connections as far as they would go. It was a good bet. After a few weeks' easy acceleration his ship, the Vinland, reached a particular point and velocity. The captain flipped a switch, the stars shifted slightly and the Vinland found itself in the outer reaches of Gibraltar, a system many light years distant. The spacefold drive had been discovered.

The story of the Founders might have ended there, a footnote in history, except that Willemsen was not only brilliant but ambitious. By the time the Vinland returned to Safe Harbour, the seeds of the empire had already taken root in deals made with the Spacer and Spartan ambassadors. The Willemsens retained control of spacefold drive production, and co-operated with the Spartans to discover new spacefold routes. The Spacers, fearing the loss of their monopoly, were co-opted into crewing the new ships and the government of Safe Harbour sold itself for tax revenues from their new ship-building industry.

Over dozens of years the Willemsens gained in power. Lars Willemsen himself never fought in the Great War, but his son Magnus led numerous reconnaisance missions into Crucian space. His rise in fame helped his family ascend over the Spacers through skillful political jockeying, and the Spartans also faded away as humanity grew weary of their harsh methods. Thus, other leaders were quick to support Magnus Willemsen's leadership of the war council. When human forces sprang through their new spacefold routes and attacked the first Crucian home worlds, they were led by Lars Willemsen's grandson, Andrew Willamsen-Rigaud. The Willemsen clan continued to lead the attack on the Crucians for generations until Jan Freyr, great-great-grandson of Lars Willemsen, was crowned Emperor Magnus I while watching the last bombardment of the Crucians from his flagship in orbit.

In the aftermath of the war, the Willemsen clan and its intermarried close allies became known as the Founders. They proved competent peacetime leaders for hundreds of years, directing efforts to rebuild and expand human space. The Spartans were bought off early on with the grant of Spartan Hold, and other emerging clans were accommodated one by one as the need arose. The Founders became the first family in the Aristocracy.

The same methods which brought the Founders to power eventually brought about their downfall, however. As they and the empire grew in power, around them developed a new aristocratic class and an inescapable web of obligations and connections. When ruler Lars V died in 1028 without having named a successor, several members of the aristocracy had claims to the throne at least as strong as any Founder. After a brief rebellion, the days of Founder rule were over and their long slow decline began.

The Founders Today

Although the Founders no longer rule the empire, their influence remains strong. Founder military force is sufficient to deny almost any conceivable attack by other factions, and they control many academies, corporations and other organizations. At various times their strength in the Imperial court has waxed and waned, and there are few families in the aristocracy which cannot claim kinship with the Founders.

The Founders were especially heavily hit in the Disappearance, losing the vast majority of their leaders. A new family head, Magnus XVIII, was elected and filled the family council with newly ascended nobles. Founder planets in the main continue to be stable and prosperous.

Although Founder culture is diverse, spread across the entire range of the empire, in general they are proud and somewhat conservative. Founders in many ways are the norm for other human societies; they invest heavily in health technology and live extended lifespans limited primarily by choice. They are serial monogamists, marrying for decades while raising a child and then usually splitting, perhaps marrying again. A typical Founder has 2-3 children in the course of a lifetime several hundreds of years long.

Individual Founder worlds are mostly republics and meritocracies in which elected officials are required to have reached high levels of schooling and real-world experience before taking office. To varying degrees, these planetary governments are backed by bureaucracies with similarly high standards. Each of these planets also elects one or more nobles to sit on the Founder Family Council. The balance of power between the two levels of government is dynamic and fragile. While the Founders as a clan can do nothing without the support of individual planets, the council and family head also hold the power to banish worlds from the clan. Such an event has happened only a few times in history; the loss of prestige and economic advantages is a powerful deterrent to independent-minded planetary governors.

The FFC maintains this advantage through generous direct patronage of cultural and educational programs. Citizens of Founder worlds are invited to join exchange programs and study on other planets. They may serve in the Founder navy or work directly for the FFC. Social and art events are paid for by the FFC and "donations" and tend to be patronized by the nobles and their associated families. Thus the Founders maintain a separate ruling class not bound to any one planet. This is not exclusive; ordinary citizens can and do rise into the ranks of Founder nobility, and nobles have fallen from it.

Relations to Other Clans and Intelligent Species

Founder relations with other clans are mostly a product of their history. Towards the Spartans they have always been wary yet open to negotiations. Since the First Schism, relations with the Spacers have been frigid to neutral, and both the Inlookers and Clones despise the Founders for their own reasons. On the other hand, Founders maintain the best relations with most known alien races since most of these were first contacted in the early days of the empire. These strong ties are another of the Founders' pillars of political power.

Names

In keeping with its origins on Safe Harbour, the Founders have traditionally upheld the old Scandinavian family lines and chosen names accordingly. In fact, because of their history of political marriages they have long since bred themselves away from their origins, but they pride themselves on their false heritage nonetheless.