Historical Republic Frontier Corporation

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SITE LORE

REPUBLIC FRONTIER CORPORATION​

The Republic Frontier Corporation represents a dark chapter in the history of the Old Republic's regulation of corporate entities, the lessons of which - sadly - do not seem to have been fully assimilated by those in power, even in the present day. Nevertheless, the tragedy of the RFC - and its legacy of theft, destruction and exploitation - is an important part of the story of the Republic's expansion prior to the Hundred Year Darkness, and of its relationship with the worlds of the Outer Rim. The story of the Old Republic's ascension to the status of a Galactic superpower, likewise, is inextricably linked to these events.

TIMELINE​

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• 
  
  ORIGINS​
  
  9,000 years before the present, the Republic was on the move.
  
  With advances in hyperspace navigation and other technologies in millennia past, the Galaxy was in the midst of a golden age of exploration and colonization. The Republic, in particular, was expanding greatly; as scout ships returned with reports of new systems and civilizations, colony ships were hot on their heels, and new member-states were applying for representation in the senate at a rate not seen since the assembly's founding. It seemed that all the Galaxy would soon be united under the light of civilization.
  
  Unsurprisingly, there were many who sought financial gain from these new frontiers.
  
  The Republic Frontier Corporation was not - as the name might suggest - a state-sponsored enterprise by the Republic. The RFC was in fact a joint undertaking by a number of prominent banks, mining concerns and other private entities, who likely adopted the name in hopes of feigning legitimacy. The stated goal of the corporation was the exploration, settlement and development of frontier worlds, especially in the Outer Rim. The idea, so they stated, was to create a well-developed bloc of worlds equal to any in the Core or the Expansion Region, and thus speed the later development of those planets in-between. That this was far from the prying eyes of Republic oversight did not seem to bother anyone at the time, though perhaps it should have.
  
  Regardless of any misgivings at the time, the RFC lobbied for and was eventually granted a broad charter to operate "beyond the established borders of the Republic," surveying and developing worlds outside the scope of the Old Republic's state-sponsored colonization programs. The charter gave the RFC broad powers, and crucially, did not require the company to have oversight from the Republic Judiciary, trusting the company - and solely the company - to uphold Republic law in the territories it administered. This exceptional treatment was cemented with gifts of RFC stock to many prominent senators. Thus it was with official approval that the RFC moved forward with its plans.
  
  
• 
  
  RIMWARD​
  
  The Republic Frontier Corporation, having received a charter to operate, quickly began to move.
  
  In 9103 BBY, the first RFC survey fleet was fitted out and departed from Alsakan, charting a course deep into what was at the time unknown space. The fleet, comprising some 200 capital ships and escorted by countless smaller vessels, was not expected by many to ever be seen again; ships which had journeyed so deep into the beyond were not heard from again, as often as not. However, 2 years later, return they did.
  
  The RFC's fleet had been halved in number, primarily due to navigational hazards and mechanical failures, or so they claimed. Regardless, the fleet's astrogators assured the shareholders that a great swath of the Outer Rim had been successfully mapped, and that future expeditions - following the hyperlanes they had blazed, and with more refined ships and equipment - could reach these regions safely, setting up outposts and depots to push the frontier still further.
  
  The second RFC expedition was launched 3 years after the return of the first, and they seemed serious about making good on their claims. The new fleet was twice as large, and this time included giant freighters to transport vast quantities of materiel, colony ships, and even prefabricated space stations towed by hyperspace tugs. Ominously, the second expedition incorporated a great deal of security, including troop transports and military-style landing craft. Large numbers of mercenaries were also brought along. Every member of the expedition was also made to sign a strict non-disclosure agreement, vowing them to secrecy about what the RFC was actually doing in the Outer Rim...
  
  
• 
  
  RICHES​
  
  It was several years after the departure of the second expedition that the RFC made its first press releases to the general public. The news was that - out on the frontier - things were proceeding smoothly. Several RFC colonies had been established on a few suitable worlds, and outposts had been set up on or around many more. Infrastructure had been built as well; supply depots, mines, refineries, spaceports, even shipyards were coming into operation across the Rim.
  
  Moreover, the shareholders would now be seeing a concrete return on their investment.
  
  The first RFC treasure galleons to return from the Outer Rim were greeted with wild enthusiasm. It had been nearly a decade since the company's founding, but at last, they seemed to be turning a profit, and a tidy one at that. The ships the RFC sent back to the Republic were laden with goods; spices, raw materials both familiar and exotic, finished goods ostensibly manufactured at the new RFC colonies...
  
  ...and untold tons of precious metal and gemstones.
  
  The wealth in aurodium alone was said to drive the value of RFC shares up 1000% over the course of an afternoon. Such was the volume of mythra brought back that the substance was actually devalued for some time. Cases of nova crystals by the score were presented to prominent shareholders as tokens of appreciation by the company.
  
  Few, it seems, thought to ask just where this incredible wealth had come from, although there were some.
  
  It was around this time that the first acknowledged red flags began to pop up regarding the operations of the RFC. The first to raise them were astrographers, those in charge of making the maps which pushed the Republic's borders ever outward. They complained that the maps they had been given of the RFC's holdings - a vast area situated well beyond the then-current borders of the Republic - were woefully incomplete. The company's listed holdings were in many places well charted, with detailed information on planets, navigational hazards and other phenomena, but vast areas - areas which plainly had hyperspace lanes going into them - were only vaguely described, or - in many cases - entirely blank. Moreover, these holes in the map were not where one would expect; they existed mostly in the middle of well-charted areas, not in fringe areas where data would be understandably sparse.
  
  Another flag was that RFC was tight-lipped about its holdings in the Outer Rim, beyond broad, vague statements. This was perhaps understandable, given the untold riches the company was apparently extracting, but there were troubling aspects. For example, RFC would not make any statement about indigenous cultures they had encountered in the region. Given the density of sapient species in the Core and the Expansion Region, it was theorized that while such species would be more spread out owing simply to the more diffuse nature of stars on the Galactic rim, there would still be a great diversity of species for the RFC to encounter. However, the RFC refused to state definitively if it had encountered any at all, something which seemed highly unlikely to the sapientologists of the day.
  
  
• 
  
  CONQUEST​
  
  The truth of the RFC's holdings did not fully come to light until late in the company's history, and in fact the Galaxy arguably never learned the whole truth, as the RFC chose to destroy almost all of its records rather than allow them to be seized by the Republic Judiciary. What we do know, however, paints a dark tale indeed, one which modern Galactic governments would do well not to forget.
  
  The narrative which the RFC pushed to the Republic was a wholesome one. The Outer Rim was being settled by hard-working, highly motivated colonists, striving to build a mirror of the civilization found so abundantly in the Core Worlds, developing new, un-peopled lands rich in easily accessible resources. The RFC had done it all, and would blaze a trail into the frontier for future generations.
  
  This was mostly lies. The RFC had indeed founded a few colonies in the Outer Rim, bases from which they could carry out their real work: stripping the Outer Rim bare of anything they could carry away.
  
  The first RFC expedition into the Rim had blazed hyperlanes, certainly, but they had found a region that was far from empty of people. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Outer Rim, as we know today, is home to countless civilizations, and though it was far less populous in those days than it is now, the region was still very far from empty. In its first expedition, the RFC had encountered many such cultures, and learned a few important facts about them.
  
  
  • The civilizations of the Outer Rim were, unlike the worlds of the Republic, relatively isolated from one-another, and communicated far less than their counterparts, if they were not openly hostile toward one-another.
    
    
  • These civilizations were, for the most part, far less culturally advanced than their Core World counterparts, making them comparatively easy to manipulate.
    
    
  • Many of these civilizations were far less technologically advanced than those of the Republic.
    
    
  • Many of these civilizations had great volumes of treasure and other resources which could be had with relative ease, by exploiting the previous factors.
  
  The RFC organized its second expedition with these factors in mind. Their goal was to go to the Rim, establish bases, and begin systematically shaking down every minor culture they could find for anything of value they might have had. It was piracy on a scale seldom seen in the history of the Galaxy, undertaken with corporate planning and efficiency. Entire planets were looted by RFC fleets, which used their Republic tactics and technology to subdue whatever defenses their targets could muster; these worlds being home mostly to pre-atomic or barely post-atomic civilizations, this was nearly effortless work for the hardened mercenary troops employed by the company. After being sacked, worlds which were not considered too troublesome were occupied, their populations enslaved to aid in their further exploitation as the RFC strip-mined entire planets of any natural resources they considered worth taking.
  
  Some hyperspace-capable culture did attempt to challenge the RFC in space, but with a few exceptions - cultures advanced or otherwise dangerous enough to secure their borders against invasion - none succeeded. Of these, a few attempted to form alliances for mutual defense, but the RFC's diplomats and spies proved adept at exploiting regional and cultural animosities, splitting up such alliances easily.
  
  This "Rape of the Rim," as it would later be known, was carried out in almost total secrecy, and lasted for decades. Because of the remote nature of the RFC's holdings, the company was able to control what information was passed back to Republic authorities, and in the absence of same, ran roughshod over any Republic laws which may have given them pause closer to home. Over the years, the veil of secrecy over the RFC's territory and operations only grew more impenetrable; as the first generation retired, their descendants, raised within the corporate culture, were hired to replace them. This made the company's workings even more opaque to outsiders, and made the corporate culture increasingly clannish and cult-like.
  
  For its part, the Republic mostly turned a blind eye. So long as the treasure ships kept coming, the absentee shareholders and their descendants - made unbelievably wealthy over the years - asked few questions.
  
  
• 
  
  CRACKS​
  
  As per usual, it was the Jedi, the keepers of the peace within the ancient Republic, who first started to publicly raise alarms about the activities of the RFC. Finding it suspicious that the company all but actively forbid Republic authorities from entering the territories they controlled, the Jedi Order sent representatives in secret, tailing RFC vessels into the unknown and reporting back on what they found. It took time for the Jedi to uncover the true horrors visited by the corporation on the civilizations of the Rim, but even their initial findings were cause for concern.
  
  The colony worlds boasted of by RFC public relations officials were merely large processing centers. Of the factories, shipyards and farms boasted of by the company, there was no sign, merely huge freight marshaling yards for the collection and sorting of goods and materials brought in from elsewhere. In evidence were huge fleets of galleons, arriving from still more distant systems, and a troubling number of warships.
  
  When the Jedi Order first brought word of these inconsistencies back to the Republic, much of the senate dismissed the findings. A large number of senators had vested interests in the RFC, and anything that called into question the company's actual value was seen as dangerous. However, the Jedi did manage to gain the attention of a handful of senators not yet corrupted by the RFC, and slowly started to make headway. They brought forward more and more evidence of the RFC's inconsistencies, until, eventually, they uncovered things that were too big to ignore...
  
  
• 
  
  INVESTIGATION​
  
  The investigations by the Jedi, after decades of meticulous and sometimes costly work, eventually bore terrible fruit. Jedi investigators, after years of trying, successfully managed to tail one of the RFC's galleons to one of the real sources of the wealth streaming back from the Outer Rim. The voyage took them into one of the "blank" regions on the official RFC charts, to a planet modern historians only know as RCX-578.
  
  RCX-578's indigenous population - a culture modern sapientologists believe may be the descendants of a lost, prehistoric Tintinna colony - had progressed from stone-age barbarism to the point of primitive interplanetary spaceflight by the time that representatives of the Republic Frontier Corporation "discovered" their system. Barely a into their civilization's atomic age, they were confronted by a - to them - inconceivably advanced hostile force, one which swatted aside the best weapons the planet's loose coalition of nations could bring to bear. In retribution for their feeble attempts at self defense, the RFC's modern capital ships bombarded RCX-578's population centers from orbit, killing billions.
  
  The Jedi discovered the RFC in the process of strip-mining the planet of its natural resources, which included various precious metals and fissionable elements. The work-force for this operation was made up of the survivors of the bombardment, enslaved and systematically worked to death by RFC overseers. The Jedi collected holographic records of the numerous atrocities they witnessed, as well as physical evidence, including several indigenous survivors taken from the planet in a harrowing rescue. They were brought as eyewitnesses to testify before the Senate.
  
  The evidence presented to the senate - as well as the testimony of the native survivors - put the Republic in an uproar. Many senators - mainly those with shares in the RFC - dismissed the evidence as a hoax, while the anti-RFC coalition within the senate used it as fuel for their cause. This coalition stirred up the ire of the general public, and eventually managed to organize a large-scale investigation by the Republic Judiciary into activities by the RFC within its chartered territories.
  The RFC, predictably, fought back viciously to conceal its dark secrets, issuing legal challenges against the Senate-backed investigation and doing everything they could to stonewall the Judiciary and obfuscate the truth. In the end, hyperspace routes into RFC space were conveniently "obstructed," and the Judiciary was forced to enlist the help of the Jedi to "clear" them. Jedi pilots guided a small Judiciary fleet into RFC space.
  
  
• 
  
  CONFLAGRATION​
  
  The reaction by the RFC to a Judiciary fleet in its territory was immediate and drastic.
  
  In Republic space, the company's home office on Alsakan was all but razed to the ground. High-ranking company officials ordered the wholesale destruction of any and all records. On the rooftop of the building, a great bonfire of datatapes and other media was set, with literal tons of material heaved into it as fast as the employees could manage. Even when Republic Judiciary agents arrived at the headquarters with warrants to seize that which had not yet been burned, zealot-like company managers formed barricades in the hallways, keeping the officers at bay long enough to destroy 98% of the RFC's known archives. Exact charts of the RFC's holdings went up in smoke, as did records of their true wealth, and of the countless atrocities which had been committed to acquire it. Some of the RFC's home office employees managed to flee arrest, or failing that, committed suicide. Very few former RFC employees ever testified against the company.
  
  In the Outer Rim, the Republic Judiciary fleet was confronted with a massive RFC "security" fleet, which was at least twice the size of the one the RFC had declared it had in official statements, and as advanced as anything the Judiciary had. With little preamble, the RFC fleet attacked the Judiciary and its Jedi allies, who narrowly won out due to superior discipline and training.
  
  Knowing that if the Republic discovered the horrific truth behind their operations, their freedom - and possibly their lives - would be forfeit, the management of the Republic Frontier Corporation declared their territories independent, and waged open warfare to push Republic authorities out. The initial Judiciary fleet soon received reinforcements from the Core, and began a campaign to sweep the RFC from the Rim. The Jedi, likewise, committed their resources to the operation, and a Jedi fleet joined with that of the Judiciary. Hundreds of independent Jedi teams were also dispatched, charged with scouting and finding out just how many planets the RFC controlled.
  
  Planet by planet, the Republic Judiciary and the Jedi drove the RFC from its chartered territories. In their wake, they discovered the true scale and horror of the ravages the company had visited upon the Galaxy; planets had been stripped clean of anything of value, erasing settlements, populations, entire cultures, to say nothing of natural wonders. The Jedi and the Republic did what they could for those effected; massive aid and relief efforts were undertaken, although the sheer scale of the collective disaster was beyond anything that could be done. As the Republic and the Jedi advanced, driving the RFC before them, the company's ships and fleets were run down one by one. Some surrendered, though many fought to the end; still others escaped even deeper into uncharted space, their fates unknown.
  
  
• 
  
  LEGACY​
  
  The RFC's known forces were eventually destroyed by the Republic Judiciary, its management and employees imprisoned or dead. Trials of surviving RFC executives were conducted for decades afterward, although unfortunately, the company's wholesale destruction of its own records left many loose ends. The true extent of the RFC's holdings has never been satisfactorily ascertained, and it is likely that many of its atrocities remain unknown, buried on forgotten planets never discovered by the Jedi scouts. Thankfully, due to the primitive astrogation of the day, a great deal of the Outer Rim was indeed spared the ravages of the RFC. Even so, the company is responsible for a great deal of the animosity felt by some Outer Rim cultures toward the Core Worlds. The company's presence was diffuse, but widely distributed, and almost universally toxic.
  
  The atrocities committed by the RFC have been put in the shade by the more recent horrors inflicted on the Galaxy by the Sith and the later Galactic Empire. However, in their day they were a brief wake-up-call regarding the power of corporations. Much of the Republic's legislation governing corporate power before the rise of the Empire dated from the era immediately after the RFC's fall, including the stipulations against corporate-run colonies, and limitations on the size of private security forces. Unfortunately, the Clone Wars revealed the extent to which these controls had eroded over time. We can only hope that the New Republic and the Free Worlds can succeed where their predecessors failed.
  
  
  
  
  Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the RFC, however, is not any cultural or political artifact it may have inspired, but indeed the physical things it left behind. The enduring image of the RFC, even more-so than its brutality, is its wealth. Though its agents may have plundered whole civilizations to get it, the company was still sending literal treasure fleets back to the Republic on a quarterly basis, and many believe that the riches they told the Republic about were only a fraction of what they truly had. Mythra, it was said, flowed back from the Outer Rim like water.
  
  When the RFC fell, thousands of its galleons were left unaccounted for, their holds rumored to be loaded with treasure. Fearing arrest, company executives made caches of wealth across the Outer Rim, hidden from the agents of the Republic Judiciary and the Republic Tax Collection Agency. Tales of RFC hoards and lost treasure ships have fired the imaginations of generations of adventurers.
  
  Aside from fleets and gold, the RFC also built bases, and did actually establish a few colonies. After being taken over by the Republic, many of these initial colonies formed the basis for future expansion efforts into the region, centuries later. Even so, a large number of the RFC's former outposts were simply abandoned, and many have been lost track of over the intervening 9,000 years. Many, indeed, were likely never even discovered by the Republic, their fates and locations unknown.
  
  

INTENT​

I wish to create a sort of Star Wars equivalent to the Spanish conquest of the Americas; in short, Space Conquistadors, and Space Spanish Gold. The other major influence, of course, would be the British and Dutch East India Companies, and the horrific shenanigans they both got up to before their mother countries stepped up to rein them in. I think that the RFC presents all sorts of opportunities for role-playing, including treasure hunting, exploration and other stuff I'm sure people will come up with.

 

[Logan]

This is super cool, very nice write up.

Approved.