Creed family

The Creed family is a political family with close-knit branches in Earth and the Inner Colonies, whose members have included several industrialists, pioneers, politicians, and philanthropists. The family has roots on Earth, among Afro-Brazilian and Afro-Briton pioneers who were crucial to the early history of Terran space development. The "younger line" branch of spacers have achieved the most success and fame, starting out as prominent colonial developers and prospectors, and became part of the political establishment on Kolossen, and later across the Inner Colonies. In the early 2600s, they became close allies of the McGrady clan and prominent supporters of the National Humanist Imperial Labor Party, and saw their fortunes skyrocket. The "senior line" branch on Earth, based out of Brazil, are prominent industrialists in the field of biotechnology.
The two branches have intermarried periodically, so many members are cousins despite the otherwise considerable distance between them. Together, they manage Creed Industries, a technology and industrial conglomerate with close business ties to the McGrady Corporation. Creed Industries is ran as a zaibatsu style company, and has subdivisions for biotechnology, aerospace, media ownership, real estate development, colonial development, resource extraction, and heavy industry.
The family is currently led by Sebastian Creed (b. 2616), who formally united the two lines upon the deaths of his parents in 2661, and has served as President of Creed Industries since 2656. His siblings, Chester, Coraline, and Rosalyn are prominent in politics and business.
== History ==
The family as it's currently understood can be traced to Oliver Creed (b. 2050, d. 2127), a Briton of Afro-Caribbean ancestry from Taunton in Somerset, whose thrice-great-grandfather Edward (b. 1920) had served in the Bermuda Rifles in World War II and had migrated to Britain in 1948. Oliver had become affluent in the 2090s as a merchant, and moved with his family to Sao Paulo in 2098. Oliver's son Marcus married Marie de Oliveira, the heiress to a wealthy Brazilian family of athletes and investors, in 2104. Their son Eduardo was born 4 years later, and stood to inherit their combined family fortunes, which greatly expanded as Marcus invested heavily in Embraer SA, as well as British Aerospace and various Mexican and American aerospace companies. Marcus retired in 2145, vesting Eduardo with the family's wealth and business interests; he diversified the family's interests, and started up a genetic engineering firm for producing androids for indentured labor. With vertical integration, the Creed Group expanded into steel production and coffee growing, heavily exploiting android labor. Creed's investments in aerospace led to Eduardo being a major backer of privatized space development on behalf of the United Nations Space Agency, including controlling interests in companies conducting colony construction, asteroid mining, and operating exploration satellites. However, he avoided directly controlling companies outside of South America, to reduce risk to the family's fortunes.
The decade prior to the Interplanetary War changed things, as the UN mobilized for war. The Creed Group began providing launch services to the UN military space port in Guyana, buying up several launch sites and reorienting its aerospace resources into combat craft production. Embraer SA, by 2158 under complete control of the Creeds, became a major contractor for the Constantine class space cruisers, the UN Space Force's most powerful warships. The Creed family was under some threat during the war, when orbital bombings targeted Brazil and rebellions broke out in the Pampas region of South America. However, they made it through unharmed, and were greatly enriched by the postwar reconstruction's high demand for steel products and android labor. Eduardo remained in control of the family's corporate empire until his death in 2188, and it passed into the hands of his son, Ricardo, who had served as a Major in the Brazilian Air Force during the 2160s. His status as a war hero helped him leverage his family's business interests beyond the Sol system, deploying androids extensively in difficult labor in the new colonies. Ricardo's eldest child, Vanessa, led the family through consolidating its Earth-based businesses, focusing on agriculture and biotechnology as Earth shifted its heavy industry into space.
Ricardo's second child, Rudolfo, departed Earth to manage the new family investments in extrasolar space, settling in the new Epsilon Eridani colony. He had married Eliza Lewis, an executive in British Aerospace, forging a new branch of the family. Rudolfo's son Charles would successfully buy his Brazilian cousins out of their space development companies, and consolidate them under Creed Industries. This "spacer" branch played a controversial role in the Epsilon Uprising in 2203, where left-wing militants targeted Creed Industries in particular over its use of android slaves and its capital investments in the colony. After Rudolfo's death in 2246, the Creed-Lewises relocated to Terra Nova, which became a major military base and industrial zone for the Terran Federation during the Orion War of Independence. Charles' son, Prentiss Creed-Lewis, was a reserve officer in the Terran Marines during the 2160s, but controversially left control of the company in the hands of his brother Richard, and volunteered for active duty against the Orion Army. He died in combat in 2276 while leading a ground assault. Prentiss' nephew, Tristan, took formal headship of the family, though his father held much practical control. After an economic downturn on Terra Nova in the 2390s, Valerica Creed moved her family to the newly-founded colony of Wallerstein orbiting Kolossen.
== Heads of the family ==
=== Oliveira Creeds ("Senior Line") ===
The senior line of the family from Brazil intermarried with the wealthy Oliveira dynasty of Sao Paulo. They leveraged this wealth to invest in aerospace technology and became a major backer of UN-led space development in the middle of the 22nd century.
* Marcus Creed (b. 2080, d. 2170), married Marie de Oliveira in 2104
* son, Eduardo Creed de Oliveira (b. 2108, d. 2188)
* son, Maj. Ricardo de Oliveira Creed (b. 2130, d. 2205)
** son, Rudolfo Creed (b. 2160, d. 2246), moved into space in 2200; progenitor of the Creed-Lewises
* daughter, Vanessa de Oliveira Creed (b. 2158, d. 2250)
* son, Olivio de Oliveira Creed (b. 2185, d. 2290)
* son, Marco de Oliveira Creed (b. 2220, d. 2300)
** son, Tuco de Oliveira Creed (b. 2240, d. 2296), predeceased
* grandson, Sebastiano de Oliveira Creed (b. 2245, d. 2355)
* son, Antonio de Oliveira Creed (b. 2271, d. 2390)
* son, Vanrico de Oliveira Creed (b. 2299, d. 2399)
** daughter, Maria Jose de Oliveira Creed (b. 2322, d. 2390), predeceased
* grandson, Joao de Oliveira Creed (b. 2348, d. 2450)
* daughter, Antonia de Oliveira Creed (b. 2370, d. 2377)
* son, Miguel de Oliveira Creed (b. 2399, d. 2500)
* daughter, Vangelia de Oliveira Creed (b. 2430, d. 2525)
* son, Trentino de Oliveira Creed (b. 2461, d. 2555)
* son, Daviano de Oliveira Creed (b. 2490, d. 2589)
** daughter, Cristina de Oliveira Creed (b. 2520, d. 2588), predeceased
* grandson, Lorenzo de Olivera Creed (b. 2547, d. 2630)
* son, Pedro de Oliveira Creed (b. 2580, d. 2661)
=== Creed-Lewis ("junior line") ===
* Rudolfo Creed (b. 2160, d. 2246), married Eliza Lewis, a British aerospace mogul, in 2185
* son, Charles Creed-Lewis (b. 2190, d. 2269)
** son, Richard Creed-Lewis (b. 2218, d. 2298)
* son, Lt-Col. Prentiss Creed-Lewis (b. 2216, d. 2676), died in combat during the Orion War of Independence
* nephew, Tristan Creed-Lewis (b. 2240, d. 2330)
* daughter, Eva Creed-Lewis (b. 2266, d. 2351)
* son, Evander Creed-Lewis (b. 2290, d. 2370)
** son, Chester Creed (b. 2320, d. 2368), predeceased
* granddaughter, Valerica Creed-Lewis (b. 2345, d. 2430)
* son, Damian Creed-Lewis (b. 2370, d. 2460)
* son, Edward Creed-Lewis (b. 2399, d. 2500)
* daughter, Marceline Creed-Lewis (b. 2428, d. 2533)
* son, Chad Creed-Lewis (b. 2460, d. 2559)
* son, Soames Creed-Lewis (b. 2490, d. 2588)
** son, Edwin Creed-Lewis (b. 2511, d. 2587), predeceased
*** grandson, Daniel Creed-Lewis (b. 2539, d. 2581), committed suicide
* great-granddaughter, Leandra Creed-Lewis (b. 2570, d. 2630)
* daughter, Trinity Creed-Lewis (b. 2598, d. 2661)
=== Creed ("unified line") ===
In 2615, Pedro de Oliveira Creed of the Brazilian Creeds married Trinity Creed-Lewis of the spacer Creeds. Both stood to inherit their respective family fortunes through primogeniture, and unofficial "headship" of their lineages. This was controversial, as both were distant cousins due to intermarriage within the family, and Trinity was only 17 years old compared to Pedro's 35. Nevertheless, the union was deemed successful, as it produced several children and they appeared publicly affectionate and united in their guidance of the Creed business empire. Their firstborn son, Sebastian, had led the family since their deaths in a spacecraft accident in 2661. However, he has no children himself, and is relying on his siblings' families to furnish the future of the Creed dynasty.
* Sebastian Creed (b. 2616)