The Symmachian Syndicate

## Faction Mission Statement

The Symmachian Syndicate is a neutral collective of players with the aim to progressively develop an affluent militaristic, diplomatic and economic entity which is committed to the goal of influencing and regulating the course of Starbase's cumulative story, making a lasting mark on the game's universe and direct its diplomatic and political landscape to take compelling courses.

## History and development

The Symmachian Syndicate was founded as a Starbase-exclusive community on July 9th by the players Croomar and Bersiddartha on July 9th 2019 who act as leading oligarchs of the faction, in the faction called *Legates*.

A third Legate, Woody155, was added to the Assembly on July 14th 2019.

Among members of the first days are former high-ranking members of the Dual Universe organization Objective Driveyards .

## Primary Purpose

The Symmachian Syndicate represents a faction of players cooperating in individual groups called *Cells*, creating a collective infrastructure spanning every field of gameplay and industry. This creates resources which are pooled and shared within the entire Syndicate with the purpose to expend them in major undertakings that are supposed to change the direction the cumulative Story of Starbase is taking, thus influencing the game's economy, politics, community events and development.

These undertakings can take different forms. Resources may be invested in order to alter market prices, changing resource availability or trade routes. The Symmachian Syndicate may take a side in ongoing wars, possibly shifting the balance in favor of one side or presenting a new front with foreign motives. The Syndicate can also act as diplomatic mediator, making an effort to stop conflicts between factions or keeping them from emerging. Conversely, the Syndicate may also start or instigate wars and conflicts if it deems certain factions too powerful, markets disadvantageous, political affairs one-sided or certain situations simply bland, unfair or badly balanced.

By interverning in in-game events such as wars, trades, deals and milestones, the Symmachian Syndicate strives to create unique and creative outcomes to them, aiming to enhance the experience of participating players and those ultimately affected by the events.

The Syndicate itself states it will try to reach these aims with "*all means available*"to them. Individual Cells each have their own field of responsibility. While the faction incorporates Cells dedicated to the faction's own Industry, other Cells may make use of methods like piracy, blackmailing or espionage. In parallel, the Syndicate also engages in regular business and fair trade deals, even offering its services commerically sometimes. In order to ensure a general trustworthiness, the Symmachian Syndicate features a pledge of honour as part of the factions *Community Pillars* with which it aims to warrant its reliability and respectability.

## Structure

The faction features a simplistic structure that intents to split up as much responsibility among the whole memberbase as possible. Every member of the Syndicate is part of hierarchically structured set of groups.

### Overall structure

The Symmachian Syndicate describes itself as a decentralized, oligarchically-led collective of players. The Syndicate itself is composed of multiple **Cells**, individual entities with their own field of resonsibilities such as production, logistics, military operations, exploration, resource acquisitions, etc. These Cells operate independently from each other to a large degree, but share resources, products and services to keep the entire system active and growing.  Each Cell is led by a *Legate* and that Legate's *Representative*as second-in-command. Together, the Legates form the *Assembly*, a sort of leadership council where decisions for the entire faction are made.

### Member ranking

Members of the Syndicate are placed within these Cells and assigned one of three ranks. New members who have not yet been fully accepted into the faction are part of a Cell as *Prospects* on probation time.Regular Members are part of a Student-Mentor relationship in which one or multiple newer, less experienced members are assigned to a higher ranking, more experienced member, forming the working groups within the Cells. Members in the Mentor positions coordinate tasks that they work on together with their students. Mentors themselves can be student to even more experienced members, acting as Mentors with higher seniority which is awarded based on meritocratic values by superior members. This creates a structure where tasks are delegated throughout multiple layers of responsibility and naturally broken down into manageable work packages, where even relatively new and low-ranking members can be taking part in coordination, management and leadership.

According to the Syndicate, the system promises an efficient structure that allows players to self-govern themselves in their groups and their Cells to a large degree, keeping managerial effort to a minimum and allowing a high degree of flexibility to the faction.

## Allies and Enemies

The Symmachian Syndicate is a strictly neutral and independent faction. As such, it does not form permanent alliances, but may create partnerships or temporary agreements in the frame of their projects.

Similarly, the Syndicate refuses to regard any player or faction as a constant enemy as anybody has the potential to support them in their endeavors, either as enemy or ally.