Cognoscenti

> “
> “Use your brain, man. There's a reason that these megacorps and government pawns don't just go out and order each other's deaths. They'd gain profit from it doing it, but why not? Why don't they fucking get the second round of Corporate Wars over and done with? Because it's all connected.”
>
>
> — *anon. slime.bbs user, rambling on a schizothread*
>
>
>

## Cognoscenti

Sigil ascribed to the "supreme cabal" by online conspiracy theorists on slime.bbs

### Nickname

New Galactic Order
Final Cabal

### Founder

Gang of Thirteen
Secretary-General Theodoric Cyrille Marin

### Type

"Stewards of a new galactic order"

Secret cabal of megacorporate and government elites

### Purpose

To exercise indirect control over all of humanity through a plutocratic elite; to advance humanity in all social and technological aspects

### Subsidiaries

Major portions of the government of the Coalition of Congressional Republics
* Coalition Corporate Advisory Committee
* Almost all megacorporations of the CCR

Tellus Convention (financial arm)
Illumine Summit (sociopolitical arm)
Klasser Group (technological arm)

### Enemies

 Illuminati remnants
 IFMS

 NightAnon

The **Cognoscenti** is a secret society that was formed following the collapse of the statist-oriented Illuminati during the Corporate Wars and its concurrent shadow war. Originally composed of pro-megacorporate elements of the Illuminati who saw these massive private entities as the vectors of mankind's future progress, the current Cognoscenti now effectively rules over all of humanity through a seemingly endless web of intrigue and connections across the Coalition of Congressional Republics.

The goal of the Cognoscenti is to indefinitely control the human race via its web of middlemen organizations and entities; this is done as a means to maintain control over the advancements of human social and technological progress in benefit of all mankind. A "first among equals" philosophy is maintained, however, superseding the original goals of the Illuminati for a truly equal ascension; the Cognoscenti believe that its members, as stewards of humanity, should always receive the most prestigious and premium of options and services before that of the general public. This has contributed massively to the economic inequalities across the Coalition, where the bulk of the economic power lies in the top 0.001% of society.

After nearly five centuries of indirect rule, however, the Cognoscenti is slowly losing its grip over the Coalition and its megacorporations. Through knowledge of the existence of an alien civilization by the means of Signal 22X-B9, of lost alien technologies by the means of the Forefather Civilization, and by the fears of many colonists for venturing forth beyond the boundaries of the Frontier, the need to break past the current socioeconomic stagnation has resulted in the formation of different Cognoscenti factions vying for power. With the increase in internal friction and the increase in violence across the general public, several Cognoscenti members are unsure of the society's future tenability.

## Origins

The origins of the Cognoscenti lie in the Fall of the Illuminati, which was the true conflict behind the Corporate Wars and was spurred as a result of the growing division in the Coalition elite in regards to what direction humanity should be directed towards.

The original members of the Illuminati believed that all of mankind should enjoy the fruits of social and technological progress equally, and that this goal should be reached through a direct "galactic order" propagated through the Coalition of Congressional Republics. However, a reformist branch of the society, who began to call themselves the *cognoscenti* as a result of their self-perceived enlightenment and superiority, affirmed that the megacorporations were the way forward towards this plan. This was as a result of the massive, bloated bureaucracy of the Coalition being too ineffective in propagating effective change and keeping a steady hand in humanity's economics.

This disagreement would lead to interstellar conflict as the Cognoscenti used their puppet in the Coalition government, General-Secretary Theodoric Cyrille Marin, to deliberately spread anti-corporate tendencies and incite a civil war to which the megacorporations would inevitably gain further control over mankind.

## Subordinate organizations

### Tellus Convention

The Tellus Convention is held annually in Monatoga City, Tellus, where representatives of all of the financial institutions, reserves, and megabanks of the CCR head towards to discuss economic policies that dictate the fate of trillions. Through the Tellus Convention, the Cognoscenti steer the Coalition into recession, stagnation, or abundancy, as according to their internal plots.

### Illumine Summit

The Illumine Summit, held every year in the Metropolitan French Megasprawl of the European Federation on Earth, functions as the sociopolitical arm of the Cognoscenti. This meeting converges hundreds of thousands of celebrities, politicians, influencers, activists, and demagogues from across the Coalition to discuss the sociopolitical direction that the Coalition should steer towards. Through the Illumine Summit, almost every political superparty and organ of the Coalition government is controlled.

### Klasser Group

The Klasser Group is the technological arm of the Cognoscenti, and functions as a subordinate society that agglomerates all accessible and top-level scientists, engineers, and researchers in the Coalition. Through the Klasser Group, the Cognoscenti are able to nudge the progress of human innovation, and employs a mountainous heap of disinformation campaigns and incidents in order to keep the public blind to the group's machinations and correlation.

## Enemies and rivals

### Illuminati

After the Cognoscenti broke away from the Illuminati with the bulk of the latter's membership following the Corporate Wars, the Illuminati's remnants have become nothing more than a group of inheritors of forgotten historical legacies. The remnants of the Illuminati pursue the primary objective to take vengeance against the reigning Cognoscenti, with any dreams of ruling over humanity having become a pipe dream. Currently, they exist in total secrecy only in the fringes of Coalition society, operating through criminal syndicates and shadow organizations to wage a shadow guerilla war against their usurpers.

### International Free Mason Secretariat

Following the Corporate Wars, most Freemason lodges on Earth and abroad became subverted by the Cognoscenti; they were dissolved as a means to further muddy the waters of public identification of the elite. However, a specific order of the Freemasons, the International Free Mason Secretariat, survived the Corporate Wars (through a mixture of alliances between previously ideologically-disparate lodges and extreme vetting of their members). The goals of the IFMS are to simply exercise control over their lodges, businesses and individuals Cognoscenti interference; this naturally places the two groups against one another.

Another reason as to their rivalry is ideological; the Masons see the extent of the Cognoscenti over mankind as inorganic, and the latter's amorphous hierarchical structure is seen as outright dangerous.

### NightAnon

Although having no concrete evidence to prove it, many members of the hacktivist organization NightAnon have deduced that there exists a force beyond that of even the megacorporations and the Coalition government at play. This has led the Cognoscenti to attempt silencing the organization via its endless proxy networks, to little success.