The Shadow Council

The **Shadow Council** is a name for a group of individuals who represent or own certain factions that secretly influence and control all manner of human society, including but not limited to public opinion/propaganda, economics, culture, religion and government.

A large portion are wealthy businessmen who own influential megacorporations or conglomerates that often work in tandem with each other, and being on the Council grants them certain privileges, including influencing government legislation to further their company's goals and profits. Niche members include a religious leader and intelligence faction. It is assumed that Abstergo exerts control over many other corporations and probably other militant factions, but the biggest and most influential get a voice on the Council.

## Organisation

The organizations affiliated with the Council are as follows:

### **Abstergo Industries/Templars**

Representative: "The Director"

Currently, the Director of the Templars is a mysterious and unknown man. He often calls meetings and speaks from an absent seat, with no hologram projection of any kind to show his face. The CEO of Abstergo Industries runs the company on the front, but the Director puppets from the back, and controls the Council. He is seemingly the most powerful and influential man in human space as of 2183.

**Focused Role:** Leadership, domination of human society through all means of control, political, social, resources, currency etc.

### **Weyland-Yutani Corporation**

Representative: Karl Bishop Weyland

Weyland-Yutani is a large British/Japanese multinational conglomerate who has their hands in all kinds of cookie jars. They are primarily a technology supplier manufacturing synthetics, spaceships and computers for a wide range of industrial and commercial clients, but they also contract weapons to the military, on top of that, they are also one of the biggest colonial settlers for human space in the Amalgamation Galaxy, as is there famous slogan "building better worlds." Weyland Corp also has it's own private military, in which it favours using *illegal* synthetic soldiers but also trains regular humans, making them another paramilitary organisation.

The Weyland Yutani Corporation's main focus for the Shadow Government is resource acquisition (colonisation) and weapons manufacturing, most of which is being funnelled to the UNSC to help the war effort.

**Focused Role:** Resource attainment, weapon and starship manufacturing.

### **Cerberus**

Representative: The Illusive Man

Cerberus are a human-centrist paramilitary group. This group achieves their goals through sabotage, assassination, media manipulation, and espionage. They are a private group, independent of the government and labelled as a terrorist organisation by the Alliance.

Existing outside of the law, Cerberus is thus able to operate and do things outside of the conventions of the law, whereas groups like Weyland, UAC or ONI have to tip toe around or operate within the bounds of legislation and follow guidelines. Cerberus is a blunt instrument that the Council can scapegoat, even for activities conducted by the other groups within this organisation, Cerberus is a good group to pan off blame too. It doesn't need to keep up an image, it doesn't need to worry about being caught or "exposed" for the illegal activities it conducts, and that is a valuable asset for the Shadow Council to leverage. Cerberus also grows stronger by the day, as a direct result of rising anti-xeno sentiments due to the Covenant's onslaught on humanity and the numerous other alien threats.

**Focused Role:** Government Scapegoat, political immunity. Operating openly outside the law.

### **Office of Naval Intelligence**

Representative: Black-Box

ONI is the intelligence division of the UNSC military, but it operates a lot more resources than to be expected by an intelligence organisation, having a significant fleet presence and personnel under it's command. ONI is also responsible for counter intelligence, military propaganda and the suppression of unfavourable information. ONI has a notorious reputation for contravening the law, breaking UNSC protocol, violating moral boundaries, acquiring vast amounts of UNSC resources to complete its shadowy operations and terminating its own personnel as a consequence for failure, though these stand as rumours and not open facts.

Black-Box, a newly created AI, acts in the stead of Admiral Margaret Parangosky, who is currently preoccupied with the war effort.

**Focused Role:** Military Intelligence, Counter Intelligence, Information Suppression.

### **Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation**

Representative: Spyglass

The IMC, formerly called Hammond Engineering, is a massive industrial conglomerate based on Earth. It operates much the same way as the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, although it appears to only focus on manufacturing weapons, but where Weyland uses Synthetic Combat Androids, the IMC uses Spectres, another type of artificial combat unit. Where Weyland specialises in ships and assault rifles, the IMC makes Titans, they each fill in where the other lacks.

The main colonisation effort of the IMC was to settle the Frontier, a dense zone of habitable planets outside the regions of human space even further out than the Outer Colonies, both of which are now rampant with rebellion. This region of space is far away from the Covenant's onslaught, and its conquest, in the IMC's eyes, might be vital for the future of humanity.

Spyglass is the physical manifestation of the IMC's vast computational network identity. In essence, he *is* the IMC, and so he sits a physical platform as a presence on the Council to represent the IMC.

**Focused Role:** Frontier Colonisation, Rebellion Suppression, Robotics Manufacturing

### **Unitology**

Representative: Jacob Arthur Danik

The Church of Unitology fills in the religious part of the group, as religion acts as a great deceptive tool for controlling a population, and a shadow government would benefit from the deception a religiously indoctrinated group could have over the populace. The Templars know and understand this, and are as interested in learning the origins of the Markers, which Unitology actively studies.

Jacob Danik is devoted to the teachings of Unitology and represents the council from the military sect of the religion called the circle, though it seems he might harbour resentment for corporations and the government he keeps whatever he's planning well hidden.

**Focused Role:** Religious Indoctrination, pacifying population, Marker Study.

### **Binary Helix**

Representative: Unknown Leader

The Binary Helix Corporation leads the way in the fields of genetic engineering and biotechnology. They currently have a significant presence in the galaxy, and have provided the Council great insight into Xenomorph, Yautja, Rachni, and Covenant biology. They also do some research in the field of biotic implants.

Being the most recent owners of the 20th and 21st century companies InGen Technologies and Masrani Global Corporation's assets, they provide cloned animals and plants to colonies, as well as other uses such as bioweapons.

The Helix's leader, like the Director, does not ever appear at the Council's meetings physically, only speaking through a holographic representation of a strand of human DNA.

**Focused role:** Genetics Research.

### **Union Aerospace Corporation**

Representative: Samuel Hayden

The UAC is a multi-planetary megacorporation, operating facilities primarily in the Sol system.

The UAC's public front is weapon and spacecraft manufacturing for the military, but their true main focus is on developing inter-dimensional travel. Their research into Argent energy and portals is hoped to yield another alternative means of space travel, perhaps even more efficient than slipspace or mass effect fields, and also as a new practical energy source.

Samuel Hayden is the Chairman of the UAC and now lives within a 3-meter tall robotic body which houses what's left of his brain, he did this to avoid death from brain cancer. Out of all of the council members, Hayden poses the highest physical threat due to his powerful robotic frame.

**Focused Role:** Inter-Dimensional Research, Renewable Energy.

### **Combine**

Representative: Dr. Wallace Breen

Dr. Wallace Breen is Earth's Administrator and humanity's representative within the Combine, an immense and powerful inter-dimensional organization that comprises both allied and enslaved species. The Combine's collective goal is to dominate and absorb the Multiverse into its inter-dimensional empire, "the Universal Union".

When the Combine came to Earth in this universe they were a bit late - humanity had advanced into a spacefaring civilization with quite a large military, as did most species within the Milky Way of this reality. This meant that Earth would be capable of mounting a formidable resistance if the Combine decided to just invade, as a matter of fact, the Earth of this reality had already withstood several invasion from alternate dimensions, but they discovered a source of power already in place manipulating the populace, that being the Shadow Council. They decided that they could conquer from within working with this group, so they offered their services and resources to join the shadow government. Secretly, they plot to overthrow Abstergo, but they are doing it from within, waiting for the right time to strike. For now, they are happy to have their needs met and voices heard through Wallace Breen, whilst they slowly gear up for an offensive.

**Focused Role:** Provides inter-dimensional resources, information and support to the group, even helping the UAC with its Argent projects.

## Trivia

The Shadow Council is a concept created by Amalgamation100.

In the Amalgamation universe, the Templars and Abstergo are much the same as their original counterparts, but they exert control over factions you'd original see in other universes to unify them into one force, instead of the conflicting entities you'd otherwise expect from them, though there is often infighting. For the Templars to remain in control of humanity when it spread out into the stars, they needed to seize control of and unify with a host of other capable organisations to help maintain their influence over such vast distances, this included companies that headed colonisation and exploration.

It must be noted that out of respect and accuracy to each factions original incarnation, not all factions within the Shadow Government are entirely dedicated or allied to the Council and its leadership, some may harbour secret resentment or plans to overthrow and control or evolve humanity on its own terms.

Binary Helix has been expanded from their source Mass Effect lore, included as a genetics research specialist. It's also possible that in ME Binary Helix might be a front for Cerberus, but this is not the case in Amalgamation.