Epistrofia Page

'Goldfinger He's the man, the man with the Midas touch A spider's touch Such a cold finger Beckons you to enter his web of sin But don't go in
 * - Goldfinger, Shirley Bassey

The Confederacy of Epistrofia, or simply Epistrofia, is a faction exclusive for the Endless Echoes Universe. The faction is made up of a conglomerate of defence corporations and contractors, as well as most of humanity not mind-controlled by the Serafim. They are characterized by their heavy use of battlesuits, panzers and artillery units, which are well-suited to urban environments. Also their air units have unlimited ammo to compensate being only support to the infantry rather than direct action.

Background
"The only rule is the Golden Rule: He who has the Gold makes the Rules."

The Company
At first glance, it would seem that the organisation known as the Mediterranean Syndicate is nothing more than a series of multinational corporations based in Europe, notable only for its strange choice of names and its preponderance in certain cities and countries, and an unusual obsession with ancient Greece and Rome. At the company headquarters in Rome and at its offices elsewhere, one can see neon lights and skyscrapers mingling with columns and frescoes of long dead heroes. However, though the Syndicate may appear to be nothing more than eccentric, underneath this carefully sculpted façade lie ancient secrets.

The company was first formed in the 1920s as the industrial age was coming to a climax, and a young man under the alias "Romulus" was seeking to share his inherited fortune. His goal was to create a group of security companies that worked and operated under one headquarters situated in Rome, Italy. With the chaos of post-great war Italy, there was certainly a ready market of people looking for security for their assets within te Peninsula. And certainly there was a wave of fear to ride on in Italy as the elites worried about the strong Italian socialist and communist movement. At first, the idea was a success as many contractors were looking for a source of consistent research funding, which in tandem with the aforementioned factors, buoyed the fortunes of this network of companies, though the stock market crashes of the end of the decade hit them hard and fast.

By 1932, the organisation had recovered from near bankruptcy, though their methods of acquiring the money were questioned. When an inquiry was made by the Italian Special Anti-Mafia General Attorney, the Syndicate cited that they were not to be held responsible for the actions of their clients. Numerous reports were filed regarding the aforementioned "clients", though all the cases fell through due to a lack of evidence (and possible forgery). It would seem that Romulus' great experiment in Capitalism would pay off, and with political tensions rising in America, he could expand his list of clients. Syndicate mercenaries fought alongside MacArthur's white army in America's Second Civil War, but the red tide proved irresistable in the United States and much of Latin America.

While mercenaries from Syndicate companies were useful in deflecting a potential red uprising in Italy, they could not stop America's Socialists from declaring the end of the United States of America and the birth of the Union of American Socialist Republics. This shocking blow to the balance of power and the expansion of communism as Latin American country after country joined hands and caused the Soviet Union to go from isolated to swimming with allies virtually overnight sent panic through Europe. Now there were Reds to the east and to the west and everyone feared the worst. Then came Mosley, the British dictator who resolved to stop the tide of International communism with his new Ultimatist ideology. An ideology based on nationalism, corporate capitalism, militarism, Imperialism, and Anti-Communism.

And Romulus would find himself shaking hands with Mosley as he took over the British Empire and his ally Bucard came to power in France. Mosley had sought to unite the power of a rightist state with the power of corporations like those that formed the Syndicate to halt and roll back the red march and Romulus' progress appealed to the man. When the time came for the Syndicate to seize de facto power in the Italian Empire and other places, Mosley was there to support him. While the Alliance found the Syndicate's lightly armed and armored formations ill suited for frontline combat against the major Communist powers when Second World War two came, they would find use in shoring up lines of attack or defense, operating against second stringer powers, or ensuring that the rear of the Alliance's lines were guarded. It would be a time of great plenty for the Syndicate as they were flushed with valuable contracts, and would serve to educate them on how to fight a large war.

After the war, the Syndicate would invest heavily in its own expansion, building up its arsenal and expanding its areas of operation. They would come to be the de facto power in many of Europe's colonies and worked extensively with the Alliance and other anti-communist organizations such as the Technocracy. They found that Thornley, Mosley's replacement, was more than happy to continue with his friendly policies to the syndicate and by 1960, they had become the world's largest military corporation, and unknown to the public, possessed some of the world's most dangerous weaponry.

What happened to Romulus since then has been a mystery. His alias has allowed him to become shrouded in complete secrecy. The top executives of the Syndicate are rarely mentioned and require heavy security to even exchange a few words with. The only legacy of his that remains is the fantastic Greco-Roman architecture that adorns every Syndicate structure, as he has an obsession for everything from the time of Ancient Rome and Greece.

The Technology
The Syndicate's greatest advance and most closely guarded secret, the integrated circuit, has advanced the Syndicate's electronics to a level unrivalled by virtually any known powers save the Comintern (with its Carbon circuits), the IPTO, the Solar Empire, and the Majestic inclusive. Their computer technology is actually becoming one of their greatest financial assets; corporations and nations pay millions of dollars to have numbers crunched by the advanced computers of the Syndicate. Computers permeate every level of Syndicate technology, from the massive server farms that track the global financial market, to the cyberdecks of the Syndicate's engineers and technicians.

As their computers get smaller and more advanced, the members of the Syndicate seem ever more eager to incorporate it into every element of life, including their own bodies. In the centres of many cities in the developing world one can find the newly risen skyscrapers, squat factories and techno-slums that the Syndicate call "Sprawls", where neon lights and digital monitors line the walls of the concrete caverns and smog from countless factories has darkened the sky. People are continually bombarded with all manner of information, not all of it true, most of it advertisement, and all of it trying to out-compete each other for attention. To be in a Sprawl is to be in a place of overwhelming sensory stimulation.

Some Sprawls even find themselves under the cover of geodesic domes to protect from the merciless acid rains caused by the industrial excess. Everywhere is the touch of Syndicate technology, from electronics to bioengineering to cybernetics. These Sprawls are areas absolutely owned by the Syndicate, who simply buy up every building, street and alleyway for almost nothing and turn them into freewheeling centres of commerce away from prying eyes in which they may develop and manufacture everything from new lines of cars to computer systems to the world's most modern firearms or the most seedy and repulsive of trades from child prostitution and debt slaves. There, their word is law and money buys anything.

From these developments came militarily useful advances. Cybernetics would give way to battlesuits that integrate the wearer to a degree few other manufacturers would consider safe or sane. Electronics would prove to be useful in regulating the magnetic fields needed to create proper railguns to provide Syndicate weapons with a massive armor penetrating punch. Investment in creating a superior high would lead to all manner of combat drugs that makes supermen out of men and can make one immune to fear or pain. Research into other forms of energy would give rise to zero point energy for immobilization or power generation usages.

About the only things that eluded the Syndicate were devices that affected physics; technology even the Alliance were ill inclined to share, Psychics; which were jealously guarded by Epsilon, and wireless communication; which would require a degree of regulation that was anathema to the Syndicate. Still, the Syndicate had reached far and reached it fast in its controlled chaos and the patronage it enjoyed from the Alliance. Surely this would be a powerful argument against the International and its communist system.

The Underworld; or, Extreme Takeover: Rome Edition
What is not immediately obvious about the Syndicate is their deep connections with the criminal elements of society all over the world. Throughout its history there have been many inquires and investigations, digging deep into the complex web of hundreds of companies that make up the Syndicate, but it has always been fruitless. The Syndicate is simply too big, covers too many areas, and often operates in the remote, lawless regions of the Earth and with the Alliance to shield it, is very difficult to get any movements to take it down anywhere. The Syndicate also has been very careful with poking into the Communist first world, who has no patience for the Syndicate's practices and whose market socialist cooperatives and state industries can easily crush their toeholds, or the regions held by the Axis; of which the Empire and Majestica are staunch business rivals and the Pan-Africans loathe the Syndicate's presence in Africa as a stain on the continent.

To be sure, most law enforcement and intelligence agencies know that there is something off with the assorted corporations, and more than a few of these agencies consider them to be a criminal organisation, if only they can get proof of it. The fact is, the Syndicate has its hooks in everything, every level of criminality all over the world. They are the ultimate mafia with the perfect front. Even in the Comintern, there exists a market to smuggle goods made from exploited labour that can be acquired more cheaply than the "responsible" products in the International. Even in the Axis, there exists places where the Syndicate can wriggle into the cracks left by the Zaibatsus and the "African patriot" industries of the League. Only in places like darkest Antarctica, where the Dominion is one and the Dominion is all, or the hellscapes of Green China's domain or the isolationist catholic Kingdom of Palestine does the Syndicate truly have no power.

By far the most profitable areas of underground Syndicate activity is the drug trade, smuggling, and arms dealing. The Syndicate, in addition to controlling the conventional drug trade, have a wide variety of pharmaceutical companies that have turned themselves over to the manufacture of ever more potent and addicting synthetic drugs; Nuke, 'Slaught, Octagons, Spice, Dust; under a million names from a million alleyways the Syndicate has its stamp on the world. In countries where drugs are decriminalized, the Syndicate instead focuses on smuggled in luxury goods whose production would have certainly violated more than a few labour laws. And needless to say, Third World War was initially an immensely profitable time for the Syndicate as the Blue Army marched on all fronts to once again strike at the Communists right up until the rise of the Axis dealt smashing blows to their holdings across the world and Epsilon's betrayal devastated the Alliance. Their weapons were in high demand and they were quick to try and "decommunize" occupied zones before they were pushed out by the International.

Not only that, but they have hundreds of associated companies dedicated to the creation of tools of war for the lesser nations in their constant petty squabbles across the globe. They are where countless warlords get their weapons from, and the ones who provide munitions for the likes of the Confederacy of Nationalists and countless World Liberation Army warlords. Wherever life is taken, the Syndicate make a profit. Because of these shady deals, they are in constant rivalry with virtually all other arms dealers. Whether in the market for simple hunting rifles and self-defense sidearms to great big war machines fit for industrial total warfare.

With the aftermath of the Third World War, the Syndicate is at a crossroads. The war being brought to the Alliance and its holdings and the blood and treasure sunk into what was supposed to be communism's end only to result in the Alliance being hurled back to its borders cost a great deal of money. The Pan-African League, Empire, Guardians, Oligarchy, and Majestica all ripped through Syndicate property in the New World, Africa, Asia and even some in Europe itself, while Epsilon's shocking betrayal and the mass uprisings of the WLA killed huge numbers of Syndicate employees and devastated many Sprawls, to say nothing of Syndicate investments in Capitalist China going up in radioactive smoke.

However, the market for reconstruction and security has been huge and profitable and its services have been required in many warzones. The Empire's greater openness to the world has offered new markets for Syndicate services. And lately, the organisation has released many press reports dealing with the advancement of spacecraft and seem to have their eyes focused on the stars; for that is the future of the Syndicate, to provide the most advanced security systems on the planet, even if it means annihilating the competition.

Nova Roma Syndicate Security Forces
"How can one describe the authority of a Sprawl? It isn't police, for police are sworn to defend and protect, and the authority of the Sprawls do neither. But neither could one call it an army, for an army implies some solid, unchanging chain of command, of which the authority of any Sprawl is decidedly not under. Instead, authority is fluid and at once primitive and complex – tribal warfare where might makes right, where the chariots and spears are armored cars and railguns, where the caves are steel and concrete and the losers go into economic instead of physical slavery. Authority is invested in a hundred different groups who fight each other with fervent hatred, and yet will unite in defiance of outsiders. If anything could be described of such an authority, it would be that they are the apex predators in an urban jungle."
 * - Excerpt from a BBC presentation on Sprawls

Battlesuits
Battlesuits (for all intents and purposes, Cyborgs) are uber-infantry, which have the combined features of tanks and infantry. Battlesuits are uncrushable, and in fact some of the heavier ones can crush infantry. They receive damage like tanks, making them mostly immune to anti-infantry weapons but more vulnerable to anti-tank weapons. They can garrison structures as well. Battlesuits requiring controlling monitors which keep close tabs on these expensive assets; you are limited to eight battlesuits per control node. Like infantry they gain bonuses from Auras.