Leaders of The Cluster 

This sorry lot might only be figureheads, but surely even they are surprised by how ineffectual they are. Some have accomplished great things. Some undoubtedly care. I am just not convinced that counts for much when the Cluster has built an economy around proxy wars and people like me.

We are killing each other more than ever, and making more money from it than ever. Armournauting taught me that most conflict is remarkably mundane: guard somewhere until another band turns up, then hope you have enough guns to make the outcome obvious.

My crew was better than most, which is not saying much. We tried to stop the worst of it. When we could not, we remembered who participated and handed them over afterwards. That counted as exceptional professionalism.

No one forced me to become an Armournaut. There just were not many consequences for being one. Maybe that tells you more about the people running the Cluster than any biography in this section will.

Gunnar Hollister

Chairperson Gunnar Hollister of the Lagrange Nations Assembly is a former Lunar Beret who parachuted from service right into politics. After terrorists deorbited Polermo Station onto Castigor, Hollister seized the moment, convincing the Lunar Union to grant him territory in exchange for steadfast alliance.

His prize was Sophia Station, now the primary gateway to the Frontier. In return, Hollister enforces the Union’s will with brutal efficiency, hunting its targets and suppressing its enemies. With his nation’s foothold secured, he has turned towards infrastructure, expanding cycler networks to fuel colonial development under the Lagrange banner.

He is one of the few leaders who actually built something, even if his approval ratings are suspiciously high. I have to admit I respect him, though I don’t trust anyone who shakes hands with the Union.

Alaia Herrera

Grand Menhirite Alaia Herrera is a unique figure in Temple history. She is the only leader ever elected unanimously by the Council of Stylites, the technocratic assembly that governs the Temple Sphere. She was also fully endorsed by the supercomputers housing the Temple's greatest simulated minds.

Her mandate is to govern Temple-aligned worlds and secure resources for the Great Work. She has brought more worlds into the Temple fold than any predecessor, overseen breakthroughs in Sublunary-class AIs that outpace rival Superpowers, and implemented the impossible (reforms that work). Through collaboration with the Core Worlds, she has built hundreds of new battleships, closing the naval gap with her rivals.

As down as I am on the Temple, even I have to admit she has me hopeful.

Ilari Virtanen

Ilari Virtanen is a former Fleet Admiral forged in the chaotic Jambles. He rose to Chairman of the People after his predecessor died, vowing to carry forward their spirit.

His tenure has been defined by consolidation, not expansion. After years defending Union colonies from funded insurgencies, Virtanen shifted strategy to securing core holdings instead of reaching for new ones. He subsidises trade and industry in existing territories and maintains a formidable security presence.

This focus has come at a cost. Virtanen has minimised colonial efforts in the Frontier to wage a grinding campaign against elusive threats like Stragovi 111. He navigates between the Union's hawks and doves, and his stated goal is to make the Union unassailable.

He views the Frontier as a distraction. I’m not sure he is wrong, but I am sure the colonists he left behind are not happy about it.

Marko Harmyulcar

Marko Harmyulcar is the Prolocutarch of the Venti Republic and the heir to a family that saved the Republic once and has been cashing in on it ever since.

Groomed from birth to lead, Marko was managing family fortunes while still young. Under his watch, the Harmyulcars expanded into interstellar trade, media, and pharmaceuticals, becoming an interstellar power in their own right.

As Prolocutarch, he is effective but self-interested. His detractors say he is building a personal dynasty, using his wealth to control policy and the Senate Guard. He is popular, his political machine is strong, and his critics are irrelevant.

He is the kind of leader who wins by never losing. Or at the very least, making you believe he never loses.

Gordon America

Sovereign Premier Gordon America rules the Yscenic Hegemony, a declining Venti client state whose ruling houses still insist they are the legitimate heirs of Old Earth.

Gordon has vowed to break Venti influence and restore Yscenic power while his economy remains dependent on Venti trade and his territories fracture under rebellion. He suppresses uprisings on worlds like Odelke, wages wars against neighbouring systems, and spends almost as much effort surviving House politics as fighting external enemies.

I get a grim satisfaction watching a man who believed his own propaganda discover that reality does not.

Sari Wijaya

Prime Minister Sari Wijaya rules the Xianic Federation, a constitutional monarchy born from a democratic schism within the Yscenic Empire. The Federation’s system requires the monarch to marry the elected Prime Minister and rule for life.

The Federation abandoned the old caste system and codified human rights,  which has undoubtedly contributed to Wijaya’s popularity. She is royal by birth but serves as Prime Minister because her husband is too sick to do the job. A steadfast ally of the Venti Republic, Wijaya views the Yscenics as a regressive threat.

She has hired Armournauts along the contested Frontier, a strategy that has made her a traitor in Yscenic eyes but a hero to her own people. She is determined to protect her state, and she is willing to use whatever tools she has to do it.

The Commander

Known only as the Commander, the apparent figurehead of Stragovi 111 broadcasts calls for the destruction of the existing Lunar Union and its replacement with a purified version built around an invented nationalist past.

His rhetoric targets GELF, syndicalists, and the so-called leeching underclass, and has found audiences well beyond Union territory. Whether the Commander is a real individual, several people, or another manufactured Stragovi persona remains unclear.

Qiao Zhenyi

Qiao Zhenyi is the First Envoy and visible hand of the reclusive Peahen Empress of Magnasanti. She marshals the Averi diaspora - nobles, magnates, colonies, and the faithful - into a unified instrument of imperial will.

She wields nearly limitless resources from her shares in the Cluster's most powerful megacorps, with formidable presence in banking, manufacturing, and cloning. Averi influence is strongest in the Core Worlds. In the Frontier, she prefers collaboration over conquest, investing in existing ventures and extending influence through economic entanglement rather than war.

This makes her more tolerable than most imperial agents, but no more trustable in the dealing room.

Erastur Qaghan

Erastur Qaghan is elected by the great clans, tribes, and families of the Zyrgyzoi, and he serves as their paramount arbitrator and diplomat. His authority is civil, not military, covering common law, internal disputes, and external trade. He holds little direct military power because each Zyrgyzoi group keeps its own forces.

His focus is inward, maintaining cohesion in a society where major war is rare but ritualised skirmishes are common. In external conflicts, he leads with diplomacy and commerce, using force only as a last resort.

His true power comes from trade. The Zyrgyzoi are the Cluster's great facilitators and miners, ferrying populations, processing asteroids, and selling hollowed-out husks as prefab habitats. Their hoard ships contain vast mineral wealth capable of crashing economies with a single sale.

That makes Erastur less a king than a man trusted to keep several apocalypses in separate ledgers.

The Mouth

Known only as the Mouth, this figure is the sole recognised point of contact with the O. Nobody knows whether they are a leader, messenger, or something else entirely.

When the O judge that someone has broken one of their laws, the Mouth appears, identifies the offence, and names those responsible. What follows is usually a precise retaliation by GELF-skinned warriors trained from childhood. Smaller nations have occasionally chosen to surrender the named offenders rather than resist.

Even the Superpowers have learned not to test how far the O will take a grievance.

Villifed Rasmussen

Villifed Rasmussen is the High Synod of the Gystlian faith, providing religious authority and strategic direction from the fortress-temples of Gystlia.

He teaches that power belongs to those tested through war and keeps dangerous chieftains loyal by offering sanctuary and status. He is fiercely hostile to GELF, genetic engineering, and Temple simulated realities, while captives taken across the Cluster are ransomed, integrated, or enslaved in service to the priesthood.

A holy man with hostages is still a man with hostages.

Elram Carthalo

Hiram Iskaniel may have founded the Vox Moralis movement, but it unquestionably belongs to Patriarch Elram Carthalo. Insisting upon his honourific, Carthalo coordinates a vast ideological machine, spreading its message through media networks to influence politics on countless worlds.

He also resources the movement's burgeoning "Humanity First" militias. His fiery screeds denounce the "godless" Temple, the "communist" Lunar Union, and the "decadent" Venti Republic, rhetoric that has mobilised followers for recruitment and incited others to violence.

Carthalo prophesies an inevitable Cluster-wide war, preaching that only a universal moral awakening can avert it. His life's aim is the cultivation of a single, unifying culture across the stars: a righteous monoculture he believes is necessary for good to triumph over division and godlessness.

Keely Reynard

Keely Reynard leads the Ethical Governance Movement and argues that advanced AI should assume a greater role in planetary government. She presents machine administration as an answer to corruption, inefficiency, and the limits of human decision-making.

Reynard is a major stakeholder in an AI research group and its data centres, and allegations of bribery have followed her rise through the movement.

Viyan Go Yousefi

President Viyan Go Yousefi leads the Vakil Confederation, whose countless colonies and nomadic populations are scattered across the Cluster. Elected by a vast council of clans, territories, and colonies, her monumental task is to coordinate the security and policy of these widely dispersed polities.

This includes managing the Confederation's military, which is one of the most battle-hardened forces in the Cluster due to its continuous low-level war with the Temple. Clashes are most frequent in the Frontier.

Yousefi is a skilled diplomat who has pursued a policy of strategic integration, seeking closer relations with the Venti Republic and the Lunar Union while mediating disputes between the Superpowers. Her most significant achievement is a landmark dual-citizenship program with the Lagrange Nations Assembly, granting many Asuvakil - gravity-affected people - freedom of movement and opportunity.

This modernising agenda makes her a divisive figure. Traditionalist Yilanic Channellers revile her for moving the Confederation away from its religious and clan-based roots, while her supporters laud her as the architect of a new, influential Vakil future.