Meridiem

Organization: Meridiem

Roles: Secretive corporation / may be a cult / masters of vaguely threatening slogans

Meridiem have been around a long time, with some sources claiming they go back to at least the time of the Roman Empire. The first definite record of the current group is in the 1600’s when they appeared little more than an exclusive club for the ‘brilliant and wealthy’. Today they act like a huge investment firm with a wide variety of assets; research and development, finance, military, law enforcement, pharmaceuticals, entertainment – in fact there are very few things they don’t have some hand in.

Its members are made up of business owners and politicians from all over the world, who in addition to monetary investment also gain the protection of Meridiem’s own private military and security services – boasted to be the most advanced armed force on the planet. In terms of technology that is certainly true; their armor and weaponry seems to always be decades ahead of anything deployed by standard military.

In the 1990’s they began work on Pythia – a giant supercomputer loaded with historical data, as well as meteorological, geological, astronomical, and all sorts. The intent was to create an AI that could do what no human astrologer, soothsayer, or fortune teller has ever done – consistently and accurately predict the future. And it worked. Although not perfect, Pythia has proven invaluable tool for guiding their investments and has undergone many upgrades since.

In fact today Pythia, in the form of a holographic interface, is the main point of contact anyone has with Meridiem. Which leads to one of many mysteries about the organisation – no-one (on the outside at least) actually knows who’s in charge of it. There is one other entity that all members of Meridiem fear, referred to only as ‘Control’.

Many Meridiem funded projects have in fact been a great boon and benefit to mankind, and they will take all the credit for them. But when something they’ve invested in goes awry they will go to great lengths to avoid taking any responsibility. That is where Control comes in – they oversee all clean-up operations, cover ups, and ‘deal’ with anyone deemed to be a problem. No-one knows if Control is a single entity or a group of people – their face and voice are always concealed. It’s only that if Control contacts you, or worse yet visits, you are likely in very serious trouble.

No-one knows what Meridiem’s long term goals are, if indeed they have any outside of ever increasing their profits. At the very least, they don’t seem to be actively trying to exterminate humanity, but they are very dangerous to cross. As one representative put it:

‘I could have you all killed of course. Or there’s a whole skyscraper full of lawyers I could have all devoted just to making your lives completely unliveable. Your choice.’