East Indus Company / PRU

A brief history of the East Indus Company:

Founding/Rise Early Hist 2590s- mid 2600s:

Founded in 2596 by a group of wealthy merchants based in London the East Indus Company sought to capitalize on the wave of human Expansion which occurred after Messer proclaims himself Imperator. Based on rumours of a great wealth of exotic resources to be found in the vicinity of the constellation Indus it was decided to launch an expedition to survey the eastern region in order to evaluate the possibility of commercial development. Two years later in 2598 the first expedition under the command of Nigel Beverdsly the third, Viscount of Dunny on the Wold, set out with three vessels to explore and lay claim to the riches of the East Indus systems. Born in 2556 into a family with a strong naval tradition Nigel Beverdsly was preordained to be an officer in the UEE Navy. During his studies at the prestigious British Naval Academy however it soon became apparent that the young Nigel was hopelessly incompetent in nearly all academic and naval pursuits with the exception of singing rude songs very loudly and making up yarns about space travel. Despite this Nigel Beverdsly managed, largely due to his family connections, to graduate 499th out of a class of 500 and was assigned to a UEE vessel as a Midshipman. A rather disastrous fourteen year career in the UEE Navy followed, in which he was passed up for promotion a record setting 53 times and only just managed to reach the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade with a substantial bribe to a sympathetic family friend. Viscount Nigel Beverdsly was cashiered from the service in 2588 after he was found wandering around the naval yard at Terra roaring drunk and wearing nothing but the stolen undergarments of the daughter of Rear-Admiral Horus Nielsen. After spending several years gambling away his family fortune Viscount Beverdsly began to style himself as an explorer, telling outlandish stories of his adventures in the edges of explored space at upper class social functions and in whatever pub he happened to stumble into. During a London ball in 2597 Viscount Beverdsly met Sir. Kevin Darling, a founding member of the East Indus Company who was tasked with assembling a crew for the expedition. Seeing his chance to finally gain glory, Beverdsly regaled Darling with his invented exploits. Through a combination of good storytelling, the liberal application of whisky and several rather dirty songs including one about a little Goblin, Darling hired him on the spot. The following year on June 7th Commodore Beverdsly aboard his flagship the EICS Colthurst set sail for Indus. On August 30th the Expedition was detected leaving UEE Space in the direction of Indus by a small UEE Outpost on the outer edge of the empire. This was the last time anyone ever saw or heard from the expedition ever again.

After 11 months without hearing a word from the expedition, many began to speculate that it may have gotten lost or been beset by some misfortune. On January 11th 2600 the expedition was officially declared lost in space with no survivors. this was a major blow for the members of the EIC who had invested much money and hope in the success of the expedition. Despite the heavy financial loss, however, the members of the EIC were not disheartened and raised enough capital to fund a second expedition. This time the entire board of directors reviewed potential candidates to lead the expedition and they eventually chose the heroic, rugged, and damn sexy Lord Flashheart as the leader of the second expedition. On March 16th 2603 Lord Flashheart aboard the EICS Woofwoof departed from Earth. After several months of relatively uneventful space travel the expedition arrived in the region of Indus which preliminary observations from UEE space had shown as most promising.

Flashheart’s exploration fleet of four vessels equipped with powerful surveying equipment began to search for potential candidates for colonization or exploitation and, as such, it quickly became apparent that the rumours which had brought the EIC together were false. Of the six star systems surveyed by the EIC expedition only two had planets, none of which had any form of life or natural resources worth exploiting. What should have been a system of four planets rich in minerals and teeming with exotic biological resources turned out to be little more than a couple barren rocks without any mineral wealth. Discouraged but not defeated and unwilling to return home empty handed the daring Lord Flashheart turned his ships towards Banu Space. Once there he engaged in a daring series of pirate raids against the Banu trade routes. With his holds full of plundered cargo and some captured alien tech Flashheart set sail for UEE Space. With the money gained from selling the stolen goods, the EIC was able to make enough on the expedition to pay off the creditors and make a tiny profit. Still reeling from the financial disaster of the loss of the first expedition and the failure of the second, the company was unwilling to take any more risks on expeditions. Instead, seeing the profits that could be made from trade with the Banu, the EIC set up a trade network with several Banu star systems while being careful to avoid the areas which Lord Flashheart had plundered. It was not until 2633 that the company again attempted to establish a colony of their own. This time the EIC used its connections with the Banu and the UEE observatory, allowing the third expedition to succeed where the others had failed. Thus the East Indus Company was finally able to establish the long sought after monopoly over a resource rich system.

The colonies of Bath and Wells soon flourished as several large deposits of the Purest Green were discovered. This brought great wealth to the EIC and the colonists. The success of the EIC in establishing and managing a rich colony quickly drew the attention of the Imperial government which was always eager to capitalise on private expansion initiatives. In 2638 the Imperial government issued a charter to the EIC allowing it to colonize a large portion of untouched UEE Space. Under the charter the EIC was granted the authority to colonize and govern star systems for the UEE. This imperial charter gave the EIC unprecedented freedom as it virtually ruled an interstellar kingdom within the Empire.

Height of Power/ Fall MId HIST 2640s-2790s

In the following century the EIC launched a series of successful expeditions and founded many new colonies. As colonies flourished the EIC began to accumulate vast amounts of wealth through levying taxes from their colonists and through the vast trade network they established between the UEE and the Banu. What had started as a bid by a small group of minor nobles and moderately wealthy merchants to create a colony had grown into a small empire of commerce within the UEE. With this drastic increase in wealth and power many of the top members of the EIC became prominent figures of the highest branches of UEE Society. The Annual EIC Governors Ball on Earth became the social event of the year for the richest and most prominent of Earth society. Many members used their wealth to become patrons of the arts, prompting a golden age for what would later be known as the Neoclassical Gothic style which dominated sections of the UEE for the rest of the 28th and the early 29th century. The prominence of the EIC allowed many of the founding families to branch out and become powerful politicians.
Lord Melchett, a high ranking member even became an advisor and confidant of Emperor Insane and Corrupt the third before his death in TBA. By the turn of the 28th century 2700) the EIC had reached the height of its power owning several star systems with billions of people living and working for the company.

As the cracks begin to form in the UEE, the EIC began to decline as overall investment slowed. The threat of war, never good for business, saw the EIC slowly begin to have solvency issues beginning in the 2760’s. Despite this, the unrest that permeated the UEE was able to be largely directed towards the vanduul whose raids were becoming more and more of a problem. The company was, however, unable to avoid being caught up in the scandal surrounding the massacre of Garron II. When evidence surfaced linking the terraforming firm that butchered a developing sentient race while terraforming Garron II to the Imperial family, a great amount of scrutiny was placed on any company with ties to the Imp family including the EIC. While the EIC had never terraformed on a planet with sentient life, rivals of the company began to spread rumors of such things occurring, and soon these allegations were under investigation by the senate. While the investigation uncovered no concrete evidence to substantiate these claims, the damage to the EIC and its reputation had already been done: investors began to pull out, fearing that their assets would be seized, and what followed was the utter collapse of the EIC. The charter, as it had been, was lost following the revolution and the EIC was in a freefall. The damage was eventually mitigated, however, when Edmund Blackadder, a rising star within the company, executed a series of cunning plans. This allowed the EIC to survive, albeit with a much reduced capacity for business, as Blackadder was forced to liquidate the majority of the company’s assets. In 2813, the company was all but completely restructured by Blackadder in what is considered the second founding of the company. Thus, while the EIC is technically one of the older corporations within the UEE, its modern incarnation really dates to Blackadder’s restructuring of the company, and as such, the company’s name carries very little of the significance it once had two hundred years ago.

Throughout the 2800’s, the company was slowly rebuilt, returning to its roots as a minor trading company. Since its restructuring, the the EIC has gained a reputation as a reliable, if still small, company which has allowed it to turn a modest profit. By the 2910s, though a shadow of its former self, the EIC is growing in strength.