Aslan Corporations in T5SS Data

Captain card from the Traveller Customizable Card Game.

Aslan - Traveller Alien Module One (1984) introduced a special world generation sequence for Aslan worlds. While Population is generated just as with Human worlds using 2D - 2, Government is generated with a special table producing Aslan-specific Government codes to provide “a clearcut idea of the distribution of power in an Aslan society” (34).

Aslan Government code G indicates a “Small station or facility. Either operated by an offworld clan or controlled by a company (the only instance where a world is controlled by anything but a clan); population must be 3-” (25). Roughly 27.77% of Aslan worlds will have a Population of 3-, and half of those worlds will have Government G, meaning 13.89% of all Aslan worlds are small stations or facilities.

As described in my previous post on Governments and Allegiances in the Hierate, Traveller⁵ translated the old Aslan government codes into a combination of standardized government and expanded Allegiance codes—for example, an Aslan split-control world (Government Code H) would usually be converted to a Government 7 (Balkanized) world with an AsSc (Split Clan) allegiance. This change neatly captures the same amount of information without requiring a whole host of alien-specific government codes and is reflected in the T5SS data hosted on Traveller Map.

The one exception concerns Government Type G. While the T5SS originally used an “AsSf” allegiance code for Small Facility, this code ended up getting dropped. This is fine for small facilities “operated by an offworld clan” but loses facilities controlled by a company, “the only instance where a world is controlled by anything but a clan,” which I consider a very interesting exception.

Aslan corporations, it should be recalled, are uniquely female institutions. While some males may occupy titular leadership positions, females manage and direct corporations. After all, most males are supposedly unable to even understand or handle money. (C. J. Cherryh’s excellent Chanur novels provide some insight into how such a society might plausibly work.) In Traveller, Aslan corporations generally fit into one of three different structures: 

1. Independent companies owned by an unmarried female or a group of unmarried females unaffiliated with a specific clan (for example, Reastirlao),
2. Affiliated companies owned by unmarried females associated with a single clan (for example, Tlasayerlahel “Interstellar Merchants”), and
3. Jointly Controlled companies owned by unmarried females associated with several different clans (for example, Khu Su’ikh “Five Shields”).

As I’ve been working on the Clans of the Aslan manuscript I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of corporations in Aslan society, and in particular the unique role an Independent company would play. For those females with no interest in or prospects for marriage, and a desire to escape the confines of clan life, such an institution would likely represent an exciting and liberating opportunity found almost nowhere else in Hierate society. Why stay on the family manor bowing and scraping for your idiot brother when you could take to the stars and run your own sector division?

So where are all the corporate-controlled worlds on Traveller Map? And how could one encode such worlds in the Traveller⁵ sector data format? First, keep in mind that Aslan corporate worlds would generally be limited to Population codes 0,1, 2, or 3. At one time I proposed implementing a new “AsCp” code for “Aslan Hierate, Corporate Control” worlds but upon further reflection I think we can describe all three types of corporations using creative combinations of Government 1 and existing Allegiance codes.

One could indicate or deduce the presence of an Affiliated Aslan company by the combination of Government Code 1 (Corporate-controlled) and the AsMw (multi-world), AsVc (vassal clan), AsTX (Tlaukhu clan), or AsTv (Tlaukhu vassal) allegiance codes, thus showing a corporation associated with a single clan. For example, an Allegiance of AsT0 and Government 1 would suggest a world controlled by an Yerlyaruiwo bloc company, which might mean the megacorporation Tlasayerlahel.

One could likewise indicate a Jointly Controlled company by combining Government Code 1 with the AsSc (split clan) Allegiance.

But how about a truly Independent company? Although it’s a little but of a stretch, we could combine Government Code 1 with the AsXX (unknown) allegiance, particularly if we expand the definition of the AsXX code to also include “unclaimed by any clan.” It’s not a particularly elegant solution, admittedly, but I really like the notion of independent Aslan companies controlling whole worlds, and possibly even entering into conflicts with neighboring clans. There’s some real story potential there.

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