Finn Knottman

 

Finn Knottman was a major political and media player in the end of the 26th century

 

Early Life

Finn grew up a chatty and colourful young man. For a time, he had vague thoughts of going into business but after being evacuated to Tyr with his family during the 2nd Zzenddi War, Finn attended college there, studying journalism, which he discovered to be his true calling.

Thanks to his father's connections, he got the chance to intern with both Connect AC and with Terra Firma. Bolstered by those experiences, Finn became a restless student and a somewhat rebellious presence on campus, preferring to do actual journalism work to the stuffy studying.

Marriage

Finn Knottman met August Solarin III through his father, and the two hit it off immediately. The two young men's relationship evolved over five long years, but August remained uncertain about the prospect of marriage. In 2585, they tied the knot in a ceremony in Dhaka City. Attending the wedding were a number of major families from across the Republic including Princess Annastacia Valane of Mars, Lord Aurelian Sondeheim of Tyr and Reiner Grumman . Former Governor Nurih Safin also attended the wedding.

In 2590 they had two sons, Diwan and Yassine , grown in an artificial womb. Yassine pursued a career in the Diplomatic Corps and Diwan followed his father's footsteps in the navy.

 

Media Career

Documentary Director

Finn began his career as a freelance director, wandering the Republic in search of stories to follow. Some of his major projects were:

• "Ref 77-1" - 2580 - His first massive success, is a documentary following Lord Aurelian Sondeheim's charitable tour of the Republic after the 2nd Zzenddi War. An intimiate and emotional film, it portrayed a hero of the Republic in a very candid and vulnerable light. It won the Golden-Bear in the New Hamburg Film Festival in 2585
• "Legacy of Greed" - 2585 - A fiercely critical documentary about the "malign influence of the Hansa on the Republic" as well as an expose on the inability of the Republic and its political class to take on political corruption.
• "Peace River" - 2590 - A gritty look at the people working in the field to respond to the outbreak of the Snow Plague. Finn himself had a brush with the disease while in the field during the making of the film.
• "The Greater Fool" - 2594 - a lavish documentary telling the "life and times" story of former President Henderson Loke (GUR). The sprawling film showed footage of Loke from his younger years all the way to previously unseen footage of his time leading the war coalition.
• "On a Distant Shore" - 2599 - The feature length documentary was filmed over a five year period chronicling the founding of colony world First Light.
• "Can A House Divided Stand?" - 2619 - a feature length documentary about the Knottman family and how they coexist in spite of their spirited political disagreements.

 

Complete Picture

In 2590, Finn Knottman founded Complete Picture, a press outfit with the resources to conduct more ambitious investigations and the reach to broadcast them accross Terran Space. The ambition of the organisation was to remain apolitical in its reporting. The initial capital was provided by House Knottman but also benefitted from a merger with Junior Staffers, another small investigative journalism outfit owned by his husband.

 

Popular media

Finn took part in the GFC celebrity championship, alongside Baron Gaius Corvo and many other celebrities accross the Republic. Following on from that, he had a major role in Empyreal Entertainment's Hypernova (2615).

Politics

Gurava

In 2595, Finn joined the Gurava party. Turning down the offer to be party chair, he instead became a major behind the scenes figure, raising capital and working towards ensuring the party's voice was heard accross the Republic. He backed Payden Hickock for the Gurava nomination in the leadup to the 2600 election, who proved to be a surprisingly popular nominee.

Privately, he was often frustrated with Gurava's radicalism and unwillingness to compromise.

 

Ambassador to the Gannid

In 2600, with the election of Governor Walt Schilling (SDP), Finn Knottman was chosen to be Ambassador to the Gannid Commowealth. Using connections formed over a decade of lobbying and collaboration with the Gannid, he immediately negotiated a Mutual Defence Pact between the Commonwealth and the Republic, which allowed the Gannid fleet to join the Republic fleet quickly. He placed the Knottman estate under the charge of his brother Dr Cevin Knottman.

He would maintain close friendships and links in the Gannid Commonwealth, and frequently visited long after the end of his ambassadorship.
 

SDP

Finn played a part in convincing the Gurava and SDP leadership to agree to a merger of the two progressive parties. Years after the merge, his sister Julianna told the press that the decision felt like he'd "finally finished his teenage rebellion". Finn himself admitted that the merger going through was a relief and he felt the SDP had "come a long way since its fervent federalism of the 2590 era", which he blamed for his decision to join Gurava instead of the SDP.

He contributed heavily to the party warchest in the leadup to the 2620 Republic Election and during the party convention he worked hard to secure the backing of important party leaders for Julianna's nomination. He also successfully campaigned for his friend Payden Hickock on St Lawrence, with his seat under siege by Charis Moreland.

In spite of Julianna's defeat, Finn managed to settle into a role in the SDP's leadership, seen as the leader of the now massive progressive wing. He was a major supporter of the Healthcare Federal Provision proposed by the Wren Dando administration in 2625.

 

New Berlin

As the 2630 Republic Election loomed, Finn lined up support behind Senator Connor Williams of Fort Pitcairn. The convention looked fairly sown up in his favour, but dissent spread among the ranks and the party leadership worked hard to make sure Williams got the exepected nomination. Distracted, the party leadership did not notice that Finn had managed to oust Denzil Goetze, scion of the Goetze family, from his position as candidate for the Governorship of New Berlin. Running in his stead, Finn led a guerilla, grassroots campaign, while facing threats of arrest from the NGR government and repeated attacks from his opponents. Just as his campaign was beginning to bleed out under the repeated assaults, the election was cancelled by the NGR and Finn immediately joined the popular protest movements.
  When it became clear his life was in danger, he went to ground and ran pirate broadcasts from various hiding places to encourage the resistance accross the planet. He never called for violence and was distraught to see the planet descend into armed civil war. During this time, it turned out that before leaving, Finn had left instructions and ringfenced a pot of two billion dollars to be spent on making sure the Republic Federal Healthcare Service would be completed. It finally was in 2635, in no small part to the Knottman donations.
 

Death

Finn suffered a stroke in hiding in 2635, from which he was in recovery when he suffered a second stroke and passed. In the weeks that followed, his husband August passed away after a short illness. They were buried together on Earth. in Athens, a city Finn always returned to for its vibrant cultural scene. Many of the Republic's most prominent families were in attendance, with the Valanes, Sondeheims, van Haeftens, Avander-Slades and Rishis all turning up to see him off. With Diwan unable to take leave from the navy, Yassine gave a moving eulogy at their funeral.  

"When Dad left me his will and disappeared under my nose to fly off to New Berlin, I didn’t understand. What could drive him to leave everything behind.   The truth is, I don’t think he ever felt loved. He loved much in return, his husband August, Diwan and I, his siblings, his friends, too many to count, the people at Complete Picture, Forge, the parties … But I think there was a hole somewhere in there, that drove him to give too much, all the time. If Dad ever did anything to help you, it was often generous to the point of suspicion, too personal, too weird. He hung on to relationships most people left in the past for a shred of love or intimacy. Calling it selflessness would be a lie, he was constantly screaming for attention, screaming against the infinity of space to be noticed, maybe if he made himself as big and bright as a star, the hole would finally be filled?   Paradoxically I don’t think he expected he’d ever die. His last act before he left, alongside leaving me his will, were instructions to donate enough money to finish building the full Federal Healthcare Provision. But in exchange, he asked that a wing be named after aunt Julianna. So I think he really expected to make it back from New Berlin, otherwise he’d have asked to name it after him. Anyway, whatever the reasons, he fought his entire life for a better future. I think I can say he lived a full life and left the world better than when he was born, and I hope I can live up to that.   I’m just sad he’ll never meet his grandchildren. He would have had so many stories to tell them. "