Technocrat of Venus

"The Martians are at war by choice, fighting because they're not elegant enough to know anything else. We're at war because of mistakes in Earth's past, and because the Waxies cannot be reasoned with or controlled. Even so, ours is a planet of love and health, not war. Please, bring nothing but peace, we are weary of fighting, but hardly incapable."   ~Allessa Tevanek, Technocrat of Venus  

Technocrat

In the PSC, a Technocrat is the nominal head of a political division. There are Technocrats in charge of social clubs, neighborhoods, cities, regions, specific projects, etc. A Technocrat is appointed either by a council or a higher Technocrat, nominally based on merit and expertise.  

Expert on Venus

The Technocrat of Venus is expected to have a full knowledge of the history, culture, and needs of Venusians. This means a background in pharmaceuticals is a bonus as well as some form of military or combat experience. As for character, the ToV is expected to be empathetic but stern, and able to handle farmers, urbanites, and corporates with equal deftness.  

War and Peace

Life on Venus is a contradiction. There is perpetual war. The tunnels, abandoned mines, natural caves, even the undercities and abandoned infrastructure are all home to 'boils' of Waxies. These mutants are savage, cannibalistic, and sometimes worse. Attempts have been made to wipe them out, but there always seems to be more, with their numbers bolstered by self-exiles who succumbed to the Curse of Venus. Most years, these clashes are small skirmishes between farming communities or street gangs and individual boils, but sometimes a true swarm will erupt and senseless, gory violence erupts around the globe. For this, the ToV has to be prepared for total war.   In contrast, most of the time on most of Venus is more than peaceful. People regulate their moods and life-experience the old fashioned way; chemically. There are some MRCR enthusiasts on Venus, but most prefer to choose their moods with a variety of Chems and Stims and Nanites. They generally live pleasure-seeking, hedonistic lifestyles, and value peace and love. The ToV, to maintain their place at the head of this society, has to respect these preferences and know how to manage an economy where the workers spend most of their free time on psychedelic trips or in chemically induced stupors.   The economy of Venus is dominated by Starlight Pharmaceuticals, and the Technocrat is expected to have some expertise running a medical-recreational pharmaceutical based economy balanced with the needs of the citizens.  

Current ToV

The current Technocrat of Venus is Allessa Tevanek, a native citizen of Venus from a small homestead on the small continent of Themis. Her family raised Calendula Veridianis, the engineered nutritional crops with signature green flowers that form the key ingredient of G-Rats. When she was a teenager, her family was beset by Waxies, and a protracted three week siege of her family farmhouse saw her along with her siblings and cousins, digging trenches and gunning down wave after wave of Waxies until Starlight Pharmaceuticals noticed a missing shipment and sent commandoes to check on them.   She went offworld to the University of Saturn, and then served a stint in the Solar Defense Fleet as a Yeomen and eventually a captain of a Corvette. She ended her service with honors and went home to manage a farm, before being tapped as the Technocrat of Aphrodite One, and then the Technocrat of Venus. She has served in that position since 471.   She is immediately recognizable as a "Daughter of Venus," a quirk of her upbringing (a combination of a diet of engineered food and her genetics) has resulted in her not only sporting the smooth, tanned skin of a Venusian and the platinum hair sported by her people, but also a stature of more than eight feet, which she further accentuates by almost always wearing heeled boots. She is revered on Venus, forming something of a cult of personality around herself that combines with well earned loyalty that elevates her to a near-mythic status.