The Foundation

The secular Foundation is the part of the Consortium mainly concerned with research and development. They are known for their starkly rational and scientific – that is to say, Zenithian – view of the world. To the Firstcome, the Foundation is a bastion of non-believers and is shameful to the entire Horizon. The company is, as the name suggests, run as a foundation, selling and leasing their breakthroughs to third parties. Most production methods and patents used by Consortium companies were developed by the Foundation. The Foundation rediscovered the algorithms necessary to understand and use the portal fields, and due to this is a strong presence within the Consortium. This knowledge was at the time only in the hands of the Order and the Nazareem, and they kept it a secret. Apart from portal field and astronics research – which takes place at institutes spread all across the Horizon, like the Kander-Mall in the Rimward Reach for example – the main areas of research for the Foundation are socio-arithmetics, intelligence research, portal archaeology and bionics. The intelligence research is mostly focused on ship intelligences and is highly classified, conducted only in secret units under the supervision of the Special Branch. The bionics research on the other hand is completely open for review in an effort to challenge the Order’s monopoly on hospitals and sanatoriums.  

NEW SCIENCES

Socio-arithmetics is a field of study in which mathematical algorithms are applied to whole populations to make macro- political predictions. The Foundation claims that their methods are accurate, but their critics present the fact that they failed to predict the arrival of the Emissaries as proof of the opposite. The professors at the Foundation’s Mathematical Institute say that not every individual can be accounted for in their studies as a response to the criticism. The Bulletin has had great results when using the methods to tailor programs more to the preferences of their viewers. The fields of xeno- and portal archaeology receive huge backing from the Foundation. Several expeditions are launched each year, usually in association with the Colonial Agency, to explore ruins, remnants of Portal Builder technology or other artifacts. The biggest site is off-limits to the expeditions however – the inside of the Monolith, closed to rival factions by order of the Astûrban, the Hegemony’s secret police. The Foundation’s College of Engineers on Coriolis offers the best natural science education in the Horizon. The generous scholarships offered to promising scientists and students also add to its reputation.