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[orange]

Zag and I were discussing Caldari background and he brought up that Lai Dai (along with NoH) was not one of the six to exist at the founding of the State.

He suggested that Lai Dai is a result of KK spinning-off an R&D corp that grew to expand their power within the CEP.

I am going to suggest that instead they are the amalgamation of surviving hidden research divisions of some of the some of corporations that did not survive the Tea Maker Ceremony.   In essence, the hidden research bases of a few companies banded together in the wake of the Morning of Reason and formed their own company.

Thoughts?

If people like the idea, I might write up a mini-chron/text to put up on evelopedia's discussion area.

[Lyn Farel]

I quite like the idea but what of both ideas at the same time ? It can perfectly be old KK employees/directors that survived the Tea Maker ceremony.

Also, why only research divisions ? It could be research, production, legality, HR, direction, etc...

[Vieve]

Zag and I were discussing Caldari background and he brought up that Lai Dai (along with NoH) was not one of the six to exist at the founding of the State.

He suggested that Lai Dai is a result of KK spinning-off an R&D corp that grew to expand their power within the CEP.

I am going to suggest that instead they are the amalgamation of surviving hidden research divisions of some of the some of corporations that did not survive the Tea Maker Ceremony.   In essence, the hidden research bases of a few companies banded together in the wake of the Morning of Reason and formed their own company.

Thoughts?

If people like the idea, I might write up a mini-chron/text to put up on evelopedia's discussion area.

One of the things that has always bugged me about the existing PF around the first Caldari-Gallente War is that it mainly focuses on the exodus from Caldari Prime and doesn't talk much at all about how the State formed.  Sure, the "secret colonies" are mentioned, but not how many, or where they were all located (though Lonetrek is a safe bet).  Presumably the Federation knew about any colonies between Luminaire and Saisio, since first contact with the Achura happened prior to the war).


I've wondered what happened to any small corporations that were located in the existing Federation colonies that became part of the State.  Were they dismantled?  Did they dismantle themselves, with pro-Federation elements fleeing the State, and pro-State elements remaining?  Were all of these pro-State elements subsumed into the megacorps -- or did they possibly find an amalgamation like the one you described a more attractive prospect?


In similar vein, what happened to small pro-Caldari corporations who decided to flee to the State from other Federation colonies?  Were they welcomed into one or more of the megacorps, or were they marginalized by the survivors of Caldari Prime?<sup>1


1</sup>I think you already know what I believe might answer this question.  Consider it a hypothetical one.  Though I do believe some of the refugees might have found a nascent Lai Dai attractive.  And there's nothing saying that the research division who split from KK did so wholly amicably!

[orange]

So, to outline the founding:

Tea Maker Ceremony occurs, leaving numerous assets, whole divisions of several corporations without top level leadership.

These corporations have entire divisions from manufacturing to human resources.  In some cases, these divisions are in space firmly controlled by the Gallente, like Verge Vendor.  However, several of the headless corporations had rather extensive research outpost as part of the secret colonies.

KK claims an extensive number of these assets, such that in aggregate they overshadow their own research division.   A board meeting is held in which it is decided that instead of retaining such a massive research division for itself, KK will retain the choicest outpost and personnel and provide these outposts with Legal, HR, Production, etc divisions from among its other Morning of Reasoning acquisitions.

For nearly a decade, the Lai Dai (Never Forget) company is nominally controlled by KK.  However during that time the several of the outpost leaders, chiefly senior scientist and engineers, were producing very profitable products in support of the war effort.  In the war economy, the Caldari corporations largely bartered for goods and the high-tech products coming out of the Lai Dai outpost were allowing the company to bring in significant quantities of useful war material it did not have an immediate use for.  This lead to the outpost leaders selling the excess material to the parent KK in exchange for shares and more control over their actions.  By the Battle of Iyen-Oursta, Lai Dai was mostly independent of KK and was a major supplier of high-tech components for the on-going war effort.

As Lai Dai gained its independence, the KK established board members were slowly phased out in favor of lead scientist and engineers from within the corporation.  This set the initial tone for Lai Dai's continued focus on high-tech fields.

Good direction or no?   I am thinking it could be fun to explore Lai Dai as having to be careful about being "responsible" scientist and engineers.  It also provides an opportunity to explore the idea of the rise of "soft-sciences" within the company and how Lai Dai's modern CFOs come out of their Economic Research Division and the like.

[Gesakaarin]

I've just always had this feeling that Lai Dai and Nugoeihuvei were the product of the same sort of tit-for-tat politicking between KK and SuVee that lead to the formation of Home Guard and the Peace and Order Unit. One or the other might have had the idea to separate some of their business to form a new entity with the express intent of upsetting the balance of power on the CEP in their favour (Getting one extra CEO on the Panel that is on their side). Once the other side realized what was being attempted they quickly followed suite by doing much the same in order to preserve the status quo.

Or Lai Dai/NOH might have existed as corporations in the State just below Megacorp. status (and thus not CEP members) and were then nominated to the CEP by SuVee/KK with the intent of one side or the other wanting more influence on the Panel.

One of the things that has always bugged me about the existing PF around the first Caldari-Gallente War is that it mainly focuses on the exodus from Caldari Prime and doesn't talk much at all about how the State formed.  Sure, the "secret colonies" are mentioned, but not how many, or where they were all located (though Lonetrek is a safe bet).  Presumably the Federation knew about any colonies between Luminaire and Saisio, since first contact with the Achura happened prior to the war).


I've wondered what happened to any small corporations that were located in the existing Federation colonies that became part of the State.  Were they dismantled?  Did they dismantle themselves, with pro-Federation elements fleeing the State, and pro-State elements remaining?  Were all of these pro-State elements subsumed into the megacorps -- or did they possibly find an amalgamation like the one you described a more attractive prospect?

I think the Tea Maker ceremony strongly implied to Caldari corporate leaders by the seceding State Megacorps. "You're either with us or against us." The Secession wasn't a spur of the moment decision and it was something that had been planned for years if not decades, and companies that were believed to be unreliable to the cause would have been targeted for hostile takeovers prior to the secession. There probably would have been very strong pressure - culturally and economically -  applied to leading shareholding families to sell or merge their companies into the seceding Megas or become branded as traitors of the people etc.

I've written the Gessenier and Gesakaarin as the different branches of a familial schism that occured as a direct result of the Tea Maker ceremony and Caldari families deciding where their interests lied. The same might have occurred elsewhere at the time.

Although I do wonder at times if the Tea Maker ceremony was just part of a larger congress among Caldari leaders and if they did in fact create some sort of document or constitution outlining the tenets of the nascent Caldari State. Tenets the Megas would have tried to subvert or ignore in recent history but which Heth and the Provists are attempting to reinforce.

[Mithfindel]

Now, I don't think I can directly point at a PF reference, but my (often faulty) memory would seem to indicate that Nugoeihuvi was originally an alliance of smaller corporations which noticed that any of the seceded corporations did not have a strong presence in the media industry and decided to grab the economic niche.

Can't remember anything of Lai Dai. Not sure if (Herko's/Raim's?) etymology (lai "forget" and dai "do not") is canon, but if it is, it would indeed suggest that Lai Dai is a post-secession or rebranded corporation. Another possible "origin story" for Lai Dai might be that of a division of a successful megacorporation losing its business niche due to the secession and the following war and then restructuring around a successful division. I am for some reason thinking about a specific Finnish pulp mill/rubber galosh factory/cable factory conglomerate that has made, amongst other things (freely quoting Wikipedia) "paper products, car and bicycle tires, footwear (including rubber boots), communications cables, televisions and other consumer electronics, personal computers, electricity generation machinery, robotics, capacitors, military communications, gas masks, plastics, aluminium and chemicals". (This "other consumer electronics" includes mobile phones.)