Seele Council

The Seele Council is the board of directors of the NERV Foundation, and, while maintaining complete control over their own enterprises, cooperate heavily with one another in various joint projects and philanthropic ventures.

The eight people presently on the council are: Alex Xanatos, CEO Cyberdyne; Biwa Mishima, CEO Mishima; R. Joseph Fenette, CEO WilPharma; Mary Gamblin, CEO Altimit; James “Jimmy” Blake, CEO Binford; Kazuo Jenkins, CEO Ajax; Lana Izavia, CEO Heartland; and The O, CEO DeLorean.

Former council members consist of: the late Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos, CEO Ikuhara; and Harry Struve, ex CEO WilPharma, on the run and wanted by Great Justice following the Battle of Serenity Valley.

Council chairpersons: Alex Xanatos (Founding-January 2019) and Kazuo Jenkins (January 2019-Present)

The Seele Council actually started as a group of bar buddies in Port Lowell around 2010. Following a beer-laden 007 marathon at Jimmy Blake’s place (see below), they decided to expand on the idea and make an actual settlement within the volcano. This, of course, would require some serious coin. Having already complained to one another about how certain services that had been taken for granted were for the most part not available to Fen following their leaving the Earth (Australia being the obvious exception), they decided to become those services. Still, that left the requirement of start-up money. Blake came to the rescue with the “how” he built his bachelor pad and, as they say, the rest is history.

Divisions

Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, Limited

Producing human-use bionics and non-sapient robots, it originally outsourced a goodly amount of its electrical components from daneside sources and later fellow councilmember Ikuhara Electronics. Following the Battle of Serenity Valley, Cyberdyne absorbed Ikuhara and its product lines in keeping with the prior owner’s wishes.

Its bionics fall under the C-Series of products, which are increasingly customizable by the generation. The PKG have a Preferred Customer status and discount.

All robots fall under the R-Series of robots. It’s most popular is the R-10 Navi robot, based off of Vandread’s Pyoro.

WilPharma Corporation

Initially acting as a middle-man for Earth-made supplies, WilPharma began coming into its own in mid-2013 when it began producing its own hospital grade basic materials, and received a hard won victory when several daneside health organizations certified its products in 2014.

The corporation received a major shake-up following the Battle of Serenity Valley, where evidence recovered by the Roughriders revealed that not only had CEO Harry Struve been supplying the Boskonians via daneside intermediaries, but had concocted a plot with the terrorists to kill the other members of the Seele Council – of the nine members, only he did not attend SerenityCon – and allow him to subsume control of the Pavonis Arcology.

Following these events, with the corporation routed of Boskones and their supporters, control of WilPharma was seized by the Seele Council until such a time as the surviving seven members could appoint a replacement as CEO. It did so on 1 January 2014 in the form of R. Joseph Fenette (T-700, later T-808, Sapient Android).

During the investigation of WilPharma facilities following the post-SerenityCon seizure, a half-dozen unregistered laboratory chambers in NERV HQ were discovered. Inside were… things best left unsaid. The Seele Council decided to destroy all special equipment they found and not to report any of what was discovered – as everyone involved with what went on in said chambers had already been arrested and convicted, any further OGJ attention would only hurt those in WilPharma innocent of any crimes.

They did, however, recover data on biomoding that the Boskones considered to be useless, whether due to the resulting subjects being ‘too independently minded’ or just having too small of a potential market. The machines responsible for the biomoding processes were perfected by WilPharma employees eager to prove their mettle and the NERV Foundation used these in Project Refresher in a public, open offer daneside and in Fenspace to those getting on in years and otherwise down in health as an option of several ‘controlled biomods.’ The biomoding machines themselves are clearly based on what someone, likely Struve, thought a Catgirling Machine was like before ever getting access to a real one.

Options for biomoding recovered include Antarctic Press-style furries (coming from a machine that looks like Steve Urkle’s transformation booth and only works if the sound effects played during said booth’s use on the show is played) and Fantasy Short Folk. An accident during reverse engineering also created an anime-style Kitsune biomoding machine that has proven surprisingly popular.

Mishima Heavy Industries

Your friendly, neighborhood defense concern.

Like many of the original Seele Council members, Mishima started out supplying Fenspace with products it bought daneside as a middleman. Uniquely to Mishima’s case, and a source of much groaning and headaches once the rest found out about it, a goodly amount of its start-up capital went to purchasing items off of black market arms dealers – partly to keep them out of the wrong hands, mostly because Biwa, being the military otaku she is, just couldn’t help herself. Fortunately, the council members managed to keep the “Biwa Arsenal” from leaking out (they hope), though they now have a secret stockpile of weapons to make any third world dictator envious.

The company’s most famous products include its refit of a number of M8 “Greyhound” Light Armored Vehicles. Later, in cooperation with Steyr Mannlicher, it produced a market version of its Advanced Combat Rifle in 2015. In 2017, MHI finalized the purchase of the copyrights for the G11 rifle design. The following year it released the MHI M11S standard rifle and the MHI M11V for use in vacuum. Mishima has announced that a highly customizable version called the M11C with non-lethal forms of ammunition is in the testing phase and expected to be released around 2022.

This being Fenspace, and Ms. Mishima being a Japanese military otaku, one would think her company’s products would include mecha – one would be right.

Following several mobile suit scale failures, a try at arm slave scale produced an admittedly underpowered and unimpressive MHI-AS01 Mistral II for sale in July 2013. The much improved MHI-AS02 Type-96 was available by April 2015, with a slightly better MHI-AS03 Bushnell arriving in May 2017. The model available in 2022 is the MHI-AS03D.

Rumors of a large, metal container labeled “MHI-AS4X” being spotted in transit through a NERV Personnel Only tunnel in Pavonis in 2016 is denied outright (see NERV Section Five/STARS Covert Division).

Following the Ozies joining the foundation, MHI again poured resources into the development of mobile suit scale mecha. This led to its first success with the two prototype MHI-MS01 Tallgeese units in 2016. This was followed by the mass production line of the MHI-MS02 Leo two years later.

The Future: Current focus is on coming into compliance with the PEPPER treaties, and then the development of viable plasma weaponry, with a particular focus on recreating the Westinghouse M-21 Phased Pulse Plasma Rifle.

Altimit Corporation

Computers repair and customization, Internet and television service, network setup, software development, specialist programs, computer games – if it needs to speak 010010, Altimit are the folks to talk to – especially as most of the employees are AI themselves.

Starting by purchasing the rights to the DotHack series and its related material, a LINUX-based operating system, ALTIMIT OS, has been in use by the NERV Foundation since 2012 (upgraded to ALTIMIT MINE OS following the ‘Struve Conspiracy’).

Their current computer game system is the Altimit PICK (Partial-Immersion Computer Kit), which connects to a regular computer and allows the wearer to experience a number of game worlds (both designed for the system and not) in terms of real world sight and sound, but without such senses as taste, smell, and touch. The PICK is not available in countries which places a ban on handwaved products and is not compatible with Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft game consoles.

Binford Tools Company

Producing first vulcanocrete, then hand tools and basic parts, and finally power tools and heavy equipment, an unknown fen working for a building crew at Mos Eisley once famously commented that Binford could be described as “the backbone of any construction project on Mars.” Needless to say, they take great pride in this.

Two of Binford’s earliest successes – so early that the CEO was also sole employee – were also critical to the development of the Pavonis Arcology: vulcanocrete and the ultrasonic laser. Vulcanocrete is a ceramic material made up of lava rock mixed with ground-up quartz and something else (generic plaster mixed with pure handwavium). The ultrasonic laser is more the former than the latter, it is made out of old sonogram and sonar equipment and modeled after the device of the same name from The Core – unfortunately, it’s not quite as effective as its inspiration.

In a quirk that alternately annoys and amuses the company’s employees and owner to no end, no handwaved Binford product will work correctly unless it bears a 6100 Series label.

Ajax Material Supply Company

Growing out of initial obscurity in early 2013, whether it’s a product they produce themselves or import from Earth, Ajax as of 2022 is recognized as the largest chemical, wood, paper, plastic, and stone supplier outside of cislunar space.

Thus far, all attempts at making unobtanium have proven futile. One failed product of the attempt in 2014, though, produced a high-tensile strength aluminum-chromium-titanium-steel alloy that Cyberdyne and several others (NERV and otherwise) purchase under the name hyperalloy.

They initially tried to supply basic metals as well, but there was so much competition there already that they just gave up on it – the main reason that metals of various sorts are now one of Pavonis’ largest imports.

Heartland Play Systems

Handwavium and toys… there exists not the space to encompass the joy and madness conceived.

Still, it is worth saying that they produced the MMORPG “The World” together with Altimit in 2014. It won a 4 out of 5 on X-Play, losing its sole pint due to the necessity of purchasing the Altimit PICK to play it.

Note: Never ask about the Chucky dolls… just don’t…

Extra Note: Their Jumanji holographic board game is pretty fun, though.

DeLorean Motor Company

Purchased outright from Stephen Wynne, The O (never forget the ‘The’) now slaps the DMC logo on both waved and unwaved niche market products both space- and planet-side.

Products include the DMC-12 Classic, the DMC-38 Yako (based on the Yak 38 Custom jet interceptor in Evangelion; space-capable), the DMC-40 Blue Angel (shuttle based on the ‘UN 789’ plane in Evangelion), the DMC-48 AD-Police Interceptor (chiefly exported to Genaros; ‘Car 48, Where are You?’ opening music must be played before starting), and the DMC-50 Peel (based on the Peel P50; rights purchased 2016).

DMC also has a standing program to locate, purchase, refit, and resell certain other vehicles. These include: the VW Van, the VW Thing/Safari/Trekker (not vacuum-capable), the Opel Kadett, and first to sixth generation Ford F-Series trucks. They also do a more limited number of WWII/Cold War Era non-tracked military vehicles – The O has a standing order request from Biwa Mishima to purchase any WWII and Korean War Era Jeeps and similar vehicles. VW Beetle owners have been refused waving since the Noodle Incident of 2015.

Currently, DMC is trying to purchase any available “junked” diesel submarines on the cheap from former communist block countries for use in the Mars Terraforming Project. The plan is to refit them and use them to both haul water-ice asteroids to Mars as well as to monitor the ecology of the future Martian oceans. Negotiations for the rusted hulks seen in Top Gear’s Albania episode are now in progress.

The Future: DMC is working on creating a working versions of the stealth fighter from Red Storm Rising, the F-19 Ghostrider. Current projections place the DMC-19 in service around 2028 onwards.

Ikuhara Electronics

Selling waved, partly waved, and non-waved electronics and electrical components, Ikuhara was a successful business from its start to its end. Following Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos’ death at the Battle of Serenity Valley, the company was absorbed by Cyberdyne, per its late owner’s wishes.

Politics and Goals

While encouraging maintaining ties of various sorts with Earth, the Seele Council is quite open with its opinion that each settlement on Mars - and in Fenspace in its entirety - should be as self-sufficient at least in the essentials as possible. It is also of the opinion that Mars, at least once the terraforming project is completed, should be the capital of Fenspace and “the homeworld of Fen, anywhere.” Their proposal for the Fenspace National Anthem is Oingo Boingo’s “Weird Science.”

The council fully supported the goals of Operation Great Justice and later the organization Great Justice. The SV Celestial Court (TDD-2) – an unarmed but heavily armored design registered as a heavy troop transport and emergency evacuation ship – was sold at cost to Great Justice in June 2020. It and its NERV Foundation flagship predecessor – the SV Tuatha de Danaan (TDD-1), launched 2018 – are based on the carrier submarine from Full Metal Panic!.

As of 2022, the SEELE Council is debating the gradual production of additional TDD-type vessels, this time in a cargo carrier configuration, in order to progressively lessen its reliance on outside shipping companies for export and import transport. If produced, these vessels would be SV Devas (TDD-3), SV Kami (TDD-4), and SV Djinn (TDD-5).

Dramatis Personae

Alexander Xanatos

Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, Limited – CEO; NERV Commander (post-CorusCon); Seele Chairman (until January 2019)

While not admitting his former identity to the public, it is pretty much in the open that he is a former worker for the U.S. Postal Service. A fan of both the Terminator franchise and the works of Ken Akamatsu and Rumiko Takahashi (minus Inuyasha), he became the first Chairman of the Seele Council by virtue of being the slowest to decline the position. He now knows why Naruto fanfiction is rife with jokes about the kage’s mortal enemy of paperwork.

After the death of his wife Airi in the Battle of Serenity Valley, he buried himself in the reorganization of NERV Section Two, the establishment of the U.N. Mars Force, and the hunt for his former best friend, Harry Struve. This lasted for just over a year, when Biwa slipped him something and gave him an “Eight Hour Workout” to break him out of his funk.

Following the turnover of the chairmanship in 2019, he took a page from Hand Maid May and, to a degree, became the “Wandering President of Cyberdyne.” It is only to a degree as, much to his annoyance, the rest of his friends voted him into the newly created position of Commander of the NERV Foundation. About half of the time he can be found in places other than Pavonis, including daneside, performing the role of representative of the NERV Foundation.

Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos

Ikuhara Electronics – CEO (Until death in Battle of Serenity Valley)

Originally a victim of the glass ceiling within Japan’s old boys club of corporate affairs, the lifelong romantic-comedy-anime otaku journeyed into the final frontier with the express purpose of thumbing her nose at the The Man. She did just that. It is also where she met with her koi, Alex.

It was, sadly, not to last. In the Battle of Serenity Valley, she was shot while attempting to escape with her friends. She is survived by her husband of four months and the elementary school which now bears her name.

James “Jimmy” Blake

Binford Tools Company – CEO

A good old boy and a Southern gentleman is there ever was one – most of the time. A former employee of Black & Dekker, Jimmy quit the day he left Earth for Fenspace, leaving behind a scathing letter on the subject of built-in obsolescence, standards that hadn’t changed in years, the walking jokes that were quality-control supervisors, and the canine-related parentage of the company president’s mother.

Kazuo Jenkins

Ajax Material Supply Company – CEO and SEELE Chairman (later after January 2019)

Only one-quarter American, his mixed heritage status met with even more of a glass ceiling that Airi Ikuhara did. Endlessly practical as well as forward-thinking, he easily realized that the one thing that would always be in demand as a commodity was raw materials. Setting out to supply that demand led to his resounding success and seven digit net worth. His “suck it” letter to his former employers in 2020 nearly made Jimmy wet himself in his laughter.

Mary Gamblin

Altimit Corporation – CEO

A member of the Pulpers, Mary came to Fenspace for only a visit just before the American government’s condemnation of those leaving the planet using handwavium. Stuck there, she made the best of things. Following the amnesty granted at KandorCon, she decided to stay in her new niche in life and renounced her U.S. citizenship.

For the past several years she has been part of the growing online movement called the Confederation Party, which seeks to more formalize the Articles of Convention into a “United Nations of the Fenspace Convention” with a U.N. Parliamentary Assembly to present a more unified front to those daneside – referred to as the “United Nations of Earth” – while still maintaining individual sovereignty.

The O

DeLorean Motor Company – CEO

The O once proudly declared that his wardrobe “consists of only the very best of the Fifties to the Eighties in American and British fashion.” Usually considered a bit of a goof, The O nevertheless has a good head for business and keen eye for vehicles. After taking a loan from Kazuo to help purchase DeLorean, he quickly paid him back following the production of the waved and unwaved versions of an updated DMC-12 Classic to daneside and Fenspace markets.

Lana Izavia

Heartland Play Systems – CEO

Lana took her name and appearance from a military policewoman in Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross who became Nova Satori in its Carl Macek adaptation. She didn’t really have too much of a choice in the appearance part, actually. Attending a cosplay party at Marsbase Sara in early 2010, she went as the first police figure she could think of as her parents were both police detectives. It is there she made the all-too-common mistake of trying out the green food at the buffet table. On the plus side, she would never have to dye her hair from the drab brown she’d always disliked again as her blue wig was now her real hair. On the minus side, she now had the Robotech version of her costume choice yammering away in her head (and, as they later found out, able to take over when either asleep or unconscious).

Taking the name of her new headmate’s counterpart, the now Lana decided to improve the children of Fenspace’s lives by making pre-waved and non-waved toys for their enjoyment. She also, apart from this, used both her knowledge from growing up with two officers of the law as well as the more hardcore experience of the Global Military Police colonel in her head to help establish the Pavonis Arcology Police Department.

Biwa Mishima

Mishima Heavy Industries – CEO

It would surprise many that this rather chesty Yamato Nadeshiko is, in fact, not originally Japanese – or even Asian for that matter. It would surprise them even more to find out she was not always a she. Biwa is one of the lucky few who actually got exactly what she wanted out of a biomod. Not that anyone ever will find out, of course. She ain’t tellin’ nobody.

A true Japanophile, Biwa speaks Nihongo like native of Tokyo. She is also notoriously promiscuous and a tease – she keeps in regular contact with a number of friends among the Heinleinians, and flirts constantly. Biwa is also a military otaku, with a few quirks. She has a complete disdain for the M16, Beretta 92, Glock pistol, and Kalashnikov and anything related to them, while adoring the M1911 and Desert Eagle and their variants. Appreciates revolvers, but only for their history – sees modern ones as their manufacturers playing up on nostalgia over effectiveness.

Harry Struve

WilPharma Corporation – CEO (until post-Battle of Serenity Valley); Boskonian

A man who the other council members only thought they knew. Harry Struve secretly shared biomod research with and supplied materials to Boskonian slavers through a small chain of daneside intermediaries. Towards the end of the Boskone War, however, he became too greedy. Learning through his contacts of an upcoming attack on SerenityCon, he convinced the other members of the Seele Council to go to the convention and enjoy themselves while he “held down the fort while carrying out some time-critical research.” In the aftermath of the Battle of Serenity Valley, however, the Roughriders came across irrefutable evidence of Struve soliciting a group of the Boskonians to directly target the other Seele members so that he could assume control over the Pavonis Arcology.

When Marsden presented the evidence to the seven Seele members grieving over the death of Airi Ikuhara-Xanatos, the furious survivors led a charge of STARS Security Division guards and an OGJ team to capture the traitor. What they found waiting for them following a minor firefight with several reprogrammed T-110s, however, was not Harry Struve. Not anymore, at least. What they found was Struve’s reclining body in his private lab/study, grinning and giving the finger to the people entering the room. A smell of burning metal and plastics filled the air as the machine to which the body’s head was attached Cerebro-style smoldered. After an investigation, it was determined that Struve had performed a destructive read on himself and used Pavonis’ Interwave node to transfer his consciousness to somewhere on Deimos. After that, the trail went cold.

Harry Struve, regardless of present body/mind container, is now wanted by Great Justice, Space Patrol, and the Pavonis Arcology Police Department for the crimes of one count of murder, eight counts of solicitation to commit murder, and multiple counts of slave trafficking, forced biomoding, and assault with deadly robots – with more possible to come out at a trial.

R. Joseph Fenette

WilPharma Corporation – CEO (As of 1 January 2014)

A businessman ‘victim’ of the Black Rebellion, he managed to push through his culture shock after ‘revival’ for his daughter’s sake and agreed to take up the reins of WilPharma and join the Seele Council.

R. Delwin Jarvis

Seele Council – Seele Council Treasurer – Former Butler of Anthony Stark; Assistant to the Avengers

The first ever ‘revival’ of the Lazarus Batch, the gentleman from England woke Alex up the morning following his laptop’s waving with screams of terror as the AI ‘woke up’ with his ‘last memories’ of being eaten by his zombified friends. Since then, he has become an invaluable companion to the members of the Seele Council and manages their joint funds with the long earned experience of guiding the wealthy away from bad decisions.