Persephone Industries, commonly known simply as Persephone, is a monolithic corporate conglomerate of seemingly disparate enterprises that all share a singular purpose: the terraforming of planets. A millennia-old multinational and interstellar corporation, Persephone is headquartered on Delta Pavonis in the Sol Republic sector of the Intersystem Alliance (IA), with offices and operations in nearly every other star nation. It is the largest terraforming company in the galaxy, the sixth largest of all human companies by market capitalization, with the eighth highest revenue earnings in 3420. It ranked number 12 on the Prosper Galactic 1000 (PGM) list of largest public companies. Persephone is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the terraforming industry including atmospheric composition and density, marinescaping and oceanics, biosphere management, agronomy and entomology, landshaping, and tectonic management.
In Greek mythology, Persephone (/pərˈsɛfəni/), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter and is the queen of the underworld. The myth of her abduction represents her function as the personification of vegetation, which shoots forth in spring and withdraws into the earth after harvest; hence, she is also associated with spring as well as the fertility of vegetation. In 2748, Demeter Enterprises became Persephone Industries.
Table of Contents
History
With the advent of interstellar travel, humanity was finally able to sail the infinite black ocean of space and colonize new worlds. While some of the worlds were miraculously Earth-like, most fell short of the Terran ideal. The 2300s saw the start up of a number of corporations offering limited terraforming services, in order to improve the colonies. Demeter Engineering Labs (DEL) of Delta Pavonis was among those companies, providing assistance with agronomy and soil compositions, increasing agricultural yields and enhancing the biospheres surrounding colonial settlements. Competition for terraforming services was initially quite fierce; after less than a century, DEL had acquired or created subsidiaries in a broad spectrum of areas including landshaping and marinescaping, and had also embarked upon an aggressive campaign to headhunt and recruit all the best minds of competing companies. In 2442, the company became Demeter Enterprises, a well-known interstellar corporation in the Sol Sector and terraformer of many IA worlds.
It wasn't until after the Reunion fleets began reconnecting Old Terra with her colonies that the terraforming industry truly flourished. In 2748, Demeter Enterprises became Persephone Industries and over the next centuries focused on improving terraforming techniques. A number of those experimental advances proved flawed and led to some malformation events on at least eleven worlds. Only one, Arawn - a small terrestrial world to the galactic southeast of the Star Kingdom of Persica, failed to recover from its malformation event.
On the hundreds of other worlds that Persephone has terraformed, quality of life and land have been vastly improved. The cost of services can be monstrous, but the benefits have convinced nearly every star nation in the human galaxy of their incalculable value. As of 3420, Perspehone Industries has been in continuous operation for 1063 years, with many hundreds of successfully terraformed worlds to its credit.
Products
CARDEA-ZEPHYRUS ATMOSPHERIC REORGANIZER
The Cardea-Zephyrus Atmospheric Reorganizer (CZAR) was developed in 2361 by Cardea Atmospherics. Cardea was purchased by Demeter Engineering Labs a year later and reorganized as Zephyr Blue Atmospherics. Seeding CZAR installations around a planet, a native atmosphere can have its component gases enhanced, removed, or replaced, refining its overall makeup to suit the inhabitants. A CZAR installation will typically take in the native atmosphere, adjust the content by various methods that often includes the aid of auramancers, and vent it back out. An installation may also receive and/or export gases to assist in the reorganization process. Depending on the extent of reorganization required, the process can take as little as thirty Terran days or as long as sixty-eight years, as demonstrated with the complete reformulation of New Giza's atmosphere in 3036, ahead of a colonial venture from New Sinai in the Cairo Caliphate sector in the IA.
MYCOGENIC SOIL RECOMPOSITION
Mycogenic Soil Recomposition, developed by Dr. Torrince VelPominey of Demeter Engineering Labs in 2356, was the original product service marketed by the company. The patent for Mycogenic Soil Recomposition is one of the oldest held by Persephone Industries. The process enriches native top soils and optimizes the targeted agronomic environment. First utilized on Archvale in the Arvendon Heights sector of the IA, the process proved tremendously successful, increasing yields 1200% in the first three solar years before settling into an annual average of about 800% of previous production. Since the introduction of biomantic practitioners to the process in 2909, yields have doubled or even trebled. Bread basket worlds such as Tosh Estro in the Wolvchester sector of Threshold, Chahne in the Blue Vale sector of Gaennan, and Bridon in the Persican Cluster sector of Persica have all been rendered sustainably productive on a massive scale thanks to Persephone's premier service.
LEVIATHAN SEAMASON
Custom sculpting the seabeds of planetary aquabodies was among the latest services provided by Persephone Industries. In 3190, subsidiary corporation Excelsior Oceanics produced the first of its line of Leviathan SeaMasons, which was immediately contracted to modify the ocean floor of Manuel in the Libraria sector of Threshold, deepening seventeen existing harbors and laying the groundwork for underwater population centers and transport corridors. Primarily utilized in large marine harbor projects, both new construction and renovation of existing ports, the SeaMason is also capable of customizing the seabeds of an entire world, as recently demonstrated on Rayne in the Serran Expanse sector of Persica.
PLANETARY VOLCANIC AND GEOTHERMAL ADJUSTMENT
With extensive and revolutionary developments in tectonics combined with gravimantic techniques, subsidiary corporation Hephaestus Dynamics has provided services that can adjust the volcanic and tectonic activities on a geologically active planet since 3311. While not yet capable of customizing a planet's volcanism or tectonics, existing conditions can be optimized by triggering directed activities - creating new islands, for example; stimulating or suppressing tectonic evolution; or by dampening effects to stabilize an area that would be well suited to settlement. The latter was most recently demonstrated in eliminating a burgeoning volcano on the seafloor of Cascadia in the Persican Cluster sector of Persica. Tectonic activity and a series of magma cones threatened a large aquapolitan area of Kai Mahina on the planet's central archipelago in 3414.
Criticisms
MALFORMATION EVENTS
3189 - Morrigaen, Star Kingdom of Persica: A massive eruption of lethal mycogen gas from the recently harvested fields outside Cathbad killed nearly 50,000 colonists as they slept.
3317 - Arawn, Star Kingdom of Persica: In an attempt to alter the composition of Arawn's atmosphere, an influx of oxygen cascaded out of control and ignited, burning the atmosphere off completely and scorching the planet's surface.
(Additional events may be added by other nations)