Talarin Corporation

Faction
Area of Operations: Earth
Allies: Church of the Reverence; House Talarin; Member of the Rational Ascendancy
Rivals: Primex
Enemies: no data
Ethos: Neutral Good
See also: Talarin Crystal Tower

The Talarin Corporation is a transnational Fortune 100 company. It's brand and reputation are similar to Apple, only more diversified.

Overview

The Talarin Corporation is a private company chartered June 8, 2001. It quietly, aggressively expanded in a variety of industries and market sectors through new divisions and acquisitions. It's unclear where the company gets some of its considerable financial and materiel resources.

Talarin is widely admired for numerous breakthroughs and inventions. It also has a carefully-managed reputation of valuing sustainability, emphasizing a "triple bottom line" of "people, planet, and profit." Notably, Talarin doesn't have a conspicuous founder, CEO, or spokesperson. Rather, the company uses a variety of executives and public relations specialists in external communication (e.g., interviews with media).

Talarin's strongest presence is in Biotechnology, Consumer Electronics, Cybernetics, and Information Technology. They're also successful in Aerospace, Chemicals, Heavy Industry, and Military Technology.

Talarin has two headquarters: the Talarin Institute outside Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and the Talarin Crystal Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

Talarin is a front for an extraterrestrial nation. Some of their extraordinary resources are from their homeworld. Some of their inventions, efficiencies, and overall success were likely made possible through magic. R3M analysts extrapolate that Talarin is also shipping some products and materiel back.

R3M has a long-term relationship with Talarin. Talarin provides on-demand analysis of samples and specimens.

The Talarin Corporation is a front for Sunholm’s activities on Earth. It’s also a front for Phoenix Group research, development, training, and operations.

Key Locations

• Talarin Institute: A research and development campus near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It’s also an operations base for Phoenix Group.
• Talarin Pacific: A research and development secure superscraper in downtown Shango, Oregon, USA. It’s also an operations base for Phoenix Group.
• Talarin Midwest: A corporate headquarters in a secure skyscraper called the Talarin Crystal Tower, in downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Founding

The Talarin Corporation was created in 2001. In April of that year, Archlich Zain and Duma Ironthorn came to Earth from Tessera, on behalf of House Talarin and the Church of the Reverence on Tessera. (At the time, Duma was an agent of the Voice of the Church. Later, she would rise to become the Voice herself.) They approached their contacts in the Phoenix Group, who had worked with Tesserans in the past. Zain and Duma proposed creating an institute for research and development on peaceful science and technology (e.g., medicine, communication). The results would be shared between the Church and Phoenix. Phoenix suggested founding a corporation as a front for these efforts. On July 8, 2001, Talarin was formerly chartered in New York City (as a US-based private-equity corporation) and Geneva, Switzerland (as an international holding company). Talarin was already engaged in ambitious initial construction, and promptly opened facilities in New York City, Chicago, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Over the next two decades, Talarin would grow into a Fortune 100 corporation. Talarin maintains a relatively-narrow yet highly-successful portfolio of activities, products, and services, including bioscience, agribusiness, telecommunications, and information technology. Their clients and partners include consumers, business, and government. Growth has been especially strong since 2013, when a major war on Tessera ended and more energy could be shifted to operations on Earth. In 2018, Talarin ranked just after Dell among private companies in the US, with annual revenue estimated at $72 billion.

Talarin & the Rational Ascendancy

While Talarin was being created, Phoenix represented the Tesseran delegation at the Council of the Rational Ascendancy (Louisiana Chapter). Other CRA members were initially concerned. However, Tessera lies within the Closeness and therefore traffic with Tessera doesn't inherently threaten the Breakwater's integrity. While paranormal beings and phenomena are far more common on Tessera (including metahumans like Talarin founder Duma Ironthorn, a Dvar female), the delegation assured CRA that the secrecy of Tessera's existence and activities would be preserved. Talarin and CRA agreed on several appropriate measures, including framing some Talarin breakthroughs as proprietary bioscience (rather than magic), and ensuring that most metahuman staff working on Earth would be elves (since they can pass as human with minimal effort). Relations between Talarin and CRA have remained cordial. It significantly helps that the Church of the Eternals reveres order and promotes lawful behavior--much like CRA itself. Notably, Talarin initially allied with the CRA corporate bloc lead by Primex, but split off in 2013 as an independent bloc.

Treaty with R3M

The treaty is between Rogue Raptor Risk Management (R3M) and House Talarin. The actual treaty is over two hundred and fifty pages, including both the English and Elvish versions. It references both US and Shangon Empire laws. It has several key agreements, including mutual defense, mutual information sharing, and not relaying sensitive information to a third party without express permission. R3M promises to undertake Talarin business on Earth when asked and feasible. Talarin promises to provide analysis and consulting to R3M when asked and feasible, especially on paranormal matters. R3M promises to consult on R&D in security technology, including field-testing prototypes Talarin creates. Should Talarin leave the Threshold Alliance, or should Farwatch and Talarin come into opposition, R3M will not take a side. Should R3M wish to operate on Tessera, Talarin will formally commend them to the Shangon Emperor. Via a recent addendum, Talarin leases to R3M the services of some personnel to help compose TAG Teams (Treat, Analyze, & Gather). TAG Teams are mundane security and specialists. They can control a site of interest, render medical aid, collect evidence, and analyze that evidence at a Talarin site (e.g., the Crystal Tower).