There are a small number of organisations within the Mortals campaign which, between them, control pretty much everything. Some are governments, other's are companies and some are just… different.

A quick look at them is provided here.

The Mother first became known to the major news networks of Earth in 2433, when a number of viruses were activated on the major computer networks. Then the Sri Lankan stalk was severed and the orbital Ring began to fall apart as system failures took out just the right components to cause the maximum damage.

At the time, the Ring was home to half a billion people, though it took several weeks before the last of it was dragged to Earth.

Various bio-engineered plagues, power failures and even limited nuclear strikes (believed to have come from military systems which fell to the Mother's attacks) caused the collapse of Earth's infrastructure.

At the same time, ships in Earth system found themselves hijacked by those claiming to serve the Mother - later discovered to be clones grown artificially. That's about when the real shooting wars began.

The origins of the Mother are unclear, though it is thought to have come out of some military project based in central Africa. The fact that it is an AI of some sort is pretty clear. It has access to (human) cloning technology, advanced nanotech and Von Neumon machines.

The Mother has pretty much total control over Sol System, but is believed to be confined there. The warships are a mixture of high technology and bio-engineering, though none are known to have jump space capability.

Originally a weapons manufacturer, BSI had grown to become one of the most powerful organisations of Humanity. After the Dark Times, BSI took it upon itself to defend Humanity from the Mother. It controls the star systems immediately near to Sol, and ensures that absolutely nothing gets out.

BSI lost a lot of its power during the Dark Times, and is relatively small today. However, what it has is of the highest quality, plus it now has the advantage of being considered to be somewhat neutral in the power politics of Human Space.

The New Vatican Dominion is probably the most powerful of the human powers. It comprises of three dozen heavily civilised worlds, and maybe another hundred small colonies.

The Dominion is a theocracy, with the religion being a mutilated form of Catholic Christianity, modified to take into account the events of the last few hundred years, and the total ban on automated technology.

The Dominion also polices the other nations to some extent, with the Inquisition hunting out signs of advanced automation in order to destroy it. Humans are considered the pinnacle of evolution, and anyone who tries to build a machine that thinks like a human is considered a heretic.

The Islamic Federation is the other theocracy in human space. It is a lot more insular than the Dominion, and has a completely different view of life.

The Federation deems that the advancement of pure human knowledge to be a sacred task, for through knowledge people can come to better understand God.