The Nonboris Family

Background

The Nonborises of Quadrant 7 are a family dynasty with a long history stretching back to the first colonisation of the quadrant (claiming to have emigrated direct from Old Mars "in the days before it was fashionable to do so"). Since that time the Nonboris family has been involved in primary resource extraction and trading, often acting as middlemen between the more settled worlds such as Xynam and the more freebooting Vikinger areas, trading what was needed by both camps. The core of the family business is a syndicated network of oxygen farms covering more than a hundred belts and planetoids across dozens of systems in Q7. Rumours that the dynasty of oxygen farmers started out as claim-jacking oxygen thieves - and were actually Earthers - are strongly disputed with a characteristic mix of lawsuits and fisticuffs.

History

As the family story goes, shortly after arriving from Old Mars - details are hazy on from which Dome exactly - the founding ancestor Julius Euphonium Nonboris traded five kilotons of oxygen for over 85 kilotons of high grade gold-uranium ore, with a small planetoid-based clan of Vikinger miners struggling with life support difficulties. He chucked in "a crate of novelty water-pop drinks for the little miner kids, bless 'em". The rest, as they say, is history!

Family Business

Today the family business is highly diversified and has expanded beyond resource extraction and trading, evolving into NORSE - a syndicate of syndicates that is the economic equal of what would no doubt be organised as an interstellar megacorporation in a less ruggedly individualistic quadrant. The official family motto is "big in stature, big in heart, big in oxygen", though the more informal family saying is "where's there's rocks, there's Ox!". The traditional "family seat" of the Nonborises is THOR POINT, a large steading-planetoid occupying a Lagrange point in the rich outer belt ring of the HELM system (Q7). However the family should not be construed as having a unitary authority - like any family it has its disagreements and its sqabbles, as well as its unifying common interests and common values.

Family Values

Traditionally the Nonboris family values have focused on profit and personal freedom. As another famous ancestor, Aurelius Gormenghast Nonboris (President Emeritus from 3066-3101 of the powerful Martian business lobby, the Transquadrant Interstellar Trade and Services United Platform - TITSUP), famously said: "The business of Mars is business, and the business of a Martian is nobody's damned business!"

The family are well known and well represented in significant positions in the MSN, particularly in Q7. They tend to embody a spirit of aggression and a can-do attitude that fits well in the Navy. A number of minor incidents of reckless bravery by Nonboris MSN officers, some historical, some recent, sometimes successful, sometimes not, are celebrated in local Q7 Naval lore.

Noborises in Politics

They have eschewed involvement in politics beyond the necessary pleasantries (and sponsored nine-course dinners) that are typically necessary to keep relations with local lawmakers running smoothly - what might be called "small p" politics.

More recently (3199), family interests were hit hard by the Exterminator War, including financial tragedies as well as merely personal ones. Perhaps as a result, the family has begun to engage with the "Big P" politics, at quadrant and MAFC level.
Augustus Humperdink Nonboris, a leading son of the major branch of the family, surprised commentators by bypassing most of the normal progression of quadrant politics and advancing straight to the deputy governership (FMP) and then to an MAFC Federal Senatorial seat (MCGP). After the fall from grace of Senator Banderas, party-political maneuvering allowed Augustus to secure the vacant Minister for War position in the ICC "triumvirate" after veteran politico Minos Cornelius stepped in for the disgraced Banderas as ICC President.