Nanashi Sakamoto
Administrator
Treasurer
Japan
10-31-2001
Service Record:Born 2001, Kōchi, Japan, to samurai clan turned local gentry. Pursued career in family business despite childhood interest in nursing. Bachelor of Economics from University of Tokyo, PhD in Financial Economics from University of Chicago. Tasked by father to act as clan’s advocate within public regulatory structure while brothers groomed to head family corporation. Securities and exchange junior regulator at Financial Services Agency during the administration of the Minister of Finance nicknamed “Mr. iQuipu.” Under the Datalinks Nation window guidance, Japanese economy repositioned to adopt digiknot technologies in bid to become cyberfinance world capital. Approved openings of distrocash
valuta exchanges, pushart virtual galleries, infovore pet breeders. Present at the Miami negotiations that crafted the Hologram Plaza Accord. Oversaw controversial reverse merger between Sakamotion Unlimited and Widdershins, her family’s virtubank becoming the very first in country to host a foreign distrocash platform.
Upon promotion to sector regulator in early 2020, began issuing cautionary statements against overpromotion of volatile valuta. Recommendations for greater scrutiny and precautious repeatedly ignored amidst the Floating World 2.0 (
Ukiyo-Ni) era. Published white paper, “Unbounded Distrocash Dependency on Cyberworld Real Estate Assets Considered Harmful,” winner of 2026 Nakhara Prize.
Japanese virtual asset bubble began collapsing in 2022 with massive devaluation of the Net-Yen. Cascading valuta crashes. Yo-yo panic cycles of monetary tightening and monetary easing. Data shortages followed by data rationing. Gordian November saw the use of multiple iQuipu protocol 0-day exploits, taking the Cyberworld offline for an entire month, rendering untold damage to virtual properties.
Resigned commission during the largest economic contraction in a generation, leaving MetaTokyo for family estate in Shikoku. Drafted as adjunct economist at Sakamotion. Clashing priorities between siblings led to company downfall, liquidation of clan assets. Sakamoto family shrine, where she had served as a shrine maiden in her teenage years, was sold off. Left Japan, never to return.
Self-exile in Switzerland. Lecturer at University of Zürich, chief econometrician for in-game economy at TITANS Software. Invited to various international economic fora. Became involved with the Gnomes, a local circle of monetary sovereigntists calling for greater fiscal authority over international currencies. Fierce defender of currency unions, single-coin policies, arguing that the proliferation of “
valuta both fiat and virtual weakens every pillar in the house of cash.”
Initiated into the Caesar Society, a pro-interventionist think tank, in the 2040s. As research fellow, embarked on series of economic experiments, applying the society’s principles of sound currency in developing markets. Halted the 2053 Afro Flux with a crisis team of Caesarean experts in Dar es Salaam. Engineered the Tuvan Economic Miracle. Worked on reconstruction of regions affected by the U.N.-F.C. War. Ideological outlook found compatible and appealing to Federation authorities. Appointed to the office of Treasurer by the Alpha2 Committee, with the duties of rebuilding a monetary system on Chiron after the initial frontier period. Tasked too with establishing economic reintegration with
Unity colony by any means necessary.
Upon the mutual dissolution of the FCS
Sovereignty, sided with the Sovereign Magistrates to continue mission to preserve humanity’s economic order. Established contact with Gaian ecological economists, University thermoeconomists, Morganite degrowthers, and other fringe dissidents. Attempts to garner cooperation from faction leaders rebuffed. Suspected infiltration by Caesar Society members led to demotion from the Magistrate secretariat. Disappeared after the Blackout Nesday power surge at the Merchant Exchange. Reemerged several years later, declaring herself as the spokesperson for the anonymous Executive Board of a faction dedicated to safeguarding the strength of the energy credit.
Psych Profile: Prudent ControllerKeen and analytical mind towards money matters tempered by self-righteous certainty in personal monetary policy. Believes markets inevitably irrational, asymmetric, and driven towards alternate periods of exuberance and fearfulness. Entrusts a guiding hand to correct the folly of the masses. Dislikes “excessive individualistic” attempts to profit from crisis. Sober-minded commitment to economic worldview has yielded prior success; such reinforcement of worldview may lead to ideological calcification, refusal to engage alternative theories, domination and suppression of opposing opinions. Possibly utilizes sarcasm to deflect from personal loss suffered from fall of family.
Though the actual leadership of the Global Energy Exchange is unknown, historians have suggested that the original Executive Board was founded by an offshoot of the Caesar Society, an anti-laissez faire, anti-deregulatory international think-tank. Founded with a goal to “prevent economic royalism and currency destabilization”, several of the society’s members were apparently passengers on the UNS
Unity and the FCS
Sovereignty.
Global Energy Exchange
“As the great economic recessions and depressions of the twenty-first century demonstrate, the lives of millions and even billions of people can be shattered by the greed of a few executives and investors. Our organization is determined to prevent such cataclysms from taking place in this New World, and we will protect our great currency- one way or another.”
- GEE anonymous Board member, Datalinks.
Symbol/Insignia: The outline of Masonic pyramid, except there are no lines for bricks or they are covered by a huge energy currency symbol- an uppercase cursive E with a line through it. The pyramid is between two towers that are cylindrical but have pointed tops. There is a squiggly line connecting the tops, and it almost touches the top of the pyramid. Underneath the pyramid is a banner that says Novus Mundus Expecto- The New World Awaits.
Representative: Fiduciary Nanashi Sakamoto
Background: Think-tank of economists from various nations.
Agenda: Preservation and eventual control of Planet’s energy-based economic system.
Technology: Industrial Base
+1 Support (The poor recruit soldiers, the rich hire mercenaries)
+2 Economy (Society of stockbrokers)
-1 Morale (Mercenaries aren’t the most loyal of troops)
-1 Planet (Economic efficiency over ecological issues)
Aggression: Erratic
Priorities: Build, Explore
Agenda: Thought Control
Aversion: Free Market
Design Notes* Originally this faction was to be faceless, with the Board itself as the leader. While that might fly in, say,
Hearts of Iron, it seems out of place in SMAC which tends to have individual leaders. So the compromise is that we have a visible spokesperson, but no telling what her actual role is in the faction or how much authority she has.
* I went with Japan as her background because it’s a country that’s curiously absent from both SMAC/X and Civilization: Beyond Earth. Turns out it’s because their economy just happened to go bust a second time, taking them out as a major player behind the
Unity project.
* Her likeness is that of Fumi Nakai from
Beef, played by Patti Yasutake of
Star Trek fame. Besides the visual flair, I’d say her character would have some of the
acerbic wit as her character
from the show, not to mention a tinge of the family tragedy.
* The Bitcoin and blockchain references I came up with later down the line. While I’m leary of incorporating real-world tech that has since appeared after SMAC has become late ‘90s retrofuturism, I think I’ve rebranded everything distinctly. Just remember that the Inca, not Satoshi, was the first to
record financial transactions with strings.
* Originally named "Globalists" for short, in light of modern political developments they would be called Exchangers, or perhaps Gnomes.
Notes* Nanashi can mean “no name” in Japanese. Swap the first letters of her first and last names.
* Valuta are credible currency in
GURPS Cyberworld, here not-so-good as crypto currency. And here the Cyberworld itself is not a cyberpunk setting, but a metaverse thingy.
*
Hologram Plaza is a vaporwave album by Disconscious, a pioneering work of mallsoft.
* Julius Caesar was an implacable foe of Cato the Younger.
New SMAC quizzes available.
