Shire Agency of Technology and Science

The Shire Agency of Technology and Science is the leading international organization dedicated to the advancement, education, and preservation of science and technology. Founded by Morrison Fordham after his disgust from the widespread ignorance about medicinal knowledge during the Second Plague, the SATS, in its relatively short lifetime, has established itself as one of the leading agencies throughout the Shire, and has been credited with the rapid increase in scientific knowledge among the masses.

History

Morrison Fordham era

Morrison Fordham was born in 1929, to two professors of the Venice University. Fordham was known in his middle school and high school classes for being an extraordinarily intelligent student, and when he graduated in 1945, began attending classes Clementine University. During his undergrad studies, Morrison found himself fascinated with chemicals, graduating in 1949 with a major in Chemistry, and a minor in Advanced Computational Studies. For 3 years, from 1950-1953, Morrison found himself working as a Research Associate for Clementine University, working on multiple papers about the properties of various acids. Eventually, with several graduate students he befriended, Fordham founded "Clementine Consultants & Co.," A research group that many say was the precursor to the SATS.

In the springtime of 1954, after years of contributing to the vast Clementine research machine, he and his colleagues were selected for project Draco. The Sammichian outpost of Palaven had discovered, unbeknownst to them at the time, trimetallic phosphate, and after seeking recommendation from the University of Clementine, the 7 workers of Clementine Consultants & Co found themselves in Palaven. During this time, while Morrison and his colleagues worked on figuring out the properties of this poisonous gel substance, Rhys Lincoln joined his team. One of the workers recalls Morrison and Rhys' strong bond, saying they were constantly together, sometimes hand in hand. Around 1957, the Second Plauge was in full swing, and CC & C research Casey Wang remembered the profound effect the disease had on Morrison. "Someone would bring it up, you know, casually, and he would just go idle, he'd sit there, and after 5 minutes he would then go on some rant about the disease, and it was like, like he was a different person when we mentioned it." Fordham eventually fell ill, and died in 1961, just a year before scientists had come up with a cure.

Rhys Lincoln era

In Fordham's will, Morrison left 600 thousand dollars to be split with his former 6 colleagues, and left the remaining 1.4 million to Rhys Lincoln. It's been kept secret from the public, but Mrs. Lincoln states that in his will, Morrison gave the money to Rhys in order to establish a "Organization for the sciences." And Rhys did just that. Rhys sold off the trimetallic phosphate research zone to the University of Clementine for an undisclosed sum estimated to be around 500 - 800 thousand dollars. Rhys then founded the Shire Agency of Technology and Science, the one we know today. Immediately, Rhys recruited top professors, students, and government officials from nations and universities across the world, and went on to found two divisions of SATS: The SATS Administrative Division, and the SATS Division for the Research of Science, both of which stand today. Immediately the SATS Administrative Division, or SATSAD, as it was abbreviated, established a management structure, and began the construction of the Riverwood Archives, which was built for the purpose of hosting SATSDRS research.

Meanwhile, the SATSDRS began large-scale research on a multitude of topics, the main ones being research on radiation, chemicals, disease, and most importantly, on what the division at the time called "Electrical Mathematic Systems;' this research would be the backbone for the work of the Shire Computational Ward. The SATSDRS also made breakthroughs in nuclear physics, primarily Brigham Raddison's theory on nuclear fission, which is considered to be the most important piece of nuclear physics in the current science state. Rhys Lincoln's leadership style was credited as driving SATS to produce astonishing levels of scientific research, at levels that had never been seen before in Shire history. Rhys's tenure as director was short lived, as she died in a train collision in 1982.

Power vacuum and decline

After Rhys' death, deputy director Ethan Rosenbach decided to host an election for director. The two divisions of SATS put forth candidates; the first was the SATSDRS candidate John Birmingham, and the second was SATSAD candidate Joey Mondale. Despite a majority of people voting for John Birmingham, deputy director Rosenbach instituted vote weighting, and Joey Mondale won by a landslide. Immediately, around one hundred SATSDRS researchs resigned, and Mondale's image prohibited the agency from finding new researchers to replace the growing amount of people leaving. For years, Mondale slowed scientific research, fired hundreds of SATSDRS associates, and reduced to the agency to near bankruptcy in 1997. Eventually, deputy director, along with a majority of the SATSAD administrative staff were ousted, and Joey Mondale was thrown out. With the SATSDRS being the single division left in the SATS, they placed Roberto Merkel as director, primarily for his effort in the ousting of the SATSAD.

Roberto Merkel as director

With Roberto Merkel in power, many universities who withdrew funding during Mondale's tenure began steady donations for the SATS. Immediately, Mondale reorganized the archive staff members who were once apart of the SATSAD, into a new agency, the SATS Division of Archives. Merkel revived the SATSAD by restructuring the core administrative body into a board of division heads, headed by the Director. Mondale appointed John Birmingham to Agency Whip, a new version of Deputy Director tasked with making sure SATS's agencies were on task and wasting little. Roberto Merkel also imposed 15-year term limits on board heads and other administrative heads.

Roberto Merkel was responsible for two new division formations, the SATS Computational Ward, and the SATS Weapon Development Agency. The SATSCW was built upon the backbone of papers dedicated to "Electrical Mathematic Systems," and eventually built the Xylo 8, Shire's first 8-bit Arithmetic and Logic Unit. The SATS Weapon Development Agency expanded Shire's knowledge about nuclear weaponry, and also about civil defensive systems. The SATS Weapon Development Agency has not built any tangible systems as of 2015. Roberto Merkel decided not to run for Director elections in 2015, instead endorsing the SATSCW candidate at the time, Eli Lawless. Roberto Merkel is credited as restoring the SATS to the influential position it had in global affairs during the era of Rhys Lincoln.

Today

Eli Lawless was sworn into office of Deputy on March 1st, 2016. Right now the Lawless administration is still seeking candidates for board heads and other administrative positions. As of April 26th, 2016, the only real change the SATS has experienced is the renaming of its divisions, namely removing the SATS prefix from names. The various divisions have been renamed as so:

• SATS Administrative Division to simply Scientific Administration Division..
• SATS Division of Archives to simply Scientific Archives Division.
• SATS Division for the Research of Science to simply Scientific Research Division.
• SATS Computational Ward to simply Computational Development Division.
• SATS Weapon Development Agency to Weapon Development Agency.