Golden Chrysanthemums Inc. / GOLDCHRY

Most scholars date the start of the group as the publication of Golden Chrysanthemum in Bloom in the 29th Century. The author, Yuyu Matsuda, was a young but critically acclaimed poet. Charismatic and well-spoken, Matusda had a considerable following among young Kusari women who found their lives lacking in direction but were reluctant to become married and fulfill their traditional role in Kusari society.

Matsuda decried what she saw as the corruption of the Kusari male-dominated culture and preached a revolution led by the long-suffering women of Kusari. These ideas were eventually encapsulated in Golden Chrysanthemum in Bloom, in which Matsuda described a fictitious nation called Yomi. A place of fat, lazy male bureaucrats who handed out concessions at the whim of entrenched mega-corporations, Yomi was eventually engulfed in revolution and united under the rule of a benevolent Empress personally selected by the goddess Amaterasu to watch over her people.

Matsuda looked to the foreigners as a model, where women could be president and run corporations. The Chrysanthemum went on to become a best-seller. Unfortunately, 50 years later, Matsuda crossed the dangerous line between ideas and actions when she was implicated in the botched assassination attempt of the planetary governor of Kyushu.

Rather than face the ignominy of imprisonment, Matsuda chose ritual suicide instead. An increase in attacks on government personnel and installations followed soon after. Neither as well armed as the Blood Dragons nor as influential as the Hogosha, the Golden C. have been more of an irritant to the government than an actual threat.

Unfortunately, any attempts to locate the Golden C. base or learn more about their organization has been thwarted by their willingness to die rather than talk. A Golden C. pilot will trigger her ship’s self-destruction rather than be captured, and suicide attacks are common. Attempts to infiltrate the Golden C. have proven equally fruitless. On several occasions the Kusari government has received the finger of an undercover agent wrapped in a page from one of Matsuda’s books.

The Kusari State Police keeps a watchful eye on the faction, but has been unable to completely control them. This is at least partly due to the assistance of the Blood Dragons, who have made use of the Golden C. base in Hokkaido as a rest stop on the long journey to the inner systems of Kusari. The Blood Dragons also share the group’s desire to overthrow the government and reform House Kusari, although perhaps using more sophisticated methods.