The Credence Provisional Government (CPG) is the planet’s primary political body—an improvised civic coalition forged not from ideology, but from survival. It is a government built in the absence of one, assembled from every local faction with a stake in keeping the world livable. Its authority is uneven, its resources scarce, and its legitimacy constantly tested by drought, crime, syndicate pressure, and the harsh frontier conditions of a world that never forgives weakness.
Yet the CPG endures. Against all odds, it has become the stabilizing center of Credence society.
Before the Fracture, Credence was a minor colonial holding within the Reach’s larger political structure—run by corporate boards, distant magistrates, and automated oversight from orbit. When the Fracture severed long-range governance and destabilized interstellar authority, Credence found itself alone.
Supply ships stopped coming. Corporate envoys fled. Off-world leadership fell silent.
For a time, Dustgate City teetered on the brink of collapse. Water disputes turned violent. Drift clans withdrew into the desert. Crawler-towns barricaded themselves. Freecrews argued over who had the right to enforce anything. Syndicates tested the vacuum of power, and the Marshals suddenly found themselves without guidance, reinforcements, or pay.
In this vacuum, a meeting was called in Dustgate’s Old Quarter—originally intended as a negotiation between feuding water guilds. Instead, it became an assembly of every faction terrified of losing everything.
Representatives of the Dustborn communities, merchant families, Drift clans, crawler captains, engineers, Freecrew delegates, and the Marshal liaison walked into that room uneasy strangers.
They walked out having formed a government.
A temporary one, they insisted.
But temporary has lasted a long time.
The Credence Provisional Government functions as a multi-representational council, not a centralized authority. Each major faction selects one representative:
Dustgate City Council (urban infrastructure & commerce)
Drift Clans (nomadic traditions & desert rights)
Crawlertown Captains (mobile settlements & long-distance trade)
Mining Collectives (resource management & worker safety)
Water Guilds (wells, moisture rigs, purification networks)
Merchant Assembly (inter-settlement commerce and tariffs)
Freecrew Consortium (independent spacefarers with local stakes)
Engineering Guild (Skyspine maintenance & critical infrastructure)
Marshal Authority Liaison (law enforcement perspective without legislative power)
An elected Moderator presides, but not as a ruler—more like a referee keeping the conversations from turning into shouting matches… or worse.
The CPG has no single executive figure. It relies on:
Consensus when possible
Majority vote when necessary
Coalition-building always
This makes it slow. It makes it messy. But it also makes it representative in a way few frontier governments ever manage.
The CPG has limited but meaningful powers.
Allocate and regulate water rights (the most contentious issue on Credence)
Maintain and repair public infrastructure
Coordinate with the Marshal Authority for law enforcement needs
Establish trade routes, tariffs, and economic incentives
Mediate disputes between settlements, clans, and factions
Issue planetary advisories, disaster responses, and public protections
Manage relations with Wayfarer Crown and outside travelers
Command a unified military (Credence has none)
Enforce laws beyond what Marshals can realistically cover
Bind independent settlements to mandates they refuse
Prevent syndicate influence everywhere
Guarantee equal representation—power still pools where resources do
Credence is too diverse, too scattered, and too stubborn for centralized rule.
The CPG governs by persuasion, compromise, and soft power—never by force.
The council convenes in the Hall of Winds, a round stone-and-metal structure built into Dustgate City’s core. The chamber is open to ventilation shafts that let desert breezes pass through, creating faint whistling harmonics that give the hall its name.
In the center sits the Resonance Table, an old colonial artifact—a circular hologram emitter that projects large-scale maps of Credence, atmospheric patterns, water networks, and political zones. No one fully understands how the technology works anymore, but the table remains the council’s greatest asset.
Each representative has a designated seat around the table, marked with symbols from their faction. When they speak, their symbol glows.
Everyone sees who holds the floor.
Everyone sees who refuses to compromise.
The CPG’s greatest challenge is balancing wildly different priorities:
Wants infrastructure, trade privileges, and stability.
Want autonomy, respect for ancient routes, and free access to dunes.
Want safe trade corridors and the right to pass through without taxation traps.
Want protection from bandits and corporate exploitation.
Want freedom—and minimal bureaucracy.
Want control and expansion of their purification networks.
Want order, cooperation, and fewer shootouts.
These factions cooperate because they must.
They clash because they always have.
Many council sessions end in arguments that echo down Dustgate streets long after sunset.
The Marshals do not answer to the CPG, but they respect it as the legitimate civic voice of Credence. The CPG relies on Marshals for enforcing agreements, quelling disputes, and reminding particularly aggressive personalities that violence won’t solve everything.
Still, tensions exist:
Marshals believe the CPG is too soft.
The CPG believes Marshals are too forceful.
Both know the world collapses without the other.
Their cooperation is the backbone of Credence’s survival.
Freecrews are loosely affiliated but widely influential.
They provide:
Couriers
Escorts
Emergency relief
Salvage teams
Trade connections
Off-world diplomacy
Their representative on the council changes frequently—Freecrews rarely agree on who should speak for them. Despite this volatility, the CPG values their input; nobody understands the Reach’s external threats better.
Wayfarer Crown is not under the CPG’s authority but exists in constant partnership with it.
The Crown provides:
Off-world trade access
Higher-level engineering expertise
Orbital communication
Neutral negotiation space
The CPG ensures:
Surface stability
Resource flow
Credence’s communities stay functional
The Skyspine binds the two not just physically but economically and politically.
Neither side can afford for the other to fail.
Criminal organizations infiltrate trade routes, water markets, and council representatives. Their influence is subtle but dangerous.
Wells dry. Storm seasons shift. Every drop of water is political.
Dustgate prospers while rural settlements struggle. Discontent grows.
Drift clans resent city interference. City dwellers resent clan isolation. Crawlertowns resent everyone.
Even temporary shutdowns cause panic and economic disruption.
Corporate interests, off-world governments, and unknown Reach factions eye Credence as a foothold.
The CPG works constantly to keep these pressures from breaking the fragile unity of the world.
Despite shortcomings, the CPG has achieved remarkable feats:
Stabilizing Dustgate City
Preventing inter-settlement wars
Expanding water purification networks
Mediating feuds between clans and guilds
Maintaining cordial ties with Wayfarer Crown
Coordinating emergency relief during storm seasons
Instituting fair trade laws respected by most factions
The government’s existence proves something essential about Credence:
The world refuses to die.
Its people refuse to let it.
The CPG stands at a crossroads:
Will it formalize into a permanent planetary government?
Will tensions fracture it?
Will corporate or syndicate power overwhelm it?
Will a charismatic leader unify it—or corrupt it?
Will Credence eventually seek representation in wider Reach politics?
The council debates these questions daily, each answer shaping the future of the world.
In The Fractured Reach, the CPG symbolizes:
Frontier democracy born in crisis
Community over hierarchy
Survival through cooperation
Politics as lived reality, not grand ideology
Hope that refuses to collapse under weight of dust and circumstance
It is not perfect.
It is not powerful.
But it is the people’s government—messy, flawed, and determined.
On Credence, that’s enough to build a future.