Golden Creed

The  Golden Creed  is a space crime organization with a long history of key involvement into cosmic crime. It has been dedicated to a number of different missions, often several at a time, most notably attempting to gather the scattered pieces of the Odic Tablet which are said to contain immense power and luck.

Their track record shows the creed has been successful in a majority of its 'missions', most small. These successes include the infiltration of entire empires and collecting of precious jewels sought-after by the most powerful kings. Because of its success, the Creed grew immensely and is currently one of the most revered criminal organizations in the universe as of Age 5000.

Despite its well-known reputation by good and evil alike, the creed manages to maintain a diversified, dis-unified, yet polished and productive identity, and has proved capable of reinventing itself in near-totality, which has kept the creed active, powerful, and influential for centuries.

History
Though it's largely lost to history, it's said the creed began as a local mafia taking advantage of weak government in the city of Newumm, on Planet Artyrklos Vi in the Age 4522. Having eventually taken the entire planet, it infiltrated its entire planetary network and began to spread elsewhere.

Much of the power vested within the Creed comes from its secret control of powerful financial institutions, business enterprises, and to a lesser extent, governments.

Hierarchy
The creed only accepts individuals who are the best in what they do and who possess potential leadership qualities. Finding 'grunt' members is a rarity, typically only authorized in desperation if their stake in a particular territory is weakening.

A multitude of fake groups exist using the namesake and insignia of the Creed. Typically they can be distinguished by how arrogant or dirty their members are, counter-acting the Creed's strict principles.

Whether or not the Creed is part of a larger, more secretive syndicate remains unknown.

Principles & Conduct
Roughly, the number of recognized members in the Creed probably lands in the tens of thousands. While this number seems short for a multi-galactic outfit, the creed only truly accepts the best and those with potential leadership qualities - no less. Technically there are millions more 'members', but most of them aren't officially part of the organization and simply partake in its work as part of unions, alliances, or certain groups. If any of these workers betray the creed, it does little to effect it because they weren't official.

Most of the Creed's principles are merely suggestions, with few actual rules outside the realm of getting shit done, not screwing allies and potential profit-makers, and delivering the best product. If it feels the need to rid of a member, they are simply abruptly cut off or in rarer cases, eliminated.

The Creed attempts to maintain an image similar to that of the popular portrayal of the 'mob', with its classy and clean-cut image, but rejects any notions of honor and personal integrity among its members - it is solely interested in results and delivering product. To achieve this, it maintains a rough, sharp edged demeanor to survive in the business of space crime.