Story canon · Founder · Published when creating the community
What if the world's most valuable asset wasn't money—but secrets?
I'm developing a grounded Power Thriller universe and would love to hear your thoughts. The Premise In the public world, wealth creates influence. In the hidden world, influence is created by something else: Secrets. Every president.Every prime minister.Every billionaire.Every Fortune 500 CEO.Every celebrity.Every intelligence chief.Every royal family. They all possess a hidden asset. Inside one organization, these are known as: Secret Assets. Some are worth thousands. Some are worth billions. Some can decide the future of an entire country. Meridian Group The world's largest Special Assets Management company. Officially, Meridian is an international advisory firm with offices in New York, London, Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Its public services include: - Corporate Intelligence - Crisis Management - Reputation Management - Family Office Advisory - Strategic Communications - Global Media Relations Its corporate mission is simple: We protect influence. Meridian doesn't manage wealth. Meridian manages Secret Assets. Inside the company, every secret is treated like an investment. Each one receives: - a unique asset ID - a risk rating - an influence score - a market value - an expected lifecycle To Meridian, a secret is no different from any other appreciating asset. The more powerful the owner becomes, the more valuable the asset becomes. What is a Secret Asset? A Secret Asset can be anything capable of changing someone's future. An undisclosed affair.An illegal financial transaction.A hidden offshore structure.A confidential medical diagnosis.A political deal.A private recording.An unreleased document. Some remain dormant for decades. Others become priceless overnight. Meridian's Philosophy Meridian doesn't invent secrets. It doesn't expose them. It doesn't sell them. It simply manages them. Sometimes it discovers a secret. Sometimes it preserves one. Sometimes it quietly helps a client eliminate one. And on very rare occasions... it creates the conditions for one to naturally emerge. Inside the company, employees are taught a single principle: Every powerful person eventually creates a secret. Our job is simply to find it first. The Media Network Meridian owns or quietly invests in a global network of: - newspapers - television companies - financial media - investigative journalism organizations - digital publishers - influencer agencies - PR firms - content distribution companies Journalists are not spies. They don't work like intelligence agents. They simply have something almost nobody else has: Legitimate access to the world's most powerful people. Every interview. Every investigation. Every off-the-record conversation. Every leaked document. May eventually become part of Meridian's Secret Asset Archive. What Meridian Actually Sells Meridian never sells secrets. It sells stability. A presidential candidate is about to face a scandal. A multinational corporation suffers a crisis. A billionaire becomes the target of blackmail. Meridian doesn't ask who's right. It asks one question: How can influence be preserved? Its clients aren't buying protection. They're buying control over uncertainty. The Protagonist Once the company's most talented investigator. He never killed anyone. He simply observed. Collected information. Built relationships. Created opportunities. Sometimes a carefully arranged meeting. Sometimes an exclusive interview. Sometimes a private event. He believed secrets revealed themselves naturally. Until one day... Meridian selected his younger sister as the next high-value Secret Asset. For the first time in his career, he refused an assignment. From that moment on, he became a Secret Asset himself. The Female Lead An investigative journalist. She begins investigating the suspicious death of a financier. Seven witnesses. Seven different causes of death. Every case officially ruled an accident. She initially believes a billionaire is responsible. Eventually she realizes... the billionaire is only a client. The real system has been hiding in plain sight all along. Season One A young congressman announces his presidential campaign. His background is clean. His finances are transparent. No scandals. No leverage. No Secret Assets. Meridian reaches a dangerous conclusion: A man with no leverage is impossible to predict. The Board authorizes a new operation. Not to discover a secret. But to create the conditions for one. The protagonist is assigned to the case. Instead... he falls in love with the congressman's sister. For the first time, Meridian fails. And for the first time, the world's invisible network of power begins to crack. Discussion If a company like Meridian actually existed, how would it realistically operate? What legal businesses would give it legitimate access to presidents, CEOs, celebrities, billionaires, and world leaders? Besides journalists, lawyers, and PR firms, what professions would naturally belong inside this network? I'd love to hear your ideas and build this universe together.
View full story canon →