Corporates

Corporate Planescape and the Authority

"Want to know the solution to all of your problems? Find the person getting all the cash and kill him."
-Fraternity of Order factotum Marshall Greenwood, briefly considering becoming an anarch.

Every second, a planar curses the capitalist system. Like a power generator which groans constantly under strain and puffs out gouts of black smoke, the Corporates are the necessary implement of society which people would happily see replaced.
Of course, a minority believe that capitalism is actually an ideal system, and most cutters give these berks a wide berth. Still many grumble but few argue that there are better solutions than the market system. Capitalism is seen as the shiniest piece of dung in a huge pile of it.
Still, for such a hated system, a lot of people are a part of it. You can try to rebel, but most bloods eventually want a widescreen TV with premium channels and then you have to be part of the system. Corporates offer stable employment for a planar with a wide variety of skills. You can be good leader to a lazy bum to a gunslinger with a record a mile long and the right corporation will put you in your place. Congratulations, cutter, you've become another cog in the machine. Coffee?
No planar likes to admit it, but most corporations originated in the Prime Material Plane, trying to expand out to the ultimate market. The exception is Valor Inc., which is Acheronian born and raised. Y'see, the clueless, while apparently they didn't know to much about the planes did have something in their favor, the fact that they had their own world and had little competition. They monopolized the economy, and, looking to expand, went to the Planes. Planar businesses were bought up by Prime mega-corporations and thus the Corporates thought they had divvied of the planes amongst themselves. What they didn't know is that Planars were cynical bastards with mean streaks like tidal waves who didn't like Primers besting them. In turn, they took to the boardrooms and took the corporations for themselves. Alls fair in business and war.
All the planars were poised to strike back at the Primes and divvy up the realm for themselves, but then suddenly a mysterious shadowy organization called The Authority told them it was no longer permissible to expand to other Prime Material Realms except for those that they had originated on. Apparently, the Lady of Pain had decided she would elect five anonymous individuals from each of the five Planes of Law to manage economic affairs. The message was clear: don't mess with the Prime or get mazed. When the first CEO who broke this rule was mazed along with all the Board, the Corps took a hint.
That doesn't stop the Corps from resenting the Authority's guts. In fact, since the Authority's edict, the Corps has been trying to bypass them by operating on the Prime through puppet companies and shadowy deals. On the Prime Worlds infected with this kind of meddling, the Corporations are a silent, sinister, otherworldly and conspiratorial presence.
The Authority is fighting a cold war of espionage and sabotage with the Corporations in the Prime Material Plane. The Authority is willing to go as far as to provide certain Primes (i.e. heroes) with evidence to condemn the Corporations. Usually, it just sends industrial saboteurs to make life difficult for the Corporations. In any event, the Corporate War makes good material for pulp novels.