Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Empire of Pictus
The Otrosi have been renamed the Sarkese. Their homeworld, formerly Otros, has been renamed Sarkhala, as in the League of Sarkhala. Their government remains a diarchy with the Archdule of Sarkhala and the Prince of Auchibur as joint sovereigns.

The physical appearance of the Erixish has finally been decided: they are arboreal, six-limbed monkeys. I say "six-limbed" rather than "six-armed" or "six-legged" since all of their limbs are prehensile; so, the only significant difference between "arms" and "legs" is proximity to the head or the prehensile tail. Monkeys!

The remaining difficulty with the Erixish is the title of their leader. Aboriginally, they are collectivist seekers of universal consensus; they have no history of a formal leadership structure, each Erixish contributed to the collection of fruit for the whole group and received whatever share he needed to sustain himself. Children were raised collectively by each group. Also, the Erixish have no indiginous istory of violence. When threatened by the flightless, predatory birds of Erix, they run and hide. They have no "fight" instinct, only "flight." Though sentient, the Erixish existed at the hunter-gather (minus the hunter) level until the attempted invasion of Erix by the expansionist Tehl Larian Autocracy. The Empire of the Pic (later the Empire of Pictus), itself a one-time satrapy of the Autocracy, interdicted the invasion force, precipitating a years-long war, remembered in Pic history together with the similiarly thwarted Tehl Larian invasion of the planet Aeloos as the Erix & Aeloos War. Flotsam and debris from both Imperial and Autocratic forces fell to the surface of Erix, thus interfering with the "natural cultrual development" (in this case, stagnation) of the Erixish.

The Pic were themselves at an 18th century level of technology before the 78-year occupation of Pictus by the warp-capable Tehl Larians; so, they took noninterference with the Erixish as a sacred trust. But not all of the technological detritus was recoverable. The Erixish hoarded it like they were stockpiling fruit for the rainy season. The Erix & Aeloos War formed but an early chapter in the half-century-long Autocratic Wars. When the wars were over, the power of the Tehl Larian Autocracy had been smashed and the newly heterogeneous Empire of Pictus was a major interstellar power. By the time the Imperial Legions set foot on Tehl Laria Prime, the Erixish had gained a working knowledge of subspace communications. They immediately began petitioning their celestial guardians, the Pic, to return. For decades these petitions were ignored (it was hoped the Erixish would eventually wear out the batteries, but the little buggers eventually devised waterwheels to supply electricity to their jury-rigged transmitters), but eventually the Erixish began to construct primitive spacecraft to reach the Empire. So, an Imperial legation was sent, bonds and comity and commerce were forged, and eventually the Erixish acceded to the Empire of Pictus.

The non-sovereign heads of state of the constituent realms of the Empire (the Commonwealth of Phythria, the Shogunate of Enkariworld, et al.) form the Emperor's Privy Council; the Erixish could not be excepted, even with their long history of non-hierarchical sovereignty. What do you call the non-hierarchical speaker for his people if you dislike "Speaker" as a title? The Phythrian College of Abbots, lacking an executive, sends the Ambassador of the College to the Privy Council; so, I'll probably go the ambassadorial route. Emissary, envoy, something like that.

BTW South Song of the Day
The Chinkees, "You Left Me a Message (15 Years, Pt. 2)" from Searching For a Brighter Future (T.L.A.M.)

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