The TGG Multiverse - Facts and Tales of the Multiverse

[The Duchess of Zeon]

There seems to be an awful lot around about the Talorans and ADN, but almost nothing about the Hapsburg star empire. Any chance this thread will shine some light on them?

And as an aside, how would you treat the HALO series if it was the next one bolted onto the multiverse? The humans seem to be some sort of benign military junta, but the Covenant are a genocidal alien military suicide cult. *tries not to fanboy about this, tries very hard*

I'm about to post some things about the HRE with the permission of the author, including their perspective on the Talorans.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The Holy Roman Empire
(written by Christopher Purnell, I did minor editing only.)
Some General Notes:

In a broad sense the government of the Holy Roman Empire, or Habsburg domains, remains more early modern than the medieval stereotype common in the Alliance press. The Habsburg Empire is but a collection of states held together on the simple legal tie of the dynasty. They are however regulated by powerful bureaucracies that are the bonds allowing the different parts to act in concert. The nobility has little role in the day-to-day functioning of the state, and their prerogatives have largely been absorbed by the bureaucracy and formal state structures. The principle civil relationship is the subject to the monarchy, whatever the status of the subject. In that sense it is completely different from and far more centralized than the Taloran Empire.

The idea of individual rights are largely an Enlightenment era liberal concept, and while articulated by moderate Protestant thinkers do not form part of the theory of government in the HRE. "Inalienable human rights" are recognized in practice but not enumerated, as writing self-evident propositions down is considered pointless. The Church has a strong role in articulating social expectations but the bureaucracy and state are secular in nature. The main protection for individuals is the laziness and disinterest of the bureaucracy outside its primary functions of revenue collection, revenue expenditure, and oversight of itself. Social conventions are far more important in daily life than the law, which operates in most states on the basis of "that which is not forbidden is permitted". The central government has little role in domestic legislation, being primarily concerned with Imperial-wide issues and regulating relationships between constituent parts.

The state is authoritarian. Political decisions are made by the Imperial government and put into effect by the twin pillars of the monarchy, the military and the bureaucracy. Citizen influence is primarily a result of petitioning and sway over local government bodies, or through the Commons, which is populated almost entirely by the untitled or those who have merely purchased a baron's title, and not by the "true" nobility.

Organization
The Holy Roman Empire is not a centralized state united under one administration as a single organization. Rather it is an amalgamation of feudal relationships tempered by centuries of experience and ancient traditions, all of which have at their center the Habsburg dynasty. The Habsburgs are hereditary Emperors of a patchwork mostly Catholic constitutional state spreading from the Moselle to the Urals, within which their authority is unchallenged. They are also hereditary Kings of England and Spain, which with their respective colonized shares of the world cover the majority of the plant’s surface. The few other sovereign dynasties of the world owe obeisance to the Habsburgs as Emperors of the universal Holy Roman Empire and in practice have forfeited their independence. Even the Pope, the symbolic equal of the Emperor, refrains from challenging the prerogatives of the dynasty.

The “organic” lands of the Holy Roman Empire are those territories and principalities that would be part of the Empire legally without regard to dynastic status. In practice this means the Germanies, Italy, and Lothringen. These are a patchwork of statelets with historical titles and rights going back to the period where the Imperial crown was elective. The Duchy of Bavaria, the Duchy of Saxony, the Margravate of Brandenburg, and the County Palatinate are the most important sub-units of the Empire not under direct Habsburg control. Other smaller units, mostly controlled by Bishops and lesser clergy, survived through the crucible of the Twenty Years War and retain their autonomy. Within the Integralis, as it is commonly known, a strong body of common law and procedure exists, and no independent military or militia formations are permitted. The states of the HRE are not technically considered to be sovereign after the Peace of Prague, though they do retain broad latitude in cultural matters and at least have not been incorporated entirely into the Habsburg dynastic holdings.

The hereditary lands of the Austrian Habsburgs, the Erbländer, are incorporated into the Integralis on a quasi-legal basis. The Archduchy of Austria, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Netherlands were all part of the Holy Roman Empire (at various times) before the Habsburgs. The Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy were certainly not parts of the Holy Roman Empire and would not be without the dynastic connection. Other parts of the Erbländer such as the former Ottoman and Chinese Empires are administered as part of the Holy Roman Empire without being organized into units consistent with such status. The colonial holdings of the Integralis are largely concentrated in the Erbland of the Netherlands, including New Hollandia (Australia), the Spice Islands, Taiwan, and portions of Africa and India. The administration of the Erbländer was highly rationalized over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, and forms a core of population, industry, and power upon which Habsburg domination of the world rests. Political decision-making is centralized in Vienna, though the bureaucracies of the Erbländer are somewhat autonomous and historic localized structures of administration still exist to provide a voice to their populations.

The Kingdom of Britain composes England, Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Calais, and an extensive colonial empire in North America, India, and Africa. It was home to an offshoot of the Spanish Habsburg branch from 1558 until 2568, including the inheritance of the Spanish Empire itself in 1700. As a holding of the Austrian Habsburgs since 2593 it has been placed “in association with” the Holy Roman Empire, which has led to British representation in the Imperial Diet at Rome and the establishment of a completely unified colonial and military command. Nonetheless it has considerable autonomy as an unincorporated part of the Holy Roman Empire, while the strong British Parliament prevents the Habsburgs from eroding that autonomy through the powers of the Crown. The British jealously maintain their own naval and army formations and vigorously promote independent colonization, while their corporations have infiltrated nearly every level of Imperial commerce. Many Imperial subjects are resentful of the superior position of the British, and complain that the independence of Parliament has led to the Kingdom of Britain getting away with contributing less than its fair share to the combined Imperial treasury.

The Kingdom of Spain was a dynastic holding of the British Habsburgs from 1700 to 2568, during which time the rationalizing reforms of the late 18th century eroded the medieval privileges of the fueros and created a highly centralized state. Upon the extinction of the British Habsburgs in 2568 Spanish forces largely pledged their allegiance to the Austrian Habsburgs, greatly aiding efforts to restore the Imperial position in the wake of the Deluge. The loyalty of the Spanish and their extensive empire, covering South America, Africa, India, and the Philippines, was remembered by the Habsburgs afterward. Spanish autonomy was confirmed, mainly to insure that the touchy distinctiveness that so drives Spanish pride and made them such valuable servants of the Imperial remains intact. The weak position of the Cortes compared to the British Parliament insures that the Habsburgs can synchronize Spanish policy with the needs of Vienna. The Spanish are entitled to a presence in the Imperial Diet for their possession of Sardinia and the Duchy of Milan, but as an “associated state” have the largest single block of votes, as the Habsburg Erbländer vote as separate units.

The Kingdom of France, shorn of significant parts of its territory, is an “associated state” of the Empire. Unlike Britain and Spain, the French owe this status to their defeat in the War of the Covenant in 1803. They are strictly limited in the number of independent formations they can field, with most French conscripts serving in the catch-all KuK Kriegsraummarine or KuK Armee. Cultural and religious autonomy are guaranteed to the French by treaty, but the Bourbon Kings are required to reaffirm their vassalage to the Habsburg Emperor at their coronation. Imperial scrutiny of French internal affairs remains considerable even in modern times. Similar conditions apply to the Romanovs of Siberia, the Vasa of Denmark-Sweden, the Tokugawa of Japan, and the few other nominally sovereign dynasties in the world. A handful of other “associated states”, most importantly the Ethiopian Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, and the Papal States enjoy significant freedom and nominal sovereignty despite being surrounded by the Integralis.

The residence of the Emperor is at Vienna, the heart of the Erbländer and traditional center of Habsburg power since Rudolf von Habsburg had first raised the family to prominence. The Emperor retains all but absolute authority as commander-in-chief of the Imperial and associated militaries and effective control over high state politics. A handful of common institutions, having a dynastic rather than national standing, aid in carrying out policy by working the complex and byzantine mechanisms of the Imperial bureaucracies. The Hofkriegsrat is largely responsible for military and diplomatic policy, while the Hofkammer handles domestic political policy and fiscal matters, with the Geheimer Rat serving as a general Privy Council to advise the Emperor on any and all topics. The Imperial Court surrounding the Emperor is an institution unto itself, controlling all ritual associated with the Imperial Presence as well as handling formalities and other duties associated with the role of Head of State.

The Imperial Diet is the representative body of the Empire, divided into two chambers, a Commons and a Senate, after the 1906 Diet of Rome. The Commons consists of the elected or appointed delegates of the population of the Integralis and associated colonies, serving for ten year terms at a time. The lower nobility of Freiherrn and Reichsherrn can serve in the Commons, but the hochadel of the Empire are forbidden from being representatives. The Senate, by contrast, represents the sub-units of the Integralis and the Erbländer as well as the associated states and as such is largely appointed from the hochadel. Fully one-quarter of the Senate is composed of clergy, most from the Integralis as leaders of sub-units, or automatic appointments from important sees, but the Papacy still appoints 10% of the Senate directly. Various Imperial positions are automatically represented in the Senate, as are prominent positions among the associated states, with about 60% of the seats reserved to the discretion of dynasts in the Empire.

Military Ranks and Structure
Navy: The KuK Kriegsraummarine is organized to support the standard administration unit, Rayon, of 10x10x10 light years. A group of Rayons varying according to strategic necessity is arranged into Sectors, supported by a Sector Fleet headed by an Admiraal zur Raum. In general, the Sectors are more densely composed in space close to striking range of alien empires or lost colonies. A stretch of worlds 250ly in dimension from the nearest Ssi’Rissan systems forms the Militärgrenz, where colonies are under the direct administration of the Imperial military and dense Sector Fleets are augmented with powerful striking fleets. Reserve fleets are concentrated in the Inner Rim of relatively settled and developing colony worlds Sol-ward of the Militärgrenz, while important industrial worlds in the Outer Core support system defense fleets. The Inner Core hosts yet more reserve fleets and a huge mothballed navy, as well as the massive Home Fleet guarding Sol itself. Recently a Guard Fleet has been assembled to oversee security of the IU portal connecting the Empire to Universe CON-5ST. A parallel Fortress Command oversees the naval infrastructure, orbital battle stations, and planetary space defenses of the Empire.

Sternenmarschal (Commander-in-Chief, held uniquely by the Emperor)
Grossadmiraal (Highest naval rank, held only by the Chief of Naval Operations)
Admiraal (Commands active fleets and heads certain departments of the Admiralty)
Admiraal zur Raum (Commands sector fleets)
Vizadmiraal (Commands capital squadrons)
Konteradmiraal (Commands cruiser squadrons)
Kommodore (Commands light flotillas)
Kapitän (Commands ships of the line, some facilities)
Kapitän zur Raum (Commands cruisers, light squadrons)
Kommandant (Commands some cruisers, light squadrons, XO of a ship of the line)
Leutnant Kommandant (Commands destroyers, XO of a cruiser)
Leutnant (XO of destroyer, commands some system pickets and other light vessels)
Leutnant zur Raum (might command system frigate and other light vessels)
Fähnrich (Ensign, lowest regular officer rank)
Kadett-Aspirant (Midshipman)

Marines: The Imperial Marines are a branch of the naval service, although quite distinct in character. Most Marines serve in shipboard complements, ranging from a platoon of Marines aboard most destroyers to a full battalion aboard ships of the line. Other Marine formations serve as specialist landing forces aboard the Fleet Landing Service, usually deployed in corps strength to support a major invasion. All Marine units are equipped with power armor, which with their carefully cultivated élan and aggressive spirit makes them considerably more dangerous than an equivalent army infantry unit. The largest deployment of Marines is in Army strength, and given their differing mission and deployment use a modified version of the Army ranks, with the ranks above General der Division replaced only with General zur Sternen, Leutnant-General, and Generaloberst as the highest rank for the Commander of the Imperial Marine Forces on the Board of the Admiralty.

Army: The KuK Armee is, like the Navy, organized around supporting the Rayon and Sector administration of the Imperial colonial sphere. Sector Armies consist of all the assigned garrison forces in a given group of Rayons, which vary according to the development and defense needs of the planet in question. In general a developing colony world with a population in the millions will host at least one full scale Corps, while heavily industrialized core worlds with populations in the billions may host dozens of such formations. Militia and Civil Defense Command formations exist along the planetary garrison, to oversee protection of the population within the planetary defense network in the event of invasion. Civilian Constabulary and paramilitary Gendarme formations are responsible for most policing and domestic order duties, with the KuK Armee involving itself only in cases of large-scale armed rebellion. The use of martial law under such circumstances is invariably heavy-handed and repressive, and will last only as long as necessary to restore civilian authority. Offensive operations are carried out by standing assault armies, separate from the Sector Armies, though the depletion of Sector Armies to reinforce a planetary invasion or to form an ad-hoc assault or relief force is not unknown.

Organization is based on the regiment of five battalions, assigned to a particular planetary manpower base. The fifth battalion serves as a cadre and training unit to replace the losses of the other battalions, or to act as a core for the reconstitution of a regiment otherwise depleted in action. The four maneuver battalions form the tactical regiment, which is assigned together with another tactical regiment to form a Brigade. Two brigades together with an artillery brigade comprising local air, space, and indirect fire defensive and offensive support elements make up a division. Infantry Divisions are composed of four infantry regiments, usually mechanized with IFVs but lacking power armor. Cavalry Divisions are generally composed of two Armored Fighting Vehicle regiments and two supporting mechanized regiments with power-armored infantry and the obligatory artillery brigade. Other divisions specialized for particular environments exist and are usually found among the standing assault armies. Three divisions together form a Corps, the smallest planetary garrison unit, which will typically have expanded technical and support assets as well as control over atmospheric support aviation regiments. Numerous Corps together form a Tactical Army, with the Sector or standing assault Army being composed of several Tactical Armies.

Generalissimus (Commander-in-Chief of the KuK Armee)
Feldmarschal (Commands forces assigned to a Theater in wartime)
Sektormarschal (Commands the forces of a Sector)
Generaloberst (Rank assigned to the heads of the General Staff Departments)
Kapitan-General (Commands the forces of a Planet)
Leutnant-General (Commands a Tactical Army)
Feldzügmeister (Commands Artillery assets at Tactical Army level)
General der Pionere (Commands Engineers, NBC & C3 support assets at Army level)
General der Kavallerie (Commands an Armored Corps)
General der Infanterie (Commands an Infantry Corps)
General der Division (Commander a Division)
Generalmajor (Commands a Brigade)
Oberst (Commands a regiment)
Oberstleutnant (Commands militia regiments, often found at various headquarters)
Major (Commands battalions)
Kapitan (Commands companies)
Erste Leutnant (Commands platoons)
Zweite Leutnant (Military Academy officers are commissioned as such)
Fähnrich (Lowest officer rank, University conscripts are commissioned as such)

Conscription: The Empire is divided up into military districts overseen by joint Army-Navy staffs with the purpose of regulating conscription intake from their assigned Sectors. Conscripts assigned to the Navy are usually allocated from the central Admiralty Board’s Personnel Department, while the Army prefers to sub-divide the military district into recruitment zones for its regiments. Conscripts serve for eleven years, a considerably extended term thanks in part to the ubiquity of longevity treatments in the Empire extending the expected human lifespan well past 200 years. One whole year is typically given over to training and familiarization before assignment to a unit. Deferment is allowed for university education so long as the student attends officer classroom instruction, as the Empire prefers to find its junior officers among the educated classes. Numerous military academies exist for both the Navy and the Army, typically serving the children of the nobility and providing the path to command rank. The children of enlisted men promoted to officer rank and ennobled with a knighthood for meritorious service are also guaranteed admission into an academy, which is one of the most important ways new blood enters the Imperial aristocracy.

High Command: Most policy decisions impacting the military are decided in the Hofkriegsrat, the council charged with an Imperial defense issues portfolio by the Emperor. The Emperor is naturally the chairman of the council, which includes the service heads of the Navy and Army, the Imperial Chancellor, various Archdukes, certain retired Admirals and Generals, the head of the Finance Ministry, the head of Military Intelligence, and in theory but not practice every member of the Privy Council. The role of the Hofkriegsrat is to provide advice to the Emperor and to articulate policy decisions into actionable programs for the military departments. The Board of the Admiralty and the General Staff of the Army are the respective headquarters of the military branches and implement Imperial directives as well as control institutional development and operational strategy. The Admiralty and General Staff prepare much of the projections and statistics required by the Emperor and Hofkriegsrat, from raw data collected by the independent Military Intelligence department and the civilian bureaucracy.

Religion
The Roman Catholic Church: The marriage of Habsburg imperial ambition and Catholic ecclesiastical drive has been fruitful for Catholicism, which is now the religion of the overwhelming majority of humanity. The theology and ritual of the Church has little changed since the Council of Mantua in the 16th century, though the Church has modernized somewhat in outward style and has ceased to persecute most heretics. It does however remain the strongest moral and social force in the Empire, and in Catholic territories remains a vital force in educational and charitable endeavors. The link between Pope and Emperor remains as strong as ever, with both sides recognizing that their dominant positions remain dependent on each other.

The Lutheran Church: The state church of Denmark-Sweden, Brandenburg, Saxony, and other portions of Northern Germany. Lutherans are not in communion with Rome, though by the Peace of Prague are not persecuted in the Empire either. The various Lutheran state churches coordinate policy and maintain a common theology by way of a coordinating committee of Bishops. Lutherans are the second-most widely spread Christian sect, and disproportionately feature in mercantile and commercial fields. Liberalizing tendencies have found their greatest expression among the Lutheran churches, which has dulled the traditional hostility to the Catholic Church.

The Reformed Evangelical Church: Calvinist theology predominates in the state church of France and among the Scottish and Puritan populations of the Kingdom of Britain. Theological liberalism has predominated in the French church since the decisive defeat of revolutionary Protestantism in the War of the Covenant, while the Scots and Puritans cling stubbornly to the Edinburgh Catechism and predictions of the immanent collapse of the Whore of Babylon. Despite frequently testy interdenominational relations, Calvinists are found throughout the Empire, with the Scots and Puritans in particular having a reputation as hardy explorers and independent traders. The Deluge saw a revival of Calvinist martial spirit for a few decades before Imperial authority was reasserted over humanity.

The Ethiopian Catholic Church: In communion with Rome since the late 16th century, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church retains its distinctive liturgy and language. It acknowledges the Papacy as the head of the Church but otherwise retains significant autonomy under the Patriarch of Addis Ababa.

The Greek Catholic Church: The conquest of Constantinople by Imperial forces saw the original center of Orthodox Christianity in the power of the solidly Catholic Habsburgs. The Patriarch was removed on grounds of being pro-Ottoman and replaced with a new Patriarch willing to subscribe to the Union of Brest. Revolts followed in Greece that stalled the Habsburg conquest of Anatolia and led to a modification of the terms of union favoring the autonomy of the formerly Orthodox churches. The gradual institution of Greek Catholic authority in parishes throughout the Balkans required decades to effect, though such a low pace maintained the passivity of the peasantry. After the conquest of European Russia a similar union was imposed by reinstating a pro-Catholic Patriarch in Moscow. The adoption of the Union of Brest by the Tsardom of Siberia in 1930 saw a nominal end to the ancient rivalry between the Western and Eastern halves of the Church. Nonetheless, with a distinct liturgy and ecclesiastical organization, the Greek Catholic Church remains quite separate from the Roman Catholic community.

The Chinese Orthodox Church: Established in 1674 after decades of groundwork by the Jesuits, the Chinese Orthodox Church is a unique hybrid of Chinese custom and Christianity. Forced to recognize Papal supremacy in 1949 and then largely destroyed in the cataclysm of the AI Wars, the Chinese Church reconstituted itself as a core of Han identity under Habsburg rule. The Chinese Orthodox Church retains a distinctive liturgy in Mandarin, rules for the clergy and ecclesiastical organization influenced by the classical Chinese bureaucracy, and a special emphasis on veneration of the ancestors and prayers for the souls of the dead. Confucian ethics remain a core of the moral teachings of the Church, with the core theology of the Church modified by careful “elaborations” to make it more compatible with the ancient Chinese culture. Critics of the Jesuits have denounced the Church as being tolerant of paganism and riddled with barely concealed heresies, and many of the innovations of the Church have made the Vatican uneasy.

Judaism: Emancipated gradually over the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, the Jews remain a small but prosperous and disproportionately important minority in the Empire. Cleavages between secularized liberal Jews originating in the Halakah of the 19th century, and ultra-fundamentalist Jewish congregations formed in reaction during the 20th century, are severe. Intermarriage between liberal Jews and Protestants is common, between Jews and Catholics much less so and usually on the basis of one spouse’s conversion; conservative Jews by contrast tend to isolate themselves from the prevailing, heavily Christian society. Many Orthodox Jews have established low-tech settlements on worlds throughout human space, still awaiting the Messiah who will restore the Kingdom of Israel. More liberal Jews have settled in Palestine, forming the majority of the population base of the Imperial Kingdom of Jerusalem, or have gone into space with their host nationalities.

Islam: The struggle for control over the Middle East saw explosive upheaval engulf the core lands of Islam after the fall of Constantinople in 1798. The Great Wahabbi Uprising in the middle 19th century saw further depopulation and devastation across the region, with the holy cities of Mecca and Medina razed to the ground in 1858. The 1860s saw the end of Islamic resistance to Imperial power in the Middle East and a slow but inevitable wasting away of the religion as Orthodox and Catholic settlers poured into the empty regions. North Africa, subject to Spanish and French imperial rule for centuries, had been well on the way to Christianization even before the destruction of the Holy Cities. Islam in the rest of the world beat a similar retreat over the long centuries, not without fiercely violent rearguard actions, but by the time the Empire had spread to the stars it had ceased to be a notable religion among mankind.

Hinduism: Repressed first by the Islamic Mughal Empire and then by the Catholic colonial powers, Hinduism was buffeted relentless from the 17th century onward. Proselytizing was always successful among the Dalit and lower castes, while the Brahmin priesthood lacked the access to state power to maintain its hold over the population. Efforts in the 19th century to reform Hinduism in a more modern guise, complete with a monotheistic emphasis on the unity of the Godhead in Brahma faltered due to the growing fanaticism of the remaining Hindu leadership. The All-India Rising of the mid 19th century, contemporaneous with the struggle against Islam, saw a period of absolutely brutal fighting as the Christian colonial forces struggled to hold down India. The conscription and arming of lower caste converts to Christianity saw the war turn into a Crusade to stamp out the higher castes, which in the end lobotomized the religion. Pockets of Hinduism persist in the Indian subcontinent but are largely isolationist, and the religion has virtually no presence off Earth.

Buddhism: Theravada Buddhism continues to dominate much of Southeast Asia into the 33rd century, and has found numerous colonies among the stars. Mahayana Buddhism by contrast has suffered heavily from the conversions of Japan, Korea, and China to Christianity. The fall of the Qing dynasty saw a major Buddhist revolt in China suppressed by overwhelming Imperial forces in a decade long struggle, while the AI Wars all but wiped out the remaining Chinese Buddhist population.

Gnostic Church of the Revealed Truth: Otherwise known as the Bogumils, the Gnostic Church of the Revealed Truth originated in the disastrous wake of the AI War. A previous period of relative secularism and liberalism had paved the way for a questioning spirit in popular culture, while the devastation of the war against the machines created a spiritual void in many. The re-emergence of a dualist heresy based on a Gnostic interpretation of Christianity was fuelled by the rediscovery of certain 2nd and 3rd century texts as well as a fanatical cadre of popularizers undeterred by official disapproval. Terrorism associated with the Gnostic movement led to its ban in the 22nd century, where it went deeply underground until the spread of Faster than Light technology allowed an exodus away from Earth and Imperial authority. The sect re-emerged in 2538, backed by a powerful fleet and subversive agents across the Empire, starting a war that led to the Deluge. The bloody and chaotic fighting that followed dissipated Bogumil power and the attractiveness of the sect, though since the Empire’s sway was re-established in the 27th century the suppression of the sect has been a high priority. The Office of the Holy Inquisition was reinstated by the Church to ferret out Bogumil congregations, while the Empire has pressed relentlessly against the Spinward frontier to incorporate the fragmented remnants of the Bogumil colonies.

General religious reflections:

The Holy Roman Empire is and remains officially a Catholic institution and owes its legitimacy to a Catholic conception of universal empire supporting a Christian moral order. It is however an extension of the secular power of the Emperor rather than the spiritual power of the Papacy, and accommodates a wide variety of religions under its aegis. The existence of autonomous principalities that are subordinated to the Emperor as feudal vassals (in law and theory) rather than as personal possessions insulates most non-Catholics from feeling the full weight of a state religion. On the other hand, the situation was less enlightened in previous decades and the religious complexion of Earth was altered through brutal warfare and repressive government policy. Religious observance is mostly a private matter by the time of TGG stories, but if the believers insist on making it a public matter by subversive radicalism the full weight of state power can be employed to harass or eradicate such communities, as a matter of state security rather than religious persecution per se. Polytheist religions like Hinduism (which had a bad 19th century) are in no more or less disadvantageous position than any other non-Catholic religion.

"New" religions from CON-5 like Wicca are treated with open contempt, while Satanism is simply viewed as a prima facie expression of moral perversion or mental disorder. And that applies as much (or more) to Lutherans from Northern Germany and Scandinavia or Calvinists from Scotland and France as it does to Catholics from Central Europe and Spain or England and Japan. The Chinese Orthodox are kind of bitter at everyone, while the surviving Muslims and the Jews are rather well assimilated and so would tend to share the attitudes of the rest of the Empire. Hindus and Buddhists from Southeast Asia are more likely to be tolerant of such religions simply because it's an Outside Context situation for them.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The Burning of Kasszaris (TGG background)
(Written by Christopher Purnell.)
June 7th, 2886
Kasszaris,
Ssi’Rissan Khanate,
HAB-0

A strong wind blew up clods and fits of the loosely packed sand underneath the feet of Ssi’Hsiher, billowing into a thick dust that his inner, opaque eyelid struggled to protect against. It assaulted his nose, clogging his sinus cavities and drying out the membranes inside, leaving his struggling to keep the scent of the prey. Even the thin, bristly hairs of his protective coating were being matted down by his instinctual hindbrain, in preparation for a potentially deadly sandstorm of the sort that still killed millions of Ssi’Rissan every year. That, at least, was no threat here, for the environmental controls were set only to remind him of the hardships of his ancestors and not to replicate them.

Something in the storm twitched. His muscles tensed, and his ears signaled to the other members of his pack, skulking immediately in his rear, that the time to pounce had come. He knew that his clanmate Ssi’Shik was approaching from the prey’s flank, and his newest broodmate BrakZawl had circled around to close off the forward avenue of escape. He tensed forward, his hindlegs coiling like springs to propel his predator bulk through the air, his fur standing on edge, and saliva already flooding his mouth as his hindbrain anticipated the sensations to come. And then his six hundred pound bulk was flying through the air, springing with little grace and extreme power, with foreclaws extended and ready to tear into the prey…

As usual, the mostly hairless, mostly pink ape thing screamed out in utter terror as it happened to turn and catch sight of its impending death. Ssi’Hsiher literally tore the unfortunate to ragged strips of flesh, as his forward paw ripped through the animal’s head and passed all the way downward into the torso. He could feel the chunks of brain lodged into the paws, and the wetness of blood coating his mane, and it was exhilarating as always. The rest of the pride began crowding in, grabbing chunks of flesh and devouring them as the packleader stepped back. Ssi’Hsiher licked his lips, the salty taste of gore stimulating his appetite, but the protocol was ancient and ingrained; the packleader proved his worthiness first by providing food for others, and then himself. He idly flicked off parts of the central nervous system with his pseudothumb, and began to groom himself.

He noted the approach of BrakZawl, coming from the far end of the hunting lodge where she had taken the vital role of blockguard in the pack. She nestled her ears backward in the Ssi’Rissan version of a submissive smile, and began muzzling his mane, licking the remains from his short fur. He straightened up, enjoying the close contact and readily submissive gesture from this prospective bearer of his line. “You please me, Zwal. You performed well in this hunt, as a true blockguard. If the ape-thing had escaped me, you were positioned perfectly to ambush it.”

That was no light compliment. The packleader was the most honored position in the pack, but the blockguard was next and in many respects seen as even more vital. The blockguard would sacrifice his or her life alone if need be to buy time for the rest of the pack to attack the prey. The position required skill and selflessness and no small amount of intuition, all traits desirable in a mother to Ssi’ clan sons. “I am pleased to demonstrate my fitness, my Packleader.”

The title Khan was chosen by humans to translate the title held by Ssi’Hsiher, partly because of the Ssi’Rissan system of government and partly because it was vaguely close phonetically to the Ssi’Rissan term. It translated more literally as “Great Packleader of the Eternally Conquering Pride of the People”, which encompassed something of the semi-divine status that the Khan held as the literal head of all packs of the species. Even the name Ssi’Rissan meant “Those who belong to Ssi’Ris”, the legendary unifier of the homeworld Kasszaris and founder of a dynasty that had propagated itself across four millennia. The scale of Ssi’Ris’s success was perhaps best gauged when one considered that nearly 4% of the entire homeworld population could trace their lineage back to the near-legendary conqueror.

Some, though, more directly than others. Ssi’Hsiher was lord of all he surveyed, the unquestioned leader of an entire race. His hunting pack this day comprised the purest of Ssi’Rissan clan heads, and his own group of exclusive broodmates. As BrakZawl nuzzled her way down his torso, he reflected that life was indeed, very good. But his position was not without obligations, and he subtly pushed his mate away as he focused upon them. She recognized his signals, and stepped aside.

“I know you find these humans to be unsatisfying prey,” he addressed his hunting group, demanding their attention while attempting to maintain the informal, respectful aspect of the pack intact. “You wonder why I insist on hunting it instead of the armorbeast or clawbeast or even the succulent meatbeast. True, we are stalking the human species through the stars, but even a symbolic display needs only to be repeated once or twice, do I know your minds pack-kin?”

The grizzled, somewhat balding Kass’amer, the head of the revered Kass’ tribe, leaned forward in polite but dubious stance. “These humans have little meat to them, and more fat than even a meatbeast. They can barely provide sport at all in the hunt. I know you bred true of the great Ssi’Maks, and have some agenda at work here, but I do not see it.”

His remarks annoyed the Khan, as they frequently did, and despite his own invitation for them. The old warlord looked as if he would be killed and devoured by an ambitious subordinate or his own sons any day now, but he had looked that way for eighteen cycles now, nearly as long as Ssi’Hsiher had been alive. The reference to his great grandfather was also irritating but opportune.

“The revered Ssi’Maks was of great stature, yes,” the Khan conceded with deceptive equanimity, “and yet he failed to deal with these humans. Even the greatest of my forebearers, the Hornbeast of Kasszaris and Slayer of Zard’an himself, had to settle with some minor adjustments of our territory when leading the pack against these humans. For hundreds of cycles we have warred with these mocking ape-things, and failed to sink our teeth and claws into their throats. We have not felt their life’s blood pool in our mouths, and tasted of their sweet organs after gutting them. I have had our pack hunt these creatures to remind us of this humiliation.”

Kass’amer barely shifted, though his subtle twitching indicated passing interest. Another of the pack thrust himself forward, and the Khan recognized Ssi’Ussik, a descendent of Ssi’Gharis whose flesh Ssi’Maks had feasted upon. “You humiliate us with these games, then! You think we are unworthy to face real prey, and remind us of these ape-things and their endless resources. The honor of our pride has been proven over and over again, and if it were not for their artificial power these humans would be nothing but fodder for children and the elderly. So, scion of the great Ssi’Maks, what do you show save that your line has failed to rid us of their infestation?”

The Khan bared his teeth in an obvious threat. “Would you invoke a trial to combat, Ussik? I would like nothing more than to rip your throat out and spill your blood into the sand here. Your cowardly and disgraced ancestors handed us the most humiliation before these weaklings, and it is I who will erase the stain that they have burdened the All-Conquering Pride with. My point, brain-hobbled Ussik, is to make clear what must be done, that hunting the human is no longer a matter of the thrill of chase or the pleasure of the kill, or the fullness of belly. We must destroy them until none of them are left, and this exercise will be accomplished as the task that it is.”

Ssi’Shik, more closely related to Ssi’Ussik than the Khan, stepped in to restrain a new visibly taut challenger. “There should be no combat now, not over a fresh kill and during time of trial. Your point, oh Khan, is well taken even if some of your pack have chosen to take offense where only a prod to action was meant. I have long held the same view of these matters, and after the last round of combat…”

The environmental controls of the hunting lodge suddenly, and without much warning, were reset to a more neutral environment. The harsh heat associated with the rising daysun disappeared, as did the strong winds and after a few moments the billowing sand. The Khan, annoyed, looked towards the environmentally sealed entrance for an explanation; it was far distant now, but he could make it out on the horizon. A bounding figure caught his eye, a Ssi’Rissan on four legs moving at the rapid pace of a sprint; he could only be a messenger.

“It appears your speech is to be cut short, my Khan,” Kass’amer replied, demonstrating that his eyesight was still unimpaired despite his advanced age. “Let us wait and hear what news this cub brings.”

The cub proved to be a mature Pride Coordinator, the signal of his office bouncing wildly up and down from its neck harness as he began slowing down out of the sprint after the initial rush. He sounded even faintly out of breath as he prostrated himself before the Khan. “My Khan, the humans attack!” he finally got.

“What? This is impossible!” Shik exploded, already beginning to tense into the wary attack stance. Not once in seven major wars and countless skirmishes fought against the humans had they dared to penetrate so far into Khanate, and the homeworld was sacred. He might as well have announced that Ssi’Ris had returned with the Honored Host of Prides to join the war.

It was BrakZawl who broke the stunned spell. “This officer has forfeited his life if he is making a joke or is mistaken. This must be a raid. Our Khan, leader of the Eternally-Conquering Pride, you must leave this place and defend our homeworld and life’s blood against the humans. Smash this immediate threat down and eat their entrails, and there will be plenty of time to speak of the more efficient slaughter of their race. The rest of you, too, have you no packs to form, no prides to lead?”

The bold speech sparked everyone to action. The Pride Coordinator led the group to the underground bunker with its maglev connection to the planetary defense center in the capital. Despite his urgent behavior, there was still plenty of time for Ssi’Hsiher to work himself up in a rage over this latest insult. Another part resolved to mate with BrakZwal to produce a strong litter as soon as possible, but it was blood that was on his mind as he scrambled down into the deeply protected basement. Whatever was happening, the humans who had defiled the sacred center of the Khanate would pay dearly for it.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

June 7th, 2886
Kasszaris System,
Ssi’Rissan Khanate,
HAB-0

Jump points blossomed in sets of a half-dozen, with over a thousand such patterns marking the emergence of the largest space fleet in history assembled by any known power in the universe. Human ships sudden blossomed into realspace right above the outer gravity well of the system in a display of helmsmanship that astonished and terrified the Ssi’Rissan military personnel assigned to monitor the area. Within a few seconds of stunned silence they were on the hyperradio, sending alarmed reports to the home fleet and the Coordinator of Hosts on Kasszaris. This close to the gravity well the human ships had translated with no momentum at all, but they could be upon the defenders of the homeworld all too quickly…

The immense bulk of a Siegreich class battleship, nearly one and half kilometers long and massing over thirty million metric tons, served as the brains of the enormous fleet. Slab-sided and squat looking, it radiated a brute force that the Ssi’Rissan, who designed graceful and sleek capital ships, had long eschewed; the only concessions to aesthetics made by the human designers was a vestigial viewing box just above the spinal mount railgun that formed the “prow” of the ship. The hull was painted a natural looking grey with special stealth paint, but a band of black and yellow was run along the top and bottom of the hull amidships, linked by bands of Tyrian purple on the port and starboard hull. A crest was visible above the viewing box, proclaiming it the SMS Dünamünde, and a hull number was painted in white on the uppermost engine at the back of the ship. Five other such vessels arrived in formation with the Dünamünde, forming one of the most powerful squadrons of the fleet.

Aboard the flag bridge of the Dünamünde a flurry of activity was taking place as the staff of Admiraal Johannes von Beidecker confirmed the safe arrival and positioning of every ship in Special Task Force 9. As per standard procedure everyone was wearing their skintight space survival suits, creating a mass of seemingly identical white-suited sailors milling about consoles ringing the command pit. Only an experienced civilian could have made out the information conveyed by ribbons on the breasts of those spartan suits, but even a tyro would have been able to guess which one was Beidecker. He was lounging comfortably in the center chair of the command pit, a command console extending from it held outward as if at leisure. He was carefully and conspicuously broadcasting an air of utter unconcern and even boredom despite the incredible power at his command.

His flag-officer, Kapitän Andrés Tsiba, handled the collation of reports and prepared a summary for his commander. Unlike most of the crew Tsiba did not come from a system settled by one or more of the ethnic groups of Central Eurasia, rather hailing from Earth itself. His mulatto complexion was common among the population of the Kingdom of the Kongo, but it stood out on the Dünamünde. Beidecker appreciated his competence, and was gratified when the junior officer finished downloading the report to his console. “The French Navy vanguard is off by several degrees to port and the mixed reserves are an average of three million kilometers out from their expected translation zone, but that is the extent of the miscues. All ships have emerged safely,“ Tsiba confirmed orally.

“Excellent.” He clapped his gloved hands together, and looked up at the ceiling. “The wall elements will precede in-system at 1200 gees of acceleration to Point Alpha, opposite the system primary’s fourth planet. I want the screen ready to boost to 1400 gees to overtake the wall thirty minutes to arrival. Now, what do our sensors say about the disposition of the system’s population and defense forces?”

Tsiba went to work at his console for a few more seconds, ordering the ship’s artificial intelligence to compress the sensor readings of the entire task force into a single composite picture. “We have confirmed that the second planet orbiting the system primary is heavily inhabited, and judging by the neutrino readings orbital traffic is heavier than that around Earth itself. There’s also significant traffic around the third planet out, and light traffic around a moon of the fourth planet. There also seem to be habitation stations orbiting all three planets and in the asteroid field between the primary and secondary stars. There are… a lot of defensive stations around the second planet, and what look like dockyards and mooring sites for a big fleet. We haven’t located their home fleet yet, though it could just be masked in with orbital traffic, and we seem to have picked up an isolated detachment engaging in maneuvers in the asteroid field.”

The Admiraal tried to reconstruct the picture of the system in his head. The plan had called for a sudden entry into the system gravity well, keeping the Cats from using their FTL systems to outmaneuver the fleet, and hopefully pining them up against their homeworld. The Cats would certainly rely on vast swarms of strike fighters, but the Empire had a nasty surprise in store for them on that score. But the intelligence on the Ssi’Rissan home system had been spotty at best, only an identification of the system and a confirmation of the second world from the primary as their homeworld and (presumably) capital. They were spread around further than anticipated, and that asteroid field would surely be the backbone of their system industry. To smash up the habitats there, and destroy an isolated segment of their fleet, would let the fleet accomplish a severe blow to the Cats even before the decisive battle.

“Take us in as planned, and we’ll hit their settlements on the fourth planet’s moon in passing,” he finally ordered. The goal was to deliver the Ssi’Rissan a message they would never forget. Beidecker decided that falling on their homeworld with all his available forces was still the best course of action. If the battle went as planned, they’d have time to deal with the other settlements before Cat reinforcements could arrive.

The standard encrypted burst transmission array was not being used to relay orders to the fleet, as a high degree of synchronization was required and that would take time to propagate through the many formations. Rather, the fleet had been so tightly grouped to allow for the relay of orders through a more exotic means, namely the telepaths abroad each ship. Telepathic contact was instantaneous, and individual telepaths could form relays that functioned as real time networks over vast distances, and even better they could relay the orders they received directly into the ship’s computer via the Direct Neural Interface Core every Imperial ship used to control the on-board AI. There were, needless to say, formidable advantages in coordination rendered possible by the system, but this was the first time it was being used on such a large scale.

In the case of the Dünamünde there were two telepaths aboard, one as part of the ship’s complement and another as part of Beidecker’s staff. The latter was Leutnant Kommandant Marcus Lum, a native of Sichuan IIb, and the central hub of the entire network. He reached out with his mind, seeking Leutnant Ruth Yuang at her station besides the ship’s DNI Core; her telepathic presence was like a searchlight besides the mindblind crew’s torches in the darkness. As military telepaths both were consummate professionals and rigidly disciplined, and they compartmentalized all extraneous thought by well-drilled instinct. Even so, the extraordinary sense of intimacy that marked all such unions remained in the back of their minds, something sensed but unremarked.

Alerted by the intrusion into her mind, Yuang reached out, seeking the minds of the rest of the squadron’s telepaths. They in turn reached out to the next squadron over, according to pre-planned design, and within seconds everything fell into place. Lum, sensing that the telepathic network was ready, looked over at his commander for a final confirmation.

Beidecker gave him a bored nod. “That’s 1200 gees for the wall to Point Alpha, with the screen to overtake thirty minutes out at 1400 gees. Kapitän Tsiba will provide you with further orders for the reduction of the moon settlement once he has the plan in hand.”

Lum relayed the order to Yuang, and it reached out across the fleet in an immeasurably short period of time. Then he sent another signal, the synchronization signal, and the engines of over 6,000 warships started boosting simultaneously. It was an efficiency that astounded and slightly terrified the Ssi’Rissan monitoring the fleet, not least because they believed their own race was the pinnacle of such elaborate coordination.

Satisfied, von Beidecker stood up and began heading to the command pit’s steps. Several members of the crew looked quizzically, though Tsiba merely smiled in amusement. “I’m going to get a cup of coffee,” the Admiraal announced nonchalantly. “And I’ll have some sandwiches and drinks brought down here. If the Kitties are slow on the uptake there might be time for pastries too.”

Most of those new to his staff laughed nervously or looked to their duties. The rest knew that the Old Man was serious, and it was his way of steadying their nerves before battle. If the fleet commander was relaxed about the coming engagement, and able to get in some last minute refreshments, they shouldn’t worry so much either. It was an unorthodox approach to command, but that was something that had marked von Beidecker’s career. And where very orthodox Imperial commanders had been stymied by the fast-moving, deep raiding tactics of the Ssi’Rissan on the frontier, von Beidecker had adapted and pacified his front. Which fact explained why he was in command, and not some other, better connected Admiraal.

Kapitän Tsiba knew that much from long experience, and did his part. “Best to eat while you can, it might be a while before you’ll be able to do so again. There’s some good chorizo stocked in the mess, and I’m going to have the chef use that for my sandwich. If the rest of you have orders to place, let me know now.”

It was a bit undignified acting like a waiter, but it alleviated some of the tension building up on the bridge. The rest was in the hands of the Ssi’Rissan. And not for the first time, Tsiba wondered how the homeworld of the enemy had been discovered, after over 600 years of contact and conflict with the intermittent enemy. Admiraal von Beidecker’s lack of connections at Court had probably not helped the strange silence of the Hofkriegsrat toward his polite inquiries about the intelligence. That bothered him more than he had been willing to admit, and that meant it bothered Tsiba a great deal. As he settled into his chair, and began opening the inter-ship coms to page the mess, he put it out of his mind. Whatever sources had been required, they had opened the way to the end of the Ssi’Rissan threat; no price could outweigh that boon, he was certain.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

June 7th, 2886
Kasszaris System,
Ssi’Rissan Khanate,
HAB-0

The battleship La Réforme was built along similar lines to the larger Siegreich class vessels, though instead of the orderly arrangement of missile batteries and energy weapons on the broadside favored by the Imperial and Royal Space Navy, she concentrated all of her missile launchers amidships, saving room for fewer, but more powerful, batteries of particle beams and capital scale lasers. She also boasted more cruiser scale energy batteries on her secondary armament, a feature of French naval engineering that placed her squadrons at the vanguard of Special Task Force 9. She featured the same grey stealth paint as the Dünamünde, this time livened by a broad strip of white with golden fleur-de-lises, the heraldic design of the Bourbon flag.

One design feature it shared with other warships Holy Roman Empire was the spinal mount mass driver, which it was employing to devastating effect against a moon settlement around the fourth planet orbiting the system primary. Efforts by the Ssi’Rissan ground-based defense to intercept the near-luminal projectiles were mostly futile, their batteries of missiles and capital lasers overwhelmed by the sheer hail of fire from the Imperial fleet. Environmental catastrophe would greet the survivors who emerged from their deep bunkers, even without the fleet adding to their misery by raking the world with capital weapons once they passed within twenty light-seconds of it on the course to the imaginary Point Alpha. With enough time and effort rendering the surface crust a sea of boiling magma was eminently possible, though the fleet would not be lingering around to carry out such an extreme operation. That fate was reserved for another body in the system.

The flag bridge aboard La Réforme looked similar to that of Dünamünde, but the attitude of the crew was very different. Amiral d’Escadron Jean Leblanc was the very model of the stoic, sober-minded and industrious Frenchman, and the example he set was reflected by his crew. There was no banter, no last minute tension, only a humming efficiency reflecting the intensive drilling that the ship’s crew had endured as part of France’s contribution to the Home Fleet defending Earth. Reports on the devastation to the Ssi’Rissan colony, the status of his battle squadron, the dispositions of the enemy and of the rest of the fleet, were all entered in silence. Leblanc used his command console to access relevent data as he needed, though the use of the telepathic relay had left him without serious responsibilities during the burn in-system. That was not a situation he relished.

“Amiral, traffic around the second world, the enemy homeworld, has broken up.” The sudden spoken report shook up the taut silence on the bridge. The speaker, a lieutenant assigned to monitor the sensor situation, was new to the staff. “Our recon probes show a large group of ships moving on an intercept course from the third planet, as well. They may be trying to link together and engage us before we enter range of their homeworld.”

“Naturally.” That was all the response Leblanc had to the news. He had assumed the Ssi’Rissan would try to gather as large a force as they could and intercept the fleet as far out from their homeworld as possible. The trade-off would be time to gather up more forces against the desire to keep them as far away as possible. Judging by the course of the squadrons from the third planet, it seemed as though the cats would not be trying to link up with the portion of the fleet out in the system asteroid belt. But that was a concern for Admiraal von Beidecker.

“Sir, we have multiple inbound signals from the third world on a direct interception course with the fleet! Estimate two thousand, seven hundred strikefighters at three thousand gees.” The lieutenant was not exactly panic, but Leblanc could sense the fear in his voice.

“Steady now young man,” the Amiral replied, his voice utterly level. He keyed in the channel to the ship’s chapel, requesting the pastor. His request to the clergyman was direct and simple. “Reverend, would you please provide this squadron with an appropriate prayer for facing the enemy in combat?”

Reverend Philippe DuPre had been inside his chaplain’s office when contacted by the Amiral, and took the call on the desktop monitor. He heard out the request, and slid his pince-nez glasses further up his nose, a gesture he had picked up at the seminary on Coligny when he needed to think. “But of course, Amiral. I will need a little time to open up the chapel proper and prepare the projector for transmission. I will work on a simple exhortation to the men, something to focus their attention on their martial duties and to remind them of the Lord’s presence.”

“As you think best, father.” Leblanc ended their conversation on his end, and the monitor returned to the ecclesiastical report that DuPre had been working on before the call. He turned the thing off and sighed wearily as his mind tried to pick out the best passage around which to frame a short sermon. Under the circumstances, he thought, the book of Joshua would be a good starting place; like most Reformed religions, the state church of France looked to the Old Testament as readily as to the New.

Setting up the transmitter was a task for one of his three assistants, and fortunately Jean was in the chapel proper sweeping and dusting. Phillippe called out for the younger cleric to set it up, while he changed into his cassock for the benefit of those crew-members who would see him from a holographic or visual display. After a bit of fumbling with the rather unwieldy garment the reverend succeeded in dressing himself, and heard Jean call out that the audiovisual transfer device was ready for broadcast. On a French warship that meant everyone was at least going to hear him, and many would see him via holographic or video projection, which lent gravity to his reflections. He was burdened with responsibility as a counselor and a guide to the crew in their relationship with Christ, but that sort of spiritual reinforcement was far removed from the immediacy of battle, nevermind such a clash as was shortly to erupt in the home system of the hated and feared enemy.

The chapel he entered was small and humbly furnished, especially by the standards of the Catholic chapels aboard Imperial warships or even the Lutheran chapels of Denmark-Sweden’s fleet. The chamber was long enough to include two aisles of pews capable of seating half the ship’s company, those being metallic pieces welded into the floor and covered with faux-wood paneling, as were the walls of the chapel. They faced a real wooden altar, with a simple Reformed Cross carved into the front of the piece and a microphone for the reverend concealed on the top. Illumination was provided by subdued artificial lights built into the ceiling above, rather than the ostentatious and dangerous candles used aboard Catholic warships. There was no organ or box for a choir, both staples of Lutheran chapels, and only a hint of color was provided by several plants grown at the side of the altar as a reminder of the existence of a world beyond the ship. It was a stark and severe setting well suited to the Reformed faith of the state church of France.

DuPre assumed his usual stance behind the altar, and bent down to pull out his well-worn Calvin Bible from the compartment holding it. He opened it to the beginning of Joshua and then laid it out on the altar before him, a familiar touch from any of his sermons. He then waved to Jean, who first checked for any other transmissions going out or in the queue for use of the projectors; there were none, so he turned it on and flashed the reverend a thumb’s down sign to signify everything was good to go. Philippe resolved to talk with the younger man about adopting pagan mannerisms from the heretic English, but it slipped his mind as he began his message to the squadron.

“Brothers in Faith, we are called upon these days to deliver a mortal blow to the aliens that have oppressed our colonies for so long. The predations of these foul, demonically inspired monsters are long known to us, and have burdened our fellow believers without ceasing for centuries. Most recently the slaughter of the innocents on the world of New Albion, a massacre exceeding that of Herod or the foul Guise in intensity, has weighed upon our Scottish brothers in the Reformed Faith. In an unguarded moment we may ask ourselves why God has seen fit to allow such oppression, despite knowing that this world is full of toil and suffering for the Elect for good reason. I say to you all, this is part of God’s plan for those who will be saved, a crucible to shape and harden the true believers of this world in preparation to enter the next. Just as the Israelites were afflicted by the pagan tribes of Canaan in order to drive them away from false idols and to remind them of the Covenant, so too have we been afflicted by this satanic enemy as punishment for our sins of pride and following after false gods.

But God has not forgotten the Covenant that the true Christian people have made with Him, and the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ that all would find solace in Him remain as true today as they were two thousand and eight hundred years ago. The Lord has given us the means and knowledge to strike back against the alien oppressor with overwhelming force. Let us remember that the Lord is a patient and just ruler, and that as surely as He collapsed the walls of Jericho for the armies of Israel, he has given this system over to the vengeance of His people. We have been tested and tried for not forty years but yet longer, and while we must remember those trials with humility, now has come the time to act, now we stand before the walls of our own Jericho and we must believe that the Lord our God will blow down the defenses of this system. Have faith, and be of stout heart, knowing that your eternal reward has been decided upon and that the Lord has placed you here today in this system, and that you do His will at every station.

Pray with me; Oh Lord, bless me this day as I do your bidding. Give me courage as I perform my duties. Give me the wisdom to remain serene whatever this battle brings. And grant me the true faith to be aware of Your presence and benevolence in his time of combat. Amen.

Now let us look to the Book of Joshua for further insight…”

From the bridge, the reverend’s preaching was cycled back to an elective broadcast. The crew could choose to follow along, or not, as they chose. Amiral LeBlanc judged that the purpose had been served, and soon enough he would need the channels clear. Admiral von Beidecker meant to save his carriers as a surprise for the Ssi’Rissan later on, as a mere 3,000 strikefighters were surely the tip of the iceburg of the system defenses. The French commander grudgingly agreed, but that wasn’t going to make this any less painful for his own command, and he silently hoped that most of his squadron’s crews were of the Elect; the odds were not bad that many would be finding out one way or another before the system was secured.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

June 7th, 2886
Kasszaris System,
Ssi’Rissan Khanate,
HAB-0

Kasskra’wel, the third planet of the Ssi’Rissan home system, had been settled at a time when the bravest minds of humanity had been debating whether or not the universe revolved around their own homeworld. It was a cold, desolate world that had harbored only a thin atmosphere at that time, and it had taken two hundred years of terraforming before it had hosted large numbers of settlers. The genetically engineered algae suffused in the atmosphere to absorb ultraviolate radiation and produce oxygen had been joined by common nitrogen-fixing plants to allow Ssi’Rissan to settle, plant, harvest, and hunt. The settlers of Kasskra’wel had gained a reputation for being taciturn and individualist, so far as Ssi’Rissan could be taciturn and individualist, and had clearly adapted thicker fur coats than was normal for the baseline species. They regarded their own environment as more challenging than that of the dusty homeworld that had given them birth, and had earned a reputation of stubbornness among their species that had persisted even when the Khanate had spread across twenty thousand systems.

Claw Leader Cheissher had visited the world and hunted the ice-fauna that it boasted, and he reluctantly concurred with the natives. The ice, so cold and treacherous, lacked the capriciousness that marked the dust-storms of the homeworld. It was not so immediately deadly, but it was a constant malicious presence that threatened everyone at every minute where the dust-storms merely claimed their victims randomly and quickly. If one knew the desert signs well enough one could avoid the storms, or at least know when they threatened and when they did not, but from the ice there was no reprieve. In that way the ice hunting reminded him of space, which was after all the ultimate in cold death and a constant presence every single time he took his strikefighter out, and every second he remained inside the thin walls of Orbital Station 17.

As his Claw launched in urgent response to the sudden violation of the sanctity of the primordial Ssi’Rissan lair, Cheissher was reminded of the time he and his Claw had decided to hunt the most challenging of the ice-beasts, the genetically adapted Wyvern from Kasszaris’s own polar region. It had led him and the other eleven hunters around a glacier, always staying just outside the range of their spears, exposing itself only to goad them onward to a frozen stream where it had suddenly burst up through the ice and claimed poor Leikwyms in its great jaws, ripping her in half before disappearing with part of the kill beneath the freezing waters. Now his Claw faced another Wyvern, and the smell of death was in his nostrils as it had been at the glacier, this time stalking his entire Claw.

His Claw was one of two hundred and twenty eight available to make the first blood-strike at the intruders, a position of honor but also a sign of how suddenly this catastrophe had come upon them. Cheissher activated his commlink to the rest of the Claw with literally a thought, sophisticated neuralware that merged him into his fighter translating his intent into action, allowing him to address the rest of his command as ritual packleader.

“Clawkin, we have a heavy burden and great responsibility. The womb of our people is defiled by this alien filth, staining the honor of our Claw and every other Pack of Ssi’Ris. Already they have blotted Tri’sanwol from the rolls of the lairs of our race and they press on to Zaris himself. The First Kra’wel Host is throwing itself against these ravagers, and this Claw will be at the fore of our valiant strike of defiance. We will claim hot blood from these mewling humans, inflaming those who still mobilize with the anticipation of the kill. Our strike will show to the gods themselves that the Host of Ssi’Ris will never brook such an insult without death prevailing and will leave these animals who pretend to be people in dread fear.

We are outnumbered. We will all die. That is truth. Remember that we serve a purpose in our defiance, and remember that I will see you all again in the Eternally Conquering Host before this rotation is through. Strike deep, my Clawkin, and give your lives for the Pack.”

He ended it with a howl of the hunt, the high pitched cry of defiance used for as long as the Pack had existed to warn others of imminent danger. But that cry also alerted other members of the pack that mortal combat had begun, and urged them forward to overwhelm with numbers what the individual strength and cunning of an Ssi’Rissan had failed to conquer. It seemed like an appropriate note to end upon. He heard other howls of defiance from his Clawkin, and several pledges of self-sacrifice, which he reckoned proved the point, and afterward chatter died down in accordance with the instinctive pack discipline.

Still, the biggest feature of the transit from Kasskra’wel to attack range was simply boredom. Even at the 3,200 gee limit of acceleration, it was a long way to go and little to do. The neuralware meant that all the strikefighter’s controls were tied into his head, meaning that even little adjustments of course required complete concentration but did not require the least bit of physical activity. So he stayed still the entire way, as snug inside his flightsuit and cockpit as though he were in his grave. It was unsettling for many Ssi’Rissan, remaining as still as required; oh, certainly all Ssi’Rissan could lay in wait for prey, but to call upon those skills in the absence of any stimulation was unnatural, and it was one of the biggest challenges of finding psychologically suitable strikefighter pilots. It also meant that those pilots were incredibly aggressive once stimulation was provided…

In his mind’s eye, Cheissher was his fighter, in space, and movements were as simple as willing them, and they were made, once they were within attack range. But on the transit in, the entire Host was controlled by the command fighter, which locked the neuralware’s functionality in favor of keeping everyone on a single efficient track. Even as he was beginning to feel the strain of enforced inaction, his vision suddenly expanded to take in the entire Host and the enemy fleet, and he “saw” the ship that his Claw was targeted against, and even the line denoting attack range. The command fighter for his Pride had downloaded the information directly to his fighter and thus into his mind, and his mouth watered involuntarily. His Claw would pave the way for dedicated bombers to attack by striking against one of the light cruisers in the enemy screen.

The Host finally crossed into attack range at a quarter of a light minute away from the outer screen of the enemy force, and it was as if he had stopped being paralyzed. The Claw instantly broke into an intimately coordinated, constantly practiced dance of weaves and bobs designed to throw off the light-speed anti-fighter weapons of the enemy. Dedicated ECM aircraft of the single support Claw in the parent Pride of his formation provided assistance against enemy anti-fighter missiles, and those began clawing in as they crossed twenty light-seconds to the enemy screen. The point defense bubbles on his fighter and those of the rest of the Host responded, doing what they could to limit the damage.

It wasn’t enough. He felt one of his Clawkin disintegrate as a human missile slammed directly into a nearby fighter, and he was aware in the back of his mind that the Host was losing strikefighters every second as they crossed the black void at the grim-grey spearhead shaped enemy ships. He began grinding the pseudo-molars at the back of his jaw together, his fangs threatening to tear into his lip, and the natural aggression-boosting hormones began to flood his system. The inertial compensators were only so efficient, and strained to the absolute utmost as Cheissher’s Claw strained into an attack run on their own target. Another one of his Clawkin ate an anti-fighter missile, and then another seconds afterward, and he knew that his Claw was lucky so far.

At 10 light-seconds from the screen the enemy laser point-defense weapons became far more deadly, and a hail of death met the Host at that range. Strikefighter after strikefighter was blown from the void, and the Host was evaporating like a pool of water spilled in the Cradle of the Race. The toll was enormous, and his Claw felt it as one by one they blinked out, until there were only Sixth Claw, Eighth Claw, Eleventh Claw and himself at the six light-second range where the Host could salvo their anti-shipping missiles en-masse. He gave out a growl of triumph as he willed his salvo at the designated target, launching out a dozen quarter-gigaton missiles in rapid succession, their boost-phase accelerating them far beyond his own fighter. They could not be intercepted in the short distance and time left, though their guidance systems were rudimentary and easily confused…

Victory! Many of the missiles of his remaining claw slammed into the enemy light cruiser, despite the hail of invisible but still deadly laser fire directed into their general location. The enemy cruiser was wounded he knew it, and his Claw had only to close to use the torpedo slung under their fighters…

And then he realized that only he, of his entire Claw, had survived the run. He howled in frustration. He raged against his fate, and he thought to shake his fighter to piece in his anger. The rest of the Host was being torn apart, and there remained only one thing to do. He aimed his fighter directly towards the light cruiser, reeling under the attack of his Claw, and armed the torpedo. He did not release it. There was too much chance of it missing, and it might not do the job by itself.

The claws in his suited form extended, straining against the nanonmachined fabric of his flight suit, as he began the ritual intonation. “Fathers of my fathers, hear my cry of hate! I will join you this day in the Eternal War! Let my enemies taste my blood, and wretch at the cost of it! I pledge the gods my life for the cubs of the Pride of our People!”

The light cruiser, suddenly aware of the threat, began throwing up every bit of fire it could at him. So did the other members of the cruiser’s squadrons, and they fired every point defense battery in his general direction, trying to create a kill box. His prayed his luck would hold, and… never felt the impact that tore his strikefighter to pieces.


Note: Further updates will be posted in this thread by me as Chris writes them.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

An internal Habsburg perspective on the Talorans, written by Christopher Purnell:


Most Discreet! Briefing for Hofkriegsrat Councilors and Staff Only!

Series 17-5-9003A #1 Report to Commanding Officer, Evidenzbüro

Compiled by the Research Division of the Strategic Forecasting Department under the direction of Herr Docktor Professor Henry de Winter, FINAL VERSION 23.4.3174

Abstract: The Nature of the Taloran Star Empire

I. Mission

This report is one of a series on recently encountered multi-universal powers commissioned by Generaloberst Hermann Schulhauser for distribution to the Hofkriegsrat. The purpose of this document is to summarize our knowledge and understanding of the particular power in question, exclusive of directly military intelligence, in order to allow more informed deliberation on the policies of the Empire outside the home universe. As a snapshot of available material this report of time sensitive and in no way intended to be a detailed appreciation of any one feature of the power surveyed. The limits of our intelligence and understanding are stressed throughout the report and should serve as a warning to those who review this document.

II. Background

The Taloran Star Empire was encountered in 3167 in the trans-rift universe, referred throughout according to the Interuniversal Designation Code CON-5, as a consequence of the multiversal gate research program. Contact was established through the offices of the Alliance of Democratic Nations, the dominant state in multiversal travel, and has been continuous since that time. The Taloran embassy in Vienna was opened in 3170 after two years of negotiation and preparation, while the Imperial embassy on the Taloran homeworld in their home universe has been operating since May 3171. Relations are cordial but distant, with little in the way of direct government to government business, and commercial ties largely in the hands of private businesses. Cooperation in the recent crisis in the Gilead system has yielded significant data on Taloran military practices and capability (see attached report from Vizadmiraal du Guise, Appendix A) and advanced Imperial political goals in CON-5. There seems little scope for hostilities or conflicting interests in the short term future, and our contacts with the Taloran government indicate their principle strategic concern is with the Alliance. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that our respective interests may clash in the future, and the possibility of conflict or open warfare cannot be discounted in the long term future.

III. Structure of the Taloran Empire

Like our own state, the Taloran Empire is a collection of historical national entities under a single dynast in a web of relationships characterized by the feudal principle. Sovereignty is invested in an All-Highest Empress who represents the senior branch of an ancient dynasty of religious significance within the state creed. The All-Highest Empress retains the absolute power to declare war and to make treaties with other states, which is the basis of rule in an otherwise loose confederacy. The personal holdings of the Empress as the rule of the dominant national entity of Grenya Colena represent a bare majority of the holdings and resources of the TSE. The powers of the Empress are constrained by the significant autonomy held by every vassal entity within the Imperial confederation, the power of the national church, and the assembly of nobles. However, nearly every noble in the Taloran Empire is also an officer of the Empress as her powers over vassal states extend to calling up their military forces. With the absolute prerogatives of war and peace, and the reverence which the figure of the Empress holds, this provides a strong form to the Imperial state.

The relationship between the Empress and national entities of the Imperial confederation are precisely those of vassals in a very fundamental sense. The two other branches of the Valeran dynasty, who head the second and third most power states in the TSE, are bound to the Empress by oaths of fealty but are otherwise autonomous. It appears as though similar conditions apply to conquered alien populations, including the human race of the Taloran home universe. Consequently there is virtually no all-Imperial bureaucracy, nor an Imperial judiciary or even revenue service, all support for the Empire coming freely under the terms of the vassalage. The nobility acts as an independent social class within their national entities as well as the Empire at large, in a Council of Nobles and a broader legislative branch that lacks any serious power. The opposition of the noble class and vassal rulers is a strong potential check on the behavior of the Empress, and so cannot be underestimated as a factor of Imperial politics. Outright disloyalty is unusual and would be considered contemptible by most Talorans, but resistance in the name of rights or feudal privileges is considered honorable.

For the purposes of formal interaction with the TSE, it is the All-Highest Empress that must be considered the ultimate policy maker. Popular opinion plays no serious role in their politics and the nobility limits its fractiousness to domestic matters. Any effort by the vassal national entities to assert independence in this area would necessarily involve a mortal challenge to the structure of the TSE, creating a crisis that would surely involve full scale war. Races conquered by the Talorans are in a similar, albeit far less privileged situation, and lack the reserves of strength to act on any resentment.

IV. Origins of the Valeran Dynasty

Taloran historical development proceeded in similar terms to human development, but over a longer period of civilization, until around 11,000 BC. At this period the Talorans of the main continent of Grenya Colenta were at a comparable level of development to Iron Age Europe in 300 BC. The tyrant Moloyr emerged at this time and began conquests exceeding those of Alexander the Great and threatening to unite the continent under his rule. A rebellion arose led by one Valera, a minor countess of a backwater province conquered by Moloyr, who asserted the claims of the young Farzian religion against Moloyr’s proclamation of divinity. This rebellion was abetted by the defection of one of Moloyr’s generals, and in 10,734 BC won a decisive victory that resulted in the death of Moloyr and the creation of a power vacuum in Grenya Colenta. The religious dimension of the victory and the sudden subsequent disappearance of Valera led to her near-deification and provided the basis of the legitimacy of the present line of All-Highest Empresses.

After the disappearance of Valera, her daughters quarreled over the direction of the victorious rebellion and division of Moloyr’s territory. The youngest daughter, In’garha, triumphed over her sisters by claiming the mantle of Farzianism and suborning the remnants of Moloyr’s forces. The other two daughters were exiled from Grenya Colenta to the other two major continents of Lelola and Midela Colenta and subsequently founded their own dynasties. In’ghara herself reconsolidated Moloyr’s empire and founded the core Imperial territory, while consolidating the conversion of the population to Farzianism. Her precepts of government favored the creation of a vassal system granting wide autonomy to a noble class that zealously propagated the Farzian faith and thus consolidated her own legitimacy. This incident also established the basis for the ascension of the youngest branch of the Valeran dynasty over the two older branches, and is the core of Taloran identity. The association of the Empress of Grenya Colenta with the leadership of Farzianism and the semi-divine founder of the dynasty is what the Roman crown is to our own Empire, and more besides.

In’ghara also established the precedent of matriarchical succession and the primacy of the female sex, though for biological reasons female and male Talorans had always been less distinctive in their public roles. This arrangement, though foreign, was well placed to preserve the purity of the blood of Valera within the dynasty, which was and remains the greatest asset of the Empress. It was this advantage, presumably, that allowed the Valeran dynasty to continue on over millennia of rule and to survive disastrous upsets and collapses of fortune.

V. Farzianism

The state creed of the TSE is Farzianism, a dualist religion not dissimilar to Zoroastrianism established by a prophet Eibermon circa 13,500 BC and elevated to the dominant creed of the species by the Valeran dynasty. Farzianism holds that the universe is divided into forces of good created by the god Farzbardor, and forces of evil created by the god Eidecamenos. Farzianism preached conversion to bolster the forces of Farzbardor for the final day of conflict between the two gods, until the triumph and disappearance of Valera. The Farzian orthodoxy holds that Valera was ascended bodily by Lord Farzbardor to lead the armies of good against evil, and that her actions permanently tilted the balance of the universe against Eidecamenos. The missionary fervor of the Farzians has been undimmed however, and the religious impulse is a strong factor in Taloran policy making, not least because it undergirds Imperial legitimacy. So far as we have been able to determine, other religions are tolerated so long as they do not directly contradict the value system of “good” maintained by the Farzians. As the Gilead crisis has demonstrated, Farzian morality is different from that of Christianity but not radically so, and religious conflict can be kept to a minimum with one uncertainty. We are unsure of how the Talorans would react to missionary work of other religions and the Vatican may demand action if they are resolutely hostile to the travel of priests into their territory.

VI. Taloran Society

The most immediately striking feature of Taloran society is the difference in the proper roles of the sexes. Even without the modernist notion of sex equality, Taloran males and females are biologically less distinct; in particular the Taloran pregnancy is less debilitating, and child-raising less demanding. Taloran males are short on average, but relatively heavily muscled and before the revolt of Valera apparently had more of a social role familiar to our race. Taloran females by contrast are far taller and have longer reach, reversing the sexual dimorphism evident in humanity, and have served in masculine roles for millennia. The differences between our species on this point are profound, and grounded in biology rather than ideological fashion as is the case with the Alliance. The predominant matriarchical pattern of inheritance comes, as noted, from the influence of the Valeran dynasty and is not shared by all Talorans even today. The influence of the Valeran dynasty and their patterns of inheritance are shared by the overwhelming majority of the Taloran nobility, and the Taloran nobility is prominent in the government and military to a degree far eclipsing our own, so representatives must not be alarmed or surprised to find themselves dealing with Taloran females extensively if not exclusively.

Taloran family customs are another area of difference, and perhaps equally as striking. The average Taloran family encompasses more generations than the average human family ever has, and includes lateral cousins and even more distant relatives in the main group of relatives. Talorans are predominately monogamous and have customs of marriage similar to those of humanity, with the siring of legitimate children considered a blessed act as creating life is the prerogative of Farzbardor. However, the Farzians are also willing to bless the union of sodomites and lesbians and allow plural marriage, revealing a disturbing moral failure in their religion. The influence of Valera is suspected to be decisive here, as well; Taloran tradition holds that their semi-divine savior held unrequited love for a female general, and this tradition has led to the toleration of sodomy if not to the elevation of Sapphist behavior as a romantic ideal. Representatives must also not be shocked or betray disgust and disapproval to such unions, as they are common among the nobility they will be dealing with. On the other hand, the Talorans do generally stigmatize open adultery, and their polygamist marriage is similar to the Muslim model rather than the neo-Catharist “family in common”.

Farzianism disapproves of sexual relations outside marriage, even the mockery thereof they sanctify, and deal with the product of such illicit unions by fosterage to the Farzian Church. The Farzian hierarchy, organized much as the Catholic Church, regularly takes in illegitimate children and orphans, raising them to join as priests of the religion. The Farzian Church also disposes of vast financial resources and uses them to provide all manner of social services, such as networks of hospitals and poor relief. The Farzian Church appears to be all but omnipresent in the TSE and is a major social force by virtue of its domination of the religious landscape. The Church also enjoys seats in the Noble Council of the TSE and so can exercise direct political power, often though not always to buttress the position of their prime benefactor the All-Highest Empress. The Church has also played a role in the development of Farzian capitalism by suppressing usury and interest lending, by loaning out capital at low or zero rates of interest for parishioners. Representatives dealing with the Talorans should study all available material on Farzianism with the utmost care so as to understand the mentality it promotes.

The nobility, as discussed previously, is also a powerful social force in the Taloran Empire and society by virtue of its strong association with the military and maintenance of feudal privileges. The nobility also tends to see itself as guaranteeing the rights of all Talorans since the limits on Valeran dynasty absolutism date from a noble’s charter forced on the Grenya Colenta state in a moment of crisis. They are thus prepared to defy the dynasty when it attempts to challenge their prerogatives, and the dynasty relies too heavily on them to suppress such reactions. This situation exists uneasily with the semi-divine nature of the Valeran dynasty but has so far prevailed for millennia, due presumably to strong restraint on the part of both forces. Coupled with the nobility’s retention of feudal juridical privileges, their leading role in political life makes them the primary conduit through which common Taloran subjects interact with the Empire. As the Noble’s Council also controls elevations to the peerage, the nobility cannot be outflanked through the creation of a loyalist aristocracy and so any change to the equilibrium can only result through, and in, civil war. The militant instincts of the nobility has at least insured the Taloran Empire of a strong leadership base in war, and favors the strengthening of aristocratic values of honor and courage that promote a strong military.

VIII. Conclusions

As can be seen, the Talorans are both highly alien and rather similar, a description that applies equally well for different reasons to the Alliance of Democratic Nations. The Valeran dynasty and its role is central to the understanding of the TSE and encompasses nearly everything that makes the Talorans different. Their behavior is not unpredictable and unknowable, though events will undoubtedly surprise our state and theirs in the future. They are not, as some public sources in the Alliance have suggested, our “soulmates” or a mirror image of the Empire. Our Imperial structure is more centralized and streamlined, more bourgeois and bureaucratic, than the more perfectly feudal Taloran Star Empire. Our conceptions of virtue are not entirely dissimilar but our basic ideas of morality are different, and our dominant religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible. However, neither are they so incompatible as to compel religious strife in the secular realm of statecraft and our interests do not clash in any fundamental matter as of yet. The Talorans would however make a formidable enemy due to their commitment to the arts of war and devotion to the Valeran dynasty, so while the Alliance is much more of a likely enemy in the short-term and intermediate future, the Talorans must be carefully handled as the most potentially dangerous enemy we have encountered since the Bogumil outsiders.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

This is an updated, corrected, and expanded version of some of the above text, containing new and useful information, also by Christopher Purnell:

The Holy Roman Empire is a quasi-centralized state, united under one administration but not a single organization. It is an amalgamation of feudal relationships tempered by centuries of experience and ancient traditions, all of which have at their center the Habsburg dynasty. The Habsburgs are hereditary rulers of a patchwork mostly Catholic constitutional state spreading from the Moselle to the Urals, within which their authority is absolute. They are also hereditary Kings of England and Spain, which with their respective colonized shares of the world cover the majority of the plant’s surface. The few other sovereign dynasties of the world owe obeisance to the Habsburgs as Emperors of the universal Holy Roman Empire and in practice have forfeited their independence. Even the Pope, the symmetric and symbolic equal of the Emperor, refrains from challenging the prerogatives of the dynasty. In a great many respects it represents the culmination of the universal Christian monarchy imperfectly prefigured by Byzantium; but in others it is a modern, rationalizing bureaucratic construct.

By the terms of the joint Imperial-Papal Bull of 2650 the tangled connections binding humanity together under the Habsburgs were strengthened, with Papal blessing of the Holy Roman Emperor as the “one, only, and supreme head of temporal humanity.” The Pragmatic Sanction of 2653 clarified that the Imperial position was hereditary in the Habsburg dynasty, and that existing relationships were to be maintained unchanged. Thus the associated states were still recognized as being outside the administrative (though not political) boundaries of the Empire, but were subject to Imperial overlordship. Humanity was recognized as forming a broader demesne of the Habsburg dynasty, while leaving intact the domestic autonomy that large parts of it had traditionally enjoyed. The proclamation did have the effect of cementing Habsburg pretensions and allowed the unification of much of the Imperial bureaucracy into a single service. It also legitimized the earlier establishment of unified command for all Imperial military services, placing a new Board of Admiralty and General Staff under the direction of the Hofkriegsrat.

The Imperial Diet is the representative body of the Empire, divided into two chambers, a Commons and a Senate, after the 1906 Diet of Rome. The Commons consists of the elected or appointed delegates of the population of the Empire and associated colonies, serving for ten year terms at a time. The lower nobility of Freiherrn and Reichsherrn can serve in the Commons, but the hochadel of the Empire are forbidden from being representatives. The Senate, by contrast, represents the sub-units of the Empireas well as the “associated states” and as such is largely appointed from the hochadel. Fully one-quarter of the Senate is composed of clergy, most as leaders of various ecclesiastical principalities, or automatic appointments from important sees, but the Papacy still appoints 10% of the Senate directly. Various Imperial positions are automatically represented in the Senate, as are prominent positions among the associated states, with about 60% of the seats reserved to the discretion of dynasts in the Empire.

The residence of the Emperor is at Vienna, the heart of the Erbländer and traditional center of Habsburg power since Rudolf von Habsburg had first raised the family to prominence. The Emperor retains all but absolute authority as commander-in-chief of the Imperial and associated militaries and effective control over high state politics. A handful of common institutions, having a dynastic rather than national standing, aid in carrying out policy by working the complex and byzantine mechanisms of the Imperial bureaucracies. The Hofkriegsrat is largely responsible for military and diplomatic policy, while the Hofkammer handles domestic political policy and fiscal matters, with the Geheimer Rat serving as a general Privy Council to advise the Emperor on any and all topics. The Imperial Court surrounding the Emperor is an institution unto itself, controlling all ritual associated with the Imperial Presence as well as handling formalities and other duties associated with the role of Head of State.

The “organic” lands of the Holy Roman Empire are those territories and principalities that were part of the original empire without regard to the reigning dynasty. In practice this means the Germanies, Northern Italy, and Lothringen. These are a patchwork of statelets with historical titles and rights going back to the period where the Imperial crown was elective. The Duchy of Bavaria, the Duchy of Saxony, the Margravate of Brandenburg, and the County Palatinate are the most important sub-units of the original Empire not under direct Habsburg control. Other smaller units, mostly controlled by Bishops and lesser clergy, survived through the crucible of the Twenty Years War and retain their autonomy. Within the Integralis, as it is commonly known, a strong body of common law and procedure exists, and no independent military or militia formations are permitted. The states of the HRE are not technically considered to be sovereign after the Peace of Prague, though they do retain broad latitude in cultural matters and at least have not been incorporated entirely into the Habsburg dynastic holdings.

The personal holdings of the Austrian Habsburgs, the Erbländer, are incorporated into the Integralis as formally independent units similar to the electorates and other fiefs, despite having a practically unified administration. The Archduchy of Austria, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Bohemia, and the Netherlands were all part of the Holy Roman Empire (at various times) before the Habsburgs and as such “organically” part of the Empire. The Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Poland, and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy were certainly not parts of the Holy Roman Empire and would not be without the dynastic connection. Other parts of the Erbländer such as the former Ottoman and Chinese Empires, broken up into manageable provinces, have no representation as such inside the Empire but share the same unified administration with the rest of the personal holdings. The colonial holdings of the Integralis are largely concentrated in the Erbland of the Netherlands, including New Hollandia (Australia), the Spice Islands, Taiwan, and portions of Africa and India. The administration of the Erbländer was highly rationalized over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, and forms a core of population, industry, and power upon which Habsburg domination of the world rests. Political decision-making is centralized in Vienna, though the bureaucracies of the Erbländer are somewhat autonomous and historic localized structures of administration still exist to provide a voice to their populations.

Great Britain is composed of the Three Kingdoms of England, Scotland, Ireland, as well as Brittany, Calais, and an extensive colonial empire in North America, India, and Africa. It was home to an offshoot of the Spanish Habsburg branch from 1558 until 2568, which inherited the Spanish Empire itself in 1711. As a holding of the Austrian Habsburgs since 2593 it has been placed “in association with” the Holy Roman Empire, which has led to British representation in the Imperial Diet at Rome and the establishment of a completely unified colonial and military command. Nonetheless it has considerable autonomy as an unincorporated part of the Holy Roman Empire, while the strong British Parliament prevents the Habsburgs from eroding that autonomy through the powers of the Crown. The British maintain their own naval and army formations and vigorously promote independent colonization, while their corporations have infiltrated nearly every level of Imperial commerce. Many Imperial subjects are resentful of the superior position of the British, and complain that the independence of Parliament has led to the Kingdom of Britain getting away with contributing less than its fair share to the combined Imperial treasury.

The Kingdom of Spain was a dynastic holding of the British Habsburgs from 1711 to 2568, during which time the rationalizing reforms of the late 18th century eroded the medieval privileges of the fueros and created a highly centralized state. Upon the extinction of the British Habsburgs in 2568 Spanish forces largely pledged their allegiance to the Austrian Habsburgs, greatly aiding efforts to restore the Imperial position in the wake of the Deluge. The loyalty of the Spanish and their extensive empire, covering South America, Africa, India, and the Philippines, was remembered by the Habsburgs afterward. Spanish autonomy was confirmed, mainly to insure that the touchy distinctiveness that drives Spanish pride and made them such valuable servants of the Imperial remains intact. The weak position of the Cortes compared to the British Parliament insures that the Habsburgs can synchronize Spanish policy with the needs of Vienna. The Spanish are entitled to a presence in the Imperial Diet for their possession of Sardinia and the Kingdom of Naples, but as an “associated state” have the largest single block of votes, as the Habsburg Erbländer vote as separate units.

The Kingdom of France, shorn of significant parts of its territory, is an “associated state” of the Empire. Unlike Britain and Spain, the French owe this status to their defeat in the War of the Covenant in 1803. They are strictly limited in the number of independent formations they can field, with most French conscripts serving in the catch-all KuK Kriegsraummarine or KuK Armee. Cultural and religious autonomy are guaranteed to the French by treaty, but the Bourbon Kings are required to reaffirm their vassalage to the Habsburg Emperor at their coronation. Imperial scrutiny of French internal affairs remains considerable even in modern times. Similar conditions apply to the Romanovs of Siberia, the Vasa of Denmark-Sweden, the Tokugawa of Japan, and the few other nominally sovereign dynasties in the world. A handful of other “associated states”, most importantly the Ethiopian Empire, the Republic of Venice, the Republic of Genoa, and the Papal States enjoy significant freedom despite being surrounded by the Integralis.

Conscription: The Empire is divided up into military districts overseen by joint Army-Navy staffs with the purpose of regulating conscription intake from their assigned Sectors. Conscripts assigned to the Navy are usually allocated from the central Admiralty Board’s Personnel Department, while the Army prefers to sub-divide the military district into recruitment zones for its regiments. Conscripts serve for ten years, a considerably extended term thanks in part to the ubiquity of longevity treatments in the Empire which advance the expected human lifespan well past 200 years. One whole year is typically given over to training and familiarization before assignment to a unit. Deferment is allowed for university education so long as the student attends officer classroom instruction, as the Empire prefers to find its junior officers among the educated classes. Numerous military academies exist for both the Navy and the Army, typically serving the children of the nobility and providing the path to command rank. The children of enlisted men promoted to officer rank or those subjects ennobled with a knighthood for meritorious service are also guaranteed admission into an academy, which is one of the most important ways new blood enters the Imperial aristocracy.

Roughly 2% of the population is in the standing military, with another 3% in the rapid mobilization reserve, consisting of all conscripts who finished their service in the past 40 years. Another 5% of the population has had some form of military training and is organized into second, third, fourth, or fifth line reserve forces. The total pool of manpower available for the Empire to mobilize is around 4 trillion men and women, out of a population 16 trillion strong, thanks largely to the effects of rejuvenation treatments in greatly extending the span of active life. Coordinating such a vast levy and organizing it beyond static defense formations has never been attempted, though extensive plans for such contingencies do exist in the archives of the Hofkriegsrat. However, Imperial planning is focused on less apocalyptic wars, with most effort going to carefully prepare for a continuous flow of replacements to existing maneuver units, and the reinforcement of border sectors hardest hit by enemy action with new defensive formations. An abbreviated wartime course to produce competent seamen is also in constant development and review, ready for implementation in accordance with projected demands for wartime crewing and construction schedules.

And some new stuff:


Noble Titles


Emperor (Imperator, Kaiser, Negus Negasa, Shogun, Tsar): The highest title of nobility and one reserved for only four individuals. The reigning Habsburg dynast rules as Roman Emperor, and is the most powerful individual in human history. The Negus Negasa of the Solomonid dynasty of Ethiopia has precedence directly after the Roman Emperor as the oldest Christian dynasty of Imperial rank. The Shogun, descendant of the Tokugawa who deposed the former Yamato Clan in the name of Christianity and their own ambitions, retains the courtesy style of Emperor of Japan and is third in precedence of rank to the Emperor. The Tsar of Siberia is considered to have an Imperial title as well, with the reigning Romanov being fourth in precedence of the Imperial nobility.

Khan: Main-line descendents of Genghis Khan such as the Giray of Crimea are entitled to the style of Khan and precedence ahead of merely Royal dynasts in formal occasions. None of the Khans have any serious power or authority.

King (Rex, Rey, Roi, König, Kungen, etc): The title of a sovereign or mediatized ruler lower in precedence to that of an Emperor. In practice the other Royal Dynasties of Earth all owe fealty to the Roman Emperor. In accordance of precedence, they are the Bourbon, the Vasa, the Castrioti, Chakri, Safavid, Osmanli, Alouite, and Hashemid.

Grand Duke (Magnus Dux, Knyaz): A title accorded to the children of the reigning Tsar of Siberia, and connected with the historical territories in the east incorporated into the Habsburg Erbländer. Due to its historical associations it is considered a sovereign title when borne by an individual in association with a territorial state. No such territorial states exist outside the Erbländer, however.

Archduke (Erherzog): A unique title borne by all legitimate born Habsburgs, it marks an individual as a member of the extended Imperial Family. It is the highest non-sovereign title in the Empire.

Duke (Dux, Duque, Duc, Doge, Herzog): The highest non-sovereign rank of nobility available outside an Imperial or Royal family. Many of the bearers of the title in the Erbländer are quasi-sovereign territorial lords, while Dukes in other realms are merely the highest domestic nobility.

Margrave (Markgraf): Title of the head of the House of Hohenzollern in Brandenburg. Nobles with holdings along the Outer Rim and Militärgrenz with a high degree of autonomy are often awarded the title as well, though these “March Lords” are far behind the Hohenzollerns in precedence.

Count Palatine (Reichsgraf, Pfalzgraf): Title of the head of the Junior Wittelsbachs in the Pflazgraf. The title also marks nobility in the Core worlds with significant autonomy, usually a relic of earlier colonization efforts or a substantial reward for services rendered.

Prince (Principes, Fürst): A high rank usually associated with the non-sovereign Imperial nobility, or children of the reigning dynast in other realms.

Marquees (Marqués, Marquis, Marchese): A noble rank of some distinction, usually associated with the Habsburg holdings of Britain and Spain rather than the Imperial nobility. The relative gulf between a Count and Marquees is greater than that between a Marquees and a Prince, and as such the latter two ranks form the upper echelon of the hochadel.

Count (Comes, Conde, Conti, Graf, Jarl, Earl): One of the most common noble ranks, it represents the low-end of the hochadel, the High Nobility.

Viscount (vicecomes): A title unique to the British peerage, ranked below that of an Earl but above the rank of Baron. It is not necessarily hereditary, which places it outside the hochadel by Imperial reckoning.

Baron (Freiherr, Reichsherr): The lowest title of nobility, and one frequently open to purchase or award. Freiherr denotes the hereditary barons of the Empire, while Reichsherr covers those created by Imperial patent and which may or may not be hereditary.

Knight (Eques, Ritter, Chevalier, Caballero): Not technically considered to be nobility, Knighthoods are titles of distinction and may or may not be hereditary. They are most commonly awarded in particular fields for achievement, or as an adjunct to a medal for conspicuous conduct in a military operation. As they are not open to purchase in many cases their holders are considered more distinguished than a Reichsherr.

Major Awards and Orders of Chivalry



The Noble Order of the Golden Fleece: The Hausordern of the Habsburg family, its award is limited to male Catholics of impeccable lineage. Members of the Order are required to assemble upon the death of a fellow and to sponsor prayers for the soul of the departed. It is easily the most prestigious award in the Empire.

The Order of the White Eagle: A broad based chivalric originally established in the 17th century by Queen Christina Vasa in the territory of Poland-Lithuania, the Order of the White Eagle is open to candidates of all creeds and both genders for distinguished services to the Holy Roman Empire. It is the most accessible of the so-called High Imperial Awards, and typically carries with it a hereditary knighthood or a promotion in rank. It comes in four grades, Knight, Knight Commander, Grand Commander, and Knight Marshal, with the last usually reserved for heads of state.

The Order of the Dragon: Another chivalric order resurrected in 2360, the Order of the Dragon is primarily a military award for Imperial subjects and allies who have offered meritorious service against a common enemy.

Civil Order of Merit of Ferdinand V: An award given out for distinguished service to the Arts or Sciences within the Empire, the Civil Order of Merit carries with it a life peerage and subsidy for continued creative efforts.

The Order of Saint Leopold: Established in 1876 as a Catholic devotional order for the lower nobility, it is now awarded for accomplishments promoting the welfare of humanity on a non-confessional basis.

Military Order of Maria Theresa: The standard military order of the Imperial armed forces, the Maria Theresa Military Order comes in three classes and carries with it a title of nobility. The third class is reserved for enlisted men and NCOs who heroically distinguish themselves above and beyond the call of duty in battle, or who selflessly risk their lives under suicidal conditions to aid their fellow soldiers. The second class is reserved to officers who achieve considerable feats of personal distinction on the field of battle, or who contribute conspicuously to a decisive victory. The first class is reserved to strategic commanders, heads of state, or other persons entrusted with primary responsibility for the success of a vital military effort.

Geheimer Rat: Appointment to the Privy Council of the Empire is a high honor and serves as a distinction nearly as valuable as the Golden Fleece.

Bronze Medal of Military Merit: A common award to military personnel who perform their duties with exceptional merit and efficiency.

Campaign Medals: Struck to celebrate particular campaigns, these are awarded to all military personnel who participated.

National Awards and Honors
The Golden Rose: A wrought-gold rose blessed by the Pope and delivered to deserving female monarchs and consorts as well as non-sovereign nobility of pious reputation and distinction. The Golden Rose is only dispatched one time per year, after Vespers on Lætare Sunday.

The Order of King Solomon: An Imperial decoration of the Solomonid dynasty of Ethiopia, typically reserved for fellow sovereigns.

The Order of King Solomon's Seal: The main Ethiopian order of chivalry, awarded by the Negus.

The Order of the Queen of Sheba: The female counterpart to the Order of King Solomon’s Seal.

The Order of the Holy Trinity: An Ethiopian award largely given to clerics and other Christian figures for working towards the unity of the faith.

The Most Noble Order of the Garter: The oldest and most prestigious British order of chivalry, the Garter is usually awarded to non-Catholics who might otherwise qualify for the Golden Fleece.

The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle of Scotland: A Scottish decoration inherited from the Stuarts, the Order of the Thistle is another secular award given out for civilian achievement to candidates of either gender.

Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George: An award of the Kingdom of Naples, the SMC Order of Saint George is composed of piously Catholic soldiers from the Integralis and the Spanish realm.

Petrine Order of Saint Andrew: The highest order of chivalry awarded by the Tsar of Siberia, it was instituted with a revised Table of Ranks by Tsar Peter I of Muscovy in 1700. It is open to military officers and civilian administrators in Siberian service, or to Siberian subjects serving with the Imperial military.

Svärdsordenen: A military order instituted for the forces of the Kingdom of Denmark-Sweden, it comes in three grades of Knight, Knight Commander, and Grand Commander.

Nordstjärneorden: A merit order of the Kingdom of Denmark-Sweden, it comes in the usual three grades and is open to anyone who has furthered the well-being of the Scandinavian people.

Serafimerorden: The highest award of the Kingdom of Denmark-Sweden, usually reserved for high nobility and heads of state with membership entirely by the discretion of the monarch.

Order of the Rising Sun: The House Order of the Tokugawa of Japan, the Order of the Rising Sun comes in four ranks for commoners, samurai, daimyo (nobles), and sovereigns. Typically the fourth rank is awarded for scientific or technical achievements, the third rank for military distinctions, the second rank to loyal retainers of the Tokugawa and foreign nobility connected to Japan, and the last at the discretion of the Shogun.

The Red Seal: A rare mercantile distinction awarded by the Shogun of Japan to businessmen and corporate heads who have promoted the advance of Japanese commerce and colonization efforts in space.

[lord Martiya]

Very interesting. But I have some question on the Humans of Taloran Universe: are they linked to a Gundam universe? If yes, what one?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Very interesting. But I have some question on the Humans of Taloran Universe: are they linked to a Gundam universe? If yes, what one?

They're not. Based on the assumption of a dystopic 21st century, the rest of the development pattern is a blend of events from the CoDominion novels/Firefly (the USA and China forming a world government that dominates the rest of the planet, in place of the USA and USSR in the first case), some influence from some of C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter universe novels, O'Neil Colony settlements, which ARE shared with UC Gundam, which does have some inspirational influence, yes, and finally and most importantly, the UTHP is based on my extrapolation of what the ruling regime of humanity was like in the era when the planet Pern was settled in Anne McCaffrey's novels of that title, based on extrapolation and references of what the society the settlers were leaving was like, i.e., that it was an anti-gene-tech, blood and soil fascist movement that that was highly aggressive and xenophobic, even to the point of loathing non-Earth humans.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Feropti Dashk Jhor (Operation Big Thumb)
811 CE
3,464 AV
Silvant Colenta


The woman who strode the decks of the Valera and Taliya in a full-length naval officer's greatcoat was in the prime of life. By the human calendar she was going to live for another five hundred and fifty years; by the Taloran, 172. She had already reigned for twenty-eight Taloran years as the Great Queen of Grenya Colenta, and lived for thirty-seven before that. She was only eight her planet's years away from founding one of the greatest empires that could ever be said to be known, and which would endure to the present.

The newly constructed Royal Yacht had been built as the replacement for the old In'ghara and Rasitak which had been a three-masted steamer with a barkentine-rig and though its sturdy iron hull was quite intact, had been very obsolete. The Valera and Taliya had an icebreaker bow and the latest stirling cycle engines connected to electrical generators, with lowering heat sink under the hull which allowed the maximum efficiency possible, and electric motors on her triple screw plant installation. She was capable of developing a speed of about 60km/h, though the cruise here had been done at a comfortable 40km/h, escorted by the old Battlecruiser Trilankh which was to serve as the command centre for the test.

Other than saluting guns and some anti-aircraft mounts the ship was not otherwise armed, and with her arcing high stern and her faux-bowsprit forward, three masts and four funnels in two pairs, the thirty-four thousand tonne vessel was the perfect royal yacht, with a full liner's superstructure, though the aft end had no windows as it held a hangar for four amphibious planes, which could be lowered into the water or launched from a fantail catapult.

She had already created scandal, this woman of knee-length purple hair and ice blue eyes. She had certainly not cared about that, and her position was at any rate presently unassailable. Even with both of her two wives onboard. In orbit, her satellites beamed information down to the surface of Talora Prime, as they had for the past twelve years; and for the past seven, regular missions to orbit had taken place under the auspices of her government, with her dear 'sisters' slow to catch up. Atomic energy presently provided 8% of the electrical power generation of a Kingdom which stretched across an extant territory broadly equal to that claimed by her great ancestor In'ghara; of a continent of 57 million square kilometres, the Empress Mikela I Valeria, Master of Queens of Queens, claimed about 68% of it; some 39 million square kilometres. Beyond that, the Empress controlled Ghastan Island, another 4 million square kilometres; and some 1 million square kilometres worth of sundry and innumerable islands her ancestors had not known in either case, as well as this place.

This place where the wind bit at her even through the goggles, even through the greatcoat which covered a heavy fur coat and which covered three layers of flannel clothing in turn, and thick underclothes beyond that. Where the mask over her face protected her from immediate frostbite, and she could scarcely hear for the coverings on her ears. 15 million square kilometers of wind-blasted and ice-covered rock at the top of the world. Silvant Colenta, the Northern Continent. Claimed in her reign, and the only conquest she had added definitely to Grenya Colenta, without a shot fired. That irritated her, but for the most part her foes had been to established for her to achieve the dreams that burned in her heart.

Today that changed. A fleet of twenty-three vessels had converged on Transverse Bay, as the name roughly translated, of the Ghardaia Peninsula. Far up the peninsula, in an area of ocean entirely frozen solid in ice in winter, where great iceburgs would calve from the glaciers and threaten shipping to the south. Fifty kilometres to the south was the Trijhak Point Air Station, an experimental facility to test the ability of the Grenyan Army Air Corps to operate in extreme conditions. The tip of the peninsula actually was settled by a regular colony and had hardy tubers and other winter plants growing on it, and there was a numerous permanent population of about 70,000 throughout the continent between that peninsula, several others where climatic conditions allowed for limited regular inhabitation (though so paltry in comparison with the one billion souls who comprised the population of her domains!), and the great hunting and fishing stations where the fish and nautiloids and huge Arisdhanian sea-reptiles were pursued and rendered for food, in carefully monitored operations which would preserve the bounty of the northern Seas, so rich in life, indefinitely as a food and economic resource of her nation.

The big 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier Princess Jhamania was carrying the sampling aircraft which were now aloft, and the Landing Ship Dock Erasuloh had deployed the barge, secured it, and moved clear. Even with the best spyglass she had, Mikela could barely discern it against the choppy Arctic waters which she loved so much. Talorans being unable to climb to any real altitudes without extensive rebreathing equipment, she had naturally been drawn to the greater feats of arctic and antarctic exploration, but her position as the heir to the throne had made it impossible for her to travel on any of the frequently lethal explorations of the northern continent which her family had then been in a struggle with Lelola Colenta, including a major naval war, to control for the sake of the rich fishing grounds around it.

She had made up for it somewhat by marrying a Lelolan princess, a daughter of the Archduchess of Leluno, under the pretext of smoothing over the peace arrangements between the two nations. As a matter of fact Mikela had simply been utterly smitten with Trivania because the woman--who was a decade older than Mikela--had previously been on the expedition which had been the first to cross Silvant Colenta in one go. Together they had drawn up the plans for the mass colonization of Silvant Colenta which had led to 70,000 permanent and some 200,000 temporary inhabitants in the present, and the construction of the Valera and Taliya with an icebreaker bow had been no accident. They had also been working to build cargo submarines which could operate under the ice to submerged habitations where mining operations could be effected under the perpetual pack ice, which had required massive investments in the development of effective nuclear propulsion technology. One of those nuclear submarines was submerged below the taskforce today.

Trivania came out, laughing gaily with the very young Princess Talitva, Mikela's second wife--the marriage to whom had been more romantic than caused by the state of awe that Mikela had been in toward Trivania, whom she still deferred to somewhat--a Dalamarian girl of fine extraction who was modest and unassuming per the unusual customs of that independent people, and very, very unused to the extremely cold climate that she had been thrust into by Mikela's cheerful arctic obsession.

"My dears, do you see the iceberg we have as a target?" She cried out enthusiastically, gesturing toward the looming bulk of a fifty kilometre long chunk of calved ice which was slowly grinding toward the small barge.

"Mmn, yes," Tristania answered for them. "Though I'm still very worried about the radioactive effects..."

"Oh, nonsense, it will be fine. You know that the scientists said that it should, generally speaking, almost produce no radiation at all, especially compared with the pile burn accident at Rist Five."

A loudspeaker cut through the beginnings of their conversation. "T minus two minutes."

"Shall we be safe this close!?" Talitva cried, the effort of getting her voice up across the wind making her squeak. She was only nine Taloran years old, after all, just three years into true adulthood.

"Oh yes," Mikela answered. "I know the scientists once made a big deal about theoretical possibilities of the chain reaction exceeding the possible bounds, but I wouldn't have proceeded with the project if I thought it remotely uncontainable."

"I think it's best if we go behind the sand barriers now, Your Majesty," Trivania offered, and at her word, Mikela obediently collapsed the spyglass and the three, followed by some absolutely terrified attendants, went to the protective sandbag pile on the deck where a number of the major officers of the Grenya armed forces were assembled. "Well, my officers," she addressed them, using the spyglass like a swagger stick, "As the heir of the sword of God, I am about to possess the thunderbolts of God."

"And if they find out," there was no need for Admiral Virankh to mention who "they" were, "We have the excuse of simply using new thermal generation technologies in an effort to clear the sea-lanes, which is quite humanitarian. It was a clever cover, Your August Majesty." None of the scientists had been pleased, but military officers weren't those sorts of scientists.

"T minus SIXTY-FOUR SECONDS; ONE MINUTE COUNTDOWN WARNING. GOGGLES ON. NOW T minus SIXTY SECONDS AND COUNTING..."

"We'll see how it goes," Mikela answered, pulling off her storm goggles for a moment, so that she could put on a small pair of sunglasses beneath them, and then snuggling fit the storm goggles over. "Welder's mask, please," she asked like a doctor asking for a scalpel. Everyone else, save Tristania, who was going through the same process, was wearing goggles which completely blinded them. Mikela, however, wanted to see what was happening. The last layer was complete, letting her directly look at the point some 22km away as time ticked down to the zero factor.

No primitive device sat on that barge across from them. It was, using plentiful amounts of plutonium from the Grenyan reactor programme, and fueled with cryogenic deuterium before the Erasuloh had cast off, a full boosted fission "layer cake" design, as the scientists had colourfully called it to her. The expected yield was nine hundred kilotonnes; the mass of the device was twenty-two metric tonnes.

"T minus EIGHT SECONDS." None of the Talorans in the sandbagged area of the Valera and Taliya's deck knelt; everywhere, the emotion was tense. The terrified servants, though, ducked away despite the goggles or simply, in the case of those not directly near the Great Queen, hid in fear. The power of God was about to be unleashed, and they did not know if their mistress would attract His wrath for it or not.

Mikela set herself against the expected winds of the blast, crosswise to the present ones, and waited. The last few seconds ticked by in a nervous expectation even for her. Here was the only device, after all, which might give her power to exceed even that of In'ghara. A future of boundless possibilities. If it just worked...

The countdown ended and the world exploded. White obscured everything, nothing could be seen. The silence was deafening as the white sharply faded away and the countdown began. She stared, entranced, at the glaring sunlike splendour of the fireball which now consumed the centre sky, seeming bigger than the scientists had promised to her. Gradually it held itself for about a duration of five seconds, and only as it faded did she notice the supersonic shockwave spreading across the water, turning it flat as it was pushed outwards toward them.

The bows of the ships were head-on toward the shockwave, and, just for safety, the engines rang flank-ahead to give them steering power at the last moment. There was a slight shudder and dip, and nothing else, the feeling of an extremely strong gust of wind battering past them, and no further effects. Stronger than the scientists had predicted, but scarcely intolerable; Mikela gave a soft snort, but as she turned back to view the fireball once more, she fell silent.

It was gone, but in its place, a perfect mushroom cloud rose up from the sea, immense, overwhelming, a ring shaped disconnected cloud spreading out further from it. It was a mighty, incredible sight, and she held it for a long time, feeling the power almost course through her body. Glancing down, her eyes were affixed by the most clear evidence of the act. What had been a single fifty-kilometre long chunk of ice had been reduced to two ten-kilometre torn sections, shoved away from each other and moving at a noticeable clip away from the zone of the blast, melted and configured in strange and bizzare ways, the blue old ice flipped up and revealed to the sky so that they were scarcely visible at all.

She stripped off her goggles and looked at the mushroom cloud without their protective cover. It was safe, now, and the ships were turning away, avoiding the potential radioactive side-effects of coming to close while pressurized aircraft circled in closer to make the necessary atmospheric samplings. Eighty seconds in, the roar of the blast reached them, for a while, in the immensity of that noise, no other sound was possible. But then it, too, faded.

"Well, we have a device, my dear Trivania," she said softly. "Tomorrow, we'll see if we have a weapon."


Trijhak Point Air Station.


"The scientific reports confirm that the actual yield was an incredible one-point-zero-five megatonnes, Your August Majesty!"

"Very good," Mikela answered, more intent on other things, as she strode through the blasting arctic cold toward the bomber whose number-one turbine was spooling up on the runway. Her own amphibious plane was ready nearby to take her to the Valera and Taliya the moment the bomber lifted.

It was a GBIH-47K, a variation on the GBI-47 series that was experimental and heavily uprated. Observing in the last war with Lelola that extremely high-altitude operations of bombers rendered them uninterceptible to the point that only a tail gun mount was required, the forward crew compartment and gun mounts had been stripped out of the GBI-47 design, and the bombardier, now using a radar bomb-site rather than visual, positioned more toward the rear, making room for a reinforced fuselage in which was mounted a fifth ARK-15 turbine developing 12,000kW and driving a fifth contra-rotating propeller fitted directly forward as the main component of an extended nose.

Sixty-thousand kilowatts, all to loft a comparatively short-range amount of fuel, a cryogenic deuterium refueling system, and a nineteen metric tonne 'pickle' to an altitude of almost twenty thousand meters. It was a weaponized prototype based on the boosted fission device they had first tested the day before. Mikela climbed boldly onboard, and for the moment left the crew shocked, unable to bow in their cramped spaces.

"We want to see it," she said after a moment, and the bombardier hastened forward to where the scientists were making the last adjustments.

"Your August Majesty!"

She looked instead down at the immense shape consuming the bomb-bay, and projecting somewhat below it. "To think that there's so much power in such a small package. A single aircraft able to smash a division of troops in the field or sink a battleship with a single bomb. Well, you'll do good at the aiming, of course?"

"Of course, Your August Majesty!"

Mikela smiled slightly, and ducked out to crawl her way forward to the cockpit, and speak with the flight officers for a moment. She returned grinning with a ruthless air, and left the craft to lightly head back to her own amphibian. All five contra-rotating props on the bomber were now spinning, and the wheel chocks were pulled clear as the ground crew stepped aside.

The aircraft taxied forward and lined up on the runway at the extreme end; carefully positioned, every inch was going to be taken. Rocket-assist packs were attached to the fuselage. The engines were given as much power as the brakes could take. Whining terrifically they held for a moment until the pilot, Major Sipak Ervantesi, released the brakes and the bomber shot forward with gathering momentum down the runway. The rocket packs were engaged as the engines were brought to full power, and whining tremendously, roaring and screaming, the bomber gently pulled off from the end of the runway, scarcely gaining enough altitude to do more than skim the tops of the snow drifts beyond, everyone tensely watching as with painful slowness the big bomber's landing gear retracted and she slowly started to claw her way skyward into the arctic distance.

"Let's get back," the Great Queen ordered crisply.


It had taken forever, of course, for the main aircraft to reach the altitude necessary to deliver the device, and by that point Mikela's amphibian had reached the Valera and Taliya and was snugly aboard. This time, they were standing off twenty-eight kilometres, in light of the higher yield achieved by the first device than expected, and the fact that the aim point would be less accurate with high-altitude delivery.

Barely visible over the horizon were the masts of two elderly and useless battleships, stripped of all useful materials and with even their guns removed, thoroughly sealed up inside to maximize their resistance, which would now be the focus of this combat test. The targets of the weaponized and air-deliverable version of Mikela's Atomic Bomb.

Overhead the GBIH-47K Farri's Lady was stabilized at an altitude of 19,000 meters. It droned forward toward its final target as its radar bomb sight zeroed in on the two strong contacts which were its targets, and the bombardier prepared to try and deliver the bomb as close as possible to the arbitrary point between the two vessels, while erring on the side of caution to miss so as the device would detonate further away, and not closer to, the research ships, should a miss take place.

On the deck of the Valera and Taliya the Empress glanced at her pocket watch one last time before donning her combination of sunglasses, goggles, and welding facemask once more. It was impossible to see the bomber in them, certainly at that altitude, but she was scarcely the star of the show.

Ylania Riika, the bombardier, figured that she had the best radar aim-point that she could, adjusted by simple electronic computers as best as it could be for the movement and altitude of the bomber, and took control of the aircraft, guiding it on the final approach. She released the pickle. The aircraft jumped up sharply, and applying maximum power the pilot turned hard away and dove, adding as much speed as possible.

The bomb had a long ways to fall, its detonation point controlled by altitude, racing toward that altitude of destruction through the crisp arctic air. It reached it, and the sky was again rent by the light of ten thousand suns. On a distant planet, Charlemagne still ruled a dark-age Christian Empire, and was pleased and amused by the completion of a system of baths at his palace of Aachen, and his successes against the Saracens and other infidels and heretics. His Taloran and Farzian counterpart coolly watched as two of her elderly battleships were engulfed in the light of an atomic fury. Her daughter would have her own successes against heretics.


II Feropti Dashk Jhor (Operation Big Thumb II)
1447 CE
188 IY
Grenya Colenta


The Empress was dead; long live the Empress! But that had been long ago, and Mikela II had not proved herself a particularly adept ruler in the meanwhile. She was the daughter of Mikela I and the Princess Talitva by parthenogenesis, and the first child so conceived in Taloran history. Her mother the Empress was of course dead; her mother the Princess lived, extremely old and decrepit. And now Mikela the Second was afraid that she would be dead within hours or days.

It added a tint of grief to her dark and bitter rage at the news she had been given. The Communitarians who had seized Dalamar and most of the lower half of the Intu'itan states had also, now, progressively advanced deep into the Imperial heartland and were threaten to cut off her Ras'merin possessions from the rest of the Empire, and swamp half of the great fertile heartland of the state. In orbit most o the satellite network was destroyed by their nuclear pulse battleships, and the more distant orbital 'Sides had been repeatedly attacked, sometimes with thousands of innocent casualties, in an effort to interdict their supply. The orbital elevator in southern Quesadi had been seriously damaged by missiles from the Dalamarian communard warships, and there were worries about its stability.

Nuclear devices had shattered most of the armies in the field, and the continued advance of the Dalamarians was effectively unimpeded, while their own dispersal tactics had rendered most of the nuclear counterattacks against their troop emplacements ineffective. Their hypersonic ramjet bombers had even been attacking military bases near the capitol, forcing Mikela into the deep survival bunkers that had been created in her mother's reign below the old forts.

The Empire which her mother had forged was falling apart, and not even the priesthood would in this moment support her, considering her own arrogance in the establishment of a genetically engineered Imperial Guard Corps for her personal protection, against the prescriptions of Farzian law and morality. She was, in short, facing the ruin of everything, Mikela the Blonde, Mikela the Unfaithful, the half-Dalamarian child of the great Mikela the First who shared her mother's blue eyes, and the Princess' distinctive sun-bleached blonde hair, who had the almost-swarthy skin of a Dalamarian, by Taloran standards.

She had been a long time in mustering within herself what had been needed. The only thing, indeed, which could save the Empire now. The tipping point had been when she was given the information that the Dalamarian communards had executed her mother's entire family, down to the last little girl unable to even think for herself. An act of total and complete regicide of every single noble and royal in their possession entirely, for "sins of blood against the people of God", as they had arrogantly declared.

But she had made up her mind, and she held the justification in hand. The Primate of the Grenyan Orders had been ordered to meet her, while above the air-raid sirens of Valeria droned out another warning, either a false alarm or yet another raid by Ramjet bombers of the enemy. It didn't matter.

She arrived at the central control centre of the Imperial government's collapsing war effort, and ignored everyone as they came to attention, except to growl out softly, "Carry on your duties!" The tone was such that no-one followed her as she went to the sealed container that held what she needed. She entered the old family code, and pulled out the code boxes, and from them the control tapes.

These, she shoved into a bank of machines to activate them, and then entered yet another code. Slowly she became aware that work had ceased around the vast control facilities.

"Your Serene Majesty?" General Khalisha approached, bowing. "What's your purpose?"

"Get the GIS watch officer, tell him that his Empress wants the positional coordinates of all major railroad junctions providing front support to the communard armies," Mikela answered, slamming her palm down against the last button in the series to confirm the second code. The tapes were read, and then, glaring from the central display panel was an ominous message:

COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THIS FACILITY AND THE NUCLEAR RESERVE ELEMENTS OF THE IMPERIAL NAVY HAVE BEEN AUTHORIZED.

"We have thirty cruise missile subs at sea, General Khalisha, and we're going to use them all. That is my absolute command."

"The Imperial Council..."

"Has been dismissed. We will appoint others based on the recommendations of the Primate. We are supreme in this Empire! We have granted the sacred duty of defending the faith, carrying the Sword of In'ghara. Desperate measures, certainly, General, but necessary nonetheless. We want the coordinates transmitted to all of our subs as appropriate. We are going to destroy all the infrastructure supply points of the enemy systematically."

"They're all located in cities. That would be quite unchivalrous, Your Serene Majesty, indeed, it would surely result in millions of deaths of innocents."

"There are no innocents in Dalamar," came a stern voice from across the control centre, glaring angrily at the genetically engineered guards who had accompanied him. The old, silver-haired man walked forward in priestly robes, his cane tapping against the floor.

"Your Serene Majesty, you are a sinner, and perilously close to damning yourself. Explain your intents!"

"You have declared holy war against the heretical communards to be an absolute necessity by all faithful Talorans which would wipe away many bad deeds," Mikela answered, and then did something shocking. She knelt before the Primate.

"Honoured Father, I have sinned. But let me draw the blade of my nation and wipe those sins free. I will deliver up to God an offering in recompense of fifty-six marshalling yards of the Communard held territories. From this moment the armies I have failed to lead, I will take command of personally, and smash with the atomic fist that my mother gifted to me. I presume no royal prerogatives before you; just give me your blessing to lead the armies of my ancestors in battle against evil."

"If you can wipe the communards from the face of this planet, My Empress," the old man answered softly, "If you can crush the heretics until there are a mere handful left, hiding in fear of your puissant arms, then I will forgive and accept what you have done in the past, regretful daughter of Valera."

"Then I will give you those fifty-six yards, Honoured Father."

"You shall. As for the inhabitants.." The old man coldly looked around. "The Lord of Justice will concern himself with their rewards. You all, on the other hand, shall concern yourselves with the preservation of the faith. Your Empress is humbled, and driven to do this act herself to seek penance for her prior crimes. Now obey her, in the spirit of humility with which she acts, and destroy the enemies of your faith!" He turned, cold and intense, to Mikela the Second. "Rise, my liege, take up the sword of your ancestors, and in just fury crush the slayers of your kin with your slaying hand!"

Mikela almost leapt to her feet. "Honoured Father," she answered softly, and strode into the centre of the room, waiting imperiously for the courier from the GIS section to arrive with the data chips which the communications staff then inserted into the central computers. These, along with the necessary orders, began flowing out to the thirty-one cruise missile subs lurking below the world-ocean to the east, bottomed out in shallow places to avoid detection by the enemy's strength and orbital eyes.

"Now, I want the ninety-fifth, one hundred fourty-nine, two hundred and eighth, and one hundred and seventeenth supersonic bomb wings loaded with short-range attack missiles. They'll try to force their way in with the shock these strikes should inoculate in the enemy, and clean up any targets that remain, or else attack targets of opportunity."

"Of course, Your Serene Majesty."

"We," she said, recovering a bit, "will take the field once the success of the attacks has been measured. Let the clouds of doom arise, and may the darkness be banished. We will not weep for my mother's house. We will avenge them."


On thirty-one submarines the order was given: "Flood tubes one through twelve," often in trembling voices. But the order was obeyed. Against each of the targets, at least twelve mach 5-capable supersonic ramjet cruise missiles, hugging the ground at a hundred meters of altitude or even less, raced in bearing 2 MT warheads. On approaching they popped up, and dove straight down. Seven times every single cruise missile was shot down; fourty-three times, only one made it through. Five times, two. Once, three. Fourty-nine of the fifty-six most critical supply points of the communard army were destroyed in a hail of atomic vengeance.

The bombers went in next. Considerably less successful, most of them were shot down by a quite ready, and quite angry, Communard air force. But one not just got through, but stayed aloft long enough to deliver two SRAMs straight into the heart of the fiftieth target. Three others going against areas where all targets had been successfully hit, found other targets, and turned their missiles against massing facilities for replacements heading to the front and annihilated them.

All along the front, the Grenyan troops of the Empire were awakening to the fact that their enemy had been at last dealt a terrifying counterblow. The Empress' words echoed from every loudspeaker at every post, and were repeated widely beyond it in all the formal broadcasts, in an impossibly rare direct and live address which broke all convention.

"My children, We have come through a difficult time together, in which most of Our ancestors were cruelly slain by these heretic savages. It was the last straw. There will be no civilization and respect in this war; this is a Holy War, as the war against Moloyr was, and it is Our supreme duty to preserve the faith of our shared ancestors, one and all, against this threat. We had no choice, regardless of their profession, but to devastate the centres of the enemy's war effort to buy us the time to build our strength for a counterattack, together. So now, We give you a singular order: not one step back! Hold the lines, and hold true to the faith of your ancestors. The counterattack has begun today, and we will drench Dalamar in the blood of the heretics! Our path is righteous, and be confident that today God stands with you in combat, good standing against evil, on this splendid day when we have struck back against the infidel foe! Hold your ground, my children, and hold true to the faith of your ancestors. Together we shall see these dark times through. God protect you all!"

The moment Mikela the Second used her mother's atomics to devastate the Communards was the moment that something stiffened inside of her, and the arrogant, paranoid, dissolute Empress of her youth was transformed into some creature of savage beauty and unfathomable resolve. She rose to match the shadow of her mother's image, and she turned her every thought and energy into the defeat of her enemies, and, in time, the glory of her realm, in a war of which no more savagery could be imagined than what was, in time, inflicted, and in her penance and puissant wrath, none could quite compare.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Farzianism


A dualist religion which has sustained itself as the primary creed of the Talorans for some ten thousand years, and as an extant religion for three thousand before it, the worship of Farzbardor (the Lord of Justice) as propagated by the writings of the Prophet Eibermon, serves as the primary justification for the power of the Valerian Dynasty over the fortunes of the Taloran species and as a central social bedrock.

Farzianism is unquestionably a deeds-centric religion, which holds that Good was created by Farzbardor, the Lord of Justice, and evil was created by Idenicamos, the Master of Deception. In this fashion, all things in the universe are divided between good and evil; this includes rigorous lists of the flora and fauna of Talora Prime's known regions at the time, which meant that a large number of animals and plants were driven extinct by zealous Farzians who saw themselves as fighting evil.

Sentient life alone is unique in that Idenicamos originally created Talorans and other sentient species, with "intelligence hampered by no morality", Farzbardor redeemed the evil of sentients by gifting them with souls which were inherently good, and immortal. The evil influences of the body continuously pull down on the soul; but instead of falling to the anti-world ideals of Gnosticism, Farzianism holds that to redeem the failings of the body it is absolutely critical that the soul guide it, through the capacities of reason, in doing Good works to improve the world around each person.

The evil of the body must therefore be battled, and triumphed against, by the reasoning capacity of the spirit, and guided and directed toward tasks of good, which including having children, with the proviso that they must be absolutely raised to do good from birth, so that their souls are given precedence and they are never once led toward the temptation of abandoning themselves to the evil impulses of their bodies. Continuous religious education from the moment of sentience is therefore crucial to the Farzian expectations of proper child-rearing.

There is no redemptive power as such; rather, each person's life is judged on death to determine if the good they have done or the evil they have done is the stronger, and they go to their reward or punishment based upon that. The definitions of the main and minor sins and the dangers that they place the soul in, and the merituous deeds which can be done as penance, are exquisitely detailed and almost poetic in the writings of Eibermon. The importance of good words is universal, and a person's holiness may be immediately judged by their actions in this life. Forgiveness is an action entirely of penance.

Because of this the priesthood is extremely conscientious toward duties of doctoring, with the maintenance of an extensive network of hospitals, education, with the maintenance of schools and universities, and the development of agricultural projects to open up new land for cultivation, and by extension, terraforming, with the Farzian orders collectively controlling the largest terraforming concern in the Taloran Empire. Seeking to avoid the evils of usury which were strongly condemned by Eibermon, the church itself offers controlled interest-free loans to parishoners of suitable moral rectitude, and backed by a small security fee if large or there are issues in the past. With a universally mandated 8% tithe, the Church has plenty of income with which to in all these areas remain the leaders, and indeed, to completely dominate small-level financing, meaning that for-profit credit companies larger than that of a loan-shark cater entirely, and exclusively, to business.

Both males and females can enter any of the priestly orders, which are established according to different 'orders' of discipline, and have different approaches to the service of the Farzian religion and interpretation of some minor doctrinal points which do not hinder their recognition of each other. Priests of different orders can be freely moved from temple to temple without disturbing commoners for the most part, but usually orders have assigned temples that they provide priests for to avoid even the slightest problems. Almost all nobles retain the service of a private confessor, who also acts as a counselor and guide to their acts of statecraft. Since priests and priestesses must universally be continuously doing good deeds, they are invariably trained as doctors, nurses, teachers, or agricultural specialists to add in the development and health of their society, in sharp contrast to Christian religious officials. The hierarchy, however, is not dissimilar to that of the Eastern Orthodox Church, with the three Primates of the three continents as the highest representatives of the religion.

As a development of the Age of Valera, it is held by the Farzians that Valera was bodily ascended to heaven by Farzbardor on a chariot of fire after her victory over Moloyr (an incarnation of Idenicamos, according to the Farzian faith). In this role, never having died, she leads the armies of Farzbardor against the armies of Idenicamos, and in doing so has permanently shifted the balance in the universe, changing things from the uncertain state they were in before hand, where Eibermon warned that if conversion was not pursued aggressively enough, evil might triumph and plunge the universe into the eternal black, but rather guaranteeing the ultimate triumph of Farzbardor, and a sure promise of an eternal reward for all those who fight in the Army of Good on the day of the final battle (this aspect being important, that the reward to the dead does not come immediately, though they are lavishly treated in the Hosts of Farzbardor, for rather the war against Idenicamos must first be fought before a true and bountiful afterlife may begin).

Information on the social roles of the Farzian church, including their special role in the training of psychics, has already been largely covered in the other posts in this thread, leaving the principle observations that the Farzian condemnation of polytheism, and heresies against the rightness of the Valerian line, can be dealt with very harshly, and the religion remains militant in its spread, not hampered by any sort of enlightenment presumptions of free choice in religion. As the religion is based on works, however, atheists or agnostics are not fundamentally evil, merely misled, and are ignored and accepted, if thought eccentric or mad, in normal society, even when quite open; the problem is with polytheists, as polytheism is an explicit evil in the writings of the Prophet Eibermon. The hairier area of the rightness of calling Valera the Sword of Justice and extending particular privileges to the right of her ancestors to rule the Taloran people, however, has naturally been pricklier and sparked internal disputes which gave rise to the communitarians, among other heterodox groups.

[lord Martiya]

Very interesting. But I have some question on the Humans of Taloran Universe: are they linked to a Gundam universe? If yes, what one?

They're not. Based on the assumption of a dystopic 21st century, the rest of the development pattern is a blend of events from the CoDominion novels/Firefly (the USA and China forming a world government that dominates the rest of the planet, in place of the USA and USSR in the first case), some influence from some of C.J. Cherryh's Merchanter universe novels, O'Neil Colony settlements, which ARE shared with UC Gundam, which does have some inspirational influence, yes, and finally and most importantly, the UTHP is based on my extrapolation of what the ruling regime of humanity was like in the era when the planet Pern was settled in Anne McCaffrey's novels of that title, based on extrapolation and references of what the society the settlers were leaving was like, i.e., that it was an anti-gene-tech, blood and soil fascist movement that that was highly aggressive and xenophobic, even to the point of loathing non-Earth humans.

Very well. So, I can hope to see the Red Comet smashing some Feddie...
P.S.: My assumption came from the xenophoby of the Earthers, not from the colonies. Not only.

[lord Martiya]

I was reading Anatomy of a War when I read this:

The Tirpitz-class dreadnoughts Karol Wojtyla

Exactly, from what universe she come from, and why is named after a pacifist?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

I was reading Anatomy of a War when I read this:

The Tirpitz-class dreadnoughts Karol Wojtyla

Exactly, from what universe she come from, and why is named after a pacifist?

Alliance, probably for his anti-communism efforts. It's the sort of thing some patriotic Polish politician would insert as a ryder in a defence funding bill.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Some considerations on the operation of the Taloran government.


The Taloran government is a basically feudal construct at the level of the Imperial Confederacy. The component states tend to be more centralized, but the nobility retains wide-reaching feudal juridical privileges even if the administration is centralized in most of the component states.

Grenya Colenta, for example, consists of a series of seventy-one major Talora-bound subdivisions, and two thousand space-bound subdivisions, which are all in turn themselves further subdivided. At a practical level, however, the third order consists of the last at which the nobility has any remaining power, as distinct from personal privilege. In Grenya Colenta Barons rarely exercise any distinct privilege; it is the Countesses and above who essentially control the judicial system, the police, and the revenue agencies within their local jurisdiction.

Law much resembles the Channel Islands of Earth in this respect; the cry of the Taloran equivalent to the Clameur de Haro is universally respected in bringing the direct intervention of the nobility and forcing a halt to an action harmful to an individual in their territory. Broadly speaking, the administrative aspects of finance and law are handled entirely by the central governments, but they are carried out by the local nobility in accordance with the decrees passed down by the central governments, which contain the whole of the functional civil service bureaucracy. In this sense, the nobility of the component states have by and large become the agents of the State and Imperial governments, their traditional rights having morphed into a position of a sort of inheirited Intendancy, with the central government's bureaucracy bringing actions of protest to heel rather than the placement of the Intendants as appointed individuals outside of the nobility who rely on the government of the State in the form of the Sovereign for their position.

As a practical matter, however, at the level smaller than a County (or in smaller subdivisions and smaller realms in general, but very rare in the large States, a Barony), the civil service is appointed by the ruler of that particular State only on the advice of the particular noble who nominally retains privileges for the area. These local-order officials act in the administrative roles; the actual officers of the courts, the revenue services, and the police are still appointed directly by the local nobility. In all cases the local nobility is required to collect revenue and in this sense one of their most important duties, functionally, is tax farming. The tendency of the states to centralize, however, means that excesses in this area can result in a presumption of more duties by the State government, and therefore the situation is a patchwork, where appointed royal officers of the particular King, Duchess, or Countess Palatine of a sovereign component state of the Empire may have more authority in one County or Duchy than the next (in Grenya Colenta for example Duchies are coterminus with provinces which have their own representative bodies which largely act in place of the local nobility, reducing them to a more ceremonial role only as the heads of the provincial government with more of the administrative aspects being handled by orders-in-council promulgated by the local administrative cabinet assembled from the parliament.

Binding Imperial law is rare and the 3,800 first-order subdivisions of the Empire, ranging from innumerable city-states and tiny principalities and India-like feudatories (the infamous 674 component entities of the Raj) on the surface of Talora Prime, to thousands of minor colonization entities in space, to the immense territories of Midela, Lelola, and Rasilan which are the size of regional powers in their own right, handle most of the direct legislative aspects of the regime, which tend to be done in parliaments far more representative than that of the Empire itself, which is more a collection of vassals of the Empress. In general the result of this is that though Grenya Colenta, comprising 40% of the Empire, strongly resembles the Habsburg Integralis in its organization and function, the Jikari, Habsburg Britain, Dalamar and the New Territories, Habsburg Spain, and the Concordat in a similar position, the other more than 3,700 first-order subdivisions of the Empire afford themselves the positions of the loosely associated states of the HRE, and comprise in all 50% of the Empire.

With the nobility continuously involved in the civil service at all levels, and, at the range of Duchies and Counties (or in small states, Baronies), retain control of many internal administrative aspects of law and order, the actual, meritocratic civil service of the Taloran Empire is small, and the administration is not particularly top-heavy. Rather than having a particular process, goals are set for the Ducal or County administrative apparati which must be met, as made in the legislatures of the particular state. This means that the lower nobility can be taking orders from an elected parliament, though of course any such laws are signed by the ruler of that State, and therefore the orders actually come from their feudal lady, preserving their dignity and the legal formalities, at least, of the feudal power structure. Orders-in-Council have the same practical effect, and are used much more frequently among Talorans.

As the Church handles most aspects of the development of a regular system of hospitals and relief for the poor, this is taken care in a centralized fashion going directly to the top of the Primarchate covering the territory of that State, without any input from the state governments, creating the most centralized system by far in the entire Empire. It also liases heavily with the educational departments of each State, which are otherwise independent and directed by that state's parliament and sovereign save in such cases where directives from the Imperial government have been made binding.

In terms of the operation of the Imperial government itself, the Convocate holds most of the power, including sole control over taxation. Several powers are, however, reserved for the Empress. She controls the collection of flotsam and jetsam and the recovery of treasure (this is formed into one bureau which is functionally a ministry of antiquities and corporate salvage operation entirely owned by the government, which is by far the most bureaucratic organization in the Imperial government), external revenue (Collection of tariffs, excises, and duties by the Customs Service), emergency public health (the Surgeon General and associated commands of quarantine and other severe measures required during plague), and of course the declaration of war and peace, and the accreditation of ambassadors and total control over foreign treaties. This means that most of the matters in these areas are handled by Imperial Rescript, or if less important, Orders-in-Council, and are never seen by the Convocate or the Deputies.

All other matters of Imperial import, however, are handled by the Convocate and the Deputies; the Convocate has sole control over internal taxation (though internal tariffs between different states are forbidden except in circumstances where one state refuses to render up its required contributions to the Imperial government, at which point the Empress may establish excises on their productions until the government is brought to heel), establishing joint education requirements, and matters such as industry and agriculture, where large research programmes are funded by the government of the Confederacy and heavy cooperation with industry to preserve strategic resources is undertaken through the laws passed.

However, neither the Convocate nor the Deputies may initiate legislation. The Convocate may amend it and debate it; the Deputies has no powers of amendment and may debate only en bloc, vote en bloc, and provide a simple yes/no voice to the legislation provided for it. The Convocate at that time may amend it if the Deputies refuse to agree, or else the Council (which usually drafts the legislation through Assistant Ministers of Legislation assigned to each Ministry who draft legislative proposals under the directives of the chief Minister relating to the cognizance of that ministry). The Councilors of the Privy Seal, retired ministers and individuals of important, distinct from the Councilors Minister with specific portfolios either traditional or modern, may craft and initiate legislation pertaining to any area of the government, or several, though the Ergacatum (Supreme Chancellor) has the ability to halt this process.

The Empress is required to maintain regular elections to Parliament and allow the Parliament to sit, though she may dismiss the Deputies at her pleasure and call new elections. Though her veto may be overriden by the Convocate fairly easily, or by the Deputies and the Convocate together also with little difficulty, indeed in that case requiring less of a percentage than the United States government does, the Empress can refuse to sign legislation, effectively killing it until her own death; as the Imperial dignities maintain that the Empress can be forced to give assent to a bill, a pocket veto is permanent throughout the Imperial reign. However, when the Empress dies and before the new Empress is girt with the sword of Valera, if the Convocate and Chamber are in session, they may by simple majority force through simultaneously all or some of the pocketed legislation, as the Ergacatum who is temporarily managing the government does not have the same prerogatives of refusal. This only very rarely happens, because it is not only a considerable hassle and frequently dealing with bills a century or more out of date, but also imposing on the Imperial mourning people in a way that is a bit uncouth, but of some very important legislation which has been endlessly held up by a truculent Empress, this method has been used of finally forcing it through in the next brief interregnum.

Because the Empress has supreme power to make appointments to the Council and is unimpaired in her ability to act as head of the Military, all important military positions are appointed by her. Broadly speaking, the military is therefore a professional and disciplined body up to the highest levels with few political interests that maintains an extensive advisory system and long-range planning offices. It is also reasonably well-funded, as taxation for support of the Imperial military can be passed through the Convocate fairly easily under specific constitutional grounds established by Mikela I which make it possible for the Empress to halt all legislative activity in the Convocate until a military funding measure has been passed through the collusion of the council-level Imperial Representative (currently Jhastimia Rulandh, the Archduchess of Leluno) to the Convocate and the parliamentary manoeuvres said individual can initiate in the Empress' name even though the I.R. cannot vote in the Convocate, nor can the Empress even enter it.

The Convocate cannot be dismissed, but its members sit only at their own pleasure. They are provided residences in Valeria at government expense but otherwise not compensated, and generally speaking only 500 members of the Convocate are on hand in all during any particular legislative session, with their votes being handled based on their rank (so that the power of the Great Queens and the King of Kings of Rasilan is far greater than that of a mere Countess in voting terms) and also determining the factors for a quorum, meaning that even fewer of the Convocate's members can be present and business can still be conducted. Conversely, members of the Chamber of Deputies are paid by the government and their attendance of legislative sessions is mandatory except with excusal from the office of the Ergacatum, who sits as head of sessions of the Deputies. The Empress may of course issue Imperial Rescripts, or, more often, Orders in Council are issued by the Councilors of the Cabinet, to cover matters of legislation when the parliament is not in session, which have total force of law until the parliament's next session, at which time they must be voted over in the usual fashion. Since government appointments are not confirmed by the legislature, all appointees serve at Imperial whim.

The higher level judicial does not exist as such, but rather an office is devoted to responding to petitions of citizens in the various states to look into issues of abuse, and suits can be brought by the Imperial government where necessary. This office also deals with matters of clemency to the Empress, who has the supreme power to commute or dismiss sentences and issue pardons. The exception is in a special court system for trying Nobles of the Realm and those accused of lese majeste, Grand Treason, and other high crimes against the Imperial Person or State body. The Empress of course maintains total personal control over the Family Law of the Dynasty.

As a somewhat related note, the Convocate must confirm elevations to the Imperial peerage, though the individual members control elevations to their own state peerage. This provides a powerful check on the existing system being used, and claims of nobility are investigated by an Office of Titulary which operates under the auspices of the Convocate, which therefore also exercises considerable influence over the licit marriages of the nobility in general.

The Imperial Demesne has the same rights as independent states of the Confederacy, with Grenya Colenta, Dalamar and the New Territories, and the Concordat Worlds each forming effectively a single one of a total of three states of the Empire which are ruled by the same person, the Empress.

They do not have representation in the Convocate, but do have representation in the Deputies. Imperial law binding to the whole Empire is binding to them, but otherwise the Empress maintains a separate Ministerial Council for each of the three states and issues Orders in Council and signs their internal laws as necessary in addition to and separate from her duties as the Empress, in her role as the sovereign of those particular realms. As these realms, particularly Dalamar and the New Territories, are the most centralized in the Empire (indeed, Dalamar has no real involvement by the lower-order nobility and is administered on highly rationalist lines with entirely appointed Intendants as a result of the great Communitarian revolt having devastated its feudal order, setting it apart from the rest of the Empire, while the New Territories were established by Mikela I and her autocratic tendencies had full reign there), they provide a strong reserve of personal power for the Empress, and most of her directly owned property on which she collects feudal rent are in these lands, which provide the funding for the dynasty, though a constitutionally fixed Civil List is also provided from the component states of the Confederacy, which cannot be altered like the Farzian 8% tithe, and unlike other internal taxation-based funding measures.

The Jikari Autonomous Republic is administered separately still, and is technically not a part of the Imperial Confederacy, but rather a separate state of which the Empress is also always the same person as the Sovereign Protector thereof, who appoints a Lord Protector more in the fashion of a Governor General, but who as a practice uses the reserve powers of such a commonwealth officer far more frequently to prorogue or dismiss the Jikari parliament and call new elections, and the Lord Protector has full powers over the appointment of his or her cabinet ministers, though they must be Jikari who are sitting in the Jikari parliament. The Jikari state is somewhat more centralized than the Empire only, but retains a far different sort of organization more amenable to control even so. Their personal loyalty to the Empress and the absence of any oversight by the Imperial government (other than mandated joint-defence coordination which is technically regulated by a treaty between the two 'states', as is their current tax-free status and right of subjects of either state to settle in the other) means that they provide a particular bulwark to Imperial power, especially with their fearsome reputation as shocktroops, even though generally speaking only 10% of what is called the Taloran Star Empire by foreigners is actually the separate, but inextricably linked, Jikari Autonomous Republic.

[fgalkin]

I was reading Anatomy of a War when I read this:

The Tirpitz-class dreadnoughts Karol Wojtyla

Exactly, from what universe she come from, and why is named after a pacifist?

From the Alliance, and because he died when Steve was writing "Anatomy." That's the OOC reason for it. In-universe, because he was an anti-Communist.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Eibermon and Valera:

The Ancient History of Talora Prime delves into the fundamental myths of the Taloran people and how they believe they fit into the universe; likewise, it is fundamental in understanding their religion and their society, and the drive behind their civilization. It is principally a story which, certainly, is twisted by the veil of religion and myth, but one with a firm basis in easily discoverable facts, and those facts present a stunning picture of an historical epic which does indeed seem to touch the divine in splendour and sadness.

A style of fighting had developed in the Quesadi City-States, where blocks of soldiers would fight with the Pike, the weapon being about twenty-two feet in length, with a leaf-shaped, pointed blade at the end, and several feet behind that on the pole, a rounded piece of metal would be supported out from the pole by bars, a distance of some inches, to deflect the probe of the enemy pike or other weapon. The men would be heavily armoured but without shield, and fighting in this style saved the Quesadi City-States from conquest by the northern tyrannies in a series of campaigns.

This style of fighting was copied by the Intu'in (modern Taloran: Intu'itan) states, with the addition that instead of women fighting purely as archers, and skirmishers, or light cavalry, that in those states and in those times, they would also form in the Pike block, in further lines behind the men, and thus, that when the nations of Intu'in fought against the Kingdom of Dalamar to maintain their independence, they could field twice the number of heavy infantry, and though the men could better support the effort of the pike battle, the women would be fresh when the men were spent, and thus victory gained by the swift, decisive effort they would give against the wearied men of Dalamar.

And it was just before this change in fighting styles, and revolution in the way of war that slowly went with it, had taken place, that the Prophet Eibermon had begun speaking and writing in the valleys of the Rift to the east of the Quesadi Mountains, and according to the traditions of the Taloran people, faced many trials and tribulations there, enduring great hardship before finding refuge in the court of a mountain Queen named Tryfarlis, whose tiny nation guarded the passes of the Quesadis, down to the coastal plains and cities of the same name, who became his first Royal Proselyte. This happened in the year 156 AE, when Eibermon still had 204 years of life left by conversion of dates to the Terran year.

However, Eibermon and his royal proselyte still had the task of converting her people, and of surviving the avarice of other nations, and the greed and hate and fear of the pagan priests, so that they might spread the worship of Farzbardor, the Lord Justice; by missionary to the hopeless masses, and by sword to those who had embraced the path of Idenicamos, the Deceiver. Farzianism holds no particular tendency toward violence or pacifism. It simply mandates certain actions in certain circumstances, and from the start these were adhered t

By these dextrous methods and by the determined resistance of the faithful, and coolness on the counter-offensive, the religion of Eibermon, and the worship of Farzbardor, was maintained and spread. By the death of the Prophet Eibermon and the end of the years so dated as his life, and the beginning of those counted from his death until the reign of the Heirs of Valera, it might be said that all the nations and the nomadic tribes of the Rift Valleys had been converted to the faith of Farzianism, as had the Kingdoms and hill-people of the Quesadi Mountains. The Quesadi city-states resisted very sternly the spread of this new religion, in state form, though numerous small groups maintained it in secret. To the east, the rift desert tribes formed a bulwark against further expansion for a while, but ultimately they, and the coastal beyond them, were also converted. Tendrils of the religion spread to the northern plains, covered in grain, to the Ta'ert valley, and to the In'tuin states, but no state conversions took place here. Yet.

And so it was in these times that great victories were won by the Pike--including many against the Farzians themselves, inexperienced with such tactics and preferring raiding, on account of the stern Quesadi in their resolute defence of their cities-and the way of war of the Quesadi City-States spread, and in the great valley of the Two Inas the nation of Trilune, a great despotate, was overthrown by the arms of the strong and brave island nation of Rasilan, which by trade with the Quesadi City-States by the daring route around the north of the continent, had gained the use of the Pike and their method of war, and the employment of many brave freemen of the Quesadi lands as mercenaries.

It was in the land of Trilune, in the capitol of the Great Kings, that the son of King Vistar and as wife Inarai, of the line of the Kings of Rasilan, the conquerors of that nation, was born: A strong and intelligent man, with the brilliance in conquest that his line had shewn, but with a glint of cunning and evil that would lead him to deeds and ruthlessness that would put him down in history with the appelation of The Tyrant.

He was Moloyr, and he was born in the year 808 AE. It was here in the conquered lands of his family that in time he would come of age. When his parents died by the plague, he would prepare his Kingdom for conquest as a young man, and forge a great nation on the bones of Principalities and Kingdoms, on skill in battle, and terror in the dark.

And so it was in the year 820 AE that someone else was born central to Talora and the history of the world. The daughter of a Count in an independent Principality at the mouth of the Ta'ert, her life was perhaps influenced by the nearness of the Intu'in states in her independence and strength, though by the time of the rise of Moloyr, she had been married to the Prince of her nation, and borne him three daughters, though not yet a son, and by all accounts was happy with her lot.

Her most unusual feature consisted of mismatched eyes, all agreed: Her left was ice blue, and her right a brilliant orange. This sign, mismatched eyes, is a sign of special fortune and destiny among the Taloran people, from even among ancient times, and never more has it come true than for Valera of the Ta'ert! Her hair was a seaweed green, and the combination left her absolutely striking by the Taloran terms of beauty.

It was in these times when seventy-two years had passed from the birth of Valera, daughter of Qua'rin and Yasmini, that Moloyr, reached the very heights of conquest that would bring him down, after twenty-five years unstopped in the levying of an immense swathe of conquests across the entirety of Grenya Colenta which we shall briefly consider.

His goal was not less than the whole of Grenya Colenta, and perhaps the world, and in this he equaled Alexander--and his education, by the finest scholars of the Quesadi City-States, was no less thorough, so that he might call himself learned, despite the humble origins of the nobility of his family on the distant island of Rasilan, compared with the haughty democracy of the Quesadi City-States.

Moloyr assembled his armies in the earliest days of his reign, and with 60,000 and then 80,000 men affected the conquest Uruka, Ferashako, and Erasano, the three Despotates closest to the land of his patrimony, regularly defeating armies of 500,000 or more. In fourteen years he had conquered all three states; utterly defeating them, throwing them down, and annexing them into his nation. He spread out after this, and overthrew two more nations to the south and one to the north besides.

His army was dextrously organized for the first attacks, along the lines of 36,000 Pike, 15,000 cavalry, and 9,000 light infantry skirmishers, those being javelineers, archers, and slingers. The cavalry of Talora is uniquely divided, between those who ride the Rostok, or great War Boars, and can wear armour and charge with the lance, and those who ride the Effavsur, a large flightless bird, and which those acting in the role of horse archer, or light cavalry, like Hussars, may so be mounted. It is generally believed that the initial army of Moloyr had ten thousand of the former, and five thousand of the latter.

In later times, his army was further increased by the addition of 12,000 more Pike, 3,000 more skirmishers (including assorted auxilia from barbarian tribes), and 5,000 more cavalry. In those days before the stirrup, cavalry was not decisive, but it for the first time showed an truly important role as part of Moloyr's combined army.

And so it was this army that conquered his foes and spread his glory; it was this army that dispersed the peasant levies of three great nations that often outnumbered it six to one at least, and sometimes more, and then did it again, for on Talora, also, the Yaltila is useful for transport, and the towing of huge wagons filled with supplies: It is a most dextrous beast which eases the burden of supply for massive armies of the ancient type, and may also be used in war like the elephant, and with a tower on its back, and so great armies might be mustered; but these, too, were swept aside.

After the conquest of the six closest Despotates, only the many Kingdoms and Principalities of the Ta'ert delta and the surrounding lands remained, before Moloyr's armies must march great distances across formidable terrain, or assault the thick forests and hills of the Intu'in states. So he resolved to conquer them, before his plan for the conquest of Grenya Colenta was to be continued by expeditions farther afield, despite the fact, or precisely because of it, that they offered no real opposition to his arms.

The lands of the Ta'ert were disunified, but they did possess the modern methods of war, and proper cavalry, and every one there was a soldier, both male and female, if it came to it--often might the women guard the keep unaided when the men were in battle or on raid, and the fiercest would accompany the men of those nations, though they did not have control of their lineage as they might in the Intu'in states, and that innovation was brought to the Ta'ert only by the heirs of Valera, though it was scarcely uncommon elsewhere, particularly among the Quesadi.

It was to such a foe that Moloyr faced, and he decided first to weaken them, and so he dispatched assasins to kill the greatest leaders, and one who was struck down was the husband of Valera, a feared and rightly skilled warrior and noted administrator in his lands. His head was delivered to the Tyrant in the scene famously captured by The Wine of Violence, commissioned by Mikela I and depicting the mad court of the Tyrant. Without the leadership of Valera's husband, the nearest principalities and nations were scattered before the veteran army of Moloyr, and though Valera fought at the command of her national contigent on that day, it was in a state of grief, and not remotely in a place of command over the forces with which she first faced the enemy of her life.

With the flying cavalry squadrons of Moloyr upon the heels of her shattered forces, defeated like all the others in the battle of Trilvaht, she rallied all those who had not fled in all directions, and was advised to retire back to the fortress city of her husband's patrimony, or to the keep of her own family, not far distant. But this was the counsel of despair and death, for the great armies of Moloyr pursued those who dared reform with a skill earned by their prior victories, and well equipped with siege engines, none could stand against his might in those fortresses of lesser name and stature.

Forced to abandon her people to the vengeance and the avarice of the unsatiated conquerer, and the flattered tyrant, she recovered her daughters and retired with her army and only those of her people who might keep up with the progress of her flight, towards the West, and the Rift Valleys, and hence the lands of the adherents of Farzianism. It was here that she sought refuge for herself and her young daughters, beyond the lengths of pursuit of Moloyr's troops.

Moloyr, conquerer of the Ta'ert, brought with him learning to the despotates he had conquered, but the Ta'ert he brought little. Though certainly a learned man of the style of the Quesadi city-states, he had avarice and he was by nature cruel, tempered only by the wisdom of the Quesadi, in particular that of the pagan philosopher Bylykha, and that was weakened by the flattery of those who deigned to call him not just Great King, and Conquerer, but Son of the Gods, and even Divine, and use their so-gained positions for their own wealth and prestige.

In the process, they gradually corrupted the mind of Moloyr until he believed that not even the laws of the Gods restrained his actions, and that the fate of mortals, even in his own realm, mattered nothing to him. Only his soldiers mattered, and even they gradually faded from his mind as images of Godhood instead of prevailed within him.

By 894 AE, the Ta'ert was subdued and Moloyr rested in his capitol of Bhistam in Trilune on the Brilar river's mouth. It was there that he contemplated the invasion of the Kingdom of Dalamar, the most splendid of the Despotates of Grenya Colenta, and the most powerful--defended by the two rivers, a stout and powerful border of water, with high mountain ranges between them, and massive hordes that were further in turn supported by unusually good cavalry for a Despotate, and the use of large numbers of Yaltila in battle, they would no easy conquest even for his puissant arms.

However, Valera had been now over a Taloran year in the kingdoms and nations of the Rift, and her anger had not let her rest there, nor had her grief. She had seen herself broken, truly, by that grief, but had been rebuilt, and finding her comfort and her succor in the religion of Eibermon and the promise of salvation for the Just, even if they fall without the knowledge nor the faith and worship of Farzbardor, and in that religion, the clarity of the cosmic struggle between the two halves of Good and Evil and the struggle against the Deceiver, she remade herself in an image of war, and began to speak of that war.

The people of the harsh Rift Valleys were neither fools nor lazy, and they were eager to spread the religion of Farzianism, and gain proselytes, by good deed and the sword alike--especially they!--so given to raiding as they were. And so it was here that Valera, in over a year, such a long year, of her people's time, traveled and spoke and exhorted the nations of Farzianism to the cause, expending what meager treasure she had saved to entertain as proper the Kings and Princes she might to the word of her cause.

And so it finally might be said, that while Moloyr began to prepare an army for the invasion of Dalamar, Valera prepared one for the invasion of his own territories, and the stories of the brutality of the conquest, and then the corruption and uncaring and then the steadily growing brutality of Moloyr's regime, as the Tyrant fell into his delusions and abused his people, turned more to Valera's call. They listened to her, heeded her, and began to believe that God was indeed on her side.

Worse yet for Moloyr came as they heard of his proclamations for Godhood, for the people of Farzianism, indeed, could not tolerate the idea of a man as a Living God, and so to Valera's cause they flocked, and money she gained, as nobles and princes pledged their services, and Kings their alliance, and merchants their wealth, that mercenaries of the Quesadi city-states might be hired to augment their forces. It was resolved that the faith must battle, for evil stalked the earth in the form of the Deceiver, in a man who styled himself a God.

It was a small force, still, that those rulers proposed to send on Valera's expedition. They feared the repercussion, and hoarded many troops for a strong defensive if she should fail, or to reinforce also her success should it come to pass, and also to defend against each other in petty rivalries that still existed, and to perhaps deny that the thing had been more than a passing fad of the people, backed and stocked by the generosity of the Farzians to perform their religious duty and fight evil where they saw it. Nonetheless that force numbered around 38,000; it was a true army, however small!

Of that army, 24,000 Pikemen might be counted, including 6,000 Quesadi mercenaries. Also of the number, 8,000 cavalry, evenly divided between heavy and light, with the light being mostly of the much-famed Javelineers of the Rift Valleys, and the balance consisted of 6,000 skirmishers, a profession common to the Rift Valleys, and one the dwellers of those lands were well-skilled in. And in this force were a total of 8,000 troops once of the nations of the Ta'ert, now refugees, and desirous to return to their homes again in victory under the banner of one of their own.

To complete the balance was an artillery train equal in quality, though not size, to Moloyr's, and an extensive force of 80 Yaltila trained for War and fitted with towers for archers and defensive pikes, not counting those untrained for war and used in the baggage train. This was the force that in 895 invaded the Ta'ert, to restore it to the surviving rightful heir of those defeated nations, the one who had embraced the teachings of the prophet Eibermon, and monotheism, the dualistic philosophy of Farzianism: Valera.

Against this force, Moloyr had a relatively extensive guardian army in his conquests of the Ta'ert, in addition to the garrisons, for on this land among all others, his fist lay the heaviest, where freedom was common and trade the paramount wealth, not agriculture. And so a force of 17,400 of Moloyr's troops might face the invasion with some chance of success, should their skill prove them superiour to numbers of the Farzian invaders.

The battle took place in terrain where the long pikes of the Quesadi style might be maneuvered by the incredibly experienced men of Moloyr's armies with decent success and effort. However, Valera positioned her well-trained but inexperienced pikemen in the center of her formation, where they might only have to stand firm, and allowed the Quesadi mercenaries the advantage of maneuver, and the flank, that they might oppose the attempts of Moloyr's pike, which, however skilled, was still ponderous, and force them to engage in the center where the press of numbers reduced their advantages and favoured Valera's army.

There, dextrously supported by the skirmishers, Valera's center held firm, and her cavalry proved their ability, defeating the cavalry of this army of Moloyr's, and the skirmishers alike, which were combined somewhat less than equal to the numbers of Valera's cavalry.

At press-of-pike, the weight of numbers of the center of Valera's formation, combined with the fact that they had not maneuvered, a weary task for a pikeman, proved decisive, along with the annoyance against their enemy of the endless hail of javelins and arrows and sling-stones sent against them, while they had no such support against their own enemy (Such can never be decisive against well-armoured pikemen, but can have an important effect in further increasing the magnitude of a victory).

The collapse of the pike led to general slaughter or capture the foot, and most of those who escaped were among the cavalry, if that. It may be rightly said that the only success Moloyr's men had on this day were preventing Valera's Yaltila from having any mentionable effect when their was an initial attempt to deploy them--tactics for such were still in an infancy among the Farzians, and they had not been properly supported, whereas Moloyr's troops were experienced in defeating them.

After the defeat of Moloyr's army at the Battle of Ter'ure, the Ta'ert revolted, and the garrisons of Moloyr could not hold. In response he coolly dispatched 50,000 soldiers under the Marshal Taliya, a woman who had risen high in his command by her skill and brilliance, and her bravery in combat, to deal with the invasion; she was considered his best martial, and there was no equal to her ability, he judged, and only himself the better. His forces were now so sufficient to his needs that he could plot to invade Dalamar with 95,000 men besides, and still have garrisons and some small armies throughout his territories besides.

Taliya's forces easily overmatched Valera's, but the Intu'in states declared for Valera's cause, and the northernmost of these lands dispatched a force of 14,500 troops, the closet that they had to the scene, and in the Ta'ert the two armies met with numbers reckoned to be 52,500 for the forces of Valera, and 54,000 for the forces of Moloyr under Taliya's command, for they had been somewhat reinforced by the survivors of Ter'ure and the garrisons of the Ta'ert.

These forces were very nearly matched, for now all of Valera's troops had been bloodied in a proper battle, and Taliya's were dispirited by the defeat, and the reduction of the whole nation of the Ta'ert by the enemy, and 4,000 of them were the survivors of those losses, and perhaps not fit to stand in the line, or battle at all. Conversely, Valera's troops were reinforced by those of the Intu'in Kingdom of Ras'merin and the small states of the north, and they could speak little of the same words, and though they both fought with Pike, and the Ras'merin knew well the Yaltila, their cavalry styles were foreign, and integration was complex.

The battle between the armies was fierce, and Valera, at the head of a contigent of heavy cavalry, saught out her opponent in single combat, that she might dispatch the General that Moloyr had sent against her, and send his head to the Tyrant, as was the style of the times, and also so that the enemy might be demoralised and rendered leaderless.

Surrounded by that troop of heavy cavalry, all from her own principality and her closest guard from her own county, her daughters as her lifeguard, she led them to cut through the enemy lines and seek out the enemy commander. Taliya, of great nobility, met her with her own bodyguard, and there was a fierce dispute at sword's point between the rival guardians, and then the two generals faced and their family blades clashed.

The contest, the writers say, appeared endless. Really it cannot have lasted all that long, considering the fate of the battle and the press of the still fighting bodyguards around them. It was at first a stalemate, and indeed may likely have remained one, had not they been fighting a-mount, for Valera was on a Rostok descended from some, it is said, bred by the Prophet Eibermon himself, and of superiour quality than even those of the stables of Moloyr's, which his father had bred for fighting: That is the likliest explanation for what others may call a miracle, of her improbable victory, though certainly Valera's skill with the sword was also unmatched.

A burst of speed here, or a nudge there, that encouraged the beast to a moment of sudden agility that her own mount, that no other mount in the world, could ever match with armoured rider and frontal armour of its own?--who knows?--but Taliya missed complete with a blow that should have instead deflected upon Valera's armour, and all agree it was due to the Rostok of the progeny bred by Eibermon.

And in that moment, her defenses open and thus surprised, it is also of no doubt that Valera brought down her sword in a strike that both wounded, and unhorsed, the Marshal of Moloyr's great army. But before a killing blow could thus be delivered, the bodyguards of Taliya were upon Valera. The spell of single combat had been broken, they rushed to defend their commander, and Valera fought for her life and her escape from a steadily untenable position, with her daughters, her bodyguard, and her troop of heavy cavalry.

The damage had been done, though, and without Taliya's guidance, the vicious stalemate of the two armies probing each other at press-of-pike and with lance and bow was finished, Valera was given the advantage, and when Valera and her cavalry hacked their way to safety and the situation was regained, that advantage was pressed. None of Taliya's genius remained to command, but those of moral courage were found under her command to be sure, and a rear-guard of Pike was assembled under the order of her second, and by bravery as opposed to placement, held Valera's army with their lives, and allowed the retreat of the majority of Taliya's forces.

However, the pursuit of the retreating army was hard-pressed, and the raiding intense, and on one cavalry attack against the pressed forces of Moloyr, retiring towards the nearest ground where they might find defendable terrain in which to regroup, the baggage and the ambulances were raided, and despite the efforts of her bodyguard, the greatest prize of all was taken, the General Taliya, that she might be offered up to the vengeance, perhaps, of Valera, for the death of her husband.

Yet Valera did not live solely for vengeance. Her hate had been tempered by the wisdom of the learnings of Eibermon, and the morality of Farzianism, and such had already been practiced with the prisoners taken. Thus, in the case of Taliya, she met the woman and saw one who expected death, and Taliya asked her from her litter "Shall you now end me, Lady General?"

At this Valera replied, and with a smile (and these are the words which come down to us) "I would not presume to end an equal in all realms except their taste in Rostok and in friends. I would speak with you on many things, General, and perhaps the mistakes of your past can then be remedied, for your reputation as being chivalrous matches in all respects the lack thereof in the conduct of Moloyr."

Taliya's army was defiant, for those troops had long been under her command as an element of Moloyr's army, and desired to rescue her if she still lived, or avenge her if she was dead. They halted their flight and reorganized at the first terrain that might afford protection and the emplacement of their mechanical artillery to fight a defensive battle. But instead of pressing the attack, Valera preached to Taliya of Farzianism and of her own experiences at the hand of Moloyr, and those of the others of the Ta'ert, and perhaps many other things were also said and discussed, and worked his evil against the feelings of duty Taliya felt toward him, even as she had grown to revile his evil behaviour.

It is said, thus, that in the days that followed, much discussion and debate occured between them, and eventually, for this is confirmed, Taliya undertook to take the conversion to Farzianism, and to join Valera in her cause, to raise her standard in revolt. And so she approached the lines of her own troops, who had slowly become disaffected by the attitude, and proclaimed godhood of Moloyr, and exhorted them, and they listened, and joined under the leadership of Valera and Taliya, to confront Moloyr, and die or conquer under the direction of the Marshal they adored.

On hearing this news, Moloyr realized his peril, and ignored the advice of the forked tongues who insinuated to him that he could conquer both the rebellion and Dalamar at the same time. And at this moment, we indeed see his earliest glory return, when he conquered the six Despotates, and none of the evil had been apparent of late. He made immediate peace with the King of Dalamar and abandoned the prepared crossing of the rivers, dismissing the flattery of his advisors that told him to do otherwise than make treaty, and marched north to meet his true enemy, which he saw in Taliya, arch-traitress to his person.

He was outnumbered, but Moloyr had always been outnumbered. He faced treachery and generals that dare to call themselves his equals, and fighting styles that could match his own. That was all irrelevent. He was Moloyr the Conquerer, and he his army had Never Been Defeated when he personally commanded it in the field. The troops with him were the most experienced of all those he had ever raised, and his bodyguard had fought with him since his boyhood. The greatest killing machine of its age, one when humanity still fought with flint stones in groups of a hundred at most, was marching to face down the army under Valera's command.

His troops might have been disaffected, but in those moments when he dismissed his advisors, and rode among them in his armour and on a trusted Rostok, they all cheered him like madmen again. In those moments, he was simply the Conquerer again, and he promised them victory over their enemies, who had not, this time, interfered with his path to godhood (though such was not spoken, yet all thus knew), but rather invaded the lands they had conquered by their sweat, and where many now possessed farms and estates.

They marched with an enthusiasm that had not been seen for the invasion of Dalamar, and they met an army which now had 115,000 troops, with further reinforcements from the Intu'in states and the Farzian nations, and counting the troops which had defected, and many embraced the religion, now of their general, and the leader of their cause. Their enemy, under the command of the man who was still the greatest general in the history of their planet, had yet 95,000 troops.

The battle that resulted was an incredible conflict, and certainly one of the greatest in the history of the world before gunpowder in the ferocity of the combat, and those after its invention do not have such names central to Taloran history in their rolls! It seemed as if Valera and Taliya must surely win; 20,000 more troops, most veterans themselves by now, along with 130 War Yaltila, and they were properly utilized by the tactics of Ras'merin.

They did not. Moloyr had studied the use of the Yaltila as by Dalamar and readied his defense, as effective against Ras'merin tactics as well. He confounded the efforts of the two generals and, displaying his old glory, stood firm with Pike and attacked with heavy cavalry, trying to cut through the army to reach them; to end the rebel and to kill the treasonous general.

The charge of his bodyguard was fairly met when it had hacked through the lines of the Farzians, but in the close quarters of that day, neither Valera nor Taliya touched their blades to Moloyr's. However, the blade of Valera's youngest daughter, In'ghara, found Moloyr's armour, and gave him a light wound, when she clashed her blade to that of the enemy of her mother and dared his most faithful companions and closest guards by presuming her life to charge the tyrant in that melee with ferocious audacity.

Such, also, to the Talorans, is taken in these days as a sign that she was meant for future greatness as her mismatch-eyed mother was.. Though of course it is open to interpetation, and the timing of the claim of fate's (Or Farzbardor's) hand in the clash is suspect, and made after the battle when In'ghara had established herself and wished to prove her right over her older sisters.

The Farzian Army was broken, though, and with it the Intu'in contigents, and only the brilliance of the two commanders allowed pieces to escape with some semblence of discipline into the Intu'in states, and the realm of Ras'merin. In'ghara's courage might soon seem unavailing in the circumstances. Moloyr, now so highly esteemed that his troops might very well agree to his aspirations of Godhood, declared that they should follow, and conquer those who had truly offended them. The troops agreed, and the army advanced.

Now all the Intu'in states feared the power of Moloyr, and so as Ras'merin rebuilt their army, and the shattered army of the Farzians regrouped with what troops remained, and reinforcements filtered in from the other states, while the Farzian homelands sent contingents independently, village by village. And, furthermore, the Princes and Kings of the Farzian states sent more reinforcements by ship across the Gulf of Helidh, for now the stories of Valera, and her conversions of people to Farzianism, in addition to her victories, had spread, and in this time of trouble they drew closer to her instead of abandoning her, a fortune which of all things did the most to make the contest an ultimately successful one for the young religion.

However, these reinforcements would not arrive in time to avoid the press of Moloyr's advance, for he saught a decisive and quick decision, and so Valera and Taliya took counsel in the walls of the great northern Ras'merin city of Filidmarn, which was of a population of perhaps some 375,000, for the rest of their army to stand in.

Valera commanded that Taliya might go forth and organize the forces arriving to their succor into a proper army to relieve them, and take also her daughters to safety, while she stayed to oversee the defense of the city, and with reluctance Taliya obeyed, for now the two were close friends indeed, and Taliya did not wish to leave Valera to an uncertain fate which she knew all to well might mean death or worse at the hands of her old master, so skilled in sieges.

Moloyr's Army arrived and undertook the investiture of Filidmarn, and pressed the siege with diligence and determination, but the defense was an affair of skill, and it may rightly be said that Valera's presence heartened the defense immensely, and encouraged the people of the city to join the effort which was undertaken, simply by her reputation as the first to challenge the Tyrant, and survive. She arranged in general that the following measures should be taken in regard to the defense:

The mechanical artillery was met by their opposite numbers upon the wall, the general assaults of Moloyr's Army were oppressed by bowmen, slingers, and men hurling massy stones from the walls, assaults upon the gates were repressed by the application of heated oil, and when breaches were opened by the demolition of secret mines worked by Moloyr's engineers through fires, or the work of the battering rams, they were defended by the Pike of Valera's surviving army, and immediately filled by the work of the citizens of Filidmarn in a continuous effort.

On the press of the assault, when Moloyr's forces would roll forward siege towers to provide a dextrous platform for seizing sections of the wall, they were fired by voulunteers on the moment of contact, those brave souls armed only with a pot of bitumen, and a torch, and having to leap into the midst of many of the enemy, do their deadly task, and escape as best they could. As the siege continued, with Valera at every outpost, and traveling through the defenses and leading every repulse, Moloyr resolved to conquer as quickly as he could, before the relieving army that Taliya was now steadily mustering and training up could arrive and threaten his position, as he knew well it could.

He began the construction of a great moveable siege engine, with a large turret atop, completely armoured in bronze, and capable of holding nine hundred soldiers, so that he might gain the city by storm rather that wait for starvation to take its toll, and chance the arrival of Taliya's army before it did, and hence face two enemies against his army. This huge "City-taker" was manipulated by gears and levers and pulleys, and operated by the effort of men through these devices on immense fixed rollers.

However, the adherents of Farzianism controlled the Gulf of Helidh that bordered Ras'merin, and all supported the cause of Valera. The land routes into the Intu'in lands were unpleasant and nearly impassable for resupply, and the additional transport of bronze was impossible, leaving Moloyr to sheath the great engine only in what he had available from forage, which was enough merely to defend the front with bronze, and leave the wood of the sides and rear unprotected on the great machine of war.

Moloyr chose daring and pressed the attack with the engine as it was. Valera, the remnants of her army hoarded for this time, saw the obvious opportunity at hand, and sallied to fire it. The Old Guard, the faithful Pike of the soldiers drawn from her Principality, who had held through the victories she had orchestrated, and the defeat at the hands of Moloyr, carved the way, and the cavalry sallied behind them with Valera at their head, and the great engine of Moloyr was fired, with the loss of nine hundred of his finest troops, putting an end, after four Taloran months of siege, to his hopes of conquest, of the city of Filidmarn, even though the effort of fighting their way back into the city after their success was most tenuous indeed.

Moloyr then had no choice, for the relieving army under Taliya approached and was well-prepared to do battle, Filidmarn stood defiant with a force inside that could again sally, and the land around him was hostile, his supply routes tenuous. He retired back into the small portion of the Ta'ert he might claim re-subdued after his victory over Valera and Taliya and awaited their inevitable pursuit, where he might stand on the defensive, and deliver a more decisive blow on the open field.

The pursuit was rapid, and on the plain of Gili'mar, the army that Valera commanded, was of mixed soldiers of the various Intu'in states, and the Farzian nations, and voulunteer proselytes of Filidmarn to that faith, who knew the profession of arms, faced the army of Moloyr once again, in a second battle, and one indeed more decisive in its nature. Their numbers were reckoned at about 112,000 troops, with 70 War Yaltila.. But Moloyr might boast of reinforcements of his own, and now 117,000 troops in all, and also 60 Yaltila of his own, carefully trained for war, purchased from Dalamar, and added to his hosts.

They would do him little at this battle, for here had Valera and Taliya learned their lessons from that first defeat, and the master of the world this time they faced and overthrew with their well-repared strategies and ready arms. The casualties among their own troops were in the thousands--but when Moloyr's soldiers collapsed, finally, and incredibly, his losses were in the tens of thousands from among his host. The magic touch of the conquerer was finally lost.

He fled deeper into his nation with what he could rally in the way of his troops, and he was pursued. On the bank of the Greater Ina he tried to stop them again, reinforced back to the strength of 83,000 men and 40 Yaltila, and again he failed, and with just fourty thousand troops and a few of the War Yatila could he flee on to his capitol, through the patrimony of his father, the lands of Trilune.

However, all was not lost yet: the troops of Erasano and Trilune and Rasilan had not been called, the last garrisons had not been stripped, and Moloyr called them all for one last effort. He even called up the peasant levies that might be called from the remaining lands under his control, for his last stand would be on the plains along the Brilar river, and there he could deploy a fair number of men. He had studied his earlier enemies and what they had done wrong, and he knew just the number of peasants to deploy, and how, so that he might get some use out of a few of the troops many thought he had rendered useless.

And so it was that on the plain of the Brilar the two armies met for the final time, Moloyr advancing to his chosen and prepared position to meet the final advance of the army of Valera and Taliya. The balance of the world had already been changed on the plain of Gili'mar. Here, on this plain, the fate of the world would be decided for all time. Moloyr had some 102,000 regular troops. The other 180,000 were peasant levies. He still had perhaps 35 War Yaltila available to him.

The strength of Valera and Taliya's army might be marked now at 120,000, with 80 War Yaltila, as more reinforcements had reached them on their campaign, the final ones they would receive on the march deep, deep through the despotates and to the capitol of Trilune. It had not seemed like they were necessary to many, but the two generals knew better The objective had been reached, and Moloyr would not presume to think a siege might prolong him.. He did not think that way, anyway, he never would. He wanted to face them in battle again, and he did.

This was his last chance to turn the tide and win, and he would, of course, take it and do his best to come out on top. He deployed his troops, and the two armies met after years of conflict for their final engagement. It was 897 AE by the reckoning of Terran years. The continent of Grenya Colenta is huge, and the campaign waged across the main length of it was stupendous, with long breaks for the long interruptions in the campaigning season caused by the inclimate weather of the long and severe Taloran winter, and many minor skirmishes and battles were fought, and many sieges other than that of Filidmarn not important enough to be recounted here, along with other stands on Moloyr's long retreat.

So it was on an early summer's day in that year of 897 that the Battle of the Brilar was fought. It was decided in one day, as most of the great Pike battles were, for they were utterly decisive affairs. Valera and Taliya pressed the attack immediately, and the armies of Moloyr met them for the contest on which the fate of world-history turned.

The affair was bloody and indecisive, and in this Moloyr had succeeded in using his peasant levies properly. They were killed in great numbers by the Pike of Valera and Taliya, or scattered by their Yaltila, but they occupied the superiour numbers of the Farzian Pike, and Moloyr might hope for victory in the same way he had gained it against the Despots more than once, while his right flank served with a powerful attack of pike to recoil the Farzian left. He by that action, and the aide of his reserves, smashed open a gap in the Farzian lines, and through it charged with his Guard of Rostok against Valera and Taliya, that he might kill them in battle, or drive them from the field (Though that was slight with true warriors and not some Oriental Despots to flee at the sight of him), and thereby decide the contest on the edge of his sword, or the swords of his companions.

Moloyr and his bodyguard of cavalry broke through the lines of the Farzian army, and the bodyguard of Valera and Taliya awaited. The dispute of swords that ensued was fierce, but Moloyr himself lately cleaved his way forward to the two, covered by six of his most faithful companions, determined to kill his mortal enemies, or die in the process, while the backs of Valera and her trusted General and friend were again defended by the swords of the three daughters of Valera.

In that moment, in the private memoirs of the eldest daughter of Valera, the Great Queen Taradrua, of which only fragments remain, we have perhaps the best account of the pivotal, and fatal, event:

"To recall his eyes.. There was nothing of the Tyrant in those eyes, for that moment, again. Nothing! He had done many great and cruel things in his life, Moloyr.. And how I dread to even write that name! But in that moment, those blue eyes were so clear, and he seemed to be only enjoying life! It made you nearly want to weep, to see him there with his closest friends, charging headlong into his only love, which was surely Conquest...

"And to look into his eyes gave you a touch of something incredible, a thirst for power, a desire to match what you saw there, which you can never let go. There are many reasons why we conquered the unknown and tested our armies against every Kingdom on our globe: The true one, I think, is that every one of my mother's daughters looked into the eyes of Moloyr when he was seeking only victory! The sight of that does not leave you unchanged, and if he cannot have been a God, he must have been a demon. But for my mother the sight brought only hate, and justly so. We were not so fortunate to be pure of the emotion of awe."

A great many pictures of been painted of that moment, with the two parties, one of seven, and one of five, both on Rostok, one at a trot, the other a gallop, veering towards each other, the swords of Moloyr's party drawn and bloody, those of Valera's unleashed from their scabbards, as the daughters of Valera watched their enemy with shock or amazement, perhaps, and Valera hatred. The look of Taliya changes from portrait to portrait at seeing again the visage of Moloyr, and, moreover, every artist strives to capture the appearance of Moloyr's eyes, and surely none succeed.

The two parties met, and swords clashed in startling clarity, and Moloyr's friends saved his life, in that moment. One, Kalbarus, did so at the immediate cost of his own. The onset of bloodshed was furious, and yet all claim some ethereal quality for it, except, of course, for those in it.. For Taradrua does not speak directly of the actual fight in her memoirs. That memory is to painful for her, she simply says with a bitter and wrenching honesty. We have no record, hence, a blow-by-blow, from an actual participant.

But it may be known that only a short time had past before the fight reached a crescendo, and another of Moloyr's bodyguards and friends died, and in that time, Valera could see Taliya wounded grievously by the Tyrant... And then she struck Moloyr off his Rostok, dead, even as more of his men pressed towards the field of the engagement.

The Tyrant of Grenya Colenta, the terror of that continent and of the Farzian faith, had fallen, and as the proof spread, his army collapsed into panic in the centre, and Valera and Taliya were victorious; but Taliya was also doomed, and here Valera was crushed in the moment of her victory. Marshal Retgari along escaped with Moloyr's right wing.

Valera had been, over the course of those years, attracted to Taliya, in a way that depending on the culture might generally either be forbidden or discouraged--sometimes such attraction between two females was accepted or ignored, in a land of polytheism or variance. Eibermon had no comment in specific upon it, and the Ta'ert, and Moloyr's court, alike, certainly did not care, in rare example of similarity which also spread to the Quesadi states.

Valera's husband was years dead by Taloran reckoning, and she had hoped in Taliya for something she knew that in her place she could not have from her, and she feared would not be returned, anyway. On Taliya's deathbed, though, she discovered that the woman shared that passion and likewise that restraint, and they might enjoy the bitter joy of a knowledge of mutually unrequited love until the final moment, where Taliya expired in Valera's arms.

It was by this that Valera was destroyed, but not undone. For she still had her army, and they all loved her, and her daughters. But the promise of centuries of life beckoned and they held no pleasure, for there was no pleasure in the world, now. She had become something of a figure among the Farzians, converting the Ta'ert, and parts of northern Ras'merin, and the armies, and the villages and towns and parts of the populations of cities through the lands of Moloyr as she had traveled, and they respected her almost as a prophetess, had not Eibermon been the one and only such prophet of their religion.

Their were whispers, though, that Powers might have touched her, and that for her victory over evil, and with her union of most of the continent under the rule of the Farzian religion, that she might be intended for greater things. Greater things than even Eibermon, in the service of God.

Those whispers exploded into shouts behind her back when she refused the crown of Great Queen, and leadership of the lands of Moloyr, and the Ta'ert, and spiritual dominion of the Farzian nations, as successor of Eibermon, and also to be the light overlord, and have the friendly allegiance, of the Intu'in principalities and kingdoms, where many of the rulers now became proselytes of Farzianism. All these things were offered to her willingly, or out of awe at the scope of her powers, and all were refused.

This vast nation she gifted to her daughters, and she rode alone on the faithful Rostok that she had rode when she had slain Moloyr and avenged Taliya (though she yet lived then), north towards the Ina Sea, which she had renamed by her command the Sea of Taliya, the only act of her brief grip on absolute power. Along the way it is said she fought criminals and bandits that had come up in these times of trouble, and preached to the people and converted many to Farzianism, and spoke much of balance, the balance of the universe, and of evil: She spoke very cryptically, saying that much had to be done to restore what had been lost, and she spoke in the sake of hope, and in all of these things her religious powers were heightened and people grew more in awe of her.

Many converted thus to the religion of Farzianism, and, finally, on the banks of the Sea of Taliya, Valera rode along the coasts to a stretch where there were no inhabitants... And there the record of Valera of the Ta'ert ends, and despite the centuries longer that she might have lived, there is no further record of her, no further proof of her existence beyond that point whatsoever.

The priests and people of the Faith of Farzbardor believed, in a story that spread far and wide, and swiftly, that the Lord Justice himself had descended from heaven and taken Valera up in a firey chariot, and there the victor of the Brilar was given the appelation of "The Sword of the Lord Justice", and that she still lives, never having died, to lead the armies of Angels and Spirits revived in Farzbardor in the cosmic struggle against The Deceiver, and to provide for the eventual victory of the forces of Good and Light over those of Darkness and Evil.

Thus the Taloran Race is special and a first among equals, for among all the species in the galaxy, it was chosen as the race in which Farzianism was first propagated, and from which the warrior whom would become The Sword was chosen to ascend and fight in the great cosmic struggle, in the hidden world, for the future of the universe. This is the justification which the daughters of Valera still hold for their power.

In 898, after her ascension, In'ghara, Fileya, and Taradrua formed a triumvirate which ruled for the next year, and prosecuted the war in Trilune against the remaining loyalists to Moloyr, while trying to settle the administration of the state. In'ghara, however, schemed against her sisters, giving her hand in marriage to the King of Ras'merin, and securing the alliance and conversion of Retgari in exchange for recognizing him as the King of Kings of Rasilan and of the coastal plain of Grenya Colenta in the east, of which the fortified cities were still in his possession. She then proceeded to hide the approach of his army from her sisters, and rallying the Intu'in branches of the army seized them, Fileya killing the pagan philosopher Bylykha rather than seeking an army, for knowledge it was hopeless, and fear that the corruptive captive would turn her insidious thought to her sister's service. Taradrua made it clear with some troops, but the abrupt arrival of Retgari on her line of retreat as her sister's ally forced her surrender.

In'ghara had herself crowned with Moloyr's crown, and proclaimed herself ruler of all the lands he had conquered, while giving the Intu'in their independence and autonomy, and proclaimed herself the protector of the Farzian lands of the Rift valleys and desert beside. She then, over the next several years, led a series of campaigns into the far northwest, subduing these areas to the north and northeast of the Quesadi mountains, and finally reaching the western coast beyond them, so that she might control the continent from coast to coast in a vast swathe, and thereby exceeded the conquests of Moloyr and made herself an Empire greater than his.

On the completion of these feats of conquest, she founded a great capitol city on the west coast, just inland from the port of Tryfarlis, and connected it to the port with long walls. The city she named Valeria, "of Valera", after her mother, and to the establishment of a great administrative complex here she turned her attention, in a place so far from the heartland of her nation, that it seemed quite mad. But to her imprisoned sisters she had turned, and though still prisoners of her armies, she sent them out to the two near continents, Midela Colenta for Fileya and Lelola Colenta for Taradrua, with armies of her own troops that conquered and subdued many of the primitive nations of these lands. Then, she recalled her generals, leaving the troops to settle and to adhere their loyalties to her sisters, whom she allowed to rule in their own right, content on maintaining her fleet, and seeing her nation now enriched with commercial connections to the two new states, which brought prosperity through Quesadi reason and the release of hoarded treasures into the economy to those lands, and in turn, funneled massive amounts of trade into Valeria and greatly enhanced the wealth of In'ghara's kingdom, showing her clever wisdom in the strange location for her capitol. And thus was the beginning of the reign of the three daughters of Valera over the Taloran people.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The Legend


Valtonna, the Duchess Fergasta, led the ceremonies at the Temple of Farzbardor at Tris, on the shores of the Taliya Sea. Today was the Feastday of the Ascension and the Victory; that is to say, the day that the Taloran people celebrated the victory of The Sword of Farzbardor over The Incarnation of Idenicamos; or, that of the Countess Valera over the King of Kings Moloyr II of Trilune and Rasilan, for the irreligious. It was also the day that they celebrated the ascension of the same Valera to lead the legions of heaven upon a flaming chariot driven by Farzbardor himself, to be his Sword against the legions of darkness.

Of course, it was also the day Taliya had died, of whom the sea was named after. The faithful aide of Valera in her glorious victories--the greatest convert of all to Farzianism by the Sword--who had been treacherously slain by Moloyr using poison. So in addition to celebration the memorials also went on in this day; and at least in theory not only Taliya, but Valera, was buried here--but there was of course no body for Valera and all knew that she would return from the heavens to lead the hosts of the Righteous against the Injustice of Indenicamos on the Day of Judgement.

As Valtonna shuffled forward slowly on bent knee towards the central fire of the temple to perform the ceremony of Honour for the dead, she had a moment to reflect. She performed the ceremony for she was the eldest available female relative of the heirs of Valera; and of the heirs of Valera, the descent had been matrilineal. This meant, of course, that Valtonna was of the Lelolan line, the heirs of the Great Queen Taradrua, eldest daughter of Valera; they had always held certain ceremonial power that In'ghara's heirs, the rulers now of Grenya Colenta, the greatest of the continents, and holders of the Imperial throne besides, envied--a certain connection with a past half-erased in an era of a great star-spanning Empire and massively concentrated industrial cities, and remembered only by the deep religion of the people. A connection with a time thousands of years ago when their ancestress, blessed by Farzbardor, had not been a thing of myth, but of reality, and given them the world. A reality so distant that now it was indeed myth...


The sound of war rose over a sunny day, tinted an alien green from the light of that vast flaming ball above, and splayed out over a dusty plain below. It marked the death of hundreds every minute as two armies met and disciplined pike cleaved into flesh, the steady veterans who fought with the sun to their back pressing on, executing a manoeuvre in left echelon against their foe who's gaudy banners and shouts of "Farzbardor, syan Farzbardor!" declared them adherents of the religion of the Prophet Eibermon.

The village of Mastre marked the right of the Farzian line. It was about halfway along the Brilar, the broad plain with the small river running its midst, of the same name, that headed straight towards Trailoun and the junction with the Savpad where the commerce of the whole of the northeast was concentrated. Seeing as the river was to shallow for barges it was the perfect place to run a road and this had been done more than three long Taloran centuries prior, in a place that even sooner had been the scene of battles. With the Farzian line anchored against the river by the buildings of the village with the emplacement of mechanical artillery and missileers, the main thrust of the opposing army appeared simple enough--to fold in their left flank upon them and pin the whole of the Farzian force against the Brilar.

Under the King of Kings of Trailoun and Rasilan, Moloyr son of Vistar, the massed armies of Trailoun, of Rasilan, of Uruka, of Ferashako and Erasano, were gathered. These were either his patrimony, or his initial conquests which had been thoroughly subdued and which were still mostly under his control and from which he had been able to gather troops to meet the threat of the approaching Farzian army. They were hardly the forces a man who had subdued half a continent had once known. One hundred thousand regular troops had been posted on his right wing, the furthest, Rostok and Effavsur cavalry, heavy and light. In the centre there was simply a mass of peasant levies, the sort of troops he himself had once defeated in masses, supported by Yaltila which had already been set to panic by the Farzians.

Moloyr had not, however, posted himself on the right where his main advance was taking place. Instead two thousand crack pikemen had been held back in the centre and with them his Guard of Rostok heavy lance, the Favisdis, named after the final and decisive victory over the Despot of Uruka, and his personal Lifeguard. In a place where the units before them were numberless but doomed, it was hard to tell if such a reserve was a wasted gesture, or something that should have been massively increased. It was, however, not a reserve at all.

Forward, forward, the levies went, the whips of their officers driving them onto the pikes of the Farzians, or the flats or even blades of swords enforcing obedience in units near to breaking and without a hope of success. Blood and torn flesh and ruined bodies littered the ground before Farzian centre, a perfect charnel house, as the pike worked so efficiently, expertly, presented and thrust over and over into another rank of those hapless peasants who never have a chance to bring their weapons into range of the enemy. But they bought their King time, and that was what he needed.

On the far right an actual view of the battle was obscured, as one would hardly be surprised by, with masses of dust kicked up by manoeuvring Rostok and Effavsur, and by the simple pounding of heavy boots through the rich loam of the valley, until even to the eyes of a Taloran it seemed evening simply in the centre, and more night to a distant view. The sun's glow through the dust made the scene sort of otherworldly, the green filtering down to orange, and that ball itself was almost dim enough to be safely viewed. Ears, however, could serve for eyes, and for the last minutes Moloyr had been directing his attention towards the right, not to look, but to listen.

The sounds of struggle were mingled all across the field and seemed general but as the ears pulled in the steady sound of the impact of spearhead upon shield, or upon armour, and the tramp of boots or the evolution of cavalry, and above all the shouting of voices, in countless languages but with a tenor that might reflect more than any words, a direction could be gradually discerned. Nothing more than a location, really, for the distinctive sound of the push-of-pike that marked where his right flank had slammed into the enemy's left, but it told him most of what he needed to know--in relation to what he had heard before.

"Ulande, go up and get the Brigade in formation!" Moloyr ordered; he needn't say anything else, for the Lifeguard about him was made of men who knew exactly the plan and exactly what to say, and had the authority beside. "Captain Draifa, form the Company."

The orders were obeyed at once and now the lifeguard simply had to wait, ready, for the pike and the cavalry to prepare. Ahead the situation ground on with frightful repetitive steadiness; even if did not get confirmation he would have to start soon or else the levies would break of their own accord and that would be disastrous. But, no.. There, just like he'd predicted--a dispatch rider from the right flank!

Riding up in the rushing, loping gait the Effavsur, kicking up dust about and the irritated squawk of the animal dying off as he reigned in, the man saluted, fist to chest, and bowed slightly. "Oh King, may you live forever!" He exclaimed before offering over the pouch with the message in it. "Compliments from General Retgari, Your Majesty; the enemy has committed their reserve and the matter is in doubt at the sword."

Moloyr returned the salute as the military man he was, then took the dispatch pouch. "Very good. Stand by for a message to General Faree."

"Of course, Your Majesty." His Effavsur was exhausted, but already one of Moloyr's attendants was bringing up another mount as the King composed the dispatch to the commander of the Centre in a hasty scrawl and stuffed it into the pouch. By the time he was done, the rider was ready to go again and he handed it off to the man, who was off again at once; at the same time, Moloyr took up his lance.

In otherwords, the pikes were broken, and his men were at the enemy with their bodies crushed together in the press, slaughtering each other with broken ends of pikes, with swords, bashing with shields, or going at it with teeth and nails if it came to it, and most of the casualties from trampling. The victor there came down to which side had the endurance to sustain the madness of the press for longer and there was nothing more the leadership of a formation could do except to plunge in alongside their men as an example, almost certainly to die.

But that damned traitor had committed her reserve, had been forced by Moloyr into spreading her lines as thin as they possibly could be and still slaughter his levies in the centre. Then again, of course she had; the simplest plans were the best and there was very little Taliya and her rebel Countess could do against the massive numerical superiourity Moloyr brought to the field--except wear it down in the slaughter that they were currently executing in the centre. Sooner or later, however, that would open a single and decisive opportunity for him to end this rebellion in as dramatic a fashion as it started.

It wasn't really about religion, after all. Nobody had been offended by his titles, his proclaimation of association with the old divinities, until the Farzians, and their philosophy was not really all that different from several other, if less prominent, sects that he knew had gained note in the Quesadi City States. It was about power--about the fact that one conniving backwater wife of a man who ruled half a dozen estates in the Ta'ert had thought she could make more of a name for herself leading a Farzian uprising against his rule, than married to one of his generals in compense for the execution of her husband in resistance. And one of his own generals, his best, he had to admit, who had decided that defecting to her cause was her own chance for supreme power.

Moloyr knew that his real and only enemy had been the one he had created. Taliya had the power to break his state and now she nearly had, a conniving manipulater who had made her rank without a single outward sign of what she truly intended, always showing herself loyal, giving only hints of remorse, of noblesse oblige, of things that could not mesh with the woman who had betrayed her sovereign and then gone on to supposedly fight to bring a Ta'ert Countess the supreme power. And it was ultimately his doing, in allowing such skill to be created and nurtured in his army and his State.

Today it would be finished off and he would begin the task of rebuilding what this rebellion had cost him. He waited, ticking off an indeterminate length of time in his mind, knowing the rider on a fresh mount could cover the distance to Faree's post in a far shorter length of time than it took to race the three-odd trasam from Retgari's. Now, then, it would be time to get the reserve in motion.

"Ulande?" He queried, the Lifeguard having returned from his prior mission.

"Sire?" The man's rostok did not look as ready as he, all quivering with anticipation at the chance for touch, at bursting through as they had at Ilandhi, when they'd had their last, and only, victory over the Farzian army.

"Inform Commander Trais that he may begin the advance."

The words were barely out of his mouth, clear and distant blue eyes gazing through the dust towards an enemy, a traitress he could not see, when the Lifeguards raised a hearty shout, and Ulande saluted and started off to the pikemen, forward. The pinnons of the rostok lancers twirled lazily about their lances in the not-breeze of the early afternoon and the noise was now drowned out by those closer, while the preparations of the cavalry had already tossed up even more dust right around them. It did not matter, they were all together in a sense of camraderie, the handpicked men and the loyal men who had survived all the same battles and for a moment the title of the King mattered nothing, he was simply a another of them.

Ahead the pikes began their advance, ranks progressing in superb order to the sound of pipes which now played out over the field, keeping them advancing slowly but very steadily and all the columns straight through the dust. The cavalry would have to eat that dust, all of it, for the whole advance of the infantry, and it was not something they would relish at all. Indeed, if something went wrong in Moloyr's plan he might know only to late, but that was the price to be paid for their required position.

The dispatch rider had gotten through ahead and General Faree was now faced with a task nearly as unenviable as that which he had been suffering through. As he had been watching his men being slaughtered, the unfamilarity of commanding those levies and having to send those unprepared and underequipped lads off to their deaths but knowing it was the absolute necessity of the moment that required it; a simple calculus of bodies to fling into the gap; his mind had steadily been growing more and more despairing of the whole affair, seeing literally thousands of those he commanded forced onto the pikes of the enemy to be ground up and slaughtered.

He could not let himself feel more than a distant and vague compassion for what was occuring under his command, for to focus on it was to succomb to what a general could not suffer. However, the true task of the centre was far more serious than to simply arrange for the deaths of the brave or the unwilling in mass quantities. Now he had to execute their withdrawl without it turning into a rout. The orders were issued by flag, at the level of small units, and seconded by drums. Slowly in response to the signals the brigades, little more than hoardes, of levees on the centre-right began to withdraw, their officers desperately trying to keep them from breaking into a general run to the rear.

They failed. Taliya's old guard was here in the centre, placed carefully by the General herself, for they were all veterans of Moloyr's battles and they were veterans of killing levy armies just like the one that Moloyr had placed against the centre. Now they did exactly what they had done before when fighting such armies, they pressed home against the withdrawing troops. In truth, they had orders only to defend a fixed line, but Moloyr had based his army on the Quesadi model, which placed value on initiative of small-unit officers, and the Farzian army of Valera and Taliya operated exactly the same way. When the enemy began a general withdrawl, the pike pressed in against him, and that withdrawl turned, despite all the efforts of the levy officers, into a rout.

In a moment the situation had turned from doubtful, a contest which was going to be decided on the flank and could go either way, into one that was surely going entirely towards the Farzians. Their veteran pike would certainly pivot left and there was absolutely nothing to stop them from cutting off Moloyr's right wing if they did so. Its encirclement and destruction would see the effective loss of his entire remaining army in a single day. But from the steady and omnipresent dust came the music of flutes as Trais' brigade advanced into the enemy, canting left towards the river so that they could meet the Farzians head-on. They killed some of their own fleeing troops as they advanced, eliminating those poor levied peasants who had the error of getting in the way of their progress, for they could not break order for anything, not even the life of one of their own.

At two hundred yards the Farzians realized they had real opposition; now, however, they had no time to reorder their formations, which had been placed badly out of sorts by the pursuit, that at least being as Moloyr had intended. All they could do was beat the charge on their drums and try to make up for the lack of order in their pike with the brute force of greater shock. Trais' brigade, to respond, lowered their pikes, an array of elas wood topped by steel that glinted and refracted light crazily in the dust, altogether each more than three times the height of a Taloran, and at least five extending out beyond the first rank. The flutes played and his men advanced in a steady marching gate--and they did not flinch when the enemy broke to the double-quick.

The collision of pike slammed through the first three ranks of either formation like death had called them straight up. The Farzian charge had built enough moment to slam pikeheads right through the armour of the lead ranks before them, and sometimes impale two soldiers on one pike if they were unlucky--but it had also exposed them to the same, and worse, for they had been virtually flinging themselves upon exactly the same sort of obstacle, except that it was more dense, and more firmly wielded to be rammed home at the moment of impact by the steadily advancing troops who met their charge. Two hundred were killed in the first collision and the most of these were Farzians.

As the lines pushed together, pikes were shattered and broken and men fell and die or were trampled, even by their own side, for the method of warfare required that those behind them inexorably advance and maintain the pressure, or else the other side would have the victory. It paid off for Trais' brigade, though, for within ten minutes of hard fighting they had shattered two opposing brigades which had let themselves get ragged in their pursuit of the levies, and had been stacked shallow to fight those weak units besides. It was at hideous cost, still, for of those elite troops some four hundred would lay dying out of the two thousand before they had finished gouging that hole in the Farzian line--pike was not merciful to pike.

Trais' brigade swung to the left, as the whole attack indeed was canted. Now they were beginning to role up a third enemy brigade which had not been able to shift and bring its pike to bear on them in time. That would be brutal, bloody slaughter under the sun, rolling up a flank, but welcome against the casualties of the frontal assault. The enemy was already recovering to Moloyr's right and shifting rapidly to close the gap, but they had widened their own frontage by advancing and they would not have enough troops.

Through a length of farmland made of fine soil which was watered with the blood of thousands either dead or dying, Moloyr advanced at the head of his lancers, bursting from the dust of the action to see nothing, absolutely nothing ahead of him. His pikemen had torn the gap at a stiff price, and the manoeuvre to do it had left his entire centre in severe danger, but now his cavalry was free to exploit it, gloriously free! Those eyes which had once seen only into the dust now saught out through clear air, and about two trasam beyond the lines and half of one toward the river he saw a signal tower, of the prefabricated kind favoured by the Ras'merin.

It was clearly the rebels' command, there could be no other place for it on the field. "My Companions," he exclaimed, old glories dancing in his head and knowledge of the favour of the Gods in near retribution, "we have only to make a joust to conquer!" He spurred his rostok towards the tower, and the lifeguard and the company followed.

They seemed to leave the battle behind, just the steady swaying lope of the rostok at a full run, more than five hundred of them altogether with the enemy's whole rear area their's. A rostok was a powerful beast and it could run for at least four trasam and still fight, unlike the Effavsur which could not even carry an armoured man. Moloyr used that fully here, now, to press on towards the heart and brain alike of his opponent's army, and really the only part that mattered at all.

However, Taliya was indeed his finest student and had remembered the battles they had fought in conquering the Despotates who's levies they had slaughtered on countless fields across Grenya Colenta, and now again she had slaughtered, but under Moloyr's command on the plain of Brilar. A company of hardy Ras'merin heavy rostok was swinging out to meet the wild charge of Moloyr; behind them he knew he would find his quarry, for she was no coward nor indeed was her co-commander, however he made light of the Countess' origins--it was one of her daughters who had dueled him at Ilandhi and whom he would seek to duel again when he had finally dispatched Taliya.

The two groups of cavalry collided, not really a collision but rather masses of rostok swinging to avoid each other and their riders trying to lance each other as they did. All about riders were brought down from their saddles, some alive and others dead, and more still were brought to the resort of their swords, a general melee beginning. Moloyr at the front availed of his lance not once, but thrice, before it cracked, and shattered, and he again counted himself blessed of the Gods and drew his sword. Through the melee he fought, his Lifeguards not doing anything of the sort but instead simply trying to hack their way through to follow their liege's murderous path.

Moloyr burst out of the Ras'merin company and found himself with six of his Lifeguard who had managed to also make it through with him. One of them was Ulande; another Kalbarus, the head of the Lifeguard. Moloyr gave the fellow a salute with his sword for keeping up as he had promised and turned, eyes hungry for what he knew to be. And there they were, coming up fast, five rostok fit for war, Taliya and Valera and the three daughters of Valera, their swords all ready and clean in the air against the fresh blood upon those of his own and those of his Lifeguard.

Moloyr spurred his rostok on for one last effort, going right for Taliya.

"I have your side against the Ta'ertan, liege!" Kalbarus, exclaimed, sword ready, shield buckled to his left arm.

Confident in that, Moloyr rushed forward and met Taliya. There were no words exchanged. They met at a full run on their respective beasts and there was no time for it. There was just the look in their eyes, the inscrutiable desperate passion of Moloyr matched against a faint determined sadness in the eyes of his general. The clangor of metal sounded and they were gone, past each other, both unhurt. Moloyr reigned in his Rostok and came about as Taliya did, swiftly, tightly, gripping to the beast with the legs as they turned in to have at each other closely.

He saw Kalbarus, then, in a well of red from a fatal strike, flopped around in the saddle as a rag, Valera victorious over the best man in his whole army in the first bout, not a scratch upon her. Misestimations did not enrage Moloyr. If they did, he would have been long dead, for he had made many. He was most famous for recovering from them; so perfectly that it seemed like he had planned it that way all along.

As his sword met Taliya's he did not do anything but press in the harder upon her, turning and delivering a flurry of blows, periphereal vision showing a form--Ulande--moving to defend him now from Valera. He did not notice, it did not matter, his men would protect him. He must just get the kill, then deal with the rest of that misbegotten brood; thoughts which did not even register as such but simply as impulses in the desperation of the swordfight from atop their rostoks.

Then Taliya was falling, and he saw blood upon her, not just the sword where he could not be sure. Euphoria rushed through him and he turned about for Valera--and saw vaguely a blurred form so incredibly close as to be shocked; then there was a rush of pain and a disoriented, dizzying sensation, and the Tyrant was dead, never to know for certain the fate of his enemy.


Valera looked out over the field of death beside Taliya and knew that it was over. The gap had been closed behind the Tyrant by Taliya's veterans, the levies had been routed, and only the advance of Trais' brigade had stopped the absolute encirclment and destruction of the right flank of Moloyr's army. General Retgari had managed to complete a fighting retreat without ever realizing that his Sovereign had been killed on the field. In the centre the only reason why the slaughter of the levies had not been completed was due to the fact that even the rostok had been totally exhausted by the time they had been pulled from the left flank and shifted there, and there was simply nothing left in them for pursuit; a pursuit which Valera would not have sanctioned besides.

Retgari might on hearing of Moloyr's death try to claim the title of King of Kings by right of having the standing army left in the Kingdom, and then try to negotiate, but his position was severe. Perhaps he could succeed in retreating to the island of Rasilan and establishing a Kingdom there where her sea-power did not reach... A shudder ran through that lean, to-short body, nearly mannishly short. It doesn't matter! And the longer you delay now..

Her gaze was pried away from the field of the main action, seen at such a distance that troops were reduced to vague blocks of formations and that the windrows of corpses almost became one with the landscape but the stench remained to tell you what they were, drifted back as the wind picked up towards evening. Instead she looked towards the body laid out on the table infront of her pavilion, immediate, genuine, and so frighteningly real in every aspect. Unlike the other realities of war it could not be put aside, it could not even be hidden as the emotions themselves once had.

Valera looked to the doctor one last time, not presuming to speak, but simply looked. He had already pronounced his verdict, after all. The man flinched from her gaze, quite visibly. Valera for all her un-feminine shortness of stature preferred what she got in return, a particular charisma that had served her far better in the life that Farzbardor had deemed she lead. Turned to anger, however... But it wasn't really that. Valera just sighed and gestured toward the prostrate form. "May we at least take her inside?"

"Of course, Your Majesty." It won't do her further harm was unspoken, but the spoken words were enough.

Valera's eyes focused in on the man, glaring at the rather downtrodden face framed in rich dark blue leaning to lavender, and with eyes of silver. A Quesadi, then, and one of the best doctors around, but not enough.

"You don't need to call me, and I will never be called that. The title was not my reason to war, and.." Silence, again, for the next words were ones she wished to demand of him but could not. Valera looked down and saw that Taliya was observing them, in silence but with her eyes definitely open, green and expressive. A vague smile had formed on a face framed in elegant ears of particular length and blonde hair and it seemed she was amused.

"Go," Valera whispered to the doctor, overtaken by the fear welling up in her that, with dreadful certainty, would overcome, "but do not speak of me as anything other than the rank of my ancestors."

The man turned and left hastily, and his attendants, who had been hovering back all the more nervous as the encounter went on, fled with him. Even her daughters she had sent away, to handle the affairs of the army; they had been heir aides during the campaigns and now they would have to deal with the cleanup. It would be experience they would need in coming years, beside.

Valera reached down to the table, wet with blood as it was, and lifted Taliya up, very carefully, staggered a bit under the weight--for Taliya was taller and heavier than she and she was exhausted from the day's fight. It was frightfully odd, a horrible feeling that one could barely understand, that the mind wanted to reject yet existed, having the body of the person she had secretly, unrequitedly loved, for years, pressed up against her, knowing that person was going to die in a few hours, and that she could do absolutely nothing about it.

"You know." It was a statement of the obvious, as Valera placed Taliya upon the divan within her pavilion, and went back to close the flaps on the pavilion, privacy obtained at last. She turned back, her expression an awful dread gaze, fear in it and anguish at once, but some directed at herself as she tried to overcome the impulse within her and speak. She had to, now.

"Of course I do," Taliya answered, very softly, not straining her voice or expending the energy that was leeching out of her in to many places already. "We have both seen this far to much for us to harbour any doubts, Valera, about me. I was sure before I even saw the doctor's face." She laughed, and that at least revealed the intense pain to which she suffered. "He should not treat patients with such an expression."

Valera tried to comprehend a reasonable reply. Instead, she was simply silent, though she approached again the divan and knelt beside it. Finally, she forced up a smile: "He gave you to much of his painkillers, as well, I see."

"Not enough. It does so hurt."

The response brought hints of tears into Valera's eyes, looking at Taliya like this, Taliya, and grasping with a thousand issues of the mind. They were going to have centuries after it was all over, and everything could be reconciled, her doubts assuaged. Now she would simply have to confess, because her heart demanded nothing less. "Were it that the Lord would take your pain," Valera murmured, very low. "And, I would pray, your wounds."

"Moloyr found the danger of believing in miracles, love." The last word was used as if it had always been used; and perhaps in some part of Taliya's mind it had been. Valera felt a hand upon her's, so weak. She took it, those red and blue, mismatched eyes gazing back, wide and surprised.

"We were of one mind, for these years?" The barrier vanished and for a moment the tragedy of the heart was driven away by a clarity, a clarity which still only led to worse: "That.. The love I hold for you... is returned? Has been, for these years?"

Taliya's face held the same look for a long while, but she was short of breath now and could not muster herself an answer. Finally, her hand squeezing back upon Valera's, she impressed order upon a dim and fuzzy mind. "Do not worry about the years.... Let us worry about the minutes."

Understanding, Valera leaned over her stricken love to kiss her as they never had before, and to hold her unto her death. They would never know anything else, but those moments were shared in an absolute state of love; Valera's deathwatch for Taliya became their supine connection of the heart, and the soul--and after it, nothing else really, truly mattered anymore.


The Kingdoms were left to her daughters, to either rule in peace or to quarrel for the spoils, and Valera went to Taliya's birthplace on the Ina Sea, and her fate. She was tired, and she had to bury Taliya before she could make sense of, or abandon, a world that was now hideously empty; but that fate offered neither, and so while In'ghara and her sisters quarelled and then conquered, her mother went on to things even she could not imagine, nor comprehend.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

A profile of those to hold the title of Maharanidhirani Bahadur over the lines of the Three Sisters and their vassals of the line of Valera.


Empress Mikela I (R: AY 3,472 -- IY 163):


The founder of the Taloran Imperial Confederacy, or more commonly Taloran Star Empire in these days, Mikela the First had reigned for thirty-six years over the Great Kingdom of Grenya Colenta before being crowned by the Grenyan Primate as All-Highest Empress. She was in all aspects a larger-than-life figure, and the nature of personality was not understood until she was long dead. She best compares among human monarchs to the Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, Tsar Peter the Great, but even that is imperfect. Of her it was succinctly observed by the great Lelolan historian Ristak Arminadh that "She suffered neither from modesty, nor idiocy, nor monogamy, but was gifted of a technocrat's mind that was impatient with the feudal webs into which she had been born."

Mikela I was a polymath of the highest order, largely self-educated or by tutors during her reign in virtually all aspects of science and technology, and exceptionally clever as a schemer on the field of politics. She fought a single major war, a naval conflict over Silvent Colenta with Lelola, in her young reign as Great Queen of Grenya Colenta, and quickly patched it over by marrying the Princess Trivania, a woman considerably older than herself and noted for her arctic explorations of the continent that she had just won. As a result the Grenyan occupation of the land, which now has a population in the hundreds of millions in great underground cities and oceanic farming, progressed almost identical to the original Lelolan intents for it.

By a series of alliances she formed with confederacies of small states which she virtually engineered herself, at liberal terms from her own government, she created threats, and under her genius Exchequer of the Olothdhakiu clan, destroyed the world financial markets in a fashion beneficial to instability and collapse of prosperity in most of the other major nations of the planet. As a result, and with thinly veiled threats using the atomic weapons she had spearheaded the development of, while making appeals to unity of blood, Mikela (now married to a Midelan Archduchess as her third wife, her second being Talitva of Dalamar), she forced the creation of an Imperial Confederacy with Lelola and Midela Colenta as subordinate states, as well as 26 other minor states, to which was added the released Lesser Intu'it (from the centralized scheme of Grenyan government she attempted) as the 29th member in repayment for the servants of its ruler.

Though not without violence, as units of the Lelolan and Midelan militaries which attempted to revolt to save their imprisoned rulers (seized under cover of large-scale demonstrations which Mikela had funded) were ruthlessly crushed using guided smart-weapons and in some cases tactical nuclear devices from the air and by prepared infiltration squads inside of the states, the expansion was incredibly swift. It was also not without its problems; the communard revolutionaries that she had funded to destabilize the states of her 'Sisters' for her conquest fled from her troops in secret to Dalamar, which had managed to maintain its independence despite her efforts. The economic state of the country was rendered extremely poor by the dislocation of the markets, and not being part of the Empire, Mikela I's tendency to protectionism meant that they were crippled, and the communard sect became extremely powerful. Going from an obscure sect to a major political force, they would exact a high price for Mikela I's successes out of her daughter.

Equally developing spaceflight technology she aggressively developed early nuclear-pulse drive vessels which allowed for the lifting of huge amounts of goods into orbit, and the establishment of major colonies. Eager to find a way to bring the prosperity of virtually infinite resources in the huge and varied Talora system to her nation, she oversaw the development of, and construction of, an immense space elevator to bring goods down to the surface. Stubbornly, despite the diseases of old age, she maintained her faculties and her grip on power--and her life--long enough to see through the completion of the elevator and its operation, dying three months later.

In other fields her influence was no less stupendous. She arranged the development of a computer interlink network which brought knowledge to the most remote farmstead of the Empire, and in doing so, opened the universities to a more meritocratic system so that the achievements of the most intelligent among even the meanest tenant farmers might be enjoyed by the sciences of the Empire, of which she oversaw the complete implementation of a full network of nuclear and hydro-geo-electric power sources (for Talora Prime had even significantly less fossil fuel resources than Earth) which had been her aggressive goal since the start of her reign.

Politically and personally, she could brook no complaints or restraint. Through riches and largesse and manoeuvring she engineered the virtual sidelining of the nobility, successfully locking the Grenyan nobles out of any position of authority in the Empire and considerably limiting their power which they've only slowly regained to the present equilibrium. Only the nobility who served to head the component states of the Confederacy posed any real threat to her, and in those days they were to weak and cowed to pose any opposition. Beyond that, despite some opprobrium toward her actions, there is little doubt that the Empress--as much of a nymphomaniac as a genius polymath--got everyone she wanted, marrying a total of six times and carrying on at least two affairs with those below her station, and likely three.

The one thing that eluded her for most of her life was her desire to have a heir of her own body. Being a devoted Sapphist with no interest whatsoever in men she could find no vaguely moral nor acceptable way of doing so under the Church's law save with her own wives, and that meant, to Mikela's way of thinking, not resignation and acceptance, but a massive bio-technological effort at every level she could muster lasting through the first century of her reign. She submitted to sundry medical procedures to have her eggs harvested and subjected to a systematic process to attempt to induce parthenogenic development in conjunction with one of her wives for the sake of a viable heir, and they finally succeeded with the eggs of her young Dalamarian wife Talitva (29 years younger than she was), which were implanted in the youngest and most suitable of her wives for gestation, and produced but a single child, also named Mikela, whom her mother proceeded to dote upon and spoil to the utmost of her Imperial prerogatives, much to the disgust of those who followed the old ways of In'ghara. It would come back to haunt the Empire when Mikela died with her nation at an impossible height of power, a vast intellect and unstoppable personality, so great and so flawed.


Empress Mikela II (R: IY 163 -- IY 251):[/b]


The equally great, and equally flawed, but in very different ways, child of Mikela the First, her daughter of the same name came to the throne spoilt, unhealthy, and disinterested in government. Mercifully, she married young, to a man who was her second cousin, and had three daughters and two sons over the span of her life. The primary event of her reign, happening 23 years into it, was the Communard revolt in Dalamar which overthrew that nation's government and less than two years later executed almost all of its nobility in the name of their heretical branch of Farzianism.

It is sometimes bitingly said of Mikela II that "she was not a Farzian until religious war called her"--this may well be true, but it is also clear that her change of heart was very sincere. Her impetuous, genius, headstrong mother, unwilling to stop at anything and implacable in her pursuit of all that she surveyed, had virtually rent the bonds of a Taloran society which for all her intelligence, she understood very little. Her daughter started off in the same mold, engaging in a genetic engineering programme for a personal guard which essentially got her excommunicated by the Farzian Church.

It was the Communitarian revolt, and with it, the execution of every single one of her second mother Talitva's family (who died shortly thereafter of the shock of the news) that brought her around; she knelt before the Primate of the Grenyan Church in one of the most famous scenes of Taloran Iconography, begged forgiveness... And then on his behest coolly destroyed fifty cities in the fire of the first strategic nuclear attacks executed in Taloran history, previously very fixed by customary, 18th century warfare-like (to humans) laws to avoid harming civilians except under careful and rigid systems. But this was a Holy War, and so the shedding of those systems for the moment did not hurt Taloran society; rather, the common bond of raw Farzian fanaticism in defence of their faith brought society down to the bedrock that Mikela the First had heedlessly ripped it away from, and the crucible of war forged the stability of the new Empire as a traditional body.

The suppression was bloody and fervent, but from the moment that Mikela the Second turned to the church and made the cause one of an absolute Holy War, she regained the trust of a disaffected peasantry, secured the allegiance of the Farzian orders, and wrote her name in blood, substantially integrating the rest of the Taloran world under the cause of a pan-religious effort to destroy the communards. Her rule was as heavy-handed and autocratic as that of her mother, but she remained from the moment of her penance the perfect Farzian ruler, who simply approached in scope the closest to an absolute monarch that any since the days of Saverana the First's concessions had enjoyed, in comparison to the absolute authority of the fabled In'ghara.

Presiding over few innovations, her ruler instead was mainly that of a Sovereign presiding over Holy War, and with it the typical degree of repressions and actions which would lay the ground for the revolts in the outer system colonies to follow, and the great sublight outspreading of colonists. Yet in acting the way she did she made the Imperial Dynasty again rest on absolutely stable footing, and never again has their rule been seriously challenged by the Church and the nobility in a direct fashion as it was in her early reign when her mother had left things disordered, and she had not yet steeled herself to the virtues she needed to rule.

Her death was peaceful, accorded the laurels of a victorious crusader, and someone who had virtually unified the species, with only a few minor holdout states persisting in not joining the Imperial Confederacy. She never liked, but universally respected in that, born of her mother's veritable technomancy, she nonetheless proved herself a dutiful and orthodox servant of tradition and the Sword's values, and preserved her society against its greatest challenge.


Empress Mikela III (R: IY 251 -- IY 278).

Mikela III, born when her mother was yet quite young, did not reign for long. It was said of her uncharitably by later historians that "all breathed a sigh of relief when she proved to be lazy and disinterested in government". Her reign immensely weakened the autocratic Imperial system of her mother and grandmother and permitted the nobility to assert their authority. It also saw the discovery of Trivaht-type ("Heim") drives and FTL colonization efforts, the start of the immensely long Jikari war, and the rebellions of the outer system colonies. The later, though successfully suppressed, guaranteed that the Jikari would be able to hold their own against the Empire for decades to come. Mikela the Third died in the midst of a protracted war, unaware of how much the Empire was changing as aggressive FTL expansion began, and her main contribution having been to allow the Nobility to reassert themselves, as well as her tolerant and generous terms of autonomy for the revolting outer colonies which created the first of the "Spacelords" of nobility without holdings on Talora Prime.


Empress Anhilara II (R: IY 278 -- 290).


Childless older daughter of Mikela III, her main contribution to the Empire was the stern doctrine of "absolute integration", picking fights and wars with the STL colonies that had gone out in the reign of Mikela II (a few of the earliest, in the reign of Mikela I), unhappy with her policies. Anhilara started the doctrine of the forcible integration of these colonies back into the Empire, and in doing so also presided over the same with the remaining independent states on the surface of Talora Prime. To conciliate the nobility to these policy she actually actively increased their autonomy v. her mother's simple ignoring matters of politics.


Empress Vinara IV (R: IY 290 -- 317).


Younger daughter of Mikela III, she reigned after the death of her childless older sister, and was herself lacking in a female heir. For most of her life not expecting the Imperial throne, she was completely unremarkable as an Empress, leaving government in the hands of her appointed Ergacatum and spending most of her time on the hunt.

Her sole area of brilliance was in her use of jump-drive to facility the crushing of the Jikari in 312, and then over the next four years, to exploit their religious fervour to turn them into loyal members of the Empire. She shared with them a taste for hunting, certainly, and the Jikari are inordinately fond of an Empress who, though not incompetent, nontheless in her focus on tactical details of operations and distaste for anything else related to actual ruling, left the Empire ill-equipped to deal with the threat that consumed the year after her death.


Empress Mikela IV (R: IY 317 -- 320).


The youngest daughter of Mikela III, she was a complete nonentity as Empress, reigning for less than four years and remembered only as the ruler when the whole Taloran and Jikari species was almost exterminated by the Quadruple Entente (actually an alliance of only three species, one of which was exterminated by the Talorans in retaliation). Her singular ability was to recognize her own lack of talent and place the Countess of Kriesdihl, despite the fact that she came from an area of the Empire which had revolted half-successfully only decades prior, in total control of the war effort. She died an inadvertent hero for having ruled during this great trial of the Taloran species. Her greater contribution to the Imperial line was in having a daughter.


Empress Tilashi VI (R: IY 320 -- 342).


Though she represented the end of the branch of the dynasty represented by Mikela III, having only sons, the Empress Tilashi was an intelligent and astute politician who navigated the Empire as an administrator through the conflict with a great union of independent Taloran colonies in the later part of her reign, after leading the recovery from the War of the Quadruple Entente in the first part. Suspecting her own inability to have a daughter, she carefully prepared the line of the heir apparent--descendants of Mikela II's second oldest daughter--for the throne against her own inevitable death, while presiding of Imperial prosperity, and intelligently handling out most of the conquered worlds of the subdued colonial confederacy to her more distant relatives in Appanage, while retaining the Dalamarian worlds and reintegrating them into the Province of Dalamar, greatly reconciling its people to direct Imperial rule and ruffling over the remaining sore feathers of the ferocity and violence of Mikela II's holy war, going as far as to maintain her regular residence in the province.

She conducted her reign on a distinctly high note throughout, and was lauded by the nobility with whom she worked cooperatively to further Imperial interests as much as by the dynastic historians, who much lamented that she came to the throne at an advanced age and in ill health. Her accomplishments in the time she had were nonetheless signal, and left the Empire with a powerful character as a star-spanning nation, and the Taloran species unified save for minor holdouts.


Empress Jinarsha II (R: IY 343 -- 360).


The equally short-lived Jinarsha II is much noted, however, for producing the next line of Empresses, as a direct-line descendant of Mikela II's second daughter, the Princess Sikala (one of several important figures by that name who have not yet reached the Imperial throne). She also was responsible for initial contact with the violent Ulkranish species which represented the next major Imperial challenge. In this, a policy of aggressive border-fighting maintained the Imperial presence and prevented raids, forcing the Ulkranish to respect this growing Power they had encountered, and allowed for the maintenance of a steady stalemate throughout her reign and well beyond it. With her daughter having predeceased her, Jinarsha II's granddaughter took the throne, and had a consequently long reign.


Empress Kishala (R: IY 360 -- 500).


The Empress Kishala reigned over more of the more violent periods of Imperial history, in which twenty-three alien star nations were conquered (distinct from minor alien species, or species which were themselves part of these nations), the Ulkranish were checked and their threat to the Empire was dealt with, but two more regional powers capable of resisting the Imperial advance were discovered.

A competent politician only, she mostly left internal governance to the nobility while she concentrated, in concert with the Countess of Kriesdihl, who was now the supreme comptroller over the Starfleet and exercising an enormous latitude in that position, on a plan of immense colonization. Though extremely territorially ambitious, she was personally of an orthodox bent. The Imperial government has changed little since her day, when an Ergacatum was appointed, named Trivania (of no relation to the Princess married to the Empress Mikela I, and in fact only of middling gentry in origin) who competently handled internal politics while leaving the Empress to focus entirely on foreign policy and military issues.

She began the policy of resolving territorial disputes between colonial regions of the Imperial members, ceding the disputed territory to young members of the nobility for their own minor states, and the creation of independent Border Marches which could be relied upon to defend themselves more effectually than regions under the control of a distant state government on Valeria which had no idea of local conditions, with the settlers being given special privileges in exchange for their military character of settlement. In this way she quietly presided over the largest expansion of the Convocate in the whole history of the Empire, with Trivania proving apt at handling this with minimal complaint from the existing members by avoiding title inflation and guaranteeing that the system of the votes of high-ranked members counting for more than minor members was formalized into Imperial law.

As a side note, she was, being very modest, responsible for naming the first of a series of carrier classes after a mythical Jikari Empress, eschewing a class for herself (though one was named so by her daughter) the Empress Cithala, a name which creates considerable confusion for foreigners, as no actual Empress Cithala of the Talora Empire has existed, the phoenetic combination TH being impossible for Talorans to pronounce regardless, while being exceedingly common in standard Jikari languages.


Empress Nivarna (R: IY 500 -- 508).


Elder daughter of the Empress Kishala, she had only sons and did not reign long, being afflicted with an obscure genetic disease possibly caused by excessive inbreeding. This was successfully cured in her niece the Empress Intalasha II, but both Nivarna and her younger sister died of it. Her reign had little of note to it, save for the last war with the Ulkranish in which they were decisively defeated, though not annexed. It was in this war that a Admiral Slyperia became famous as the now extremely elderly Countess of Kriesdihl's Chief of Staff (the Countess died in 514 at the age of 820 by the human count, or 256 by the Taloran). She was competent while she lived, but extremely personally unlikeable.


Empress Nivarnia II (R: IY 508 -- 525).


Younger daughter of the Empress Kishala and equally afflicted with her older sister's condition, she is remembered as being rather unstable, and is marred by the controversy of contact with another bizzare insectoid species, the TIl'XoxKRal, whom at the advice of the Church she proceeded in the extermination of after an incredibly violent war of four years duration from 516 - 520 in which 50 billion Imperial subjects had been killed. It was argued that the TIl'XoxKRal should have been reduced to reservations and possibly civilized, as they did not appear to have the hive-mind of the similar insectoid race exterminated in the War of the Quadruple Entente, and because of this many philosophers of the Empire have painted her as being excessively cruel, and to orthodox to stand up the Church when she should have. Her daughter, Intalasha III, grew up extremely distant from her mother and was said to have initially shared the opinion.


Intalasha III (R: 525 - 604).


The grandmother of the present Empress, her only daughter died young as the Princess Imperial in an obscure incident in IY 595 when the ship she was on while traveling to survey the front during a minor frontier conflict with one of the coreward powers had a jumpdrive accident. It has been said by many that this was actually sabotage by resurgent communard agents in the years since the 605 assassination attempt against her granddaughter, Saverana II.

Her reign was that of a consummate politician and decent war leader, navigating the Empire through the addition of nine more star-fairing nations including those two that comprised humanity, and many other races, and seeing it reach its current immense size and height of power. She raised both her daughter and granddaughter decently (in the first case, some say to decently, for Sikala was notoriously willing to forgive virtually anything in her friends, as the case of the Archduchess Tisara demonstrates), and moderated the more fanatical policies of the Church, willingly supporting more pacifistic orders and more acts of conciliating with the obscure beliefs of alien species. Her actions in the Istegard conflict also show this moderation, though it's reported that one of her regrets was how she treated the Admiral Slyperia over the incident in later years as she came more to respect the difficulty of the decision that her mother had to make over the intractable TIl'XoxKRal.

In general terms she was the personification of an ideal and moderate Taloran leader, in touch with tradition but nonetheless willing to forge her own course in Imperial policy, which though sometimes cynical mostly focused on the economic enrichment of the state and the constant maintenance of order for the sake of the security and prosperity of her subjects. She is fondly remembered and respected by all, even the church with which she sometimes clashed, and is loved by the nobility who thought her very much a noblewoman's Empress, as it were.


Saverana II (R: IY 604 -- Present.)


The current Empress, and subject of a complex communard assassination plot in her early reign, which led to a brief suppression, she has proved rather neurotic with the early death of her mother and her own quick assumption of the throne, leaving heavily on the advice of the slightly older Archduchess Leluno, Jhastima Rulandh. For what it is worth, Jhastimia Rulandh has proved as court favourites go extremely competent and responsible, and with her advice the Empress has navigated through the discovery of the interuniversal portal and the contact with the various CON-5 nations with some aplomb and conscientious application of the Imperial power in a world where states of similar strength have again been discovered, a situation not faced since the reign of Jinarsha II. The long term prospects of what might be an extremely long and prosperous reign, however--she is only thirty-two Taloran years old--or one that may tend to be unstable due to her neurotic tendencies, are those which cannot yet be known.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

History of the War of the Quadruple Entente:

With budding militaries in space for defence against--primarily--internal revolt--and the rest of the ships mainly designed to augment the defensive platforms, with limited exploratory navies for expanding outwards, the Taloran Star Empire contacted what they came to call the Quadruple Entente with only a limited actual battlefield left-over from the Taloran-Jikari war and not seriously upgraded in that span of time, including many Jikari ships still in their service, or Taloran service.

First contact was immediately violent: The Taloran exploration ship which found one of their outer colony systems was ordered to surrender. The commander of the Entente force wished to take the crew for study, in preparation for the enslavement of the species. The lone ship's commander refused, and engaged eight technologically superiour vessels against his own one. In that stunning battle of first contact, the Taloran ship destroyed one of the Entente vessels, managed to send back an FTL communication warning of the threat, and then severly damaged, FTL drives destroyed, rammed and destroyed the Entente flagship. There were no survivors of the crew for the Entente to capture and study. The military harshness restored to the Taloran species by the Sixty Years War guaranteed to make a very bitter fight of it, even though they were certainly badly outgunned.

After several months of preparations by both sides, and scouting by the Entente, the Entente militaries dispatched a force of thirty-nine Battleships, escorted by twenty cruisers and over a hundred torpedo boats and destroyers, with a screening force of another twenty cruisers and a hundred more of the light 'boats and 'destroyers escorting fourty planetary assault vessels of various types, mainly converted merchantmen, and set out to the sprawling Talora system to pit strength against strength.

The Taloran Battle Fleet was at the time under the command of an outspoken, loudmouthed firebrand, the sixty-one year old (still rather young for a Taloran) Vice Admiral Jeryllyn Iedhana Lictor, The Countess of Kriesdihl. She was the Chief of the Naval General Staff before assuming her present position, responsible for formulating the plans which went into effect for further wars after the conquest of the Jikar, and ultimately took command of all the main line forces in the war to come, having had extensive and famed exploits in the Jikari war in which she had grown up.

Her true moment of glory, however, arrived with the Quadruple Entente's invasion. To stop it, she had 29 of her own primitive battleships (the largest and newest three ships massed 14 megatonnes, none of the others more than 12.5, with the largest cruisers being of only 975,000 tonnes; the enemy's battleships massed 18 megatonnes and the cruisers, up to 2 megatonnes), 38 cruisers, 88 Destroyers, 41 torpedo boats, 11 gunboats, (Neither capable of utilizing FTL drives), and four converted training ships, hastily prepared for combat operations. It was this force, slow, lacking in shielding, primitive in all respects, and outnumbered in terms of Ships of the Line, which had to stop the Quadruple Entente cold. And, to everyone's surprise, except, perhaps, that of the Countess of Kriesdihl, they did.

She proceeded to fight a running battle through the solar system for fourteen days in which she lost two battleships and numerous lighter ships, but ran the Quadruple Entente's cruisers and destroyers ragged from chasing after her and defending against her hit and run, rather un-orthodox attacks in which . Likewise, the battleships of the Quadruple Entente suffered numerous systems failures and a variety of minor damage from the engagements. Frustrated, the commanders of the Entente fleet found themselves virtually between the two main stars of the system, their fleet organized in a defensive position, when they finally detected what appeared to be the bulk of the Taloran Starfleet massing around the distant third star.

The quickest path to insure a general engagement happened to go straight through the lagrange point between the two stars. The Quadruple Entente did not know the lay of the solar system and hadn't had enough time to calculate the precise lagrange point. The Countesses' parents had been comet "ranchers" of a sort, her title acquired during the revolt against the government of Mikela III in which she'd actually briefly fought against the government, and she knew it better than the back of her hand.

Jeryllyn had simply been playing a waiting game of planetary orbits to force the Quadruple Entente's fleet into a position where, to engage her own, they would have to pass through the lagrange point... Which was the complete local gravity-null point. The Heim field drives used by all sides were backed up by conventional thrusters, normally; however, the Quadruple Entente ships had dispensed with them a while ago, in their endless refinements of technology which never really progressed, and this had been obvious from analyzing the wreckage. Jeryllyn Lictor had simply led them into a careful trap, because the Heim drives could fail to function while passing through a null-grav point, something that doesn't happen in mere double-planet systems, but can with double-stars.

It had been a brilliant series of running battles over those fourteen days, perfectly calculated and planned by the stunningly intelligent admiral to bring the Entente forces to the point where they had to manuver through the null-grav point to engage her own fleet.. Which wasn't her own fleet, but a collection of civilian ships dumping power into emitters to trick the primitive sensors of the era. Jeryllyn's ships themselves were posted to slingshot around the suns and come in at extremely close range as the Quadruple Entente ships transited the lagrange point.

Traveling at maximum acceleration, the ships of the Quadruple Entente didn't have a chance to slow down in time; each ship lost forward acceleration while those behind it continued to accelerate, meaning that several collisions actually took place. In moments, a battle fleet of 39 battleships traveling at varying speeds and all in danger of colliding, with all power for their engines lost, were a sitting duck for the twenty-seven fully powered remaining ships of the line of the Taloran Starfleet swinging around to attack them at point-blank range. At that range, with the Entente's Battleline unable to manuver temporarily, Jeryllyn's line of battle, had a target shoot of the bunched Entente fleet. Each of the battleships selected one counterpart and opened fire.

By the time the ships had regained power, seventeen of their number had been completely destroyed by Taloran fire, two had collided with each other and exploded, and eight more drifted off, four severely damaged, and four lifeless hulks, from collisions or Taloran gunfire.

Jeryllyn was already manuvering her leading squadrons to cross the "T" of the remaining twelve Entente battleships, while the rest of the Line of Battle shifted fire to the abruptly outnumbered and outgunned foe. The light ships of both sides tangled and dueled, but 60% of the cruisers, torpedo boat destroyers, and torpedo boats of the Entente had been wiped out already by the more evenly-matched Taloran light. That battle was going the same way.

The lead seven battleships of the Taloran Line of Battle had crossed the "T" of the four lead survivors of the Entente's LoB, and commenced firing broadsides against them which the confused lead squadron and single surviving ship of the second squadron could only reply with limited guns. Still, the technological superiourity of the Entente was shown in that it cost the Countess two of her battleships to destroy those four, despite her advantageous position.

The remaining twenty opened fire on the eight trailing ships of the Entente's Line of Battle, and in a vicious engagement at point-blank range, traded three of their ships for the eight; However, another battleship of the Taloran fleet was lost when the four cripples that still had some weapons and manuvering thrusters joined in, a desperate attempt to save the eight trailing battleships, supported by surviving Entente Torpedo Boats (which were jump-capable)

When the battle was done, the Taloran Navy had lost six battleships, destroyed 35 of the Entente's, and captured four hulks of the others. However, the twenty-one survivors and their escorts were in no condition to engage the screen around the transports, which held back on the edge of the system, and promptly fled

The Entente still had twenty-one battleships, six on guard duty in their three solar systems (What were believed to be two species came from the same solar system, but were actually branches of the same), and five under assorted repairs and refittings, another ten on the border with another rival they mistrusted. They, along with three cruisers and fifteen destroyers, were rushed to the Talora Prime system to give the invasion force the firepower necessary to destroy Talora's planetary defenses and finish off their Starfleet, leaving only a force of cruisers and destroyers to guard their homeworlds.

Thus, Jeryllyn concentrated on repairing her ships and adding 140 sundry civilian vessels equipped as gunboats and AMCs to the fleet. With the four captured Entente ships, twenty-five battleships in all, she met the sixteen operational battleships of the Entente in a brutal combat again in the Talora system. This time, Jeryllyn showed her superiour tactics in general fleet manuvering as well, to out-manuver the Entente Line of Battle and engage from a series of advantageous positions. Though they concentrated on and destroyed the four ships the Talorans had captured from them, and then went down the LoB, guns blazing, the Entente forces were outmanuvered and outgunned, especially in the early stages when four of their own battleships were used by the enemy; the "N-Squared" law to effect in then, and the weaker enemy got far weaker, especially due to the Entente's obsession with destroying thoroughly their own captured ships in enemy hands, a cultural precularity which meant they wasted fire on those ships when they were crippled while the Taloran vessels were smashing them up.

When the battle was over, seventeen of the Taloran battleships were still intact, though all badly damaged. Eight losses in exchange for destroying twelve of the enemy; only four escaped. Even with four being equal, captured ships, it was still a stunning victory, with no slight of hand like the earlier one used; it had simply been a brutal and sustained slugfest. In the battle, damage to the flag bridge of her flagship severed the Countess of Kriesdihl's right leg below the knee, and killed her flagship's captain, but after having the stump bandaged, she fought the ship from the secondary bridge, as well as still directing the entire fleet.

When the main battle was over, the remaining Taloran Torpedo Boats loosed their weapons into the transport fleet and wiped out the Entente invasion force down to the ship before it could escape. Admiral Jeryllyn Iethan Lictor, The Countess of Kriesdihl, was given the highest awards and titles of land possible for such a stunning victory, and made the first Admiral of the Fleet of the Taloran Starfleet as justly fitting the saviour of the throne.

Immediately, she turned into forging the eighteen battleships nominally under her command into a fighting force once again, as now mobilized war industries churned up smaller ships as fast as they could and repairs were completed, as well as a total of eight battleships under construction in the various Imperial yards. In the meantime, six battleships under construction in the Entente were rushed to completion.

After another eight months of this competition, those 15 Battleships remaining in all were ready before the Countess' fleet, and sortied with an escort of eight cruisers and twenty four destroyers. This was, quite simply, the entire remaining military space navy of the Quadruple Entente except for a force of sixty cruisers and eighty destroyers guarding their border with the aforementioned (but not named) Silasta, and would remain so until another four battleships, eight cruisers and thirty-six Destroyers were completed in four months.

The Quadruple Entente had decided a show of merciless force could make the Talorans cave in without further fighting. They arrived at the World Of The Concordat, home to a population of three hundred millions, which had been jointly settled by the Jikar and the Talorans in an effort to build new ties between the conquered and the conquerors that tensions might be eased and the Jikari more easily integrated. The following bombardment killed 90% of the population--270 million people--but they had badly misunderestimated the Taloran fighting spirit from their own alien nature. The Church declared that retaliatory measures were necessary, and Mikela IV readily assented to measures that her grandmother would have found appropriate, which her hero Admiral agreed upon the necessity of.

Two months after the incident, the twenty-five battleships of the Countess of Kriesdale's Home Fleet, supported by cruisers and destroyers, sortied against the system that held the homeworlds of two of the four Entente members, daringly leaving Talora Prime unprotected by ships larger than a cruiser for that singular mass sortie.

The insectoid Xi'ki'it'karon and Treil their planets in the same system--as it was currently understood; it was later found that the Treil were the warrior caste of the Xi'ki'it'karon--and half of the manufacturing shipyards of the Quadruple Entente, guarded by the fleet that had wiped out The World Of The Concordat, were their target. In the vicious battle that followed, that fleet, supported by the planetary defences, killed ninenteen of the Countess of Kriesdihl's Battleships, but when the dust of the battle had settled, all the defences were gone, and Taloran Marines had seized the shipyards.

It was nearly a pyrrhic victory, were it not for the bloody reality that followed: the remaining six battleships, fourty cruisers (both military and AMC), eighty-seven destroyers of her fleet grimly unleashed identical bombardment on the two homeworlds as had been inflicted on the World Of The Concordat, a bombardment aided by civilian ships loaded with missiles arriving, and others, packed with explosives, being sent on courses to the surface, while tractor-presser tugs flung asteroids into the surface. When asked later in her life what she had thought about her act of xenocide, she replied "They did their bloody work, and killed three hundred million innocents. I did my duty, by the converse, and killed seventy times as many who were the infrastructure for the factories and fleet which had killed those three hundred million. Judge for yourself the moral rightness of it; but we were still at war then, and war demanded certain things, as it did in the days of Mikela II. The aliens I destroyed were just as evil as the heretics she fought--and so alien that we did not, in truth, understand that what we were doing was xenocide--and so I did my duty, and I have no regrets." Her last comment references the fact that it was not believed that the destruction of the two worlds would annihilate the Xi'ki'it'karon, but because of their nature as a species all of their breeding queens had been on the surface of the planet.

The remnants of the Quadruple Entente surrendered outright, and an additional one hundred and seventy-five habitable planets were added to the Taloran Star Empire outright, and tens billions of slaves liberated. Many more followed as trade routes were expanded between the original Empire and the new conquests, and as further expansion took place. The Silasta ultimately voluntarily joined the Empire against the mutual threat of the Ulkranish, seeing the immensely generous way in which the thirty-one slave species of the Quadruple Entente had been raised up by the Talorans. As an example of the devastating influence that the conflict had had on the Taloran fleet, of the 23 battleships in service two years after the end of the conflict, four of them were captured Entente ships, and five were extremely elderly 5 - 7 megatonne vessels from the start of the Jikari war which had been rust-hulks and museums which had been refitted during the war and not finished in time to join it. Of the 400 cruisers of all types, 100 were converted Civilian ships and 70 were captured Entente ships, with many of the survivors elderly veterans of the Jikari war which had remained on patrol in the colonies during the heaviest of the fighting, the same being true of many of the 500 destroyers and 700 torpedo boats, of which only half of the later had FTL drives, most of which were captured from the Entente as well, as were 120 of the destroyers; a further 400 gunboats, of which half were converted civilian ships, rounded out the fleet.

These ships, only about 2,050 in number, would nonetheless provide the core of the future fleet, and the Talorans limped along using ships of pre-conquest Jikari, Quadruple Entente, and native design in a hodgepodge fleet for quite some time, operating them as regular second-line vessels even during the Ulkranish war when the Taloran fleet was much larger, and of entirely new ships in the front-line forces. Many of them still exist to the present, stripped hulks being used for fuel storage near Taloran starfleet bases, or as museums, or accomadation ships also near such bases. In the role of an accomadation ship, one of the Entente battleships remains in semi-regular commission, though it has been permanently attached to one of the orbital fleet bases over Talora Prime for centuries. Jeryllyn Lictor herself would live until 514, retiring from the Starfleet in 509 after a career, first in the rebel military of the outer colonies, and then in the Imperial Starfleet, spanning two hundred and fourty-five Taloran years, during the last 190 of which the fleet was veritably her private fiefdom.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Taloran Military Ranks and Tables of Organization


Rank structure, Starfleet:

Commissioned Officers:

Admiral of the Imperial Coasts: Highest rank in the Starfleet, carried over from the old Grenyan Navy.
Admiral of the Fleet: Top-ranked central command officers only.
Fleet Admiral: Commanders of the Home Fleet and the primary coreward battle-fleets; many central commander officers.
Admiral: Important sector and border march commanders; commanders of Battle Fleets.
Vice Admiral: Commanders of expansion sectors and scouting fleets, important staff officers to those of the highest rank. Strategy officers of the Naval General Staff.
Rear Admiral, Upper Half: Staff officers, commanders of Battle Squadrons. Strategy officers of the Naval General Staff.
Rear Admiral, Lower Half: Staff officers, commanders of BC and Carrier and cruiser squadrons. Commanders of Battle Divisions. Technology specialists.
Commodore: Commanders of BC, carrier and cruiser divisions, commanders of destroyer and frigate/corvette light ship flotillas. Technology specialists/engineering specialists.
Vice Commodore: Commanders of destroyer and frigate/corvette squadrons. Technology specialists/engineering specialists.
Note: All ranks above this note are divided into three "colours" which delineate seniority. These colours are Red, White, and Green, in order of precedence. All officers of the same rank and flag colour are considered equals.
List Captain: Commanders of Dreadnoughts, Battleships, and Carriers. List Captains automatically are promoted to Vice Commodore after a fixed time on the List. Other List commands including small craft divisions (groups of 8 destroyers, DEs, frigates, corvettes, etc) and teaching posts at the academies, along with staff officer positions.
Post Captain: Regular captains who have been given an actual ship command with that rank. Post Captains command Battlecruisers, Scouting cruisers, Command Cruisers, Expeditionary Cruisers, Heavy Cruisers, and Training/Escort Cruisers.
Captain: Both of the above, and Captains who have yet to command a ship as a Captain.
Frigate Captain: Commanders of Torpedo and Light Cruisers and Destroyer Leaders, executive officers of large ships.
Commander: Commanders of destroyers and destroyer escorts, executive officers of smaller cruising ships. Watch officers and department heads on Dreadnoughts
Lieutenant Commander: Commanders of frigates and smaller craft, XOs on destroyers and DEs. Watch officers and department heads on carriers, battleships, and most cruisers. Various support assignments.
Lieutenant First Rank: Watch officers and department heads on small ships; typical midrange officers on larger ships. Various support assignments. Flag Lieutenants are a courtesy title given to those of this rank assigned as aides to flag officers.
Lieutenant Second Rank: Lower-ranked officers on most ships.
Ensign: Junior officers commissioned directly from an Academy.
Midshipman: Very junior officers still in training but who have active roles on ships; Academy officers on their senior cruise, and service volunteers with college educations.
Cadet: Officers in training, not assigned to ships other than Training Cruisers in any circumstance.

Warrant officers:

Master: Senior navigational positions.
Artillerist: Senior battery operation positions.
Senior Engineer: Senior engineering positions.
Quartermaster: Senior support positions.
Senior Warrant Officer: Senior positions not otherwise classified.
Quartermaster Second Rank: Junior support positions.
Chief Mate: Junior navigation positions.
Sub-Artillerist: Junior battery positions.
Engineer's Mate: Junior engineering positions.
Warrant Officer: Junior positions not otherwise classified.
Junior Mate: Training rank for navigation positions.
Sub-Warrant: Training rank for all positions except navigation specialty.

Other Ranks:

Senior Chief Petty officer (Gunnery Master and Boatswain are equivalent ranks. The Chief Boatswain is the seniormost petty officer on a ship, and the holder of the Ship's whips and other implements of punishment)
Master Chief Petty officer (Gunner's Mates and Boatswain's Mates are of equivalent rank)
Chief Petty officer
Petty officer first rank.
Petty officer second rank.
Junior Petty Officer.
Master Spacer
Able Spacer
Common Spacer
Spacer Trainee.


Rank structure, Army:


Commissioned officers:

Generalissimo: Supreme Commander of the Army.
Imperial Marshal: Highest-ranking directional officers of the Army headquarters, and major multi-sector front commands for large war efforts.
Captain-General: Supreme commander of a large sector's army, seniormost officers of the Imperial strategy staff and etc.
Field Marshal: Highest ranked regular field officers, usually coordinating related operations on several planets.
Field Marshal Lieutenant: High-ranking strategy officers and commanders of the forces assigned to an entire planet.
Colonel General: Commanders of extremely large operational theatres, or planetary force commanders on lightly inhabited planets.
General First Rank: Commanders of major Fronts.
General Second Rank: Commanders of Army Group formations.
Lieutenant General: Commanders of Armies, extremely high staff officers and planning officers.
Major General: Commanders of Corps-sized units, high staff officers and planning officers.
Generals of Division: Commanders of divisions.
Brigadiers: Commanders of Brigades, staff officers.
Colonel: Regimental commanders and staff officers/specialists.
Lieutenant Colonel: Commanders of reserve regiments, staff officers, sometimes command regiments or battalions in situations of need.
Major: Battalion commanders, staff officers.
Captain: Company commanders, staff officers.
Captain Lieutenant: executive officers of battalions and companies, highest sub-altern rank.
Full Lieutenant: Junior officers/subalterns.
Sub-Lieutenant: Junior Officer/subalterns.
Ensign/Cornet: Commissioned University-graduate conscripts or volunteers.
Cadet.


Warrant Officers:

Senior Warrant Officer.
Chief Warrant Officer
Warrant Officer First Rank
Warrant Officer Second Rank.

Covers all specializations.


Other Ranks:


Master Sergeant.
Senior Sergeant.
Sergeant-Lieutenant.
Sergeant.
Junior Sergeant.
Corporal, first rank.
Corporal, second rank.
Volunteer (Those who volunteered instead of being conscripted receive better pay and position immediately.)
Private first class.
Private
Recruit


Rank Structure, Starfighter Corps:


Commissioned officers:

Aerospace Marshal: Supreme commanders of the Starfighter Corps; unlike with the other services this rank is held by several personnel at once.
Front Marshal: Commanders of large-front starfighter operations.
General: Commander of starfighter operations over a sector.
Lieutenant General: Commander of planetary garrison forces, air combat, in large systems; top planning officers.
Front Commander: Commander of an Air Army.
Group Commander: Operational commander of extremely large concentrated starfighter forces.
Force Commander: Assistants to higher ranking officers, operational commanders of ad-hoc groupings of Wings, commanders of gunboat wings.
Wing Colonel: Commander of an operational and regular Wing of Starfighters.
Colonel Second Rank: XOs to Wing Colonels, commanders of squadron groups, commanders of gunboat squadrons.
Squadron Captain: Starfighter squadron commanders, commanders of flights of gunboats.
Flight Captain: Commander of starfighter flights and of individual gunboats.
Flight Lieutenant: Main support officers in gunboats, pilots of bombers, top ranking fighter pilots.
Lieutenant: Standard low-rank gunboat officers, support officers, pilots.
Sub-lieutenant: Junior pilots.
Cornet: University-trained direct commissions.
Cadet.


Warrant Officers:

Senior Warrant Officer.
Chief Warrant Officer
Warrant Officer First Rank
Warrant Officer Second Rank.

Covers all specializations.


Other Ranks:


Master Air Sergeant.
Senior Air Sergeant.
Air Sergeant-Lieutenant.
Air Sergeant.
Junior Air Sergeant.
Senior Airman
Junior Airman
Airman Volunteer (Those who volunteered instead of being conscripted receive better pay and position immediately.)
Airman Second Rank
Private
Recruit


Coast Guard:

Same as Starfleet, but no Admiral of the Imperial Coasts rank-equivalent.

Fortress Command:

Same as the Army, except with "General of Division" "General of Fortifications".

Marines:

Same as the Army except with the top two ranks removed and the rank of Captain-General held by one person at a time, the highest ranking officer of the corps with the title of "Captain-General of the Corps".

Army organizational table:

The army is based around a 256-soldier company, which is shared with the Marines. This company is in light infantry and power infantry only; the mechanized infantry and armoured companies have a smaller number of personnel. Three such companies plus a support element form an 800 soldier battalion; two such battalions plus two light support companies form a 2,050-soldier regiment.

Three such regiments and a support regiment form an 8,200-personnel brigade; four such brigades and a support brigade form a 41,000-personnel division. Four such divisions and a support division form a 205,000-personnel corps. All units above the level of corps are ad-hoc and organized as necessary; corps are the largest standing units in the Army.

Starfleet organizational considerations:

A division is 4 ships, when larger, and 8 ships when small; a squadron is 8 ships when large, and 16 ships when small. Small craft Flotillas consist of 64 ships + 1 flagship. Fleet battle orders are divided into Van, Main Body, Front-Rear, and Trailing Rear. Generally the van consists of 3 - 4 squadrons, the Main body of 4 - 5 squadrons, the Front Rear, of 2 - 3, and the Trailing Rear of 2 - 3, for a total of up to 120 dreadnoughts in the largest fleets which the existing comms and organizational structures are designed to handle.

Fleet dispersion rates mandate a distance of 1,000km between dreadnoughts horizontally in the wall, 2,000km between dreadnoughts vertically in the wall, 3,000km between divisions (organized horizontally; squadrons are stacked), and 5,000km between each section of the wall, for a typical length of the very-largest wall formations as being 98,000km with 8,000km of vertical dispersion.

As an aside, the tradition of List Captains commanding dreadnoughts only originates from the fact that during the Sixty Years War, Dreadnoughts were huge vessels up to 12 times larger than the cruisers which did not have much more firepower (though awesomely better protection), and instead were packed with command, repair, and refueling facilities, as journeys using only Heim-type drives could last months or years, and all repair facilities had to be brought with the fleet. Therefore, the most experienced and senior captain was invariably given that command, as it held the most responsibility of any in the fleet. When jump-drives were developed, the ships were refitted purely for combat, but remained much larger than the largest cruisers than in service for some time to come.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Well, that comprises the final form of all the Taloran information posts, fully edited and corrected for internal consistency (possibly a few naming differences based on language and time-era approach which are intentional, but that's it) and posted; historical short-stories and one-offs, historical essays, socio-political essays, biological and technological information and some military details, all available for your perusal. I hope this information is quite sufficient to thoroughly flesh out the full details of the Talorans as a species, and make clear their outlook, nature, and the general position of the government and the people in the TGG universe.

[lord Martiya]

I have a question about the weaponry send to the Bajoran Resistance by the Alliance: there was even the M2 machine gun between the projectile weapons?

[Steve]

I have a question about the weaponry send to the Bajoran Resistance by the Alliance: there was even the M2 machine gun between the projectile weapons?

There were two phases to that. Pre-war, the covert nature of the aid led AID and MilSpecOps to mostly look to weapons already readily available on the arms market, like the ubiquitious AK-90. Some M2-equivalents probably made it as well.

After the ADN declared war on Cardassia on 23 November 2153 AST, the aid expanded and more clearly-ADN-provided gear and weapons were made available, like the MP-10 assault (particle) rifle.

Also note that equipment used varied by where. Partisans like Shakaar's resistance would have mostly been provided with portable equipment and light infantry weapons since their purpose was to harrass and raid. The larger insurgencies and the besieged cities like Dolan were given heavier weaponry since they were fighting a more conventional campaign.