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Congratulations on the return of a creative passion to your life after a long period away. I wish it brings you joy and reignites your imagination in ways that benefit your wider life and fledgling family.
I myself have been away from "playing with my maps" (as my family used to say) for a looooong time and just came across your AAR as I rediscovered the forums while exploring Stellaris as a potential gateway drug to going back into it.
It is a joy to read! It is clear from the detail, coherence, and quality of what you write that you put more time in thinking about the world, characters, and people who inhabit it, than playing the game itself. This has inspired me particularly, I am always concerned about approaching games again for fear of wasting time staring at a screen like an addict moving numbers around instead of using the game as a catalyst for imagination and creativity.
Thank you for sharing, look forward to seeing how the Vailons' uncertain future charts itself.
P.S. this is the first AAR that has ever made me consider doing one myself, thats how engaging it was to read.
I myself have been away from "playing with my maps" (as my family used to say) for a looooong time and just came across your AAR as I rediscovered the forums while exploring Stellaris as a potential gateway drug to going back into it.
It is a joy to read! It is clear from the detail, coherence, and quality of what you write that you put more time in thinking about the world, characters, and people who inhabit it, than playing the game itself. This has inspired me particularly, I am always concerned about approaching games again for fear of wasting time staring at a screen like an addict moving numbers around instead of using the game as a catalyst for imagination and creativity.
Thank you for sharing, look forward to seeing how the Vailons' uncertain future charts itself.
P.S. this is the first AAR that has ever made me consider doing one myself, thats how engaging it was to read.
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If you're considering starting an AAR of your own, the SolAARium might be a good place to start. Many other writers frequent it. And it's a good place to toss around ideas, ask questions, and discuss writing. The Table of Contents (at the bottom of the first post) has links to all past discussion topics and could give you somewhere to start if you want some specific insight into a topic.
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I get a little bit of a thrill every time I get a notification for a new comment. It's a relief to know I'm not just here howling at the wind, as they say; and I'm really glad to hear how enjoyable you find my work. In particular, @KadetLuka it's kind of incredible to think that my effort and struggle can in the end offer up something that inspires more stories and more acts of creation.
The next chapter will be delayed by a day, unfortunately; I did not have the time to finish editing this weekend, so look for that tomorrow evening.
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It’s great to have you back, I always look forward to new episodes in the Vailon story!
That was a good look at the humans and their new steps into space, plenty of potential for development between the two societies.
Looking forward to more!
That was a good look at the humans and their new steps into space, plenty of potential for development between the two societies.
Looking forward to more!
Birm den Boknar left a complicated legacy as Director-General. In her inaugural address in 285, she promised that her administration would make the Governance a permanent haven for the vast flows of migrants and refugees fleeing poverty, war, and persecution. Yet the polity she was inheriting was merely a middle-rank power, punching above its weight diplomatically but poor in economic and military might relative to its peers. The recently concluded war with the varelvivi had installed an ostensibly friendly government in the vailons’ erstwhile rival, but the ongoing, and potentially existential, conflict with the genocidal saathids created additional drain on resources. In that context, Boknar’s promise was aspirational at best.
During her first decade in office, Boknar pursued that vision with a fervor, beginning with a targeted plan to rationalize economic production during wartime. Once the saathids declared a truce, the rationalization process enabled the administration to quickly and efficiently transition the economy back to peacetime priorities. The drawdown in military spending resulted in what Tebazeder economists called a “Peace Dividend,” allowing Boknar to implement significant reforms in the social welfare programs of the Governance and refocus scientific research on the long-neglected agricultural sector. A thirty-year economic boom ensued; by the 320s, the Governance could consider itself a true peer of the great powers in the galaxy, in no small part due to Boknar’s initiatives. [1] Though it would not happen during her term in office, her policy program set up her successors with a state that could handle the burden of being the galaxy’s free haven.
Undoubtedly, her most enduring political legacy was the foundation of the Auspicious Entente in 298. The federation was the endpoint of several decades of military cooperation between the Governance and the Pithok Confederacy in the southwest quadrant, and Tebazed’s other regional allies in the Cyggan Empire and the Pobelin Stellar Hegemony quickly signed up as associate members. But even this great accomplishment had mixed results. A secure network of defensive alliances was assured, but Tebazeder focus was irresistibly drawn away from their own quadrant and towards the vast gulf of territory that separated the Governance and the Confederacy. Moreover, during the two major wars fought during Boknar’s term, it was the Governance’s allies that bore the brunt of xeno invasion, leading some to accuse her of cynically abusing these alliances in order to gain strategic advantages for Tebazed in the galactic community. In the case of the conflict against the genocidal saathids, her xenophilic critics went so far as to accuse her of complicity in the Ragerian Xenocide, the mass murder of the vailon-lookalike species that resulted in the destruction of an entire civilization. On the other side of the political spectrum, militaristic politicians, and a significant portion of the Admiralty Board and its staff, regretted the lack of initiative that seemed to be a doom loop for the Governance: no war, no matter how righteous, could truly be prosecuted with vigor because half the fleet might be needed to protect another ally on the other side of the galaxy.
By the end of her term, however, her public image, was to a great extent defined by her most controversial decision: the conquest and vassalization of the rump varelviv state. After the successful conclusion of the Third Varelviv War, Boknar’s predecessor had forced the varelvivi to accept a new constitution and government, as well as a formal treaty of non-aggression; however, endemic violence and xenophobia in the population kept tensions high between the two states. When one violent incident resulted in the burning down of a Tebazeder embassy, Boknar appointed Feldirm den Subir, a Member of the Assembly closely associated with the hawkish Red Legion, to lead the negotiations. Why Boknar chose such a strong critic of her interstellar politics remains a mystery, but she backed Subir to the hilt when the latter issued a harsh ultimatum to the varelviv government. Its inevitable refusal meant a Governance military intervention to impose terms and instill formal Tebazeder oversight of varelviv affairs. For a polity that prided itself on liberal democratic values and the defense of self-determination for all civilized species in the galaxy, it was a shocking departure from its purported ideals.
In the aftermath, Boknar’s approval rating dropped precipitously; it stayed low once the full consequences of her entanglement in the politics of the southwest quadrant became apparent. The Jess’Inax Hive, long a strong regional power in the quadrant, launched a sudden invasion of pithok territory in 300, automatically triggering the mutual defense clauses of the Auspicious Entente. Over the last half-decade of Boknar’s term, material support for the pithoks became an overriding concern of her administration. Though the economic boom continued, enabling frequent shipments of resources to the beleaguered allies, the shadow of war loomed over the Governance as the next selection approached.
One figure, however, remained untainted by the moral compromises of Boknar’s regime. Feldirm den Subir, the architect of varelviv vassalization and the first Governance envoy to the newly subjugated polity, only grew in stature during this period. As a longtime member of the Red Legion faction, she practiced what she preached: a significantly more muscular interstellar policy for the TUG, making use of its growing economy and rapidly developing military capabilities to execute aggressive plans that advanced Tebazeder interests. The accusations of hypocrisy and ineptitude that stuck to Boknar, whatever the actual merits of the criticisms, could in no way be applied to Subir. On the contrary, as a long-time critic of the incumbent administration herself, she could claim independence from the poor decision-making happening on Tebazed, all the more so because she was off serving as envoy to the varelviv state.
In 304, Boknar, sensing the tide moving against her, announced her intention not to seek a second term as Director-General, re-normalizing the tradition that had been violated on several occasions in the third century. The Red Legion, still led by the aging Mtche’ar, threw its full support behind its champion Subir, now perhaps the most popular figure in the Governance. Unwilling to allow the militarists a coronation, the Xeno Liberty Initiative formed a political alliance with its long-ago rival, the Peaceful Progress Initiative. The largest and the fourth-largest factions, respectively, the two found common cause in opposition to the aggressive infringement on xeno freedom to self-determination. The recent end of the hegemonic coalition with the Liberty Now Council had left the XLI floundering; unused to open competition, its leadership cast around for a new partner in the Assembly. Allying with the PPI allowed them to approach a majority of seats again, [2] but came with a cost: backing the leader of the PPI, Goridrig den Rathnag, for the current selection cycle. The combined platform put a diplomatic spin on the XLI’s formerly aggressive politics of defending xeno rights wherever they were violated, whether within the Governance or without. The LNC, for its part, opted to sit out this selection. The other half of the bloc that dominated Tebazed’s politics for nearly the entire 3rd century, it had supported Boknar during the debate over her reform program, officially breaking with the XLI in 298. With most of its own platform achieved during Boknar’s term, its leadership remained aloof during the campaign to select her successor, betting that it could work with any of the major candidates.
The Selection of 306 was primarily contested by Feldirm den Subir, backed by the Red Legion faction, and Goridrig den Rathnag, from the Peaceful Progress Iniative and supported by the Xeno Liberty Iniative. Note that a major ballot transcription error, seen on this sample ballot, may have contributed to Subir's lead in the formal public vote. [3]
With the mood in the Governance remaining hawkish into 306, Subir maintained a healthy lead in public polling. The Red Legion’s platform pledged to prosecute war with the Jess’Inax Hive to the fullest extent the Unified Navy could muster; after decades of wars in which partial efforts had led to unsatisfactory outcomes, the aggressive rhetoric appealed to a populace tired of the constant balancing between the founders’ values and a dangerous galaxy. For decades now, the political leadership of the TUG had pursued policies that created the context for, or directly led to, involvement in various conflicts, even while decrying the martial nature of their rivals in the region. Moreover, they had not demonstrated the courage or wherewithal to pursue the policies necessary to back up their involvement with credible military force. The XLI, backing Subir’s primary challenger, had acquiesced to these incoherent policy goals as half of the political governing coalition. As a result, the Red Legion successfully painted them as sharing the responsibility for the bad outcomes of the past. New Leadership for a New Century, their campaign slogan went, and it struck a chord with the voting public.
Convincing the College of Subir’s suitability for the position of Director-General required more than a catchy slogan, however. The institution saw itself as the guardian of the traditional values of the vailon-designed system: peaceful diplomacy, meritocratic advancement, and a curiosity about the universe that lent itself to friendship and coexistence with xenos. The Red Legion, founded by a mith-fell and focused on using military might to achieve political ends, seemingly represented the opposite of that ethos. Feldirm den Subir argued, however, that it was her ideas and her faction’s policies that would put the best foot forward for the Governance in the fourth century. Prior Directors-General had wanted it both ways: an administration that presented a cooperative face while also attempting to achieve unilateral goals. Rather than a corruption of Tebazeder ethics, a more aggressive direction for interstellar policy would in fact make the region of space around the TUG safe for the utopian dreams of the founders. She presented detailed proposals for prosecuting a war in support of Tebazed’s pithok allies, specifically pointing to the ways in which the economic growth of the last decade had unlocked additional capabilities for the Governance in terms of projecting its own power. She also pledged to keep in place the domestic policies of Boknar’s administration, even promising to keep Boknar on as an advisor to the administration. In Subir’s argument was the implicit idea that her gaze was fixed outward; she would allow the status quo of domestic affairs to continue. This mix of policy – a more direct and clear-eyed pursuit of Tebazeder goals in galactic affairs along with a let-well-enough-alone approach to the domestic front – was enough to convince a majority of the College to vote for someone whose political leanings may have been dramatically different from the norm. Thus, on June 26, 306, Feldirm den Subir was selected to serve as the twenty-eighth Director-General of the Tebazed Unified Governance.
Feldirm den Subir's selection marked a militaristic turn for the peaceful Governance.
Footnotes
During her first decade in office, Boknar pursued that vision with a fervor, beginning with a targeted plan to rationalize economic production during wartime. Once the saathids declared a truce, the rationalization process enabled the administration to quickly and efficiently transition the economy back to peacetime priorities. The drawdown in military spending resulted in what Tebazeder economists called a “Peace Dividend,” allowing Boknar to implement significant reforms in the social welfare programs of the Governance and refocus scientific research on the long-neglected agricultural sector. A thirty-year economic boom ensued; by the 320s, the Governance could consider itself a true peer of the great powers in the galaxy, in no small part due to Boknar’s initiatives. [1] Though it would not happen during her term in office, her policy program set up her successors with a state that could handle the burden of being the galaxy’s free haven.
Undoubtedly, her most enduring political legacy was the foundation of the Auspicious Entente in 298. The federation was the endpoint of several decades of military cooperation between the Governance and the Pithok Confederacy in the southwest quadrant, and Tebazed’s other regional allies in the Cyggan Empire and the Pobelin Stellar Hegemony quickly signed up as associate members. But even this great accomplishment had mixed results. A secure network of defensive alliances was assured, but Tebazeder focus was irresistibly drawn away from their own quadrant and towards the vast gulf of territory that separated the Governance and the Confederacy. Moreover, during the two major wars fought during Boknar’s term, it was the Governance’s allies that bore the brunt of xeno invasion, leading some to accuse her of cynically abusing these alliances in order to gain strategic advantages for Tebazed in the galactic community. In the case of the conflict against the genocidal saathids, her xenophilic critics went so far as to accuse her of complicity in the Ragerian Xenocide, the mass murder of the vailon-lookalike species that resulted in the destruction of an entire civilization. On the other side of the political spectrum, militaristic politicians, and a significant portion of the Admiralty Board and its staff, regretted the lack of initiative that seemed to be a doom loop for the Governance: no war, no matter how righteous, could truly be prosecuted with vigor because half the fleet might be needed to protect another ally on the other side of the galaxy.
By the end of her term, however, her public image, was to a great extent defined by her most controversial decision: the conquest and vassalization of the rump varelviv state. After the successful conclusion of the Third Varelviv War, Boknar’s predecessor had forced the varelvivi to accept a new constitution and government, as well as a formal treaty of non-aggression; however, endemic violence and xenophobia in the population kept tensions high between the two states. When one violent incident resulted in the burning down of a Tebazeder embassy, Boknar appointed Feldirm den Subir, a Member of the Assembly closely associated with the hawkish Red Legion, to lead the negotiations. Why Boknar chose such a strong critic of her interstellar politics remains a mystery, but she backed Subir to the hilt when the latter issued a harsh ultimatum to the varelviv government. Its inevitable refusal meant a Governance military intervention to impose terms and instill formal Tebazeder oversight of varelviv affairs. For a polity that prided itself on liberal democratic values and the defense of self-determination for all civilized species in the galaxy, it was a shocking departure from its purported ideals.
In the aftermath, Boknar’s approval rating dropped precipitously; it stayed low once the full consequences of her entanglement in the politics of the southwest quadrant became apparent. The Jess’Inax Hive, long a strong regional power in the quadrant, launched a sudden invasion of pithok territory in 300, automatically triggering the mutual defense clauses of the Auspicious Entente. Over the last half-decade of Boknar’s term, material support for the pithoks became an overriding concern of her administration. Though the economic boom continued, enabling frequent shipments of resources to the beleaguered allies, the shadow of war loomed over the Governance as the next selection approached.
One figure, however, remained untainted by the moral compromises of Boknar’s regime. Feldirm den Subir, the architect of varelviv vassalization and the first Governance envoy to the newly subjugated polity, only grew in stature during this period. As a longtime member of the Red Legion faction, she practiced what she preached: a significantly more muscular interstellar policy for the TUG, making use of its growing economy and rapidly developing military capabilities to execute aggressive plans that advanced Tebazeder interests. The accusations of hypocrisy and ineptitude that stuck to Boknar, whatever the actual merits of the criticisms, could in no way be applied to Subir. On the contrary, as a long-time critic of the incumbent administration herself, she could claim independence from the poor decision-making happening on Tebazed, all the more so because she was off serving as envoy to the varelviv state.
In 304, Boknar, sensing the tide moving against her, announced her intention not to seek a second term as Director-General, re-normalizing the tradition that had been violated on several occasions in the third century. The Red Legion, still led by the aging Mtche’ar, threw its full support behind its champion Subir, now perhaps the most popular figure in the Governance. Unwilling to allow the militarists a coronation, the Xeno Liberty Initiative formed a political alliance with its long-ago rival, the Peaceful Progress Initiative. The largest and the fourth-largest factions, respectively, the two found common cause in opposition to the aggressive infringement on xeno freedom to self-determination. The recent end of the hegemonic coalition with the Liberty Now Council had left the XLI floundering; unused to open competition, its leadership cast around for a new partner in the Assembly. Allying with the PPI allowed them to approach a majority of seats again, [2] but came with a cost: backing the leader of the PPI, Goridrig den Rathnag, for the current selection cycle. The combined platform put a diplomatic spin on the XLI’s formerly aggressive politics of defending xeno rights wherever they were violated, whether within the Governance or without. The LNC, for its part, opted to sit out this selection. The other half of the bloc that dominated Tebazed’s politics for nearly the entire 3rd century, it had supported Boknar during the debate over her reform program, officially breaking with the XLI in 298. With most of its own platform achieved during Boknar’s term, its leadership remained aloof during the campaign to select her successor, betting that it could work with any of the major candidates.
The Selection of 306 was primarily contested by Feldirm den Subir, backed by the Red Legion faction, and Goridrig den Rathnag, from the Peaceful Progress Iniative and supported by the Xeno Liberty Iniative. Note that a major ballot transcription error, seen on this sample ballot, may have contributed to Subir's lead in the formal public vote. [3]
With the mood in the Governance remaining hawkish into 306, Subir maintained a healthy lead in public polling. The Red Legion’s platform pledged to prosecute war with the Jess’Inax Hive to the fullest extent the Unified Navy could muster; after decades of wars in which partial efforts had led to unsatisfactory outcomes, the aggressive rhetoric appealed to a populace tired of the constant balancing between the founders’ values and a dangerous galaxy. For decades now, the political leadership of the TUG had pursued policies that created the context for, or directly led to, involvement in various conflicts, even while decrying the martial nature of their rivals in the region. Moreover, they had not demonstrated the courage or wherewithal to pursue the policies necessary to back up their involvement with credible military force. The XLI, backing Subir’s primary challenger, had acquiesced to these incoherent policy goals as half of the political governing coalition. As a result, the Red Legion successfully painted them as sharing the responsibility for the bad outcomes of the past. New Leadership for a New Century, their campaign slogan went, and it struck a chord with the voting public.
Convincing the College of Subir’s suitability for the position of Director-General required more than a catchy slogan, however. The institution saw itself as the guardian of the traditional values of the vailon-designed system: peaceful diplomacy, meritocratic advancement, and a curiosity about the universe that lent itself to friendship and coexistence with xenos. The Red Legion, founded by a mith-fell and focused on using military might to achieve political ends, seemingly represented the opposite of that ethos. Feldirm den Subir argued, however, that it was her ideas and her faction’s policies that would put the best foot forward for the Governance in the fourth century. Prior Directors-General had wanted it both ways: an administration that presented a cooperative face while also attempting to achieve unilateral goals. Rather than a corruption of Tebazeder ethics, a more aggressive direction for interstellar policy would in fact make the region of space around the TUG safe for the utopian dreams of the founders. She presented detailed proposals for prosecuting a war in support of Tebazed’s pithok allies, specifically pointing to the ways in which the economic growth of the last decade had unlocked additional capabilities for the Governance in terms of projecting its own power. She also pledged to keep in place the domestic policies of Boknar’s administration, even promising to keep Boknar on as an advisor to the administration. In Subir’s argument was the implicit idea that her gaze was fixed outward; she would allow the status quo of domestic affairs to continue. This mix of policy – a more direct and clear-eyed pursuit of Tebazeder goals in galactic affairs along with a let-well-enough-alone approach to the domestic front – was enough to convince a majority of the College to vote for someone whose political leanings may have been dramatically different from the norm. Thus, on June 26, 306, Feldirm den Subir was selected to serve as the twenty-eighth Director-General of the Tebazed Unified Governance.
Feldirm den Subir's selection marked a militaristic turn for the peaceful Governance.
Footnotes
[1] The long economic boom that began in 290 will be covered at greater length in chapter thirty-two.
[2] Together, the factions controlled between 44% and 48% of the seats in the Assembly for each legislative cycle between 298 and 306, the year of the selection.
[3] Author's note: I changed the name of the second candidate to avoid confusion with the eventual winner.
[2] Together, the factions controlled between 44% and 48% of the seats in the Assembly for each legislative cycle between 298 and 306, the year of the selection.
[3] Author's note: I changed the name of the second candidate to avoid confusion with the eventual winner.
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Will this new militaristic term involved more offensive wars?
I wonder how long the Auspicious Entente will last. It looks like it might have been a tad unpopular... at least in the Governance.
I wonder how long the Auspicious Entente will last. It looks like it might have been a tad unpopular... at least in the Governance.
@eoncommander You are the WritAAR of the Week
Congratulations on your new work, I loved the update on what humanity has been up to. Very excited to have you back!
Congratulations on your new work, I loved the update on what humanity has been up to. Very excited to have you back!
Exciting to see changes at the top of Tebazeder politics. How will this new more militaristic tendency manifest?
Very interested to see what this political shift does to the TUG, and whether it will influence future policy.
It was a great honor to be nominated again. Thank you!@eoncommander You are the WritAAR of the Week
Congratulations on your new work, I loved the update on what humanity has been up to. Very excited to have you back!
This is a critical question that this AAR will return to in the future, but not for a while. The next three chapters examine some of the social and economic trends of the first couple decades of the fourth century (which, although they may not be as thrilling as a dramatic shift in political ethos, will hopefully lay the groundwork for what Subir gets up to during her time in office).
Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for the next update, as I fell sick this weekend and did not have the energy to finalize/edit chapter thirty-one. My plan is to post that next weekend, and then the following week will see chapter thirty-two and we'll be back on schedule.
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When the two-decade-long war with the genocidal saathids ended in 295, most Tebazeders breathed a sigh of relief. Though the fighting was largely confined to the far-away star systems of saathid space, fear of a potential invasion by the terrifying war machine was ever-present. [1] While the cessation of hostilities brought to an end the existential threat facing the Governance, it did leave the incumbent administration with one outstanding issue of significance: the status of the occupied saathid colony in the Uiafladus system.
The status of Uiafladus II proved to be a continuing irritant for Tebazed for several decades.
The second planet orbiting the star Uiafladus had been captured by Tebazeder forces in 288, during the Unified Navy’s initial invasion of saathid territory. Over the next several years, the Unified Ground Force held the planet with a 200,000-strong garrison while the fleet raided deep into the saathid home cluster. When the naval forces were subsequently chased out of enemy space entirely, the saathids attempted to recapture the planet from the now-blockaded defenders; but the assault failed miserably, precipitating the unilateral declaration of a truce by the xenociders. This left Uiafladus II in the hands of the Governance, albeit separated from the rest of its territory by a dozen hyperlane jumps. With several of the intervening hyperlanes remaining under the control of the saathids, the newly acquired colony was in a semi-permanent state of isolation.
With martial law continuing on the planet for several years after the end of the war, Uiafladus II slowly stabilized in the second half of the 290s. A steady flow of shipments kept the inhabitants fed and supplied with necessities; yet its new owners worried that the saathids would make an effort to cut off all travel to and from the Governance’s newest colony, starving the population. The administration put its faith in the fact that the vast majority of the population was saathid, though this presented other complications. While the organized resistance movements surrendered once the war ended, most saathids remained at least unenthusiastic about, if not outright hostile to, the new regime. That they appeared to have been abandoned by their government did not win over hearts and minds to sympathy with the TUG, especially after the original inhabitants of Uiafladus II began to return to their former homes.
The planet was the birthplace of the norillgans, a molluscoid species that had been subjected to a brutal xenocide at the hands of the saathids in the early part of the third century. Survivors of the massacres had scattered across the galaxy, with a sizable percentage eventually settling within the Governance. With their homeworld now under control of one of the civilized [2] powers in the galaxy, the diaspora’s leadership-in-exile began to clamor for resettlement and eventual independence, potentially under the auspices of a Tebazeder-led regional order. [3] Although the Boknar administration dragged its heels making a decision about the future disposition of the planet, many norillgans migrated back to their ancestral home; by the turn of the century they accounted for over one in five individuals on the planet.
Tensions remained high on Uiafladus II in the waning years of Boknar’s term. The growing norillgan population frequently found itself at odds with the saathid community, who were in the process of abandoning hope that their brethren would be returning for them. The planetary economy continued to rely on imports from the Governance core worlds, [4] but official policy from Tebazed stated that the resources should be distributed to those most in need of them. On Uiafladus II that meant the norillgan migrants. Though political power had been stripped from saathid authorities, the period of military rule had left in place the economic structures from before the invasion, such that saathids were disproportionately represented among economic and social elites. In the lame-duck period of her Director-Generalship, Boknar elected to keep the status quo intact, not promulgating any new policies that might kick-start a civil war on the planet. [5]
Saathids remained in positions of power on Uiafladus II for long after it came under Governance control.
It would instead fall to her successor to find a workable settlement. After Feldirm den Subir was selected to be the next Director-General in 306, she made this issue her first domestic priority, hoping for an equitable solution that would allow the saathids and the norillgans to live together and at least tolerate each other. With her focus on military ventures in the southwest quadrant, including the ongoing war with the Jess’Inax Hive, she did not want a renewed outbreak of violence to divert resources away from the fleet. In fact, Subir believed that the best solution would be one that actually contributed additional resources to the military effort. Uiafladus II had developed a significant industrial capacity under saathid rule; though much of the physical capital had been idle and rusting during the war and occupation, the underlying infrastructure remained intact. With a targeted investment campaign, Subir’s team projected that the planet could become a significant secondary contributor of advanced industrial material, creating redundancy to the major industrial forges of Varba. [6] Using the potential economic development as a carrot, Subir hoped to force the parties to come to an agreement.
Negotiations between saathid notables, the leaders of the norillgan diaspora, and the administration stretched on through 307 and into 308. The saathid inhabitants of Uiafladus II, still numbering in the billions, were satisfied with the status quo and offered very few concessions, beyond explicit guarantees to obey Governance law. However, delay seemed to be beneficial to the norillgans, whose scattered members of the community continued to migrate back to their homeworld and were now approaching a majority of the population. Some in Subir’s administration believed that once the threshold was crossed, the Norillgan Nonvoting Representative to the Assembly, Dov’Ace, would take the opportunity to unilaterally declare an independent state on their homeworld. The status of the saathid inhabitants would be thrown into doubt; a renewed outbreak of violence, from either or both sides, would likely ensue. In the worst case, these events could even lead to the reopening of hostilities with the saathid empire, potentially forced to step in to protect their own citizens from the depredations of a Governance client state.
Dov'Ace, the Norillgan Nonvoting Representative to the Assembly, had been a key leader in the norillgan diaspora since before the war with the saathids. He had been the first to publicly broach the possibility of norillgan independence in the immediate post-war period.
It was fear of an uncontrollable norillgan state, willfully violating Governance protections for individual liberty, that led Subir to adopt a compromise position herself. It would be distasteful to the point of intolerance to allow the saathids, murderers of so many on the planet and across the galaxy, to entrench themselves as the elite of the planet, with greater status and power than their norillgan victims. But it seemed equally intolerable to allow norillgans bent on revenge the opportunity to execute a form of collective punishment on the saathids now living on Uiafladus II, not to mention incredibly dangerous for the rest of the TUG if the saathid state should choose to intervene. For Subir, the solution was obvious: notwithstanding the distance from the rest of Governance space and its dependence on imports from the Tebazeder core worlds, the planet should be elevated to a full sector within the TUG polity, equal in status with the other colonies. To prevent the entrenched saathid community from dominating the planet indefinitely, she additionally proposed a program of land and capital redistribution, based on a lottery system weighted towards the norillgans still streaming back to their homeworld. The remaining saathid inhabitants, meanwhile, would be given a choice: return to their own polity or accept full citizenship in the Governance, with all the rights and responsibilities that would entail.
It was a difficult, brutal compromise. It required norillgans to live alongside in mutual citizenship and respect the very saathids that had once stolen their planet and massacred its inhabitants. For the saathids, meanwhile, it asked them to voluntarily surrender longstanding wealth and privileges, however unjustly acquired. It may have been the path that would result in the least bloodshed in the long term. But the last thing that Subir wanted was to instill it by force. Buy-in from the various parties was a requirement for implementation.
Support for the initiative was muted from the interested groups. Surveys of norillgans across Governance space showed a population mildly positive on the proposal; however, stark differences appeared between those norillgans who had stayed in their new communities on other Tebazeder worlds, and those who chosee to return to Uiafladus II. The former, still comprising a majority of norillgans, were in favor by a sixty-forty margin. But nearly four out of five norillgans who had emigrated back to their homeworld were against the proposal, showing support instead for a range of more radical solutions involving direct transfer of wealth or even expulsion of wide swaths of the saathid population from the planet. Meanwhile, the saathid population of Uiafladus II appeared unenthusiastic about any solution. An informal referendum carried out in 308 on the planet saw a mere 43% of eligible saathids vote. [7] Though the apathy was palpable, the administration also noted with interest the tiny trickle of emigration back to saathid-controlled space. Surveys consistently showed that the saathids now living in the Governance valued the political rights and individual autonomy that came with Tebazeder citizenship, while rating it unlikely that they would ever return to their former territory.
Political leadership turned out to be the decisive factor. On both the norillgan and the saathid sides, elected and informal representatives recognized the need to end the uncertainty and, above all, avoid a catastrophic civil war or another cycle of military invasions. The years of negotiations, proposals and counter-proposals, had led nowhere; it was time to take what was on the table lest the Subir administration decide that keeping the colony in the Governance was more trouble than it was worth. Dov’Ace, in particular, was a key voice in overcoming opposition. Though it did not quite fulfill his dream of a completely independent political entity, he recognized the danger of pushing for more. As a former radical, his push for agreeing to the compromise proposal carried a lot of weight, both among his norillgan constituents (he had proven his bona fides with years of zealous advocacy for the cause) as well as with the saathids sitting across the table from him. The agreement was signed at the beginning of March, 309, alongside the announcement of new government investments in military production facilities on the planet.
The first lotteries were held the following month, amid much fanfare – and a significant security presence, to protect against any discontent in the saathid community that might bubble up. In the end, though there was much grumbling, the process was orderly, and no outward signs of resistance, whether symbolic or overt, appeared. Instead, the Director-General, planetside for the momentous occasion, was able to announce the ascension of Uiafladus II – now finally given a proper Tebazeder name, Birga – to a proper sector in the Governance, with all of its inhabitants, norillgan and saathid alike, receiving full citizenship rights.
Footnotes
The status of Uiafladus II proved to be a continuing irritant for Tebazed for several decades.
The second planet orbiting the star Uiafladus had been captured by Tebazeder forces in 288, during the Unified Navy’s initial invasion of saathid territory. Over the next several years, the Unified Ground Force held the planet with a 200,000-strong garrison while the fleet raided deep into the saathid home cluster. When the naval forces were subsequently chased out of enemy space entirely, the saathids attempted to recapture the planet from the now-blockaded defenders; but the assault failed miserably, precipitating the unilateral declaration of a truce by the xenociders. This left Uiafladus II in the hands of the Governance, albeit separated from the rest of its territory by a dozen hyperlane jumps. With several of the intervening hyperlanes remaining under the control of the saathids, the newly acquired colony was in a semi-permanent state of isolation.
With martial law continuing on the planet for several years after the end of the war, Uiafladus II slowly stabilized in the second half of the 290s. A steady flow of shipments kept the inhabitants fed and supplied with necessities; yet its new owners worried that the saathids would make an effort to cut off all travel to and from the Governance’s newest colony, starving the population. The administration put its faith in the fact that the vast majority of the population was saathid, though this presented other complications. While the organized resistance movements surrendered once the war ended, most saathids remained at least unenthusiastic about, if not outright hostile to, the new regime. That they appeared to have been abandoned by their government did not win over hearts and minds to sympathy with the TUG, especially after the original inhabitants of Uiafladus II began to return to their former homes.
The planet was the birthplace of the norillgans, a molluscoid species that had been subjected to a brutal xenocide at the hands of the saathids in the early part of the third century. Survivors of the massacres had scattered across the galaxy, with a sizable percentage eventually settling within the Governance. With their homeworld now under control of one of the civilized [2] powers in the galaxy, the diaspora’s leadership-in-exile began to clamor for resettlement and eventual independence, potentially under the auspices of a Tebazeder-led regional order. [3] Although the Boknar administration dragged its heels making a decision about the future disposition of the planet, many norillgans migrated back to their ancestral home; by the turn of the century they accounted for over one in five individuals on the planet.
Tensions remained high on Uiafladus II in the waning years of Boknar’s term. The growing norillgan population frequently found itself at odds with the saathid community, who were in the process of abandoning hope that their brethren would be returning for them. The planetary economy continued to rely on imports from the Governance core worlds, [4] but official policy from Tebazed stated that the resources should be distributed to those most in need of them. On Uiafladus II that meant the norillgan migrants. Though political power had been stripped from saathid authorities, the period of military rule had left in place the economic structures from before the invasion, such that saathids were disproportionately represented among economic and social elites. In the lame-duck period of her Director-Generalship, Boknar elected to keep the status quo intact, not promulgating any new policies that might kick-start a civil war on the planet. [5]
Saathids remained in positions of power on Uiafladus II for long after it came under Governance control.
It would instead fall to her successor to find a workable settlement. After Feldirm den Subir was selected to be the next Director-General in 306, she made this issue her first domestic priority, hoping for an equitable solution that would allow the saathids and the norillgans to live together and at least tolerate each other. With her focus on military ventures in the southwest quadrant, including the ongoing war with the Jess’Inax Hive, she did not want a renewed outbreak of violence to divert resources away from the fleet. In fact, Subir believed that the best solution would be one that actually contributed additional resources to the military effort. Uiafladus II had developed a significant industrial capacity under saathid rule; though much of the physical capital had been idle and rusting during the war and occupation, the underlying infrastructure remained intact. With a targeted investment campaign, Subir’s team projected that the planet could become a significant secondary contributor of advanced industrial material, creating redundancy to the major industrial forges of Varba. [6] Using the potential economic development as a carrot, Subir hoped to force the parties to come to an agreement.
Negotiations between saathid notables, the leaders of the norillgan diaspora, and the administration stretched on through 307 and into 308. The saathid inhabitants of Uiafladus II, still numbering in the billions, were satisfied with the status quo and offered very few concessions, beyond explicit guarantees to obey Governance law. However, delay seemed to be beneficial to the norillgans, whose scattered members of the community continued to migrate back to their homeworld and were now approaching a majority of the population. Some in Subir’s administration believed that once the threshold was crossed, the Norillgan Nonvoting Representative to the Assembly, Dov’Ace, would take the opportunity to unilaterally declare an independent state on their homeworld. The status of the saathid inhabitants would be thrown into doubt; a renewed outbreak of violence, from either or both sides, would likely ensue. In the worst case, these events could even lead to the reopening of hostilities with the saathid empire, potentially forced to step in to protect their own citizens from the depredations of a Governance client state.
Dov'Ace, the Norillgan Nonvoting Representative to the Assembly, had been a key leader in the norillgan diaspora since before the war with the saathids. He had been the first to publicly broach the possibility of norillgan independence in the immediate post-war period.
It was fear of an uncontrollable norillgan state, willfully violating Governance protections for individual liberty, that led Subir to adopt a compromise position herself. It would be distasteful to the point of intolerance to allow the saathids, murderers of so many on the planet and across the galaxy, to entrench themselves as the elite of the planet, with greater status and power than their norillgan victims. But it seemed equally intolerable to allow norillgans bent on revenge the opportunity to execute a form of collective punishment on the saathids now living on Uiafladus II, not to mention incredibly dangerous for the rest of the TUG if the saathid state should choose to intervene. For Subir, the solution was obvious: notwithstanding the distance from the rest of Governance space and its dependence on imports from the Tebazeder core worlds, the planet should be elevated to a full sector within the TUG polity, equal in status with the other colonies. To prevent the entrenched saathid community from dominating the planet indefinitely, she additionally proposed a program of land and capital redistribution, based on a lottery system weighted towards the norillgans still streaming back to their homeworld. The remaining saathid inhabitants, meanwhile, would be given a choice: return to their own polity or accept full citizenship in the Governance, with all the rights and responsibilities that would entail.
It was a difficult, brutal compromise. It required norillgans to live alongside in mutual citizenship and respect the very saathids that had once stolen their planet and massacred its inhabitants. For the saathids, meanwhile, it asked them to voluntarily surrender longstanding wealth and privileges, however unjustly acquired. It may have been the path that would result in the least bloodshed in the long term. But the last thing that Subir wanted was to instill it by force. Buy-in from the various parties was a requirement for implementation.
Support for the initiative was muted from the interested groups. Surveys of norillgans across Governance space showed a population mildly positive on the proposal; however, stark differences appeared between those norillgans who had stayed in their new communities on other Tebazeder worlds, and those who chosee to return to Uiafladus II. The former, still comprising a majority of norillgans, were in favor by a sixty-forty margin. But nearly four out of five norillgans who had emigrated back to their homeworld were against the proposal, showing support instead for a range of more radical solutions involving direct transfer of wealth or even expulsion of wide swaths of the saathid population from the planet. Meanwhile, the saathid population of Uiafladus II appeared unenthusiastic about any solution. An informal referendum carried out in 308 on the planet saw a mere 43% of eligible saathids vote. [7] Though the apathy was palpable, the administration also noted with interest the tiny trickle of emigration back to saathid-controlled space. Surveys consistently showed that the saathids now living in the Governance valued the political rights and individual autonomy that came with Tebazeder citizenship, while rating it unlikely that they would ever return to their former territory.
Political leadership turned out to be the decisive factor. On both the norillgan and the saathid sides, elected and informal representatives recognized the need to end the uncertainty and, above all, avoid a catastrophic civil war or another cycle of military invasions. The years of negotiations, proposals and counter-proposals, had led nowhere; it was time to take what was on the table lest the Subir administration decide that keeping the colony in the Governance was more trouble than it was worth. Dov’Ace, in particular, was a key voice in overcoming opposition. Though it did not quite fulfill his dream of a completely independent political entity, he recognized the danger of pushing for more. As a former radical, his push for agreeing to the compromise proposal carried a lot of weight, both among his norillgan constituents (he had proven his bona fides with years of zealous advocacy for the cause) as well as with the saathids sitting across the table from him. The agreement was signed at the beginning of March, 309, alongside the announcement of new government investments in military production facilities on the planet.
The first lotteries were held the following month, amid much fanfare – and a significant security presence, to protect against any discontent in the saathid community that might bubble up. In the end, though there was much grumbling, the process was orderly, and no outward signs of resistance, whether symbolic or overt, appeared. Instead, the Director-General, planetside for the momentous occasion, was able to announce the ascension of Uiafladus II – now finally given a proper Tebazeder name, Birga – to a proper sector in the Governance, with all of its inhabitants, norillgan and saathid alike, receiving full citizenship rights.
Footnotes
[1] As recently as the 280s, the saathids had wiped out an entire civilization, the vailon-lookalike ragerians. Stopping this atrocity had been the primary Tebazeder aim in its war against the saathids; once the worst came to pass, the policy became one of containment, preventing the saathids from ever perpetrating a similar crime again.
[2] While originating in obscure vailon legal scholarship, the civilized/uncivilized dichotomy had gained widespread acceptance as a manner of distinguishing between societies who accepted the existence, however grudgingly, of other xenos, and those for which the extermination of xenos was a guiding principle.
[3] A version of this proposal would come to include immediate and full membership in the newly formed federation between the pithoks and Tebazed.
[4] Increasingly these imports were being replaced by trade with the mith-fell, particularly out of the regional hub of Tripitit, only a few jumps away from Uiafladus II.
[5] A continued presence by the Unified Ground Force helped keep the peace during this period; the UGF kept a permanent garrison of two dragoons planetside even after the period of martial law ended.
[6] The importance of planned resilience in wartime supply chains had been underlined by the great raid on Varba conducted by yeon raiders in 288.
[7] They split fifty-fifty on Subir’s proposal.
[2] While originating in obscure vailon legal scholarship, the civilized/uncivilized dichotomy had gained widespread acceptance as a manner of distinguishing between societies who accepted the existence, however grudgingly, of other xenos, and those for which the extermination of xenos was a guiding principle.
[3] A version of this proposal would come to include immediate and full membership in the newly formed federation between the pithoks and Tebazed.
[4] Increasingly these imports were being replaced by trade with the mith-fell, particularly out of the regional hub of Tripitit, only a few jumps away from Uiafladus II.
[5] A continued presence by the Unified Ground Force helped keep the peace during this period; the UGF kept a permanent garrison of two dragoons planetside even after the period of martial law ended.
[6] The importance of planned resilience in wartime supply chains had been underlined by the great raid on Varba conducted by yeon raiders in 288.
[7] They split fifty-fifty on Subir’s proposal.
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Uiafladus II looks to have been a large issue. This compromise seems fair - hopefully it lasts.
Will some of the Norillgans that didn't approve of the proposal be a problem later?
Will some of the Norillgans that didn't approve of the proposal be a problem later?
Unlike most compromise attempts, this seems to have worked and not left either party feeling sour. Very good for the TUG's future prospects in the region.