View source for User:WatchesTheStars/Sandbox/Lore:Tajaran

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 |img =  Tajaran.png
 |loretype = SPECIES
 |mainname = Tajaran
 |denonyms = Tajaran, Tajarans
 |othernames = Taj
 |relatedpages =
 |relatedlore = [[Lore:Six_and_One|The Six And One]]
 |languages = {{Siiktajr}}
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= Tajarans =
Tajarans hail from the Sagittarius Arm, originally from a vast spacefaring empire covering its every star system. For countless years, Tajarans expanded and maintained their Infinite Empire with cryostasis-enhanced sub-light spaceflight -- the distances between vassal states being the Infinite Empire's strength, and the sudden introduction of FTL travel cutting those distances to shreds quite literally upending Tajaran culture overnight. In the year 2000 a new council of six pirate faction leaders and the remnants of the Imperial Navy established themselves as the central Tajaran power in an act that still leaves scars in the hearts and minds of Tajaran people. 

In modern times, most Tajarans live with House Names in service to House Contracts of the Six and One, often working as sanctioned privateers, domestic servants, merchants, or all sorts of vocations under them; even alongside other species. The Six exist in contrast to the One, the Seventh House corresponding to what is left of the original Imperial Navy, a seat of the council that often remains unfilled by any living member. Tajarans are fiercely loyal to themselves, their House, and their people, balancing prestige and restraint (Face & Heart) as measures of social standing, morality, and even personhood.

=== Biology ===
Tajarans are a xeno-anthropomorphic race, mammalian in their nature. Retractile claws, huge external ears, and well-developed whiskers, they tend to stand anywhere between four to seven feet tall on digitigrade legs. Owing to the sheer amount of time their race has been spread across the cosmos, Tajarans have a wide range of builds, heights, and variations in appearance. Some slender and dexterous, others bulky with sloping backs and blunt, short faces.

They are traditionally known for their biological duality -- showing truly alien levels of bilateral symmetry. Historically, the idealized Tajaran was famous for their twin tails, serving as a method to balance themselves. Dual two-chambered hearts pump in their chests, miscellaneous other organs either being doubled or having 'extra' chambers or lobes. This chimeric effect holds an unknown origin, species displaying it being of prime interest to the scientific community. Tajaran eyes host a unique iris crystallization that glow in the dark, seemingly being 'charged' by light. This allows for extra night vision, crucial due to Tajaran eyes only being capable of slight dilation.  

As an example of certain non-universal traits, many Tajarans display four eyes as well, thought to be a further adaptation to allow for seeing through the shadows of their original homeworld, the Sleepless Throne. Nobles as well as hunters were both known for coincidentally developing nonverbal systems of communication based entirely off series of upper and lower blinks, somewhat similar to Morse.

These idealized traits come with a steep cost, recessive genes stacked upon recessive genes. While the ideal traits serve to keep the Tajaran at peak combat prowess, the tradeoffs range from reduced lifespan to a highly taxing metabolism. Only the most picturesque Tajarans in vassal states would be accepted as tribute to the Sleepless Throne, even with the highest of political regards. By random chance, any particular commoner might possess one of over thirty subtle traits, whilst the invading legionnaires might posses upwards of twenty, depending on political favors received or wrath incurred. With the necessarily immutable ideals of the Sleepless Throne, while clothing fashions might vary wildly amongst vassals, reflective of local politicks, the bilateral symmetry of a stalwart hunter served as the Infinite Domain's standard of perfection. To be bilaterally symmetric was to be of noble blood, to be most Sleepless, and carried an innate gravitas of Face. To be bilaterally symmetric was to struggle to write, to wield half the thoughts at twice the speed, and to be dead by sixty.

In modern times, not only has genemodding rendered genetic elitism moot, but taking on the appearance of the throne's will is no longer universally adored. Various groups in Tajaran culture have varying opinions of the Throne that once held absolute dominion over their lives, and those opinions will reflect upon those still with noblesque traits. Some may still know them as valiant heroes, courageously upholding high standards of living, while others still have nightmares woven into their genetic memory of four souless eyes leering through the black of night, heartsick and resolute.

= The Infinite Empire =

The '''Infinite Domain''' was a vast and spacefaring empire covering every star system in the Sagittarius Arm. Despite dwarfing even modern galactic superpowers, the Tajarans of the Infinite Domain lacked faster-than-light engines. The distances between vassal states were remarkable compared to the trips between the different corners of Sol, with many cultural quirks arising as a result.

While the Infinite Domain answers to a single planetary chain, the '''Sleepless Throne''', regional matters, on the scopes of star systems and star clusters, tended to be the concern of a local Noble. Most Tajarans would only know the Emperor by the perpetual invasion fleets she sends. Waves of soldiers locked into cryosleep, serving as a routine test of loyalty or steel.  Between recolonizations, individual sentiment towards the Emperor may wax or wane, but once the platoons wake up and integrate into the region with open arms or an iron fist, the Domain's populace tends towards numerous and loyal.

== Nobility, Face, and Heart ==

Varying in title from Palatine to Princept to Margravet to practically anything, the nobility of the Infinite Domain held a unique power over the common Tajaran -- the right to have '''Face'''.

{{anchor|Face}}'''Face''' is a Tajaran concept denoting prestige and peer recognition, gained through being funny, clever, intelligent, having spunk and chutzpah, or simply doing things stylishly; rumors traveling with the same speed and impact as Imperial warships.

Conversely, {{anchor|Heart}}'''Heart''' is a concept representing boorishness and raw power, one acting in a very base, crass, primitively violent fashion. An excess of Heart would lead to one being treated much like a leper; a noble might be able to militarily defeat another in a border skirmish, but to do so with a lack of Face would make them {{anchor|Heartsick}}'''Heartsick'''.

All nobles were equally unimportant under the Emperor and His power, yet Face served as the informal hierarchy between them, with sufficient Face leading to control over vassal states, an increase in number of titles, or lavish and terraformed provinces within the Inner Ring. This ensured that it would be difficult for one with lesser Face to act against one of superior Face, especially if they carried a reputation of being Heartsick. Commoners were referred to as the Faceless, for being unable to have formally-recognized Face regardless of their conduct.

== The Sleepless Throne ==

The inner politics of the Sleepless Throne were, to all but the residents thereof, an abstract and meaningless facade, fluff hiding the Emperor's force in prose and rhyme. One could not simply enter the Sleepless Throne without an invitation, or ''marque de slumber'', for none could know the true strength of the Throne's interstellar defenses, or ''the dreamweave'', and those who attempted to invade were ''scryed'' by impossible ''long-seers'' and ''unspoken'' with kilometer-long ''dialogues'' into smoldering fragments of ''debris''. 

The ability to output countless invasion fleets once every other generation comes only from great industrial perfection. Once a Tajaran Noble had been granted permission to send a member of their bloodline to the Sleepless Throne, that tribute would arrive alone and be promptly integrated into the '''Emperor's Harem''', where they would live a life of comparative luxury, their only duty producing heirs and fodder alike. Historians are conflicted on whether the "Emperor's Harem" was an official institution, or general slang for the entire population of the Sleepless Throne's star system. 

Regardless, the Harem's influence over the Empire was both greatly overhyped, yet impossibly pervasive. While a Consort might not ever be in the same ''city'' as the Emperor, and thus be unable to directly adjust political direction, parenting a majority of a recolonization ship's officers lends itself well to influencing that ship's destination. The '''Moonlit Society''' held sway as the alleged Nobles amongst Nobles, those whose offspring were chosen not for conquest, but to reinforce the Shattered Throne itself.

'''The Emperor''', at once '''One of Many Faces''' and the '''Holder of The Bleeding Heart''', was the most powerful figure in the Infinite Domain, with the Face of all nobility simply being Masks carved in replication of Hers. Their power was not just borne from authority, but distance -- the lack of FTL travel making it a multigenerational project to even think of assassinating Her. One rebelled against the Emperor not through direct conflict, but control of the narrative. Weaving tales of loyalty and extravagant tithes might spare your star's eccentricities from excessive scrutiny, and having your version of regional squabbles hit the Emperor's ear before your rival's was the difference between receiving a jovial colony ship and a death squad keen on glassing your entire bloodline.

The grand impotence of space travel held the Infinite Empire together stronger than any cultural notions of dignity or duty could. Petty grudges held with the reverence of blood feuds piled up, stoppered only by the the impossibility of meaningful interaction between distant individuals. The Infinite Empire boiled for millenia, a perpetually toppling house of cards continuously rebuilt as fast as cards could be removed, for no cat could possibly touch multiple cards in their lifetime.

= The Shattered Empire =
Once the last Emperor of the Infinite Empire was deposed in a brutal galaxy-spanning coup known as the '''Fracture''', the '''Six and One''' became the new ruling body of the Shattered Empire, stemming directly from the '''Six Houses of the Scalpel''', the band of Tajarans responsible for the Fracture. Modern Tajaran individuals are either Contracted to one of the houses through a '''[[Lore:Six and One#House Contract|House Contract]]''', or remain '''unHoused'''. Being contracted to a house comes with obligations, both outlined in the individual house's contract and in the '''Seven-Part Mandate''' (the ongoing agreement between the Six And One), but also with privileges, including the use of the house's Face and good standing. The houses are divided into Inner and Outer Houses as a result of their focus; Inner houses are more concerned with the workings of the Empire, and Outer houses address cultures outside of the Shattered Empire. Neither are intrinsically superior, or hold more Face, though their goals often run contrary to each other.

While the Six and One would settle as the ruling powers of Tajaran culture as early as the Shattering in 1691, it would take until the Seven-Part Mandate in the year 2000 for them to formalize their relationship. The Seven-Part Mandate established formal meeting procedures and a central government, ousting the complicated weave of nonaggressions and passive-aggressions by which a Taj was expected to derive citizenship. Now universally, all Tajarans in Taj space are considered citizens, regardless of house, face, or heart, even descendants of the Seventh House. While this didn't grant the populace significantly more rights than before, it greatly simplified the unwritten rules of legality and extradition. All Taj citizens are symbolically granted the use of the Shattered Empire's Face and good standing, serving more as an obligation to not embarrass the Empire to outsiders than as any internal boon. 

Folklore will sing that the Seven-Part Mandate was a glorious show of Tajaran Face, a triumphant final victory over the Infinite Empire's deceit and treachery, and a grand victory for the Tajaran people. While this may be true, it also may have had a tiny bit of urgency from a [[Lore:Vox|rising political base]] calling themselves the "Injective Sociopolitical Balance Team," who posited that by having a {{TooltipInline|large population|One entire Arkship, full of millions of Vox researchers across numerous disciplines. The "Politicolonial Team," a staging ground for research via embedding within a major galactic government.}} of their people within Taj space, they were {{TooltipInline|Entitled|This term holds no special meaning to the Tajaran people, though these Vox used it as if it held legal power.}} to be considered a House, citing their population's Face and {{TooltipInline|Heart|A '''lot''' of lasers.}}. The presence of this {{TooltipInline|"House Voxatari"|Research shows that speaking this aloud to a Housed Tajaran with any knowledge of history '''will''' get your face punched.}} strongly disturbed the fragile tensions between House Parigari and House Toranga, simultaneously piquing the interests and disgusts of both. In response, the Six and One formalized the Tajaran government structure as their immutable council of Six, making attempts to oust or replace an entire House in the council as a Faceless act of treason. With a firm constitution behind them, the Six and One were able to repel this political threat, ending their claims to any part of the political hierarchy, though the Vox remain an occasional presence and economic force.

== Modern Tajaran Society ==

Modern Tajaran society is not best understood as a single culture with a single mood, but as a dense web of House obligations, inherited customs, local fief traditions, and personal ambition. The Shattered Empire is unified enough that a Tajaran can expect a common legal and social framework in Taj space, yet fragmented enough that the "normal" life of one citizen may look alien to another only a few systems away.

In broad terms, most Tajaran social life revolves around the question of Contract. To be {{TooltipInline|Housed|Affiliated to a House by Contract. This can mean status, shelter, scrutiny, and obligations in roughly equal measure.}} is not merely to have employment, but to possess a formal relationship to a living institution with memory, expectations, and a reputation older than most modern states. A {{TooltipInline|House Contract|Closer to a binding social relationship than a payroll agreement. It tells people what kind of trouble you are allowed to be.}} may decide where one works, who may vouch for them, what standards of dress or conduct are expected, and what sort of mistakes are forgiven quietly versus remembered loudly. To sign one is often described as gaining a name, a lineage, and a burden all at once.

For the average Housed Tajaran, daily life is rarely spent in the halls of the Six, but in the immense machinery beneath them. They serve as mariners, privateers, port laborers, merchants, clerks, servers, artisans, technicians, medics, growers, builders, retainers, entertainers, and all other sorts of specialists needed to keep a civilization of fiefdoms, fleets, and trade routes alive. In one district this may mean handling customs ledgers and cargo manifests under Ussirune interests, in another it may mean tending a Verikami clinic, staffing an Astameur boutique, crewing a Morikann vessel, or supporting one of the innumerable peripheral operations and households that orbit the Great Houses.

The {{TooltipInline|unHoused|A citizen without House Contract affiliation. Not necessarily poor, harmless, or politically irrelevant - just harder to categorize at a glance.}}, while no longer outside citizenship, still occupy a distinct social space. The Seven-Part Mandate and later formalization of citizenship simplified many older legal ambiguities, and in the modern day a Tajaran is still a Tajaran in the eyes of the Empire whether Housed or not. This does not erase the practical advantages of House affiliation. In daily life, House membership can act as a shield, a credential, a warning, or an invitation depending on circumstance. An unHoused Tajaran may be perfectly respectable, wealthy, dangerous, beloved, or all four, but they are far more often required to prove themselves personally in situations where a Housed Tajaran can simply arrive trailing borrowed gravitas.

This is where modern life most visibly expresses {{TooltipInline|Face|Prestige, social credibility, and the right to be taken seriously - with style points included.}} and {{TooltipInline|Heart|Raw force, crassness, and base action. Useful to have, dangerous to lead with.}}. Face is not only for aristocrats, council members, or famous names in the present era, but for ordinary social navigation. A Tajaran's humor, tact, cleverness, poise, timing, and presentation can shape the outcome of arguments, bargains, romances, and grudges just as much as raw authority. Heart remains respected in its place, but unmanaged Heart, especially in public, can rot one's standing with astonishing speed. Many social conflicts in modern Taj society are not about what happened, but about how it was done, who witnessed it, and whether the participants wore their House Face, or their own, well.

This concern for presentation does not make modern Tajaran society uniformly delicate or theatrical-- it makes it alert. Conversation is often layered, especially among the Housed and those accustomed to Contract culture- names are used with intent. Titles may be played straight, affectionately, mockingly, or all at once depending on relationship and context. A House Name on a document is not decorative, and many Tajaran expect it to be treated as a serious social fact even in casual settings. To mishandle a name, omit it where it should be used, or insult it carelessly can turn a minor interaction into a remembered slight.

Modern Tajaran society is also deeply material in its expression. The old Infinite Empire's obsessions with status, form, and symbolic power did not vanish in the Fracture, they changed hands. Fashion, grooming, architecture, cuisine, interiors, scent, and personal effects all remain social languages, and often intensely local ones. A bustling trade-heavy fief may prize visible prosperity, imported luxuries, and the confidence of a seasoned negotiator, while another region may elevate severe practicality, traditional craft, or the disciplined refinement of a House's older image. Even where wealth is lacking, style rarely disappears; it simply becomes sharper, bolder, more improvisational, or more defiant.

Contact with outsiders has further complicated what "modern Tajaran" looks like. Outer-facing Houses and their associated businesses, crews, and ports have normalized daily cooperation with aliens in many parts of the Empire, especially in trade, hospitality, logistics, and medicine-adjacent fields. In some districts, a mixed-species work crew is unremarkable. In others, alien presence is primarily commercial, temporary, or tolerated through the lens of utility. The result is not a simple divide between "traditional" and "modern," but countless local arrangements where Tajaran customs remain central even while foreign goods, substances, aesthetics, slang, and habits circulate freely.

Likewise, the collapse of older genetic elitism and the spread of genemodding did not erase the cultural memory of the Infinite Empire's ideals. Modern Tajaran attitudes toward noblesque traits, old imagery, and "Sleepless" aesthetics vary widely. To some, such features still suggest prestige, romance, or historical gravitas. To others, they evoke conquest, cruelty, and inherited terror. A modern Tajaran can admire an old silhouette, wear it for effect, parody it in fashion, reject it on principle, or treat it as a warning, all without ceasing to be recognizably part of the same society.

For all its contradictions, this is the defining trait of modern Tajaran life under the Shattered Empire: it is a civilization of continuity through argument. The Houses did not flatten Tajaran culture into uniformity, nor did the Fracture free it from hierarchy. Instead, modern society lives in the tension between Contract and self, {{TooltipInline|House Face|Borrowed prestige. You are still yourself, but your mistakes now arrive with letterhead.}} and personal Face, inherited custom and practical survival. A Tajaran today is expected to navigate these tensions with wit, restraint, and style, and if not style, then at least enough grace to make the story worth repeating.

{|  style="width: 95%; background-color:#F0D8FF" class="wikitable mw-collapsible"
|-
!style="background-color:royalblue; color:white; text-align:center; width:85%; padding:8px" colspan=2|《 The Six 》
|-
|style="background-color:#E5ECFF;text-align:center;" colspan=1|'''《 Inner Houses 》'''
|style="background-color:#E5ECFF;text-align:center;" colspan=1|'''《 Outer Houses 》'''
|-
|'''[[Lore:Six_and_One#Astameur|House Astameur]]''': Harem turned Fashionista. Masters of luxury and status.
|'''[[Lore:Six_and_One#Morikann|House Morikann]]''': Corsairs, pirates. Reliable but unruly mariners and footmen.
|-
|'''[[Lore:Six_and_One#Verikami|House Verikami]]''': Hospitality and Hospitals alike. Fierce and often [[#Heartsick|Heartsick]], rural and agarian.
|'''[[Lore:Six_and_One#Ussirune|House Ussirune]]''': Traders, merchants. Cultural affinity with drugs and commerce alike.
|-
|'''[[Lore:Six_and_One#Parigari|House Parigari]]''': Scientists, technologists, engineers. The devil is in the details, seeking technological progress. Conflicts with Toranga over technology's purpose.
|'''[[Lore:Six_and_One#Toranga|House Toranga]]''': Grand Architects, shipbuilders and masons. Grand scale designs, for war, for stability. Conflicts with Parigari over grand-scale vision of the Empire.
|-

!style="background-color:#000; color:white; text-align:center; padding:8px" colspan=2|'''《 [[Lore:Six_and_One#Seventh House|The Seventh House]] 》'''
|-
|style="background-color:#444; color:white; text-align:center" colspan=2|Despicable, horrid rot, the worms that infest the Last Emperor's corpse. Descended from the Last Emperor's own forces, own family, and own House. Widely hated, feared, or disdained by both commoners and nobles even before the Fracture. 
The Seventh House's work is in war. Not the privateering of House Morikann, or the muscling of trading vessels known from House Ussirune, but killing the Empire's enemies for the sake of killing them off; '''[[#Heartsick|Heartsick]]''' behavior.
|}


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