View source for Lore:Tajaran

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 |bcolour = 007F0E
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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}}
 |contributors = {{Contributor/WatchesTheStars}}, {{Contributor/GreytideSkye}}, Juni
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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 {{TooltipInline|1691|Sol Year. Modern Taj society, in their zeal of rejecting the Sleepless Throne, were eager to abandon the Throne-centric "Blinks of The Emperor's Gaze", each being 8 revolutions of the Sleepless Throne planet, about 10.6 Sol days, leading to a new Spartan ship every 1000 Blinks. The instant that the Sol calendar was introduced to the Six and One, they immediately pounced on it, literally at first. Also note that the blinks were metaphorical; the Emperor was as mortal and subject to eye debris concerns as any other Tajaran.}}, it would take until the Seven-Part Mandate in the year {{TooltipInline|2000|Again, Sol year.}} 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 {{TooltipInline|sings|The song, "Seven-Part Army" by the Tiger Stripes, managed to be published a full 13 hours before the first transcripts of the Mandate reached the general public. The song describes the intent of the Mandate more than the specific implications, but still carries the spirit of the now-unified Taj people.}} 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.

=== [[Lore:Six_and_One|The Houses, summarized]] ===

It should be noted that while each House has traits it is known for, specializations and proficiencies, this does not imply exclusivity. While House Morikann may mostly use ships sourced from House Toranga, and if they are lucky, carry an engineer trained by House Parigari to keep it operational, several ships in the Morikann Armada were forged by Morikann architects or unHoused freelancers hoping to secure a House Contract. ... ''Numerous'' Morikann ships were forged by unHoused persons, by virtue of Heartful theft.

{|  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.
|}

== Modern Tajaran Society ==

Modern Tajaran society is not a single culture with a single mood. It is a web of House obligations, inherited customs, local fief traditions, and personal ambition, all tied together by the same core expectation: a Taj is expected to be ''legible''.

The Seven-Part Mandate makes one thing clean on paper, even if everything else remains artfully messy: Tajaran citizenship is universal in Taj space, and every Taj is symbolically granted the use of the Shattered Empire's Face and good standing. This shared baseline is sometimes treated, in practice, as a kind of common Face that does not exist to rank Taj against Taj, but to establish that Taj life has value at all, and that the Shattered Empire speaks as a people when it must. The privileges and responsibilities that fall out of this are sparse by modern ethical standards, but the intent is loud: the unHoused are not property, not a liability, not a rounding error. They are Taj.

That baseline does not erase the utility of being Housed. In the Shattered Empire, <nowiki>''</nowiki>Housed<nowiki>''</nowiki> reads less like "employed" and more like "recognized enough to be taken seriously without explanation." An unHoused Tajaran can still be wealthy, dangerous, beloved, or all four. House membership functions as a social shorthand: a House Name, a share of House Face, and a living Contract that others understand well enough to fear, negotiate with, or mock behind their teeth.

For most Housed Tajaran, daily life is not spent in the halls of the Six and One, but in the machinery beneath them. Their work, status, and even their scandals often orbit the House that can claim them. Many keep permanent residence in property owned or controlled by their House, whether that means an actual home, a communal estate, or the home port of a vessel that is functionally the same thing with better excuses. This is not because Tajaran society worships labor, but because House affiliation makes a person's place in the world easy to read, and hard to casually discard.

The Houses themselves are not evenly distributed across what was once the Infinite Domain. Each Great House runs the Empire from its own fief world, and those capitals are often treated as the height of modern Tajaran culture, luxury, and spectacle, especially compared to the outer rim of the Empire. That unevenness is part of why "modern Tajaran society" has so many normals. A Taj raised in a House-heavy core fief learns different instincts than one raised on the edge, where Contracts are present but thinner, and where outsiders, trade, or simple necessity chew at tradition until it either adapts or breaks.

This is where modern life most visibly expresses Face and Heart. 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, more improvisational, or more defiant.

Contact with outsiders further complicates what "modern Tajaran" looks like. Outer-facing Houses and their associated businesses, crews, and ports normalize daily cooperation with aliens in many parts of the Empire, while other regions keep outsiders at arm's length, 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, aesthetics, slang, habits, and persons circulate freely.

Likewise, genemodding and the collapse of old genetic elitism do not erase the cultural memory of the Infinite Empire's ideals. Modern Tajaran attitudes toward noblesque traits, old imagery, and "Sleepless" aesthetics vary widely. A modern Tajaran can admire an old silhouette, wear it for effect, parody it, 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: continuity through argument. The Houses do not flatten Tajaran culture into uniformity, nor did the Fracture free it from hierarchy. Modern society lives in the tension between Contract and self, House Face 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.

= Final Warning =

This is your '''final''', last-minute courtesy warning that your planet, asteroid, or star system is within the calculated range of your first '''Spartan Invasion Ship'''. The Six and One hope you have already chosen a protection plan or prepared adequate defenses, but know it is not too late to contact your nearest Housed Tajaran to discuss options and strategies. As part of our ongoing commitment to permanently ending the scourge that was the Infinite Domain, Corsairs of {{TooltipInline|{{RandomChoice|[[Lore:Six_and_One#Astameur|House Astameur]]|[[Lore:Six_and_One#Morikann|House Morikann]]|[[Lore:Six_and_One#Verikami|House Verikami]]|[[Lore:Six_and_One#Ussirune|House Ussirune]]|[[Lore:Six_and_One#Parigari|House Parigari]]|[[Lore:Six_and_One#Toranga|House Toranga]]}}|Depending on your region of space/time, a different House may have sent this message.<br>
((Through [[Template:RandomChoice|Wikimagic]], this will change "Randomly" every few days.))}} will survey in your area for new colonies from yesteryear to acquaint them with modern political customs and ''military advancements'' as necessary. Remember that the Spartans are there to conquer and subjugate, and there is no shame in surrendering to them until our Corsairs can present the appropriate documentation and deference to begin modernizing your aggressors.

If you have found this message on STL radio frequencies, begin immediate evacuation. We have been broadcasting this strictly over Holonet and FTL communication lines as to not alert the arriving ship. If you suspect your impending Spartan invasion to be aware of this conspiracy against them, know they will employ all forms of Heartsick, ruthless behavior to enforce the rule of a long-dead empire, and knowing a greater force opposes them will only galvanize their resolve. The Sleepless Throne conditioned these elite warriors into absolute fear, with trust as a weakness and safety only at the paws of their Emperor. 

This is Our trauma, the Tajaran peoples', and regretfully it is about to be your trauma too.

= Sphere of Tajaran Influence =

3840 years ago, the Sleepless Throne launched the first wave of Spartan invasions, targeted at the entire galaxy. These elite titans of genetic and/or political perfection were frozen in cryptosleep and launched at {{TooltipInline|near-light|Approximated as exactly 1c to make the math easier.}} speed, to reach and dominate a planet, using that to establish regional civilizations. These, in turn, would submit tithes of value and (with enough political favor) offspring to contribute to a next generation back upon the Sleepless throne, again at sub-light speeds. Every new generation on the Sleepless Throne (roughly equivalent to 30 Sol years) would launch a new wave of Spartan invasions at the same targets to ensure loyalty, through carrot or stick, and ensuring that around {{TooltipInline|half|The math doesn't keep this ratio exact for more than a few loyal generations, but this also assumes occasional disloyalty or other grand tragedies leading to loss of population.}} of working-age colonists came directly from the Throne.

960 years ago, the Six, utilizing FTL travel, ceased the Sleepless Throne in a grand coup known as the '''Fracture''', and thus ended further dispatches of the Spartan recolonization program. 

These two epochs separate the Sphere of Tajaran Influence into four distinct radii, centered on the Sleepless Throne:

* {{TooltipInline|'''960 LY'''|This is where asserting that the Spartans travel at 1C pays off; 960 years ago &#61;&#61; 960 Light Years away. If anyone questions this more deeply, go more with "unreliable narrator, these distances are rounded and the margin of error is insignificant" than "just c'mon dude".}} away, these planets have missed their first Spartan Recolonization, which would have launched {{TooltipInline|during|Pedantically this would be 29.9 years after the Shattering, as the Shattering had the best chance of success immediately after the billions of war-centered killers were off-world, but c'mon, the math's hard enough as is. Just assume the Shattering managed to clean up the latest launch.}} the Fracture. Intrinsically, every single colony within this radius will know that something has happened to the Sleepless Throne just by virtue of the missing reinforcements. Most of the Shattered Empire's territory is here, as this knowledge makes it the most stable and easiest to convince of the Six and One's governance.

* {{TooltipInline|'''1920 LY'''|(960 * 2)}}  away, these colonies' first '''Tithes''' are arriving at the Sleepless Throne ''today''. They are exactly one STL round-trip away from the start of the Spartan program. While 960 years will have passed since they submitted their first tithe, meaning that th, the present Sleepless Throne Rehabilitation Program uses these tithes both to chart which systems were actually targeted, and returning these tithes to sender in a matter of days via FTL tends to serve as sufficient proof that the Infinite Domain has fallen, that the Six and One <s>are powerful enough</s> hold enough Face *and* Heart to be generous in returning the tithe wholesale, and the tithes {{TooltipInline|themselves|Well, the folk who hoped to join the genetic pool. The various golds and tapestries typically do not speak. This does imply that Tithes do not contain slaves, as the Sleepless Throne is not wanting for catpower.}} are willing to testify to the state of the modern Tajaran society. While these civilizations will continue to receive Spartans from the Infinite Empire who are still en route, these cultures understand their place in the Six and One and are well-equipped to <s>peacefully</s> welcome the new Spartans and modernize them.

* {{TooltipInline|'''2880 LY'''|(960 * 3)}} away. This threshold is more symbolic and less concrete. From 1920-3840 LY away, these planets are receiving Spartans every 30 years, but their Tithe has not arrived at the Sleepless Throne to confirm their location. Thus, the Six and One cannot definitively know which planets were targeted, and <s>there is no profit</s> the possible destinations are too numerous to definitively catalogue every possible trajectory the Sleepless Throne may have considered viable 3840 years ago. These worlds are actively being subjugated by the aftershocks of a dead empire, likely in silence. 

While the Six and One have managed to fight against the Spartans in ''many'' systems in this region, securing territory for themselves and establishing safe lanes to the inner core of the Domain, travelers are strongly discouraged from wandering off the beaten path. Current estimates believe that there are at least 30 Spartan incursions who have successfully seized control of a wayward Bluespace-capable vessel, establishing practically unfindable sleeper cells within the region to fight against traitors to a throne long-since crumbled.

The 2880 LY threshold is '''symbolic''' in that it represents where the Six and One could have ''theoretically'' saved everyone, had they infinite resources or a {{TooltipInline|magic bomb|House Voxitari posits that this could have always been retrocausally done (rather, unDone), if only they had a controlling stake in the Seven and One. (Note: editor was punched in the face for including this remark).}} to destroy all Spartan ships in the universe at once. Within the 2880 LY radius, the Six Houses of the Scalpel had not yet risen up, no reasonable person could blame the devastation on anyone but the {{TooltipInline|Emperor|REST IN PISS}}.

Every single Spartan landing outside that radius, every single Tajaran colony, every native species subjugated for a dead Emperor, all technically happened under the Shattered Empire's guard. No matter how vigilant and Heartful the Six and One are, an infinity of traumas means an infinity of failures. 

* {{TooltipInline|'''3840 LY'''|(960 * 4)}} away. This exact radius is where Spartan ships, launched day 1 of the Spartan program, could theoretically be arriving '''today'''. If you are more than a year within this ever-expanding threshold, it is ''likely'' but not ''certain'' that if you were to have been invaded, it would have happened already. These ships were instructed to survey the region carefully before proceeding, having anticipated hostile terrain or natives with significant time to research beyond what the Throne had at their time of launch, and thus may be hiding in the vast darkness of space, emitting no radio and little light, analyzing your presence for a weakness to exploit. The Sleepless Empire will live with you forever, not under a dead Emperor, but under the sleepless nights left staring into the stars in fear, anxious anticipation of potential boogeymen waiting for your slightest flinch.

In theory, *every* civilization in the Galaxy should be prepared for an invasion at some point in the future, when the first light from the Sleepless Throne shines dimly upon them, one star out of billions. Though statistically the density of targets should reach ''almost'' nil within 5000 LY, both for density distributions, Spartan management, and {{TooltipInline|"primitive"|Mere clusters of orbital radio telescopes, nothing Bluespace, nothing Quantum.}} {{TooltipInline|astrography|AKA: They wouldn't launch at something they couldn't see with their telescopes)}}, and {{TooltipInline|expected|They couldn't know if a star hadn't been born yet, or that a planet might explode before they arrive)}} viability, extremely high-value systems that the Sleepless Throne could have perceived have a stronger likelihood of eventual invasion.

Again, the Six and One have been using the Sleepless Throne to coordinate relief efforts toward known invasions, and using the trajectories and timings of known Spartan ships to develop a probabilistic model to intercept these before they become a problem, but trauma can only be treated when it is known, and known when it manifests, and the trauma of the Tajaran People is no exception.

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