Category:Societal Characteristics -- Tarkas
From SOTS
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The Caste System
Tarka society is extremely stratified, with many castes and many tiers of hierarchy in every walk of life. Reproductive viability for Tarka males is a privilege with a high premium, and a prize which every junior male desires. Unfortunately, achieving the Change is often difficult for Tarka males who have not been born into a family with great wealth and power; reproductive viability carries a high premium, and many females must cooperate in order to raise one male to full maturity. Accordingly, males who cannot buy their way into this favored state must earn it, and are highly motivated to do so through success in their careers.
Male Tarkas are discriminated against in the majority of educated professions, and are unlikely to rise high in any field which does not involve a great deal of creative passion, personal risk, or violence. Although they are not forbidden to become diplomats, scientists, technicians or academics, they are subjected to a great deal of sexual prejudice and it is difficult for them to be taken seriously by their entrenched female counterparts. By contrast, a sizable majority of Tarkas in high-risk physical pursuits are male—common soldiers, firefighters, pilots, spacers, miners, etc.—and the same is true of many creative and artistic fields, where the stereotype of the impassioned male Tarka is not considered a drawback.
Those who are able to converse in Kona Kai, "the High Speech", are likely to be family of the Nine Emperors or the Supreme Commander.
There is both upward and downward mobility in Tarka society, although not for the reasons you might think. Birth is not a guarantee of continued nobility after the age of majority, and although many Tarkas do pull a great many strings to further the ambitions and careers of their own progeny, others take a very cold "sink-or-swim" approach.
Tarka society is not patriarchal per se—nobility of offspring is not based on the male's social status—and there is very little security of position for inherited titles and property. Wherever you are in Tarka society, you can be virtually guaranteed that there will be several other Tarkas wanting whatever you've got. The further up the social ladder you are, the more dangerous your position becomes. The lives of Imperial Tarka can be brutally short. (The Imperial Tarka are the members of the imperial caste, the pool of families from which heredity-based emperors are chosen.)
The Orr Clan
"Orr" has roughly the same meaning as the human clan name "Smith"—"people who shape iron and steel". Among Tarkas, of course, these names have a little more teeth—the highest members of the Orr caste will still be deeply involved with mining, refining and manufacturing concerns.
Entertainment and Passtimes
All three of the alien races have music and dance in common, although of course they have very individual interpretations of what a "dance" is.
Tarkas have a thousand varieties of dance, but for various social reasons they put great emphasis on arrangements in which an individual displays his/her personal skill, grace, and agility. They also enjoy most of the art forms that humans recognize, including great varieties of two-dimensional art, weaving, sculpture, etc. Most Tarka are avid gamers, and Tarka warriors in particular are fond of games which stimulate strategic thought and involve dice. As a humorous aside—there are over 300 known martial arts styles among the various Tarka castes, including several "forbidden" arts to be practiced by non-warrior castes.
Tarkas of all castes and walks of life keep pets, and are especially fond of pets which assist them in their jobs, and pets which resemble themselves in some way.
Government
How succession of power is handled depends on the court. Standard genetic succession is common to five of the nine empires, but there are two in which emperors are chosen by clerical bodies and three in which the ruler ascends by merit.
The Tarkas are a sentient, and thus highly mutually competitive race. Due to this, they have suffered from political struggles for power, eventhough their government in the long run has been incredibly stable.
By contrast, those who are able to converse in Kona Kai, "the High Speech", are likely to be family of the Nine Emperors or the Supreme Commander.
The Nine Emperors
There is rarely friendship among the Nine Emperors. The current dynamic is based on mutual respect and common interests. Each Emperor sets domestic policy for his region/caste. Only the Supreme Commander can chart a course for the entire species.
The Tarkas have been a sentient race for nearly a million years. Their current ruling dynasty has been in power for nearly 10,000 years, and previous ruling clans have not been eliminated, but rather relegated to rule different segments of the empire. The Nine Emperors, although each is easily as powerful as any human who has ever carried that title on Earth, are all effectively peers. Try to imagine that a Roman Caesar, a powerful sultan, the High King of Britain, the Emperors of China and Japan, and Montezuma of the Aztecs all knew each other, met once yearly to discuss trade and affairs of state, and were separate-but-equal parts of one world-spanning (or multiple-world-spanning) civilization. This will give you a good view of how the Nine Emporers work together.
The Nine Emperors are most assuredly Changed males, and their affairs are most assuredly managed by a court in which females make many crucial decisions, especially regarding diplomacy.
The Supreme Commander
The Supreme Commander is the head of the Tarka military caste. Since all members of the military caste answer to him and since the arts of war are forbidden to those of other castes, there is no real war among the Nine Emperors. They do not command armies, and cannot arrange large scale invasions or even repel such invasions--no soldier will obey them unless the Supreme Commander orders it.
Like the Nine Emporers, the Supreme Commander is also a Changed male, with one or two legendary exceptions.
The Supreme Commander rules by superior intellect, strategic and tactical acumen, leadership ability, charisma, and sheer dumb luck. If you want to know how he rises to the top in each generation, ask yourself how a Julius Caesar, an Alexander, or a Napoleon comes to exist--and then imagine that the position those men occupied was traditional rather than self-created.
When you play Sword of the Stars as the Tarka, you should by default consider yourself the Supreme Commander.
Superstition
The Tarka military castes are fond of games of chance, and their god of war is also the god of luck—fetishes which represent the aspects of Sardo Kal are commonly used good luck charms throughout all of Tarka society, just as one small example.
Pages in category "Societal Characteristics -- Tarkas"
The following 4 pages are in this category, out of 4 total.
