This Page
Last Updated
|
The Tangri are native to the third planet of a type F-7 sun. Their home planet is quite terrestroid, but somewhat smaller and rather drier than Earth. Approximately 47% of the planetary surface is covered with water, mostly in the form of small, landlocked seas. The large land area is characterized by vast plains which are either arid desert or covered with a particularly hardy species of plant life similar to Terran sawgrass known as khunillatis. Other forms of Tangri flora include zikkilati, a fixed-root, carnivorous plant; and osamhhoru, a tumbleweed-like plant some three meters in diameter, which is also carnivorous.
Tangri biochemistry is quite similar to terrestrial norms, with minor differences in amino acids composition and proton balances. The Tangri planetary ecosystem is built around a plantlife structure which, compared to Terran flora, is poor in nutrients. Tangri herbivores require vast amounts of grazing area (by Terran standards) to supply their dietary requirements. Tangri mammals possess six limbs, as a rule, and the higher mammals have developed one pair of limbs into tool using, manipulative members. The highest form of Tangri life is, of course, the Tangri or Tangri race. These creatures are of approximately normal Terran intelligence, but demonstrate significant psychological differences from Terran "norms". In form, Tangris are vaguely equine, resembling the mythological centaurs of Terra, from which the Terran perjorative "horseheads" has evolved. Certainly the actual Tangri head is not particularly horselike, possessing as it does a bony ridge which spans the top of the skull (possibly vestigial body armor) and ending in a flat, apelike nose. The Tangris' eyes are quite small because of their evolution under a particularly bright sun.
Tangri are covered by body fur which is rather short, thick, and colorful to Terran eyes. Tangri males tend to be considerably brighter in coloration than females, and sexual dimorphism is pronounced. Tangri females average 60% to 66% of the size of the males, and are more drably colored. Because of a high female birthrate and the hazardous lifestyles favored by males, the Tangri male:female ratio is approximately 1:3, with periodic fluctuations in times of especially severe stress.
Unlike most known sentient races, the Tangri are pure carnivores -- possibly as a result of the unsatisfactory nutrient value of Tangri flora.
Tangri families are strictly patriarchal and patrilinear. Tangri females are subjugated to males in all Tangri societies, and the dominant Horde Culture is typical in this respect. Each male keeps a hannasork (harem) limited in size only by his means. Tangri females may be ejected from the hannasork at any time for any reason. The human concept of sexual equality is incomprehensible to the Tangri.
Children are reared very strictly. Male children are reared exclusively by the male parent, and are inculcated at an early age with the cultural values which underlie this race's predilection for loot and plunder. Female children are normally reared by the mother, though some male parents impose stringent controls on how female children are to be raised. This is not, however, usual.
Tangris are not given to metaphysical speculation. The ancient religions of the Tangri were inchoate polytheisms, and these weak religions have been casualties of industrialization. The dominant society is not only irreligious but anti-religious, since religion is associated with the despised Zemlixis (or "settled cattle") culture.
The Tangri nomadic heritage is one of instinctual pragmatism tempered by superstition and survival-oriented taboos. Superstition and taboo have lost some of their force in recent times, but pragmatism continues unabated. Tangri pragmatism is essentially self-oriented and expresses itself in, among other ways, a disregard for life including that of other sentients. This attitude strikes most other races as remarkably callous. Equally striking is the individualism possessed by the Tangri male, no doubt a result of their descendancy from purely carnivorous predator stock. Any organization above the level of clan is an abstraction to him. As one can imagine, submergence of self into the state is not a common Tangri characteristic. However, even with this strong individualism comes a marked tendency towards large association purely for the sake of profit and on an ad hoc basis. This holds true even among larger clan structures.
The development of Tangri polity results from the race's history. Given the carnivorous nature of the Tangri, nomadism rather than agrarianism, was the more efficient socio-political system. Tangri agriculture meant growing cereal crops as fodder for meat animals, a life style for which the advantages did not match those found in nomadic life. Given the vast land spaces of Tangri and the great personal mobility of its sentients (about equal to that of a Terran horse), nomadism proved highly advantageous. In addition, nomadism appealed to the Tangri psychology, which even today is nongregarious and craves open space.
As a result of these factors, the nomadic clan societies became more progressive, developing fire, metallurgy and a system of writing. These nomadic societies then began amassing enough wealth to support a literate class. The nomads developed a multi-clan political structure in which various smaller clans would organize into Super Clans known as the Alherratogonfaloxis (hordes). Often these Super Clans would initially band together and pool their fighting strength to overcome a superior foe. The settled communities of farmers became the primary prizes of the hordes, who constantly battled for their possession.
Later, when industrialization finally came about, it was within the context of the horde society, and its principle products, initially at least, were promptly applied to the raid and counter-raid demands among the hordes.
The development of nuclear weapons and space travel technology brought about a brief, artificial period of peace, which ended with the discovery of warp points within the Tangri home system. The hordes took to the space ways with a vengeance. Four new systems were colonized before the Tangri discovered that all their warp points were, ultimately "dead ends". None of the four systems were found to have any open Warp Points within them and the Tangris found themselves in an interstellar cul-de-sac. This resulted in a devastating interstellar war as the hordes turned once more upon each other in a struggle for control of the known systems. The warfare devastated the home system and threw the colonists upon their own resources.
The colonies throve - the homeworld did not. The colony Luzarix, for instance, never lost technology completely, sliding back no further than the steam age. Though initially retarded by a low population and a lack of easily accessible fissionables, the Luzarixians eventually reestablished their space flight capacity at about the same time that another alien race was beginning to recon the Luzarian system through a closed Warp point. This race was the Sabeillians, a one-system star nation who had the supreme ill-fortune to find Luzarix at the closed warp point end of the first warp line they explored. The Sabeillians were immediately perceived as Zemlixi by the Luzarixians who, even with their reduced tech level, were quick to conquer the newcomers. Recognizing the renewed potential for expansion that the discovery of the closed Warp Point represented, the Luzarixians returned to the motherworld to begin its restoration and reform the superclans.
The battle to conquer Sabeillia was short and brutal, with the Tangris losing not a single ship to Sabillian fire. A quick survey of the system led the Tangri to several new warp points which, ultimately, communicated with, among others, both the Khanate of Orion and the Terran Federation. With their appetite for plunder having only been whetted by the easy conquest of Sabellia, the temptation for large scale interstellar raiding was too much for the Tangri to resist, even if they had wanted to! So, the reformed Alherratiogofalox Humarshu then launched with a vengeance into the oldest of noble Tangri pursuits -- the clan raid!
The initial target of their activities was the Khanate, which reacted in a typical Orion fashion by relentlessly backtracking the raiders and smashing the Humarshu horde's major out-system holdings. The Khan was quite prepared to follow this with a genocidal campaign against the Tangri home worlds, but the hastily formed Federation of Tangri Corsairs disavowed the Humarshu depredations. Since the Orions and the Terrans were preoccupied with the Fourth Interstellar War at the time, this diplomatic fiction was allowed to pass undisputed and a peace of sorts came to exist between the Tangri and the other sentient races -- a peace which has been strained by frequent, small-scale, and carefully planned raids by the various hordes.
The entire nature of the Confederation of Tangri reflects their society's obsessive raid-oriented philosophy. Each horde has a "royal" clan, established both by tradition and by success in warfare, as the most powerful of the horde's family units. The royal clans are required to give continued demonstration of worthiness by leading raids and other gainful expeditions. The horde's ruler, the Anak, is elected for life from the adult males of the royal clan by the vote of all adult males. It should be noted that no Tangri is considered to be adult until he has participated in at least one raid on a planetary or interstellar scale. Modern communications methods make it a simple and practical matter for clan members to cast votes wherever they may be.
The Confederation is governed by the Arnharanaks (high rulers), a grand council of all Anaks, which meets in annual sessions on the ancestral home world. At present, only five systems are sufficiently integrated into the Corsair's confederacy for representation: the home system and the four original colony systems. Such other planets as the essentially nomadic Tangri choose to control directly are considered fiefs, subject to the horde which conquered them.
Bureaucracy, though alien to Tangri nature, has appeared in the form of Zemlixi functionaries, but only intelligent self-interest holds the fiercely independent hordes together. It has become clear to most that, at present, more plunder can be efficiently gained by raiding in concert against zemlexi than by operating independently or, worse, competing with one another. However, it is believed that this perception could alter abruptly given sufficient external pressure or a drastic change of circumstances.
Absolute political power stratifies Tangri society, while wealth does not. Every adult male of a horde is equal to every other (except, of course, for the Anak). Other male members of the royal clan often receive deference, but such deference is shaky and can be lost quickly if the individuals are shown to be unworthy of it. Zemlixi are looked upon as sentient cattle, fit only for exploitation, and the Zemlixi label has been extended, to date, to all non-Tangri cultures encountered. Some Zemlixi legal disabilities have been relaxed since the appearance of the Zemlixi bureaucrats, but this has had little effect on popular attitudes. In effect, serfdom has been legally disallowed, but the practice of peonage continues.
All male Tangri of all hordes are held to rigid requirements of loyalty and responsibility to their own clans and to strict codes of honor and ethics extending to all members of the same horde. Indeed, each horde calls itself the Tangrican (the people), and the members of the horde cultures other than one's own are still regarded as somehow inferior. Traditionally, members of other hordes -- as well as the Zemlixi, of course -- have been considered fair game, but this has been somewhat modified in recent centuries. Memories of the interstellar raiding which gutted the first Tangri star nation are part of the reason for this change in attitude, but so is intelligent self interest. With a galaxy open to their raids, the Tangri see no benefit in raiding one another. At present, the Corsair Federation is seen as a sort of "superhorde" (arnharalherratogofaloxi), yet the hordes waste little love upon one another and so the union remains fragile.
When dealing with non-Tangri, the nomadic heritage of harshness and plunder shapes the Tangri approach. All non-Tangri are, by Tangri definition, Zemlixi, and any means of exploitation is considered fair when dealing with the Zemlixi! Honor as a concept applies only within the Tangri group and the horde culture.
The horde courts also exercise authority over the zemlixiaherratogofaloxia (Zemlixi of the horde) and adjust interclan disputes. There is also a rudimentary "supreme court'' for adjudication of interhorde disputes.
Judicial decisions are reached with draconic simplicity, using the absolute political power of the anak. The anak hears the case, stipulates its solution or punishment, and his decision is executed without question or hesitation. This summary justice is extended to the interhorde level, also; although at this level the single anak is replaced by the anakanozalherratogofa/oxanahar (anaks of the high horde) or Federation "supreme court". According to Talcott's Jurisprudence, the Tangri legal system is "unmatched for common sense, pragmatic decisions, and also for decisions in which the accused has no legal protection whatsoever." However, the accused do have some right of protection - if not as an individual, then at least as a group. Overly capricious or extreme decisions have led to the loss of power of the anak who rendered them, thus offering some check to the arbitrary nature of Tangri law.
A final function of the court system is to maintain a rudimentary "social welfare" system. This system originated in the old, pre-industrial days as a device to insure that all members of the clan's fighting complement remained healthy and available for raids and defense against raids. The practice, called tangricano(people farming), was primarily a device to provide the clan with fighting power, and this remains the primary function of the present-day system. Tangricano, however, relates primarily to fighting strength (i.e., physical health considerations) and not to property.
Tangri notions of property ownership remain rather rudimentary to this day. Within a clan, possessions are held more or less in common. Yet if a Tangri desires something held by Zemlixi or a member of a rival horde, he simply takes it. War is endemic to nomadic society, and this is reflected in Tangri values and militancy. Courage and tactical cunning are esteemed above all other qualities, followed as virtues only by physical hardihood. This last, indeed, has become something of a fetish now that affluence and technological warfare has removed much of the need for it.
The Tangri are very militant (a rating of almost 98% on the Webster-Wiley Index of the Terran Institute of Comparative Sociological Studies), regarding force as the most reasonable means to settle any difficulty. However, the Tangri mode of warfare has serious weaknesses when compared to the Terran concept of organized, integrated, long-term planning and operations. The Tangri retain a "raider" mentality, imbued with the idea of waging war as a raid (inflicting damage on an enemy, plundering, and returning home to boast about it). The idea of systematically occupying territory and forcing a war to a conclusion is a difficult concept for them. This is particularly true since their one foray into a similar "art of war" resulted in the nuclear devastation of five planetary systems. The Sabeillians, Terrans, Orions, Arachnids, Ophiuchi, Gorm and Vestrii have all been encountered by the Tangri Corsairs. Of these, only the Arachnids and the Gorm are non-humanoid in body structure. While the Gorm are the only encountered race to remotely approach the Tangri body form, they are regarded by the Tangri as more essentially alien in form than the others, for the Gorms lack the body hair of the Tangris and the mind sets of the two races are totally disparate. From this physical and psychological dissimilarity to other sentient races, the Tangri have drawn confirmation of their own unique nature and qualities. They claim, in fact, to be the only intelligent race in existence. In the Tangri galactic view, intelligence is, by definition, a peculiarly Tangri attribute. Certain other species may possess physiological processes which perform the functions of intelligence and permit them to speak, build spaceships, wage war, etc., but this is not true intelligence. It might be considered by some to be an aping of intelligence by lesser beings, but this is as far as any Tangri is prepared to go.
Although this exclusive claim to intelligence seems utter sophistry to other sentients, it is self-evident and unquestionable to the Tangri. In fact, as Professor Hizzarow'siklar of the Orion Academy has pointed out, the mobility and aggressiveness of the clearly unintelligent carnivorous plants of Tangri is considered by Tangri thinkers as proof of their belief that life forms may appear intelligent when they are, in fact, definitely not so.
The Tangri have no aspiration to rule the galaxy (large-scale political units are, at most, advantageous artificialities to them), and since they regard all non-Tangri as Zemlixi or worse (and thus subnormal), the Corsairs view themselves as the rightful "raiders supreme" of the known galaxy. All sentient and nonsentient races (for the Tangri make no fine distinctions) are their legitimate prey, to be plundered at their pleasure. As what might be considered the ultimate nomads of the galaxy, the Tangri need no justification for their depredations except the pleasure and wealth they can obtain from them. The notion of offering "Social-Darwinist" justifications for their actions, as, for example, the Orions traditionally have done, would never occur to a Tangri anak for the simple reason that no such reason is needed.
Since the disastrous Humarshu experience, Tangri application of this galactic view has been more restrained. This should not, however, be taken as a sign that the Corsair Federation has changed its preconceptions. It would be more accurate to view this as the caution of the Terran tiger hunter or the Orion Zeket trapper -- the caution of a sentient being stalking a particularly deadly nonsentient. Historically, the Tangri Confederacy's military services have been a wildly chaotic confusion of diverse organizations when compared to those of other star nations. Originally, the Confederation had no organic military structure of its own, but could call on the forces of the various hordes at need. Even today, the Confederation has no organic planetary combat troops of its own, and the hordes continue to maintain their own separate fleets. Any attempt to disarm them would shatter the Confederation. However, hard experience has given birth to a unified naval command structure -- the Confederation Fleet Command, or CFC -- which maintains its own forces and exercises an ill-defined supervisory authority over the horde fleets.
The CFC's origins lie in the "Proletsku Incident" of 2334, when independent action by a horde fleet led to the virtual annihilation of the Humarshu Horde, and almost embroiled the entire Confederation in full-scale war against the Khanate of Orion. In the aftermath of that disaster, a centralizing movement arose under the leadership of Lorvycx, who was the anak of the Hurulix Horde as well as a noted scientist.
The Hurulix Horde is not the largest of the Tangri hordes, but ever since the Luzarixian Tangri first returned to space, its highly efficient fleet has played a role out of all proportion to the size of the horde. As the Hurulix anak, Lorvycx had a high degree of prestige, which at least won him a hearing. The independence which is a part of all Tangri, however, stood in his way, and for some years his determined efforts were completely frustrated.
Lorvycx got his first real chance when the Tangri initially turned to the strikefighter. The R&D effort required to produce the first Tangri fighters was beyond the capabilities of any single horde, so the Confederation Government, by providing the backbone for the research, was able to monopolize the new technology. Although Lorvycx was still unable to win approval for a Confederation fleet, he was able to retain complete control of all fighters. He adopted a policy of providing tightly controlled technological support to the horde fleets, which thereby became less independent. The so-called "Lyonesse Incident'' of 2340, widely regarded at the time as an independent venture of the Shiratsuuk Horde, was in fact an example of Lorvycx's "assistance" strategy. Two Shiratsuuk light cruisers were converted (with Confederation assistance) into carriers for fighter squadrons which remained under Confederation control. (Lorvycx also helped shape the military strategy behind the Shiratsuuk campaign, although he was unable to convince the Shiratsuuk to pursue it wholeheartedly.)
The divided command structure which resulted from the Confederation support undoubtedly contributed to the Tangri defeat in System L-169, but this defeat was also Lorvycx's final victory. Although his military strategy failed because of poor execution on the part of the Shiratsuuk commanders, the defeat provided Lorvycx with the argument he needed to overcome conservative resistance to a unified fleet. The failure of a horde fleet merely supported by the Confederation was accepted as a sign that halfway measures would serve no longer. The proper employment of the high technology available to the Confederation required a centralized, unified command structure to coordinate its use.
The CFC (and the military of each individual horde) is a unified service. There are, of course, functional differences within these services. One of the most notable is what might be termed "Fortress Command," whose importance might seem surprising until one reflects that a secure base is a precondition to successful raiding. The CFC's coordinating role is especially visible in this area. Each horde is interested only in protecting its own holdings, whereas the CFC is able to use those individual horde fortresses, in conjunction with a few built specifically for CFC use, to provide security for the entire Confederation. "Fighter Command" is another discrete organization within the CFC, one which has retained its monopoly on fighters. There is no "Survey Command" within the CFC, because each horde jealously restricts and guards its right to explore the warp points it has surveyed .
Although most of the various horde militaries possess an "army" branch (an organization expressly designed for sustained combat in a planetary environment), the CFC does not. Indeed, the fact that the CFC should not have such a branch was one of the concessions Lorvycx was forced to accept in order to be allowed to create his unified command. All horde fleets and the CFC, however, possess an organic combat element similar to the Terran Federation Marines. There is no differentiated "Marine Corps" to provide this component, however; all male Tangri of the dominant culture are trained in personal combat, and boarding actions and limited ground combat are simply one duty of fleet personnel - and a highly prestigious and potentially profitable duty, at that.
Tangri military ranks are at least as crude and arbitrary (to non-Tangris) as pre-reform Orion ranks. The system, however, suits the Tangri. There are no rigidly defined levels of deference and authority within the Tangri military hierarchy. An officer's title is an exact description of his command responsibility, thus providing an underlying simplicity which is not readily apparent unless one has mastered the Tangri language. For example, the Tangri rank of shallihardoshfal-oxi, translates as "commander of orbital base ten." It thus defines a highly specific duty post and delineates the responsibilities and authority of the officer in question with great precision. In like manner, all Tangri ranks are function-based. The idea of one "lieutenant commander" commanding a frigate and another "lieutenant commander" serving as a naval attache is incomprehensible to the Tangri.
There are, however, certain individuals within the CFC and the horde military structures whose traditional and highly formal rank titles actually define the entire command structure. For example, each horde's anak is the commander-in-chief of that horde's fleet, and the final source of authority within it. But the actual operational command is delegated to the horrax, a member of the royal clan who is a military specialist of proven capability. The horrax acts as the anak's proxy, commanding "in the anak's name and at the anak's pleasure," even though it is tacitly acknowledged that the horrax generally knows far more about military matters than does his anak.
The CFC is commanded by the arnhahorrax, who is recognized as outranking any horrax of any horde fleet called to service with the CFC. There is, however, one unresolved and potentially critical question of relative seniority in a combat situation: seniority between the arnhahorrax and an anak exercising his theoretical right to command his horde's fleet in action. This is a question which the Tangri have never had to settle; and most Tangris hope they never will.
The Tangri would have difficulty understanding the concept of "recruiting," much less how anyone could think of it as a problem. The warrior/raider ideal has been unchallenged throughout the Horde Culture's history. What other races call "military service" is simply the way a male Tangri becomes a fully accepted member of his horde. There is therefore no difficulty in recruiting for the combat arms of the Tangri forces.
Non-combatant support branches are another matter entirely. Military bureaucracy is just as uncongenial as any other sort to the Tangri of the Horde Culture. It is therefore necessary for the Tangri to admit Zemlixis to administrative positions, especially on the lower levels, which the Zemlixis now monopolize. Note, however, that no Zemlixi, under any circumstance, ever exercises authority over any Tangri combatant.
Another problem is the ambivalent attitude of the Tangri toward strikefighters. On the one hand, fighter combat holds a profound psychological appeal for the individualistic male Tangri. But the Tangri have discovered that centauroid physiology is less adaptable than that of humanoids to the inherent limitations imposed by the heroic life support requirements of fighter design. Tangri fighter pilots are exceptional individuals, regarded as a breed of star-doomed heroes by their fellows. Many are addicted to the drug sacaharrax, which enables them to adjust to extreme discomfort without impairing their reflexes. As a rule, only fighter pilots make use of sacaharrax, for its advantages are immeasurably offset by long-term metabolic degeneration.
The CFC tends to attract individuals with attitudes which are relatively cosmopolitan, for Tangri, while traditionalists generally opt for the services of their own hordes. The CFC fills some of the social functions of a "surrogate horde" for its members, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the old Terran Foreign Legion. Needless to say, the Tangri military is restricted to racial Tangri, and consists entirely of males.
The Tangri are notably lacking in what other races would recognize as military punctilio. To the Tangri, such things appear servile in the light of their predator heritage, and are taken as one more piece of evidence that Terrans and others possess some collective function which takes the place of true intelligence. But a Tangri ship or task force is likely to function in a surprisingly disciplined manner. This is part of the nomad heritage: once the leader of a raiding party is agreed upon, his word is law, in the interests of the group's safety and success, for the duration of his leadership.
A Tangri, chosen as leader, who endangered other members of his unit by his lack of discipline would be dealt with, in a swift and savage manner.
Except in extreme environments, the Tangri have no utilitarian need for clothing, but personal ornamentation is important to them. In the case of the military, this takes the form of a traditional requirement that a warrior go into battle wearing a harness-like garment called the anharichu. The anharichu is generally made of precious metals decorated with precious and semiprecious gems. It is here that the Tangris recognize their heritage, and represents a significant percentage of the Tangri's personal wealth By tradition, it becomes the prize of whoever fells its wearer in combat. In fleet combat, the anharichu is worn over an extremely plain vac suit.
The anharichu cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be considered a "uniform," however. Each Tangri is free to decorate his anharichu in any fashion which strikes his fancy; and many and barbaric are the designs which have been observed. There is, however, a very definite and well-defined "military style" to which the basic garment conforms, and centuries of custom have created an agreed-upon set of symbols which perform the function of rank insignia.
All of the above applies only to the actual combat branches. The Zemlixis who staff the military administration wear a totally unornamented version of the anharichu, symbolic of their subwarrior status. And, of course, they have no military ranks or titles whatsoever; it is unthinkable that any Zemlixi could ever outrank any horde member.
Back
|
