Xiwantandu

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Six Domains of Tandire Xiwantandu
Flag
Motto: Progress, Prosperity and Peace
Capital and largest city	Itzcoatl
Official languages	Itztli
Demonym(s)	Xiwa, Tandan
Government	Atlepetl Federation
• Sovereign	Toloche Cancuzuma
Establishment
• Great Reformation	14th of August, 1284 AM
Currency	Tulu (Tl)
Date format	dd-mm--yyy

The Six Domains of Tandire (Itztli: Xiwantandu ), also known as the Tandan Hegemony, is a star state located in the Gamma quadrant of the Milky Way Galaxy. The eponymous Tandire, a primarily ocean-covered life bearing world in the Gentian system, is the seat of Xiwantandu and the homeworld of its founding species, the Miri. The Gentian system is the only fully controlled star system claimed as core territory by Xiwantandu, and the overwhelming majority of the Tandan population as well as space constructs, infrastructure for extraction, production and transportation and the state's military and scientific centers are located within what is termed cislunar space, or the space generally encompassed within the orbit of Tandire's smallest and outermost satellite Efira, generally considered to mark the outer edge of the planet Tandire's gravity well. Xiwantandu is a minor power within the Gamma quadrant and holds negligible influence over the wider galaxy, but has demonstrated its capability to operate in the local region and continues to focus on the furtherance of greater prosperity and development within its home system both through internal and external means.

Tandan government is a theocratic technocracy governed by the duly elected Sovereign and a caste of clerical administrators overseeing a vast temporal and secular civil service. The religious law which governs the operation of the Xiwa state lays out strict codes of conduct and absolute responsibilities, such as the requirement of state officials to guarantee the material needs of those under their stewardship without exception, and the duty of the citizenry to lend their labor to the state in exchange for and indeed often in furtherance of these services. As a result, Tandire and the broader sphere of the Xiwa is a highly ordered and moralistic society balancing a universal guarantee of physical and psychological needs to its citizens with a deeply engrained central organization and somewhat authoritarian proselytization and imposition of rigid religious principles on the populace. Xiwantandu's internal structure takes the form of a coalition of major city states across the landmasses and island chains of Tandire in what is known as an Atlepetl, or City State, Federation. Formally, all the powers and authority of each individual city and its chief executive, or Tlatoani are ceded to the central government and the supreme Sovereign, however in practice the daily operation of the local region is usually conducted by the Tlatoani or the military equivalent Cuauhtlatoani in the Sovereign's name as a form of delegated authority.

Xiwantandu possesses a planned economy composed entirely of either state owned or community owned organizations and is devoid of what is traditionally termed private enterprise. Nevertheless, central planning is usually limited to large scale projects across the planet and in space, while the daily political and economic activities in a given region are usually overseen by the local community through a rule by committee system at the city and ward/township level. The Tandan economy currently find itself in a period of prolonged expansion through the technological augmentation of its capabilities, specifically the exploitation of oceanic and lunar resources, the former providing untold mineral and agricultural wealth to the terrestrial cities and the latter unlocking the resources necessary to further expand and colonize the Gentian system and project power to better secure Tandire and its populace.

Geography and Politics

The structure of Xiwantandu is based on a long political tradition of precursor Tandan civilizations of the medieval and classical ages. At the highest level of organization, Xiwantandu is a federation of individual city-states or Atlepetl, each of which is in turn governed by their own lord (Tlatoani) or an appointed viceroy usually acting as a military governor (Cuauhtlatoani). Many of these states, especially those located on the planet Tandire itself, are usually many hundreds or thousands of years old and may be ruled by ancient lineages that have survived numerous empires rising and falling. Each city state in turn is traditionally divided into calpolli districts, which describe both rural towns and wards within an urban center. As much as the Atlepetl is the principal unit of government at the large scale, the Calpolli is the center of day to day life for the average Xiwa citizen. Each Calpolli is made up of several kin-groups which collectively own and govern the lands and property of the Calpolli, which may include tracts of agricultural land, mines, forests or even factories, offices and storage depots. Consequently, most centers of economic activity in Xiwantandu are publically owned and operated by a dedicated community attached to that specific productive center. Since the modern day, many Atlepetl tier states have specialized their Calpolli to function as connected nodes of a supply chain, such that a single Atlepetl or a small group of Atlepetl working together can fully transform raw materials into any number of finished products through the use of the productive specializations of each of their Calpolli units.

This Calpolli system has functionally been the basis of every Tandan civilization since before the Bronze age. The principle factor setting Xiwantandu apart from its predecessor is the elimination, or in most cases simply the marginalization, of the hereditary nobility which traditionally held all the seats of power, being replaced by religious institutions. While many Tlatoani lineages remained in place in their specific Atlepetls, the events of the Great Reformation led to the clerical caste overthrowing the last Heuy Tlatoani (equivalent to an Emperor or King of Kings) and installing the first Sovereign of Xiwantandu, Irolen Itzcoatl to rule. The old Jaguar Knights (Ocelomeh) were reformed into the hereditary military caste of Xiwa Janissaries, while the new tensions between clerical and warrior castes led to the emergence of many Temple Guard organizations, which would later merge into the armed cleric Eagle warriors (Cuauhtli), which serve as a counterweight to the Janissaries and as the pretorian bodyguards of high ranking Xiwa officials.

At the empire-wide level, the government is split into three distinct sections knowns as the "Columns of State", each of which holds the Sovereign at the top. The columns, which are the military, the administration and bureaucracy, and the political and legal system respectively, each contain more specialized organs to tackle more specific tasks and are represented on the scale of an individual Atlepetl and often an individual Calpolli, to some extent. Each column has its own chief officer who could be considered a high tier minister to the Sovereign, and who in turn oversees lower ministers. Each column exercises a significant amount of power over the component Atlepetl units of the federated Xiwantandu, demonstrating the centralized nature of the Xiwa political structure in defiance of its federal structure which is largely a vestige of its decentralized, medieval past.

The military column is unique in that its general membership is composed of a type of slave or bonded soldier raised within specialized military Calpolli from birth to serve the Sovereign in battle. Consequently, the members of the Xiwa standing military are technically the property of the office of the Sovereign (although mass mobilized troops drawn from the Calpolli during wartime are free volunteers), and their leaders are the only high level officers of the Xiwa government who are not of the cleric caste. The Calpixque in turn make up a vast class of steward-administrators who are governed by a Huecalpixque and oversee the bureaucracy and the vast majority of day to day government services such as postal/communications networks, transportation infrastructure, as well as education and medical services. Members of this administrative caste are all ordained priests of various Tandan temples, which is used as a mechanism to enforce ethical rules through the strict application of religious law as well as stringent entry requirements as initiation rituals double as civil service examinations. As the Xiwa government began to expand faster than this elite caste of administrative clergy could recruit new members, a secondary subservient class of secular bureaucrats known as the Pochteca was created to raise manpower for the aparatus of state without diluting or lessening the high standards to which the Calpixque are held. Similar standards are applied to the cleric arbitrators under the legal and political column of state, which is headed by the Cihuacoatl who is considered to be the vice-ruler and second in command to the Sovereign. While their central duty is to staff and oversee the Xiwa system of courts, their role as mediators definitively places the underlings of the Cihuacoatl at the center of political life in Xiwantandu, despite holding a smaller role in the day to day lives of the citizens than the administrative Calpixque. The Cihuacoatl and the court system, besides the day to day adjudication of common disputes and criminal cases, is also tasked with foreign affairs and diplomatic tasks as well as the balancing of internal factions.

Political Divisions

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The Itztlan-Tola Hegemony is a highly complex order of overlapping states of union, vassal-suzerain relationships, and alliances. The name Itztlan-Tola by itself officially only refers to the actual municipal areas of the Itztlan and Tola megacities, commonly referred to as the Iron Sisters as sister cities on opposite ends of the Sondriline Sea whose bond is like iron. The state of union between these two cities was established under the Writ of Foundation and is marked as the formal start point for the polity now known as Xiwantandu. These two cities, dominated by their two Temples of the Serpent and the Eagle respectively, established the office of the Sovereign to rule as a middle authority tied to neither pole of the partnership, and to this day in the strictest interpretation of the founding documents, the Sovereign is primarily and in some cases only referred to as the master of the two cities alone. At the time the Writ of Foundation was penned and ratified, these two cities were embroiled in the violent collapse of the former Itztlantec Empire and the full extent of the Sovereign's jurisdiction was only the immediate territories of the two cities.

Although all territories added into the domains of the Sovereign were originally merely subjugated vassal states to either Itztlan or Tola and therefore under their union state, the passage of time and the expansion of the sphere of influence for the Iron Sisters has resulted in many of the territories nearby to the two cities becoming closely tied into them as satellite communities integral to the greater economic and political systems of the large metropolitan centers. Over time, these vassal city states and territories were fully integrated and their governments reorganized from largely self governing vassal states to directly ruled provinces under the Sovereign's civil government. These territories of annexed former vassal states are collectively known as the Central Integrated Territory, or C.I.T. of the Itztlan-Tola Hegemony. The Itztlan-Tola CIT, colloquially referred to as the Core, is economically vital for the industrial economies of the two mega cities to sustain themselves, allowing for many production centers to be spaced out and making ample room for complex supply chains. The high level of industrial development of the CIT has caused it to be a densely populated region, and the only region on the surface of Tandire to have a predominantly urban population, hosting all of the top 25 largest cities of the planet. Notably, many island territories in the Tandan world ocean are directly governed by the Sovereign and are not under a vassal-suzerain relationship, but are not part of the Central Integrated Territories, and are simply considered integrated territory within the Hegemony. An example of a non-CIT integrated territory is the large island of Zolla in the austral polar sea, which is directly ruled as an overseas possession of the Sovereign and serves as a strategic polar launch site for voyages into space.

Lastly, the remaining territory of Tandire as well as its extensions into space are governed by vassal states that have not undergone the total integration of those now defunct states that have been absorbed into the CIT. This complex tributary web can be politically amorphous in some areas, and is referred to under the umbrella term of the Hegemonic Sphere of Itztlan-Tola, whereas the specific term of the Hegemony is used to describe this extended tributary network in addition to the CIT and Itztlan-Tola themselves. Although some of these states do have some level of economic and political integration, most are highly autonomous in their internal affairs and are essentially self governing states and nations, save for the cession of control over foreign affairs and trade to the authority of Itztlan-Tola as well as the payment of tribute. Tribute is usually paid in the form of raw materials and natural resources of a certain monetary value, but can sometimes take the form of military assistance or a technological contribution. By far the largest and most powerful vassal state of the Hegemony are the Metztli, controlling the Tandan moons and possessing an technological and industrial sophistication to rival that of the Itztlan-Tola CIT itself. Because of its nature as an advanced power unto itself and in part due to historical circumstances, the Metztli enjoy a special status as part vassal, part independent allied power to Itztlan-Tola that makes it unique within the Hegemonic Sphere. While many vassal states are highly autonomous, the status of the Metztli goes beyond autonomy as they even exert some degree of influence over Itztlan-Tola in their own right, although they are distinctly the junior partner in the relationship. This is best exemplified by the joint command and operation of the Xiwa Armada space-borne naval forces of Xiwantandu between Itztlan-Tola and their Metztli subjects.

Military

Main Articles: Xiwa Army, Xiwa Navy, Xiwa Armada

The military organization of Xiwantandu is as much shaped by the turbulent formative years of the Itztlan-Tola Hegemony as its complex and decentralized political nature. Broadly, the main fighting force of Xiwantandu is made up of two main bodies; the Janissary corps and the Contract troops. The standing army is made up of Janissary soldiers born into the warrior caste of Tandan society and are typically regarded as well trained and well equipped troops, the elite of Xiwa forces. In the event of a major mobilization or the outbreak of war, a wartime force is amassed using regularized mercenary contracts, which are typically standardized and allow for the rapid enlistment of large numbers of troops. Soldiers mobilized in this way are simply known as Contractors. Some Contract forces are raised in peacetime to handle more routine military tasks that are considered outside of the Janissary purview.

Janissaries

The foundation of the Janissary corps as well as its nature as a military body is closely linked to Tandan history and an event known as the Great Reformation. This event, coinciding with the foundation of Itztlan-Tola, partially deconstructed the caste system of Tandan society, or more specifically reorganized it to remove the Warrior caste from power. Formerly highborn knights and feudal lords, the now dis-empowered Warrior caste was reorganized so as to redirect its members into the service of Itztlan-Tola. This was done by establishing the Janissary corps, a military organ that inducts pre-selected Warrior caste Tandans into its ranks for intensive training and indoctrination to become highly skilled and more importantly loyal soldiers of of the Sovereign. During the Grand Campaign and Wars of Unification, the Janissary corps served as the elite regiments of the Sovereign's armies of conquest as they subjugated the independent states of Tandire. In more peaceful times or merely during conflicts of lower intensity, the Janissaries are the primary operatives of the Xiwa military arm that carry out missions and further the plans of the Sovereign.

Military Contractors

The origin of the Contract Soldier of Itztlan-Tola is that of the common mercenary, recruited in droves by the First Sovereign to fight in the Grand Campaign and hailing from diverse lands and peoples. The decentralized and feudal nature of the early political order of the Hegemony meant that to rely on levied troops from Itztlan and Tola as the rank and file of the army in their extensive military campaigns would be to lead the two cities to ruin, and the Hegemony would need to draw upon the peoples of its subjugated territories to fight in order to meet long term success. This was accomplished through the recruitment of mercenary regiments from the local region, often soldiers of the vassal lords themselves that were lent out under contract in exchange for simple monetary compensation. As the Itztlan-Tola Hegemony grew in size, and became better established and stabilized, this system was regularized into the Contract system, in which the Sovereign would directly raise large numbers of individual soldiers through a mercenary contract offered to citizens of any community, directly ruled or vassal ruled, which could then be organized and reorganized into regiments as the Sovereign's generals saw fit. Although a reserve of Contract Soldiers is usually kept on retainer by Itztlan-Tola in case of war, the nature of the Contractor system as a means of conditional wartime mobilization means that the bulk of those that would serve as Contract Soldiers under the Xiwa military are now employed as such during peacetime. Typically, these soldiers continue to work under mercenary contract as the military and security forces of vassal states or under the interest of other non-state parties, occasionally competing to fill the more lucrative Xiwa military reservist contracts until such time as wartime contracts open up. In this way, the old system by which the Sovereign would rent out the regiments of her vassals to fight her wars is perpetuated in a similar sense into the present day.

Xiwa Armada

The organization of the Xiwa Armada is unlike that of the regular Xiwa forces, although it is still partially subject to the organizational principles of its Janissary and Contractor components. This is due to the Armada's nature as a joint command organization, the only branch of the Xiwa military forces not wholly controlled by the Sovereign of Itztlan-Tola but instead cooperatively run between the Sovereign's military staff and the defense forces under the Tlatoani of the Metztli. Because of this, neither Sovereign of Itztlan-Tola nor Tlatoani of the Metztli serves as a paramount commander-in-chief for the Armada, although both the Armada and the Tlatoani of the Metztli are ultimately subordinate to the Sovereign. In order to represent the joint interests both contributing parties, the Armada is headed by a body known as the Circle of Admirals, made of the seven High Admirals. In the early stages of the Armada, the High Admirals were largely retired Janissaries or other military veterans occupying the position largely as an administrative role over the relatively small nascent Xiwa Armada. Later on in the force's development, however, the position of High Admiral would be closely tied to the accomplishments of an Armada officer, typically an Admiral, and entry into the Circle of Admirals would be heavily regulated by litmus tests of merit as a commanding officer fit to hold sway over the leadership of the entire Armada. This strict barrier of entry in the developed Armada's Circle of Admirals would mean that the nominally seven member executive committee of the force would sometimes have empty positions as not enough Admirals in active service would meet the requirements to sit in the Circle, and the appointment of veterans and retirees to simply fill out the role would be disrespectful to accomplished Admirals not yet able to claim a seat and devalue the rank of High Admiral, so this was no longer done.

The Armada is largely staffed by soldiers and officers of the Sovereign's Janissary corps, with a roughly 2/3rds to 1/3rd ratio of homeworld Tandans to Metztli contributed officers across the whole of the Armada's manpower pool. Conversely, the majority of the naval supplies and especially the ships and hardware are supplied by Metztli manufactories, as it is far more efficient and cost effective to to manufacture these items in space rather than on Tandire due to the lack of atmosphere and lower gravity present on the Twin Moons controlled by the Metztli. A very small number of soldiers and officers are also recruited from the Spacer communities of the outer Gentian system, most notable of these being Shethefi Klioptera, Admiral of the Special Assignments Fleet, and her Spacer commandos. The Armada also possess its own attached ground, maritime and aerial combat forces which are occasionally collectively termed 'Armada Marines', although this designation is unofficial. This group is small in overall numbers, generally made up of elite Janissary units, irregularly recruited Spacer fighters, and fighting robots and militarized cybernetic organisms contributed by the Metztli.