Xiwantandu
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Six Domains of Tandire Xiwantandu | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Motto: Progress, Prosperity and Peace | |
| Capital | Cuauhquemecan |
| Largest city | Itztlan |
| Official languages | Tandan Standard |
| Demonym(s) | Xiwa |
| Government | Hegemonic Atlepetl Federation |
• Sovereign | Toloche Cancuzuma |
| Establishment | |
• Great Reformation | 14th of August, 1284 AM |
| Currency | Nera (Lb) |
| Date format | dd-mm--yyy |
Xiwantandu, the common name of the Itztlan-Tola Hegemony, is a star state located in the Gamma quadrant that occupies the planet Tandire and parts of the surrounding Gentian solar system through a network of tributaries and client states. It is formally a hegemonic federation of Atlepetl city states, which the central union of the Itztlantec and Tolantec cities and their territories forming the imperial core, and various Atlepetls and other forms of client state being subjugated and paying tribute to this core in a vassal-suzerain relationship. The largest and most notable client of Xiwantandu are the Metztli occupying the Twin Moons of Tandire, and represent one of the only footholds of the Tandan regime in space as well as one of the most industrially advanced power within the hegemonic sphere of the Xiwa. Due to their decentralized power structure, Xiwantandu is notable for highly variable levels of technology and development depending on the region. Itztlan-Tola and their integrated lands of the imperial core are a sophisticated industrial society with sufficient technological advancement to launch craft into space and even develop primitive fast than light travel. In comparison, peripheral vassals on the continent of Acalhuacan exist in a medieval technological stage and operate as an undeveloped agrarian economy in stark contrast to the technical and productive capabilities of the integrated core. The basis of Xiwa economic progression is based on the gradual process of adoption of technology and new modes of production by vassal states, subsequently increasing the amount of resources and economic value that can be extracted as tribute by the imperial core.
The Xiwa are made up of the three known sentient species native to Tandire which belong to the Archaeopterid family, a group of feathered diapsid sentient consisting of only three extant species. Miri are by far the most common of the three, making up the well adapted generalist species, while the long living but diminutive pygmy Kypra and the colossal Rorkar races are far less common, believed to have been undergoing the processes of natural extinction due to competition from the Miri before this process was effectively halted or in some cases merely slowed by the advent of civilization. The three species are organized into a caste system featuring clerical figures on top, followed by the warrior caste that in past centuries dominated before being deposed by the clerics, and beneath them the artisans, the merchants, the peasants and fisherman, and finally the untouchables which are people of other castes that have undergone ostracism and been cast out for significant transgressions against the social order. However, most occasions of ostracism are no longer practiced under the Xiwa, and the once only hypothetical superiority of the clerical caste has been reinforced establishing the supremacy of religious laws over the civil government of Xiwantandu.
Geography and Politics
The basis of the Xiwa state is the Mandala system common to Tandan society, wherein a series of vassal relationships and peripheral tributaries make up the bulk of the empire and are arrayed around a center of power, a hegemonic Atlepetl city state, the cities of eponymous Itztlan and Tola in the case of the Itztlan-Tola Hegemony. However, Xiwantandu breaks from Tandan convention in its use of a bipartite metropolitan center splitting power between the two capitals under a state of union, with Itztlan as the senior partner and Tola as the junior partner. A third capital exists largely as a formality, located on a very small rocky island near Itztlan known as Cuauhquemecan, who's only function is to serve as the formal seat of the Sovereign of Xiwantandu and as a neutral third power center to mediate disputes between the opposite poles of the Xiwa core territory represented by the Itztlan and Tola city governments acting on behalf of the swathes of territory they directly administer. Itztlan, being found on Citlaltepec island in the Sondrilos archipelago, has integrated the island chain as well as numerous World Ocean islands and small enclaves on Tecualoyan as its part of the imperial core, while Tola has integrated a subcontinental region of Conitlan known as the Saddle of Conitlan. Together, these integrated territories of the imperial core largely surround the Sondriline Sea, one of the only partially enclosed maritime bodies on Tandire distinct from the World Ocean, the only other one of note being the Gulf of Mictlan. The imperial core comprises some 700 million inhabitants, overwhelmingly Miri Tandans, which inhabit not only the mega-cities that Itztlan and Tola have separately become, but a large number of significant urban centers, as the advanced and develop imperial core is where the majority of Tandire's major urban and industrial centers can be found.
Political Divisions
(map is in the shop)
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 disrespect 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.