“You are correct that the Imperium is quite diverse. In addition to my people, the Drakari,” Cicero would place a clawed hand upon his breast before motioning to his colleagues, “there are are a few other spacefaring races under our banner in addition to those present with me.”
“Commander Ezrevial, my first officer, is a Sinthari descended from the Zukuru artisan and merchant caste.” The crimson-skinned woman would smirk as she raised her glass.
“Whereas Lieutenant Kurga is, as mentioned prior, is a Sosa.”
“Believe it or not, my people are renowned for the skill of our commandos,” the bearded alien chuckled as he set his axe on the floor next to his chair.
“As for the Imperium’s history, the Drakari became a spacefaring civilization roughly twelve-thousand and six Standard Years ago on the throneworld of Pax Dracon located in the ‘north’ of the Sector. We’ve steadily increased the breadth of our dominion, claiming several systems in our desire to bring order and justice to the universe at large. Even taking a few star-nations under our protection as they build themselves up.”
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“An Empire of Cooperation is an Empire of greatness, and what a great cooperation it must be for xenosapient species to exist united as one.”
“Just like your Imperium, the Empire has spread and colonized many, many worlds throught the millennia: more than thirty thousand worlds, from icy moons to gas giants, have been engineered to fit our inhabitation, together with billions of orbital habitats of various size. Together with that, many more thousands of planets have been rendered into paradises that we willingly left untouched, so that the ecosystems we created there can evolve on their own. With a little help from above, of course.”
“Anywho, I had a couple of questions. First of all, Liutenant Kurga. I was wondering about that weird object you have strapped behind your back. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it before. Would you mind explaining what it is? I’m quite intrigued.”
“Secondly, I believe my translator must have glitched out for a second, because I think a certain word didn’t get translated properly. What was it… caste, or something like that.”
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“Pardon?” The rather hirsute alien would raise a brow at the governor’s question, confused and curious in equal measure as he followed his gaze to his weapon. His eyes would widen ever-so-slightly in understanding, giving a tusked grin as he set his drink off to the side before picking his axe up and placing it upon the desk.
“It’s an axe. Both a tool, and a weapon. Regardless of the customs of whichever clan a Sosa may come from, whether they choose to become a warrior, or a scientist, or a surgeon, or even a simple warehousing clerk… all are required to forge an axe of their own design as part of their rite of adulthood. Sure, we use more advanced and sturdier alloys compared to the iron and bronze our ancestors made do with, but the principle remains the same.”
He smiled as he ran his fingers along the cheek of the blade. “Took me a while to gather the metals, took a bit longer to get them all heated to the point that hammer and anvil could be used to shape them as I saw fit… but it was worth all the burns, all the effort. Wouldn’t part with this for all the power weapons in the Imperium.”
Ezrevial couldn’t help but give her comrade a soft smile as he reminisced, almost missing Governor Muskarill’s question in the process.
“Aaaah, yes… the castes. In ages past among the Sinthari, they were the hereditary social roles and classes of my people. There was the Kitsai, the caste of scholars and priests who made up the bulk of the aristocracy. The Zukuru who were farmers, artisans, engineers, and merchants. And finally the Mansatzis who served as bodyguards, formed mighty armies, and even served as a constabulary force in times of peace.”
She smirked. “Nowadays, the castes serve more as a way of tracking family heritage, rather than roles you were born into.”
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“Ah, I see. Interesting! An “axe”. After this I’ll definitely take a look into the Imperial Archives to try and find anything that resembles it even a little. I’ll definitely have to go into Pre-Imperial History, since a weapon like this can’t really exist in the Empire. As much as I admire the craft it is, for all intents and purposes, a rather… primitive weapon. After all, we have an automated ground and air military, so these would be quite useless for the battle droids. However, I suppose they could be interesting for personal duels and other forms of entertainment and art. The Sociologists, Historians and PrimWeapon Artists will definitely be captivated by this axe of yours. I can already see them laying down the Nanofibres of carbon, or adding the scanned template to their programmable multiweapons.”
“It’s also interesting how they permeate your culture so much. Well, to be honest, it doesn’t come from a surprise: from the second that my exoself scanned you, I could tell that you would most likely have some sort of warrior culture, even if it wasn’t the majority in your species. Your redundant organs and dense musculoskeletal structure only lead to that conclusion. I wonder if you’d be interested in myomer augmentations… but that’s something for another day.”
“I’m glad to hear that these “castes” are no longer rigid Madame Ezrevial. We have always considered all Galactyans to be equal, even during our darkest of times. Happily for everybody, we made ourselves extend that notion to all other species long, long ago. I have to admit, the concept of aristocracy is still quite weird for me, as I thought that only pre-interplanetary cultures would have it: however, you’re the second advanced interstellar nation who seems to still be upholding these structures. The closest equivalent we could have are the Archailects and Godlings of the fourth and third toposophic, but even that is quite a stretch.”
“Now, it is time for us to get down to business. As it’s pretty much clear that we are culturally and socially compatible in our ideals, we should get down to more economical matters. Would the Drakari Imperium be open to trading with the Galactyan Empire? I have a catalog of some of the things we are willing to export right here. Ever since our first contact with Calerost we have been keeping an updated list. Certainly does come in handy for situations like these!”
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