Tykhestan

Tykhestan Reef Zone Provisional Government
Polity Info
Solar Commonwealth Flag
Government: Federal Technocracy Capital: 15 Eunomia Rauka Paradraya: Helai Marika Armagahn Logothete tou Tykhestan: Ladislauvia Kolodowicz
Population and Economy
Infrastructure: 135 Wealth: 95

“Heaven grant thee good,” said Arthur. “And where, Iddawc, didst thou find these little men?”
“I found them, lord, up yonder on the road.” Then the Emperor smiled.
“Lord,” said Iddawc, “wherefore dost thou laugh?”
“Iddawc,” replied Arthur, “I laugh nor; but it pitieth me that men of such stature as these should have this Island in their keeping, after the men that guarded it of yore.”
- The Dream of Rhonabwy

Theme: The Ostrogothic Kingdom of Space Soissons
Sub-Theme: Juntas and Uniforms

In better days the orbits between Mars and Jupiter were inhabited by billions living in artificial habitats and hollowed out asteroid colonies, some clustered together to form vast shoals and reefs, scattered along a glittering torus. Standing on any of the major solar bodies the human occupied asteroid belt seemed like a river of lights encompassing the Sun, for which it was named the Solar Girdle. It is hard to imagine the provenance of the appellate today for it is now a blighted ruin, lawless and violent.

For those seeking to journey across the Solar System, the band of space between Mars and Jupiter is often one of the most dangerous stretches of their journey. The Civil War and Long Night reduced to techno-barbarism and brigandry many of those trapped outside of polises.

Still, pockets of stability remain to open to travelers. Chief amongst these oasis is Tykhestan. The administrative machinery of Tykhestan is essentially that of a District of the Solar Commonwealth: a Logothete and his staff acting as the head for a number of lower magistrates and various officials. The Provisional Government insists all traffic through Tykhestan space must obey ancient Commonwealth era Navigation Law and Procedure. To this day, its citizens continue to maintain that the Provisional Government is simply a region of the Commonwealth, not an independent nation-state.

Conversely the majority of military, the so called Provisional Armed Forces, is manned almost entirely not by native citizens but by a Beyonder nomadic comet-rider coalition known as the Setarehzan Paradraya, claiming descent from Commonwealth outrider patrols of the Kuiper, who settled peacefully in Tykhestan - living under their own military law and internal government. Voluntarily “registered” for service as an emergency military force, the Setarehzan are skilled combatants in their long, needle hulled dromons. Their energetic patrols of the belt seek to expand the envelop of Tykhestan space in every direction against the myriads of marauders and

In practice the operation of Provisional Government in union with the Setarehzan is oft remarked to resemble a constitutional elective monarchy, with the Logothete acting akin to the prime minister of a technocratic bureaucracy for the Rauka of the Setarehzan.

Tykhestan is a major industrial powerhouse in the system. While much reduced in efficiency by the Civil War and the Long Night, it retains extensive manufactory infrastructure in all fields related to ships. Unfortunately centuries of desperately necessary central control related to military quotas and laboring under limited resources stunted the production of non-military goods.

Rumors of a supposed “Salvation Council” are absolutely untrue hearsay and rumor.

The Tykhestan Reef Zone

"But soon Khronos that accomplishes all will pass the portals of our house, and then all pollution will be expelled from the hearth by cleansing rites that drive out calamity. The dice of Tykhe will turn as they fall and lie with faces all lovely to behold, favorably disposed to whoever stays in our house."
- Aeschylus, Libation Bearers The main belt was the site of humanity’s earliest successful homesteading attempts beyond earth orbit as a natural extension of various waystation projects and mining operations. The region’s runaway development soon made it highly attractive to the mother nations in the Earth sphere and soon enough paid witness to the first brushfire wars and proxy conflicts. While the Solar Girdle emerged as the industrial heartland of the Solar System the Great Powers jockeyed all the more violently with each other for influence and control over the colonies.

The formation of the Solar Commonwealth freed many colonies from the control of their parent nations. To better adjudicate localized conflicts amongst the newly emerging political units of the Main Belt and administrate services, LOGOS divided the Solar Girdle into a number of Districts which defined the jurisdiction of specialized staff headed by a special magistrate known as the Logothete. It was their function to handle the daily minutiae of Commonwealth government for the member states of the Solar Girdle. While many of these Districts were reorganized, partitioned, or disbanded over the centuries a few core districts remained more or less in their original shapes, such as Hōrai District.

Hōrai District originally encompassed in its demesne the Eunomia Republic, the Kubileya Reef Union States, the New Vraspakania and Horizon Shoal Zones.

The golden days of the Commonwealth seemed infinite but nothing truly lasts forever, and the shadow of Nemesis suddenly loomed over the Solar System. Whether a symptom of its increasingly erratic schizophrenia or in service of some inscrutable design it never fully accomplished LOGOS began a series of sweeping reforms and restructuring of the District system, expanding the powers of its local officers and revising their areas of responsibility. It would appoint Soffiya Poklonskaya to the post of Logothete Hōrai.

Various factions under the direction of fragments of LOGOS attempted to seize control of polities in the main belt in a blinkered effort to secure industry and resources to pursue futile survival plans. In the self-immolation of the Commonwealth, the Solar Girdle became a particularly ferocious battleground as manned fleets clashed with each other and the wrath of terrible engines locked away in secret arsenals were turned loose. War, against all by all, trampled the Solar Girdle with bloody footsteps. It is a grim irony that while it was the Solar Girdle that most vulnerable to the cometary bombardment, the fury of the Civil War robbed the vast majority its population to secure themselves in proper safeholds of the Polis type before the vanguard of Nemesis had arrived.

By the end of it all Hōrai District had somehow escaped more or less intact, if battered, having accrued the detritus of other districts and a few orphaned warships with no orders anymore. All other lights in the Solar System it seemed had winked out and the survivors were alone in the sea of static, the lingering backwash of weapons. As Nemesis approached, Logothete Soffiya Poklonskaya declared the dissolution of the Hōrai District and the institution of an interim District of Tykhestan, defiantly named after the sister of Nemesis, officially encompassing the whole of its constituency.

Tykhestan entered the Long Night.

The Beyonders

Amongst the fractious Comet Riders of the Kuiper and far Oort are certain loose group identities that formed in the aftermath of Nemesis and the hostility of Monster to all unidentified traffic. Of these the Setarehzan (Star Trail Lancers) are amongst the greatest of the intensely xenophobic and secretive Beyonders. Claiming descent from human crewed Outrider patrols of the far Oort, these nomads sail the dark sea beyond the shores of the Sun on glittering sails and live in social structures very much like military units. It is the atypical discipline and organizations that has allowed them to consistently defeat other Comet Riders for possession of contested orbits.

Several centuries ago the great Setarehzan Staff agreed that a splinter of the Setarehzan should follow a Comet deep into the System to see if any fragments of the Commonwealth yet remained.

These Setarehzan are known by themselves and by their cousins in the ancestral homeland as the Setarehzan Paradraya, beyond the sea.

Tykhestan Reef Zone Annual Report, 4500 A.D.

The Tykhestan Reef Provisional Government

Population
Major Polis (26 points to spend): A large Polis with a substantial, diverse population and possibly satellite habitats outside of the Polis proper. Adds an additional 250 Military Points, 300 Military Support, 25 Wealth and 25 Construction Rate but suffers -1 to Growth Potential.

National Advantages:
Rank 2 (2 points)
- Barbarian Allies
- Excellent Diplomats

National Disadvantages:
Rank 2 (+2 points)
- Ascended Barbarians
- Barbarian Backyard

Economy:
Rank 2 (2 points)
- Wealth Rating 70 + 25

Infrastructure:
Rank 4 (4 points)
- Construction Rating 110 + 25

Growth Potential:
Rank 3 - 1 (3 points)
- x4 Infrastructure Cost

Espionage:
Rank 3 (4 points)

General Advancement:
Rank 0

Setarehzan Paradraya

"Star Trail Lancers Beyond the Sea"

Military Size:
Rank 3 (3 points)
- Military Points 490 + 250

Military Support:
Rank 4 (4 points)
- Military Support 825 + 300

Military Quality:
Rank 3 (5 points)

Superweapons:
Rank 0

Listen!

Oh wicked ones we, Tykhe who braved the shower of heavenly darts and we the Lancers who rode the Comet's tail, say this: The evil sway of Invidia has stolen the the children of the Sun. Who know remembers the Common Weal? The world is wracked by kinstrife, good things are stolen from the mouths of the unborn, nothing passes the lips save awful calumny. All have forgotten the sweet voice of LOGOS though the shadow of Nemesis has passed. You faithless ones; the Commonwealth is not suspended, LOGOS is not silent. Listen! If the living will not heed, we will break in the doors and smash the bolts; there will be confusion of people, those above with those who slumbered below. We shall bring up the sleepers to drink the light like the living and the hosts of the sleepers will outnumber the living.