The Tale of the Gazraki

(from the Kantonnen Wanderer’s Handbook to the Universe)

Overview

Ga-zra-ki, in their own language, means “humanity”, of course. Some etymological analyses, rather farfetched, but still amusing, suggest the word is derived from “the thing keeping the sword from lying unused on the floor”.

Their society has depended on warfare from an early date, having the bad luck of beginning its existence in a world inhabited by several different sentient races. An economy of pillaging and raiding soon evolved into a culture based upon enslaving ‘lesser races’.

At its height, right before the advent of dragons, the Gazraki civilization had reached a level of complexity and efficiency remarkable for an otherwise homogenous society. Such cultural hegemony was crucial to win respect and, eventually, respectful assimilation by the draconic empire.

Geography

The Gazraki evolved in the northernmost tundra and steppes of Gamezoha Prime, likely from biped mammal-like carnivores adapted to arctic climates, as attested by the color of their fur and other anatomical features. After centuries of southward raids, they eventually secured the relatively fertile, if dry, Great Hot Big Sunny Desert. At this point happened the crucial enslavement of the Tfafnian lemur-people. Because the Tfafnians were so irrevocably detached from the sufferings of daily life thanks to their ability to derive full contentment from their dreamscape (as desert creatures, they had evolved to sleep the twelve hours of scorching sun per day), they made usually sheepish slaves, gifted with an uncanny expertise in subjects related to ecological engineering. Their major hydraulic works (called by the Gazrakis hufna) allowed Gazraki communities to prosper both in steppes and desert, and eventually spread to cover most of the continent.

Politics (External)

There are many misconceptions about the Gazraki city-states. The denomination, in fact, is highly questionable, because of the factors we shall analyze.

Each ‘city-state’ (dfolna) was inhabited by several families (padr), the basic units of ‘the citizenry’ (ktoifimd). A bachelor, after entering adulthood (atďa, the same word for ‘active military service’), was his own padr, but females remained attached to their birth padr until marrying. Outside ktoifimd, were what can be generically translated as ‘civil servants’ – fitzarkli. Anything from the Tfafnian slaves to the de facto rules of the dfolna were classified as fitzarkli, so we’ll have to explore the concept further as we proceed.

Right now, it’s enough to know that there was a specialized military class (in a society where most citizens were already expected to be soldiers!) that was a powerful part of each dfolna’s fitzarkli. The best among these military men (zrakiatşimd) were sent to one of the Great Military Academies, the famous kzedr. Each dfolna was associated to one and only one kzedr, and related to it in the passive end of a hegemonic symmachy relation. This means the kzedr had military rule over the dfolna, and enemies and friends of the kzedr were lawfully, automatically enemies and friends of each dfolna associated to it. The kzedr, then, headed hegemonic blocks, although they had no authority over the non-military administration of each of its associate dfolna. The relationship is more complex, though, because the kzedr were composed of zrakiatşimd from all dfolna according to objective selection criteria, without hereditary continuity, so it had no interest in exploiting the dfolna. In fact, politically, the kzedr did not so much represent an external intervention in internal dfolna affairs, but a factor in the complex fitzarkli-ktoifimd power balance.

Of the many offices in the career of a zrakiatşimd serving a kzedr, two were especially crucial, even though not as dignified as that of Strategus (commander of a specific campaign). The Ephor was in charge of overseeing the domestic administration of a specific dfolna (necessarily, not his home dfolna) – an obvious intrusion of the military sphere into the one the dfolna were supposedly autonomous in. His duty was to make sure the dfolna’s tribute-contributions to the kzedr were in order, as well as to act as ambassador of the kzedr, familiarizing himself with the local elite to know exactly who to punish in the event of unrest. The Exarch was assigned to a dfolna (again, not his own) to be commander-in-chief of all forces, be it zrakiatşimd or citizenry at arms (zraktoifimd). This was obviously to restrict the military autonomy of the dfolna, schadming a very useful educational experience for the prospective kzedr graduate.

Because of the command of the Exarchs, relations between neighboring dfolna associated to the same kzedr were by necessity stable. Disputes were resolved in very ritualized battles organized by the kzedr between each dfolna’s zrakiatşimd. Any disobedience brought about several Exarchs’ forces and the zrakzedr, the academy’s elite troops.

More importantly, kzedr seldom engaged in wars against other kzedr. There was a practical limit to the number of dfolna that could be subordinated to one kzedr, and that was the very thorough effort demanded by the Gazraki martial training. Doubtlessly, the training itself may have evolved to quell conflict between kzedr, as a protective meme. A lucky side-effect of this meme was the exquisite skill of the race’s military men – a curious but mostly uncontested hypothesis. The kzedr were actually interested in joint campaigns for the foundation of new dfolna so they could found new kzedr following philosophies blending those of both founders – a unique tradition of memeplex sexual reproduction.

Family

To understand the ktoifimd, which is the Gazraki people in the purest sense, understanding the padr is crucial.

All five gazraki dharmas (six if you count the un-dharma, or state of disgrace) are closely related to family roles. Gazraki marriage presupposed one male (padr-iarch, as some scholars say, though the original Gazraki word varied regionally) married to four females, impregnating them at an alarming rate. Each female had to belong to one of four female dharmas, as will be studied below in education. While copulation with the ‘persona-wife’ could occur only at a complexly ritualized yearly festival, under penalty of death for the male and cloistering for the wife, the male was expected to service his ‘ilinx-wife’ in a daily ritual, or be exposed to the ridicule of his peers. Either way, all children of all wives were equal and formed the collective unity of progeny (očapr). The date of birth of each child into the očapr was crucial to determine its social role, even more than simple primogeniture in most civilizations. Each child was only considered born at the seventh day after its birth, if it survives that long. Even so, it only received a name after its first birthday.

Adultery was punished with death, but only males were ever considered guilty of adultery and punished. It’s important to note that, despite ‘padriarchy’, all economic affairs were administered by the ‘agon-wife’, whose padr-name became the padr-name of the očapr and of her husband (matrilineal succession). Any children outside of marriage, be they from adultery or premarital sex, were slain, an important measure because the whole social order derived from the unity of očapr.

The firstborn son of an očapr was automatically ‘donated’ to the ‘state’, joining the zrakiatşimd, wherein he received a Spartan education from an early age. If he turned out to be physically or mentally unfit for war, he remained in the zrakiatşimd in administrative or logistical functions, and retained all respect from his peers and the citizenry, still being able to reach high offices and even being able to attend some lesser courses at the kzedr, if sufficiently skilled in other ways. The zrakiatşimd were fully supported by the state’s taxes, but with very little luxury, and were the shock troops of the dfolna. Zrakia (born-for-murder) is, then, the first dharma of the Gazraki, the backbone of their military activity.

Any sons after the first are educated collectively, spending the day in an academy, but are not segregated from their padr. They have the status of potential citizens, which is upgraded to full citizenship when they reach their 21^st birthday, when they become their own padr, with the following exception.

The youngest son in an očapr at any moment was especially prohibited to marry (and therefore have children) and did not achieve citizenship at 21. If a younger brother was born and reached the age of receiving a name, then the burden was passed to him, and the formerly-youngest male received citizenship if appropriately old.

When the youngest male of the očapr became definitively defined (padriach or all mothers dead), he became a dfolnađėirn (sometimes translated as bureaucrat). The dfolnađėr, like the zrakiatşimd, formed part of the fitzarkli. However, the dfolnađėr weren’t warriors, much to the contrary. They were excused from all military service and training, and castrated and trained for purely rational, dispassionate thinking. They held the most crucial offices in domestic administration, and were expected to set high intellectual standards as notaries, scribes, inventors, engineers and magistrates. Their existence was a sacerdotal one, dedicated to the well-being of the dfolna, but also of the gazraki community as a whole, as revealed in the higher ranks of the secretive dfolnađėr temples. Each dfolna had one temple, the ‘home temple’ (olnađ), the center of domestic administration and registers. Besides the olnađ, there were additional temples marking (symbolically but also pragmatically) the boundaries between neighboring dfolna. These dhranađ fostered trade, traveler accommodation and highway security, among other services. The razing of a dhranađ usually marked the beginning of a violent territorial dispute – but the very fact one’d be killing dfolnađėr from both nations tended to deter such acts of violence. The dhranađ were, then, a strong factor of decentralized international security and order. Completing the spectrum of male dharmas, these đėria are the ‘clockwork-men’ who keep the social machinery ticking.

The daughters in the očapr follow a simpler rule. The firstborn daughter is also confiscated by the state, and becomes a kizreątzimb. That is another category in the fitzarkli. These priestesses have ritual roles, but also in a very material sense exist to serve the zrakiatşimd warriors. As such, they were treated to be sterile. Symbolically, all zrakiatşimd were married to all kizreątzimb, who followed them and assisted them in war, at times even in battle. The kizrei dharma, then, is that of ‘priestess’, or according to some scholars, ‘priestess-whore’. They were untouchable by members of the ktoifimd, and intercourse was punished with death.

All other daughters followed the normal female education, and discovered their dharmas as citizen-wives through it.

A crucial aspect of this division is that all inheritance, which occurred only after both husband and the four wives died, was divided between non-kizreątzimb daughters and the dfolnađėr son (because the latter would never marry, but wasn’t expected to live the Spartan zrakiatşimd life). The male sons were left to begin a fortune from scratch, having only the automatic citizen allowance and communal quarters. After examining female education, we’ll see how husbands win their wives and their corresponding properties, a custom that fosters the formation of strong padr.

Lastly, on Gazraki sexuality, much has been observed about their curious fetishes for specific body parts: mainly the umbilical cord mark, the joint between leg and foot, and between torso and arm. It has been attributed to an interest in the connection between the ‘vital’ parts of the body and its periphery that might be lost in combat, that is, an interest in the health of the potential partner, or also more symbolically the connection between torso (self) and exterior world (manipulating extremities, as well as nutrition sources). The whole affair remains somewhat mysterious. Another curious cultural trait is the utter repulse for male homosexuality among ktoifimd, punished with reduction to the fallen-from-grace (pfui) caste, while ignoring or even religiously exalting other forms of sexual deviance. Specifically, any relation with any other race, even a sentient one, was considered bestiality, and accepted, no matter the gender of the ‘beast’ in question. It then became customary for citizens with homosexual impulses to vent them with their male tfafnian or suchlike slaves. Among zrakiatşimd, despite the existence of the kizreątzimb priestesses, pederasty was more or less institutionalized and on occasion, admired.

Education

While fitzarkli received highly focused educations, the ktoifimd had a very privileged cultural prerogative: it was understood that while the ‘civil servants’ derived happiness from fulfilling duties, the citizens were ends in themselves (autotelic or galtzen), the purpose of society being to allow them to make the most of their capabilities. Thence we have the rsil/revd dialectic.

Potential citizens train to belong to the Triple Dharma, a trinity composed of physical, social and mental aspects, taken to be separate dharmas, but part of the ‘citizen dharma’, galktoi, literally ‘full-man’. All potential citizens are trained in the three aspects to a standard, and naturally some are more talented in one than in another, although there is the abstract aspiration that all citizens be master of all three, so as to become masters of the ‘spiritual aspect’ as well. Citizens are tested in the three categories, and receive certifications and grades at each separately, which help getting assigned to tasks and offices, having more votes, and suchlike.

Being inherently incapable of being galtzen, the four wife-dharmas sought to complete the existence of the padriarch. As such, the training did not seek to complete a female as an individual but as one of four mothers of an očapr. Until a generation (girls born in a six year period) reached 14-20 years of age, the girls were educated in general virtues, arts and skills by the kizreątzimb priestesses. A selective process then ranked them in intelligence, attractiveness, and personality. The ten percent with the highest overall score were assigned to the ‘elusive-wife’ dharma, called sometimes ‘persona’. The rest were divided according to their best trait, respectively to ‘agon’, ‘ilinx’ and ‘alea’. Each girl then had three years of specific training before being available for marriage, plus life-long continuous courses to further her abilities. ‘Persona’ wives were obviously the most treasured, but there was a strong ritualism around them, including, as seen before, that the husband could only copulate with her – in fact, see her face – once per year. She was also the deity of several family rituals, and the husband had to employ a specific worshipful form of speech when addressing her. More importantly, ‘persona’ wives had free transit in male society, wearing masks to hide themselves from all men, engaging them in conversation – for they were free to choose husbands, and do so based on love. For the other wives, there were three festivals for year, one for each category. In each, males write their names in the lists of the available wives he’s interested in. Then all lists are ordered by the potential husbands’ grades in an aspect of galktoi (a curious correspondence system: physical for ilinx, mental for alea, social for agon). The highest-ranked wife chooses a husband from the three highest ranked, or chooses to spend another year without marrying. If a husband is chosen, his name is erased from all other lists, and the process continues similarly until all wives have decided. All men who are rejected by all wives they wanted are forbidden to participate in the next festival of that category.

Royalty

All dfolna have a monarch, but his powers are minor. The King’s padr is organized differently. All of a King’s sons are taken to become zrakiatşimd. All of his daughters, firstborn included, have the normal female education, and the husband of his oldest daughter instantly becomes the new King. Kingship is, then, paradoxically, matrilineal. Its benefits are indirect land ownership (all landowners, including the State, must pay him small annual fees proportional to land extension owned, and an additional fee whenever land trades hands), which adds up to a significant fortune, jurisdictional privileges and a place in the Small Council, as seen below.

Politics (Internal)

Legislation is formally in the hands of the Small Council (Ghejúcs), essentially a citizen body, but it’s restricted by: powerful fitzarkli lobbies, prohibition to interfere in military affairs enforced by the kzedr, and the fact their laws are applied by an executive body formed by dfolnađėr bureaucrats. Also, while prosecution and legal defense (of citizens) are exercised by citizens holding special offices, dfolnađėr are the magistrates, although citizens are entitled to appeal to the Small Council, at the risk of a two to tenfold increase in penalty if the Ghejúcs does not reform the magistrate’s decision.

The Ghejúcs is composed of the King, his agon-wife (not necessarily the one whose bloodline gave him kingship), the kzedr Ephor, the dfolnađėr tribune, the kizreątzimb tribune, the zrakiatşimd tribune, the Tfafnian tribune (indeed, representation of the slaves), the wives’ tribune (elected by agon-wives among themselves), and the tribune of foreigners (for all non-citizen, non-fitzarkli sentient inhabitants, be they Gazraki from other dfolna or even non-enslaved members of other races), and twenty-one citizens, ten holding offices won through election, ten through merit (three physical, three mental, three social, one highest overall), and the last of them being the Exalted Senile, necessarily the oldest citizen alive.

The Ghejúcs decides anything in a simple, open, public yea or nay vote, but if the winning measure fails to have twenty or more supporters, or in the event of a tie, the decision is transferred to the Large Council (Homjúcs).

The Homjúcs is composed of all citizens who attend the central stadium for a debate, in which the assigned leader of both sides of the issue in the Ghejúcs exposes his side of the question for half an hour. The citizens then cast their ballots and the question is decided.

Economy

Land ownership was central to early Gazraki economy, as it was for most races, although they had the advantage of superior productivity thanks to the hufna. Adult Gazrakis had too many political duties as citizens to be able to depart for too long from the urban center of each dfolna. The padr’s properties were all worked, and often administered, by slaves, policed by a produce-collecting service run by Quaestors, a low-ranking public office most citizens were expected to serve in at least once (the most common original word, Ntajcse, saw many regional variants, as did the names of other political offices, so we’ll use the names employed by traditional historiography). This agricultural produce, which was mandatorily sold to the Quaestorial Commission for redistribution, was the basic source of wealth for citizens, a much-sought result of opportune marriage. Less lucky citizens had to depend on their wages in the service of the dfolna, in public offices that ranged from voluntary military service to Ghejúcs membership. The stamps emitted by the Quaestorial Commission and the Censorial Commission (Censors were in charge of administrating the human resources of the dfolna, a job that included the payment of officials) acted as transitory currency within the dfolna’s territory.

With time, citizens won lakhfu (‘titles’, rewards for special achievements) and pjumňrn (‘honors’, benefits automatically won from service at certain branches of public service), which granted an additional income from the Aedilial Commission, whose stamps’ worth was more perennially based on precious metal reserves. Intellectual property was unknown, but authorship was definitely protected, and technological invention was richly rewarded with lakhfu.

Eventually, citizens had enough income from his holdings (padrjacs, land, titles and honors) to be mostly free from political concerns. After a certain level of wealth, he was expected to happily retreat to a peaceful ‘hacienda’ with his wives and spend the rest of his days enjoying himself and mastering his favorite skills, be they poetry or swordsmanship. He was even excused from most public festivals that would require his presence in the city. This retirement gave them găltzu (man-finally-full) status, and the society greatly valued the activities associated with the găltzu life, such as mentoring, ritual-visiting-for-clever-conversation (csutoyze) or traveling abroad.

While land ownership remained a key component of Gazraki economy and a chief component of individual wealth, industrial (or at any rate proto-industrial) production rapidly became crucial to supply their warlike lifestyles, and was monopolized by the State. A lack of fossil fuels prevented their technological tree from branching in that direction, severely hindering automation. However, the resulting logistical difficulties favored the development of lighter and stronger metal alloys, which coupled to the Tfafnian knack for engineering explains the relatively large size of Gazraki urban constructions.

All slaves belonged to the Dfolna, but a citizen could requisition some for personal use for small fees.

Public Offices and the Commissions

Among many minors offices, the following five were of special interest and importance.

Quaestors were in charge of seizing and protecting the agricultural produce, as well as managing rural slaves. More generally, they handled financial affairs related to agrarian production.

Aediles were in charge of urban slaves and buildings, essentially an urban counterpart to the Quaestor office. They also handled mineral production and industry, and the ever-crucial payment of lakhfu and pjumňrn.

Praetors indicted citizens when necessary, and oversaw internal military action, most usually against rebellious slaves. The zrakiatşimd conducting these operations weren’t remarkably fond of this interference, even though the Praetors did not so much command as watchdog the potentially perilous military maneuvers inside Dfolna territory.

Censors conducted elections and grading competitions, being in charge of keeping the administrative apparatus as lean and efficient as possible. They also kept personal, genealogic and demographic records.

Consuls were ambassadors and civilian watchdogs for external warfare.

All of these offices did not act directly but by proxy, using slave servants for the most menial work, as well as more skilled fitzarkli such as dfolnađėr for activities requiring special expertise. This meant their authority was at best indirect, if not nominal. To make matters worse, the Ghejúcs was divided in ten three-member commissions, whose composition changed randomly every three months. For each of these offices, there was a commission that made all important decisions (if 3-0 unanimous) or submitted it to the Ghejúcs general council (in the event of a minority objection). As such, the Aedilial Commission would decide the guidelines of the Aediles’ decisions, which would then be more often than not ignored at the convenience of what the dfolnađėr felt was best for the Dfolna.

The other five commissions were Internal Affairs (Praetors couldn’t indict members of the Ghejúcs), Kzedr Relations, Justice (which judged citizens’ appeals to the Ghejúcs), Diagnosis (responsible for the monthly ‘state of the Dfolna’ reports), and the Commission in Charge of Nothing.

Warfare

Nominally, the core of Gazraki warfare was formed by its zrakiatşimd shock troops, armored from head to toe in impenetrable full plate, bearing both a large round shield and a six-meter pike. All pieces of equipment were made of the best “anomalous materials” the Dfolna had developed, and were often a tenfold stronger and lighter than tool steel. The zrakiatşimd infantryman also carried a thrusting, armor-piercing sword, used to deliver blows to the ribcage in tight-packed combat, and a pair of heavy cleaving kukri-style blades used in similar fashion to throwing axes. His weapons of choice for skirmishes and one-on-one combat were a swift saber and an off-hand chain net. When fighting thusly he preferred to drop his shield, trusting the already massive protection afforded by his full plate. Metallurgical expertise and superior physical strength meant that despite his equipment, the zrakiatşimd hoplite wasn’t as drastically encumbered as the description would seem to imply.

Sadly, only kzedr could afford to field more than two or three platoons of zrakiatşimd in a single engagement, and so a lot of fighting depended on the citizen-soldiers and slave auxiliaries. While the latter varied significantly with local availability, a few genres were more or less ubiquitous.

First among these, and most respected, were Tfafnian pioneers. The Tfafnian slaves in these forces tended to be ranked highest among slaves, and given many rewards for their loyalty. The Tribune of the Slaves often rose from their ranks. They were infallible in siege engineering and similar tasks, and could fight decently equipped with curved dagger, hand-axe, repeating crossbow, and exquisite anomalous material mail shirts.

When the local availability of the large beasts of burden called pfuđum allowed (which was unusual, as the beasts were priceless for logistic purposes, being able to carry great amounts of cargo and photosynthesizing their own feed, even in seasons when sunlight is scarce), they were employed as mobile onager platforms, manned by a crew of Tfafnian pioneers. The thick-skinned and often armored beast could take dozens of blows before falling, and if injured could rapidly regenerate even the gravest wounds if allowed to rest. The onager was used to disrupt tight formations, and then the pfuđum chased the scattered enemy with its impaling horns, while the gunners above sniped at enemy officers or royalty with their armor-piercing crossbow bolts.

Other available slaves were used either according to their original military tradition, or trained into four niches – to a remarkable degree of professionalism, despite never too high loyalty. In order of status: ‘Light’ were equipped with an oblong shield and six javelins. The youngest slave warriors were in this category. ‘Spear’ had buckler, four-meter pike and chain mail. They used armored metal masks, for many reasons, from hiding their unmotivated faces with more intimidating features, to reducing their peripheral vision and therefore the chances they might rout. ‘Horse’ had mounts, segmented plate armor, composite bows, oval shields and over-arm spear. ‘Archer’ had a breastplate, chain mail and anomalous materials longbows with a very high effectiveness range of 360 yards. All four were also equipped with standard-issue helmet and mace, which gave the auxiliary forces their distinct look.

Citizen-soldiers fought in four categories.

From 18 to 21, after a childhood full of martial arts, scouting practice and battlefield drill, potential-citizens served as ‘Alloy’, together with citizens who wished to improve their ratings with additional one-year tours of duty. ‘Alloy’ legionnaires wore plate armor, more flexible but less thick and thorough than zrakiatşimd armor, but still practically impervious to arrows and slashing attacks, and fought with an impenetrable large rectangular shield, designed to deflect and twist armor-piercing spears and bolts, and a short, solid thrusting sword, the fighter using the shield to push the enemy’s shield aside and expose the vulnerable gut, thorax or neck, then throwing the whole weight of his armored body behind a powerful blow that could even penetrate metal plates, tilted inward to avoid being deflected by curves. The short sword was also infamously used in quick, accurate jabs at the enemy’s face (hence ‘Alloy’ also being called “throat-stabbers”), and incapacitating thrusts at often-unprotected thighs. The secret of the short sword, as was the case with other Gazraki weapons, was the memory quality of its materials – it re-sharpened itself almost instantly and could resist the tensile pressures of piercing steel plates. ‘Alloy’ legionnaires also carried two long throwing sticks, with flasks of incendiary concoctions at their ends, which were thrown before charging and burst into flames upon impact.

A number of male citizens without property chose to serve a twelve-year tour of duty as ‘Wings’ to get a significant boost in status at the end. After two years of intensive ‘ninja’ training, the ‘Wings’ (classified by some experts as ‘hangleiterjäger’) were essential for Gazraki maneuver warfare. Named after their insertion method – fired from ballistae and hang-gliding deep into enemy territory – the ‘Wings’ conducted several guerrilla operations, such as sniping messengers, silently removing sentries, kidnapping leaders, sabotaging bridges and gates, and doing nighttime ambushes. Their most common manner of attack was rapidly massing up for a powerful attack against an undefended position before dispersing again into the countryside. ‘Wings’ were armed with blackened short sword, silent bow, booby-traps, bolas, incendiary weapons, throwing knives and other gadgets, and often wore a mail shirt under their black uniforms. They preferred black face paint to hoods, and the dyeing black of their hair was a distinctive appearance trait that commanded respect (Gazraki body hair being almost always white or gray).

Most well off citizens who went to war did so as ‘Storm’. Having regularly practiced with the longbow since their teenage, it comes as no surprise that ‘Storm’ fought primarily as bowmen (easily deadly at six hundred yards or more), but it was a deadly mistake to forget their equal expertise in the Gazraki style of fencing with two sabers, held with the blades aligned with the arms, that could be used to stab the unprotected eyes of even the most armored foes. For comfort and mobility, ‘Storm’ soldiers wore only ornamental shoulder guards and an armored robe, and carried a helmet that was unfashionable to put on unless really necessary. They were usually assisted by a shield-bearer slave, who carried a very large shield (placed on the ground in front of the archer) and a large supply of ammunition.

Finally, ‘Shine’ was how the revered găltzu fought. Having amassed enough psychic power to conduct the Gazraki horseless chariot (śiłfëgzics), they used it to travel the battlefield more than ten times faster than warriors on horseback could. At their destination, usually close to the enemy command, they dismounted and made the chariot float out of reach, and engaged the enemy. Their primary weapon was the Ceremonial Sword (a two-meter zweihänder, with a folding sickle blade at the grip) and, other than their force field, the armor they wore was chiefly decorative, lacquered and covered in exquisite filigree, carrying into battle the warrior’s own treatise on life, war, and love. A common piece of equipment was a pouch full of depleted uranium pellets, which were psychokinetically fired at the enemy in supersonic speeds, at rates of several hundred per minute. Only a small percentage of găltzu ever learned to do so with any accuracy, but then again none was really necessary.

Warfare was not, however, a wholly male enterprise. A relevant part of Gazraki war was conducted by the Widow-Riders (diĵēnlhim). Widows and women who had never married, at a certain age, by law had to present themselves to the Widow-Riders. These units fought on horseback with war hammer, cuirass and lance, and were famous for their reckless abandon.

The basic organizational unit of the armed forces was the fëk, with forty warriors. For every thousand or so Gazrakis in a community (which usually amounts to a little over nine dozen padr), there would be a combined arms unit, the zr˙m, usually containing one fëk of zrakiatşimd, one of diĵēnlhim, one of ‘Storm’, one and a half of ‘Alloy’, and half a fëk of ‘Wings’, totaling two hundred fighters, plus a handful of ‘Shine’(usually three to five). Since a Gazraki community usually coexisted with an approximately equal number of Tfafnian slaves, each zr˙m had usually attached to it a half-Adhi, 54 Tfafnian pioneers (Adhi being the generic Tfafnian word for the number 108, the base of their numeric system), of which four would be manning a war pfuđum, if available. Other slave auxiliaries varied wildly locally. A Dfolna could have from two to ten times their Gazraki population in (non-Tfafnian) slaves, mostly inhabiting subjugated villages in the Dfolna’s countryside. As such, one to five hundred auxiliaries can usually be fielded to support each zr˙m, about 40% Spear, 30% Light, and 15% each of Horse and Archer. Ideally, the number would be 250, to fulfill the conservative equation of having as many ‘low’ slaves as there were Gazrakis plus Tfafnians. The ‘full’ zr˙m, with auxiliaries, was, then, approximately five hundred strong.

Each kzedr can span from ten to fifty Dfolna of varying population, and as such can mobilize, in extreme times, hundreds of Zr˙m, or more, plus its own zrakzedr, numbering approximately one tenth of the number of zrakiatşimd available to the Dfolna associated to the kzedr. The zrakzedr were outfitted similarly to the zrakiatşimd, and additionally carried three or more heavy ballista bolts, which they fired with secret psionic techniques, causing the bolt to explode in a burst of deadly steel shards upon impact – an attack few formations the Gazrakis ever fought could resist. And this is but one common example of the techniques the kzedr eagerly developed and hoarded with greed.

These armies could only be stopped in field battles by forces significantly greater in numbers. In other terrain, the performance varied, but the Gazrakis were usually more competent at adapting to unusual circumstances than their enemies tended to expect from such a specific organization. For example, when fighting in swamps, the enemy could neutralize the shock phalanx and the cavalry, but the Gazrakis had competent archers and skirmishers, excellent sappers who could do opportune drainages or barricaded platforms, and of course the terrain was perfect for ‘Wings’ ambushes. Even the most heavily armored zrakiatşimd could avoid getting stuck in the mud with improvised skis – or they could fight with no armor at all, which was an eventuality they were perfectly ready for.

The standard Gazraki battle disposition placed the auxiliary cavalry on the right flank and the Widow-Riders on the left. The first line had one third of the ‘Alloy’ in the extreme left, then half the auxiliary spearmen, the zrakiatşimd at the center, followed by the rest of the auxiliary spearmen, and then the remainder of the alloy. The auxiliary skirmishers started battle ahead of the first line but quickly retreated to the reserves. The war pfuđum were placed between leftmost ‘Alloy’ and the spearmen, to disrupt the (usually more skilled) enemy right flank’s impetus.

At the second line, the Tfafnian pioneers reinforced the weaker left side ‘Alloy’, while the ‘Storm’ was right behind the zrakiatşimd, with the auxiliary archers right behind them, to aid the center or either side, as necessary. ‘Shine’ watched from the reserves and intervened where necessary, and ‘Wings’ were inserted behind enemy lines the night (or week) before to disrupt the enemy’s reserves.

Maneuver-wise, the standard procedure is to use vertical envelopment with the ‘Wings’ to threaten interdiction of the enemy’s reserves and primary escape route. As such, the enemy will possibly divert strength from his center to defend against the threat, or divert precious cavalry elements that could be overwhelming the Gazrakis’ own limited cavalry. Besides that, an eccentric perforation is sought with the zrakiatşimd at the enemy center. When a breakthrough happens, the zrakiatşimd fight to expand and hold the opening while the ‘Storm’ rush through to fire at and engage the enemy’s exposed rear, screened by the restocked auxiliary skirmishers. Split in two, the opponents can reposition against the core forces, which leaves their rear vulnerable to the cavalry, or more likely uncoordinatedly retreat. The Gazrakis’ own rear is still safely in the hands of the capable auxiliary archers and pioneers. Of course, if the enemy heavily reinforces his center against this strategy, he risks a double envelopment, as the ‘Alloy’ opens wider from the spearmen (gaps filled on the left with pioneers and auxiliary skirmishers and the right with ‘Storm’) and the cavalry flanks even further down, while the center invitingly recedes, safely pulling the enemy into a dense wall of steel pikes.

Art

Gazrakis as a species were fully colorblind, with black and white sight, at least regarding the things other species generally see in colors. A most unusual feature of the evolution of their visual systems was what they call fthesd (though the Word usually translates directly as vision). Fthesd has been accurately depicted as the ability to visually perceive, as “floating colors”, emotions, solutions and opportunities. This means, together with many other applications, that they can rather thoroughly ‘read the minds’ of other sentient beings, assess probabilities with uncanny success, and instantly see the game-theoretical best course of action, including variables that would be forever unfathomable to other sentient beings. As with any sense, different Gazrakis had different degrees of acuity, and accuracy was a very valued trait for obvious reasons.

The Gazraki visual arts were, for this reason, much less dependent on form than on content. Although calligraphy and black-and-white drawing were taken to a significant degree of mastery, a level of what a Gazraki would consider a masterpiece was lost to all other races, except for second-hand description. Illustrations would feature, for example, a mathematician at work, whose calculations – if correct and relevant – would throw colors of solution-ness that would harmonize with the depicted being’s feelings, as well as the hint of practical application of the discovery. The largest pieces of art were the vast ‘battle-scapes’ that are so valued these days. The artist’s skills were measured by the agonies and glories felt by the characters of his fictional battle, the ebb and flow of opportunities revealing tactical genius, and the complexity of the ‘politics’ (Dfolna-tics?) that led to the battle, as revealed by the ‘solution-colors’.

Most unique and worthy of mention among these, ‘The Metal Failures’. This mural covers a five hundred square meter wall, where today is the Gamezohan imperial palace at Kubrik. The artist is said to have depicted the entirety of the sentient condition in his work (a claim most often denied by neo-eco-feminist thinkers). To this day, it’s said that gazing into the patterns of bloodshed and massacre will provide insight into the course of future events. Old găltzu, near death, were said to come in pilgrimage to the mural to draw strength from the world that could be deduced from the depicted ‘krysis’, a universe far more complex and relevant than the one they lived in.

Sculpting followed similar concepts, but tended to depict real-life people and events. The full-scale reproductions of battles are to this day our best source regarding the appearance and equipment of individual Gazrakis. The debate still rages about whether the works were descriptive or normative, since most of the depicted are remarkably beautiful, even for jaded contemporary tastes. One current of thought suggests the beauty of the men and women involved was used to contrast with the brutal mutilations and violence depicted, the theme of sacrificed beauty being recurrent in Gazraki art. Drawing from contemporary sources, however, as well as genetic evidence, it’s presently assumed that, at most, the exaggeration was minor.

A common source of headache for puritanical archaeologists has always been the Gaztaki depiction of females in art. Men are most invariable engaged in warfare (with, sometimes, more than a hint of eroticism involved), and, similarly, the women are often seen satisfying one another in their husbands’ absence. It’s impossible to be certain whether this was common practice or not. There has been some speculation about racial female fertility and sensitivity to stimuli, but this has been called in jest ‘the arctic bonobo theory’.

Gazraki music was long thought to be, at best, an acquired taste, until it was realized this was a matter of time span chauvinism. Gazrakis displace time, and move three to five times faster than the timespan most humanoid races operate in. Their perception and cognition is even faster, estimated at, at least, eighty times the Terran standard. It would certainly be boring for a Terran to listen to a piece of music for eighty hours, which is why few Gazraki pieces are longer than a pair of minutes, and are played too fast to make sense to other hearers.

Dilated a three- or fivefold, the music is much more appeasing to modern ears, though still an acquired taste. Most pieces follow a formula: ‘domestic’ (padr-estic?) softness, harmony such as a marching army, the savagery of battle with leitmotivs of opportunity and strategy, and then the original harmony motive of the first part, renewed and stronger. The symbolism is evident.

Prose was very important for Gazrakis, and their unique stylistic contribution was in the area of geographical fiction. Essentially, an author would depict in the smallest details, over several volumes, the entire culture and organization of a fictional race, and then convincingly demonstrate how the Gazrakis would proceed to conquer and enslave them. Although currently out of style in literature, the concept has been largely influential of modern military speculation.

As regards poetry, it’s best to quote acclaimed critic Sippo Kantonnen on this one.

“The Gazraki language never progressed much from barks and yips. Their poetry is as incredibly dull as I am flamboyantly gay.”

Culture, Spirituality and Philosophy

A glossary is the best way to expose this section, in Gazraki alphabetical order.

Revd and Rsil: these antagonistic principles were, in archaic times, thought to be inimical deities that had to be appeased alternately. They correspond to optimal efficiency (which comes automatically to Gazrakis and is a source of physical pleasure equivalent to feasting on red meat) and rule-bound sportsmanship. It’s a conflict that other races experience between the extremes of hedonism and Puritanism, or sensate and ideational cultures.

ĄċŧĻẻẵ: a self-referential cry for help based on the abuse of a recurring joke.

Gislox: the cult of one’s ancestors. More abstractly, the notion that anything complex must come from something less complex. The Gazraki laugh at the idea that mortals could be created by gods, for example. This concept envisions a continuous flowing upwards of complexity thanks to individual effort, Iklx.

Neđurboě: social order that allows the individual to be all he can be. More abstractly, the harmony of differentiation and integration that is complexity.

Gzebrahm: the cult of one’s self, the individual conceived as an extended phenotype, including the self ‘projected’ outwards of the body into one’s physical and cultural environment. The Gazrakis didn’t conceive their selves in their heads or their centers of gravity, but rather in their seats in the Homjúcs, with sensorial webs flowing from all the Dfolna’s intelligence-gathering systems, the family, and the body, to that symbolic center, never far from the Gazraki’s mind.

Iklx: virtue (with the sexist connotation). The “will to power” or “spirit” that drives systems to greater complexity, fighting the thermodynamic antagonist.

Ydzegri: the voluntary sacrifice of something good to generate self-enriching pain. Closely related to female virtue. The Gazrakis were fascinated with the conundrum that asceticism and masochism could be addictive like any pleasure.

Mux and Plohr: uncertain. Originally conceived as opposing principles of coolness and comedy that must be harmonized, the concepts degenerated into more generic dualities, and in the last days of the Gazrakis could mean anything from right-left to good-evil in the moralist sense. Not surprisingly, the concepts went out of use by the Gazrakis themselves, who just took for granted being a funny fellow was an essential part of being really cool.

Fuzkolęm: the cult of one’s descendants, with connotations of personal responsibility and responsible optimism.

Twrokzo: the state of disgrace. A life so lacking in coolness that any Gazraki is free to put this entity out of its misery. Only the Homjúcs can lawfully declare twrokzo.

Phďm: the virtue of knowing when to stop.

[ Gibberish | Main ]