BARD PAPER: OPAL8649 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
BARD PAPER: OPAL8649 | Home | Traveller | BARD | OPAL |
Prefecture was another victim of the Escape Clause. The world was chiefly a refuelling stopover for vessels, and possessed few important industries or redeeming resources. Despite this, millions of people inhabited the world just prior to the Imperial Civil War, crowded into small underground settlements. Civil fighting earlier in the world's history left the government in the hands of the self styled "Sublime Prefects" otherwise known as the Carrack family.
The Carracks imagine themselves the enlightened successors to traditional Chinese or Japanese despotism, and rule their world in an oriental manner. To reduce tensions between themselves and the masses, most of the population is divided into seperate wards organised according to economic specialty. To rule the seperate districts a warrior class known as the Fermata was created. The Fermata are a mixture of Mandarin and Samurai, and replenish their numbers from the general population through civil service examinations and combat training. The world has no seperate military, as the Fermata are expected to train their own militias with their own resources.
The local society is best described as a militant socialist fuedalism. Opposition to the regime was muted by strong cultural taboos against dissent, and co-optation of dissident elements. Unfortunately this arrangement did not work very well economically, and a sizeable minority has been permitted to emigrate to Pikha and Ishiri to work and make money for their homeworld. Some Fermata have petitioned the Carracks to permit them to join the Oklahoma Land Rush into the Wilds, to found colonies that would further the interests of the homeworld. It is rumored that the Sublime Prefect is stongly leaning towards just such a project, and will give her permission.