Notable Unathi Colonies

Overview
There are over a dozen small colonies within the Hegemony, and more are being added every month. Most of them are small and unassuming, but a few have risen to the top as the most influential or noteworthy.

Mercantalism: All Goods Flow To Moghes


The Unathi economic system is mercantilist in nature. Access to ports are restricted to specific guilds given a royal charter, which is a bill of exclusivity over shares of trade to protect them from competition. It is best thought of as being given a lease by the Izweski to handle a specific amount of interstellar trade coming to and from the Hegemony. All goods flow from the colonies to Moghes, which are then sold to the wider galaxy after the Izweski take a cut.

Hephaestus Industries has the most generous charter to operate on Ouerea and brings its goods directly to the galactic market directly. Other mega-corporations have their efforts throttled and frustrated. NanoTrasen retains recruitment offices in the star system but very little else.

Overview
Gakal'zaal is an ice and snow dominated world located in the relative west of the Izweski Hegemony in the Gakal star system with its capital city being Zikala. The planet is ruled by the Unathi Overlord Makar Yizarus, who rules from an orbital station called the Makar Castle. There are less than a thousand Unathi on the planet, and they are concentrated on the equator where the temperature remains near 15C. These Unathi are all almost exclusively members of the local nobility, who displaced the previous Tajaran leadership. These dissatisfied leaders moved closer to the northern and southern poles of the planet where the temperature is regularly 10C or less, making it extremely difficult for Unathi to tread there. Due to the weak presence of the hegemony away from the equator, these stubborn tajaran continue to practice their ways of life, seeing the unathi with suspicion at worst or as necessary allies at best.

The shared language between the two species is Tau Ceti Basic. However many Tajara continue to speak Siik'maas, while the Unathi nobility speak Sinta'Unathi. This has created a class divide between the two groups.

The Drrawa'jur Dynasty is a family of Njarir'akhran that converted to the Sk'akh faith early in the planet's absorption into the Hegemony. The head of the family, Mj'akurahur Drrawa'jur, realized that the Hegemony would protect their privileges if they embraced the Hegemony's institutions. The gamble paid off, and the dynasty's Drrawa'jur Guild has a charter granted by Not'zar Izweski to have exclusive rights to the Ras'val Clam trade from Gakal'zaal to Moghes. The family has garnered an incredibly amount of wealth from this, as the clams are otherwise rare in the Hegemony. Their wealth and influence, and the fact the Tajara locals trust them more than the Unathi Lords, has caused tension between them and the local nobility. Despite grating on the nerves of the planet's unathi aristocracy, the family is firmly pro-Hegemony as they seek to protect their own rights and privileges - as well as knowing that it may be too late to go back if the Unathi were to somehow lose control.

The Guild uses its wealth to continue gaining influence on the locals. Mj'akurahur often finances grants or scholarships for youths seeking an education in Tau Ceti, and regularly funds their passage to seek employment. Other options for employment are joining Overlord Yizarus' feudal levy army, or signing up as a cadet in Not'zar Izweski's imperial space academy.

The Sk'akh faith has found some success at the equator as the Guild finances churches and attendance to please the Unathi nobility and ensure their Charter remains. Th'akh has almost no presence as it is institutionally discouraged, with the same for the other major Unathi religions.

The Tajara who fled to the north and south poles are much more opposed to the Guild and their unathi overlords. They refuse to acknowledge the land rights of the unathi Lords who want them to work the land they are on, and they violate the feudal contract by keeping all of the fruits of their labor to themselves without giving their distant Lords a cut. Mostly made up of Zhan and displaced Njarir'Akhran, these hardly frontiersmen make a hard life hunting, fishing, and mining in the extreme climate, keeping to their traditional lifestyles and religion. With an entirely separate society slowly forming on the planet, many fear its only a matter of time before frustrated nobles try to exert their claims to the land by force, which could spark violent clashes...

History
The first Tajara settlers came in 2452, fleeing the violence that was engulfing Adhomai during the opening shots of its civil war who did not or could not enter Tau Ceti or the other factions. The planet was an ad hoc settlement of a few thousand who scraped by with farming near the equators. The planet was found by a band of pirates in 2455 and the locals were forced to pay protection money. This caused even more poverty, and the pirates regularly abused the locals irregardless. Resistance among the local population soon followed, but with limited success.

This continued until 2457, when a new fleet of the Hegemony, commanded by Lord-Admiral Yizarus, appeared in late august and aided the colonists in expelling the pirates after finding their treatment of the locals to be abhorrent and dishonorable. The locals considered him a liberator, but Yizarus did not stay as he was soon drawn into other affairs. Left to itself, by 2459 the planet had a sizable population of a few thousand with Njarir'akhran taking up leadership positions as the planet adopted a agrarian society similar to Adhomai.

In 2460 Yizarus returned, but this time Yizarus offered the planet to become a vassal under the Izweski Hegemony. The local leaders accepted, and it become a territory of the Hegemony.

In 2461 the population swelled to ninety thousand Tajara, and Not'zar Izweski appointed Lord Makar Yizarus, a cousin of the famed Lord-Admiral, to lead the planet as its Overlord.

Ras'val Clams were introduced in 2460 and the species has proliferated in the cold waters of the planet, encouraging the Drrawa'jur Guild to seek and earn an exclusive charter that gives them a monopoly on the clam trade from the colony to Moghes. This is the primary means of employment for many Tajara on the planet.

Ouerean Confederation
Ouerea was originally settled in 2438 and was intended to be the Hegemony's first planetary colony. The growing discontentment on the planet Ouerea, the first colony settled by the Hegemony, erupted into a large-scale grassroots movement after the rocky re-integration back into the Hegemony. Clans across Ouerea came together under the banner of the Confederation of Ouerea. This revolutionary movement was unsuccessfully suppressed by the alarmed aristocracy, and it became unstoppable. Despite the objections from the Overlord of Ouerea, who went as far as to assassinate rebel negotiators, they were granted limited self-rule by Not'zar Izweski. Angry with this, the Overlord Yiztek tried and failed to assassinate the Lord-Regent, and was summarily deposed and his entire clan made Guwans.

The 'Ouerean Model' Government
Ouerea operates differently from the regular feudal model with the additional of Elder-Chiefs and Clan-Mothers. For the purpose of social ranking, they are usually given the same esteem as noblemen.

Elder-Chiefs are originally male Chiefs appointed to the Grand Council by a Clan-Mother already on the Grand Council. The title is not hereditary. Elder-Chiefs serve for life on the Grand Council but can retire or be removed by a Clan-Mother. Typically they are elder, wise, and Th'akh.

Clan-Mother is a heriditary title that passed down a Clan matrilineally. They are usually esteemed elders of the most prestigious Ouerean Clans Clan-Mothers are responsible for overseeing the behavior and actons of Elder-Chiefs. Removing Elder-Chiefs is left to their Clan-Mother, and can be done only if she believes a Chief is not acting for the benefit of the people. They are typically elder, wise, and Th'akh.

Many humans and Skrell still reside on Ouerea, and there are periodically human or even Skrell Mayors and Chiefs.

More information on the politics and history of Ouerea can be found here.

Gwim’zala
A moon world in the Youthstone star system, it was originally a large headquarters for raiders and pirates. In May of 2459 a joint operation between the Empire of Dominia and the Hegemony | destroyed the pirate headquarters before the two allies turned on one another in a short, vicious war. The fighting itself was a draw but the Hegemony gained the system while Dominia gained its loot. The liberated world of C-19B was renamed Gwim'zala and was opened to settlement by enterprising Sinta'Unathi. It's Overlord is the elderly Zutazki Gwim'zala of which the planet gets its name.

The planet is sparsely populated with 12,500 Unathi. Most colonists are hardy frontiersmen who are living in a wild, untamed world. Outside the Overlord and his family within the sole city of Oyutazi the planet is notably absent of a landed nobility, as the young colony has still not been partitioned.

The entire system the colony is in faces intense and repeated attacks by marauding pirates and raiders, and there are nearly twice weekly skirmishes between them and the Izweski Navy. It is an open secret that the Empire of Dominia is offering large rewards to marauders that attack the system, but there is no firm proof that would allow the Hegemony to honorably retaliate. Because of this, many Unathi within the navy find that battle in Youthstone can be where they prove themselves in battle.