Shanhe Kurun

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## Ipa Shanhe Kurun

### **Inhabitants:**

The Kurun is primarily inhabited by the Shan species (those who live in the Kurun but are not actually Shan are called Shanjin). Shan are often compared by humans to reptiles, but overall are fairly humanoid. Standing around a meter and a half tall, an average Shan is bipedal, with four limbs and a small vestigial tail. Shan even possess remarkably humanoid facial features, with two eyes and a single mouth. However, their olfactory organs are almost invisible, located towards the top of their heads, and their auditory organs, of which there are actually four, are only slightly more visible and widely distributed, with two in the head and two in the mid-torso. Shan are warm-blooded, but possess no hair and skin similar to the scale structure of reptiles. Their respiratory gas is oxygen, and they reproduce sexually in a similar fashion to terrestrial reptiles, with males using a penis-like organ to penetrate females and fertilize their eggs. Female Shan give birth to semi-live young, and their primary nucleic acid is DNA, similar to terrestrial life, although their proteins have different chirality and structure. Shan babies are born in a sort of gelatinous hybrid of an egg and a live birth, with the gelatinous layer both protecting the juvenile and providing nutrients. Infants must be incubated, in a similar fashion to other egg-laying species, for several weeks before they can break out of the gelatinous layer and become fully operational (though they still require care). Because of the wide variety of environments the species inhabits and the length of time for which they have inhabited these environments, there is some genetic drift within the species, and some even divide the Shan species into sub-species. Genetic engineering, to ensure children are healthy and well-adapted to wherever their homes may be, is also common, and is also used frivolously to enhance traits like strength, attractiveness, intelligence, and also to add to someone's "look" or personal style. The Shan homeworld, Amyu, has three main landmasses, Ahal, Bahi, and Kir. The largest and the smallest of these primary landmasses (Ahal and Bahi)are the only habitable ones; due to volcanic activity, radiation, and extreme temperatures near the planet's poles where the mid-sized one is located (around the South Pole), it is not fit for most lifeforms. The Shan evolved on the largest landmass, Ahal, on the floodplains of various river systems that ran through an otherwise arid region. Because of their original environment, Shan continue to possess good resistance to extreme temperatures, good water conservation, and excellent hand-eye coordination. However, they see poorly in the dark and are not especially strong, at that time relying on their speed, intelligence, and flexibility to evade predators. They are omnivorous, and today the average Shan's diet is not all that different than what the first Shan to begin farming ate: fish (though today they are farmed by large-scale aquaculture) and some *hez* grain, which is now farmed on vast orbital farms or the inside of asteroids rather than on the banks of various rivers.

The Shan are extremely hierarchical in their relationships, deferring to those who are perceived as being more powerful and respected, but often highly competent subordinates are given more elevated status.

Religion is relatively important, with the two main denominations being the White Path (San Zam), and the Submission (Zafir). Zafiris believe in a single deity and follow the teachings of the prophet Armaar, while followers of the San Zam (Sanzenhai) believe in various lesser gods and a cosmic order that includes eternal reincarnation, as explained by the great prophet Bai Usiha. The White Path is the more dominant sect, and tends to place more faith in science to determine the face of the cosmos. However, the Submission is also popular, and Zafiris tend to be more spiritual and devoted to their faith. Both religions are represented in the government, which is completely secular. The government oversees the institution of marriage, though both religions have ceremonies for the process, but it is seen among the Shan as more of a financial and political arrangement than an act of love. Shan families do raise their own children (though poorer people sometimes abandon their children to government-run orphanages), and all families tend to be structured and act somewhat dynastically, trying to uphold the reputation of the family and respect for ancestors.
Average citizens take little interest in politics, generally simply obeying the laws handed down from the Supreme Directorate and the state. Those with ambition, who pass the examinations, however, can become politically influential if they so wish.
Drug use is rampant throughout Shan society, particularly among the young, and because of the urbanization of many Shan population centers, clubbing and partying is a common form of recreation. However, most Shan drugs have few or no adverse effects on the user's health. The middle-aged and elderly have much less recreational time, as it is generally considered disreputable to not focus on one's career as one gets older. Video games are thus more popular with older people. Gladiatorial matches are still a very common form of Shan recreation to go watch, and have been influenced by the Amiiri tradition of fighting pits. Gladiators are generally nowadays either bioengineered slaves or free professionals, and matches only rarely end in deaths. Other popular sports include *tezhar*, a sport similar to water polo, and racing between both sprinters and rowboats.
Those who have to go on state welfare are often looked down upon, especially if they choose to do so rather than work. Technically, anyone can choose to quit their job and go on state welfare (known colloquially as "basic"), but there is a strong social taboo against this, almost as strong as disdain for inter-species sexual and romantic relationships.

Shan social life is very important. Shan often form many friendships during school that last for a lifetime, because their schooling is a time where rank is not clearly decided. Friendships can emerge later usually between two Shan of the same rank, and these friendships can continue even if one person is promoted above the other. A third form of friendship involves a superior taking a liking to a subordinate, in which case the friendship is more hierarchical.
The Shan, by and large, separate sex and sexual activity from romance, and have no taboo about homosexuality. In fact, it is extremely common for friends of the same gender to engage in sexual activity, and now that more sophisticated contraceptives exist, platonic-sexual relationships (which can be difficult for other species to grasp) have also become common between friends of different genders.
Shan romantic relationships can be polygamous, homosexual, or any variety of things, and are generally simply very deep friendships that are deep enough that the couple (usually, although multiple people can be involved) decide to integrate their financial assets. Romantic relationships are very different from marriages, which are between two persons of the opposite sex and in Shan culture are almost purely political, financial, and dynastic rather than based in love or friendship.

**Government Structure:**
The Kurun is ruled dually by a large council of high-ranking governors, bureaucrats, and military officials (the Supreme Directorate), and aided by high-level AI computer systems that give it some elements of cybercracy. These systems are collectively known as the Orrery, and they report to and are mostly controlled by the Supreme Directorate. The Supreme Directorate is subdivided into a still smaller group of a few elite ministers and generals, who form the State Council and make many of the important decisions about the government. The Supreme Directorate oversees the work of the Central Committee, a still-larger ring of officials from various branches, who in turn run and operate different ministries and branches of the state. Those who wish to become part of the government must pass a rigorous set of exams intended to determine their fitness for the opportunity. The Shan state provides relative stability and, in general, plenty to its people, and also possesses an extremely efficient secret police force under the Committee for Domestic Security (KWG) that roots out political dissent. The KWG is efficient, and very competent, because it is usually kept very busy by the workings of Shan internal politics, being forced to both monitor Provincial Soviets and viceroys and also simultaneously help them suppress any dissent in their regions. This is a source of internal conflict for many KWG officers.
The Shan state is mired in contradictions, the foremost being its strength. The Kurun has a centralized government, which operates a pervasive secret police force and is not answerable to the wishes of the people, as well as a reasonably powerful military. However, outsiders tend to view the Kurun as a relatively monolithic state, despite its considerable diversity and distribution of power. Older Shan colonies (for example, Sechen or Qiu) hold tremendous amounts of power over their regions, a relic from the past, when they were independent states free of Amyu's influence. The Supreme Directorate is forced to give many worlds considerable autonomy because of the political reality of regional differences and dislike for what is very often (and rather fairly) seen as unnecessary interference from a distant and uncaring homeworld that really only seems to want power. With their assertion of independence prior to reunification, the colonies gave themselves to political capital to continue to assert regional autonomy and advocate for this even after Amyu gathered the military force required to force them to reunite. Many planets have established local councils that roughly translate out of Shan as "Provincial Soviets", which are essentially their own miniature state councils that pay lip service to Amyu but handle almost everything regarding the governance of the areas under their influence. A Provincial Soviet is nominally overseen by a viceroy, but in reality a viceroy acts more as an adviser, diplomat, and observer than an actual political player. Provincial Soviets typically are allocated fairly modest military forces and often use their authority to set up independent militias or private forces, though these are rarely very large. They have no control, however, over the KWG, which is only answerable to the Supreme Directorate. The KWG itself is forced to both ensure the Provincial Soviets do not gain too much power and to suppress dissent and crime across the empire, regardless of how it supports or undermines the Soviets or the central government. Despite the KWG's considerable efforts and all of Amyu's other wiles, though, Provincial Soviets remain influential, often using their influence to back the appointing of members to the Central Committee or even, on occasion, the Supreme Directorate itself. Provincial Soviets also, on occasion, rebel or fight against one another, and sometimes tilt towards foreign powers. For these reasons, Shan politics are always extremely lively, and with so many systems and souls in the balance, are increasingly becoming a galactic battlefield. Indeed, some political thinkers have commented that even after the end of the Six States period, the Shanhe Kurun resembles more a patchwork of interdependent rival states than a single polity, with a few dominant states standing above the rest.
Two primary factions split the government, to which some citizens not involved in the political process do loosely adhere to. They are known as the Yellows and the Blues. The Yellows tend to be more socially conservative and militarist, while the Blues prefer social liberalization and the use of colonization, trade, and the SQD for expansion. There are also the Reds (the Soviets), who object to the control that both the Blues and the Yellows want to exert over the outer systems.

**Shan Politics for Dummies:**

Amyu, the capital, remains the dominant player in Shan politics, controlling the military, the secret police and foreign intelligence, and controlling the frontier and outer colonies. Amyr (demonym for someone from Amyu) control most of the military and a lot of the central government, but different Provincial Soviets (notably Qiu and Sechen) often use their influence to force the Amyr to accept appointments of Soviet puppets to the Central Committee and Supreme Directorate, where they do a very effective job of thwarting Amyu's attempts to bring their regions under total control. Additionally, their maintenance of independent military forces not associated with the Shan state is a further deterrent to any attempts to centralize the Kurun by force.
Besides the politics of the Central Committee, there is also the Golden Orchid Court, also known as the Court of the Viceroys. This branch of the Central Committee is responsible for the oversight of Azar, the Provincial Soviets, the provinces in general, and foreign powers, and many ambitious viceroys and SQD officers use its powers to gain a voice for themselves in the Central Committee.

**Military Structure:**
The regular official Shan military is divided into a bunch of different specialized sections. The regular military is loyal only to the Kurun, the central government, and the Supreme Directorate, rather than any Provincial Soviets. The first division is between the Green Banner and the Black Banner. The Green Banner is responsible for all actions below low orbit, be it aerial, naval, ground, surface-to-space, or suborbital engagements. The Black Banner is responsible for all the fighting in space. Both are then subdivided into thirty-seven group armies, each responsible for a certain region of Shan space. All units of sapients are divided up largely along class and racial lines to help keep things peaceful within the military (though how effective this is is debatable). Each main Banner also has a Blue Banner section, which consists of its robotic troops. The Green Banner and the Black Banner each contribute their very best forces to the Vermilion Banner, which forms the elite special forces arm of the Kurun's military. The Golden Banner is a separate detachment, responsible for the protection of the Shan capital and homeworld, Amyu. In times of peace (and usually in times of war) the military (particularly the Green Banner) relies on convicts, volunteers, and professionals, alongside a large number of robotic and clone soldiers. However, if things are looking serious and robot or clone factories are for some reason offline, an antiquated conscription system exists to gather all the soldiers the military could possibly need.

The Black Banner's units are primarily divided into robotic or largely robotic mobile weapons platforms of varying size, and logistics and control ships with larger crews of Shan, although even these are usually mostly manned by aeai systems. The speed of space combat and the often harsh conditions (high g-forces, in particular) often mean aeai systems are far more suited to controlling a ship in combat than Shan or other biologicals, with faster reaction times, greater processing power, and far fewer errors. Shan in the Black Banner primarily direct strategy and logistics, working on huge, ungainly craft that never see actual battle, besides the occasional planetary bombardment.

In addition to regular forces, most Provincial Soviets raise their own militias or private forces, usually designated as Defense Forces or Civil Guards. These forces are typically smaller and less well-equipped and well-trained than regular military forces loyal to the Supreme Directorate, but there are exceptions to this rule. Some Provincial Soviets effectively maintain their own militaries, with capabilities to rival many other nations.

The Shan also have a foreign intelligence agency separate from the KWG, known as the SQD. Outside the Kurun foreigners often refer to SQD officers as "squids", a play on their agency's acronym (SQD). The SQD makes use of the Kurun's diversity to recruit from many species, allowing them to have infiltration capabilities for almost every nation in known space, but those few species they do not have agents in can also be infiltrated, usually by biological constructs in their shape wired with protein circuitry to allow aeai espionage systems to control them, or else by Shan agents who recruit natives and then act as middlemen. The Shan make use of both legal "resident" officers, operating out of embassies or consulates, and "illegals", agents without official cover. SQD officers undertake operations in counterintelligence, military intelligence, industrial espionage, assassinations, sabotage, and "active measures" or political operations. The SQD is a tremendous asset, able to reach almost anywhere in the galaxy, and, like the military, very active in Shan internal politics. The SQD and the KWG cooperate closely, maintaining joint residencies throughout the Azar system and Soviet systems, and sharing basically all of their information. The SQD maintains residencies in every embassy and consulate of the Kurun.

The Shan military is overseen by the Central Military Commission, to which the SQD and KWG also report but which does not control their actions. The CMC coordinates strategy and troop movements, and is responsible for deployments and communications relaying. Shan doctrine prefers to avoid war, rather using it as a last resort if SQD "active measures" prove ineffective. However, when the Shan do go to war, they use overwhelming force, and generally have little concern for collateral damage. Their tendency is generally, when they do engage in war, to mobilize fully and prepare for total war, to bring the conflict to the speediest possible conclusion. Shan doctrine revolves around causing massive casualties to the enemy in long, drawn-out battles of attrition, using constant low-level attacks to pin an enemy down and wear them down until they can be overwhelmed by a massive all-out assault. The Shan have only fought amongst themselves, and once or twice with the Amiiri, who use much more mobile and fast-moving tactics. Shan warfare is not about tactical brilliance, it is about number-crunching and attrition, using expendable, heavily armed weapons drones and coordinator/carrier ships far from the battle. This slow and methodical approach, using all available assets, is often costly because of caution on the part of commanders and a willingness to engage in costly battles of attrition, but is also highly reliable. The larger, superior force typically pins down the smaller force and then engages in steadily with constant attacks until it can be crushed.
However, due to Amiiri influence, Shan tactics have seen some innovation in recent years. The Amiiri fight faster, more mobile and flexible campaigns, using speed and mobility to help defeat their enemies.
Shan forces in each banner are divided into several units- *jalan*, the largest subdivisions of a banner, *sümen*, subdivisions of *jalan*, *arban*, subdivisions of *sümen*,*zhungan*, subdivisions of *arban*, and then *jiru*, the smallest units.

In the Black Banner, *jalan*s are comparable to fleets, with smaller units being component squadrons, while in the Green Banner, they are more similar to divisions, with smaller units forming battalions and regiments and the like.

The SQD and the KWG, the two political departments, each also operate military political apparatuses, which are collectively referred to as the White Banner. Their civilian operations units are often simply called "Salkhai Vetej", or the Night Wind, for their habit of whisking people away in the middle of the night.

**Shan Ships, Classes, and Weapons:**

The Shan make use of a wide variety of ships, tending to prefer to automate as many functions as possible rather than delegate them to slow, fragile, needy, and potentially unreliable biologicals. They also have little regard for the appearance of their ships- functionality, when it comes to warfare, is their priority. The Black Banner is broadly divided between ships of two functions- combat and noncombat. Noncombat craft often carry combat craft, and are generally transports, carriers, and logistical vehicles, sometimes with weapons to allow them to engage in a planetary siege. They have larger crews, and often are lightly armed. Most follow a fairly similar design- large ships with powerful dual-system subluminal drives that use fusion reactors and nuclear lightbulbs, with light weaponry and armor and pods that carry dedicated combat craft. Most dedicated combat craft are essentially a computer, some sensors, and a bunch of weapons mounted on an engine and some fuel tanks. Shan weapons are widely varied, with combat drones able to carry everything from Casaba howitzers to kinetic kill vehicles. On manned combat craft, which are typically quite large, most ships are equipped with powerful x-ray lasers as their primary battery, or very large missile batteries. The Shan emphasize maximum volume in terms of firepower, often stripping away armor and shielding on drones to cram in more weapons.

The prefix for all Shan military craft is SKK- Shanhe Kharqi Korai'yl, or Shan Black Banner Ship (Kharqi is Shan for Black Banner).

**History:**
The Shan civilization originally was centered around the Ahal landmass on Amyu and the islands around it. The Shan, over the course of around four thousand years and after several horrific spells of bloodshed and destruction, eventually built up three major powerful nations, known as the [[blank]virate or the Great Powers- . These three powers each dominated their regions, and were close allies, controlling directly or indirectly all of Amyu. Under the [[blank]virate, the Shan took their first tentative steps into space, building up orbital colonies, colonies on nearby asteroids, and bases on Amyu's two moons Aj and Mer. The xvirate oversaw the first Shan expansion to other planetary systems, with the colonization of Badaling, the next planet away from their star Sibe, and beyond, to the moons of the Sibe System's gas giants. However, the xvirate came to an end after around five hundred years, when rebellions on Hajar and some of the outer moons defeated the xvirate's fleet and broke away to form their own nations. This marked the beginning of a long period of interplanetary warfare and intrigue, but Amyu, with the best infrastructure and largest population, eventually triumphed after around two hundred years. This pattern would be repeated in the future. The new ruling government built on the xvirate to establish complete political unity within the Shan race, becoming the Sibe Kurun, often translated as the Sibe Governorate or the Sibe Regency but more accurately translating to "Sphere". The Sibe government began the race's first interstellar voyages while continuing in-system colonization, dispatching first high-speed probes and then, later, a few generation ships. At this time, travel was limited to subluminal speeds, but faster-than-light communications (albeit slow and inefficient) were becoming reality. Only the government could afford to build the massive installations required to enable superluminal communications, known as electron guitars. Using quantum entanglement of electrons to send signals, the machines were immensely complex, often taking up entire buildings and requiring their own power plants and sophisticated computer systems. However, limited by the vast distance and travel times to the colonies, the Sibe Governorate was forced to rely heavily on robots and computer systems that could connect instantly and receive government orders to rule in the colonies and avoid rebellion and corruption. This was greatly resented, and colonial cyberterrorists coupled with a minor solar flare in Sibe meant the government began to break down. The various colonies achieved independence around two centuries prior to the discovery of practical FTL travel, but superluminal communication technology continued to improve (and indeed, would eventually branch off to develop superluminal travel) during this time. When practical FTL travel was finally developed (though it was initially very, very expensive), it allowed the government that had reemerged in the more populous and developed Sibe system to use its population and development to reassert its dominance over the colonies, ending the Six States period, and continue colonization efforts. This government has stood ever since, evolving into the Shanhe Kurun that stands today.

**The Gentry:**
The Shan aristocracy is largely consisted of wealthy retired military or intelligence officers, or retired successful civil servants, who are often granted large stipends upon retirement. The Supreme Directorate does give land and titles to those who serve the Kurun in exceptional ways- for example, a civil servant who has worked for fifty years and risen steadily might receive some land and a title, usually marquis. This title can be passed along, but can also be revoked by the Directorate. The gentry are typically wealthy but, because their titles are revocable, must remain loyal and helpful to the Directorate. It is in the gentry, as well as the freer Soviet systems, that frivolity such as needless genetic modifications and other such decadence can be seen most frequently.

**Viceroys:**
The Shan dispatch viceroys to oversee every Provincial Soviet, as well as to oversee systems as a whole. A Shan viceroy also oversees the race's outpost on the planet they refer to as Asor, which could be called a Shan colony in the traditional, imperialist 19th-century Earth sense. The Azar system, however, besides a small residency on Asor, and even much of that planet, is beyond the Kurun's grasp, controlled by patchworks of Amiiri princes. Viceroys are important officials who hold have their own court, along with the intelligence community, in the form of the Golden Orchid Court, which is very influential.
The Azar system, inhabited by the Amiiri, is, along with Hejol, Risol, and Sizang, the great frontier of the Shan race. Already inhabited by the Amiiri, a race not altogether dissimilar from the Shan, with some minor differences, it is a valuable system, split up mostly among powerful Amiiri princes, and the Shan have a relatively minor footprint and only on the Amiiri homeworld, Asor. Heijol, Risol, and Sizang could be considered "frontier" systems, relatively undeveloped with very small populations- in Risol's case, not even a billion. They are more diverse in terms of species that occupy them, and while the politics are different, they are no less exciting.

**Shan Territories:**
\*indicates satellite status of preceding body.

Total Systems Claimed: 8
Total Systems Controlled: 7
Total Population: 160,150,594,387

-Sibe System
Population: 60,245,313,274
Inhabited bodies: Amyu, Aj\*, Mer\*, Badaling, Jiregen\*, Nirushan, Fodo\*, Batushan+118 smaller moons, 2,717 asteroids, 22 comets, and 4,189 space stations

-Qiu System (governed by a Soviet)
Population: 31,996,251,671
Inhabited bodies: Qie, Chiyu\*, Lishen\*, Huligai, Nihaci, Odoloi, Wazir\*+49 smaller moons, 1,181 asteroids, 16 comets, and 2,111 space stations

-Sechen System (governed by a Soviet)
Population: 26,827,471,982
Inhabited bodies: Seshen, Akjan\*, Tanshir\*, Donggo\*, Cherkhan+37 smaller moons, 989 asteroids, 11 comets, and 2,417 space stations

-Kangde System (governed by a Soviet)
Population: 19,222,753,643
Inhabited bodies: Datong, Luyang, Luhan\*, Oboi+21 smaller moons, 881 asteroids, 22 comets, and 1,003 space stations

-Hejol System
Population: 11,741,686,911
Inhabited bodies: Hehal, Nie\*, Ulabun+3 smaller moons and 12 asteroids

-Risol System
Population: 883,779,687
Inhabited bodies: Rehe, Chusol\*+6 asteroids

-Sizang System
Population: 9,233,337,219
Inhabited bodies: Arnchi, Dahabure\*, Tungan, Irtysh+35 asteroids

-Azar System (nominally claimed)
Population: N/A, not controlled

Sibe, Qiu, and Sechen could be considered the "core" systems, with Kangde being at an intermediate level of development, and Hejol, Risol, and Sizang being the "frontier" systems. Azar is beyond even the frontier, and has a relatively small Shan footprint amidst a confusing and highly developed civilization and political scene of its own.
The Shan have several broad ethnicities and cultural (and biological) "categories", which can be roughly broken down as follows. The dominant ethnic group is Amyr, consisting of nearly half the population. Qian, Szechai, and Kangdao (in declining order of prominence) form the vast majority of the remainder, with Hejai, Sizanghua, and spacers forming the remainder. Risol, with its tiny, immigrant-based population, does not have a distinct ethnic group, as it was never isolated during the Six States period.

**Notable Locations:**
Amyu, in the Sibe system, is the Shan homeworld. The planet has a gigantic population of over thirty billion, and is the one of the most densely populated worlds in the entire Shan sphere. Amyu is intensively farmed on most of its land, with significant ecological engineering projects to modify vast areas to be more hospitable to agriculture. It also plays host to fleets of large floating settlements, many of which have farms on their surfaces as well, and has a number of orbital farms and several farming colonies on its moons. Amyu has a total of four space elevators and millions of satellites, ranging from tiny radio transmitters or signal relays to vast telescopes or orbital cities. It contains a significant part of the Shan species' cultural legacy and the central government and Supreme Directorate is centered on Amyu as well, making it the political center of the empire. In addition to this, Amyu is a critically important military base, housing dozens of installations for everything from Green Banner reserves to Vermilion Banner rapid-reaction strike groups. It even has its own self-defense and police force, the Golden Banner. Amyu, with its large population and extremely high level of development, is the most influential world in the Shanhe Kurun and the de jure capital. The Sibe system in which the planet orbits has a total population of nearly sixty billion, and is easily the most developed and populous of any system in the Shan state. It is also an extremely crucial trade and financial hub.

Amyu, prior to a number of major megaprojects,

**Azar and the Amiiri:**

The Azar system is one of the most exciting regions in Shan space. It has one natural garden world, Asor, which is the homeworld of the race of sapients known as the Amiiri. The Amiiri are not extremely different from the Shan, physiologically, although their proteins obviously have differences in structure and chirality. Indeed, the worlds they evolved on are remarkably similar, and the two species, while their cultures are very different, share a few ancient traditions that apparently evolved along parallel lines due to their environments (for example, the custom of bathing with one's guests when they arrive). The Amiiri have a civilization much older than the Shan, and there is evidence that they at one point controlled some regions of Shan space. Their civilization has had several periods of greatness, and at one point they may have been an interstellar society, but every time they rise to great heights the Amiiri tend to tear themselves apart with apocalyptic wars. When they made contact with the Shan, or rather when the Shan made contact with them, the Amiiri had reestablished their civilization once again, and have remained fragmented between various small nation-states in their home system, Azar. They currently do not possess FTL technology besides that which they have received from the Shan, and have not expanded beyond Azar during the present "Blossom", as they know their cycles of civilization. The Amiiri population is estimated to be around forty-five billion, and their civilization is highly developed.
The Shan made contact while the current government was still asserting its authority over the colonies, while they were still independent (or some of them). Bilateral trade began then and continues to this day. However, post-unification, the Kurun began to assert dominance over the Amiiri, culminating in several military expeditions against a few princedoms that led to the establishment of a small Shan enclave on Asor and increased Shan political interference in the affairs of Amiiri politics. The Amiiri resent Shan interference, but the Kurun is a powerful backer for the various princes vying for power. The Shan definitely have imperial ambitions for Azar, but the system is too populous, developed, and politically complex to just take by storm... yet.

**Azar Details:**

-Azar System
Inhabited bodies: Asor, Yedib\*, Sazaar, Ti Sheh\*, Ye Shih, Chu Shah+97 smaller moons, 3,112 asteroids, 15 comets, and 3,889 space stations
Population: 46,557,884,327

**Clades**

Clades are groups of settlers and pioneers in Shan society who have little connection with the central government, typically living well away from population centers in the Kuiper Belts or Oort Clouds of different stars. Here, these communities- often genetically divergent from the mainline Shan species- live in space habitats of various types on small worldlets, asteroids, comets, and bits of space debris. They are mostly out of sight, out of mind, for most Shan, and while they are usually monitored by the KWG and the Black Banner, they are usually left alone. Occasionally clades fight one another, but they rarely interact with the central government. Those who choose to actively attempt to avoid government control and interaction, or who do not obey the commands they are given, are invariably wiped out completely by the Black Banner.

**OOC Information, Analogies, and Comparisons (to be expanded):**

The Azar system is to the Kurun what India was to 17th and 18th century Britain, in essence. They have imperial ambitions and footholds and influence, but not enough to dislodge the native rulers at present. Like Britain, because of the economic gain that could be reaped from the labor of forty-five billion sapients, and the resources and particularly the unusually developed infrastructure the system contains, the Shan are just as invested in trying to win over Azar as the British were invested in trying to win over India.

The Provincial Soviets are sort of like US states, except even more independent. They've taken America's National Guard thing to a whole other level and have, in essence, their own militaries. They're also slightly more independent when in comes to governing themselves than American states, and don't often have to listen to the government. They're basically constantly locked in a political battle for survival against Amyu.

Amyu and the government there is in many ways similar to the governments portrayed in sci-fi novels ruling human dominions- pretty much wanting control and power over all the colonies and the people in them, and willing to abuse both its own citizens and the citizens of the colonies to get that power. It could also be compared to Java in Indonesia, and the Amyr to Javanese- the dominant region and ethnic group, but also crammed into a very overpopulated area and facing a lot of pushback from the periphery.