Takach Kingdom

This isn't a star mapping data sheet, although I do need to do four of them for the Takach Kingdom. Rather, I'm noodling around with exactly what the Takach Kingdom actually is. When I did the allied worlds, I didn't necessarily mean that they were in any kind of formal alliance, but maybe that they shared some kind of cultural or ethnic ties that might be expected to have some relevancy in the event of open conflict. Such was the case, I think, with my initial thoughts on the Takach Kingdom, which are four adjacent systems that came out as "light green"; i.e., allied with the Cilindareans. Keep in mind that the Cilindareans started off as my "Ad Astra Mandalorians" although they've evolved into being more explicitly space Vikings and space Spartans, even complete with Greek titles, like Anax for the kings within the Cilindarean Arm polity, and the presence of space helots and space mothakes.

I've also come up with the Janissaries, the freed descendants of people who were, under the very late Marian Empire, in a situation not unlike the historical Janissaries. Because I had proposed that the Janissaries were a separate ethnic group, related to, but now distinct because of that crucible of having served the Marians in a janissary state, I often assumed that most of the "light green" worlds on my map were actually Janissary worlds. But the reality is that this doesn't have to be true. The light green worlds could be allies of the Cilindareans for all kinds of other reasons too; it could be independent feudal Cilindarean lords, it could be worlds of helots or penestae, or they could be totally different peoples that for whatever reason gained the respect of the Cilindareans or their leaders, and therefore were in alliance with the Cilindareans without owing actual fealty or being actual provinces or what-have-you of the Cilindarean Arm.

Long ago when I first started this project, I wrote this about the Takach Kingdom:

One nation that has stood firm against Outremer (and anyone else's) expansion and either fought or intimidated everyone into leaving them alone, are the people of Takach.  Since their days in the Slave Wars, the descendants of the Janissaries have had a reputation as a highly efficient and effective military culture, related to the Cilindareans, but distinct.  The Takach are one of the very few truly hybrid cultures; intermarried Cilindareans and Janissaries who established a colony away from the Cilindarean Arm per se, where they could create their own society without the ethnic tension between the two groups.  Few of them have had more occasion to actually utilize their militancy in practice than the Takach in recent years, and they are showing that they are the equal to either tradition.  It's believed by some that the conquest and settlement of the Kingdom of Takach in the first place, which was highly publicized and romanticized by many, was the inspiration for Kar Tanus to go liberate Thanatos and build his small empire in the first place.  Having fought frequently against Imperials, Cilindareans, Reavers, Revanchists, and more, the Takach military is seen as one of the best small militaries in known space.

I don't think I want to change that, although as I do more "light green" in the future, I want to get away a bit from making them all Janissary-derived. What else do I want to do with the Takach people? When I wrote that, I hadn't yet conceived of the Takach Nebula, so-called because the Takach Kingdom is smack dab in the middle of it. I did notice, however, that it is surrounded by rivals on all fronts; reachable from no fewer than three Seraean colonies, Desai worlds, two different Bernese worlds, a Cilindarean world proper, a Republic colony, Reaver worlds, and trucculent independents like Oerken all within a jump or two distance, and all known for their either expansionist or raiding history.

That doesn't mean that open warfare with any of them has ever been part of Takach's history. Nobody really goes to open war against the Reavers, just like you can't go to open war against pirates or bandits, and the Persians and Greeks were never able to successfully prosecute open warfare against the Scythians. The Bernese are usually somewhat friendly, although not entirely so, of course, and they did conquer and settle a wide variety of worlds in generations past in this area, but not so long ago that the Takach wouldn't remember it. The Republic are, of course, passive-aggressive and untrustworthy, but open warfare isn't usually their syle either. And the Seraeans have usually deliberately avoided provoking open warfare with them; the Seraean conquerors and settlers are not representative or backed by the Imperial might overall, so they were on the lookout for softer targets in which to establish their new kingdoms and states.

Nevertheless, I've pointed out before that the whole region is a powderkeg waiting to blow; one filled with many would-be Gavrilo Princips, and many could-be Franz Ferdinands. I'm actually also going to decide that the founding of Temple comes from the Takach Kingdom. In fact, I'm going so far as to say that the leader of the Temple is first cousin to the king of Takach, the brother of the father of the current king being the one who left Takach and formed Temple. However, Temple is not a Takach endeavor, and many people of many ethnicities are accountable to Temple. However, the leader of Temple and the king of Takach have an understanding of some kind, and the king of Takach is one of the few outsiders who is aware of Temple's existance. But I do like the idea that maybe the Takach people have more invested in stability in peace in the region than anyone else, not being subject in any way to any larger state like the Empire, the Republic or the Monarchy, and they work to try and maintain it maybe just a bit harder than most.