The Osage

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The Osage Empire is an average-sized nation located in the Akada System. Its population is mostly human. Solar Affairs were handled by the late 10th general, Irul Kasaros, who oversaw recent contact with Tsaraine and Britmattia before dying at the hands of The Ctan artillery in the Osage-Yvresse War, whereupon he was succeeded by Monhin Dapa. Currently they have been accepted for membership to Machiavelli Station, and recently established a colony on Mars (Monthin Zhudse) after the war against Tor Yvresse.

The Osage
the_osage.jpg
Flag of The Osage
Motto: "The Osage is never at peace, unless he is at war
N/A
Region Space
Capital Tako Tonwon
Official Language(s) Osage
Leader Sage-Emperor Monhin Dapa
Population >6 billion
Currency Osage drachma (OD) 
NS Sunset XML

National Information

Traditional Long form: The Ancestral Empire of the Osage

Traditional Short form: The Empire, the Osage, the Osage Empire

Form of government: Autocracy

Locations: Akada system, Machiavelli Station, embassy in Britmattia, Mars

History

The Osage Empire's history can be divided into five periods, commonly referred to as the Underworld/Civil War, Reconciliation/Anarchy, Unification/Empire, Rebellion/Reformation, and Modern periods.

The Underworld Period

This era of history is the one most clouded in myth and allegory, having happened perhaps a hundred thousand of more years ago and continuing for a thousand or more years. The legends of this time speak of two great wakondagi, Teset Lica and Osya Irima (sons of the Great Ancestor, Pahuka, which the planet is named after), who were gods of the underworld at this time and related (myths differ as to the exact relation, some say brothers, others uncle-nephew, others father and son). They and their followers ruled the Underworld, teaching the demons and stupid things their laws and customs, and a select few the powers of wakon itself. As this happened, however, Teset grew suspicious of Osya, and thought of siezing the throne for himself, and Osya thought the same of Teset. Teset did not believe the knowledge of wakon should be taught to the demons, while Osya felt that any who possessed the skill to be a wakongi should be instructed. A certain pool of knowledge the two relations kept to themselves, but when Osya wanted to teach his particular section of the underworld even this, Teset and his followers declared war, and the civil war raged across the entire expanse of the Underworld, which is(was)much larger than the realm of Pahu'ka itself.

Osya was the better strategist, but his brother was the better wakongi, yet somehow or another Osya and his armies managed to outmaneuver his opponent, confronting them on their own ground. A huge final conflict ensued, in which 'huge, blanketing fire' is mentioned very precisely, and 'invisible warriors struck down all life' in and around I're, Teset's empire in the Underworld. Teset and Osya slew each other, and I're was decimated, yet many of Teset's followers survived to carry a veangence war into Bhare, the late Osya's section of the underworld.

With the Underworld ruined, the surviving Osage abandoned the demons to their ignorance, and ascended to Pahuka (leaving, however, their apprentices behind), leaving the squabbling, demonic followers of Teset and Osya to their petty wars.

Reconciliation Period

In the years following the abandonment of the Underworld to darkness and the refocusing on Pahuka, the remnants of the wakongi that followed the dead brothers reconciled to each other, but did not come together in any accord. Rather, they each built themselves a city, took on new followers, and created a patchwork of little mini-states, each ruled by a wakondagi, that more or less were always engaged in flinging a bigger fireball at that other wizard's city. These petty wars prevailed for centuries, until a wakondagi had a son, by the name of Nocaga. The boy advanced fastly, and by his teenage years he had become the most powerful wakondagi on Pahuka, to the amazement of his father. He also appeared to have no morals, and when at age 21 Nocaga's father disappeared, most held their tongue as to their thoughts about what had happened to him.

Immediately the young wizard-king began brilliant campaigns of expansion, crushing all opposition. Coalitions rose and fell, ripped apart by cunning combinations of diplomacy and force. Two-thirds of Pahu'ka came under his control, into his vast empire, and his life seemed to extend indefinitely.

Then his wife betrayed him, for reasons clouded amid propaganda, and his son took on the mantle, and proved to be just as competent, having be instructed by his father in all the ways that had made him great. The country was unified under this first great Osage Empire, headed by the powerful Emperor Nocaga II, but it was not too last.

After the death of Nocaga II, his son, Nocaga III, was competant but not nearly as powerful and devious as his sires. The first signs of corruption set in, but the Empire remained stable.

Rebellion Period

Until the advent of the Necromancer. No one knew whence he had come, but came he did, rising out of the depths with many supporters and a huge skeletal army that could not fall. The Imperial Army found that its casulties only formed new regiments for the enemy, and so the Necromancer's dark armies swiftly tore down the old order, and prepared for a new. In the confusion, Nocaga III led an army into battle against the personal forces of the Necromancer, met him in battle, and even matched him in magical skill, but was slaughtered when the evil man signaled his army to aid him.

With the fall of most of Pahuka to the Necromancer, the remnants of the Imperial Army went underground (literally), forming the core forces of the Nonhonzhinga, the Little Old Men, the former emperors advisors and generals, powerful wakongi, that awaited until the right time.

It was not long in coming. The Necromancer foolishly sent most of his armies off on new expeditions, and maintained a small force to guard him. The Nonhonzhinga struck, and in a titanic clash their combined skill brought him down, signaling the releasing of the enslaved wakon that fueled his undead army, leading into the fifth and final period of Osage history and the Second Empire.

The Modern Period

The modern period began a few thousand years ago and has continued to the present day. After the fall of the Necromancer, the Nonhonzhinga busied itself setting up new laws and governances. Several times former apprentices of the black wakongi rose to try to revive his armies, and each time they met with defeat. Not half a century after their ascendance and creation of the modern Osage government, the wakongi began to develop the spells necessary to create wakon'do, and after the creation of wakon'do as power-sources, asteroids in the hundreds were bent to the will of the Nonhonzhinga and their generals. Soon after the burgeoning population of the Empire colonized all of A'kada in a sort of population osmosis, wherein population flowed from places of greater concentration into places of lesser concentration, although Pahu'ka maintained its status as the capital in'zhu, or rock.

With the development of all of Akada, the Nonhonzhinga establishing the fleets and the banner-system (under the control of the generals), they now turned their attention to beyond Akada, to any great sources of wakon that could be detected outside. This led to the discovery of gargantuan amounts of life in the Mi System, known as Sol to its inhabitants, and contact with Britmattia and Tsaraine, and the applying to the Machiavelli Station. Following a mishandled attempt at contact with Mars, the Osage-Yvresse War resulted in a colony on Mars. [OOC: If you read all of that, you're a saint.]

Culture, Politics, etc.

The Empire maintains a highly martial culture. The concept of Odon is highly ingrained in society. Numerous dojos function as alternative schools under Masters of various styles of martial arts, armed and otherwise. The most famous of these is Kalashi Academy, which is located in a secluded mountain area and led by the secretive Master Kalashi. Students in his school learn to combine their skills in wakon-manipulation and physical prowess. Irul Kasaros is a graduate of the academy.

In addition to the martial culture, there is a large underworld of piracy, banditry, and otherwise illicit activities that are usually involved in vicious wars with Law Enforcement. These are almost always headed by the restless Honga clans, not to be confused with the Honga branch of the military. Powerful, reclusive wakongi sometimes take control of a small asteroid for their own reasons and turn it into a private estate, isolated and powerful.

There are also the great Sail Highways. The Generators are perhaps the greatest single wakon-source in the Magocracy, and consist of gigantic two-hundred mile wide sails that focus and direct pure beams of wakon. Several of these generators are found in several places on opposite ends of the system, and the great thaumsail routes are used by thousands, if not millions daily.

The wakongi maintain their hold on government, more or less indifferent to the plights of the vast working-class, which consists of hundreds and hundreds of millions of peasants, usually involved in cattle-farming or rice-cultivation. These are usually the source of conscripts for the vast Green Standard Army, counterpart to the volunteer Color Banners.

[possibly more to come later]


Government

All branches of government are handled officially by the Nonhonzhinga, with the possible exception of some executive power in the hands of the generals. The Nonhonzhinga makes the laws, rules on the highest echelon of cases, and has the final say on important economic/diplomatic decisions. They also appoint the 10 Generals, ten wakondagi who are appointed, for a greater or lesser span of time (up to hundreds of years), to lead the banners and the asteroid-fleets. To vote, one must make a certain percentage on the Exams.

The Exams

The exams are the cause of many a suicide, bandit, general, and politician in the empire. They are THE tests, and are administered to every individual at age 21. They determine wakon-aptitude, academic aptitude, and physical aptitude. The scores on the Exams determine quite a bit. A comparison would be to think of them as the SATs or ACTs of the College of Life. Failing them generally puts one in the same level as McDonalds' workers in the USA, passing with flying colors points to a career in the military or politics. A certain score on the Exams is necessary to vote. In US letter-grade cognates, one must make a high B to able to vote for members of the Nonhonzhinga.

Military

The Osage military is divided into two sections, Tsizhu and Honga, respectively meaning Sky and Earth. The latter should not be confused with the Honga clans, who often provide the warriors for the Honga branch of the military but are similar to unemployed warrior-clans that are more often than not involved in piracy, banditry, and minor wars with Law Enforcement. Despite being technically two different branches of service, both Tsizhu and Honga are ultimately under the control of one of the ten generals appointed by the Nonhonzhinga.

Tsizhu

The fleets of the Osage Empire are, unlike like other nations in the universe, composed of asteroids that have been harnessed by a wakondo, a semiprecious gem that has been infused with a vast amount of wakon. The asteroid in question is distinguished from unharnessed rocks by the distinctive 'light-lines', which are perpindicular patterns of lines that shift in color and serve to tell where an atmosphere and gravity does or does not exist. These light-lines are also defensive in nature, increasing the defensive strength of the asteroidal surface to levels similar to that of armor, effectively making it far more cost-effective to defeat an Osage ship by killing all aboard than actually obliterating it. The Osage strategy is itself built around boarding enemy ships.

Under the leadership of Monhin Dapa, the Osage fleets are being upgraded. A biometal endo and exoskeleton is implanted in each, supplying a network of circuitry on the inside whose functions include surveillance, communication, and anti-boarding utility, and on the outside as an extra layer of reactive armor. This biometal is connected with the wakondo, giving rise to a sentient Mind who controls the ship.

The vast amount of wakon contained in the wakondo also powers the offensive weaponry of the asteroid-ships, which is, effectively, able to expel huge amounts of plasma from any point on its surface, and hurl it at amazing speeds toward the enemies. As well, this has been supplemented as of late by kinetics, a piece of pig iron embedded with a microwakondo capable of hurling it at c-frac speeds.

Osage asteroid-fleets are composed of Inzhutonga (literally 'Greater Asteroids/Boulders/Rocks) and Inzhuzhinga (literally 'Lesser Asteroids/Boulders/Rocks).

Honga The Honga, or Earth, has recently been divided into three subsections by the Tenth Fleet-General, Monhin Dapa. The first is the Imperial Army organized under the banner system, the second are the recently risen Ancestral Legions, and the third are the miloliths.

The Imperial Army was reorganized a few centuries ago by Irul Kasaros in the banner-system. This system separates the Army into two great Zho'egatha (lit. Grand Divisions), the Colored Banners and the Green Standard Army (or Green Banners). The colored banners are elite troops, while the Green Army is, as the color implies, conscripts. The reorganization of the Imperial Army has a total of twelve banners, 4 Colored and 8 Green. Recently, under Aumanii tutelage, a new banner has been created, the gunshoka, or assault rifle-trained infantry.

The two Zho'egatha are divided into shoka (banner), which are further subdivided into two shokazhinga, with the colored shoka being assigned colors. The four colors are Yellow, White, Red, and Blue. The shokazhinga are referred to by color and number, thus 1st and 2nd Red, 1st and 2nd Blue banners, but not 3rd red banner or 49th Green. Generally a banner is not referred to by number, so that when a commander deploys 'the Red banner' he refers to the entire banner, but when he says 'The 2nd red' he means a single shokazhinga. The Green Standard Army is the only color with more than one banner (there being twenty-four green banners).

Each banner is made up of a varying number of infantry, ke'xtha'tse, and wakongi, usually flucuating around a million total troops with infantry generally being armed with spears/pikes or swords, ke'xtha'tse with the signature wakon-infused twin axes, and wakongi generally leading the troops and using fire-magic.

The Ancestral Legions were created when Monhin Dapa led the Nonhonzhinga in the casting of a great spell (derived from the investigations of Irul Kasaros into the history of the Necromancer) that led to the rising of every dead skeleton still extant in the Empire's entire history, resulting in millions and millions of soldiers rising from tombs, necropolises, and graveyards all across the Empire. Each Ancestral Legion consists of a million necromantically raised undead.

Finally, the miloliths are rock soldiers who carry rock weapons tipped with steel, and are located in a self-expanding network of tunnels and factories beneath the soil of Osage property.

Religion: Wakonda, Odon, and the Bahi'xtsi

Wakonda

There are three main pillars of traditional Osage religion. The vast majority of the populace worship and follow the principle of Wakonda, which is the official religion of the empire. The lower-case term wakon means mystery power, and this is where the wakongi (the -gi is a possessive suffix) get their power. Kasaros once described wakon as the energy of souls, a latent force that permeates through all things, living and inanimate. A wakondagi is simply a very powerful wakongi, it is an honorary title bestowed by the Nonhonzhinga or earned through a further exam. However, the term Wakonda has a very different meaning. The direct translation is 'Great Mystery Power', but the usage of the word 'power' here denotes a being here instead of a force. Wakonda is best described as a sort of Osage Brahman, a vast universal soul, the infinite intelligence, as if all the matter and energy in the universe was simply a limb of his existence, and the rest of the body is beyond our grasp. Wakonda is everywhere, It is in the sky, It is in the ground, It is in the dark, It is in the light. Referred to beforehand as a He, the Osage religion has divided the different concepts of the universe into male and female Wakonda, not unlike the Daoist concept of Yin and Yang, which are referred to as Grandfathers and Grandmothers (oddly enough).

O'don

The term O'don is different from the religious concepts of Wakonda and the Bahi'xtsi, as it is more of a code or a set of living. Comparable concepts on Earth are the chivalry of the medieval knights or the bushido of the samurai class in Japan. At its very roots it is a military code, as can be seen from its root words, which mean 'war acts'. To gain glory in battle, conquering your enemies, is a great act of O'don. Dishonorable warfare, such as the killing of innocents, is highly frowned upon and could cause one to be shamed, even hunted, unable to show your face in the world at large. O'don has a rule of honor for just about everything, but like most such codes, shrewd generals and politicians regard it as something to be followed until it ceases to benefit you.

The Bahi'xtsi

The Bahi'xtsi are a rather esoteric and unspoken subject in the Empire. The literal translation of the time is 'Central, Elite Ones', but no one really knows where it came from. They are alternatively referred to as the Central Powers or the Nuclear Powers (nuclear referring to central, like a nucleus), and are considered, generally, to be the forces of evil and darkness.

Unfortunately for the captains of the asteroid-ships, the Bahi'xtsi can become all too real a reality. In hushed terms the higher echelons of the navy speak about those who attracted their attention in their Trips and Walks through the Between Spaces, and died screaming at things that did not seem to be there.

As to the actual shape of the Elite Ones, no has seen them in the normal, waking world (or, atleast, lived to tell about it), but the general lore on the matter is that they take many forms, some hideous and some hominid.


Concepts: Wakon and FTL

Wakon The lower-case term wakon means mystery power, and this is where the wakongi (the -gi is a possessive suffix) get their power. Kasaros once described wakon as the energy of souls, a latent force that permeates through all things, living and inanimate. Osage 'magic' is basically taking 'wakon', which is a sort of stem cell energy force that sits around behind the veil of matter (in philosophical terms, it is the naked essence of Wakonda, the Universal Soul), and convert it into the energy they need at the time, whether that be fire, lightning, or something else. In this way, they cannot poof a loaf of bread into existence, but can convert the wakon around them into a fireball to toss. All 'magic' is really wakon-manipulation.

FTL

FTL doesn't actually involve wakon except as an instrument to break into the upper levels of a hypersphere (The 'Between Spaces') which links all areas. All matter curves space, and matter is blinking into existence everywhere, so the universe is curved, the outer 'layer' of a hypersphere. The Osage get into the inner layers for FTL. These inner layers are the homes of odd prisms, centipedal shapes, and a constant loud, roaring noise of strange music, the home of the Bahi'xtsi. To break into the inner layers of the universe, one needs the proper combination of math (angles and calculations) to point you behind the walls of the material universe. A wakongi can make a jump all by his lonesome. However, when the wakongi assemble on an asteroid-ship around the wakon'do, they can 'attach' the ship and its inhabitants to them when they journey through the between spaces. Generally, only a small percentage of wakongi (who are, in turn, a small percentage of the populace) can break into the hypersphere.