Kazir the planet
A lush, watery planet with only two big continents, and one small continent/large island in the middle of the ocean.
Species
1. Kaziri species used to be light green with light scales, blue eyes, bipedal, tails.
- There are still a few like that around but they are rare.
2. Most are mixed species from many planets. Most common variation is like Mikkal - tan skin, faint scale pattern but no scales, black eyes, bipedal, no tails.
Government
1. Led by a Dirac, who is elected from Senate
2. Senators, both male and female.
- The senators each have their own territory.
- Many senators keep apartments in the same building as Mikkal.
- Most senators have homes in their territories, too.
3. Many small factions.
4. Older senators -
- remember the tragedy of the first humans.
- Believe they don’t need the humans and they should be eliminated.
- Their nirza have calmed with age.
“I believe we can’t risk letting them land here! We need to kill them before they get near here. Those of us who were alive remember the chaos of the time. Those of you who were not yet born surely studied this in school! Letting the humans land here the first time was one of the darkest periods of our history! Why do you think this time would be different?”
5. Young ones -
- want to dominate, enslave, and kill.
- Their nirza hasn’t been let out or dealt with in a good way.
"The second option is enslave them all, which will go a long way to satisfy our needs. By releasing our violence on them, we will allow our culture, our arts, and our intellect to emerge and flourish once more. We have learned some lessons from the first shipload of humans that may allow us to handle this group better, especially in terms of the amount of ruthlessness needed to contain rebellion. Regardless, this choice may ultimately lead to the humans’ extinction, much like the first group.”
- Don’t believe they will all kill themselves rather than be slaves, but if there is rebellion, they would simply quickly kill those who don’t submit.
6. The middle - those whose nirza are managed effectively -
- interested in the humans,
- think they could be beneficial to the Kaziri.
- But they’re not going to let a huge group just become part of them.
- Isolation is best - for now.
- Worry that this desire to kill those who don’t submit is not for sake of unity and prosperity but for control and bloodthirstiness.
“Because despite our violent nature we do not kill innocents. Killing them outright, with no provocation and just to make our lives easier is a betrayal of Kazir.”
“I believe that destroying them doesn’t help us. We need them - at least some of them - as much as they need us. Conquests of other planets have grown rarer since we joined the Allied Worlds, and while it is good for our people to take our place among civilized worlds and find other outlets for our violent natures., our physical need need for conquest and dominance has grown strong in recent years. If we don’t find a way to let it out, our natures will grow more violent, and the beauty and art inside us will never be released. We will decay from within, and our society will fall.”
Nirza - what is it?
1. The nirza is the warrior spirit of the planet. It exists both within the planet, and within the people of the planet.
- The nirza is both negative and positive. The nirza makes a person aggressive and prone to fighting, until it becomes fulfilled and content to rest. Then the positive side comes out.
- If someone doesn't learn how to control it, the negative side of the nirza could take over, running unchecked, never letting the positive side have a turn.
2. In someone who has learned to control the nirza inside, it guides their actions by giving a sense of rightness or wrongness about an action.
- He stared at the ceiling for a long while, wondering why he felt the nirza's presence, but nothing else - neither calmness nor restlessness.
3. When storms lash the planet, it’s said that Kazir is letting out its nirza, and that it will be calmer and more content after, which it often is.
- Like a buildup and discharge of static electricity.
4. The people themselves go through cycles of more violence called Naaris.
5. As they grew civilized and their conquests grew fewer, the influx of new people has decreased. More mating has occurred between themselves, and the negative feedback loop has started again.
6. A violent event will let out the Nirza, who then becomes pacified.
7. Does not flourish when violence is turned inward towards the planet inhabitants.
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8. Not every person has to individually commit violence for it to be effective
9. The influx of slaves over the centuries helped to dilute the nirza and weaken/calm it, depending on your POV.
- Those who arrived on the planet did not feel the nirza as much as those who had lived here a long time.
- As generations passed, that family line would feel the nirza stronger again.
- Humans feel the Nirza intensely, but no one realizes it. That’s why they rebelled so quickly and violently.
10. A family whose ancestors include few slaves/more original inhabitants has a harder time controlling its nirza.
- They tend to be more violent.
- The release will calm them, but for shorter times.
"But it remained a fact that the nirza in every Kaziri needed to come out in some way. Not every person had a strong nirza - it tended to be stronger in those whose ancestors had been on the planet a long time, no matter the species. It was almost as though the planet had a “soul” of violence that was soaked up by the inhabitants over time and passed from parent to child, in a negative feedback loop. The more violent the people, the more they could only think of violence, and the less their culture progressed. Their ancestors in pre-spaceflight times had been a violent people, killing and making ceaseless wars among themselves. As they began leaving the planet, their violence had stood them well in conquering other worlds. From those peoples they brought back slaves who they treated well, and interbred with them, and over time the nirza of the planet had calmed."
Letting the Nirza out in a controlled manner
1. Like small volcanoes in a chain having small eruptions that settle the whole chain.
- The culture will flourish - writing, art, architecture.
- Their collective violent soul was fed by the actions of their armies on other worlds. They didn’t usually try to rule the planet; they merely raided among the people and brought slaves back.
2. Ways to let it out
-Conquering other planets in an honorable manner. Conquests don’t have to be nearby - as long as the soldiers are from Kazir, the planet “feels” them
- Individual accomplishments including mock battles, games of physical skill
"He’d preached for years that his people could turn their violent natures towards other things and be happy. He believed his planet was becoming more and more civilized, despite the need his people had for conquering. And now he was facing the sober truth that at least in his case, that was horseshit. He needed to dominate and punish another person. Be unyielding and harsh. Be in control of every moment of her existence. He’d never known what being alive meant before today."
- If a large or influential body lets it out together that will calm everyone
- Dirac Orton preached that the senators taking slaves will let the nirza out enough to calm the people. He really wants to lay the groundwork for enslaving them all.
- Sexual conquests
"There was a time long ago that he had been consumed with the idea, but he'd learned to push it to the back of his mind. He preferred to concentrate on what he felt were more noble battles. But he couldn't ignore it any more. Since spanking ‘Slave’, something he’d never done before, he felt a calmness and peace he hadn’t felt in years. It was almost intoxicating. No, it wasn’t ‘almost’. It was intoxicating. He wanted to do it again, and again. And somehow, he’d known exactly how to do it - how to secure her, that spanking her would increase her submissiveness, that he needed to arrange to purchase pain reliever cream and and various other painful implements. Even the rules he’d given her were made up on the fly, but they’d just seemed…right."
If it’s not released in a controlled manner
1. Like a volcano with a stopper, it blows and does not settle for a while. The people enter a time of Naaris, where they become increasingly violent - downward spiral
Adenje Trials
1. Everyone who lives on the planet will eventually have to go on a quest to understand their nirza
"When he emerged into the light he was initially horrified at his visions. He kept them at bay with the newly-forged positive side of his nirza, along with violent sports and plenty of BattleSims. He would always feel the influence strongly; always need to find a way to let out his need for violence. There was always a darkness about him. But it meant he could listen, and rationalize, and restrain himself from doing the wrong thing, mostly. And he gradually pushed thoughts of dominance into the corners of his mind."
2. It’s getting less common - younger members of the Senate often haven’t done it and are rash and bloodthirsty
" The Dirac Ortan was no fool - if he could find a way for the nirza to come out in the same way among those people with the same political agenda as his, they’d be much more likely to follow him."
- "There had emerged a quiet movement over the last 50 years that eschewed the trials, extolling the virtues of violence, calling the people who went through trials soft and weak. Mikkal suspected that a few of the younger members of the Senate hadn’t gone through an AdenjÄ™ trial, merely faking or forging the proof."
- "Still, it was unimaginable that a man as powerful as the current Dirac Ortan hadn’t gone through the trials; hadn’t learned how to balance the positive and negative influences. But that was the only explanation for not feeling any nirza—when the negative side was in complete control. Yes, he’d acted balanced, but any evil person can pretend to be nice, and the smartest ones can pretend for a long time. There had been rumors of ruthlessness towards opponents, and his rise had been very rapid, but nothing was ever substantiated."
3. A person would spend days in a place that’s closer to the spirit, deal with the violence that’s in their heads, come to an understanding and begin to learn to manage it.
- "The AdenjÄ™ trials were meant as a way to teach a young adult how to contain the negative, violent side enough to let the positive come out. They would spend a time in one of the deep caves that dotted the planet. The deeper the cave and the closer to the planet’s core, the more the influence of the nirza was felt. The person would at first be overwhelmed by anger, often reliving perceived slights and insults and responding with violent rage, either vocally or with fists."
- "These were not angry people in the outside world. Rather, they were just more susceptible to the influence of the intense proximity of the nirza. But those most susceptible had the highest need to learn how to integrate it into their lives."
- And learning how to balance it didn’t mean a person was always calm and peaceful. They still had personality traits.
- Not supposed to be elected to Senate unless they have shown they can handle their nirza.
"The Dirac Ortan had never had an AdenjÄ™ trial, and though they weren't required, no prominant politician had ever been trusted to rise without going through them. There was a risk that the planet’s nirza could control his actions and thoughts, rather than merely giving feedback on his actions and thoughts."
Humans arrive
1. No one realized until Mik’kal that the human were susceptible to the nirza more than any other species the Kazreel brought to the planet.
- The Kaziri quickly took them as slaves and started to breed with them. The nirza didn’t seem to have a problem with that
- But the humans did not take to slavery and became self-destructive and even suicidal. Their rebellion was squashed and many were killed. Some killed their children to keep them from being slaves.
2. The people calmed quickly, having let out their violence.
- This seeming pacification allowed them to become eligible to join the Allied Worlds.
3. The nirza stayed angry for years at the violence done to people on her planet
- Horrible storms and earthquakes
- "And when the small group of humans arrived and fought back instead of submitting, they were killed. There were years of storms and earthquakes, and those who had learned best how to balance the nirza warned that it was the planet's anger. They were ignored."
- "You remember the chaos left behind after the first group?”
The Dirac waved his hand dismissively. “That wasn’t because of the humans. Just coincidence.”
"Sir, the seers preached for years that the storms and earthquakes for years after had been because the planet had been upset by the violence."
The Dirac let out a snort. "They're fools and charlatans."
Since then
1. Laws passed making children of slaves free
- "Owning a slave had never been something he’d contemplated, and certainly never a human one. Slaves were vanishingly rare on the planet these days since laws had been passed in his grandfather’s time that any child born on the planet was not a slave. The only slaves living on Kazir were those directly taken in conquests that were becoming more and more infrequent, and a handful of voluntary enslavements made that could be made legal after application to a judge. Part of the reason for the new laws was the experience with the first group of humans. While it might have been possible to keep them slaves, it was knowing that their children had no hope of freedom, either, that made them fight back so fiercely. And when they were inevitably defeated, a number had chosen to end their own lives, and in one case, the lives of their children. This shocked the Kazre’el to their core."
2. Conquest of other planets is frowned on by the Allied worlds
- They did not let the Kazreel join until they showed calmness - maybe naive that it wouldn’t happen again?
- Now had no outlets for the nirza off-planet
3. Types of acceptable violence
- Violent but non-lethal sports flourished.
- Physical labor
- Danger - putting themselves into harm’s way, or doing something physically difficult like exploration or mining or maybe helping the humans survive?
- Sexual violence - D/s - either the D or the s, but usually the D. Not spoken of by most people.
"Most owners prefer to restrain slaves when they were being used, to give the illusion of conquering and prevent the slave from trying to protect herself."
4. Kazir is starting to enter a time of Naaris again
- Games and battle becoming safer and safer
- The Puraji formed, to keep Kazreel blood “pure” and encourage violence
- People getting lax with keeping nirza calm, and
- Adenje trials decreasing
- Weather becoming more violent
- Violence towards other people getting more common
- Culture decreasing
- Senate beginning to bicker, and less effort being put into letting nirza out in safe ways
- Allied Worlds launching an investigation. Puraji infuriated at meddling.