Tavros Demarchy

The Demarchy is governed by the Mux Sae -- the Left Hand or Proper Way -- a code of laws common to all worlds and clans. It formally eschews rank and nobility, though observers note that in practice Tavrosi leaders conduct themselves much as lords would. The Demarchy maintains social peace through therapy and reeducation rather than force. It discourages long-term family associations and deliberately disrupts lasting couple bonds. Violence among the clans is almost exclusively economic; the Demarchy has no Colosso and takes a dim view of blood sport. The Demarchy permits the merging of human flesh with machines and has developed advanced neural manipulation techniques including memory siphoning and neural lace overwriting. The Mux Sae includes a prohibition against things of the 'right hand,' which precludes offering sacrifices to Mother Earth.

The Tavrosi fleet of approximately ten thousand personnel participates in the Battle of Danu under Grand Admiral Sattha Kull. Kull was the first among the assembled allied powers to support Hadrian's proposal for a pre-emptive strike against the Cielcin. The Tavrosi flagship is the Saeriphaph, crewed by fewer than a thousand sailors. Tavrosi warships are small and crewed as sparsely as possible. In combat, crews are immersed in oxygenated fluid tanks and cabled into a shared neural network called thathing via nodes at the base of each demarchist's neck, forming a single emergent collective intelligence. Their primary weapons are mass accelerators firing hollow-heart tungsten shells housing antilithium kernels designed to penetrate deep into enemy vessels before annihilating fuel reservoirs.

At the Battle of Danu, the Tavrosi fleet employs thathing-linked crews and antilithium-cored tungsten shells to attack Cielcin worldship fuel reservoirs. When the Watcher Ushara manifests in orbit above Danu, the Tavrosi fleet -- positioned closest to it -- is nearly destroyed. Of approximately ten thousand personnel, 9,649 are killed. Only three ships survive. Because of the thathing network, each of the three surviving captains experiences the deaths of their crewmates across the shared consciousness. The near-total destruction of the fleet represents the effective annihilation of the Demarchy's navy.

The Tavrosi trace their origins to the Exodus, when they were driven from the moons of Jupiter alongside the Eudorans and the Mandari, fleeing Imperial persecution to the remote Taurus Wisp. In nearly four thousand years of isolation they build a prosperous civilization beyond Imperial borders.

The Demarchy's clansmen bear distinctive geometric forehead tattoos encoding personal and genetic history. Its languages include Nordei, Travatsk, and Panthai. The Demarchy has developed advanced neural and memory manipulation techniques: memories can be siphoned and preserved in crystal phials, and neural laces can be overwritten entirely. Tavrosi healers employed these methods to treat neurological damage, including an attempt by Valka's clansmen to counter the virus implanted in her brain.

At the Emperor's Grand Council on Forum, Grand Admiral Sattha Kull demands a formal armistice and written Imperial renunciation of all claim to the Taurus Wisp as the price of Tavrosi cooperation against the Cielcin.

The Tavrosi fleet joins the allied muster at Gododdin, where Kull is the first to support a pre-emptive strike against the Cielcin.

At the Battle of Danu, the Tavrosi fleet of approximately ten thousand personnel is positioned closest to the Watcher Ushara when it manifests in orbit. The Watcher destroys all but three of their ships, killing 9,649 Tavrosi. The surviving members, under Vanna Kvaran, do not offer sacrifices to Mother Earth for their dead, citing the Mux Sae's prohibition. The few Tavrosi dead recovered number fewer than ten, as most die wired into their thathing networks aboard their ships.

Grand Admiral Sattha Kull (Utnamnavi; fleet commander), Vanna Kvaran (surviving captain), Valka Onderra (xenologist), Doctor Sarric