Boshaari Council

The Boshaari Council is the ruling body of most Boshaari. It directly administrates the Second Orbit, including Aistanar, Yanta, Vala, with the notable exception of the Embassy Ark that sits in Aistanar's L3 point.

History

The Boshaari Council finds its roots in the government of the Pyxis Globula colony Bytha-IV, the once secret home to the Yoni Ark which enabled survivors to emigrate to the Circinus Stream.
During the ten-year journey through intergalactic space, Ambassador Naesala Adlar advocated for Boshaari interests. When the Ark arrived in the Elpis System she formed the First Council which was tasked with overseeing the Seedling of their most favourable world - Aistanar.

Early Years

The first exploration missions reported that the planet Aistanar would be the most favourable to the Boshaari pioneers. Exactly 600 days after arrival (and some negociations with the Domain, some of whom also wanted a colony on Aistanar), the first manned shuttle landed on the shores of the Aether Sea, on what would become New Eldelyn, the Council capital. Using some of their allotment of Programmable Matter, the Council established a dirtside base from which many of the Council settlements - mostly Boshaari, with a few Mewei villages - mushroomed.
The impact was profound on the Boshaari race, who lost an empire and longed for a new home. In the first few years, most Boshaari had mostly vacated the Embassy Ark to settle either on New Eldelyn or its two less habitable moons. The Council was focussed on developing Aistanar, however, leaving many lunar settlers to break away more or less peacefully from Council law.
The Council began a rapid period of expansion. The chief concern was the insufficient amount of Programmable Matter needed to build early modules for industrial and agricultural development. On Aistanar, Councillor Adlar pushed for a command economy that quickly burgeoned the required technological base to remain spaceborne. Much of their programmable matter was used on orbital projects, notably the construction of Hyporia Station">Hyporia Station from Ark leftovers.

The Thaumium War

In the 10th Cycle, explorer Alriel Vaduin discovered vast resources of Thaumium hidden beneath the crust of the faraway planet Zindra. Unfortunately, upon arrival, the Murafell Mining Company discovered that the Hiderid Coalition of Stars had decided to claim the entire world as their property.
Diplomatic tensions aboard the Embassy Ark were at their highest. Hiderid President Kjrx Frkx ordered a tiny armed merchant fleet to fire at Boshaari vessels in the vicinity. In response, the Council sent all of its ten pre-Great Jump warships. The resulting war was short and relatively bloodless, and the Mewei Domain intervened to broker an uneasy peace.
Under the terms of the treaty, much of the planet was allowed to be excavated by Coalition interests, with a third of the landmass shared between the Council, the Domain as well as the Hhrot Dominion. Nevertheless, armed skirmishes between the Council and the Coalition continued for some cycles to come.

Expansion

The Council then resumed its expansion with an inward gaze. The priority was the development of Aistanar, and beyond control of Zindra, space played a limited role in its early construction plans. One after another, most colonies on the moons of Aistanar slipped beyond Council control, as a combination of disgruntlement and government neglect. Only in the 27th Cycle did the Boshaari finally complete their orbital shipyard with the last of their programmable matter. By this point, they had assembled enough of a technological base to thrive without.
In the 29th Cycle, Councillor Adlar died, leaving behind a political mess. The Council reformed around the role of Praetor, and successive governments oversaw the continued development of the Council colony whilst gradually opening the market. By the 45th Cycle, the Council had transitionned to a merchantile economy. This also led to the creation of a middle class and to the rebirth of ancestral Great Houses which began to control significant sectors of the economy. The later part of the early period is also marked by greater religious fervour and the growth of the Chantry of the Void around revised, "universalist" tenets.
However, income disparity was on the rise, and soon gave way to tensions between different strands of politicians and citizens who all disagreed on the future their fledging colony should take.

The Bili Praetorship

In the 91st Cycle, Councillor Aethiel Bili was narrowly elected by the Council to the position of Praetor. Hailing from an ancestral Great House, he believed that the future of the Boshaari was not planted dirtside, but dominating every corner of space.
Bili did not tolerate dissent and sought to unite his people "by word or by sword". Soon every media outlet, the Chantry, and many Great Houses were brought to heel. In the 94th cycle, when aspiring explorer Boriel Davi discovered the present of strange alien ruins amidgst the asteroid cloud soon known as the Wayward Belt, Bili's first instinct was to round up key dissenters to work as indentured, exiled labour on the alien mines.
It transpired later that the mines were far more functional than Boriel Davi had let on, and the exiled, now called "Waywards", managed to make a thriving settlement out of their prison-home. Through subterfuge and bribery, by the last shipment of exiles, not a single warden hadn't turned coat, and the prison mines largely managed themselves. To keep appearances, small amounts of minerals were shipped to Aistanar whilst in secret, the Waywards hollowed out asteroids, carved pressurized bunkers and assembled small dinghy spaceships of their own.
Bili also sought to tighten his grip on the lunar colonies and return them to the fold. Despite relentless attempts, many of these small cities remained defiantly independant and some even banded together to foil local Council efforts. Early successes were dampened by an economic recession caused by the sudden drop in prices of key minerals once scarce but now easily sourced around the moons of Hestia, as well as overreliance on the struggling economy of the Coalition of Stars
At home, whilst Praetor Bili was initially well-regarded for bringing order back to a faltering colony, his increasingly ruthless methods of exerting power and his growing paranoia soon earned him powerful enemies. In addition, several high-profile defectors tarnished his image. His second-in-command, High-Arbiter Naladel Delphi, defected and sought refuge in the Coalition over his treatment of defectors. In one particularly egregious instance, Boriel Davi managed to steal the Council's flagship BSS Lily of the Void and recruit several smaller Houses to develop new cities on the spires of the barely hospitable world Nevael. Davi famously enraged Praetor Bili when he announced, "I now have two homes. One is a caustic, toxic hellpit where a slip sends you flying into pools of acid magma... and one is Nevael."
In the 110th Cycle, an ailing Praetor Bili spearheaded attempts to quickly build up the Council's naval forces, prompting concern from the Hiderid Coalition. The reason is unknown, but the Praetor was found dead after presumably setting his own house ablaze using piles of documents stolen from the Council Archives now unfortunately lost to time.

Modern Council

Following the death of Praetor Bili, High-Arbiter Naladel Delphi returned to the Boshaari world to organize his succession. Many of his decrees were revoked and the Wayward were allowed home (though very few chose to, at that point however, the privileges granted by Bili to the Chantry and several Great Houses remained, as was the title of Praetor.
Since then, the Council has focused on industrial production and greater trade integration within the Elpis system. In the 151st Cycle, the leader of the Council is the progressive Praetor Vulas Lufina, albeit he is chaperoned by Chantry leader Esta Erronis.

Society & Customs

Spiritual and generally lovers of tradition, the Boshaari are fashionable aesthetes who seek enlightenment and influence. They find solace in order and conformity - though this tires on the younger generation, who aspires to live free lives amongst the stars.

Politics

Boshaari society is structured along the lines of Great Houses, groups of powerful families tracing their heritage back to Imperial Pre-Jump times. Each House dominates a sector of trade across Aistanar and Council space, and acts as a political party of sorts. The Houses are united in the High-Council, presided over by the Praetor - who can only be from a Great House, but is elected by the people at large - as well as the High-Summoner, leader of the Chantry, a nominally independent religious body. Despite a veneer of democracy, true power rests within the status of the Great Houses, and each family within readily plots out games of intrigue and conspiracy against each other to get themselves ahead - and to get Boshaari society where they want it.
The six Great Houses are -

• House Vulen (traders who dominate agro-business)
• House Bili (self-styled 'defenders of the Boshaari', who originate from the ancient Imperial Guard)
• House Paranel (Fae-Touched house of archivists and arcanists)
• House Diyanel (industrialists with a heavy hand in ship-building)
• House Keyleth (religious purveyors of tradition)
• House Daerie (the only house without a link to the Empire - it is a collection of former Imperial dissidents and Mewei Council citizens)

Culture

Boshaari thrive in theatrics, and are often candid and expressive in their behaviour. Status, respect, and intent are heavily coded in the gestures they choose to portray - earnestly or not. Conversations often take the form of dramatic, passionate debates. Boshaari are intensely focused, yet must often temper their curiosity when it clashes with their drive for conformity. They are great producers and consumers of fine arts, and their builds, clothes and music are often needlessly intricate, with hidden meanings to each element of every artistic work. Boshaari treat their religion with great reverence and contemplation, and many ritual dances exist for them to partake in and celebrate their faith.
Community
The Boshaari as a whole have always existed as a splintered people, and this is often reflected in their cities and settlements. Despite utmost care taken by the Council in its planning of new cities, many settlements often wind up becoming a confusing tangle of streets and buildings, criss-crossed by trolleys and overflown by gravcars. Cities across Council space are often built around their head shrine (called Yanna), often including as well as the Council Templar's Office (called Baraad). Nevertheless, many aspects of city-planning are left to local residents to sort, and many cities wind up becoming mazes where traffic is treacherous and wide avenues hardly ever form anything coherent. Most cities are required by Council law to be supervized by a member of the military police known as the Templars (as well as normal police, judgement halls, etc) yet all cities are led by civilian leader oweing heavy favours from the Great Houses.
There is a sharp but quickly dividing rift between communities of Boshaari - notably, between the urban, traditionalist ara'balai of the world Aistanar and the frontier folk called neni'balai, who live in outlying communities or on one of the colonized moons. The five-yearly Pilgrimage seeks, amongst other civic and religious functions, to help bridge this gap and foster unity between Boshaari people, with varied results. In addition, several multispecies colonies - Boshaari populations mixed with mostly Mewei or Zaalan - exist on the outskirts of colonized Aistanar, and share different customs and outlooks.
Ara-balai communities are tightly-knit, inward-focused groups, often united by past cultural ties, who mingle and gather around shrines and symbols of power. Most buildings on Aistanar blend the trends of the past and make heavy use of curves. A typical Boshaari building is taller than they are wide, with intricate rooms, small but lavish gardens, and finely-carved details around even the lowliest prefab housing unit. Pipes and other utilities are often visible as a symbol of self-sufficiency or to play with the perception of a building’s true dimension. Public squares are often adorned with beautiful statues and magical ornaments; spires rise to collect gravcars and zeppelins that fly gracefully through and above the urban fabric. Whilst the majority of Boshaari toil away at simple if beautiful, faithful lives, in dark alleys and mist-filled rooms, conspiracies are rife amongst the wealthy and powerful, who use their maze-like cities as backdrops to subtly plot against one another and secure influence for themselves.

Rituals & Customs

The Boshaari Bow is the act of lowering one's head (and sometimes the upper part of the torso). In many Boshaari cultures this is commonly used as a sign of salutation or gratitude. In addition, the Boshaari have many rituals for several different things, several emanating from Fallanist hymns and rituals past or present, many of which have lost all religious significance. Whilst foreigners to the Council (even Boshaari from the rapidly diverging moon colonies!) are generally not expected to follow all these customs, it is a stain on a homelander's honour to fail to observe them correctly.

Religion

Main article : New Fallanism
The vast majority of Boshaari believe in New Fallanism - the belief in salvation granted to the Boshaari race by the deity they call the Inheritor of Elvenkind. As the Tenets go, their Goddess sacrificed all she had in order to save elvenkind from doom in the far future. There are a select few who believe the "far future" to have been realized when the Boshaari were saved aboard the Embassy Ark, but most continue to renew their faith in the Inheritor.
Her worship is organized by the Chantry of the Void. Alongside her, ancestor and benevolent spirits anointed by the Inheritor, called Æsimar, are often revered and worshipped. There are many Æsimar - as many as there are beautiful places, cities, rivers and forests. Traditionally, each shrine - known as Yanna will feature not just the image of the Inheritor, but also that of a local or significant Æsimar.
In the name of the Inheritor, every five years, a new Pilgrimage is declared and Boshaari make way to the Great Shrine of New Elvelyn, where first-timers, usually children, are "named" (registered).

Politics & Economy

The Boshaari economy can be described as a generally free-market economy, albeit with heavy influence from Great Houses which guide financial and industrial developments. Generally, the Boshaari are less focused on short-term consumption and put more importance on the longevity or quality of a product, even when this would lower their overall economic growth. The Boshaari economy can tolerate lower levels of consumption at home for a specific reason : much of it hinges on agriculture and agricultural byproducts, and there is little in the way of competition. Most foodstuffs used across Tau Elpis (and especially by the Coalition) are exported from Aistanar, as are many byproducts such as the planet's superior live soil.
Boshaari politics seem simple - the Praetor, elected by influencial Patreons, leads the Council, which in turns names district managers and prefecture officials. In reality, nothing truly gets done anymore without the assent of a Great House. In addition, because officials get paid relatively little money, many find extra income by lobbying in favour of Great Houses - and owe their loyalty to them. The only organization that has grown big enough to challenge this state of affairs is the nominally neutral and equally respected Chantry of the Void - and many emergency bills are often passed as religious bills for that very reason, though the Chantry often emits reservations on decisions made by the Council, leading to further intrigue and red tape.

Diplomacy

Council faith dictates that all species must be treated fairly and as equal as per the Inheritor's wishes. Thus many Boshaari, Council or not, seek out foreign influences. Despite early wobbles with the Hiderid Coalition of Stars, the Council is now on good terms with its leadership and many corporations maintain branches on both Aistanar and Hakaria. Nevertheless, shared frienship is waning, seemingly, in the context of a severe shortage of Thaumium that the Coalition is not helping alleviate, and following several high-profile scandals in the Coalition.
The Council has few avowed foes; like most, it distrusts the reclusive and warlike Hhrot Dominion as well as the pirate threat from the Wayward Belt. Its relationship with the neni'balai lunar communities is highly strained, however, and a major focus of diplomacy as of the 151st Cycle.

Type

Geopolitical, Republic