Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on the Qadiri.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Choir of Angels, Four of a Kind, Qadiri Sepoys, Communion.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Sky Caravan
Classification: Trading guild.
Affiliation: Shazora Jai Vahal, Bharria Jai Ahquala, Firemane, Qadiri. Themselves.
Organization Symbol: A constellation shape which when joined forms a holy Kashari sign.
Description: Historically Tygara has been completely isolated from the outside galaxy. The Qadiri, interestingly, have a long tradition that there were other people living out amongst the stars. However, their image of benevolent deities was nothing like what they actually got when slavers from the sky came down upon them. Their next encounter was with Firemane, which was more positive. Firemane’s arrival on Tygara came as a great shock to the native cultures there. However, once the shock had worn off and the Xioquo were defeated, both Firemane and the Qadiri especially began to see opportunities.
The technology and opportunities in the stars has attracted a good number of Qadiri. There are those native rulers who have made pragmatic arrangements with the humans of Firemane, for the benefit of themselves and the people they rule over. Others have resisted, rightly seeing the sky people as foreign overlords. The Sky Caravan is a merchant flotilla that has been set up with the help of Shazora Jai Anhala and Bharria Jai Ahquala. Shazora is the leader of a group of freed slaves who took their freedom by toppling their oppressors and made an alliance with Firemane to preserve it. It prepares officers for the infantry and armour as well as staff positions within those formations, but also trains engineers, artillerists and other technical roles.
Bharria, by contrast, is a noblewoman who came to power at a young age after her mother perished and she overthrew the regents who ruled in her name. She is a pragmatic moderniser who has entered Firemane's services. Both Qadiri are very different in upbringing, personality and class background. Shazora is a republican, while Bharria belongs to the aristocratic upper class, though she has broken with many of their beliefs, abolished slavery and married a commoner. However, there is also common ground. Both are enthusiastic supporters of the self-strengthening movement, which seeks to achieve social, institutional and technological reforms to modernise the Qadiri so that they can stand with the humand and aliens as equals instead of being kicked around by them. The Sky Caravan is one of the tools to accomplish this.
Some Khaimari have joined the Caravan. The Khaimari are a Qadiri ethnicity who, depending on the harvest, alternated between being peaceful farmers and ferocious pirates. Desperate people do desperate things. They are also among the best Qadiri sailors. Shazora does not like Khaimari much because she was enslaved by them at an early age, but Khaimari who did not do anything too heinous and focused more on smuggling, exploration and general mercenary work than slaving and reaving have been brought into the fold. They make good pilots and, it is hoped, will strengthen the hand of those Khaimari who want to embrace the 'new way'.
Though new to spaceflight, the Qadiri have some advantages. Qadiri are almost all extremely good navigators. They seem to have an instinctual internal compass, meaning they are great sailors, travellers and now pilots. Moreover, historically all Qadiri realms have been exceptionally skilled at producing ships and navigators to steer them on the seas and oceans of their planet. The leap to traversing space is a big one, but by no means insurmountable. The Sky Caravan aims to take advantage of these natural talents. It is a merchant group, but also an embassy and a way for Qadiri to learn more about the outside Galaxy and advanced technology. The group has received the backing of a good number of Qadiri banking and trading houses. Shazora is well aware that some of them once opposed her slave rebellion, but believes the benefits outweigh the distaste she feels for them.
The Sky Caravan is not affiliated with the Amikarese Empire, the largest of the Qadiri realms. Both Shazora and Bharria are opposed to its ruler Shahbânu Semiramis, albeit for different reasons. Shazora disdains the 'Sun Empress', viewing her as a manipulative despot who only did away with slavery to ingratiate herself with the humans of Firemane. Bharria lacks the ideological opposition, but recognises the other woman's vast ambitions and sees her as a throwback to the old days. Thus the Sky Caravan also exists to pool the resources of several - though not all - independent Qadiri groups.
The Caravan's members share navigational data and cooperate to negotiate favourable trading and settlement policies with outside parties. Their captains blaze new hyperlanes and set up networks of depots, waystations, listening posts and other essential facilities. It promotes the diversity of the Qadiri people, rather than advocating submission to a single hegemonic ruler. Instead it supports a federal or confederal arrangement. Unsurprisingly, it is opposed to slavery. This is par for the course for a group backed by former slaves who do not want to put others in chains after breaking theirs.
While the people of Shazora and Bharria are aligned with Firemane, they must think long-term. There may be a time when the humans no longer protect them or when their protection comes at too high a price. In that regard it helps that Qadiri have a longer life span than the average human. Presently the group is limited to Qadiri, though it may reach out to the Xioquo and the Vashyada in the future. The history between the Tygaran races is far from a peaceful, as they have a legacy of bloodshed. Shazora, for instance, holds a grudge against Xioquo due to being enslaved by them many years ago. However, now they also operate on a stage far larger than even the most farseeing could have anticipated. The Sky Caravan is associated with Firemane, but not formally part of it. The lingue franca is Zandri, the most common Qadiri language. Members obviously learn Basic so that they can communicate with humans and aliens, who are very unlikely to speak the desert elves' language. After all, it is incredibly obscure.
The Caravan uses its flotilla to provide freight services, offering ships and cargo space. Aside from space travel, this also covers atmospheric transport. A number of devout Eldorai and Qadiri like to hold their religious confirmation ceremonies in orbit so that they can look down on their home. Ascending to the stars features heavily in their religion, after all. Now, before they had proper space travel that was a more mystical thing, but it is still a pretty amazing experience if you attach religious significance to something your race has not yet grown jaded about. Space travel is an extremely new experience for the Qadiri. Thus some pilots associated with the group make money through what amounts to a religious space taxi service.
Quite a few members of the group are former slaves, but it also includes freeborn merchants, adventurers and the like. Qadiri society is very martial, which means merchants do not get a lot of respect. However, the mystique of the stars and the promise of profit and adventure attracts recruits. The name Sky Caravan harkens back to the caravans that have travelled across the Dune Seas of Tygara. Moreover, it references the trading fleets that traverse the planet's seas, connecting Qadiri settlements and cities.
The major selling points of the Caravan are trustworthiness, expertise and distribution. They stick to their contracts come way may...can mean it is hard to get a good contract with them but if you do they'll not renege. If you buy industrial water filters they will provide experts to put it together for you for only a slight markup. They will take jobs to anywhere which is not an active battlezone. Two of their goods are Qadiri Red Desert Coffee and powerful Qadiri liquor called Yazgid's Bite, but they sell a variety of consumer goods and raw materials. The Caravan employs its own security forces, but also contracts outside parties to protect their convoys, trade routes and facilities.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: The Bazaar of the Wild Void, a Lucrehulk Cargo Freighter.
Domain: They have a presence on Tygara, Arkas and some other rim worlds. Here it is pertinent to note that the Sky Caravan does not rule any territory per se. However, it is an influential commercial and political force in Qadiri society. In that regard the Caravan helps Qadiri venture into the stars, travel to other worlds to learn about the outsiders' technology and trade with them. It sponsors space exploration and colonisation efforts and opens up new opportunities for collective and personal advancement for Qadiri. The Caravan operates mainly on the fringes of space and runs or has a stake in a few minor spaceports as well as waystations. None of these are exceptional in scale, but it allows the group to generate revenue by charging people for their use through tolls. People who live on property owned by the Caravan pay rent. This is comparable to a property tax.
Shazora is Firemane's chief diplomat and Bharria is both a local Qadiri ruler with the title of Nawab and a Firemane General, so while far from all-powerful or unconcested, the group has quite a bit of pull due to its sponsors. The group has a presence on the Void Seeker, an Asur Class Worldship populated and controlled by former slaves. Shazora is the patron of the community, which is beneficial to making deals. The Sky Caravan has generated revenue by handling the flow of information, goods, services and people between various various different worldships. Other worldships it has dealings with include but are not limited to the Light of Yarkul, the Arz'alor, the Jewel of the Void and the Sky Cavern. Relations with the Cavern and the Jewel are a bit complicated because the former is controlled by Semiramis and the latter populated by Xioquo, who were long the avowed of many though not all Qadiri groups. However, trade still flows.
Notable Assets: The group has access to a few Liorre-Class Freighters and a larger number of smaller cargo vessels such as the Brayl, the Star Galleon and the GR-75. These are accompanied by escort ships to protect them from attackers. Their vessels tend to be purchased from Firemane Industries & Technology or on the open market. Examples are Frontier Class Corvettes, Guardian and Vigilance Class Frigates as well as a few Nest Carriers and Carracks. The Caravan cannot field big war fleets, as this would not be economical for a group like them. Their combat ships have defensive duties, as they are supposed to protect trade routes, convoys and so on. Firemane can provide aid though when needed.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: The Caravan is organised in a corporate structure, where each 'branch' handles different products or regions reporting up the chain to the executive levels levels. However, there is a twist. Instead of traditional shareholders, all the citizens are shareholders and vote for policies and even leaders. Essentially, it is a democratised form of Corporatocracy. The group operates on the principle that one share equals one vote.
Each member starts with one share. They can buy and sell more shares. Shareholders are allocated a certain number of votes proportional to the number of shares they own. In short, the terms citizen, employee and shareholder are practically synonymous. This gives the people on ground level a say in how things are run and provides them with incentive to perform well, and rise up.
At the same time it leads to a rather oligarchic or plutocratic structure, since those on top own most of the shares. Still, a majority of commoners can outvote them if they get organised. The rich can obviously buy more shares, but they are not cheap. This means it takes a lot of investment to drown out a hundred active voters, which makes it cheaper to pander to the people who are active instead of shut them out. It has given workers in a certain field or region incentive to get organised so that they can better articulate their views and increase their bargaining power. Members must be transparent about how many shares they own. Moreover, there are caps on what each person can have, which imposes a limit on how many shares one person can accumulate. This is meant to prevent one person or a small cabal from dominating the group by buying up shares en masse. Of course, this encourages those on top to encourage clients to vote for them.
The directors elect the company officers, who run the Caravan on a day-to-day basis. Limitations have been imposed on the power of the officers. For instance, they are prohibited from banning freedom of speech or expression. Overall, the system is still oligarchic, but ironically a good deal more democratic than that of many major corporations such as Firemane Industries. Decision-making takes longer because there is no single leader wielding absolute power, but this also means that the group cannot be paralysed by getting rid of one person.
Membership: Composed of Force-Sensitive and Non-Force-Using Qadiri. Membership also entitles one to a vote whilst non-members are allowed to be with them but do not have a share in the 'company'. The Caravan hires people who have useful skills. Each full member starts with one share. Marrying in does not grant instant full membership. Instead it puts the spouse on a shorter cooldown. The Caravan also has a third category of outsiders who perform necessary and useful tasks but are not members. This includes engineers, astrogators, trainers etc. This category includes foreign specialists.
Climate: Very close knit. A lot of the organisation is clan and family based. In particular, they are very supportive of those who are injured or lose family in their expeditions. However, it is also driven by results. Lots of prestige to the ones who can make the good deals. This obviously produces disparities, though it also makes the group rather meritocratic. Things are presently not that settled too, with people coming and going as needed. Retired members and their families receive pensions.
The Caravan broadly follows the Kashari faith, which is the largest religion among the Qadiri. However, it is henotheistic, which means the Kashari accept the existence of deities other than the supreme goddess Kashara. It is not uncommon to say prayers to Kashara and Iskur, the god of the sky, when embarking on a mission. How zealous the Caravan members are varies. Some are agnostics or even atheists. However, it is tradition and tradition is important. The Caravan provides various benefits to its members, such as healthcare, pensions and education. Their by-laws forbid mistreatment of their workers and they have introduced watchdogs to ensure the laws are followed.
Reputation: Varies. Qadiri see them perhaps as a slightly distasteful but necessary mercantile factor. Among the other Tygarans and Firemane they have an undeserved reputation for being shifty and greedy. Some outsiders who encounter them might see them as similar to the Trade Federation in its early days, with more competent leadership, better business practices and without the cowardice of later years. Snobbishness also plays a role. Qadiri are a martial culture and old aristocrats tend to look down on 'merchants', no matter how hypocritical this might be. Their reputation among their own people is quite good though.
Curios: Each of them would have a personal little trinket either of their home or of their travels. For some it might be a piece of jewellery, for others it might be something like a piece of cloth, a weapon, a book or symbol.
Rules: The charter mandates solidarity and providing aid to fellow members. Outsiders can be friends and the Sky Caravan strives to maintain peaceful, neighbourly relations with them. However, the Qadiri must embrace self-strengthening, rather than relying on foreign benefactors to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for them. In keeping with this, members are encouraged to learn all they can about outsider technology. At the same time, they should remember their roots instead of abandoning their culture and uncritically imitating the humans and other aliens. Broadly speaking, the Sky Caravan can be likened to a trading guild. This means it encompasses both employees and employers, who work together in a form of class collaboration.
Members of the Caravan are obliged to share important information such as maps of hyperspace routes, as well as alert each other about possible dangers. Due to the influence of former slaves as well as their association with Firemane, trafficking in slaves or aiding and abetting slavers is forbidden. Here it is pertinent to note that Bharria, one of the main patrons, used to own slaves since slavery was a fact of life on Tygara and practiced by every native race to varying degrees.
However, she was not enthusiastic about the practice and set her slaves free after the coming of the outsiders. However, it is important to keep in mind that while there are radical abolitionists, the group also has Qadiri who have turned away from the practice out of pragmatism. The Sky Caravan is not well-disposed to Imperial entities because such factions are regarded as predatory and inimical to Qadiri interests. One of their rules is that escaped slaves may not be returned to their owners.
The Sky Caravan has been influenced by Kashari social teachings, stressing solidarity, the common good, charity, subsidarity and distributism. It is a cultural tradition for Qadiri to give alms and this has been made a rule for the group. Of course, this does not automatically keep the well-off from giving away a mere pittance of their true net worth. Sentient nature is, after all, self-interested and those who give alms may do so in order to look good instead of because they genuinely want to help. Still, the group officially advocates the giving of greater aid to those who need it. The group has a profit sharing or tithing rule about contributing to the caravan. Indeed they are encouraged to do so and in doing so get their names placed on the buildings or ships they help create. They have a set of deals for those outside the caravan, and one for inside.
Goals: Expand their markets, protect their people and develop new trading networks. The Sky Caravan also supports ventures to set up colonies for Qadiri to settle on and provide them with education about modern technology. This is in keeping with the Qadiri self-strengthening movement.
MEMBERS
Captain Jahorna Jai Avana - A former explorer and adventurer from Tygara, famous for her perilous circumnavigation of Khajwar, which caught the eye of Bharria. A typical 19th century style explorer with flair, dash and rather showy. She has an adventurous streak and is a known risk-taker. As she puts it, there is great danger in seeking out the unknown, but even greater potential. For her part, she loves to sail on forbidden seas, and space is the final frontier for her to test herself against. Jahorna has a museum as part of her private cabin. It is filled with items and mementos from places she has visited. She also has some exotic pets. One could call her an adventure archaeologist. She is a talented pilot and astrogator.
Director Marako Jal Volo - He is one of the senior executives of the Sky Caravan. As with the other directors, his position is an elected one. A famous merchant for his caravan travels across all sorts of terrain and through many hardships. Marako participated in several gruelling treks across the Dune Seas from a young age while apprenticed to his wealthy aunt. He earned himself a reputation as a competent, but honest businessman.
He was one of the first merchants to get in with Firemane, quickly deducing what they wanted and investing in providing it first even if at a loss. Once he got his 'foot in the door' he could then branch out and establish a very good network. A natural and charismatic sort, he has a bit of a tempestuous relationship with Jahorna. They are on and off again partners. Being an intrepid merchant goes well with being a bold explorer, as profit often follows the flag. To him, new locations mean untapped, exotic markets. However, Marako does not believe in conspicuous consumption and is quite insistent on making his fortune square.
Representative Varana Jai Anhala - One of Shazora and Hasana's trusted allies. Like them, she is a former slave. Varana was badly injured during the war of freedom so she can no longer fight and requires a hoverchair to move around. However, her mind is undimmed and she is very loyal to the idea of freedom but does not take a strong hand in proceedings unless she sees danger. She is more conservative than the other two as far as risk is concerned. In that regard she plays the straight woman to their more eccentric personalities. Varana acts as a representative for the Stardriven. One of her tasks is to ensure safe working conditions and fair treatment for workers.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The tradition and idea of the caravan is deeply rooted in Qadiri history and myth. Land caravans have been a permanent fixture of Tygara for millennia, but they'd have sea convoys too for trade and exploration. Not just for protection from pirates and Xioquo but also from storms and getting lost. Tygara is a world of many continents and islands, and the Qadiri were scattered across the planet. The largest concentrations could be found in Amikaron and several thousand kilometres away in Khajwar. These two separate cultural bases traditionally had little contact with each other except by trade, and this distance was yet further hindrance to any sort of unification. However, the Qadiri had the critical mass to form states, though they never created an overarching government. Instead they were a hodgepodge of monarchies, city-states and theocracies.
All the Qadiri realms were exceptionally skilled at producing ships and navigators to steer them. A Qadiri named Hasana Majelani successfully circumnavigated the world in a ship. These ships were commonly driven by wind, whilst those on rivers or sheltered inland seas used oars as well. The Qadiri were also ahead of their time designing navigation instruments. Some were even able to use the Force to instinctively find their way in the most treacherous of conditions.
All this led to the formation of great trading guilds whose members traversed the seas and the deserts, connecting disparate areas of Tygara. Pirates, desert raiders, Xioquo as well as hostile Qadiri states trying to extract 'protection' gave these merchant guilds ample motivation to band together. Caravans of the sea and the desert often carried luxurious goods and were thus a tempting target for raiders, though some Khaimari corsairs and desert nomads established mutually beneficial partnerships with them, providing protection in return for a cut of the profit. Stations were set up to provide safe areas where caravaners could rest, exchange information and network along the way. In some cases, small settlements and even cities formed around one.
Firemane’s arrival on Tygara came as a great shock to the native cultures there. However, once the shock had worn off and the Xioquo were defeated, both Firemane and the Qadiri especially began to see opportunities. Particularly enterprising Qadiri saw an opportunity to profit from the sky people, realising that they were people and not demons or messianic saviours. Their technology was more advanced than that of the Qadiri, but a blaster was simply a gun that fired a beam of light and a starship a boat one used to traverse the sky-ocean.
This is the mentality that created the Sky Caravan. Fittingly, the driving force behind it were trading guilds and minor Qadiri rulers who had allied themselves with the humans of Firemane to preserve their autonomy and expand their influence, with the aim of moving into the stars. It quickly became apparent to the founders of the Sky Caravan that the way business was conducted in the stars was pretty similar to how they had done it on their humble blue planet, just with different tools. There was little difference aside from the scale between Firemane and a merchant stall in Zeheb's streets. Moreover, a Qadiri's inherent navigational talents could be applied to space as easily as to the land and sea.
Marako Jal Volo, an enterprising Qadiri merchant, was one of the founders of the Sky Caravan. This merchant had acquired renown due to his caravan travels across all manners of terrain. When the humans of Firemane started expanding their influence on the planet, he was quick to jump on the bandwagon. He was quick to deduce what they wanted and how he could benefit from it. At first the profits were minor and he had to put up with racism from humans who looked down on 'sand babies', but in the long run his perseverance paid off.
Marako was able to align himself with other forward-looking Qadiri. Not content with simply selling their wares to human capitalists, they wanted to expand into space. At first the sky people were rather bemused by this. After all, just a few years ago the Qadiri had known nothing of spaceflight, blasters or faster-than-light travel. Nonetheless, the group hired a few foreign instructors to them. Moreover, the first Qadiri Sepoys who had fought for the humans in the stars were now returning home. More than a few were willing to earn some coin by passing on their skills. Crucially, the project received the backing of Shazora Jai Vahal, the leader of a slave revolt and now an important diplomat for Firemane, and Bharria Jai Ahquala, the de facto ruler of a petty queendom in Khajwar and a general officer in Firemane's army with a passion for inventing and building new things.
Shazora, mindful of Semiramis' vast ambitions, was quick to identify the flotilla as a way to check her claim that the Amikarese way was the only viable path to advance the Qadiri. The price of her support was a commitment to oppose the practice of slavery. For her part, Bharria was no great emancipator, but was unenthusiastic about the practice and believed doing away with it would help modernise her fiefdom. A famous explorer called Jahorna Jai Avana was one of the captains put under contract to spearhead their space exploration ventures. The fledgling Sky Caravan acquired a Lucrehulk cargo freighter to serve as its mobile headquarters.
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