Naxarat

Naxarat (/næxɑrɑt/) is the home planet of Cherrewin Yehan and Zuhrovet Sikandaret.

The planet is home to two significant ethnic groups: the Kirrish, and the Naxorians. It was incorporated in the heptarchate c. 350.

Pre-Heptarchate Government

Prior to incorporation in the heptarchate, the three branches of government were the military/executive, the judiciary/religious scholars, and the legislature/Council of Houses.

Rather than having a strong central government, the Naxorian system emphasized an interlocking web of contractual obligations. Such contracts were symbolically sealed by braids or knots.

Houses

House Membership

Naxorian Houses are like privately held corporations with hereditary membership. If you're legally of age (23) and own a full House share, you receive a certain amount of money every year from your House. If you're actively working for the House you get extra, and if you're at executive level you get even more.

If you have a fractional share you get only that fraction of the House funding (and that's true for the extras as well, so a full-share executive makes twice as much as a half-share executive would in the same position).

If you have anything more than a half share you can vote in House elections for the Board of Directors and to choose the House's representatives to the Council of Houses. Again, fractions of a share mean fractions of a vote.

House Associates

Around 200 in the high calendar, House associates fell into the following categories:

• House shareholders
• House employees
• House-supported. This includes children, as well as anyone else receiving room, board, and clothing but not drawing a formal salary.
• Indentured servants.

A fifth category was for individuals whose financial or moral debt was so great it could only be discharged by the sacrifice of legal personhood (see #Atrocities).

List of Houses

• Fountain House
• Rosemallow House, named after the hibiscus flower

Language

The Naxorian language has at least four grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, animate neuter, inanimate neuter) and no definite or indefinite articles.

Profanity

Pre-heptarchate Naxorian profanity incorporates many references to Naxorian religion. Examples include:

• Bind me to the eighth hell
• Eight spheres of hell
• Prophet's hat
• Prophet's teeth
• Saint and prophet
• Saint of vines.

Calendar

The Naxorian calendar reckons from the Fourth Revelation; the year 5000 approximately corresponds to the year 200 in the high calendar.

In the standard timeline, Naxorian calendrical technology did not advance very far as an independent line of development; the tendency of Naxorian scientists to communicate only within a House or military unit, and the emphasis of the judicial branch on textual analysis rather than mathematical extrapolation, made significant innovation difficult. However, certain underlying patterns can be identified. The most obvious is that both Naxorian and Kirrish tradition placed a strong emphasis on the number 4, and multiples of 4 more generally. As a result, Naxorian calendrical computations often require the practitioner to work in characteristic 2.

Certain heretical Naxorian sects gave a mystical significance to the number 5. However, related calendars tend to emphasize the role of numbers that are equivalent to 1 (mod 4), rather than rearranging the whole calendar to work in characteristic 5.

Fashion

Traditional Naxorian clothing involved loose trousers and layers of knee-length tunics and coats. The culture placed a premium on organic fibers and embroidered or woven embellishments.

Naxorian teenagers and adults covered their hair with a hat or scarf while in public. Though generally viewed as a religious obligation, this practice may have more to do with notions of privacy. Major Naxorian contracts, such as marriage, were often sealed by braiding one's hair in a particular style, and hiding these braids allowed Naxorians to control the transfer of information about their personal contractual obligations.

Atrocities

Prior to the heptarchate, the Kirrish were oppressed by the Naxorians. The Naxorians frequently imprisoned Kirrish people within industrial or military machines, forcing them to serve as operators in a process known as binding. Trains in particular had bound human operators, though this was not strictly technically necessary. The bound operators therefore spent much of their time in a drugged, drowsy state; they were only awakened when a potential disaster was imminent, so that a human could take responsibility for ensuing moral decisions.

When the heptarchate liberated the Kirrish, it retained knowledge of the relevant technology for its own ends.