> On Jul 19, 2016, at 2:26 PM, Evyn MacDude <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Jul 19, 2016 at 7:46 AM, Abu Dhabi <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, I'm certainly no scholar in the lore area, but what I've gleaned from sourcebooks, the wiki and general osmosis is that the Rule of Man was plenty fascist/totalitarian/xenophobic/insert-bad-thing-here. And that was just after contact with the Ziru Sirka! And at least the Terran material in Mongoose stuff is that the Solomani Party is pretty much the stand-in for Nazis in the setting.
>
> How wrong am I?
>
> Wow, that was a jump... No where did I find that the Rule of Man was run by Space Nazis/Commies, If anything they got stuck propping up civilization as the previous power group collapsed ahead of their advance. All the Space Authoritarianism seems to start with the beginning of the 3rd Imperium...
>

I agree with Evyn. All the descriptions of “Rule of Man” I’ve read said it’s nickname was “Ramshackle Empire”. As Vilani hegemony collapsed across the Ziru Sirka the Terran Navy tried to maintain some semblance of order in the chaos as long-repressed cultural and ‘nationalist’ movement arose in the power vacuum.

The Solomani Party LONG post-dates the 2nd Imperium; it arose after the Civil wars in the 3rd, and in it’s current form is largely shaped by the aftermath of the Solomani Rim War

From CT Supp. 10, “The Solomani Rim”:

"Eventually, a Third lmperium was established in the core; the first emperor assumed the crown in the year zero. The lmperium expanded rapidly under Cleon I and his successors; the Solomani Rim was added t o the lmperium without fighting, various worlds and governments joining from 426 t o 588.

During the early years of the Imperium, the Solomani hypothesis was first advanced, stating that Terra was the original homeworld of all humans (Solomani, Vilani, and a numberof other races which had beendiscovered),and that non-Terran humans had been transported to their "homeworlds" from Terra about -300,000 by an ancient star-faringspecies. This theory (well-knownduring the Rule of Man but forgotten during the Long Night) was easily confirmed by evidence on Terra. The Solomani Hypothesis did not assume political importance until the Civil War (604-622). In the upheavals of the war,. Vilani nobles and industrialists began to assume more prominent positions in government and industry, often at the expense of the old Solomani aristocracy. In reaction, the Solomani movement was born. Beginning with the proven Solomani Hypothesis, the movement reasoned that the pure Terran racial stock was superior and best fit to run the Imperium. Solomani, they claimed, were the original men; all others were degenerate offshoots of the true line. As evidence, they pointed to the ease with which the Terran Confederation had defeated the much larger Vilani Imperium. The movement was at its height in the mid-600s. when it dominated the inner circle of advisors to the Empress Arbel- latra. However, when Arbellatra's successor, Zhakirov, came to power in 666, the movement began to lose favor a t court. The final break came in 679, when Zhakirov married Antiama Shiishuginsa, whose family controlled the powerful Vilani mega- corporation Zirunkariish. Previous emperors had been of pure Solomani extraction; Zhakirov, in ensuring that his heir would be of mixed blood, cemented an alliance with the Vilani industrial interests and thus greatly increased the stability of the lmperium at a time when stability was desperately needed."

 And from “Library Data N-Z”:

"Solomani Confederation: In 871, the government of the Solomani Autonomous Region reorganized itself as the Solomani Confederation, in an attempt to strengthen its claims to the heritage of the old Terran Confederation (q.v.1. Although tanta- mount to a declaration of independence, the reorganization was officially ignored by the government of the Imperium, until the increasingly belligerent and extremist policies of the Solomani caused many border worlds under Solomani rule to peti- tion the lmperium for redress.

The branches of the Solomani Confederation's government took the names of the government of the Terran Confederation, but the present institutions have lit- tle resemblance to those of the past. The chief governing body of the Solomani Confederation is the Secretariat. The Secretariat is presided over by the Secretary General, who is elected from its membership. The Secretary General is the chief administrative officer of the Solomani government, and while the office holds great power, it is fully accountable to the Secretariat.

Representativesto the Secretariat are appointed by the governments of the in- dividual districts. The number of representativeseach district may appoint is deter- mined according to that district's contributionto the Solomani economy. A district typically consists of a single world, but low population worlds or depressed areas are combined into multi-world districts. In the case of a district such as this, an electionisheldtodeterminetherepresentativefromthatdistrict.These, however, are not elections in the normal sense; the governments vote, rather than the populace. Each government of such a district is allocated votes (again, according toitseconomicimportance)whichareusedtoelectarepresentativeforthatdistrict.

All government officeholders and officials must be members of the official par- ty, the Solomani Movement. Although formerly of great power and influence, the party is now weak, decentralized, and of little importance. Real power in the Con- federation is held by the government and the factions.”

That seems far less “Nazi-ish” than “Circa 1955 Soviet Union”.

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs