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Tapani Oversector
| Tapani Oversector | |
| |
| Galactic Sectors | Abregado Sector Atrisian CW |
| Systems | |
| Region | Ruby |
| Regional Coordinator | Mordus Nordstroem |
| Oversector Governor | Robert Gauge |
| Regional Governor | Aurren Takla |
| Historical events | None |
| Infrastructure | Regional Government |
Tapani Oversector resides many light years to the south of Coruscant, spanning parts of the Core, Colonies and Inner Rim, and forms the western half of the Empire's Ruby Region. This oversector represents an important new frontier in the Empire’s battle to spread order and civilisation throughout the galaxy. Protected by the steadfast men and women of the 3rd Imperial Fleet and the 3rd Legion, each year sees new settlements and industries rise up as all benefit from the peace that only Imperial administration can bring.
Within the 12 galactic sectors and 43 systems, of which the Empire directly controls 6 and 25 respectively, a vast array of planets fill the void of space. From Abregado to Botor, Thyferra to Atrisia, worlds with a history of conflict, triumphs to be celebrated and problems to be solved confront the able Imperial administrator.
Contents
Politics
Sector Administration
The Tapani region has traditionally been dominated by the influence of isolated groups of nobles, pocket empires and local federations. The core Tapani region known as The Expanse was ruled by a commonwealth of competing noble houses, forming a Great Council through which decisions were made over the many centuries between the fall of the last Tapani emperors and the rise of the Galactic Empire. Elsewhere, things were not so clear and organised however. When the Empire swept through the region, the majority of factions and worlds either saw the wisdom of accepting Imperial rule, or were too weak and isolated to resist. Establishing his capital on the strategic world of Abregado-Rae, the first Moff of Tapani created a new Command structure for the sector.
In Tapani, as with most regions of Imperial space, the Grand Moff himself holds executive control over matters in the Sector. This includes full command over all military forces, planets and facilities. However in the interests of efficient administration, day-to-day affairs are overseen by Sector Command, comprising the Sector Adjutant, local military and intelligence chiefs and the Sub-Sector Coordinator. This council meets weekly (and more often in times of crisis) to discuss development projects, security, finance and other concerns. Co-operation between branches of government is essential at all levels, and ensuring this occurs is a key duty of Sector Command. Freed from day-to-day affairs, the Moff himself is able to act as a representative for the region both within the Empire and in the wider Galaxy, to monitor overall progress and to set a broad direction for his subordinates.
Local Government
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| A Lambda-class Shuttle flies into the Tapani capital, Abregado-Rae. |
At the lowest level, the Empire sees the need to delegate a measure of power to individual system and planetary governments. Past attempts to rule whole sectors from the centre proved nightmarishly complex and expensive; hence most systems are permitted autonomy over finance, justice and other local concerns, so long as they remain stable and do not violate Imperial directives. They are assigned a Prefect liaison from the Regional Government to monitor their activities and ensure they pay the required taxation at the end of each month. Each galactic sector in turn falls under the oversight of a Governor, who reports to Imperial Sector Command. This hands-off approach is applied where it best serves the interests of the system and of Imperial Tapani at large. Sector Command stands ready to assume direct control at any time, taking the planets in question under their wing and sending in a team of expert administrators and advisors should trouble arise.
This was most notably applied during the Botor-Daupherm Crisis, when ancient grievances boiled over into open conflict amongst local governments and planetary security forces. Shortly after Imperial occupation, the defensive confederations holding the two sectors together in a cold war stalemate were dismantled by the new Moff. Unfortunately, the Empire underestimated the level of enmity the regions held for one another and planetary governments soon started an all-out war using old weapons stockpiles. Caught in the crossfire, Imperial forces had to regroup and launch a full-scale pacification operation. Since then, the sectors have been locked down under martial law and significant resources poured into maintaining peace. Direct Imperial rule here has gradually eased the hostility, with recent years seeing tentative trade and diplomatic links between one-time mutual enemies; regular progress reports and orders are exchanged between local officials and the highest levels of Imperial Government. This operation and its aftermath now serves as the second-year case study for students at the Imperial College of Government Sciences.
The Nobility
The Tapani nobility have ruled the Expanse and Freeworlds regions of the sector for millennia. The nobles were divided between over a hundred families, with the lesser of these being impoverished petty barons and the most influential, such as House Mecetti or House Pelagia, each holding several systems under their influence. To be connected to the greater houses was, and still often is, a route to advancement across most professions. Unfortunately the great families have gradually fallen victim to petty squabbling and inbreeding, while the knights and barons below them often struggle to pay for the decadent lifestyles that their positions demand.
Most of the noble houses have persisted in a diminished form within Imperial Tapani, keeping their titles and some of their lands in exchange for cooperating with Imperial authorities. However, the Empire has attempted to break up the power blocs and transfer the old houses’ planetary domains to the control of more representative and competent administrations. The Empire was at first surprised by the servility and conservatism of the common folk on noble-controlled planets. This was on the one hand conducive to maintaining order, but it also made them sluggish to adapt to more modern and efficient ways. The Imperial concepts of meritocracy and integrity have been difficult to spread through the vast, corrupt and unwieldy bureaucracies that have run core Tapani for thousands of years. But a new generation of Imperial-trained Tapani civil servants have arisen, with a mind for public service and the common good, rather than simply filling their pockets and maintaining a career ladder for sons of the old nobility.
Law and order
Tapani’s legal code largely follows the standard Imperial Code, with a few modifications to suit the sector’s quirks. Responsibility for enforcing these laws is split between a few organisations, determined by circumstances. All Imperial staff are kept in good order by the local liaison branch of the Imperial Security Bureau, which acts as investigator and prosecutor for all crimes committed by said personnel. Localised civilian crimes are typically dealt with by planetary security forces on a case-by-case basis, with larger organisations only becoming involved if the situation presents a threat to sector security. Local police forces have always varied substantially in methods and effectiveness, although efforts are being made to bring them more in line with the Empire’s standards.
Situations which stretch across multiple systems’ territories, or which are too large and dangerous for local security forces to handle, may be passed on to the Office of Criminal Investigations and the Sector Rangers. The Sector Rangers are an elite force of Empire-wide operatives with the power to command local security forces, and a directive to take over key investigations and carry them through until the issue is resolved.
Additionally, spare military forces are often sent in by Sector Command to deal with local emergencies, whether this be providing relief during natural disasters or holding pitched battles with criminal and subversive elements that threaten the citizenry. Military commanders have voiced the opinion that these situations provide training and experience that is almost second-to-none for their troops. An Imperial unit practicing their skills on a group of nefarious bandits, pirates or dangerous monsters is not an uncommon sight in Tapani Sector.
Outside of this, the military regularly patrols the entire region, and carries out random searches on cargo vessels along all hyperspace routes. The major trade routes are often used to transport illicit cargoes, but the unpopulated backwater planets have also attracted a reputation as good places for criminal elements to set up base and conduct business in secret; this is a notion that is being slowly dispelled in Tapani. Smugglers are a disease in the Empire, and the Navy is the cure.
Economy
Trade
Before the establishment of Imperial rule Tapani was a reasonably wealthy, if inconsistently-developed, area of space. Criss-crossed by several key hyperspace routes, trade brought wealth to a number of well-situated worlds for millennia. These include the Giju Run and Shapani Bypass, and various routes into the deep core, which export fine Tapani furniture, crafts and fabrics along with raw materials from the bountiful mines. By far the most notable of these is the Rimma trade route, which originates at Abregado-Rae and crosses the core of Tapani on its way to the outer rim. The primary driver of this route is, and has long been, the bacta trade.
Bacta and medicine
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| Bacta-processing facilities on Thyferra. |
Bacta was first created by the Vratix in ancient times, but it was the advent of human colonisation that heralded its exploitation and usage across known space. This unique substance comes from a fungal growth called Alazhi found mainly on Thyferra and is widely considered the most effective way to treat wounds in the galaxy. Human Thyferrans have worked with the Vratix to maximise production of bacta, establishing a number of large conglomerates such as the Xucphra Corporation. Imperial takeover saw some of these companies dissolved, merged or nationalised, but the industry has reached new heights of quality and productivity. The strict enforcement of Thyferra’s bacta monopoly has been particularly beneficial to both the planet and the sector as a whole. Rival products, such as kolto and unlicensed off-world bacta, are now almost universally considered inferior and are largely relegated to the outer rim.
Imperial control over bacta distribution has worked in tandem with the state policy of domestic prioritisation to revolutionise the medical sector. Through this policy Imperial firms get immediate access to bacta before the product is made available to foreign markets. The worlds close to Thyferra have seen unprecedented growth in recent years, with medical research facilities and advanced treatment centres appearing all over. Thanks to the consequent improvements in healthcare standards, Thyferra has the 3rd highest human life expectancy in the galaxy. This serves to demonstrate how well thought-out and carefully-applied Imperial regulations can improve the lives of ordinary citizens.
Industry
Among the greatest challenges facing Imperial Tapani is in dealing with the more isolated worlds that lie away from the major trade and hyperspace routes. Many of these planets were found to be in fairly primitive condition, with their tiny settler communities relying on small-scale artisanal crafts and agriculture to sustain themselves. The Empire’s Ministry of Industry and Regional Government have been tasked with developing and expanding industry in an effort to bring prosperity to these areas.
Tapani Sector’s main industry is mining, and its worlds are renowned across the galaxy for their wealth of raw materials. Throughout the Republic era and into the present day, Tapani has supplied the Core Worlds with a majority of their natural resources. Although dominated by the corrupt and ruthless Mining Guild in the era of the Republic, this industry is now largely run by the state-controlled Imperial Mining Corporation and supplies the Empire’s factories, treasury and military with invaluable resources. The number of mining colonies being established on major worlds has skyrocketed in recent years, fuelling an economic boom and driving record immigration into the sector. Furthermore, a number of outlying systems in Tapani are leased to neutral mining corporations, which keep up a healthy trade with core Imperial planets and stimulate the region’s economy.
Further investment has come from the Corellian Engineering Corporation, which is based in a neighbouring sector. This company established large shipyards within the Abregado system and a series of manufacturing plants/depots for parts production and logistics elsewhere in Tapani. Myorzo Weapons Systems is also known to operate on various planets in the sector and brings its innovative, forward-thinking approach to the citizens of the region. The result of these combined efforts is such that the once primitive Tapani Sector has become one of the highest income-generating sectors of Imperial Space.
Culture
Traditions
The region’s component sectors have a wealth of tradition and culture. The Empire has nurtured and encouraged the most positive aspects of local cultures, both human and otherwise, within Tapani. Certain destructive trends have meanwhile been suppressed for the good of all.
Amongst the more noble traditions that persist from a previous era is the Tapani code of chivalry. Dating back further than any surviving written records, this code has been passed down via word of mouth and exhaustive rote practice through countless generations of barons and knights. Ever since it joined the Empire and the galactic community, the fame of Tapani’s nobility and its code has grown. A modern Romanticist movement has formed in Coruscant and Kuat, idolising these manners and hoping to spread them across the galaxy. The code’s most virtuous stipulations include the need to avoid telling blatant untruths or slander, to defend one’s lord to the last and to never turn tail from a foe.
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| Two aristocrats of the Tapani Sector fight a duel using lightfoils. |
One unfortunate consequence of this noble culture is an obsession with honour duels that has long consumed Tapani society: an occurrence which was common not only amongst the nobility but also between many citizens of lower rank and status. Often these would take place over something as simple as unpaid debts or an insult- they were at best the cause of dismemberment or injury, at worst entirely lethal. This most commonly involved pistols, but many youths preferred fencing with lightfoils and regular swords. Trial by combat was also widely used as a means of determining guilt in court cases, in a practice stretching back to ancient times. Almost the entire leadership of the planet Tallaan ended up dead following a grudge battle with Mrlsst in Year 14, and a particularly notorious pirate leader escaped punishment through the latter tradition. These barbaric practices have since been expressly forbidden under sector law.
Species demographics
Tapani largely consists of the Class A humans native to the region, alongside a number of human immigrants from other Imperial sectors. The outer regions of Tapani have also seen substantial immigration from nearby Kiffex, adding a valuable cadre of hard-working humans to the populations of these harsh frontier worlds. However, a few alien species have homeworlds in the region and there are alien reserve districts in major cities across the sector. Radical humanocentrism has never taken hold in Tapani, barring a few fringe groups, which sets this region apart from other Core Worlds sectors. While acknowledging the inherent inferiority of Class B and C citizens, the Tapani sector welcomes and celebrates their contributions to the region’s history, culture and economy.
Flagship worlds
Thyferra
Thyferra is a humid, heavily-forested planet in the Jaso Sector, and an economic hub for the entire region. With bacta, the twin species of Thyferra have together created a market that has grown beyond all reckoning. The human Thyferrans cohabit and rule the planet alongside the insectoid Vratix species, to whom they owe a debt of gratitude for their prosperity. The bacta trade is so ubiquitous and influential on Thyferra that the human society there is often classed as a corporate state; most of the planet’s cities and material assets are owned by one of the bacta corporations, and a large section of the population is employed by them.
Ever since human colonisation, Thyferra has been largely controlled by the humans, with the Vratix Canir (hive leaders) receiving only limited autonomy and recognition. Relations between the two species became uneasy and violence has occasionally flared up. A terrorist movement known as the Ashern (translated “Black Claw”) was responsible for a series of attacks over the years, in an attempt to weaken and overthrow the human presence here. A strong imperial garrison on the world slowed their attacks to a trickle, however, allowing the bacta industry to grow unhindered. In Year 17, following negotiations between the Xucphra Corporation and Emperor Ndengin, the Vratix were fully emancipated. Both Vratix hives and Thyferran colonies now report directly to the Imperial Governor’s administration, bypassing the biased and oppressive planetary government.
Abregado-Rae
- Main article: Abregado System
Lying at the centre of the Abregado Sector, this planet is an example of what Regional Government can do when it channels its will and resources. Once a backward, crime-infested smuggler’s paradise, it was targeted for billions of credits’ worth of investment and redevelopment by the then Sector Moff Skyron Cyneran. Where others could see in the Sector capital naught but a hopeless quagmire of violence, corruption and filth, this Moff noticed great potential. By the time the project was concluded, whole swathes of old slum-like cities had been torn down and replaced with new houses, shops, public buildings and hotels. Restaurants took the place of cantinas, and universities stood where once there had been casinos and slave markets. The renovated canals and waterside cities have earned parts of Abregado-Rae a reputation as “the Theed of the Core”; drawing in millions of tourists every year.
But the Empire did not stop there, for this was to be a world worthy of hosting the government of a whole Imperial Sector. Major facilities were soon set up, with grand headquarters for all the branches of government and a gleaming, impressive state palace for the Moff. In the skies above, defence platforms and space stations took shape all around the system; superstitious locals believed that the Empire’s mass of orbiting fleets and stations would blot out the very sun. Abregado System’s defences have been rated as effectively impenetrable.
Giju
Giju, in the heart of the Herglic Space Sector, is known as the home of the Herglic species. With muddy marsh islands rising out of a boundless planet-wide ocean, Giju is perfectly suited to these amphibious mammals. This planet holds little worth or comfort for human colonists. It was decreed fairly early in the Empire’s rule over the Sector that Giju system was to be a designated reserve area. Settlement anywhere within the Giju system is therefore strictly prohibited under local laws, as is hunting and any form of trespassing without an official permit.
Despite their aquatic nature, the Herglic have taken remarkably well to the stars and have a long history of trade, exploration and colonisation. Indeed it was they who helped scout out the Rimma trade route and who connected Tapani with the fledgling Old Republic in the distant past. As a result of their widespread travel and trading expertise, minority Herglic populations are a staple of Tapani planets.
Sport
Boloball
- Main article: Imperial Boloball League
With the Thebeon Thrashers, Thyferra Varactyls and Tapani Dragons calling this corner of space their home, Tapani is certainly not lacking when it comes to Boloball teams. The sport enjoys notable popularity across many planets, with a number of minor leagues feeding their very best talent to the big three, as they bid to prove to the Galaxy that Tapani means business. Although the sector has not seen any Imperial League trophies in recent seasons, Thyferra can be heartened by a history of distinguished performances by the now defunct Thyferran Hammers: two-time Emperor’s Cup winners. Crowds across Tapani turn out in droves to watch their teams play, and hopefully beat, teams from Coruscant, Corellia, Kuat and the Corporate Sector.
Other sports
The Tapani Expanse’s traditional sports consist of fencing, duelling, shooting and hunting. These were largely used as practice and entertainment by nobles, for often violent ends. Traditional tournaments and competitions have, in recent years, been opened to commoners and even recorded for Holonet viewing; these broadcasts have attracted a surprising following in regions as far-flung as the Tingel Arm. The lethality removed and made illegal, such traditions now merely act as entertainment.
Finally, Boloball has seen recent competition from Grav-ball, which is rapidly growing in popularity within the sector. While Tapani has yet to produce teams or players of any note, many have high hopes that their home sector will someday hold its own in this regard too.
Sector Command Staff
Regional Government
| Visual ID | Name | Position |
|---|---|---|
 |
Aurren Takla | Sector Grand Moff |
 |
Mordus Nordstroem | Ruby Region Coordinator |
 |
Robert Gauge | Oversector Governor (Interim) |
Ruby Taskforce
| Visual ID | Name | Position |
|---|---|---|
 |
Cataldo Blackstar | Ruby Task Force Commander |
| Visual ID | Name | Position | Visual ID | Name | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Marquis Hemet | 1st Legion Commanding Officer |  |
Ryn Tavel | 2nd Fleet Commanding Officer |
Imperial Intelligence
| Visual ID | Name | Position |
|---|---|---|
 |
Calix Drexil | ISB Liaison |
 |
Vacant | MISL Liaison |
Tapani Sector Hall of Merit
Moffs
- Ben Camden Sector establishment - Year 13 Day 262
- Skyron Cyneran Year 13 Day 262 - Year 16 Day 89
- Destra Kami Year 16 Day 89 – Year 17 Day 333
- Icarus Carinae Year 17 Day 333 -
