The Twilight's PeakTRAVELLER
Campaign

Imperial Library Search Results

Number of like terms found for Solomani: 8

Solomani

Strictly, a member of that human race which developed on Terra from the original human stock (Homo Sapiens). The term Solomani is often used to refer to members of the Solomani race (or, more palatably to some, to members of the human race of Solomani descent) or to members of the Solomani political movement. Its original meaning is obscure, but the word seems to have derived from either "men of Sol" or "sole men". After the Solomani developed jump drives in -2431, Solomani humans scattered to the stars in several waves. Early colonisation efforts first settled the worlds closest to Terra; the later conquest of the First Imperium and the establishment of the Rule of Man sent more Solomani humans out primarily to occupy former Vilani controlled regions.



Solomani Autonomous Region

Area within the Imperium granted self-government through a charter from Empress Margaret I in 704. The charter granted control of the region of space within a radius of 50 parsecs of Terra (hence the name Solomani Sphere) to a Solomani governing body, which was given broad powers of authority. For two hundred years, the Imperium effectively ignored the region and concentrated instead on its coreward frontiers. By 940, Solomani oppression of non-human (and non-Solomani) worlds forced Empress Margaret II to revoke the region's charter. After years of diplomatic actions proved fruitless, it was decided to forcibly reintegrate the region into the Imperium. Naturally, the Solomani resisted, and the Solomani Rim War (990 to 1002) began.



Solomani Confederation

In 871, the government of the Solomani Autonomous Region reorganised itself as the Solomani Confederation in an attempt to strengthen its claims to the heritage of the old Terran Confederation. Although tantamount to a declaration of independence, the reorganisation 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 petition the Imperium 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 little resemblance to those of the past. The chief governing body is the Secretariat. This 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. Representatives to the Secretariat are appointed by the governments of the individual districts. The number of representatives each district may appoint is determined according to that district's contribution to 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 election is held to determine the representative from that district. 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 to its economic importance), which are used to elect a representative for that district. All government office holders and officials must be members of the official party, the Solomani Movement. Although formerly of great power and influence, the party is now weak, decentralised and of little importance. Real power in the Confederation is held by the government and the factions. Because of the greater degree of local autonomy that exists in the Solomani Confederation, inter world factionalism exists to a much greater degree than would be allowed in the Imperium. Coalitions of worlds exist outside the normal government channels, sometimes equalling them in importance within a given region. For example, the Near Bootes cluster, in the Solomani Rim, dominates large portions of the adjacent subsectors, both economically and politically. Bootean mercantile interests heavily favour peaceful trade with the Imperium, and their influence with the Confederation government is considered to be the primary reason for the unofficial detente between the Confederation and the Imperium. Another example of this factionalism is the ongoing trade war between Kukulcan (Kukulcan 0405) and the coalition of Thetis (Kukulcan 0108) and Laputa (Kukulcan 0310). The war is causing severe damage to the economy of Kukulcan, but the Thetis-Laputa coalition has thus far been able to muster enough power to prevent effective intervention by the Confederation government.



Solomani Hypothesis

When the Solomani discovered jump drive in -2431, they also discovered that more than a dozen human races had already colonised the worlds surrounding Terra. At the same time, there was no satisfactory explanation for the more than 40 genetically identical human races. The Solomani Hypothesis, first proposed by Magis Sergei haut-Devroe (64 to 141), theorised that all of the many widely scattered human races of the galaxy originated on Terra, and he thought that they were transported to their current homeworlds by an alien race (called the Ancients) for purposes which even today remain unclear. The approximate date of the scattering has been established as -300,000. When Terra was incorporated into the Imperium in 588, a small historical mission verified much of haut-Devroe's work. The hypothesis was already generally accepted by the majority of the human population in the Imperium. More than 40 known human races have been located (and several more of them failed to adapt to their new worlds and are now extinct); only three of these human races have reached widespread prominence: they are the Vilani, the Zhodani, and the Solomani. Most other human races accept the hypothesis but lend it no special importance. The hypothesis is used by the Solomani Movement as a basis for its claims of Solomani racial superiority.



Solomani Movement

An organisation devoted to the doctrine that humans of Solomani descent are superior to all others and are most fit to rule the galaxy.



Solomani Rim War

(990 to 1002) War between the Third Imperium and the Solomani Confederation during which a large portion of the Solomani Rim sector was returned to Imperial control. Hoping to profit from Imperial preoccupation with the Third Frontier War and the disorganisation which followed upon the abdication of Styryx in 989, the Solomani reasserted their control over the complete Solomani Sphere, including those portions reabsorbed into the Imperium (see Solomani Autonomous Region). The Imperium declared war in 990. The initial phase of the war went very well for the Solomani. Although the Imperium maintained sizeable fleets along the border, they were inferior in strength to the massed naval elements of the Solomani Confederation. In most areas, the Solomani regained the border worlds lost to the Imperium in the last half century and even occupied a number of worlds that had never been part of the Solomani Sphere. However, Solomani fortunes were checked in 993 when a large invasion force attempted to regain the worlds in the Old Expanses sector; it encountered near-fanatical resistance and was repulsed with heavy losses. The period from 993 to 998 was one of stalemate. The Solomani abandoned their plans for further expansion in order to rebuild their forces. However, their policy of inflexibly defending every border world was a constant drain on their resources, and the Solomani were not able to regain the initiative. By 998, the Imperial Navy had achieved strategic dominance as the greater industrial base of the Imperium made its power felt. The last phase of the war, 998 to 1002, consisted of a near continual advance by Imperial forces into the heart of the Solomani Sphere. The basic Imperial strategy was to attack along two parallel axes of advance, with lesser task forces spreading out to create a huge pocket of Solomani territory. Although the Solomani occasionally achieved a tactical success against a task force (such as in the Battle of Kagukhasaggan in early 1002), they were unable to halt the main advances. With the liberation of the Vegan district in 1001, the Imperium gained the secure base envisioned in the reign of Styryx. The loss of the Vegan district prompted the Solomani to embark on a desperate gamble. Recalling the time when the out numbered Terran Confederation was able to defeat the Vilani Imperium, the Solomani consolidated their remaining naval forces into a single fleet and struck at the Imperial fleet that was advancing out of the Vegan district. At the Battle of Dingir, in early 1002, the Solomani Grand Fleet was scattered and substantially destroyed. The remnants of the Solomani fleet fell back deeper into the Sphere and the Imperial forces firmly established themselves in Terra's own subsector. The Imperial high command decided that Terra would have to be invaded in order to end forever all claims of Solomani superiority and thus the use of Terra as a rallying standard elsewhere in the Sphere. In order to invade Terra, a sizeable fraction of the Imperial forces in the Solomani Sphere were assembled into an assault force, which effectively ended the pursuit of the defeated Solomani fleet. The invasion began in the second quarter of 1002, and the hard fought campaign lasted until nearly the end of the year. In the end, the Imperium conquered the planet. However, the battle for Terra had consumed so much of the Imperial military's resources that the Imperial high command felt they lacked sufficient strength to resume their advance into the rest of the Solomani Sphere. Accordingly, they negotiated a temporary armistice with the Solomani military commanders, who were glad to gain a respite to regroup their remaining forces. The war ended on this basis as both the Imperial and Solomani civilian government Although scholars have debated the wisdom of invading Terra, some claim that the battle was a marginal if not a pyrrhic victory for the Imperium. The general consensus has been that the war as a whole was a victory for the Imperium. A substantial amount of the Solomani Sphere was reabsorbed by the Imperium, and a vigorous Vegan Autonomous District was set up to oversee Imperial interests along the new border.



Solomani Security

Secret police force maintained in service to the Solomani Confederation for the purpose of maintaining state secrets, conducting espionage, and implementing political policies of the government. Solomani Security maintains both a network of contacts which provide information from outside the Confederation and a network of informants which provide information within the Confederation. Solomani Security agents themselves are highly trained individuals capable of conducting espionage and sabotage.



Solomani Sphere

The territory governed by the Solomani as the Solomani Autonomous Region.

See Solomani Autonomous Region.