Tavalai

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Tavalia characters appear in every book so far, beginning with Renegade. They begin to play key roles in book 2, Drysine Legacy

tavalai allies

Allied with tavalai in the Triumvirate War, and perhaps before:

• the barabo are tavalai allies, at least for the moment...” (DL)
  • but the barabo didn't engage in battle after losing their first one spectacularly
• the sard
  • treacherous allies, and for a price
• the kaal, their oldest ally

the krim

Tavalai “State Department” also supported the hive-spawned krim, the species who poisoned earth. This led eventually and ultimately if indirectly to the Triumvirate War. The krim are thought to be extinct ever since Captain Lien Wang of Fleet flew at hyperspeed into their homeworld, long before the Triumvirate War began.

physiology

See concept art by Cameron Dadd: Cameron Dadd Art Station

• “Froggies” 🐸
• broad, squat, green-brown body, broad shoulders, rolling gait
• at least one character has much darker skin. Captain Kaledramani was nearly black, a rare shade for them, with mottled brown patches. (D-4)
• warm skin, leathery
• 4 slightly webbed fingers
• tough, strong, imposing, especially the Karasai Warriors
• stronger than humans (KV-17)

"Behind him in the silent dark was Tooganam, hefting his big, heavy-ended cane, and only now did Dale see the weight of it, wielded in the tavalai’s big hands like a toy. Sometimes he forgot just how much stronger tavalai were than humans, and though old as he was, Tooganam surely retained his karasai augmentations." (KV-17)

• protruding flat heads (DL-3)
• wide-set eyes with three lids: “Those wide-set, amphibious eyes swivelled far forward to focus on her (R-19)
• "The big, triple-lidded eyes swivelled inward, a wide binocular vision." (KV-2)

"Also scattered through the markets (on Tuki Station in Barabo Space) were random tavalai, with their broad shoulders and protruding, flat heads and wide-set eyes, and the occasional kaal, like thick walls of grey muscle lumbering through the crowd." (DL-3)

• prefer a warm humid environment
• excellent long-distance swimmers, deep-sea divers

tavalai origins

• This is an ancient species. They were already somewhat advanced at the beginning of the Machine Age, and they knew of the Fathers, who built the first server-bot machines. (see Machine-race and see Spiral history)

• Tavalai evolved in swamps and eventually climbed nearby trees, building treehouses. They were / are amphibious. Today, they still prefer a warm humid environment and love the water.

• The original tavalai homeworld is Pratali, with a population of fifteen billion’ (QD-24) Patali was not visited in the books, only mentioned in passing.

culture, character traits

• Tavalim -- The people? The soul of the people?
• Togiri language; Togiri words are long, with many syllables
• “We live regularly past three hundred of your years” (R)
• treasure everything that is old
• Lt Dale feels "an appreciation for whatever it was in tavalai psychological make-up that repressed panic and allowed them to make rational judgments" (KV-25)
• they do what’s necessary

Dale had once despised tavalai for their lack of panic reflex, thinking it made them no better than unthinking machines, unable to feel or fear. But now he saw Tooganam, unflinching amidst fire, smoke and shrapnel, refusing more than partial cover because it was necessary, and the tavalai were a people for whom the necessary was everything, irrespective of cost, profit or doubt. And it was like a revelation. (KV-31)

• Organizers, good managers

"Chah'nas discovered the tavalai were better at bureaucracy and what they regarded as "lower-level governance" than chah'nas were, and from then on, tavalai had been regarded as a separate caste within chah'nas society who specialized in precisely those lower level functions. It had grown to entail quite a bit of power."(R-13)

• Poor leaders -- too wishy washy, no taste for final decisions
• Generally kind, with a strong moral system, but indecisive, argumentative, and legalistic
• "Damn he spoke good English, Erik thought. Tavalai were always so damn civilised” (DL)
  • but they get others, like the sard and the parren, to do their dirty work
• stubborn. "Until their surrender, it was thought that the tavalai were the most stubborn species in the Spiral. Now everyone knew better."(R-2)
• ”It is easier to get milk from a stone than to get a tavalai to apologize,” Chis said tiredly...”By the end of the discussion we have a dozen opinions and a dozen reasons to do nothing.” (R-20)
• Hyper-retentive and easily offended, they remember an insult for decades and may hold a grudge (QD-18)

chah'nas and tavalai

Chah'nas hate the tavalai, apparently

• After the chah'nas turned on the parren and took control of the Spiral, they ruled for 8,000 years, giving the detail-oriented tavalai responsibility for management, and positions with some prestige, along with an honorary caste (tenth caste), with a temple on Merakis (R-20)
• eventually the Froggies revolted their static caste position and won the leadership, announcing the First Free Age of the Spiral (R-13 and R-20)
• that was about 8,000-10,000 years ago, but only recently the chah'nas torched hundreds of tavalai scientists, archaeologists, linguists, and historians with glee (R-19)

Dobruta

"I am Captain Pramodenium...We are the oldest unit in all tavalai military forces. The Dobruta were formed at the beginning of the First Free Age, to police the Spiral of AI technology -- what you call the hacksaws. We've been performing that task for more than eight thousand years." (DL-14)

• "The Dobruta get their authority from the Godavadi, which is probably the oldest tavalai legal body." (KV-2)
  • The Godavadi can recall Captain Pram and his Dobruta ship
• Dobruta charter: hunt down and destroy any vestiges of AI technology. Any existing machine-race drones, facilities, etc.
• The Makimakala, a Dobruta warship, combat carrier Ibranakala Class
• Captain Pram / Pramodenium
• Commander Nalben / Nalbenaranda
• Karasai warriors
• Nakigamana / Djojana Naki - Makimakala’s karasai commander. “The actual rank’s Djojana, but human-equivalents save time —he’s basically a major.” (KV-22)
• cooperated with UFS Phoenix on several missions, including the raid on TK55 and the destruction of Tartarus (DL) and the unsuccessful infiltration of the Splicer at Zondi System (Croma Venture). See Places

Plot to Defang Dobruta

• Erik and Trace theorize that alo-deepynine engineered the Triumvirate War for several reasons: 1) to kill tavalai by the millions, and 2) to win space from tavalai, including Merakis territory, so the Dobruta cannot patrol those areas, making safe fly zones for the Machine-race, and to position the Chah'nas inside Human space after the war (DL-25):

“He’s Dobruta,” Erik agreed. “Dobruta have spent thousands of years trying to stop anyone from learning stuff about the hacksaws. The fear is that the technology is so seductive that someone will make a deal with a hacksaw queen, promise her life in exchange for power and riches.... We are standing in [an alo-deepynine ship]...that we used to take half of the tavalai’s space away from them.”

“Thus making the galaxy safe for artificial life again,” said Trace. “Deepynine in particular, by removing the main anti-AI force from power. Their big strategic plan that Fleet’s been playing along with. The big question is whether Fleet did it willingly or not. And if not, if they know there’s deepynines behind the entire alo front, then the alo will have to take out Fleet at some later stage… which means the alo will stab us in the back at some point, in time-honoured Spiral tradition.”

“And possibly use the chah’nas to do it,” Erik agreed. “Since the chah’nas just got access to our space. Which means that all of humanity could be about to get whacked, and we could lose…” He glanced across the bridge. Pale, frightened faces stared back at him.

“Billions,” Kaspowitz muttered.

“Hundreds of billions,” Shahaim whispered. (DL-25)

Tavalim Bureaucracy

"Tavalai society was not primarily divided by race, class, caste or religion, but by institution. Tavalai accumulated institutions as some birds collected shiny objects.” (KV-1)

• Legal Institutions run amok-

“You know how many legal authorities there are in the tavalai power structure? Thirty-nine. That’s just the lawyers. All their powers overlap, and most of their energies seem to be expended just figuring how who has what powers over whom....They don’t even have courts or judges as we understand them, nothing decisive, no final authority. Just endless debates.” (KV-2)

• Godivadi - oldest legal institution. Top Dog. Oversees Dobruta, State Dept. etc

"The Dobruta get their authority from the Godavadi, which is probably the oldest tavalai legal body. (So the Godavadi can recall Captain Pram and his Dobruta ship.) “Everyone agreed that all tavalai institutions get their seniority through age, so being the oldest gives the Godavadi constitutional powers the others lack. And yes, the Godavadi are completely outside the military chain of command, and actually lay down many of the rules followed by State Department...” (KV-2)

• Pondalganam legal institution, Tsubarata law

”there were about thirty-nine major legal institutions in tavalai space, and hundreds of minor ones. The Pondalganam were one of the oldest and largest —still only a third the size of the very biggest, but making up in pedigree what they lacked in scale.” (KV-11)

• Tola Dasha - one of the oldest legal institutions in tavalai space, a senior legal authority in tavalai space (D-6)
  • Ragada, the senior-most vessel of the Tola Dasha, called Erik directly. “Where did you get this?” that captain demanded (D-6)
• Nakiakani Institution - another legal institution
  • “Admiral Janik may outrank me, but the Nakiakani Institution delegation off the vessel Gobigana confirm my status as senior Fleet officer present.” (D-4)

Other Institutions:

• Narigalda Institute of Historical Studies - heritage institution, archaeological endeavors, museums, etc. (R-19)
• The Pelligavani - financial department on Stoya III, in Doma Strana. "Erik gathered from translated conversation with Nalben that the Pelligavani had roots going back to the Parren Empire, twenty thousand years ago." (KV-1)
• Tavalai Fleet - a static department, with an unchanging charter and limitations, overseen by Tropagali Andarachi Mandarinava / The State Department
• Tropagali Andarachi Mandarinava / The State Department (section below)

State Department

• Tropagali Andarachi Mandarinava / The State Department
• Humans called it the ‘State Dept’, because the actual name was too long to bother with. The State Dept was formed directly after the fall of the Chah’nas Empire nearly 8,000 years ago. Its belligerence led to the Triumvirate War...” (KV-1)
• "one of the largest tavalai government departments... an ancient beast of tavalai bureaucracy. It ran all tavalai external affairs (KV-1)
• "Although State Department had technical command over Fleet, they had very little command over the Tsubarata, who were run by the Pondalganam legal institution" (KV-32)
• Ship: Tokigala was a tavalai foreign affairs and diplomacy vessel from the State Department
• Jeli from State Department: “My name is Jelidanatagani. I am from the Department of Administrative Affairs of the State Department, as you call it. Human Wing.” (KV-2)
• Corbi fleet blames Tavalai / State Department for paying the Croma to prevent corbi from crossing the croma wall into the inner spiral, forcing them to remain in dangerous Reeh empire territory

Characters

On the Dobruta warship Makimakala:

• Captain Pram / Pramodenium, on Makimakala, Dobruta warship (DL)
• Commander Nalben / Nalbenaranda, on Makimakala. Expert on Machine-race tech and history
• Nakigamana / Djojana Naki - Makimakala’s karasai commander. “The actual rank’s Djojana, but human-equivalents save time —he’s basically a major.” (KV-22)
• Lieutenant Sassalaka - Sassa- first shift helm on UFS Phoenix, paired with Erik Debogande. She volunteered to join Phoenix Crew to fill positions lost during the Defiance battle (see Croma Venture)
• Lieutenant Leralani — GR-1 assault shuttle pilot volunteering aboard Phoenix, “he is best quality.” (CV-8)
• Karajin — a Karasai warrior who volunteered to temporarily work with Phoenix’s depleted marine company in book five, Croma Venture. He has various conversations with Jalawi and Skah, etc. (see RS-14)

elsewhere /other:

• Cheliratanga - long dead tavalai scholar who found Drakhil’s diary — a 25-stamp-job! a bureaucratic legend. (classified document)

  “Cheliratanga is a name still familiar to all Dobruta. We learn about her in our tertiary education, because she pioneered a new field of hacksaw encryption and machine language. Her breakthroughs are legendary and we suspected ...” (KV-8)

• Chis - "I am Chisdhorahmradaem, I am a linguist with the Narigalda Institute of Historical Studies, I... I was instructed to be here to give humans a tour of the facility.” (R-19)
  • He was rescued at Merakis, brought to med bay on Phoenix

• Admiral Janikanarada /Janik, Fleet rebel, who helped Phoenix access Kantovan Vault in return for top secret Krim documents in vault. His flagship is Kanamandali
• Captain Delrodaprodium /Captain Del, Fleet rebel
• Captain Toladini / Captain Tol, Fleet rebel
• Captain Panditatama / Captain Pandi, Fleet rebel
• Captain Kaledramani of warship Tantotavarin -- humans called him ‘Killer Kaled’ and Froggie Fleet — especially the rebels — didn’t much like him, for siding with State Dept (D-4)
• “Tooganam. Retired Karasai Djara (sergeant) — helped Lt Dale on Gamesh (KV-15)
• Jeli /Jelidanatagani, State Dept, older woman
  • Rude, belligerent, arrogant. Authorized several attacks on Phoenix Crew, including Captain Debogande.

Tavalai locations

and see Places

• Pratali — ‘Pratali was the tavalai homeworld -- a population of fifteen billion’ (QD-24) (Patali was not visited in the books, only mentioned in passing)
• Ponnai - the single inhabited world of Tontalamai System. Tavalai heartland, dating back 30,000 years or more. Over 12 billion tavalai live on Ponnai, and numerous stations orbit it. Captain Debogande and Major Thakur of UFS Phoenix went there to meet with officials from the Pondalganam legal institution, which has oversight on the Tsubarata (KV-11)
• Doma Strana temple on planet Stoya III, in Stoya System, formerly parren space. This is an ancient House Harmony temple, now used by tavalai bureaucrats. see Kantovan Vault ch 1
• Cherichal System - - in tavalai space; uninhabited except by miners (KV). “UFS Phoenix had arrived at Cherichal System ten days ago, a nearly-uninhabited place, used by tavalai Fleet primarily as a mid-point between strategic locations. There she’d met the tavalai cruiser Podiga and two other warships, members of the rebel tavalai Fleet faction that had assisted Phoenix in her raid on the Kantovan Vault.” (D-1) 30+ ships clustered around UFS Phoenix at Cherichal System. Rebel Fleet ships: Podiga and Kanamandali, with rebel Fleet Admiral Janik.  Also, Toguru, a State Department vessel, and Tantotavarin, a warship under Captain Kaledramani. Human Fleet knew him as ‘Killer Kaled’ (D-1)
• Kantovan System: busy busy System
  • Konik - a planet, orbited by Tsubarata planetoid and moon Kamala
  • Tsubarata — Spiral parliament, contains Chamber of Species, a huge facility located on a planetoid alongside State Department
  • Gamesh, a free city on Konik, home to various species
  • Kamala - a moon, with the floating city of Chara with State Dept facility, and the fortified Kantovan vault on the surface

• Stoya III - in Stoya System, formerly parren space. The House Harmony temple Doma Strana is there (KV-1-6)
• Tontalamai System — where Ponnai is located. Tavalai heartland, dating back 30,000 years or more. Over 12 billion tavalai live on Ponnai, and numerous stations orbit it. Captain Debogande and Major Thakur of UFS Phoenix went there to meet with officials from the Pondalganam legal institution, which has oversight on the Tsubarata (KV-11)

Kantovan Vault setting in Tavalai space