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Sylean and Vilani: Explain please?

Anyone have insights into the relationship between these two?

Our group always played it as Syleans were half terran/half vilani "new" rulers of the Galaxy. I am not sure why I am having trouble visualizing the true differences if any between the two peoples? Any Help?
 
Baron,

For this I used the "cultural" maps that were in the MT Referees Manual. My view -

"Vland/Vilani" is the cultural region centered around Vland itself and has remained fairly homogenous for thousands of years. Customs, et al., described in Cogs & Dogs.

"Sylea" is a cultural region that developed at the end of the Rule of Man and during the Long Night centered around the world of the same name. Culturally, you can do what you like. But it is an amalgam of Vilani and Solomani, as well as a few others, IMO. I think TD 8-10 may have some info on that, but I can't check for sure.
 
Just out of interest, GURPS Humaniti has Syleans as a minor human race under the Vilani. The Solomani came to dominate the planet under the Rule of Man.

This is also briefly mentioned in T4 Millieu 0.

Syleans are unremarkable as a minor human race, more massive but weaker than Vilani or Solomani. 10% of all Syleans are apparantly albino.

Cultural regions were established in the wake of the Consolidation Wars representing racial as well as cultural aspects.

More after I unpack.
 
It's always seemed to me that Sylea has been pretty heavily culturally dominated by Vland to the point you could say that Syleans are Vilani. There's some Solomani influences in there, but the overall flavor of the Sylea seems overwhelmingly Vilani.
 
Originally posted by Baron Saarthuran von Gushiddan:
Anyone have insights into the relationship between these two?

Our group always played it as Syleans were half terran/half vilani "new" rulers of the Galaxy. I am not sure why I am having trouble visualizing the true differences if any between the two peoples? Any Help?
Three words, Baron: "GURPS Traveller: Humaniti"

Everything you want explained is explained in that book, under the detailed chapter on Syleans.

It even includes the fact that after thousands of years, the Syleans STILL RESENT and despise the Vilani, because of all the heavy-handed oppression that the First Imperium brought into Sylea..... at one point, the Vilani rulers/conquistadors/masters-of-the-universe had nearly wiped out Sylean culture completely. It was only a small bit of luck that some renegade Syleans managed to hide from the Vilani conquerors who had captured and taken all the major cities and prime lands on Sylea itself.

THOSE Syleans are the ones that managed to hole themselves up on high remote mountains of Sylea, where the Vilani didn't want to waste effort to pursue them. In time, the "Syleans" that lived in the cities of Sylea were assimilated and Vilani-cized, and their traditions and culture completely wiped out and dominated by Vilani culture. Only the Syleans holed up in the mountain reservations are what remained of Old Sylean culture. Their descendants procreated, and eventually they came out of hiding once the Terran Rule of Man "liberated" them from the Nasty Evil Vilani Oppressors.

What happened next is that the Terran governors turned the Sylean "liberation" into a propaganda campaign. The Terran governors of Sylea threw back the wealth of Sylea (and yes, Sylea was a damn wealthy and resource-rich planet, which is the reason the Vilani wanted to colonize and exploit it, and turned it into an industrial powerhouse)... back to the Sylean minority. According to GURPS Humaniti, the Sylean inheritors became "immensely rich overnight". Yup, in a short period of time, they turned from an oppressed minority living in mountain reservations.... to become filthy rich millionaires who the Terrans now allowed to rule and co-govern many planets in the Sylean region of space. Of course, this was just another Terran way to kick the Vilani Losers when they're down. The Terran governors took some lands (and wealth) away from the defeated Vilani Empire, and handed them back to the (relatively) tiny population of Syleans.

This explains a couple things... chiefly it explains how the Syleans thrived economically and survived thru the Long Night. They had evolved a tough work ethic, and an ethic of "If we can outlast those goddam Vilani oppressors that nearly wiped us out, we can do anything! We can be a highly successful race!"

With that Can Do attittude, the Sylean Federation was a prime factor in helping to establish the Third Imperium. What I find kinda ironic is that Cleon himself was Solomani descent, but he used the Sylean Federation to his own advantage. oh well.

It also explains why in the Third Imperium, there is a high proportion of Syleans among the Imperial Nobility.

The Syleans are still a tiny human minority in the Imperium (even in their home sector, they are still a minority, where the Vilani and Solomani still outnumber them). But the few that they are, most Syleans of the Third Imperium are wealthy, very well educated, motivated, ambitious, racially proud, and tend to have high social standings in the Imperium. It also helps that the Syleans in GURPS Humaniti are portrayed as extremely handsome, genteel, tall, lean, and overall good physique (kinda like the tall and lean Zhodani).

Those of you who are saying that the Syleans are "just like the Vilani" obviously have not read the GURPS Humaniti chapter on Syleans. Like I said, the Syleans still resent and despise the Vilani. They in no way think of themselves as Vilani.

GURPS HUMANITI SAYS:
SYLEAN RACIAL DISADVANTAGE = INTOLERANCE TOWARDS VILANI



Then again, I do not use GURPS Traveller rules
(tho I read their sourcebooks for history and background), so these kinds of starting advantages and disadvantages are meaningless to my Traveller games.
 
The Syleans are to the Vilani like the Myceneans are to the Minoans. Just barbarians who learned their letters at the feet of masters, and then threw off their yoke when the time was right.

Though many worlds in the Core sector have Vilani names, note that many other worlds there have Sylean, not Vilani, names. This hints that their influence was greater than the histories might tell us... or that the fledgling Third Imperium was every bit as ruthless as it is portrayed.

If you're really, really, really bored, you can read some boring text on Sylean grammar:

http://eaglestone.pocketempires.com/lang/sylean.html
 
Is a parallel with the Ancient Egyptians who were onced conquered and ruled by the Hittites?

Hittites introduced advanced metallurgy and the Chariot to them, which the Egyptians used to overthrow and destroy them. Is it like that, in a way?
 
BGG,

No, it's not like the Egyptians and the Hittites. The Syleans didn't overthrow anyone. They just happened to be one of many 'minor' races the Vilani conquered and the Terrans 'liberated'.

The pre-Ziru Sirka Vilani invented jump drive and began exploring. Early on, they contacted in order (IIRC) an alien minor race, then the remains of a human minor race that had died out after the Final War, and finally a living human minor race. Those contacts and the contacts that followed drew the Vilani ever outward. They explored, traded, and sold technology to the various races they contacted. None of those races approached the Vilani's tech level however and the Syleans are simply one of those many.

Jump forward a few centuries and the Vilani are seeing their technology used 'improperly'. The races with Vilani tech, in particular jump drive, are selling that tech to races the Vilani haven't yet. The Vilani are seeing the whole situation grow beyond. Not only are races they don't know about using jump drvies, but races are experimenting with that tech and showing signs of 'leapfrogging' the Vilani.

The Vilani come up with some excuse about 'patents' that was most likely developed after the fact, build a jump2 fleet when everyone else only has jump1, and spend ~1400 years fighting a series of wars that hammer every race who has jump drive into a Vilani-rules empire. Again, the Syleans were one of those races.

Jump forward again and the Terrans have broken out with the help of jump3 and meson guns. The Ziru Sirka may be defeated on the Rim, but the empire is still huge. It's bigger then the Third Imperium remember, 15,000 systems vs. 11,000 systems. The Terrans must do very much with very little. Everywhere they go, they 'liberate' the 'oppressed' minor races and place them in power over the local Vilani. Once again, the Syleans are beneficiaries.

Jump forward one more time, the Terran's Rule of Man has fallen and the Long Night is in full bloom. 3I propaganda aside, interstellar travel and trade aren't 'lost' during the Long Night. Long distance travel and trade are difficult because of the multiplicity of polities; google 'Rhine river barons' for an idea of what I'm talking about.

Through a few quirks of fate, one of the final claimants to the throne of the Rule of Man had Sylea as a base of power. Sylea is now at the head of a Federation. It's a fairly large pocket empire of nearly one sector in size that fights other pocket empires. Like Republican Rome, the Sylean Federation's succcess in expanding is also its undoing. Government within the Federation is moribund, too many Senators with too much power constantly trumping and blocking each other. One senator, Cleon, realizes that the Federation will either destroy itself or be destroyed by its enemies unless drastic measures are taken. The result of those measures is the Third Imperium.

Coming up with a single historical analogy for all of this is impossible as GDW borrowed from several historical sources. I've mentioned the Republican Rome/Sylean Federation angle. The others are obvious if you look for them; Itlian city states, Chinese assimilating invaders, etc.

Recapping:

- Sylea is the home of a human minor race called the - what else? - Syleans.
- The Syleans had not developed well enough technically by the time the Vilani amde contact.
- Sylea first trades with the Vilani, the ends up being conquered and occupied during the Consolidation War.
- A small portion of the Syleans are 'allowed' to live unmolested and in their pre-contact manner in a reservation of sorts on the planet.
- The Terrans arrive and need friendly allies who will control the planet because the Confederation's presence is limited to something like the apopcryphal 'TCN ensign'.
- The Terrans choose the reservation Syleans, place them in power, give the guns, and move on. The table has now turned.
- Sylea develops over the centuries and is the center of a powerful pocket empire during the Long Night.
- The Sylean pocket empire becomes the Third Imperium and Sylea's name is changed to Capital.

So, you can see the Syleans didn't introduce anything to the Vilani other than new words for 'beer' or 'prostitute'. The Syleans were given power over the Vilani and Vilani-lovers on world by a third party and eventually parlayed that power into the 3I.

Hope that helped.


Have fun,
Bill
 
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