The Secrets' Crusade

This report should be prefaced with the clear and absolute statement that its writers do not, at any level, agree with the conclusions the Shiplords have drawn to reach this point. Although this is typically assumed of all intelligence reports, it bears repeating in this case.

A primary question when discussing the viability of Shiplord rehabilitation, assuming it is even possible, remains the well established Tribute Fleet protocol requiring any nascent Tributary species to inflict sufficient damage on their first Tribute Fleet. The cost for not dealing enough damage is immediate extinction. The cost for dealing too much is the same. The exact calculus that defines these breakpoints appears to be well established, but not something that humanity, at present, has access to.

Up until this point, there's been little ability to properly study the reasons behind this protocol. This changed at the Fourth Sorrow, when Iris identified a former Tribute Fleet officer among those present at the memorial site. Her conversation with this officer, use-name Brelan, is the primary source of information for this report's conclusions.

The results of our analysis present a branched set of reasoning, all of it leading back to the same result. Several of these reasons appear to be the result of traumas suffered and subsequently immortalised by the Shiplord species in the Hearthguard Sorrows. As with all trauma-based reasoning, some are more immediately logical than others.

A keystone of this protocol is how any species that proves incapable of protecting itself effectively, as judged by the Shiplords, is considered equally vulnerable to subjugation by expansionist or consumptive polities in the same area of space. Of all the ways a species can rapidly increase their ability to project power, subjugating their neighbours remains among the most effective. The key trauma of this response is obvious: one of the reasons the Hjivin Sphere grew so swiftly into a nation that could challenge the Shiplords was that almost no one in their area of expansion could protect themselves effectively. And those that could, once cut off by Hjivin subversion of their allies or old friends, were easy meat for the Hjivin machine.

This is apparently the reason that the so-called 'protected' status of Tributary polities is enforced so strictly by the Shiplords. It's true that that policy of enforcement reduces the relevance of this reason today, but it remains an effective foundation. It's also true that, as with any blanket policy, it gets things wrong. This is most true for races that find themselves presented with a hard counter to their combat systems.

Part of the test, it seems, is not just the ability to fight back, but the ability to adapt and continue fighting at a truly enormous disadvantage. This is deeply unfair, though it's noted that those devoured by the Sphere were operating at similar levels. It is the opinion of this report's writers that this is a primary justification for the tactic.

And it presents a key point of weakness for races that develop in ways that support an innately inwards focused view of their priorities.

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Definitional Note
In approaching this report, the writers were forced to reevaluate the use of the term pacifistic when it came to Shiplord Tribute Fleet protocol. Although such species are not the only ones affected by the subject matter of this report, they are the most common victims. On further discussion and analysis of intelligence recovered by Iris, the term has been found to be overly simplistic. As such, inwards-focused should be considered to encompass the term pacifistic on all occasions.

Such species typically neglect military capacity when reaching into space. Any militarised spacecraft they possess will usually be more geared towards handling internal disputes and natural disasters - a stray comet, for example. In human terms, these organisations would be more alike to a coast guard or border force. Whilst effective in their roles, they aren't designed or prepared to fight wars.

Indeed, inwards-focused races will usually also only find one effective way to protect themselves before calling that good enough and moving on to more important matters. Brelan noted in their experience that many of these races' cultures were predisposed against the general idea of entirely xenophobic or genocidal races making it to the stars intact. And so would approach self-defence from a perspective of surviving long enough for reasonable and reasoned negotiations to take place. It cannot be ignored that the Shiplord refusal to engage in this sort of interaction has condemned hundreds, if not thousands of sentient races to death.

Some races prove capable of adapting fast enough to Shiplord assault that they survive, therefore passing one aspect of the Shiplord test. Some, often those most plagued by predators for long periods of their development, develop far more advanced defensive measures and survive that way. Many, perhaps even most, do not.

And here is where our report leaves behind certainty and enters the realm of speculation. The analysis supporting these conclusions could lack critical data, but for now they appear solid.

This process of elimination appears to deliberately select the majority of Tributary species to be outward-focused, as those races are more statistically likely to prepare for potential foes in the dark. Not all such races are able to survive a Tribute Fleet, but more of them do than those that are inwards-focused. This leads to a useful result for the Shiplords: outwards-focused races are more like them, and therefore we suspect marginally easier to understand.

To use humanity as an example: at the time of our first contact with the Shiplords, we were quite certainly an outwards-focused species. It took the discovery of Practice and significant work from the Elder First to change this, and even then humanity is more of a hybrid of the two outlooks, something far rarer than one might believe..

More germane to this issue, from a Shiplord perspective, is how inwards-focused races and polities that survive long enough are more likely to aggressively dig into the deeper mysteries of the universe. They are also more likely to succeed, a result of their focus on these topics, and that sort of drive is a constant concern for the Shiplords to have among their Tributary polities.

The Gysian were an inwards-focused race in many ways, a result of subtle xenophobia, and they were among the first species to discover and test what the First and Fifth Secrets could do when combined without any Shiplord support. The Zlathbu's enormous developments to their understanding of the Sixth Secret is another example of this trend.

Sunset's opinions have also called into question the merits of excluding the Hjivin as an example of this trend. The answer to the Sphere looking inwards was to optimise their civilisation then go back out and look for more ways to provide it with the fuel it required.

Finally, the Consolat can be assumed from what records we have access to to have been an inwards-focused race, and deeply so. The Teel'sanha Peoples were too, at least at the polity scale. Both of them were deeply respected by the Shiplords, and both of them left the Shiplords behind to struggle in pain in a lonely universe. When the Shiplords discover inwards-focused races, they recognise this comparison at a level that we're not sure any of them are aware of.

The vast majority of high-ranking Tribute Fleet personnel are extremely old by Shiplord standards, easily enough to remember the Teel'Sanha, if not the Consolat themselves. When faced with the unconscious memory of what they've lost, they appear to experience an entirely predictable, though remarkably subtle, emotional pain response.

Over time, this response has become formalised as the doctrine of extermination that we're now aware of. It also affects a significant portion of the Shiplord population today, even those who weren't around to know the Peoples, as a result of sheer societal inertia. For all the ancient majesty of their power, the Shiplords aren't immune to their emotions. If this phenomenon was a result of deliberate action by persons of influence within Shiplord society remains unclear.

It is the opinion of this report's writers that this, more than anything else, is why the Shiplord Authority allow these atrocities to continue. Supporting arguments from Tribute Fleet personnel will also draw upon the very traumas that the Hearthguard try to use to break the cycle of violence, presenting examples of how stepping back from this policy only opens the galaxy to yet more danger.

Brelan himself alluded to this, though seemed torn by his conclusions. This is not considered typical Tribute Fleet officer behaviour, with few of them ever visiting the strongholds of the Hearthguard – a mark of unconscious recognition, perhaps. But there's a terrible irony in how both extremes of modern Shiplord culture seem to draw on the same historical experiences to justify themselves.