Worldbuilding the Trogon part three of five

The third in a five part series on Worldbuilding the Trogon race.

Trogon Mercenary

So the Trogon are at least two people, a long time ago the Old Trogon Empire shut down their interstellar gate network. The Old Empire collapsed in on itself and has never been as powerful as it once was. The Trogon settlers and farmer living on the outer worlds fell into ruin after the collapse and the Old Empire became the legend a broken society told their children about their glory days. Many outsiders don’t even believe there was an Old Empire, they believe the Trogon were a worker race that overthrew their masters and now live among the ruins of a once great civilization. So lets apply Ideas that change everything to the Trogon and see what happens.

Idea	Trogon
Cannibalism	Long ago meat was meat and battles were raged over it. You never ate your own pattern.
Signs Symbols	The Trogon recognize Scents, Language
Illusion	The Trogon developed powerful holographic technology and so what others call illusion is a very practical Trogon technology.
Pacifism	Pacifists exist among the Trogon as well as many other beliefs.
Animism	Animals are simply beasts according to their objective abilities, no more or less.
Vision Quests	The collapsing empire had many recreational pastimes, virtual reality combined with Trogon lucid dreaming is one such diversion.
Magic	The technology of the Old Empire seems like magic to many of the younger races.
Mana	The pragmatic Trogon held no such primitive beliefs.
Orderly Universe	The Universe is an orderly process of gravity acting on hydrogen, nothing more.
Timekeeping	The Trogon have precisely marked time since antiquity, it began with the earliest sun following calendars.
Ceremonial Burial	All Trogon are returned to the ground, great Trogon might have a modest memorial of their accomplishments for future generations to admire.
Buried Wealth	Why strive to create a legacy for all Trogon people and then hide it underground?
Dynastic Inheritance	Meritocracy always held that the most capable would rule. If they or their heirs failed, they’d be replaced.
Restricted Diet	Trogon eat an omnivorous diet, they have created synthetic and cultured proteins that are indistinguishable from harvested meat. They prefer natural looking foods to engineered spheres and cubes.
Interbreeding	Trogon pairings may have naturally good genetics, but they will still select strong traits for their offspring balanced against the other traits being selected in the Empire at the time.
Artistic Expression	Art is a Very Old Tradition among the Trogon which includes many public displays and a great deal of holographic and virtual creations.
Astrology	Since the first Trogon looked up at the stars in wonder, the light and heat of their homestar is important to them. Every Trogon knows the color of their star and the feel of its heat on their skin. The capitol worlds have starlamps from other capitol worlds in their cities. Many travellers carry a starlamp of their homeworld with them.
Good and Evil	Trogon are ashamed of pattern killing by their ancestors, they try to act now only on the objective things a being has done.
Black Magic	The pragmatic Trogon held no such primitive beliefs.
Animal Magic	The pragmatic Trogon held no such primitive beliefs. The things the Old Empire did to animals with genetic engineering were impressive.
Ritual Feasting	The sharing of food and drink in fellowship at harvest time is a time honored secular tradition. Celebrating achievements with a feast is a Very Old Tradition. As the achievements of one Trogon benefit all, feasts are usually of the sort where attendees bring a dish to the celebration. The dish is expected to be personal, there are no sodas and chips for the lazy. After the collapse of the empire stranded people on other worlds, the personal dishes are usually something from a person’s homeworld.
Trade	For tens of thousands of years, the Trogon Empire traded among hundreds of worlds across thousands of light years.
Sacrifice	The pragmatic Trogon held no such primitive beliefs.
Portents	The pragmatic Trogon held no such primitive beliefs.
Agriculture	The Trogon learned to cultivate plants and animals thousands of years ago. More recently they’ve genetically modified many of their crops and livestock as well as created synthetic foods easier to produce under various conditions.
Cities	For tens of thousands of years, the Trogon Empire was home to billions of lifeforms on hundreds of worlds across thousands of light years. Imperial city is still a wonder to behold, thousands more Trogon cities on the outerworlds are nothing more than ruins.
Hard Work	Trogon work hard to improve the lives of their people. They work less hard when the afternoon sun is high above the local sun garden.
Goddess Worship	Trogon are more sun worshippers than anything else.
Women’s Equality	Everyone’s achievements are objectively evaluated.
Massacre	Primitively long ago differently colored scale patterned Trogon would go to war and wipe out other patterns.
Writing	Very Old Tradition dating from rock carvings to datapads.
Government	Ancient Tradition that replaced warring pattern tribes.
Divine Right	Meritocracy always held that the most capable would rule. If they or their heirs failed, they’d be replaced.
One World Government	The Emperor of the collapsed Empire still governs many worlds.
Marriage	Pair bonding among the Trogon is practiced by a majority of the population, some Imperial Rulers have taken multiple companions over their long lifespans. It is not that other ratios don’t work, but that two is the minimal practical number and least complex arrangement. The Trogon have names for many other non pair bonded relationships; mentor, confidant, healer, 7 days of the week archetypes?
Law	For tens of thousands of years, the Trogon Empire’s Rule of Law governed hundreds of worlds across thousands of light years.
Honor Code	Among some martial traditions, an honor code exists. Trogon believe that our actions alone define who we are, those behaviors separate us from beasts.
Allow Surrender	The calculus between holding life sacred and letting your enemies betray you is ruthless.
Compassion	The calculus between forgiving mistakes and fostering weakness is very thin.
Oaths	See Obligations, swearing an oath seems like stating the obvious. Still some primitives take comfort in this practice.
Obligations	The Trogon owe a debt they can never repay to the ones who came before, the can only hope to ease the burdens of those that come after.
Pride	Confidence is an attribute to be cultivated, pride is an obstacle to more things than it benefits.
Individualism	A Very Old Tradition, born out of struggles for territory, individual accomplishments can enrich all of the Trogon people.

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