Hul ab-Puber
Soro ab-Hul
Gello ab-Soro
Kisa ab-Soro
Stheee ab-Soro
Paha ab-Soro
Forski ab-Soro
Kohnad ab-Gello
Bahtwin ab-Gello
Pila ab-Kisa
Nayatha ab-Paha
Mn ab-Kohnad
Pring ab-Pila
Skyiano ab-Pila
Clan Soro is one of the most important super powers in the Four Galaxies. Within the alliance the sub-clans of Gello and Pila would be substantial powers in their own right were they not members of Clan Soro. Clan Soro is a political-economic power that compares favorably with the likes of Clans Gubru, Jophur, Lesh, Linten, Poa, Skiano, and Thenanin. Militarilly they can match the greatest powers in the Galaxies including Clans Jophur, Skiano, Thenannin, or Tandu.
Clan Soro is vigorous, adaptable, assertive, productive, technologically advanced, and well diversified. The Soro themselves are magnificent generalists. There is very little at which the species does not excell. They are technological peers of the Synthians or Tymbrimi--but have much deeper pockets.
The Soro are the undisputed leaders of the Clan--so much so that their patrons, the Hul, are usually considered clan members. The Nine Crimson Queens not only rule the Soro species, but also have ultimate control over the Clan's external affairs and internal relations between members, as well as internal trade policy. Even so, member species do have a fair amount of scope for running internal affairs--even to the extent of having some control over alien trade, witness Human trade with the Forski and Clan Gello.
Soro pragmatism flavors the policy of the Clan as a whole. The Clan is not given to excessive militarization, nor is it a slave to ideology. Unlike many other clans prone to agressive policies, the Soro are diplomatically adroit. Though the Soro are often resented for their brute and cynical political interference in Galactic affairs, they are not despised by the most powerful clans. However, many small polities hate and fear the Soro and their Clan. Yet even among these less developed polities many sapients will still usually enjoy the company of at least a few Clan member species.
If Clan Soro has any major weaknesses they are a tendency toward byzantine unstable politics, rigid adherence to policy and bureaucratization, and inability to establish strong external alliances. All are characteristics of Soro society that are reproduced on the clan level. Clan Soro is notorious for factionalizm and intense politicking to curry the faver of the Soro themselves. Highlevel bureaucrats come and go at the whim of senior functionarise. Clan diplomacy and trade policy are micro-managed from the highest political levels. In Clan Soro ports trade regulations are administered by dedicated computers patterned on mid-sized Library branch units that are fully a quarter the size of the brances at La Paz and Port Helena, but with much more advanced AI faculties. Policy is not only complex, but often rigid. Lack of flexibility is believed to account for the Kisa's continuing alienation from the rest of the Clan. The Soro evidently refuse compromise, believing that it wo uld be seen as weakness and reslut in still more insubordination.
There are Soro fellows in all the major Galactic institutions. The Soro have a reputation for being brilliant, sagacious, efficient executives, but often at the cost of neutrality and the highest standards of probity. Stheee have been fellows in the Galactic Forsight Organization and the Galactic Institute of Migration. Bahtwin have also been junior fellows in the GIM and Pila have served as junior fellows in the Galatic Library Institute. All have some sort of reputation for introducing bias into the execution of their professional duties. The Paha are a notable exception and an unusual number have been promoted to observer, junior fellow, senior observer or fellow in the Galactic Institute for Civilized Warfare. Paha have also served as senior inspectors for the Galactic Institute of Traditon.
Clan Soro is also an economic power of the first rank. Notable exports include hyperdrives (notably A-level hyperdrives of Hul manufacture), replicators, bio-medical equiptment, consumer durables, and armaments. The Soro have a knack for acquiring strategic leases, so tarrifs and tolls account for a significant fraction of the Clan's foreign exchange. Clan Soro is somewhat under-involved in interstellar transport. The Soro themselves maintain the most important of the Clan's internal trade routes; very junior members run some tramp and feeder lines, while the Stheee maintain their own passenger transport service. Many outside interests are also heavilly involved in the intra-Clan transit industry.
Major imports include labor, raw materials, software, intellectual and cultural property. There is always an excellent market for toys and novelties in Soro space.
Clan Soro has also contributed significantly to Galactic civilization. Soro poetry, epic, and political thought are popular in many quarters. Stheee have advanced psionic technique and are renowned for their conceptual art. Paha jewlery is much prized, as is Paha military thought, and much more recently drama. Bahtwin and Forski are major players in inter-species mass culture and propaganda. Many Forski have been critics of note, and Bahtwin produce quality ethnography and travel literature.
As great pragmatists, the Soro take Clan Linten seriously because it is a great Galactic power, but their junior Kanten clients hardly register on Clan Soro's political radar. The Pila are partial exceptions because they are jealous of the Kanten and Synthians as potential competitors within the Library Institute. The Soro themselves respect Clan Synthian as an economic competitor, but are contemptuous of the Clan's tendency toward pacifism. As always, Soro Clan policy follows the Soro line, with the result that Clan Soro often uses intimidation and high presure tactics when dealing with members of Clan Synthian. The result of this policy has been increasing hatred of the Soro and their Clan among all members of Clan Synthian to the point that any direct competition between the two polities is usually very costly for both. Even the Soro must reckon with the popularity of the Sythians and their collaterals, as well as with the Synthians' prowess as Galactic lawyers. Worse, Synthians have been known to dump product to spite Soro competitors. However, customers who have tried to exploit the Soro-Synthian rivalry to play both sides for fools, and were discovered, have found both Clans capable of enough civility to permit effective programs of retaliation.
Given the constent conflict, the reader will be surprised to learn that all three members of Clan Terragen are widely admired throughout Soro space. This is no to say that the Soro ab-Hul find no fault with Terragens; the perfectionistic Soro can always find fault; nor does this imply that any Clan members accept libertine and superstitious Earthling customs. What the Soro admire is Terragen pluck, initiatiev, vigor, and instinct for survival. Scrappiness, ambition, and even obstinancy are much valued in Clan Soro --especially when tempered with flexibility motivated by pragmatism. The honorifics "Master Pilot" for Fin and "Worthy Opponent" for apes mean much more than most Terragens realize. The aggressive policy of conquest adopted by Clan Soro toward the Terragen Confederation is primarilly motivated by a covetous desire to force the members of Clan Terragen into the possition of clienthood--preferably in the literal sense of becomming species under uplift indentures. However, making the Terragen Confederation a satilite polity dependent on Clan Soro would also be minimally acceptable. Soro policy toward the Tymbrimi can be summarized as "total containment."
Clans Soro and Tymbrimi have have ideologies and interests that are diametrically opposed at almost every juncture. The rivalry is ancient, the Tymbrimi having inherited it from their extinct patrons. The clash of Soro and Tymbrimi has been so consistent that it is starting to become almost a ritual drama that many suspect both side have actually come to relish. Today there is hardly a member of Clan Soro or Clan Tymbrimi that can carry on a conversation with a member of the other Clan before beginning to indulge in playful insult. Given Galactic norms this is very eccentric behavior indeed, and othewise quite out of charcter for most of the species in Clan Soro. Even Hul and Luber have very occasionally been observed trading insults with Tymbrimi absu-Caltmour. Prior to the Siege of Earth and Invasion of Calafia the Soro and Tymbrimi had not faced each other in battle since before the Caltmour Genocide. (Though impacable enemies of the Caltmour, the Soro only participated nominally in the final campaign of extermination. No reason has ever been given for their low level of involvement, but many suspect the Soro found the annihilation of a 'worthy opponent' . . . dissapointingly unpoetic.) While Tymbrimi are Earth's closest allies, Terragen policy is to avoid joining the strange game the Tymbrimi play with Clan Soro.
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