Overview
Structure
The swordstaff is a status symbol. It varies in size, weight, blade type, enchantment, and other such things, but they are often used by magicians, the council, nobles, and people who have been given permission to wield one such as vaunted scientists and inventors, cherished military leaders, and other special or accomplished individuals.
The Crimson Tahk are a meritocracy, and believe that most has the same innate potential - hence their shared unity - and acknowledge that, though someone may be born bad at something, they can, through effort and education, become better at it and the opposite is also believed to be true if one is innately talented at something (that this talent can be lost if it is taken for granted and not properly nourished). Thus, joining the nobility is often done through one's great merit, earning a blessing for their entire family that can last generations. Likewise, one can lose their nobility - even if it is simply inherited - for something that is negative enough to warrant that.
Despite having a ruling council (the Nuert-I) a lot of the of the power rests with the royal family, which is controls who receives titles of nobility. The royal family has members active in all aspects of Tahk society, from the military to education, and the representative of the Crimson scales on the ruling council is a Princess and third-in-line. The monarchy brought knowledge and order to the Crimson Tahk, and it is their duty to continue to do so.
Nonetheless, the Nuert-I is a mixed legislative/governing body that, in addition to legislature, carries out the will and goals of the seated monarch and is able to do so by commanding certain portions of the government, replacing the council of Ministers and Viziers that some governments have. Simultaneously, they represent various scale colors and tribes within the nation. While new membership can be rejected by the monarch, or even the Crown Prince depending on how much power and influence they wield, often times it is the merit of prospective members that allows them to join. Prospective members are sent to the Crown, selected through a variety of ways that depends on each individual group, and then are interviewed one-by-one, analyzed, and then considered and either rejected or approved for a seat on the Nuert-I. Sponsorship from any of the current members carries serious weight with the current monarchs, and can, depending on the candidate and the number of sponsorship, all but guarantee someone is approved as sponsorship is considered to say “this is someone that we, in my opinion, can all work with and respect”. The Nuert-I are not puppets, and have their own ambitions, opinions, and needs - as well as what may be strong ties to those that they represent. As powers are given to them, and they are a component of government, having useless pawns wouldn’t really be great for the country. Still, an outright traitor to the crown would probably be very rare - if it could happen at all.
The Tahk have living libraries identified only as Archivists, who are the equivalent of other species' most storied scholars. Some believe that, eventually, the Archivists will - collectively - wield too much power, and that their loyalties may sway as a result. As a result, in a successful attempt to cultivate loyalty, the monarchy has insured that over 80% of Archivists are members of the royal family, and that the seated monarch(s) is inducted as an Archivist. Archivists carry the bulk of magical knowledge, as well as general knowledge, and those without the ability to wield magic under their own power can never become Archivists. If enough were lost, this would be a permanent blow to Tahk society. However, escape routes have been devised for every Archivist, as well as innumerable methods to defend them. So long as an Archivist and their defenders survive, the Crimson Tahk will live on. The identities of Archivists are secret, and they regularly wear masks for their duties while taking the shape of "performing identities", which are those that they use to perform their duties. Each Archivist has a form-linked bond with another Naga, or any Shapeshifter, which bonds the forms that they take and links them. The bond can only be removed through the death of one of the pair, and is excruciating - even potentially, at least temporarily, debilitating. The Crimson Tahk have biannual rituals for sharing knowledge with an Archivist, and visiting or calling on one to give them knowledge is common, as, again, Archivists are the Tahk's cultural form of scholars. There is a variety of Archivist with broader interests, whose magical knowledge burns away after they use it - a price for not carrying a specific block of knowledge, which is what most Archivists do. Archivists don't generally specialize in knowledge falling outside of a handful of categories - and carry a huge amount of knowledge in these areas, including history, religious rites, specific areas of magic, and more - but the mind can only hold so much knowledge. Eventually, something has to give, and this is that thing.
Basis
Magicians are sent to infiltrate societies first, bringing back memories and knowledge such as language, accents, social structure, behavior, and more for infiltration. The usual Crimson Tahk (both inducted and original) member can change scale color, and use telepathy to speak if they don't know a specific language. Many later develop the capacity to shapeshift into other species, within size constraints (they cannot get larger very easily), even if they are not infiltrators, but this is not an universal skill. It takes a while to get a grip on the shapeshifting, anyway. It often happens in stages: first changes to true form - like the scale color - while one of the other stages involves learning how to imitate the genders of specific species (including one's own, and mimicking the traits of other Naga from other tribes), another involves mimicking species of a variety of types (and the learning of how to do so), another allows one to learn how to shapeshift into non-living things, while one of the latter stages, which is rare outside of ethnic Crimson Tahk, allows one to essentially take a glimpse at something and just turn into it - even objects. As a result, most everyone has magical potential, but isn't classified as a magic user because if have yet to be apprenticed.
a Naga offshoot would be nice. they'd likely be a cultural offshoot, though, or started by an offshoot that began the society and at one point involved others. I was going to have them practiced mnemokinetic and mentalist magicks to maintain their secrets and mysteries. the most experienced magicians would be able to alter memories. so, they don't have jails. they just alter people who are repeat criminals. sometimes doing so slightly works, but the most experienced magicians (the elders) have to take their time to rewrite a person.
they also use their shapeshifting as travelers, traveling to new places, making friends, learning from the races and tribes they infiltrate, and sometimes using their mnemokinesis, or their more likable personalities than is usual for a Tahk (they consider themselves civilized), to create allies who may or may not know what they are, but would never tell if they did (only magicians are permitted to reveal themselves, as they can insure that their prospective friends wouldn't say a word, whether through sifting through memories or modification). people who lurk in the shadows, serving as spies, assassins, and sleepers. I was hoping for red scales to be their thing - that of the original founders - who hold the bulk of mystical knowledge, and selectively take on apprentices from outside of their offshoot, often taking telepaths many as 3 at a time, with those taught free to train others - and the colors that they take on to show unity.
to extend their life span's, the Crimson Tahk often use the magic of their practitioners to imprint their memories, skills, and such onto another person (perhaps a human, or elf). They also impart the subject's soul (perhaps extracting or otherwise harnessing the soul of the victim) but the process could, without that aspect, theoretically be used to create more of one's self (just without the species traits, if not using the soul). They do this regularly as they reach their older years, and consider it to be a shedding of skin - inhabiting a new shell that takes on their species' attributes.
The Blood Stars are the premier society of magic users in the Crimson Tahk. Currently, no others exist.
Crimson Tahk families pass down their history, knowledge, and such to their descendants and those who marry into them. It is not uncommon to marry into a mage family and expect that knowledge to be given to you as a member of that family.
The Imperial Navy has components of it called the Elwa as a group, that while integrated, retain independence as they are privately owned vessels operating within the hierarchy and larger goals of the Imperial Navy, sometimes belonging to specific individuals that may or may not operate a single vessel as part of a larger interest. These vessels often pursue private interests, such as fishing and sea-farming, raiding, pirating, scavenging, and a variety of other business opportunities. The Imperial Navy uses a flag of a crimson serpent, and often has - at the edge of the rear/right side of the flag - for subgroups (specific fleets, symbols for accomplished captains, admirals, and such, and for the Elwa.
Though they have other facets to their economy, and a strong agricultural sector (primarily to feed their many people; they only export to other Nagai rn, though) - with a focus on sea farming - the strongest aspects of their economy appear to be their cottage industries, and the rich natural resources of their land - extracting them, and then using them in the cottage industries. Even the agricultural sector can be put forward towards the cottage industry, which produces a wide variety of hand-made, high-quality goods often made by specialized artisans.
The Tahk DO have slaves.
The Lat-I is a means of communication used by the Crimson Tahk, and the name for the network that they formed, that is viewed as an important means of stability, response time, and a variety of other things. Developed based off of communications spells, these enchanted objects not only lessen the strain, but form a mesh communications network that can send communications further - using each Lat-I as a way to beam a message a longer distance away - using a magician, or, if one is not available, directly to another Lat-I. Lat-I are present on ships, in homes, in bases, and more. The equipment might send messages directly to equipment, and would need extra energy to send it to other people directly - thus meaning a magician would have to tend to it personally, aside from maintenance of the enchantment. Privately owned Lat-I exist, but are costly to maintain.
the magicians would provide various talismans to provide unity in color to those who have no potential for magic, while others would be taught some level of shapeshifting, even if it's just color changing, and likely be a religiously and magically rich society. they're likely to be highly secretive to outsiders who haven't been inducted (they often take in outsiders, to grow the tribe), so idk if anyone would know that, though."
Ethnic Crimson Tahk have perfect memories, shapeshifting capabilities (it is like a muscle one must exercise to do anything other change scale color; ethnic Crimson Tahk have an innate skill for it, however, and oftentimes many Crimson Tahk have traits that are not their species own, such as different scale colors, tentacles instead of a serpentine body, or additional arms that become as much their true form - a sense of their aesthetic - as that they were born with, while, of course, maintaining their crimson scales in most circumstances. Self-modification is a form of expression to the Tahk, and it is unlikely that an ethnic Crimson Tahk would have zero skill in shapeshifting since it is much easier for them to learn and master than a non-ethnic Tahk, as well as reach peaks that non-Ethnic Tahks can't), and telepathy (another muscle one must exercise to do anything more than sending and receiving thoughts; this can, however, be used to communicate even with people that don't speak a Tahk's language - theoretically, they'd make excellent diplomats if they actually got to the point of developing any sort of mildly positive relationship outside of Nagai)
