Going where no non-Tamoran has gone before: into the SF universe of Tamora
Tamora has made headlines recently as nations have sanctioned the country for their continual use of chattel slavery. Other journalists have presented the issue far better than I could so I won't linger on that.
What I wanted to see was how Tamorans, and especially Tamoran writers deal with SF. I always believed that if you look at SF you can tell a little about what the aspirations of people are or at least on how they imagine things will work out for their country. So I took on the mammoth task of reading no less than twenty novels all written by Tamoran writers. I devoured these books in the hope that i could get a sense of how Tamorans think. before I tell you what I found, let me tell you that most of the books were written between mid 60s and late 90s. Only a couple of books were from the early 2000s so they don't factor in the recent geopolitical changes. Also, these are some of the most popular SF books in Tamora, so there might be a lot of more obscure writers out there for which my observations will be totally inexact. Now before you ask why I didn't look also read the more obscure ones let me tell you this: good luck finding an obscure SF novel translated from Parthian to any of the major Mundus language. Furthermore, I do not claim that my twenty novels are a relevant sample or that my noble effort is in anyway a scientific study. So without further ado here is what I found:
• Tamorans read and write quite a lot, they have a very healthy book market. You might not believe that considering the literacy rate in Tamora is 89% but it's true. It's also a sad fact that most of those unable to read or write are slaves but I won't get into that.
• Tamorans, at least when it comes to the SF genre, love space opera and long novels. The level of detail in their novel is staggering, they describe in minutia how the ship crew is organized, how they eat, when and how they pray, what holiday they take, how many family members they have and what they talk about with their relatives back home, what they teach their children in schools, how they sleep, how their elevators work etc.
• Religion is everywhere in their books. None of the novel I read ever pictured a secular Tamoran society or at least something more akin to moving towards religious indifference. On the contrary, even though the action takes place in the 25th or even 31th century: almost all their women always wear the hijab (worry not, those that don't wear it do it because they are of other faiths not because they are atheist), crewmen pray daily, the officers often go in religious pilgrimages while on vacation, Tamoran starports are sometimes closed because there is a major religious holiday, starship captains often quote from the Book of Mani (their Prophet) or the Supreme Ayatollah (some old guy they have a lot of reverence for), all public hallways of ships are decorated with religious icons or portraits of their Prophet and Alya (some major religious figure), imams are everywhere (no really, everywhere, in two of the novels imams are starship captains!!!), small orbital Manist temples (cause why pray on ships or the planet surface when you can have a whole orbital station designed especially for praying?) and many more things. There have been no "miracles" described in their novels, so at least there was that.
• As you can probably guess by now, they don't imagine the future as humanity being united under one government. On the contrary, the Empire of Tamora always remains entirely sovereign (and usually much expanded than present day Tamora). It's more like nations states in space. When most of humanity is united, it is usually because it is in conflict with Tamora and they stand alone against the rest of world.
• Tamora of the future is never presented as being the most technologically advanced, the richest or having the best ships. Furthermore, while their major villains (from various foreign countries) have exceptional qualities, their main heroes tend to be average and are often beaten (and die) when they first meet their enemies in battle. Also, the more villainous a nation the more its government and society changed from how it looked at the time when the novel was written.
• The social mores of Tamorans remained unchanged: they still shun alcohol (though not ban it), modest dressing is strictly adhered to, men and women never touch in public even if married, the same siege mentality remains prevalent, public display of religion is everywhere from speech to clothing and buildings, women play a secondary role and are mainly housewifes, polygamy is still practiced, the (space) forces are male only (with one exception, there was a novel written by a woman where women did serve but it was on segregated ships/service), some shops/facilities are segregated by sex etc.
• The biggest disappointment for me was the complete absence of any sign that slavery was abolished in their novels. Not only that but in the few cases where reforms were undertaken to give slaves more rights it was presented as a big mistake, treason, sedition or even heresy ( I kid you not) and it always lead to bad things: a slave rebellion, the discovery that it was a foreign conspiracy (of course) meant to destabilize the empire etc.
• The fact they continue to portray Tamora as having slavery has lead to some unusual outcomes: they always present Tamora as rejecting cybernetics or androids and instead relying on slave labor.
• The most interesting and funny aspects of the books is how they portrait the main countries of Mundus in the future. Please note that the books are written between the 60s-early 2000s so they don't factor in the recent geopolitical changes.
USR: is often presented as the main antagonist, the Godless communists that have conquered much of Mundus and are attacking Tamora.
Holy Empire of Achkaerin: is sometimes presented as the informal rulers of Mundus( expect for Tamora, of course) after having turned in vassals almost all the other countries. Other times, the Holy Empire leads the free world in war against the USR while Tamora stands aside.
The Ecclesiastical State: it is often presented as a rival to Tamora that on the surface seems to have all the advantages: bigger population (usually the Christian countries are presented as being annexed by ES), more technologically advanced and a much larger economy. Usually the two countries are presented as having a long history of war, with the ES launching crusades against Tamora and in return Tamora launching Jihad against the ES. The epic struggles often ends in stalemate or with Tamora making some gains. Usually, Tamora manages to defeat the ES through determination (they are able to withstand centuries of war while the ES population becomes exhausted from the constant struggle, Tamorans are also presented as using kamikaze tactics and somehow those work), conversion (almost always ES is presented as a religious state on the outside but weak in faith on the inside), higher birthrate that can withstand huge numbers of casualties. The ES is never presented as leading Mundus and is always seen as a theocracy under the rule of the Pope. Presumably, Tamora cannot stand to see ES expanding too much in Mundus and it always lead to space war.
Lodja: either disintegrates and is absorbed by various other countries or plays a major role in controlling many countries and even most of Mundus through scheming and unorthodox means (usually involving sex).
Royal Seleucid: is always seen as a successful and prosperous Empire that returns to its roots and reintroduces slavery. They are sometimes presented as competitors to Tamora, other times as allies and in a few cases they are conquered and becomes the seventh kingdom of Tamora.
East Moreland: almost always ends up under Borelander control. Usually is because the Cultists from Royal Seleucid return to East Moreland and "take back" their country (boy did they get it wrong with this one).
Heyra: is abandoned and its people are presented as poor refugees seeking a place of their own all over Mundus and other planets. Sometimes they are presented as mercenaries willing to fight for anyone (even aliens) because they lack a homeland of their own (another terrible miss it would seem).
Rokkenjima: generally ends up controlled by androids or computers, giving away their humanity for technological gain.
Quintelia: is generally presented in a positive light (as in not shown as a villainous nation ), is often compared to Tamora and seen as falling short because of their Catholicism which makes them less religious and weak. In the novels where ES is the main antagonist, Quintelia is part of the ES theocracy and Quientelians are among the most susceptible to conversion to Manism (the religion of Tamora). In the novels where ES is not the main antagonist it is sometimes presented as a nation that stays in the shadow of ES or other great powers only to show its true strength in the final battle where it tilts the balance of victory towards the Free World against USR.
Spoiler: illustrations from their novels show An Ecclesiastical fleet on its way to a Tamoran planet:Some highly advanced Achkaerin starships:The Lodjan ships are presented as being deceitfully large in order to scare enemies. The Lodjans also tend to take great care when designing the way their ships look:The dreaded Seleucid ship and a symbol of Seleucid power over the Iwi and other small nations:Morelander ships feeling Mundus after the Borelanders took "back" control of their country:A Heyran ship in a hopeless battle with a Rokkenjiman Cube ship:Quentellian ships coming to the help of the Free Wold in their battle against the USR (Tamora does not join the war): So what did I get from reading all these novels other than a lot mediocre space opera? The sense that Tamorans are engrained in their religion and their mores and that there is little desire for change in their population. As I said before, I do not claim this was a scientific study and I hope I am wrong in my assessment.