Miscellaneous notes for foreigners

Rudanese names are family name first, personal name second. This dates back to ancient times, where persons were registered to their ancestral villages and halls. The following is a brief lesson in how to use them for foreigners who wish to address the population of the capital at least occasionally in their own tongue, and who would not be expected to further understand the myriad grades of address or honorifics between superior and subordinate.

The most common family name on Rudan is Li, and the most common man's name is Wei. So we shall use as our example Li Wei.

He can always be addressed as Li Wei in an informal setting by equals or by superiors, though being consistently addressed by superiors by name alone is often nowadays considered less than respectful

In a formal setting, he would be named as Li Xianshing, or Mister Li, and this is considered the polite way of speaking. Subordinates would always address him as such until and unless they are invited to do otherwise. In certain settings, such as at court, he could be addressed as Li Wei Xianshing, to leave no doubt as to who is being addressed.

To address Li Wei as simply 'Wei' would almost always be an insult and a presumption. Even intimates would rarely do so, and there is always the risk that presuming to do so could cause a permanent rupture. Every child knows the story of Misters Chun Ho and Mister Chun Sun, where after a twenty-year friendship Mister Chun addressed his friend as simply Sun and the partnership was dissolved on the spot.

Occupational Titles

If Li Wei held certain jobs, he would usually be addressed by that title.

A teacher would always be addressed as Laoshi by his students, even after their graduation; if there is a risk of confusion, Teacher Li would be addressed as Li Laoshi. The use of the full name preceding Laoshi (i.e., Li Wei Laoshi) is considered old fashioned, but can still be run across in certain settings.

The headmaster of a school would, in the past, have been addressed as Zhang, but is usually now addressed simply as Xianshing in all but the most important settings, such as at graduation.

The custom of addressing a doctor or surgeon by something other than Xianshing has been imported from the west but is is rarely met with outside the use of Galactic Standard or to clear up confusion. The title that tends to be used around Huanxin is not Boshi (Doctor), however, but Zhiyuzhe (Healer); thus Doctor Li would be Li Zhiyuzhe.

There is no title that directly corresponds to a doctor working outside the medical field, and they would normally be addressed as Xianshing. You might also hear them addressed as Shangji or Biye, which are titles corresponding traditionally to those who have succeeded in their higher examinations.

Most member of the Official Secretariat engaged in the course of their duties, at all but the highest ranks, are addressed as Guan (Officer); or very rarely, <last name> Guan, as in Li Guan. Occasionally, local custom will dictate that certain occupations are marked out, as for example an Officer of the Watch being addressed as JingGuan, but this is usually considered archaic.

Magistrates, Judges and Governors (of all but very select provinces) are addressed by the title of their district, prefecture/commandery, or province followed by the word Guan. So, if Li Wei was to hold the title of Magistrate of Jinchidiwu, he would be addressed as Jinchidiwu Guan.

In the military persons up to the Command Rank are addressed by their title, thus Li QiRen or Li Shou.

Priests of any rank or religion are addressed by outsiders as Mushi or, if very senior (in any sense of the word), Shifu. The sole exception is below.

Senior Occupations

Sages (the title usually used to address those who have the care of training students for the examinations) are entitled to be addressed as Junzi (Respectable). Should our Li Wei hold this title, then he would be Li Junzi.

The Secretaries of the Cabinet are addressed as TaiGuan, or very occasionally <full name> TaiGuan.

The Grand Secretary is addressed as HongGuan.

Officers above the Command Rank are addressed by their rank, coupled with 'Gong'. Thus, YuanShuaiGong. The Chiefs of Staff are addressed, however as 'Wang', or 'Junfa Wang'. The name is not attached to any unless you are addressing several of them at once and need to direct your remarks specifically.

Noble Titles

The vast majority of holders of a noble title can simply be addressed in most settings as <Last Name> Gui. Should Li Wei hold such a title he would thus be addressed as Li Gui, though unless he is introduced as such it would not be impolite to refer to him as Xiansheng.

Dukes are addressed as Gong (unless they hold a military title, in which case see above) unless they instruct otherwise. You will be informed when you are addressing one. Thus, should our man hold such a title, he would be Li Gong.

The Five Princes are addressed by their family name, followed by the compass direction. Thus, the Prince of the South is Azen Nanfeng. The family names are Azen (South), Dai (West), McClintock (North), Qi (East), and Greizon (Center). Should you think you will need to speak to one or all of them, please remember these names.

The Celestial Master is addressed as Tianti.

Gender

The polite female equivalent to Xiansheng is TaiTai when a woman is addressed alongside her husband or as part of his party (Thus, Li Wei and his wife Jin Yin would be addressed together as Li Xiansheng he Taitai), or Nushi when she is not (Li Xiansheng, Jin Nushi). Nushi may also occasionally be used for women who are not married.

If a woman can hold a title, she would hold the same title as her male counterpart. The vast majority of titles are not gendered, the exception being those that can only be held by women, as seen below:

A Seer may be addressed as Jiaguwen (lit. Oracle). Thus, Jin Jiaguwen. A senior Seer may be addressed as DaiJiaguwen.

An Exorcist is addressed as NiJuShi (Girl of the Shrine).

Addressing a woman simply by her personal name was formerly quite common but is now considered a mark of a prostitute.

Children

While it is usually sufficient to address a child by name (unless they hold a noble title, in which case address them as you would an adult), you can address them generally as Haizi or in more rural areas as Ertong.

Adolescent men will, similarly, always be addressed by name in all but the most formal or old-fashioned settings, the use of the honorific Shaoyue having long passed into those arcane realms. Though formerly also used for unmarried men of all ages, it is almost never run across in this context now.

The equivalent title for young or unmarried women, Xiaojie, remains more common but has also become used to insult women who are, according to some, getting ideas above their station. Thus, it may not be the most polite honorific in some circles.

Nmmr Honorifics

The polite way to address a Rudanese Nmmr is always to address them as Biaomian unless they hold a professional or noble title or express a desire to be addressed as Xianshing or Nushi.

The Dragon Throne

The politic way to refer to the Tianxia Huangdi (lit. Sovereign God of All Under Heaven) is by simple reference to the Dragon Throne (Long Huangshang), or through the use of his other titles. The most common title in modern use is Wansuiye (Lord of Ten Thousand Years), though you may also hear Wan Jie Zhi Zhu (Lord of the Ten Thousand Worlds). Upon using these titles, or if anyone else does so, you will hear the traditional rejoinder Wansui Wansuiye(Ten Thousand Years to the Lord of Ten Thousand Years). Though in certain previous dynasties the Era Name could be used to refer directly to the Huangdi (Thus, the grandfather of the present Huangdi would have been the Shenqin Huangdi), this has not been considered acceptable for centuries as the era name has begun to be used in place of the old-style temple name.

The Consort is the Lady upon the Phoenix Throne (Furen Fenghuang Wanzhuo) or Huangfei, the former title of Huanghou being now reserved only for an Empress ruling in her own name

The Crown Prince is the Huang Taizi, or simply Taizi. Other members of the Imperial Family should be referred to by those titles and names they have been granted, or Zuigao <First Name>, thus Zuigao Ruxia for Princess Ruxia. This should not be taken as an invitation to address them by first name without their title!

Should the remarkable happen, and you be asked to stand before the Dragon Throne, you will be coached in the proper way to conduct yourself until you can do so perfectly.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE THE EMPEROR'S PERSONAL NAME. The locals will consider this the most grievous presumption and insult.

The Imperial Clan Name
When speaking of the present dynasty generally or historically, the full name (TaiRuan) is used. When speaking of a previous dynasty, you may use either the dynasty's name or the clan's name, but it is better to use the dynasty to avoid confusion.

The imperial clan today is larger than it has been in some centuries. Upon ascending to the throne, the Shenqin Huangdi named his younger brother Zuigao Tonen to the empty title of Prince of the South, which had been an appanage of the preceding Ann Sovereigns, providing he changed the characters with which he wrote his name, which is why the name is currently romanized as Azen for that branch of the family. Before his transmigration, he also named his younger son Zuigao Senrenyu the Duke of Fangrong Changseng. Though the duke temporarily used the clan name Maiyun, he was granted the right to use the name Asen once again by the Tapin Sovereign shortly after the death of Furen Xeiri.

The present Sovereign adopted the family name Jinfeng, rendering the naming taboo irrelevant for the present time.

Face

Face (Myanzi) is a rather difficult subject for those not born to it to understand. It is essentially a combination of self-respect, social status, honor, respectability and pride; even this definition falls short. The rules surrounding Face are seemingly endless and are absorbed through exposure, education and the media.

For the most part, foreigners can neither gain nor lose face. As such, their impact on the face of others is similarly minimal. Therefore, the majority of foreign guests can get by simply by behaving with what can admittedly be an old-fashioned form of politeness.

The important principles of Face are provided below.

1) Junior must bow to senior

It is the role of those below to perform the rites of respect to those above.

2) Children are their ancestors.

If you insult a man, you insult his entire family

3) A student belongs to his teachers.

If you insult a man, you insult his teachers

4) Know your place.

If you do not know your place, one will be found for you

5) To rise above, remain in your place.

The way to gain is to give. If you properly respect those above you, you will join them in the estimation of your peers

6) The hawk notices the mouse only to feed.

If someone beneath you insults you, either ignore it or punish them as harshly as the circumstances allow

7) The highest cannot always climb. The lowest can always dig.

Sometimes all you can do is maintain your status. But a wrong move can always make you lose.

Guanxi

Face is inextricably linked with the complex web of interpersonal relationships that make up Rudanese society, and thus that of Tianxia as a whole. The most important thing in the Ten Thousand Worlds is who you know, followed by who they know.

The concept of 'professional relationships' is something entirely different there. You are expected, and encouraged, to perform better for your family and friends then for mere acquaintances. You are expected to provide every advantage to those closest to you. To do otherwise is to insult them. This can lead to what has been interpreted in the foreign press as 'intrinsic, all-consuming corruption', but insofar as anyone in the Secretariat cares (to describe them merely as indifferent would be ascribing too much passion) that is missing the point. Society is not made up of individuals, society is made up of networks in which individuals are only units.

Therefore, every interaction with officials either private or public can be preceded by an endless search for connections between the person seeking assistance and the person who will provide it. Membership in societies, temple worship, school connections, family ties. All of this will be leveraged. Sometimes, permanent associations will be established in prefectural and provincial capitals that connect newly arrived outsiders with the networks of those already in place.

Failing all that, the discriminating (and wealthy) applicant will often attempt to establish a relationship of their own, often through the direct application of money until results are obtained.

For instance, let us say you wish to obtain a firearm's license and have received the required training and education. The fee to obtain said license, at least in rural Rudan, is six hundred Wen, and the official estimated wait time to receive said license can be up to three months.

Standard procedure from there is that your application goes to the provincial capital in the regular Secretariat courier service that week and then goes to the provincial Office of License Provisioning, where it will be processed. Eventually, your license will be sent back to the same prefectural office you are currently standing in, and you will be called to come and collect it within two weeks (20 days) of receiving that message, or it will be destroyed and you will have to start from the beginning.

However, the Licensing Officer in your local prefectural office can, in fact, just go into the back room and print out a license for you. He would then need to simply fill out a form of his own and have that sent to the provincial capital, where that form will then be registered in place of your application. There are no rules or regulations preventing this, and no further paperwork required on your part. It is simply not standard procedure, and it requires him to do more work than simply checking your application for egregious errors and then sticking it in a sack for the mail Nmmr to carry.

So, how do you get the Licensing Officer to do this, assuming you even know that this is an option? Well, you can do what some foreigners would do, and kick up a fuss. But never underestimate how powerful the words 'standard procedure' can be for an officer of the Secretariat. It is a great and mighty talisman before which all else bows. And raising too much of a fuss can lead to devastating consequences, the very least of which could be your application suddenly having a massive error discovered and you needing to start from scratch.

You can try to impress upon him that your need is urgent, a matter of life and limb, and that it is incredibly important that you obtain the license. The problem here is that if your need was that urgent the Licensing Officer would probably already know, but it's not impossible.

Or you can do what locals could do and leverage your connections, influence and resources (in the form of money) to make the Licensing Officer agree to charge you a fee to expedite your license. This is, in fact an available option for almost all interactions with the Secretariat. It's 10% of the original charge. But it is, again, not a standard procedure. If he doesn't want to offer it to you, he doesn't have to. After all, it's intended for important and immediate needs or large-scale processing of internal procedures.

If you apply the right forms of persuasion, in fact, he may simply waive the fee altogether.

Then again, you could do nothing, thank him for his time, and let the Secretariat process your license as per the usual procedures. That's aways an option.

Espionage

Some people believe they can leverage the perceived corruption of the locals, and their adoration and love of material wealth and comfort, to spy on the Secretariat and gain its secrets.

The problem is your relative worth to the locals.

Whatever you think it is, you're wrong. It's less than that. No, still less. Less than that, even.

You are essentially entirely worthless to the natives. Remember:

1) It took an actual war to get them to stop responding to foreigners as if they were eldritch horrors from beyond that needed to be killed out of hand for the good of everyone.

2) It's taken the ongoing the efforts of seven Sovereigns, twenty Grand Secretaries, and countless officials to give foreigners any standing under the law, criminal or civil. Until relatively recently, a Roanian could take your signed contract and tear it up in your face, then throw it in the air, and the law would have defended him.

Also, you may want to try to make sure you can pay on delivery. Do not carry your money in person. Remember, he's at least allegedly willing to betray the Empire. Killing you and just taking your money is easier and he may be rewarded for it.

You're probably not going to be able to blackmail one, either. You could have evidence that he serves dark gods and eats children, and the mere fact that you're a foreigner means that your word is meaningless. He may be investigated. You will be laughed out of the office.

3) To approximately 93% of the population of the Ten Thousand worlds, you remain essentially an object of myth and/or legend, and while by now they probably will not respond to your appearance by immediately attempting to murder you they will probably not be disposed to listen to anything you have to say.

Almost by definition, the Roanians who are willing even to speak with you are residents of the most cosmopolitan and open parts of the most cosmopolitan and open planets of the Empire, and that means they're the ones getting the most out of the system you're asking them to betray.

4) Your money's no good here.

No, it's literally no good here. You can't buy anything with foreign money. Local merchants are not allowed to accept it under any circumstances. And the only people in the Ten Thousand Worlds who'd even recognize that what you're offering them is money are living in the most urban and expensive and well-surveilled parts of them, so no one's going to try breaking that law. There's no upside to it. And you can't exchange it for local money at a decent black market rate, because you can't buy anything with foreign money, so no one wants foreign money.

You could try using unmarked silver or gold weights, of course. But that's even more illegal. That's counterfeiting, and counterfeiting is explicitly legally defined as an unholy combination of treason and blasphemy, so good luck with that. Anyway, if you have gold or silver weights, why aren't you using them at the trade counters?

5) They don't care about you.

Even if they don't hate you, they still don't even know you.

Keep in mind that you aren't even villains in their media. Outside of the friendliest Inner Sphere worlds, you simply don't exist. They don't learn about you in school. They don't read about you in books. They don't see you on TV. They don't communicate with you on their internet. Your countries and their problems and goals mean literally nothing to them. To the extent they consider you at all, it is as someone else's problem. And that's because you are, in fact, someone else's problem.

Computers

Roanian 'computers' tend to be thin clients designed for the rapid streaming of data from a local system. They have very little local storage (almost none, in fact). Everything is done on the fly, and if the actual computer is broken or damaged then an expert has to come out and fix it. A properly equipped and developed system takes advantage of the local crystal streams to ensure that a user has (sometimes slow) access to his personal date at any public terminal. If he's willing to spend the money, he may have a pocket device of his own (though usually it's in the form of a ring or other accessory). The truly wealthy or important may have such a tool that allows them to do so on any planet on the Crystal Web.

This will generate a hard-light display that will allow them to place calls and confirm their identity. Security is built into the system by the fact the crystals tend to know when someone who isn't their proper owner is trying to use them without authorization, but it's not foolproof, and many users will add passwords, pins or biometric signature.

What westerners might call more conventional personal electronic devices are available for those who cannot afford such, but at least on Rudan they're more usually seen in the hands of children

Foreigners and computers

Upon arrival at an official port of entry, a foreigner will be given the opportunity to rent or purchase a so-called 'mirroring device'. This is similar to the aforementioned devices, except that it has sufficient local storage to hold basic applications such as a phone, map and emergency beacon, with as little access to the stream as possible.

Actually purchasing a local device is illegal for most foreigners. Selling one to most foreigners is similarly illegal, and if you don't get in trouble, they probably will.

Internet

Part of the internet is performed by the aforementioned streaming crystal devices, of course. But what most people still think of as the internet, the world wide web of sites and data, has three forms in Tianxia. The Secretariat and Military networks, and the Civil Interconnected Threads, or 'Threads'. The last is, in fact, incredibly new. It has only been authorized and developed in the past twenty years, and so far is only available to approximately 5% of the population of the Ten Thousand Worlds. Uptake is put, with firm certainty, at 2.5% of the population, mostly literate urban residents of Rudan, Nusantara and Daiyan.

Ownership and infrastructure

The Secretariat owns, operates, controls and licenses every part of the CIT. There is no private hosting and there are no ostensibly private communication forums. To put up a site, you require their permission. To access those sites, you need to buy a license before anyone will sell you a modem. This isn't about censorship, this is just so normal to the Secretariat that it probably never occurred to them not to require a license to do these things. That's just how they are.

Sites

The fact the Secretariat runs the CIT means that it skews towards a very conservative form. The majority of sites tend to be for established businesses and media organs because of the expense of access; there is not as yet anything that could be called an internet revolution, and it seems unlikely that any such thing could happen within the near future.

A good number of sites on CIT are for local authorities to republish their broadcasts and announcements. Most of the private sites on the CIT are essentially virtual storefronts for the same companies that tend to dominate the local economy anyway. All the major news organizations on connected worlds have presences of various size; the increasing consolidation of media on Rudan has allowed more money to be spent on those sites then the smaller local companies of Nusantara and Daiyan and they are correspondingly slicker.

[Users

As stated, users tend to be educated middle class urban residents. The vast majority of users belong to households that are listed as middle class or above. The Secretariat knows this, because the Secretariat knows almost everything about the users of CIT.

Anonymity, you see, is out. There is no such thing. Every single post you make, every site you look at, everything you say and do on the CIT is linked directly to the license afforded to your household modem. You are explicitly listed as the owner of every account you make. The only way to avoid this is to use someone else's system, which is more work than it sounds since your local terminal is always attuned to your own computer back home, not theirs at their residence.

Connections to the outside galaxy

So far as can be determined, the Secretariat didn't even consider the possibility of connection with the so-called interstellar networks. There's nothing in the Secretariat Record about such a debate taking place. The question was never raised in cabinet or before the Throne.

There is, in fact, no technological compatibility between the two. While theoretically a sufficiently advanced computer or digital tool could access the CIT and display its sites once equipped with a local connection modem, it wouldn't be like emulating Windows on a Unix system. It would be more like streaming Netflix onto a toaster from the 1950s. If anyone in Tianxia's IT industry has even taken the slightest interest in foreign coding and systems, their hobby has had no impact on local standards and practices.

Foreigners and access to the internet

The main problem for foreigners is obtaining the required license, a device to connect to it, and the requisite devices to connect to that. Technically feasible, usually illegal, and where are you going to put it?