The Culture Column
The Tednots, and Test Subjects
The study of Societies is more properly a field of psychology, but Ko Netko is interested in how societies function, and more specifically how Ko Netko can be adjusted further in order to make it easier to suffer through slezhi slotzo; individual people are nothing more than components of the society they live in and are only important so far as they relate to society. This study is at first glance the easiest on the ginke test subjects, but anyone who thinks this has no idea of the mind games which the Netkots can devise. And, of course, how people deal with excessive torture is just as informative as anything else (although they generally get this information from the research results shared by other Tednots).
There are technically no test subjects necessary in the study of Mathematics, which is the second-smallest of the studies, existing purely because it still provides its benefits, and often helps the work of the other Tednots. Still, while it doesn't really have any test subjects, like in the study of Societies its researchers make heavy use of research made by other studies.
The study of Medicine is the study of the body, in an effort to adapt it better to the land. Tests are made to see how little food is necessary for a person to get by, and what nutrients are necessary, and what happens without them. Members of this study slice open still-living ginkets to garner yet more information on the body (after three centuries one would think that their knowledge of the body can be expanded no further, but in that belief one would be wrong) and they subject them to diseases of all kinds in order to test cures. Even the exact amount of blood necessary to live might one day prove to be a vital piece of information, although that, along with blood types, is already known.
The smallest of the studies, and the only one which can truly be said to have no ginke test subjects, the study of Astronomy involves the stars, record-keeping, and history, with each being studied for the benefit of the next, and history being studied in an attempt to glean useful information from the past, especially old records relating to the slezhi slotzots of the past. Hundreds of different calendar systems have been devised, for every possible use.
Also encompassing metallurgy, the study of Chemistry is by far the most important when it comes to exports, and Ko Netko is responsible for developing both demolitions and the most advanced alloys and forging techniques in the known world. Poisons, too, fall under the auspices of this study, and tests administered in the hopes of seeing how the subject reacts to this substance, or those two substances in tandem, are by far the most common.
Most tests administered in the study of Agriculture are performed on plants, but its ginkets are also used to test the properties of newly-developed strains and newly-discovered plants imported from abroad.
Besides the Science
Despite Ko Netko's focus on research, not all Netkots are assigned to research teams. Some, alternately, are placed in child-rearing teams, or administrative teams. Child-rearing teams are made up of a pair of assistants for each instructor, an instructor and carryman for every ten-to-twenty children, and a director for every ten instructors. Each year, there are child-rearing teams which have no children, either being newly-formed or having seen off their charges past the First Phase of education, and they are given a new batch of children, each about a year old.
Before he becomes a true instructor, someone in the Field of Child-rearing will have handled two sets of children from the age of one to the age of seven, first as an assistant, and then as their future instructor, modeling his curriculum over these years in anticipation of their personal situations. Basic matters such as simple arithmetic and literacy are handled prior to First Phase education, and it is expected that the instructor will have given them a firm grounding in these by the age of seven. For the next seven years, the instructor will continue to see to their needs, making sure that they mature mentally and emotionally, and provide them their First Phase education.
At some point in its members' lifetimes, unless they are part of an especially important project, a research team will spend a ten-year shift managing a batch of Second Phase Students. It is not unheard of for a new assistant to find that his research team had specifically requested him, after seeing, or hearing from close colleagues, of his skill with something relating to their project.
At the top of society is the Field of Administration, which oversees the Field of Child-rearing, the six Studies, and all other aspects of Ko Netko. Administrative assistants oversee teams of carrymen working in food production (noticeably, Ko Netko uses the term ginke/slave in a general sense, but never refers to any particular workers or groups of workers as slaves, but instead as bovrots/carrymen).
Full administrators handle entire harvest-fields, oversee the maintenance work on an entire city district, or similarly large tasks. At the top of the Administration Field are its directors, who control the flow of resources to and from each team in their own Field and that of the Child-rearing Field, and the flow of resources to and from the six Studies (whose chief directors then manage their resources within that Study). While Ko Netko is made up of several major cities, and a few smaller towns devoted entirely toward materials production, these cities operate more or less independently, and usually come together only when dealing with outside matters, or for the sharing of research information. Having three research teams in different cities might at first be seen as a waste of effort, but each research team will probably go at it in a different way, and find information which the others will not.
A Few Sample Diseases
Zreki is perhaps the least dangerous of all the diseases to plague Ko Netko and is generally carried only by shrub rats, who can transmit it through their bites. It lasts only a day or two in humans, thankfully, and starts quickly: within an hour of infection the victim's speech will slur and her hearing will degrade. Slight seizures occur sporadically, and the victim's deafness will be no defense against the screeching sounds which she hallucinates.
Glero is a more dangerous disease: it is highly, highly contagious, being transmissible with only the slightest transfer of fluids, and its onset begins with bloating before a high fever and visual hallucinations develop. The worst thing about glero is not what it does alone, which while enough to put someone out of commission will usually last no longer than a week, but that the first victims of a glero epidemic can often conclude that they are suffering from djesi, which is far more deadly, and begins with bloating as well. Quickly, however, djesi proceeds to soreness of the throat and chest pains, before causing a series of ever-worsening heart attacks until the victim dies. It is spread through contaminated water and so is a constant danger for the slaves who work the rice.
People can be infected with votna as easily as they can by the flu, but luckily it is quite easy to treat, and even vaccinate against (although like the flu, these vaccinations do not carry their usefulness over to the next year). Its presence is signaled with a tingling in the extremities, beginning the day after infection, and this will last for another few days before it is joined by a difficulty in concentrating, regular loss of recent memories, drowsiness, and irritability. The disease will take its course after several months, but the memories which are lost will never be regained, and someone who regularly is infected with votna will have severe gaps in their memory.
The Morality of Cannibal-Scientists
Some Netkots enjoy what they do. Many of them enjoy it, actually. Probably most of them. Why not enjoy your job when you do it well? Sometimes they enjoy it so much that they begin to do their work not because of the constantly hammering-in of the mindset that this work is necessary, but because they just like doing it. Sometimes it gets to the point that a Netko gets out of bed in the morning just because he wants to see how a ginke reacts to the new chemical he designed, and whether the reaction provides any useful information is irrelevant; he just wants to see the ginke react.
The casual disregard which the Netkots have for the ginkets was shown as clearly as possible in last month's descriptions of some of their games. Of course, these games are also intended to provide new and valuable information (even if it is valuable only because it shows that a particular line of work will not bear fruit of any sort). The Netkots are obsessed with figuring out a way around the catastrophes which happen to them almost like clockwork, and they are indeed living far better than they did three hundred years ago, even if they continue to suffer from the slezhi slotzo. They know that everything they do is for a better future, and the average Netkots would put himself up as a ginke as quickly as he offers his flesh for consumption if the need is there, except that he is of more value to Ko Netko if he is performing the tests, and not having tests performed on him.
A discussion on whether the people of Ko Netko are evil, or simply very, very nasty and ruthless, is not for this column. However, if they are evil, then it is not because they perform horrible experiments for the fun of it (because they do not, as a nation), but because the benefits of those experiments do not outweigh the suffering which they cause. In other words, and to oversimplify philosophy and ethics perhaps a little too much, whether they are evil or not in your setting depends on whether or not, in your world, the ends justify the means and, if they do, if there are any qualifiers for what kinds of ends can be justified by what kinds of means. But the Netkots, at least, view themselves as being very, very good.
A Note on Technology
As first glance it might seem that Ko Netko would fit only in a high-technology world, seeing as how they have been following scientific pursuits obsessively for the better part of three centuries. However, what is the most visible part of technological progress is relegated solely to a single Study, Chemistry, and while they no doubt have discovered gunpowder, or something like it, how much they have used it is a flexible matter. Of far more interest to them, with regard to the Study of Chemistry, is how plants and animals are affected by various concoctions, and as with everything, gunpowder will be of interest to Ko Netko only so far as it might affect slezhi slotzo. And they most certainly will have thought long and hard before giving it to any of their neighbors, who they try to give as little and as useless information as possible while still retaining those countries' loyalty.
Similar points can be made for nearly all other technologies associated with industrialization. The sciences which Ko Netko pays the most attention do not generally lend themselves to mechanical and engineering advances (true, they pay attention to mathematics, but only as a tool for enhancing their other Studies). Ko Netko stands a very good chance of being like the Mayans, in that they have stunning advancements in certain fields, but still, somehow, manage to overlook things like the wheel (although the Netkots themselves have not overlooked this particular advancement).
In short, they can fit into just about any world, regardless of the general level of technology.
Language
As has probably been noticed, the language of Ko Netko, Dengi, is heavy on the letter "o" and hard consonants. Plural words are, through sheer coincidence, signified with an "s" on the end, but where the word ends with a vowel it is instead giving a "ts."
Old Dengi (Pirso Dengi) sounds the same as Modern Dengi (or Sedne Dengi), but as can be seen with the shift in meaning of the word zpono from "spouse" to "research partner," the actual meanings of the words have been altered since the society of Ko Netko entered its current state. Modern Dengi also has about three times as words, although synonyms have mostly been excised from it, and in cases where a word had more than one meaning, new words had been made in order to spread the meanings around. In the interest of not needing to complicate the system with signs to show the exact pronunciation, new words were not made on the basis of minor differences in pronunciation, and spouse, for example is the same whether it is said as "zpoe-noe," "zpah-noe," or "z-pone-oe." Another Netko, knowing how each letter might be pronounced, will easily figure out what you're saying.
Especially in context of what else you're saying, and that is where homonyms are recognized. Two words may sound alike, but their meanings will be so entirely different that they will not be used in the same context. In this matter the Netkots are rather exact, and they frown on the practice of exaggeration and metaphor, since then it can be rather hard to tell if you're saying that you will be doing something which is quite normal with your research partner tonight, or if you will be doing something quite strange with your bookcase tonight.
Next Month: Shangri-La, the secret city hidden away in the Himalayas, and populated by... criminal masterminds. Also, odd clothing fashion, and the Gentlemen's Agreement.
