- This article needs Cleanup, and may require formatting and copyediting.
Komos, later known as Ix, is the ninth planet of the system of Eridani A
Features
- diameter at equator: 40,000 kilometers
- land area: 50%
- freshwater lakes 10%,
- salt oceans 40%.
- polar ice: very restricted,
- mean annual temperature: 22°,
- average low: 2°,
- average high: 34°.
- planet average soil base: Unusually deep (5 to 8 meters)
- Average annual rainfall: 1 meter.
- Capital: Pylos
Planet is ideal for production of grain crops over much of surface; drier sections capable of sustaining large herds of grazing animals. Estimated annual production in excess of 100 billion bushels of various grains annual; livestock 200,000 head annually.
History
Komos was a province of its neighbor, Richese which controlled Komos through the threat of force: the population of Richese was close to 500 million, and their army was larger than the total population of Komos. Richese forbade Komos space vessels, while maintaining a sizable stellar army of its own.
Richese's domination of Komos was loose. Language, religion and language of Richese were not pressed on the Komans. Except for the collection of the tribute, Komos was left almost entirely alone. The citizens of Richese, when they thought of Komos at all, considered their exploitation to be benevolent and gentle, but the Komans did not think of their overlords so; the control of Komos was far less merciless than it might have been.
The limited presence of Richese in the lives of the Komans helped to make the burden of their servitude more bearable. Most of the population had no contact whatever with the government of Richese (unless they accompanied the tribute convoys into one of the district capitals after the harvest).
During the Butlerian Jihad
The farming technology of Komos had been computerized only at a very elementary level, it had not been destroyed in the first stages of the Great Revolt. In the first stages of the Jihad, Komos was nearly deserted. In 198 BG, with the Jihad about to leave Richese for the far reaches of the galaxy, Jehanne Butler ordered those Richesans who did not choose to join her to be transported to Komos as a substantial number of the technicians and mechanics from Richese who survived the wars did. Most of these men and women, able to think and act for themselves, lived to form the basis for the new population of Komos.
The survival of those machines, as well as the astonishing fecundity of the planet, ensured that many of the new settlers would live. So began the transition of agrarian Komos to highly technological Ix. This population was provided with two great advantages.
First, the position of the planet; the system was oddly isolated within its galaxy, which in turn was on the fringes of human settlement and the ravages of the Jihad, especially severe in the sector of Eridani A, resulted in even greater isolation. Indeed, for several centuries after the Jihad those on Komos were cut off from contact with the rest of the human race. At first this isolation was involuntary; after that, it was by choice.
Second, the immediate riches of the vast agricultural development of Komos produced a life of ease for the inhabitants, who thus had leisure time in which to think and experiment. The resettled technicians and mechanics of Richese naturally turned to machine technology as one way to occupy their time, taking great care to avoid the development of population controlling machines. There was some early resistance to this technology, but as the decades passed and the planet remained alone in a forgotten corner of the universe, decisive steps in the rebirth of truly sophisticated technology were taken.
As Ix
Now the planet was known by its inhabitants as Ix (derived from an ancient system of reckoning which identified the number we know by the symbol 9 as Ix)
By 110 BG, Aurelius Venport and Norma Cevna had pioneered in the field of interstellar travel to a point beyond the capabilities of the new technology, and so they were reluctantly forced to take their research elsewhere. But, within a century of their leaving, the riches of Komos — had combined with the benefits of the finest scientific work being done in a technologically devastated universe to make of the planet something unique. In effect, Ix had become a research and development center for all types of scientific inquiry. The most extraordinary care was exercised to maintain the appearance of a bucolic world devoted to agriculture. All scientific centers and the few manufacturing complexes permitted were concealed below ground. Above ground, all one saw was the life of the farmer and the rancher.
By 25 BG, the Ixians had begun to venture back into the settled worlds. Their trips were solely exploratory, made in order to judge the state of civilization within the rest of human society and to ascertain if there was any threat to their anonymity. The possibility of trade in technological items was discussed but firmly rejected when the depth of feeling regarding the Jihad and computing machines was determined.
The deliberate isolation of Ix continued until the first century of the rule of House Corrino. Once the Imperium had been established and the Spacing Guild had reintroduced space travel into common use, the situation of Ix changed. It became apparent that in time their system would attract the attention of an expansionary society carried through the stars by the Guild: Once their machines were discovered, as they would be ultimately, the Ixians had no doubt of their fate: Ix would be destroyed. In order to avoid annihilation, the Ixians made the first move themselves. With a caution equalled only by the first contacts of the Guild with the Imperial house, the Ixians sent an ambassador to Emperor Saudir I in 55 AG.
Once the shock of the news had been assimilated, the possibilities of the situation became obvious. If a controlled source of technology were available to the Imperial house, the Guild, and the Great Houses, they could have the advantages of machines without their dangers to the sociopolitical system. Any other solution, such as any one of the powers of the Imperium seizing control of Ix, would destabilize the Imperium. An arrangement was made: Ix would remain isolated; the Guild would make certain that no unapproved visitors reached the system of Eridani A. The Ixians would continue to exploit Richese and Richese would become the manufacturing center for Ix. The interests of all parties were served by these balanced concessions, so typical of the Imperium. This state of affairs obtained throughout the millennia of the domination of House Corrino. After the defeat of House Corrino by the Atreides and the subsequent ascension of Leto II, the position of Ix changed little, except that it became increasingly public. During the last few centuries of Leto's reign, however, the policies of the emperor with respect to Ix underwent a subtle but consistent change. Leto ceased to enforce so strictly the ban against thinking machines, and even began to use certain Ixian products himself which would have been anathema in his early reign. Ix was also tacitly permitted to begin investigation and experimentation with machines which had the potential to replace Guild navigators. The scientists of Ix believed that Leto was unaware of their progress on these constructions; indeed he was clandestinely assisting them by providing them with certain necessary ores and alloys through private channels which the Ixians believed to be their own discovery.
Leto's attitude toward Ix was at least as ambiguous as that of other powers whose existence Leto permitted. The entire question of maintaining a powerful interstellar civilization without the use of computers or other thinking machines has troubled humanity since the days of the Butlerian Jihad, Whatever the ultimate solution of the problem, surely one of the great ironies of history lies in the fact that the planet which conceived the anti-machine Jihad also birthed the supreme technology of Ix.
Societal structure
Most of the population remained at home on ranch or farm. The Komans were obdurately rural. Since the only state the Komans knew was Richese, they recognized no state. The most important political unit on Komos was also the chief social unit: the family.
Komos was ruled by the Exarch, a planetary governor appointed by Richese to rule at the discretion of the home government who also was given a small garrison, although the domination of Komos did not depend upon actual military force;
The Exarch was charged with few responsibilities by the home government, since nothing was more important than the sow of grain and livestock from Komos. Since Richese produced no foodstuffs itself, the population depended for its very existence on the bounty provided by their province. Beyond the office of Exarch, the planet was divided into ten administrative districts, whose bureaucratic chiefs were called "Logistoi". Each Logistos was chosen from the population of the administrative district he directed.
The Komans thought of the family as an organic entity. It was to be cared for in the same way that their land was tended or their crops were cultivated. The adults, and their ancestors, provided the resources out of which the future of the family would be created, and that future achieved form and life in their children. Fathers retained control of the lives of their progeny for their lives; when a father died each of his adult sons, whether married or not, became a fully independent individual for the first time.
Women on Komos, though they enjoyed no legal status in that they could not appear in court or inherit without the appointment of a guardian, nonetheless possessed great powers within the family and society at large. Since the religion of Komos was controlled by priestesses, the religious life of the family was in the hands of the father's wife. Just as every male hoped to head his own family one day, so every young woman hoped to guide the sacred well-being of her family. The only other social entity worthy of note was the tribe. Members of a tribe traced their ancestry to a common male ancestor. They shared certain religious observances and a common burial ground.
Religion
Religion was matrearchical; the religion of Komos was controlled by priestesses, the religious life of the family was in the hands of the father's wife
Religious rites, from birth to death, focused around the worship of the goddess Kubebe. She was a mother-goddess, regarded as the source of all life, animal and plant. In common with similar religions, her followers believed that each year the world died as a result of the absence of their goddess.
While explanations for this departure might vary from region to region, the result was constant: the "death" of the world. This death explained the passage of the seasons and the infertility of fall and winter.
Naturally, the Komans were aware that these beliefs could not be reconciled with the astronomical facts of their star system. The stories were regarded as having meaning only with respect to the actions of their deity. If Kubebe chose to create winter by the revolution of their planet around their star, so be it. If she desired, she could also see to it that winter continued, rather than turning into the spring. That might mean changing the course of their planet's orbit, or it might not — who knew?
As Kubebe's absence killed their planet, only her return could resurrect it. To ensure that return even the most serious rituals of mourning, cleansing, reinvigoration, and finally rejoicing became a yearly cycle. These rituals were directed by a tribe's chief priestess, who was seen as the link between the goddess and the Komans.
Priestesses were trained at any of several primary training centers, but there was only one higher-level school which graduated priestesses. There they received an introduction into the training of the Bene Gesserit. All priestesses were at least qualified members of the order; it is probable that the chief priestesses were all Reverend Mothers.
Considering their vital rote in Komos' social history, it is not surprising that Urania, the priestesses of Kubebe played an essential part in the Butlerian Jihad.