The Trandoshan Society and aspects of the Balance

History of the Trandoshan Society, also called the T'Doshok Alliance :

The T'Doshok Alliance was formed by Echo Rantae around year 11. T'Doshok is the native word for Trandoshan. The aim of the alliance was to gather Trandoshans from all way of trade from all the galaxy. They were to provide support to other of their race and protect their cultural heritage.

The T'Doshok Alliance was supported by the renowned pirate Teniel Djo. She provided a faction, renamed Blackscale Salvage, to harbor the Alliance endeavours. Echo was leader of this faction, who was nominally specialised in recycling, but never practiced this trade.

The first movement was to establish the T'Doshok Alliance as a group of bounty hunters, but it appeared that some of the founding members had different ideas. This led to the creation of three houses in the Alliance. The House Blackscale united the traditionalist Trandoshans. They were mostly bounty hunters and slavers, trying to capture or kill the best preys to please the Scorekeeper, the Trandoshan deity. House Sissk was formed from those who held a progressive view on the Scorekeeper. For them, accumulating wealth, power or knowledge could be seen as another way of hunting. They respected life and denounced slavery. They were willing to reconcile with the Wookiees. For those that did not want to choose, there was House Hsskor. Cirxis Cronossk led House Blackscale, Rick Stormchaser led House Hsskor, and Ashura Harma led House Sissk. Echo Rantae led the Alliance as Overlord and put himself above the House system. Rick Stormchaser was his second in command. Tanker Grinch was nominated Lead Hunter and was tasked with evaluating the prey stalked by the members. The society also had honorary members, most proeminent was Diabolus Ut`Persolvo.

Apart from the faction, the T'Doshok Alliance secured a Bayonet class light cruiser, which was called Scorekeeper's Vengeance. It stationed on Derra orbit, and had stuff for beginning Trandoshans inside. The Alliance was also active on a diplomatic side, establishing embassies with governments.

The Alliance did not accomplish much. Following the lack of activity, and then the sudden disappearance of its leader, the Alliance slowly dissolved. Blackscale Salvage was sold and knew numerous names, finishing as Kaos Galactic Federation.

From the three clans descriptions, only one is still available, the description of House Sissk :

"Hatcherd my brother, and welcome to the House of Sissk. As a member of the House of Sissk, you will find we are quite different from our Brothers in the House of Blackscales. The Galaxy may seem gauge to us at times, we must understand as T'Doshok we are fated to play a great role in its destiny. While we honor the T'doshok tradition, we believe it is time to abandon the old ways, for they were written for a time that has passed. We believe that the hunt can mean more than just hunting beasts, and that the divine Scorekeeper can be appeased by hunting any prey, be it knowledge, credits, or anything that one can desire. Those of us in the House of Sissk have learned much about the technologies of the galaxy and through our research we developed the Stouker Concussion Rifle. While we believe that violence is a last resort, this advancement in T'doshok technologies will greatly help our brothers of the House of Blackscales. Along with our advancements in technology, we understand that to be accepted and respected in this galaxy we must learn to be tolerant of other races, even though they are inferior to us T'Doshok, this includes our feud with the Wookiees, we must learn to overcome our hate for them.
While you may find our ways do differ from the other Houses, understand this; it is the dawn of a new age and as a society we must change if we hope to advance. The great Scorekeeper in her infinite wisdom would be proud to see us fulfilling our destiny in this Galaxy.
Res luk Ra'auf my brothers."

The Alliance logo was :

After recording here what I can remember of the T'Doshok Alliance history, I would like to discuss some of its aspects pertaining to the Balance.

First, I will describe roughly Trandoshan culture. The culture is centred on hunting. The main deity, the Scorekeeper (usually described as female), looks over the hunt. One can expect favor from her when he captures or kills difficult prey. Most of the life of a Trandoshan revolve around hunting, be it coming of age, marriage, old age and death (when you are not able to hunt anymore).
One of the most formidable prey to hunt is the Wookiee, because of its great physical capabilities. Trandosha and Kasshyyk are in the same system, and it's a millenar tradition than Trandoshans go on the Wookiees homeworld to hunt and test their might.
With the discovery of hyperdrive and the galaxy to explore, a lot of Trandoshans choose the bounty hunters trade, as it allowed them to pursue difficult and worthy preys. When the Old Republic came into power, it did its best to impeach the Trandoshans from hunting the Wookiees. So when the Galactic Empire rose to power, the Trandoshans sided with it, invaded Kasshyyk and reduced the Wookiees to slavery.

When I first read the Book of Balance, it immediatly reminded me of the Trandoshan Society. Its three clans structure is very evocative of the Balance. The Blackscale and Sissk Houses can be seen as two extreme of a pole, one being conservative and the other progressive.
From Blackscale point of view, their ideology could be seen as the continuation of traditional Trandoshan culture. I see it another way, I see that the Old Republic disrupted the old way, under the noble goal of helping the Wookiees, and that disruption stirred a radicalisation of the Trandoshans that was achieved with the conquest of Kasshyyk. In some way, this sequence could be seen as tipping the balance in one way.
Some Trandoshans then saw that things were too unbalanced, and decided to trace another way. This one was still centred on hunting, as it is almost genetically endorsed in the T'Doshok race, but the rules of hunting and the preys were different. They choose to pursue wealth, power, fame or knowledge, all goals adapted to a civilised society of galactic proportions. In that way, they tried to adapt the Trandoshan culture to the modern demands of the galactic age, but also to restore balance to the Trandoshans as a whole.
But perhaps the most interesting clan were the Hsskor. They did keep their liberty of choice between the old and the modern ways, whether by choice or because they didn't care. If I understood the Book of Balance well, this is the true way of the Balance, not to choose between extremes, but freely navigate between them, as dictated by necessity, not necessarily caring to balance both sides but acknowleding than one cannot exist without the other. This philosophy helped make the Trandoshan Society a harmonious place, allowing people from different stances to gather.

An interesting development is the weight of culture and tradition. The Blackscales were by far the more numerous. Obviously, the people didn't think of it as a choice on the scale of Balance. It was more like they were trying to do what they thought right. And to judge what was right or not, they refered to what they learnt during childhood. The people who were in contact with other cultures in the galaxy were able to expand their references and forge a new system of thinking. So to conclude, I would say that the three clans structure of the T'Doshok Alliance reflected evolutions in the Trandoshan culture that could be seen as Balanced, and that to follow the way of the Balance, one must confront himself to other systems of beliefs.

"This is the true way of the Balance, not to choose between extremes, but freely navigate between them, as dictated by necessity, not necessarily caring to balance both sides but acknowledging than one cannot exist without the other."

This quote above is going into the 2nd Edition of The Balance, I think it is insighttful and indeed falls into The Balance's teachings.

Your article is very much an interesting read. I would suggest perhaps writing some more, doing a little formatting then suggest you submit to the library as a white paper.

I'm pleased to announce that the first part of this thread is now on the Holocron.

http://holocron.swcombine.com/wiki/Trandoshan_Society

Thanks to Jorus.