House of Steel The Honorverse Companion - By David Weber Page 0,132

is fraught with speculation at best. The better analysis comes from carbon dating Medusan food storage pots.

Medusans consider fire to be a primarily industrial application; they are well suited to the climates in which they live and need little protection from the elements and rarely wear clothing other than kilts and equipment harnesses.

TECHNOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

Medusan native technology had evolved to an ability to cast in bronze and copper alloys by the time of the planet’s initial contact with humans. Most Medusan public works are huge constructs of dressed stone and the buildings can reach impressive heights for a culture without counter-grav. Although the Star Kingdom of Manticore has been trying to regulate the flow of offworld goods and devices to prevent the loss of the original Medusan culture through technological upheaval, technology transfer is happening between the humans and Medusans.

Prior to trade with off-worlders, the height of Medusan military armament was a form of bow, well suited to use from jhern-back, although it bore little resemblance to something a human could comfortably fire. Traditionally, Medusan foot soldiery used slings and stone-tipped spears, although bronze swords and spear and arrowheads were coming into use at the time of first contact.

Most of Medusa’s flora is dominated by moss-like vegetation. Human residents on the planet refer to the entire planet as being covered in moss; this is only partially correct but, given humans’ limited interaction with the planet, it is not an unfair characterization. Following contact with humans, Medusan agriculture has advanced by leaps and bounds, and output per hectare has increased dramatically with the introduction of fertilizers, crop rotation, and improved cultivation techniques, which is helping to fuel a modest population explosion among the city-based culture.

Manticoran efforts are underway to educate the Medusans in terms of technology, medicine, and public sanitation and hygiene, as well as issues in off-world affairs that may affect them. Manticoran schools for Medusans have full holographic communication suites and cover a wide range of topics. Medusan students may attend universities in the Manticore system within the forseeable future. While the process of bringing the Medusans into “interstellar adulthood” is ongoing, some issues cause friction. For example, while many Medusans would prefer to raze their Old Cities and build newer, more modern, durable, and comfortable cities, the Native Protection Agency is resistant to this idea, fearing that Medusan cultural treasures would be lost in the process.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CROWN

Medusa is held by the Medusan people, and all human enclaves are on T-century leases. The Star Kingdom has regulated contact with off-worlders much more tightly since the off-world-incited Mekoha Uprising in 1900. Following that incident and the First Battle of Basilisk, the Crown adopted an official policy under which Medusa may join the Star Kingdom as a member world or remain independent, following an eventual plebiscite. The creation of a coalition of city-states to act as the basis for a unified world government is a precondition for such a plebiscite, however, and it is uncertain if this will ever happen or if the Medusans even desire such an arrangement. Certain factions in the Manticoran Parliament also appear to be of two minds where the possibility of Medusan membership in the SKM is concerned, and most political analysts (and sociologists) estimate that it will be at least another thirty T-years—and probably much longer—before any such plebiscite might realistically be expected.

The Royal Manticoran Navy

The Royal Manticoran Navy (RMN) is a professional, career-oriented service. It began with only four small frigates, built in the Sol System for the Manticore Colony Trust of Zurich in 1389 PD, but has grown over the past five centuries into a potent fighting force with a solid core of ships of the wall supported by more numerous battlecruisers and smaller classes.

Prior to the discovery of the Manticoran Wormhole Junction, the Royal Navy was primarily a system defense force, its main function being to guard the Manticoran home system and deter potential threats from the generally small power blocs in Manticore’s area of the galaxy. The expanding merchant marine and trade opportunities provided by the Junction required an equal expansion of the Navy and it grew into a powerful fighting and commerce protection force, although one that relied primarily on battlecruisers and lighter warships.

That orientation changed in the mid-nineteenth century when King Roger III began his great buildup in response to the Havenite wars of conquest. The Navy expanded exponentially into what is by any measure the third largest navy in the galaxy. Due to an aggressive R&D program,