Story of The Bujin

The Bujin --Tokiwa Laserfang's invaluable allies-- are an exotic, enigmatic and eccentric species. To understand how they became such a lively combination one need only understand a little about their history. Something common amongst Moe subspecies throughout the galaxy is that they show a seemingly genetic disposition towards 'playing' and 'having fun' alongside strong sensitivity. The Bujin species is no exception to this seemingly concrete rule.

What makes the Bujin unique as a species let alone a Moe species is complex and rooted deeply in their history, culture as well as tradition. The most basic reason is their historical isolation from the rest of the galaxy throughout most of their development. But the much larger reason requires a small lesson in Bujin history.

The early, primitive Bujin were much more ordered than most species were during their stone age era. The Bujin even in their infancy had already established a tribal system where the Elders were at the top, and Bujin were separated into three castes. These castes were the Ruling caste, Playtime caste, and Working caste.

The former and latter most speak for themselves ... as for the center one, well, you see, as a Moe-species, war never occurred to them in their early history before meeting other species. So instead of a Warrior caste, they had a Playtime caste whose role was to organize and oversee fun time activities for all Bujin, Elders, Rulers and Workers alike. This included providing food during snack times for their role incorporated that of hunter/gatherers.

Although a strong Ruling class existed the Elder Council held chief executive functions so although they had less power in day to day, overall
ruling they nonetheless sat on top of the hierarchy well above the Ruling caste. They could overrule or supersede the Rulers in certain circumstances.

Fun and toys were evenly distributed as dictated by the Elders. One of the Elder Councils main functions was to ensure that everyone was being fair. Which lead to another unique aspect to their subspecies which set them apart from other Moe-species; it was established in their culture that playtime should be 'orderly and disciplined' and the Elders enforced this with a heavy hand. This was all further aided by the empathic abilities of the Bujin species which, while limited, evolved over time to create an in-group collective-intelligence as opposed to purely individual thought processes. Eventually giving birth to the Bujin collective consciousness.

Due to all this, the Bujin grew to not even need much supervision. Everyone knew what to do. Few needed telling let alone consequences. A society with laws that for all practical purposes no longer needed to exist.

The Bujin come from an especially 'exciting' world by most humanoid species standards. Even the early, tribal Bujin who knew nothing else could appreciate the wonder of their world. It was eventually unanimously agreed upon that it would be 'very fun' to explore their entire world. This lead not only to them discovering their world earlier than most species, Moe or otherwise, but they did so at astonishing speed since they were so excited.

All was well and fun until a fateful and pivotal point in their history over two thousand years ago to this day, when they were invaded by aliens of unknown origin.

At this point the primitive Bujin were at roughly an Iron Age level of development and truly the most impressive examples of engineering they boasted were the wheel, crude sailing vessels and their intricate, elaborate toys. Hardly a match for spacefaring aliens no matter how small in number. A quarter of their species were wiped out before they could even conceive of what might be happening.

Once they had time to attempt to make sense out of the chaos they could only conclude that they must have been demons who came from a terrible place where there was no fun. They concluded that these demons must either hate fun, or they were jealous of all the fun the Bujin had and wanted to destroy or take it for themselves out of jealousy. This imprinted itself on their racial memory.

Instinctively the Playtime caste began working on new games. The Playtime caste at this point began to match and in some ways even out-rule the Ruling caste in power. The Playtime caste could now give the Ruling class orders if sanctioned by the Elders. One of the Playtime castes first dictates was to order the Worker caste to produce new types of toys to go with their new games. Both castes, sanctioned by the Elders, went against everything both their castes had stood for and began making toys that might be dangerous!

Every able-bodied Bujin from every caste had to learn how to play the new games with these new, potentially dangerous toys and the Playtime caste were the experts and trainers, also governing the process giving dictates to all but the Elder Council.

Luckily for the Bujin this wasn't a full-scale invasion but a scouting force on an extended, deep space expedition to locate resources to bring back to their world.

The aliens' people had no idea where the scouting force was or that they'd discovered the Bujins homeworld let alone its location or even who the Bujin were.In the end the Bujins order and discipline in the face of play made them very efficient at this new game they were forced to partake in.

Where they once played fairly, orderly and in a disciplined fashion they now killed in a not so fairly, but every bit as orderly and disciplined fashion. The demons started it, plus the demons did not play fair, their toys were stronger, cheaters! Treating it as a game, they proved as efficient at killing as they were at playing.

The aliens, dismayed and humiliated, had gotten more than they'd bargained for. It wasn't worth taking resources from this world when there were easier targets. But their embarrassment caused them to fight on longer than they normally would have before finally leaving -- never speaking of the Bujin or their world lest it be known that they were defeated by what appeared to be a bunch of little Human girls.

Now, of course, they would be designated by the galaxy as part of the, generally, somewhat childish but wise and long-lived Moe-humanoid sub-grouping of species.

In the end, nearly 50% of the Bujin species had been wiped out before their victory. To them, it may as well have been a defeat. There was no celebration that day. The Bujin being lovers of tradition did not change their society, but it had been forever altered due to this event.

Henceforth, every generation of Bujin that followed would learn to play effectively with increasingly dangerous toys using increasingly dangerous game tactics. This was mandated by the Playtime caste and strongly sanctioned by the Elder Council. It continues to this day with each generation having gotten successively better at it.

Within a few generations the Playtime caste had morphed into the more powerful and influential "Wargame caste" which would go on to fight over power for governance with the Ruling caste to this day. The powerful, spirited artisans and martial trainers which make up the Wargame caste forever being held in check only by the existence of the Elder Council. Out of their cultural respect for order, tradition as well as their best interests they never dared challenge the Council of Elders.

The Bujin came to regularly engage in playing war but would occasionally have traditional playtime to honor the memory of their species roots, as well as the "Great War Game," and those who fell in it. This eventually became a part of Bujin tradition and to this day all Bujin are expected to always keep their war skills sharp regardless of caste or occupation.

The Bujin would also forever after suffer from a racial paranoia that made them ritualistically and obsessively play war in case the 'demons' were to ever return.

They never did.

This grew to become a part of Bujin culture and tradition. They generally play these games communally by gathering together on public land or in public space. Although it's better to say 'neutral' ground as there is no private ground or space in Bujin society.

The Bujin have only 'territories' that are in truth merely sectors which are 'defended' although this is treated as a game with posturing and is never truly aggressive. Violence and civil unrest in Bujin society is almost unheard of.

Today, of course, being a well-educated and technologically advanced species it is understood by the Bujin that these 'demons' were most likely off-world invaders of another species. But they are still historically and culturally referred to as "The Great Demons."

The Ruling caste has never stopped feeling resentful of the Playtime, now Wargame castes' acquisition of governmental powers. The Ruling caste feels to this day that the Wargame caste has an unfair amount of power ... and that by effectively serving both a functional and executive function in Bujin society they are not sharing fairly.

But this caste arrangement has been supported and enforced by the Elders for millennia and shows no signs of changing.

Perhaps the only true positive to come out of this, if there could even be one for such a dark and tragic tale, is that it propelled the Bujin into a frenzied state of technological advancement. One which never really saw an end...

They became technologically advanced and spacefaring far sooner than most other species in the galaxy yet were seldom seen or heard about due to their paranoid and reclusive nature. When they do make necessary journeys into the greater galaxy they employ their highly refined cloaking technology. But it is not uncommon for the average Bujin to go their entire lives without ever leaving their own star system.

Due to advancing so quickly, in combination with their love for tradition, they retain their tribal way of government to this day albeit in a more modern form. You see, unlike most species the Bujin never had a private enterprise boom. So instead, as they became industrial they morphed from a tribal society to a communal one. Some species had tried and failed with such a system in the early days of their own industrial era.

But what makes the Bujin unique is that with other species it tended to be a reaction to early private enterprise which the Bujin skipped over entirely. This communal system did not work well for most species and caused conflict, corruption, extreme authoritarianism and for most it ultimately failed in a terrible fashion. The system simply wasn't in line with those species nature, particularly not at that point in their history.

...But such a system was perfectly in line with Moe
nature...

Presently there are 32 billion healthy, prosperous and industrious Bujin in existence. Twelve billion on their Homeworld, nine billion on their sister world, and 11 billion spread throughout their system on moons, rough worlds and space born habitats. Anywhere but outside their system.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it.


Part of the on-going "Rabbit Hole Galaxy" series. It is machinima i.e. virtual indie-film. 

I don't do it for money or fame I just do it to escape this planet. I want off this world. So I am building my own galaxy.
I don't monetize anything that way I don't have to worry about copyright... I can do and use whatever I wish that way...
I don't want fame either. Again, this is about me.