Author's Note

This story is a sequel to a former story of mine, "The Long War". I do hope it is enjoyable in its own right but events, persons, institutions, places and groups of people ties in with the preceeding one so I would suggest reading that one too.

The Imperfect Creation

Jake sat in the New Hometree and felt satisfied, for good reason he hoped. The political, administrative and military reforms to Na'vi traditions he had instituted looked like taking hold, and he kept on refining them too. He had arranged them after careful discussions with Mo'at and Norm, he had decorated them with lots of pomp and circumstance and added a sound portion of mystique to them – without forgetting arranging appropriate checks and balances. Also some institutions that simply had "come drifting" had shown to be useful and he had let them thrive with his blessings, and other clans and confederations had imitated these new institutions.

Jake had organized each craft into something like a "guild" and he kept the masters of each craft at hand all the time like a permanent clan government, including retired ay'olo'eyktan, ay'tsamshiu'eyktan etc., and their appointed srung ay'eyktan. When an olo'eyktan, i.e. clan leader, was elected by the tribal council to be nkxi'eyktan, i.e. tribal leader, he either met an impending srung nxi'eyktan or he might be a former one himself, in so case he could announce the job vacant at the confederacy council and wait for someone to apply for it.

Since a tribal leader would need a body of advisors too a tribe government of the same sort as at clan level soon formed. Soon the tribal grand master hunter became arbiter of border disputes since herds often passed borderlines between clan territories, big master singers arranged music festivals that celebrated a recently composed song winning in competition and may be referring it to the confederation festival for possible further honour for the composer. At the confederation level a similar structure soon developed, to Jake's satisfaction. When the Great Peace Council of all the federations awarded a hunter a hunter's red feather or a weaver a weaver's red hair band in the queue it was something like winning an Olympic medal at Earth.

Norm was named the grand master of scouts, since scouts were the greatest flyers they were natural messengers and in other words diplomats too. He became something like a Namana federation minister of foreign affairs. Soon all the ever changing diplomatic agreements became too involved for anyone to remember, so after discussing it with Mo'at and Jake to get their OK Norm took a momentous step: He introduced writing. Agreements on trade, borders, festival arrangements etc. were recorded on sheets from the looms, with ink made from a plant juice. The documents were kept in tubes sealed with wax to keep water, mold and vermin from destroying them.

Jake needed a head of the Great Peace Council too, to keep it an orderly body for debate and problem solving. To emphasize that this body was not a state just a meeting forum no eyktan was named at its head, just a tsahik. She needed to be just, neutral, incorruptible, evenhanded and not the least she had to have a very dignified bearing. Young Mamara'nan from the small Bonfin'ne clan at Northern Land fit the description perfectly. She made an impressing figure in her tsahik cape, the red hairband she was given and her taciturn yet dignified way of talking was quite in style.

Jake had instituted a military school where teenagers could apply for admittance when they had been inaugurated warriors of their clans, and he some time afterwards established a "royal academy" at federation level, for schooling teenagers appointed srung olo'eyktan, i.e. olo'eyktan soon-to-be, and likewise srung tsahik, where the curriculum was political, diplomatic and ceremonial affiars. The teenagers came to this academy after they had gone through some basic training, had been initiated and had found their mates, they entered the academy as a pair and graduated as such, if they later on were promoted to tribe leaders or even to confederation leaders they would be promoted always as a couple.

Soon some hunting, healing etc. masters established schools of hunting, healing etc. too, a development highly welcomed by Jake, with a similar career route as for the warriors: Two years of further schooling and they would be masters of their craft, they would then be able to compete for appointment to a tribe "government" somewhere in the confederacy, some few gained such a reputation that they then could be promoted to the federation "government".. Some took an "academic short cut" up through the ranks, they took hire as teachers after their graduation and became occasionally likely candidates for mastership together with the srung ay'eyktan.

The system Jake designed looked like a meritocracy, with merit alone deciding how high up you could go – but Jake knew better than riding on the high American principles of his youth. He had to accept the fact that the candidate mostly regarded as fit for a job requiring schooling was normally an offspring of the persons of matter in the clan – at least in the eyes of the people at the "helm" of the clans. He could only stress the responsibility of all ay'olo'eyktan to present their daughters or sons slated for succession with promising teenagers from the common people, not only those with connections. He was often ignored in that request…

Jake had managed to defend the world of Pandora against the onslaught from Earth, and to establish institutions making it harder to conquer in the future, but at the cost of undermining the equality of all Na'vi. The ay'eyktan had started to develop into an aristocracy, as opposed to the People, he had created a system of confederacies where each confederacy was basically an aristocratic republic composed of numerous petty kingdoms. Jake couldn't avoid remarking how ay'eyktan and their families delighted in sporting glorious necklaces, capes, hair adornments… That they started to demand a more leisurely lifestyle, the more up in rank they came… That they started going for formal visits to each other ever more often, demanding sumptuous servings only for their honoured guests ever more often… That insulted emotions of class demotion could be seen in the eyes of ever more commoners… And Jake came to discover with unease that a personal example of frugality and humility will only carry so far.

For many years the developing class division among the Na'vi mattered little. Jake took satisfaction with having created a system that should be robust if the tawtute should reappear. But he couldn't avoid remarking how the ay'eyktan of the other confederations began putting the blame of the social tension that was rising everywhere on their neighbours. The Great Peace Council meeting at the Tree of Souls had busy times with mediating grievances.