Politics

The Neefla territories form an important neutral zone in Cyanthia Undersea. They separate the deeper waters of the more violent Craih from the shallower waters of the Raiey. Not incidentally, they separate the two people as well, forming a political and mercantile go between. It is quite probable that had the Neefla fallen, the more dominating Craih would quickly have overrun the Raiey civilization, and both Raiey and Neefla are strongly cognizant of this fact. This has won the Neefla much support from Raiey, and resulted in favorable trade between the two races.

The Craih on the other hand are well aware that if they ever aggravated the Neefla beyond a certain point, the Neefla would shut down all trade of new technologies between the Raiey and the Craih, and the Craih would quickly suffer. In return, the Craih have access to deep water supplies of petroleum, A substance that fuels both Neefla and Raiey technological production in the same way that sources of steel and coal fueled the industrial revolution. This relatively stable balance of power and influence has endured for a long time, and seems stable enough to endure for a good time to come.

Economy

The Neefla local economy is primarily a craft based one, the Neefla contain few fishermen, and produce very few raw materials, but they excel at producing a variety of artists in all fields. The primary fields of Neefla art are Medicine, Sculpture, Biostruct engineering, War, Politics, Entertainment, and trade. Most Neefla classify themselves as belonging to one of these Colleges. Most Neefla are also linked by complicated family structures.

Within these colleges, rank is determined by the degree of confidence and admiration bestowed upon one by others within the college and to a lesser extent by those outside the college. One garners admiration by creating something both artistic and useful, and gifting it to someone who will use it, thus drawing attention to your works. It is considered unbearably crass to use one of your own works to draw admiration. One shows admiration for a person's accomplishments by gifting them with items.

Food is generally plentiful, as the fish gardens are frequently gifted with new types of nets by the sculptors, and with new breeds of fish by the traders, medical services by the Medics, etc. (One of the easiest ways to get a creation noticed is to donate it to a fish garden. Fish gardens are open to all, only closing down when necessary to prevent over grazing of the population.

The Neefla government, such as it is, is presided over by the College of politicians, who rule by consent of the war college, who are supported by the good will of the populous and by incredible complex Kin ties. Since the only way to rise in government is to govern well, promotion tends to be somewhat free of corruption, though of course no society is perfect.

Family

Neefla typically regard family as one of the strongest possible ties. This is at least in part because every Neefla receives some part of its knowledge directly form its parents at the time of birth. Neefla have between 1 and 5 children over the course of their life, or between 3 to 7 children if in the War college. Neefla children are apprenticed to their parents and will typically be brought up in there career. Rarely, a Neefla child will be apprenticed to a family that for some reason has no children, or to a family in a different college from it's parents in order to spread family ties toward that college. (Thus a family looking for some political favor, might apprentice a middle child to a political family.)

A family will almost never apprentice a child unless they are planning to have more. Usually a child thus apprentice is a "sport." A sport is a child born without receiving any genetic knowledge. They are rare, and no one knows what causes them, they are both valued and pitied. They are valued because they have a much easier time learning crafts other than those of their parents, and thus provide a mechanism to expand the family across colleges, in addition they have a tendency to become great innovators. It is not clear whether this is caused by the same factor that prevented the genetic transfer of knowledge, or whether it is a learned skill needed to compensate for the late start they get compared to their fellow Neefla.

Because the knowledge transferred is based on the knowledge of the parent, Neefla will tend to delay child bearing if they can, hoping to learn as much as they can to give their children the best possible start in life. For this same reason, inheritance is most frequently passed primarily to the youngest son, with the understanding that it is to be shared amongst the older brothers. The youngest child is regarded as the parents final repository of knowledge. This can frequently lead to a great deal of stress surrounding the death of a parent, and all Neefla doctors who are either general practitioners or geriatrics specialists are very heavily trained in the field of counseling the children of a dead loved one (frequently the children receive more support than the spouse, but they generally need more as well.)

Technology

Neefla technology comes in large part from developments by the Raiey. It is based almost entirely around Biology and plastics. (hence the strong reliance on petroleum products.) Where the Raiey are acknowledged masters of theoretical biology and biostruct creation, the Neefla are the more practical engineers and do more with Plastics. Unlike the Raiey, Neefla have almost no formal training program, preferring apprenticeships.

The colleges

Medical

Responsible for all things medical, they are nearly unparalleled doctors, given their ability to actually "see" into the body. The creation of Gene-matched Biobots in recent years for use in surgery has given them an even greater edge.

Sculpture

Artisans of this college are responcible for all crafts having to do with the transformation of raw plastics into utilitarian works of art. This field includes the entire civil, structural, mechanical, and material science branches of engineering, and lately has come to include the aeronautic branch as well. There are few if any Neefla space ships at this point, but the aircraft they have designed and built are works of art.

Biostruct engineering

Biostruct engineering is a science created by the Raiey but developed jointly by Raiey and Neefla (and Craih?) See the section on Biostruct Technology.

Among the Neefla, the art of the biostruct really is an art, persued with equal reliance on technique and intuition. A biostruct researcher and lab staff can work for twenty years to produce a single new type of monobot. Only about six months of that is in the creative process, the rest is involved in testing determine exactly what was made. The testing process also insures the monobot is safe for use, stable against mutation, and not dangerous.

War

War College includes the entirety of martial arts, tactics weapons design and all other things related to war. This also includes all forms of personal combat. Most Neefla have had at least one ancestor in the War college, and Neefla families will often vie for mates from the war college to guarantee that the knowledge remains up to date in the family.

All members of the Neefla War College are technically reservists, and are part of a rigid hierarchy of command that often supersedes loyalty to their Family. When a member of the war college marries outside the war college, the children are given a choice at an early age of whether to enter the war college or not. There is a not insignificant amount of pressure brought to bear to ensure that at least some children reenter the War College. Members of the War College have their children early and often, unlike other Neefla, and are required to have at least two children before they are posted to any active duty post.

Politics

The college of politics is the Neefla concession to the fact that some times people just cannot get along together. The college of politics is organized as a sort of academic hierarchy, with promotion granted by ones peers in recognition of achievement. A group of Neefla about to take on a large project would approach a Neefla of the political college, and request assistance in organizing the endeavor. That Neefla would become responsible for locating resources for the endeavor, and settling any personal conflicts that arose in the course of the endeavor.

The upper levels form the judicial caste, they 'discover' the laws, in much the manner of senior physicists discovering the principles of the universe. For the most part, there are very few criminal laws, even such things as murder trials tend to be civil affairs. Only when absolutely necessary would a Neefla politician call a criminal hearing. At that point, a request would be made to the War College to arrest the accused criminal. For this reason, corruption within the War College is the political college's worst nightmare, and a constant vigilance is maintained to ensure this does not occur.

Entertainment

Any form of art that involves live performance belongs to the Entertainment college

Trade

The Trade college handles any contracts or trade deals between members of the Neefla culture and other cultures.