Tytania by Yoshiki Tanaka

[Shi Si-yuan]

I'm planning on doing a translation of Yoshiki Tanaka's Japanese sci-fi epic series Tytania. The whole thing is pretty long so I'm going to be posting it in bite-size chunks. What I've got here is just the beginning of the prologue. I know this isn't technically wuxia so if there's a problem let me know and I'll take it down.

[Shi Si-yuan]

Tytania
Part I: The Hurricane

(Cover text)
Star Year 229. The fate of the Universe is gripped in the hands of the Tytania clan, who have shattered the Interstellar League of Cities and amassed a great fortune. But in the year 446, Sir Ariabert of the great Tytania family is defeated by the lone city of Euriya. The times have begun to change once more. Who will become the supreme ruler of space?

[Shi Si-yuan]

Central Characters

*Titania Camp

Ajuman Titania (40) …... Vardana Noble Empire. Brother of Family Head Yashiro. Waiting for the title of “Plain King’s Clan.”

Ariabert Titania (27) …... Head of one of Titania’s Five Families. Prince.

Juslan Titania (27) …... Head of one of Titania’s Five Families. Prince.

Zarish Titania (26) …... Head of one of Titania’s Five Families. Prince.

Idris Titania (24) …... Head of one of Titania’s Five Families. Prince.

Therese Titania (50) …... Mother of Zarish.

Barami Titania (18) …... Son of Estrado. Aide to Juslan. Child Prince.

Francia …... Juslan’s maid.

Lydia (10) …... Princess of Elbing Kingdom.

Donald Fara …... Counsellor to the Titania clan. Household election expert.

Theodora Titania …... Aiming for the status of countess.

Radmoz Titania (17) …... Younger brother of Idris. Baron.

Harsha VI (35) …... Vardana Emperor. Formal sovereign.

Aisha (31) …... Vardana Empress.


Anti-Titania Camp

Fan Heurick (28) …... Ex-commander of the city fleet.

Lila Florence …... Fugitive girl who aided Heurick.

Mikhail Valenkov (29) …... Former subordinate to Fan Heurick. Ex-adjutant. Lieutenant.

Louis Edmond Burgess (26) …... Former subordinate to Fan Heurick. Former Reporting Lieutenant.

Compton Cashmere …... Captain of the Ship “Honest Grandpa.” Husband of Miranda.

Miranda (28) …... Former Princess of the Duchy of Casabianca.

Li Shanchen (27) …... Alias Doctor Li. Holds a doctorate in philosophy on the planet Bargash.

Aran Mufti (22) …... Former lieutent of the Vardana army.

Salaam Amzekar (30) …... Former admiral of the Vardana navy.

[Shi Si-yuan]

Prologue: The Rise of Tytania

What they call periodization is not overly expedient when reading and writing history textbooks. There is a lot being considered, but the truth is, it can be said that this same sorting of time periods is the final goal of historical research. Because no matter the reason for establishing this periodization, people will derive their historical perspective straight from reflection on the manner in which it is established. Once, when the range of human activity was confined to the planet Earth alone, there were only four periods of history. To ancient history, the middle ages, early modern times, and the modern period, must now be added the current era.

In addition to the basic periods, in each field a particular situation must be added. In art history, the history of science and technology, literary history, and economic history, historical periodization often yields a general periodization of history with gaps in it. There are times when, unlike with the ideas and techniques involved in carving a statue, no other influences exist except for the fatal flaws of massive empires.

Tentatively hypothesizing thus about military history, we can see that the greatest turning point would be the introduction of gunpowder. But there is a cynical point of view which holds, in regard to changes in military thinking, “warfare in general hasn’t changed a bit since Sun Tzu.” And there is a viewpoint which divides history at the moment when the conflict between the two great trends in military thought, mechanized, fully-equipped warfare and guerrilla tactics, came fully into existence, but if that is the case, then from the outset saying when this point was becomes a problem for which no easy answer can be seen.

In periodizing the history of government and society, the use of the Star Calendar, that is, one examining the movement of human society’s base away from Earth to other celestial bodies, and dividing time into the “Earth Era” and the “Post-Earth Era” is the standard. And this, together with the fact that, after leaving the A.D. period, the Star Calendar came into use, clearly brought about a certain transformation in human consciousness.

The so-called “Gagarin Calendar” takes 1961, the year Yuri Gagarin performed the historic first space flight, as the boundary marker between eras. Likewise the “Apollo Calendar” takes 1969, the year in which humanity first set foot beyond Earth, as its first year, though there is probably a lot of truth to the viewpoint expressed by U.N. DeValle that this event was “merely the cumulative success of the system, and in no way represented any kind of change in the overall condition of mankind.” Since the Gagarin and Apollo Calendars, space has been in the exclusive possession of those who were masters of engineering and technology, though this is not the reason it became a living space for humanity.

By exchanging tachyons and tardyons (particles with negative and positive mass), it is possible to achieve a velocity greater than light speed. That system was perfected in the year 2420, with the result that human society was granted an opportunity to expand explosively into outer space. It may be said that that awareness, almost matching the truth, was an extremely strange case, in matters since the Industrial Revolution.

[Zirevla Raivlereliz Tepthitiel]

Interesting, looking forward for more and thanks a lot!!

[Shi Si-yuan]

The era of growth was an era of optimism. A fad even began to spread at the time for repeating slogans like “Failure fears us” and “Anything you see is within your reach” which expressed a positive opinion of the state of humanity. As the population increased, its demographics became more and more pyramidal. In the solar system, the population, which had rested at around 50 billion, broke past 100 billion within 60 years. In the year 2500, it reached 150 billion. During this period, improvements to faster-than-light travel and its attendant techniques piled up, and even the degree of safety of the human body rose; further, this encouraged the flow of humanity out into space, and the geographic range of human society continued its expansion.

Taking a bird’s eye view of history, the period when human governments were unified took up no more than about a century of the Earth Union Government era. In the 23rd Century, at the end of much violence and conflict, Mars and Venus achieved independence and established political positions equal to that of Earth. Thereafter, the expansion of their borders was the cause of much political division.

Speaking of boundaries, they traveled to uninhabited planets and raised homemade flags, and if they declared independence, the establishment of each new nation was usually recognized. Thus in the year 2477 the number of nations came to 10,000, but though the lifespan of the “Bubble States” was long, within the span of less than one generation, by the year 2509 they had been organized into less than 806, and by 2530 the number had shrunk to 338. That year, the Star Calendar, given official status by a variety of legal systems, finally superseded the custom of A.D. dating. Earth, without any dramatic fighting or even the realization that it was happening, began to lose economic power and governmental influence, and by the mid-2400s, it had become no more than “one out of many.”

At that time, the lingua franca of humanity was known as “Publick.” English had become key during the A.D. years, but English grammar was full of inconsistencies, in addition to a number of words where spelling and pronunciation seemed almost completely unconnected. Therefore, an effort was undertaken to reform English orthography so that it more closely matched pronunciation, and the prevalence of what was called “phonetic English” began to rise. In any case, with the spread of the common tongue, humanity was able to at least attain a minimum of mutual understanding. And the era of the League Interstellar Cities was begun. This was the first chapter of the Post-Earth Period.

[jiraiyanairad]

Thanks for the translation
(Not to be rude or offensive) the one long page aka.. no indent or paragraph structure makes it difficult to read.

[L3zl13]

There is something wrong with this sentence:

Speaking of boundaries, they traveled to uninhabited planets and raised homemade flags, and if they declared independence, the establishment of each new nation w, but though the , but though the as usually recognized.

Thx for the translation. It's nice to see a sci-fi among the many fantasy settings.

[Shi Si-yuan]

Thanks for pointing that out; it's fixed now.

[Shi Si-yuan]

Thanks for the translation
(Not to be rude or offensive) the one long page aka.. no indent or paragraph structure makes it difficult to read.

Yeah, sorry about that. I write it in Google Docs, where it is indented, but when I paste it into the editor it all goes left-aligned. I added space between the paragraphs; hope that makes it a little more clear.