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- <h1>Londo Mollari and the Centauri Republic</h1>
- <h3>As written by J. Michael Straczynski on GEnie</h3>
- On the other end of the spectrum is Ambassador Londo Mollari, of the
- Centauri Republic. Londo is the most human of all the various ambassadors,
- and there's some speculation that we might be a long forgotten outpost of the
- Republic.
- <p>
- Of course, the only ones MAKING that assertion are Londo's people, who
- have much to gain in trying to convince others of that.
- <p>
- For a thousand years, the Centauri Republic was a force to be reckoned
- with. Like the English empire once upon a time, it held hundreds of planets
- in its control. It was a great military power. But slowly, as can happen,
- they grew content, and lazy, and gradually their own empire began to slip
- between their fingers. A world deciding to go rogue was troublesome, to be
- sure, but it's SO far away, and it's SUCH a bother to go take care of it, when
- we can easily get the same things from other places...let them go. They'll
- come crawling back sooner or later.
- <p>
- As a result, they are now down to a Republic that consists of barely a
- dozen systems and thirty worlds.
- <p>
- It was, interestingly enough, the Centauri Republic that was Earth's
- first contact with another major government. The CR was well in advance of
- Earth science, and we all considered them a terrible power...an illusion they
- hardly tried to set right. Trade agreements were set up, and we gained an
- ASTONISHING amount of technical know-how in a very short time, letting us leap-
- frog a hundred years of progress in a single year. They were most curious to
- get cultural stuff in return...music, art, philosophy, literature..."native"
- trinkets that could be resold for more money back on homeworld.
- <p>
- In the thirty or forty years since then, however, we've found out the
- truth, that the CR is really on its last legs. And we've taken the technology
- we've gotten and perfected it, and now the Earth Alliance is fast becoming one
- of the dominant forces of this time. And the Centauri Republic is trying to
- attach itself to us the way a ramora attaches itself to a shark...for
- preservation, in this case.
- <p>
- They are governed by an emperor, and the government works mainly through
- personal and family influence. It's a very indulgent society, and Londo
- reflects that. Overweight, prone to gambling constantly (null-pool is his
- favorite), and fond of women and drinks, he understands his role and doesn't
- try to push it. Like his Republic, he subsists on old stories and tales of
- former glory, remarking -- one night, when drunk -- "my god, we've become a
- tourist attraction. See the Great Fallen Centauri Republic, open nine to
- five...Earth Time." He is, by turns, a comic figure, and a tragic figure.
-
- <h2>What about that hair?</h2>
-
- Centauri males wear their hair in this fashion, the length of which is
- determined by the person's status. Centauri women scorn such symbols of
- status and go bald except for a knot of hair from the back. (Sort of a
- peacock approach.)
-
- <p>
- Certainly, you could wear your hair longer than your status permits, but
- it's like pretending to a status you don't have, which is viewed as pathetic.
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- Last update:
- October 8, 1995
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