Romany Pacifism
Pacifism is the belief that disputes between nations can and should be settled peacefully, the belief in opposition to war or violence as a means of resolving disputes. Such opposition is demonstrated by refusal to participate in military action. Pacifists deny violence as a tool to solve problems to varying degrees, the most extreme cases will not even fight to save their own lives.
The Romany wanting to find a place so that they could live without fear, decided to negotiate with the Alliance for a place that they could call home. After many years of trying to find a place they settled upon a planet just inside the border, Paquin. In exchange for the Roma's oath not to take part in any disputes The Alliance would treat them much as the new world on earth treated the First Nations. They would be a nation within the Alliance.
The settlement on Paquin became something of an anachronism. The Romany Congress was placed in a permanent building there. A number of Romany settled there. The majority of the Romany settled on ships and continued to call Paquin home. Living on Paquin made being a pacifist easily for most of the Roma settled there. With the development of the arts Alliance presence became a constant and self protection became unnecessary. As a group the Roma does not involve itself with outsiders or their disputes and so as the years passed the Paquin clan maintained their oath of Pacifism.
This does not mean that all The Romany are pacifist. In reality few are true pacifists and mostly only those raised on Paquin within a certain family group. The members of the Deadwood Clan are anything but Pacifist. Their idea is that they will not walk quietly to the mass graves. This clan, although not in direct opposition to the Alliance or the Independents feel that all outsiders might at any given time decide that the Romany should not be allowed to live in peace. To this end they are armed and always ready for the conflict.
The Beylix and Shadow clans pay lip service to the idea of Pacifism. They do not and will not become involved in outsiders conflicts with outsiders. But The Shadow clan lost their plac ein teh verse when the Alliance destroyed The planet. The Beylix Clan live on a world ran by a mafia sort of government. Taking to arms meant that they were left alone.
The New Melbourne and the Ariel Clans do not practice pacifism at all. They intermingle more with outsiders than the other groups while trying to hold to basic Romani tenets. Many are police and military, Doctors and Lawyers. They are the best educated and because they live on a core world are not known to arm themselves.
Many of the space faring Romany do defend themselves against outsiders while practicing a form of pacifism within the culture. Few Roma will kill another Roma unless they feel there is no other way.
Romany are often regarded as pacifists or cowards, stemming from the agreement forged between the Romany nations and the Alliance to grant them official recognition as a nation within the Alliance. Those characterizations of the Romany could not be more incorrect. In truth, Romany are no more predisposed to pacifism than anyone else, each according to their own beliefs. Neither is cowardice any more common with them than any other group of people. They are viewed that way because of the non-aggression agreement between the Romany nations, and the Alliance which gave them a home and an official political standing, but which has kept them largely out of the major conflicts of recent years.
