Kavithan Protectorate
Leaders (Starships)
| Kavitha Thakur | |
 | |
| Introduced in Vanilla | |
| Titles | Spiritual Mother "Defender of Faith" |
|---|---|
| Civilization | Kavithan Protectorate |
| Preferred victory | |
| Language | English |
| Voice actor/actress | Kaljani Iyer |
Kavitha Thakur leads the Kavithan Protectorate.
Starships[]
The leader Kavitha (Humanitarian) starts with one extra city.
Civilopedia entry[]
Legend[]
Although western scholars are almost uniformly incredulous, the followers of Kavitha Thakur hold fast to the claim that she was born on the first day of June, 17 years before the events of the Great Mistake, making her well over 200 years old. More reliable estimates concede she may be considerably older than the average life expectancy.
Early Life[]
As the daughter of revered northern mystic Raj Thakur, Kavitha had a strong spiritual connection at a young age. She often experienced near-catatonic states of “disembodied concentration,” during which she was said to have had visions of the far future. To the devotees of her father, this only served to solidify their belief that she would one day supplant him in his role, as he himself had declared upon her birth.
Rise to Fame[]
Nearly 80 years after Raj Thakur's journey to the Kush, Kavitha’s followers numbered in the hundreds of millions as the stories of her and her father become legend among desperate and forgotten peoples. Despite a number of political and military candidates tailored for the position, when it came time to elect a leader for the now geographically diverse region under their control, none saw a means to overcome Kavitha’s popularity. Swept up in a nearly uncontested vote and thrust into a position of political authority she neither desired nor prepared for, Kavitha focused her early efforts on what she knew best – humanitarian campaigns. She focused her vast resources on repairing the damage done by her predecessors to the people of the Indian subcontinent.
Loading screen quotes[]
<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Kavitha Thakur >>
[CED.2661.17]
There was a time when my forebears believed Earth was a flat stone, around which revolved the Heavenly hosts. Eventually, the truth of that world became known to us. Now, we have a new Earth and all that we have known becomes unknown once again. In time, we will know its truth as well. For while it may not be the home we knew, it is home just the same.
<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Kavitha Thakur >>
[CED.1979.12]
The hearts of my people carry many wounds. I feared they would carry this pain with them. And yet, as we prepare to meet our future, I can see the hope in their eyes. Hope has ever been a great remedy and it does my heart good to see my people so renewed. Our hope will light our path. Our faith will lead us to a peaceful existence. I know this to be true.
<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Kavitha Thakur >>
[CED.0286.46]
The new dawn rises, lighting our spirits with the flame of hope. Hope for sanctuary, for a bright future, for a new chapter. Together we will rise up and become stronger than ever before. On these new shores, we will finally be whole.
<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Kavitha Thakur >>
[CED.2536.97]
It is time for my people to reflect. We must open our minds and release the follies of the past. With every fiber of my being, I believe that we can prosper on this world, but only if we learn from our mistakes. Together, we will walk the path which frees us from the past and leads to a new existence.
<< Excerpts from Colony Archives >> << Personal Log, Kavitha Thakur >>
[CED.2584.82]
It is the nature of man to seek ownership of that which he surveys. As we come upon our new world, we must not think, “This is ours and only ours.” We must show reverence for the glorious life which already holds claim. We are refugees, not conquerors. On this new planet, we will be new creatures, not the only creatures.
Civilopedia Quotes[]
Wonders[]
| Wonders | Quote |
|---|---|
| Precog Project | "Open your eyes. Open them again. Look ahead of yourself. Look ahead again." Kavitha Thakur, Glorious Key of the Exodite Tantra: 5th Unfolding |
| Cynosure | "Behold unsleeping Cynosure, the golem whose minds span kalpa." Kavitha Thakur, Kali Meditation |
| Daedalus Ladder | "Beyond this flesh, Beyond this dream, I have danced among the stars. My children dance on endless worlds." Kavitha Thakur, Glorious Key of the Exodite Sutra |
| Resurrection Device | "I went to depart this world. I stood at the threshold I heard, Do not leave, we need you!' I returned, by compassion moved." Kavitha Thakur, Bhagavad 4 |
Technology[]
| Wonders | Quote |
|---|---|
| Genetic Design | "Do you change the steps in the dance of life? Or does the dance of life change your step?" Kavitha Thakur, Bhagavad 4 |
| Geophysics | "We, the dust of a dying world, must listen to the stones of a living one." Kavitha Thakur, The Exodite Sutra |
| Photosystems | "Like the sun, I shine upon my disciples. Like the flowers, they turn to me and blossom." Kavitha Thakur, Bhagavad 4 |
| Orbital Networks | "Seraphim, Cherubim, Devas, Fravashi, and Yakshas, extend thy arms to cover us, hear us and convey our prayer to the Lord Creator." Kavitha Thakur, Daily Devotionals for Comm Operators |
| Alien Hybridization | "To achieve comprehension, you must yield to assimilation. None survive without wounds. None go forward uncompromised." Kavitha Thakur, Bhagavad 4 |
| Dark Networks | "I exhale into your left ear the secret of life. I inhale through your right ear to remove the thought. As it crosses your mind, it leaves no trace. You walk on, ignorant of your loss." Kavitha Thakur, Kali Meditation |
Civilopedia Quotes[]
| Wonders | Quote |
|---|---|
| Units | "Go as I direct.'Do as I bid.
Why should my hand not control you? I see horizons you do not see. I make plans that you cannot fathom." Kavitha Thakur, Kali Meditation |
| Terrain and Features | "Do you not see the hand of God on this world? Craters, canyons, mountains, his hand has shaped them. Seas, the tears of his eyes. Miasma and atmosphere, the breath from his mouth."
Kavitha Thakur, The Exodite Sutra |
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From Civilization.com:
Civilization: Beyond Earth - The Prophet's Work
In this column, Dear Readers, I have enjoyed pillorying the so-called great figures of the day. The fatuous and frequently hypocritical sots who set themselves up as emissaries of god (or just cut out the spiritual middlemen and claim divinity for themselves) have been my favorite targets. By far the boldest claims I had ever planned to debunk were waiting for me in New Delhi: The mystic Kavitha Thakur, daughter of self-described syncretic guru Raj Thakur. Born supposedly 17 years prior to The Great Mistake and yet here she stands today – 200 years later – looking like she’s in the prime of life. I either needed her youthful secrets or to tear down the Kavithan façade. Or both.
Stepping out of a cab, I witnessed firsthand what the people of her Protectorate refer to as “The Prophet’s Work.”
It began in the cab in New Delhi, when my driver asked the purpose of my visit. I explained I had come to unmask Kavitha Thakur as a fraud. He spun around to face me (exponentially increasing my terror of the traffic) and said: “Oh, but you cannot unmask her, you must see the truth of the Prophet’s Work for yourself.”
The Prophet’s Work. Everywhere it is the Prophet’s Work, this space program created on the doorstep of the worst violence and tragedy of the Great Mistake. Children run through the streets, kicking footballs and holding homemade model rockets. Songs on the radio extol how love can transcend the unimaginable distances between the stars. I sat through a movie about two young engineers, each giving up their seat on the Seeding flight to be with the others and to stay on Earth. It ended with a dance number after the engineers had figured out a way to send a million more people out to distant worlds. A group of young men attempted to have me arbitrate a dispute about the best way for a pilot to slow his spacecraft, atmospheric braking versus low-angle insertion. I declined the honor, explained my ignorance of their conflict, and earned a dozen withering looks of contempt. I tell you that the Pope has not given me a look with a quarter of the venom these teens did; I was embarrassed for myself. A troupe of young ladies performed a dance to me, choreographed around the “slingshot orbits” that our Seeding ships use to depart the solar system. Northern India is manic about spaceflight and the Seeding and the Thakurs.
Nobody can tell me whether the Protectorate’s space program is government-sponsored or private. Nobody knows, or possibly nobody cares. Rockets go up, are tracked, the construction is going apace in orbit, and nobody seems to be in charge of it. A child of eight can tell you how many days it is before the next Heavy Lift, and when the next Colonial Lottery is being held. Old women argue about whether hydroponic saffron would taste the same as soil-grown. Kavitha and Raj Thakur’s faces stare at you from posters on buildings and holo-ads, painted simacrula of these adorn lesser structures, buses, and car roofs. Flimsy paper pamphlets filled with their sermons are stuffed in racks and grabbed up just as quickly. The illustrations within them are of starfields and domed cities on impossible landscapes.
I ask: How many people are going on the Protectorate’s Seeding expeditions? Many! But not enough, I am told. But there will be more soon. It is the Prophet’s Work, I am told. I ask: Where does the money come from? Everyone pays what they can, it is the Prophet’s Work, I am told.
I pass a single-room school bearing Raj Thakur’s name, and inside is an earnest teacher waxing rhapsodic about what life will be like on the new world to attentive students.
I have decried religion and its adherents because I feel they subvert the society. But the Thakurite vision of the Seeding is part and parcel of India these days. Its optimism infuses every part of the culture, from top to bottom. And indeed there is something (I dare say something holy) about the way it works, despite the manic, decentralized, massively disorganized process, despite the clear ruin left over from the Mistake, despite the poverty and a thousand other factors that tell me I should expect a populace on the verge of riot, a simmering keg of resentment and malice. Instead there is joy, endless joy, and I cannot see any way for this to exist without Kavitha Thakur’s weekly sermons, or her father’s ubiquitous books and videos filled with the dense, mystic vision which somehow fuses the old gods with rocketry.
I have derided religion as backwards and anti-human, and yet the Protectorate is beyond brilliant with the light of culture, full of hope and eschewing the inherent violence of the world we live in now. I have seen the Protectorate, and I tell you that Thakur’s writings and homiletics no longer inspire scorn within me; they inspire thoughts of divinity and space travel. Dear reader, these words will not sway you, unless you have seen the Protectorate, that strange autonomous region devoted to the words of the Prophet who preached both an end to religious strife and a concrete vision of travel to distant worlds. When I dream at night, I see Kavitha Thakur beckoning to me, I hear the sound of lathes spinning aluminium billets, I hear children chanting Newtonian orbital formulations interspersed with Thakurite prayers.
As I left the Protectorate, I discovered to my astonishment that I no longer cared about Kavitha Thakur’s actual age. I was willing to accept that she was 200 years old, because I wanted the Prophet’s Work to continue. I wanted more than anything for the Protectorate to hum and bustle with life, its head in the stars already as its feet dance in the toxic dust of this world. I did not expect to love Kavitha Thakur. Dear reader: I am shaken, I am shaken, I am shaken.
--Diogenes Hitchens
Affinity gallery[]
Affinity Level 6[]
Kavitha mid-game in Harmony, Purity and Supremacy outfits respectively
Affinity Level 11[]
Kavitha late-game in Harmony, Purity and Supremacy outfits respectively
Starships Images[]
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