Who the Imperium IsThe Altair Imperium or Aquila Imperium is one of the most prominent of the meta-empires, and it's also the youngest. Descended from the same part of the Grand Fleet that would later give rise to Nariac and the Monarchy, the Imperium is notable for it's very militaristic tendencies and the expansionist nature of the Imperium. At the heart of the Imperium lies the God-Emperor, Leo II, who is worshipped not just as the state but as a platonic ideal for all life itself; the state is intended to be a trellis and life itself is a garden that grows upon the trellis of the state; the state shelters and provides for the citizens, but it also gives shape to the culture, which would grow out of control without a strong, centralized and highly authoritarian government. It's popular to call the Imperium fascist or some variant of that term but that's not correct, nor is it correct to call them communist since the state owns all the means of production and much of the distribution, outsourcing R&D to microcorps. The Imperium aims for an older way of social organization, like the Roman Empire or Ancient Egypt, just with a post-scarcity coat of paint.
Imperium IdealsThe Imperium is a highly centralized government, which makes it unusual among meta-empires. The only reason an entity like the Imperium can even exist is because of the wormhole network; it facilitates communication on a short-enough scale that the military can move from one end to another with relative speed. However, even being the most centralized of the meta-empires means a degree of decentralization, and as a result, authority within the Imperium tends to rest with the planetary governors, who are appointed by the God-Emperor or one of the Paladins, often picked from the state bureaucracy or the religious order. The planetary governors answer to the God-Emperor, who in theory holds a great deal of power but in practice rarely impacts the day-to-day lives of the citizenry.
Imperium STructureThe Imperium has a straight-forward structure. At the very top of society is the God-Emperor. The God-Emperor, or the Golden Throne, is the head of state, the head of the government, and the head of the church, all of which are the same thing. The Imperial Creed is devoted to the Imperium and the worship of the God-Emperor. The God-Emperor is ideal form of the state, is the church, and is life, and so it's impossible to separate the three; serving the God-Emperor means serving the state and loving life means loving the God-Emperor and the State. The State is everything, since the State is often see as a garden that produces fruit everyone can enjoy - but only when properly tended to, and that gardener is the God-Emperor. Under the God-Emperor are the Paladins, who are his enforcers, his diplomats - functionally, they are his arms and ears when he can't be around. They lead the state where the God-Emperor can't. Under the Paladins is the Imperial Governor's Association, a group of governors who manage the individual territories, invested with power of the God-Emperor themselves, but kept honest by the Church bureaucracy.
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Utopia?This is a perennial question that emerges on many discussion boards when the meta-empires are analyzed: is the Imperium a utopia? Clearly it isn't a terrible place to live; with a better GINI and HDI than even the Regency and a government that is transparent and utterly forthright with its citizens - the Imperium hides very little and it broadcasts intentions in a painfully honesty way that makes it incapable of playing the game of Realpolitik, but it's military so large that this doesn't matter - much about the Imperium seems like a utopia. It is a completely reputation-based post-scarcity meta-empire, having done away with money, and everyone has a job working for the state, and they are paid through reputation and knowing that they're serving their church, their God, and their state when they work, giving them a fulfilling life. It's almost as hard a question to answer as "is the Imperium left or right-wing?" (the answer to that, of course, is neither; it calls back to forms of government that predate that division and doesn't fit neatly on either end). Of course, the Imperium illustrates neatly that every person's Heaven is another person's Hell. The Imperium is highly authoritarian and alternative religions simply are not allowed; human rights not granted by the religious law are dismissed as imaginary things, and instead, there are State rights and Church rights that people have to observe. The intense collectivization and high bureaucracy also set very poorly with some people, making the "large governments" of the Regency and Technocracy look positive by comparison. There is no freedom of speech, no guilty until proven innocent; none of the negative and even many of the positive rights that people are used to. There is only the state, and people doing everything they can to ensure that they support it. And for some, that sounds like heaven; they have a place, a purpose, and never experience want or need. For others, the Imperium's emphasis on biotechnology and biological engineering is too much and for others, the whole thing seems like a rolling nightmare and a human rights violation. |
Imperium HIstory
The Imperium descends from the EurAsian-Cygnus Fleet, one of the grand fleets (and the same fleet that branched off to form Nariac and the Monarchy. The fleet first split after the destruction of the flagship at 61 Cygnus, with the fleet that would later give rise to Nariac and the Imperium eventually splitting at Regency. The fleet that would create the Imperium continued to settle stars through the Pegasus constellation - contrary to the name of the Imperium, it's found mostly in the Pegasus and bleeding into the Cepheus constellation, as opposed to the Aquila constellation. Still, this wormhole line eventually expanded out to connect lightly inhabited stars, establishing the backbone of the Imperium.
The Imperium's capital system, Algemeron, was settled sometime after Bluefall was settled, and it held the twin moons Gavine and Alitare orbiting around an aquean gas giant. Further out, a gas giant named Meikko was also settled; plans were made to terraform Gavine and Alitare while Meikko became the center for culture and engineering throughout the system. For much of its early history, the governments of these three worlds were greatly influenced by the local Indus-Fomalhaut civilization, with the influence felt most greatly in Diminidium and other worlds. While influenced, they were never really part of, and so they remained relatively backwater worlds with settlement and colonial administrations as they sought to terraform the two moons, Gavine and Alitare. Because they never played a major role, the early part of the Imperium is largely a mystery to everyone; the Indus-Fomalhaut Civilization never felt it necessary to record information regarding them, so they only appear in passing.
During the Ascension Crisis, much of the history of these worlds was wiped. The next time they appear for certain, they're under the thrall of the hive-mind that arose on Meikko and in the process of conquering much of the local galaxy. How they went from backwater worlds to Meikko hive-mind is one of the greatest mysteries; hive minds are not unusual in human civilization (the synergists and conjoiners are two other examples), but the Meikko were unique in that they were an aggressive hivemind that was both highly expansionist and used technology that many had a hard time even understanding. The technology of the Meikko was almost certainly Stoneburner in origin and involved higher level dimensional physics and patterns, with mention of individuals using topological defects to manipulate certain aspects of reality (although such stories are generally dismissed, the incompleteness in modern mathematics regarding the multiverse doesn't entirely rule it out, either). The aggressive Meikko was only stopped because they overextended themselves, a tale as old as time, and they began to fragment and from smaller hives. This gave the Regency, Nariac, the Consortium, and the Monarchy a chance to push back and win. In the final days of the Meikko, a man named Leo announced himself the God-Emperor, founded an official cult, and lead the charge against the Meikko from within the Meikko territory itself. They succeeded in overthrowing the Meikko, and in the process, gave birth to the Imperium.
The Imperium's capital system, Algemeron, was settled sometime after Bluefall was settled, and it held the twin moons Gavine and Alitare orbiting around an aquean gas giant. Further out, a gas giant named Meikko was also settled; plans were made to terraform Gavine and Alitare while Meikko became the center for culture and engineering throughout the system. For much of its early history, the governments of these three worlds were greatly influenced by the local Indus-Fomalhaut civilization, with the influence felt most greatly in Diminidium and other worlds. While influenced, they were never really part of, and so they remained relatively backwater worlds with settlement and colonial administrations as they sought to terraform the two moons, Gavine and Alitare. Because they never played a major role, the early part of the Imperium is largely a mystery to everyone; the Indus-Fomalhaut Civilization never felt it necessary to record information regarding them, so they only appear in passing.
During the Ascension Crisis, much of the history of these worlds was wiped. The next time they appear for certain, they're under the thrall of the hive-mind that arose on Meikko and in the process of conquering much of the local galaxy. How they went from backwater worlds to Meikko hive-mind is one of the greatest mysteries; hive minds are not unusual in human civilization (the synergists and conjoiners are two other examples), but the Meikko were unique in that they were an aggressive hivemind that was both highly expansionist and used technology that many had a hard time even understanding. The technology of the Meikko was almost certainly Stoneburner in origin and involved higher level dimensional physics and patterns, with mention of individuals using topological defects to manipulate certain aspects of reality (although such stories are generally dismissed, the incompleteness in modern mathematics regarding the multiverse doesn't entirely rule it out, either). The aggressive Meikko was only stopped because they overextended themselves, a tale as old as time, and they began to fragment and from smaller hives. This gave the Regency, Nariac, the Consortium, and the Monarchy a chance to push back and win. In the final days of the Meikko, a man named Leo announced himself the God-Emperor, founded an official cult, and lead the charge against the Meikko from within the Meikko territory itself. They succeeded in overthrowing the Meikko, and in the process, gave birth to the Imperium.
Imperium Culture
To most, the Imperium is usually just classified as "the state, the church, the military," but as in most cases, it goes beyond that. At the heart of the state is the God-Emperor of Mankind, who heads the Church of the Imperial Creed, which is both a secular and religious component to the state. The church acts as a controlling factor and drives culture in ways that the Church wants culture to go; this means that the Imperium has, almost by default, a fairly unified culture and unlike the Regency and Monarchy and others, the culture seems to fit. However, there are places where it doesn't neatly slot in; while the Imperium doesn't tolerate other religions, there are a number of syncretic religions that have emerged blending the Imperial Creed with the likes of Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism. This is truly apparent in the areas that the Imperium has since annexed or added later, after the rise of the Imperium; this is why the Imperium tends to be seen as a bull's-eye model, where the center of the Imperium is "core Imperium" and the further out one goes, the more syncretic elements get added, especially to the religion.
Sociology of the ImperiumThe economy of the Imperium is well-known as a reputation-based economy, and that reputation is awarded by the State (technically, it's awarded by the Church, but the State is the one who manages the reputation to ensure that nobody is gaming the system). The Imperium tends to view urbanization in a positive light and so post-scarcity communitarianism is generally not highly regarded; the Imperium is composed of large cities that are often constructed around a single temple to the Imperial Creed, which usually acts as the center for faith and for government, and is the entity that employs all individuals within the city and the surrounding area (although suburbs are rare in the Imperium).
Ontologically, the Imperium has a weird sort of ontological pluralism. While it rejects the idea that digital realities are in any way comparable to the "real world," the Imperium does argue in favor of a multiverse, which has some scientific support. To the Imperium, all of the myriad realities that make up the multiverse would be considered "real," but the reality with the God-Emperor is the only one that's considered "true." This distinction between "real" and "true" is a fluid one; the God-Emperor and the Imperial Creed simply make something true by adding themselves to it, which means that any "real" reality inhabited by the God-Emperor becomes a "true" reality; even if the God-Emperor is not living in that reality, so long as the God-Emperor has lived in that reality, the reality can be considered a "true" reality. This also means that the Imperium is free to expand into these "real" realities, should it get the chance, because they are real (it's why the Imperium rarely bothers with influencing digital realities). |
Imperial CreedThe role that the Imperial Creed plays in Imperium culture can't be understated. The Imperial Creed is a religion, but it's not just a religion: it's a way of life, with a proscribed set of rules for things like mourning, interaction between individuals, the organization of the state and the economy, proper roles of worship, and the like, as well as an emphasis on the respect for the biological. At its core, the Imperial Creed as a secular set of rules takes on a shape very similar to the mandate of heaven: the best state, the one that gets the closest to the platonic ideal of a state, is one that rules within the proper confines of the rules outlined by the Imperial Creed, and the Imperial Creed outlines these rules because they are the rules followed by the platonic ideal of a civilization. It's circular reasoning, but most members of the Imperial Creed treat it as an axiom, which means it's something that can be neither proven incorrect or nor correct and is something that is just accepted because by all indications, it's true. The closer that a civilization gets to the platonic ideal of a civilization, the more successful that civilization becomes, and the platonic ideal of a civilization, as embodied by the Imperial Creed, worships the God-Emperor, who is that platonic ideal. The Imperial Creed outlines the social hierarchy as well, although it should be noted that for as authoritarian a state as the imperium is, the hierarchy is not that complex. The God-Emperor is at the top, the paladins under him, and then the state governors, the prefects, the praetors, and their attendant religious ranks along side them. The Imperial Creed is also fractal; it can be applied to increasingly shrinking segments of a civilization and produce similar results, right down to the individual, who is most successful when they live a life that is in line with the platonic ideal of a civilization. The Creed values honesty, integrity, hard work, biology and the celebration of biology, and worship of the God-Emperor, and as a result, the Imperium is all of these things, in addition to being militant, expansionist, and authoritarian, which creates an odd authoritarian structure with almost no corruption at all because it's completely transparent and everyone - or the majority of the population involved - seem to truly believe the Imperial Creed. |
Imperium CUlture and Memes
The Imperium is usually characterized as just "the state, the church, the military." The memes and culture of the Imperium is poorly understood, if understood at all, by most outside of it and it's safe to say that hegemonic cultural imperialism is not what the Imperium does. Still, it has a culture, and this culture tend to be surprisingly uniform.
Egyptian Revivalism
Type: Artistic Movement
A virus that the Imperium caught from the Regency, the Egyptian Revivalism is a movement that seeks to revive Ancient Egyptian culture. In the Imperium, however, the architectural styles often seriously conflict with the favored organic designs that make up much of the Imperium architecture and have since it was created, so the movement tends to be frowned upon by "proper" architects, who embody "proper" Imperial virtues rather than the foreign nonsense from Bluefall. Primarily, it's found around the edges of the Imperium, although it may be working its way in deeper.
Keltainen Urbanismia
Type: Economic Ideology/Social Organization/Architectural Style/Political Ideology
KU is the inverted cousin of VU (see below), which contains New Urbanism meme. It's often called "yellow urbanism," and while it incorporates aspects of the New Urbanism meme, it also encourages a type of local democratic proceedings to determine who should run the board, along side an supervisory commission appointed by the local Counsel. KU promotes clearly artificial architectural styles that don't blend in with nature, as way to distinguish the natural world from the artificial world that the state constructs to provide life and support for the garden that is the citizenry. KU also tends to reject nanoecology and terraforming, holding instead that natural environments should be preserved (another reason for the clear distinction between nature and the city is to ensure that the proper thing gets preserved), meaning it has strong preservationist leanings. Yellow urbanism refers to itself as bioconservatism in the Imperium, so visitors should be mindful of that difference. Despite using planned meta-villages, yellow urbanism doesn't encourage each village to become a microcorporation; microcorpoations arise within the community, not as the community itself. However, as with VU, all intellectual property generated by these microcorporations is spread to the citizenry as a whole. KU is militaristic and expansionist, viewing the natural world as something that must be controlled before it can be preserved; the commons exist as the commons because nobody has had the military might to take them over until now. KU-derived parties tend to focus heavily on influencing the more militaristic and expansionist elements of the Imperium, with some of theme even promoting revanchist and even irredentist ideologies.
New Mythicism
Type: Historiographic Movement/Academic Movement/Political Movement/Fashion/Artistic Movement
The New Mythicism began life as an attempt to understand human history through the lens of applied mythology; specifically, it used the Imperial Creed to analyze history. As with the New Orthodoxy, they reject the Nariac Dialectic and embrace the Hegelian dialect, treating myth and the God-Emperor as the antithesis to previous civilizations (the thesis) and the Imperium as the inevitable synthesis of the two. The God-Emperor steps out of the mythic past, which the new Mythicists build to help shore up the existence of historical nation-states and to justify the existence of the Imperium now. As a political movement, the New Mythicism pushes for interpretations of the Imperial Creed that place a greater emphasis on the mythical history (the Imperial Creed tends to be very focused on realism and the subjective now over a mythical past), and as a Fashion or Artistic Movement it bears a strong resemblance to historical Romanticism, with a rejection of the rational and the logical and embrace of the mysteries of the natural world, including the God-Emperor, reviving dress and styles from these mythical histories as understood by those living in the present, which those outside of the Imperium note results in a classic case of hauntology. They often work hand-in-hand with the New Orthodoxy, and as of late, have been gradually integrating the Egyptian Revivalism in their mythicism, calling back to the glory of ancient Egypt in the process.
New Orthodoxy
Type: Historiographic Movement/Academic Movement
The New Orthodoxy is a type of movement to analyze history in such a way that it creates a situation where the development of the nation-state, and as a result the Imperium, was inevitable. The Imperium sees itself as arising naturally from the various nation-states, the final form for nation-states: a massive, singular state centralized around the church. To this end, the New Orthodoxy explicitly embraces the Hegelian Dialect and rejects the Nariac Dialect (to nobody's great surprise) and builds on the original Orthodox historiography that was first pioneered in the United States in the early 20th century but was gradually abandoned due to post-modernism. The New Orthodoxy historiographers love to plug the God-Emperor into practically every situation and use the historical record as justification for doing so. It often goes hand in hand with New Mythicism historiography.
Sifters, Skimmers and Spacers
Type: Subcultures/Major Cultures
There are a handful of cultures that are often confused with skimmers in the Imperium, but the cultural cohesiveness of the Imperium often means that such cultures are quickly integrated into the Imperium proper, regardless what their original outlooks may have bee. Far and away the most common cultures are spacer cultures, and some of the most exotic and alien of the spacer cultures that don't indulge in cybernetics are found in the Imperium, where the sort of modifications, both germline and somatic, that make them possible exist.
Viherkasvitism and Vehreyism
Type: Architectural Style/Fashion/Artistic Movement
Viherkasvitism (and it's cousin, Vehreyism) is one of the most widespread artistic movements in the Imperium; it's often compared to the Environmental Realism of the Regency, but it combines this tendency to blur environmental aspects with the human world in terms of fashion and architecture as well, finding things throughout nature that mirror clothing or finding things in nature that mirror buildings and then mimicking those when designing clothing or building. It's often just called environmental realism. The community is pretty solidly in support of the VU, or "green urbanism", and is opposed by Vil-Jel fashion, which promotes cultivating nature to achieve these ends rather than just finding it in nature randomly.
Vihreää Urbanismia
Type: Economic Ideology/Social Organization/Architectural Style/Political Ideology
Also called green urbanism, VU should not be confused with the meme of the same name in the Regency. VU incorporates aspects of the New Urbanism meme - planned villages, post-scarcity communitarianism, and the like - but each town is under the leadership of a Praetor, who is appointed by the local Counsel (one step under Planetary Governor), who works side-by-side with a priest from the Imperial Creed, and the two of them decide what to allow and what not to allow in the meta-village. Similarly, it promotes a sort of "green city" design, with architectural elements that are friendly to nature and an emphasis on leaving as much of the natural world in one piece as possible. Nanoecology and technoprogressivism are encouraged with most manifestations of VU, and biological buildings and biogadgets are often the order of the day, with as much emphasis as possible on using biotechnology. With VU, each town is also technically its own microcorpoation, devoted to the production of IP that, if it becomes popular enough, can find its way through the entire Imperium. This IP is shared with the population as a whole, so further improvements can be made to it. VU tends to reject overt militarism and holds that cultural influence is superior, and VU-aligned political parties often seek to encourage the Imperium to pursue less violent solutions to problems; they are more likely to promote peaceful diplomacy and a weird type of cultural relativism that holds all societies will eventually realize the error of their ways and come to the God-Emperor, but they're less likely to realize it if they are forced to convert at gunpoint.
Viljellänism
Type: Artistic Movement/Fashion
The Vil-Jel (as it's sometimes called) encourages application of genetic engineering to engineer artistic lifeforms. This mostly focuses on growing plants for artistic purposes, although sometimes the plant material is grown as fashion. Similarly, living organisms grown specifically for the purposes of being fashion are used as fashion with the Vil-Jel fashion; fur coats that are very much still alive, living jewelry, and even living devices around the house, although the focus tends to be more for artistic purposes and fashion purposes than for utilitarian purposes. Vil-Jel is often aligned with KU, or "yellow urbanism", and is usually opposed to the Imperium's version of environmental realism.
Egyptian Revivalism
Type: Artistic Movement
A virus that the Imperium caught from the Regency, the Egyptian Revivalism is a movement that seeks to revive Ancient Egyptian culture. In the Imperium, however, the architectural styles often seriously conflict with the favored organic designs that make up much of the Imperium architecture and have since it was created, so the movement tends to be frowned upon by "proper" architects, who embody "proper" Imperial virtues rather than the foreign nonsense from Bluefall. Primarily, it's found around the edges of the Imperium, although it may be working its way in deeper.
Keltainen Urbanismia
Type: Economic Ideology/Social Organization/Architectural Style/Political Ideology
KU is the inverted cousin of VU (see below), which contains New Urbanism meme. It's often called "yellow urbanism," and while it incorporates aspects of the New Urbanism meme, it also encourages a type of local democratic proceedings to determine who should run the board, along side an supervisory commission appointed by the local Counsel. KU promotes clearly artificial architectural styles that don't blend in with nature, as way to distinguish the natural world from the artificial world that the state constructs to provide life and support for the garden that is the citizenry. KU also tends to reject nanoecology and terraforming, holding instead that natural environments should be preserved (another reason for the clear distinction between nature and the city is to ensure that the proper thing gets preserved), meaning it has strong preservationist leanings. Yellow urbanism refers to itself as bioconservatism in the Imperium, so visitors should be mindful of that difference. Despite using planned meta-villages, yellow urbanism doesn't encourage each village to become a microcorporation; microcorpoations arise within the community, not as the community itself. However, as with VU, all intellectual property generated by these microcorporations is spread to the citizenry as a whole. KU is militaristic and expansionist, viewing the natural world as something that must be controlled before it can be preserved; the commons exist as the commons because nobody has had the military might to take them over until now. KU-derived parties tend to focus heavily on influencing the more militaristic and expansionist elements of the Imperium, with some of theme even promoting revanchist and even irredentist ideologies.
New Mythicism
Type: Historiographic Movement/Academic Movement/Political Movement/Fashion/Artistic Movement
The New Mythicism began life as an attempt to understand human history through the lens of applied mythology; specifically, it used the Imperial Creed to analyze history. As with the New Orthodoxy, they reject the Nariac Dialectic and embrace the Hegelian dialect, treating myth and the God-Emperor as the antithesis to previous civilizations (the thesis) and the Imperium as the inevitable synthesis of the two. The God-Emperor steps out of the mythic past, which the new Mythicists build to help shore up the existence of historical nation-states and to justify the existence of the Imperium now. As a political movement, the New Mythicism pushes for interpretations of the Imperial Creed that place a greater emphasis on the mythical history (the Imperial Creed tends to be very focused on realism and the subjective now over a mythical past), and as a Fashion or Artistic Movement it bears a strong resemblance to historical Romanticism, with a rejection of the rational and the logical and embrace of the mysteries of the natural world, including the God-Emperor, reviving dress and styles from these mythical histories as understood by those living in the present, which those outside of the Imperium note results in a classic case of hauntology. They often work hand-in-hand with the New Orthodoxy, and as of late, have been gradually integrating the Egyptian Revivalism in their mythicism, calling back to the glory of ancient Egypt in the process.
New Orthodoxy
Type: Historiographic Movement/Academic Movement
The New Orthodoxy is a type of movement to analyze history in such a way that it creates a situation where the development of the nation-state, and as a result the Imperium, was inevitable. The Imperium sees itself as arising naturally from the various nation-states, the final form for nation-states: a massive, singular state centralized around the church. To this end, the New Orthodoxy explicitly embraces the Hegelian Dialect and rejects the Nariac Dialect (to nobody's great surprise) and builds on the original Orthodox historiography that was first pioneered in the United States in the early 20th century but was gradually abandoned due to post-modernism. The New Orthodoxy historiographers love to plug the God-Emperor into practically every situation and use the historical record as justification for doing so. It often goes hand in hand with New Mythicism historiography.
Sifters, Skimmers and Spacers
Type: Subcultures/Major Cultures
There are a handful of cultures that are often confused with skimmers in the Imperium, but the cultural cohesiveness of the Imperium often means that such cultures are quickly integrated into the Imperium proper, regardless what their original outlooks may have bee. Far and away the most common cultures are spacer cultures, and some of the most exotic and alien of the spacer cultures that don't indulge in cybernetics are found in the Imperium, where the sort of modifications, both germline and somatic, that make them possible exist.
Viherkasvitism and Vehreyism
Type: Architectural Style/Fashion/Artistic Movement
Viherkasvitism (and it's cousin, Vehreyism) is one of the most widespread artistic movements in the Imperium; it's often compared to the Environmental Realism of the Regency, but it combines this tendency to blur environmental aspects with the human world in terms of fashion and architecture as well, finding things throughout nature that mirror clothing or finding things in nature that mirror buildings and then mimicking those when designing clothing or building. It's often just called environmental realism. The community is pretty solidly in support of the VU, or "green urbanism", and is opposed by Vil-Jel fashion, which promotes cultivating nature to achieve these ends rather than just finding it in nature randomly.
Vihreää Urbanismia
Type: Economic Ideology/Social Organization/Architectural Style/Political Ideology
Also called green urbanism, VU should not be confused with the meme of the same name in the Regency. VU incorporates aspects of the New Urbanism meme - planned villages, post-scarcity communitarianism, and the like - but each town is under the leadership of a Praetor, who is appointed by the local Counsel (one step under Planetary Governor), who works side-by-side with a priest from the Imperial Creed, and the two of them decide what to allow and what not to allow in the meta-village. Similarly, it promotes a sort of "green city" design, with architectural elements that are friendly to nature and an emphasis on leaving as much of the natural world in one piece as possible. Nanoecology and technoprogressivism are encouraged with most manifestations of VU, and biological buildings and biogadgets are often the order of the day, with as much emphasis as possible on using biotechnology. With VU, each town is also technically its own microcorpoation, devoted to the production of IP that, if it becomes popular enough, can find its way through the entire Imperium. This IP is shared with the population as a whole, so further improvements can be made to it. VU tends to reject overt militarism and holds that cultural influence is superior, and VU-aligned political parties often seek to encourage the Imperium to pursue less violent solutions to problems; they are more likely to promote peaceful diplomacy and a weird type of cultural relativism that holds all societies will eventually realize the error of their ways and come to the God-Emperor, but they're less likely to realize it if they are forced to convert at gunpoint.
Viljellänism
Type: Artistic Movement/Fashion
The Vil-Jel (as it's sometimes called) encourages application of genetic engineering to engineer artistic lifeforms. This mostly focuses on growing plants for artistic purposes, although sometimes the plant material is grown as fashion. Similarly, living organisms grown specifically for the purposes of being fashion are used as fashion with the Vil-Jel fashion; fur coats that are very much still alive, living jewelry, and even living devices around the house, although the focus tends to be more for artistic purposes and fashion purposes than for utilitarian purposes. Vil-Jel is often aligned with KU, or "yellow urbanism", and is usually opposed to the Imperium's version of environmental realism.
Cultural Familiarity in the Imperium
The various cultures of the Imperium are all closely related; many of them have had barely less than 200 years of divergence since they were settled, and with the conquest of the God-Emperor and the Unification of the Imperium, the core cultural groups have barely had any chance to diverge. As a result, Cultural Familiarity (Imperium) is a viable option, with each planet - such as Cultural Familiarity (Alitare) or Cultural Familiarity (Gavine), defaulting to the Imperium with a -1 penalty. The exception to this rule is the Imperial Protectorate of Murat, the Province of Dagon, and a few others, which are different cultures; they default the usual -3. In all of the above cases, each Cultural Familiarity costs 1 point.
Fate of the MeikkoThere are many questions regarding the Meikko - where they came from and where they went being two of the largest. The Meikko are generally regarded as a "blight" today, meaning that they're the product of some sort of malignant software or perhaps even an alien virus. While it's Imperium Policy to not discuss the Meikko openly, many observers generally accept that the Imperium is sitting on a cache of Meikko technology and has been experimenting with it for decades now. However, there are more to peopel than their tools. It's commonly accepted history that the Meikko appeared on the planet Meikko, or on one of its moons, but nobody is sure what caused them to appear. Nobody is also sure where they went; the Meikko were eventually defeated and many of the meta-empires involved are hoarding what technology they scavenged from the Meikko, However, the ultimate fate of the human-hive mind remains unknown - and for some that's worrisome, since it means that humanity could blunder into whatever caused the Meikko again without even realizing it, and perhaps not be so lucky next time. |
Imperial Prefectures
Imperial Prefectures are not independent entities, although there some devolution that arises as a result of the sheer distances involved, allowing the governors who oversee the various territories some degree of freedom. Unlike the other Meta-Empires, who tend to count each planet as a territorial division, the Imperium treats one major planet in each system as a capital of a system-wide territorial division, allowing for further division, eventually down to the county level, where the church controls most of the day-to-day interactions of the civilians an the population. Thus, the Imperium on the surface seems like it has relatively few Prefectures compared to the territories and members of other meta-empires, but this is just an illusion created by the way that Imperium divides itself. The exception is the Alkeminen System, which houses Alitare and Gavine - both of these words are their own special administrative districts, since they're the capital worlds - and Meikko, which is the former capital of the Meikko Empire, its own restricted district. The Helvetios and Dimidium prefectures are also exceptions, with the Dimidium prefecture referring strictly to the planet while the Helvetios prefecture is the whole system.
Alitare SAD
Type: Special Administrative District Best known for: Being one of the two capitals of the Imperium Dimidium Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Its hydrogen mining facilities Helvetios Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Its mountainous terrain and resource mining Mayombe Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Its experimental facilities around the micro blackholes |
Dagon Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Being the technological center for the Imperium Gavine SAD
Type: Special Administrative District Best known for: Being one of the two capitals of the Imperium; its weather Katanga Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Being "Fortress Imperium." Meikko RD
Type: Restricted District Best known for: Being the capital of the former Meikko Empire |
Mor Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Its ongoing terraforming project Olimhor Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Housing three inhabitable Earth-like worlds Quercus Prefecture
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Being where the Quericans made first contact |
Murat Protectorate
Type: Protectorate/Territory Best known for: The ongoing Yordam Civil Conflict Pegasus Expanse
Type: Prefecture Best known for: Ongoing conflict against space pirates and anarchists |
Prefectures and current affairs
Alitare SAD
Current Events: The Alitare SAD covers just the planet of Alitare and its surrounding sphere; currently, Alitare is undergoing a major growing period, with a number of major civil projects and that aim at expanding the various cities out into the neighboring country side. The New Urbanism meme has caught on here, and rather than try to fight it, the Imperium has decided to work with it and is suburb building. Gavine SAD
Current Events: Gavine is often called the Imperium's Bluefall for a reason; a paradise world like Bluefall post terraforming, Gavine has been trying to improve its social standing through marketing, going head to head with Bluefall in terms of culture production. While the Imperium has little experience here, the various groups on Gavine appear to know what they're doing, with a new fashion lineup to challenge Bluefall. Mayombe Prefecture
Current Events: Mayombe got lucky and is home to three micro-blackholes, with a fourth possible located further out in the system. The Imperium is currently working on several experimental procedures, but they're also forced to share the system with Hawking Mechanics, a major Verge Consortium company which is also exploring the mechanics. So far things are peaceful, despite the unease. So far. Murat Protectorate
Current Events: Murat is a sad situation. Also called the Yordam Protectorate, the Murate Protectorate is the part of the former Yordam Emirate controlled by the Imperium in the ongoing civil war and it represents the largest section of the former government. The Imperium is growing increasingly invested in Murat/Yordam, and many worry that it might be the flashpoint for the next Verge War. Quercus Prefecture
Current Events: Currently one of the few places where the Quericans will meet with humans in the Verge and Bleed, and as a result, a system the Imperium takes special care to guard. Contrary to popular belief, the aliens don't take their name from the system and the system doesn't take its name from the aliens; rather, both derive from the scientific name for the oak tree (visible on the flag). |
Dagon Prefecture
Current Events: Dagon is a water world and thus, idea for numerous experimental technologies both in orbit and under the waves, where it can be difficult to see. Currently, rumors are that the Imperium is testing a brand new water genotype that is designed for combat; it's likely an android, produced by Chromatech, the Imperium's largest hypercorp. Similarly, other experiments are ongoing as well. Helvetios Prefecture
Current Events: Helvetios is a major producer of raw materials and rare earth elementals for the Imperium, with the various moons and planetary dust cloud that swirls around the star. As a result, it continues to be the center for major mining operations, and is a frequent stopping ground for the Imperial Aerospace Navy. Rumors about living organisms in the planetary ruins have made the workers wary, however. Meikko RD
Current Events: The former capital for the Meikko Empire is the source of all sorts of online conspiracy theories; the Imperium's transparency and openness only extends so far, and Meikko is where it stops. What exactly is going on with the apparently alien technology that Meikko incorporated into themselves that the Imperium has its hands on is a mystery - and a concern - to much of the Verge and Bleed. Olimhor Prefecture
Current Events: The Olimhor prefecture is home to three earthlike worlds. All of the planets were going to be colonized with seed ships but the Meikko War severed Olimhor from the rest of the Verge and Bleed. When the Imperium made contact again, the oldest colonist was 13 and the children had set up a thriving colony. While it's been brought in, it is a different culture from the Imperium, and a source for future issues. |
Dimidium Prefecture
Current Events: Current, the governor of Dimidium is dealing with the issue of Dimidium being an incredibly hostile planet, with several mining stations having gone missing. Several asteroids have been pressed into service to create tough and reinforced mining stations that can pull gasses from the hot jupiter world, but it's drawing attention from the VC and especially Starware, which may pose problems. Katanga Prefecture
Current Events: Home to Fortress Imperium, this is major manufacturing area in the Imperium and their aerospace navy is spread throughout the system, across various ports and stations that are often well-hidden in planetary shadows and inside of asteroids. Because of this, the precise strength remains unknown. It's also home to the Imperium Supersoldier Program, as well, although that program has yet to produce any results. Mor Prefecture
Current Events: Mor is a tidally locked world around an M-type star, currently in a race with several other worlds to be the first terraformed tidally locked world. While Bluefall is often called the first successfully terraformed world, the Imperium insists that Alitare and Gavine actually are, but nobody recognizes that claim. As a result, the Imperium has no plans of giving this title up to anyone. Pegasus Expanse
Current Events: the Pegasus Expanse is seven systems within the Pegasus constellation that don't house any notable planets, but do have some orbital habitats. The size makes patrolling problematic, and so pirates and anarchists, especially those fleeing the Monarchy's recent war, have set up here, and are a becoming a pain for the local governor, who while possessing the resources, lacks the full authority to deal with them. |