Talk:The Empire

The original writeup from the old wiki:

In accordance with the back story of Naev, the Empire is a shadow of its former self. Its government type can be described as one half despotism, one half republic and one half paralyzing bureaucracy. The Emperor is the head of state as well as the Ruler of all Mankind, and he has absolute power. At least, on paper. In reality, he is an isolated figure, interacting only with his Imperial Council. The Emperor is above the Council and can pass any edict he wishes without being challenged, but in practice one man can't manage a realm that spans many worlds, even in its declined state. As a result, the Councillors pass laws as they see fit most of the time. They rarely bother to check if their laws are effective, however, and as a result they often aren't.

The Council also interacts with the Great House liaisons, who represent the "vassals of the Empire". Whenever the Emperor requires one or more of the Great Houses to do his bidding, the Council will pass on the Imperial Decree to the relevant liaisons, who in turn convey the message to their leaders. This is often only a courtesy however, as the Great Houses are no longer bound to the core of the Empire in any way other than ancient treaties and vows of allegiance. Typically, a Great house will put on a token show of loyalty, and subsequently ignore the Emperor's will to pursue its own agenda.

The Imperial Bureaucracy is what makes the Imperial worlds tick, though "tick" is a big word for what often boils down to barely managing to keep society from grinding to a standstill. The knotted maze of rules and regulations constructed by generation after generation of Councillors make upholding the law an impossible task, and as such most local governments operate on what they believe is a distillate of the core of the book of law. Needless to say, this distillate varies from one world to the next.

The Bureaucracy also manages the Imperial military, and with some more success than it does civilian life. This is due in part because the Emperor and his Council jealously guard their territory (despite not caring too much about what goes on inside it), and in part because the Imperial military machine often knows what must be done to serve the Emperors purposes, even though the ruling body often does not. The bottom line is that the Empire has an effective military, and that commands enough respect to at least keep the minor Houses in line.