Another long rambly Traveller post.
Feb. 28th, 2010 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreOne of the positions I've held for a long time about Traveller's Third Imperium is that if it has a motto, a defining principle, it can be summed up as this: The Trade Must Flow. (anyone want to translate that into Latin?) The entire reason for the Imperium's existence is to ensure that the flow of goods and information never ceases.
A bit about the Long Night
After the Terran conquest of the ancient Vilani Empire resulted in the so-called "Rule of Man," problems soon emerged. The RoM was never much more than a military government, and was not capable of handling the sheer scope of the captured territories. Cracks soon appeared, and the end was signaled when the central bank refused to recognize the monetary issue of a regional bank. The resulting financial collapse ended large scale trade and set off innumerable regional wars. This period, known as Twilight lasted about 250 years, until the last government claiming to be the Rule of Man died out.
So, what happened then? Think for a moment about the county you live in. Can you feed yourselves? What are you manufacturing facilities like? How are you on raw resources? how long could your county survive if cut off from all trade but a random UPS truck loaded with random items every 10 or 15 years? What would you do when the computers broke down? When the medicines run out? Now add in worlds with inhospitable environments, two centuries of civil war, another few centuries of raiders, and what do we get?
Dead worlds. Hundreds of dead worlds. Worlds where people hung on for decades or centuries before the last atmospheric processor failed. Worlds where people lived, but over the long years lost all their technology, even to the point of losing the ability to smelt iron, and sank into barbarism. Even some few scattered enclaves where technology and hope survived, but a lack of facilities kept them from building jump drives.
The Long Night lasted close to 1500 years. During that time I don't doubt there were numerous worlds that put together ramshackle fleets to explore nearby stars. When the reports came back "they're all dead, and everything not nailed down was stolen decades ago. We brought back the nails..." many of them gave up. Even the moderately successful states either failed or stagnated quickly. (This is just canonical - we know that the first truly successful post-Long Night state was the Sylean Federation.) So that is what the Sylean Scouts would face as they begin expanding from their small cluster of systems. A howling wilderness of long dead worlds, barbarian states where starships were things of legends, and the few isolated planets waiting for someone to come along and rebuild.
From Federation to Empire
As the Sylean Scouts explored, they would find one thing over and over. It wasn't war or pestilence that doomed these worlds. It was the end of trade. This would have made quite an impression on one Scout, a young scion of a Hereditary Senatorial family named Cleon Zhunastu. Being a well-educated young man, as well as having grown up in a world of privilege, Cleon would have been shaken to his core by the endless ruins and fallen states. I can easily see him declaring that his life's work will be to make sure this never happens again.
I should note that at this point I'm gleefully throwing out much of the canon established by T4. It sucks. Seriously. IMNSHO.
Anyway, Cleon, upon ascending to his seat as Grand Duke of Sylea and President of the Federation Grand Senate, begins a campaign to recontact and bring surviving worlds into his trading sphere. He pushes through innovations like a universal currency, lack of trade barriers other than health or local morals exceptions, and standardized designs across the Federation. He soon realizes that the Federation structure is too complex for what he wants. He needs an Empire. So begins a campaign that ends in 4523AD with Cleon being crowned as Cleon I, Emperor of the Third Imperium.
The Trade Must Flow
It's been made clear from the beginning that the Third Imperium cares little for the affairs of their member worlds. Just for the movement of ships between those worlds. Want to make slurping your tea a death penalty offense? Fine with us, The Trade Must Flow. Your standard social unit is 45 adults, 43 of whom are rendered asexual? Sounds interesting. The Trade Must Flow. The Church of the Cosmic Muffin declares Holy Bran Week followed by the Colonic Festival? Healthy! The Trade Must Flow. Outside of possessing nuclear weapons and actual chattel slavery, the Imperium tolerates just about anything from it's member worlds as long as trade flows freely through the starports (which are Imperial territory anyway.)
If the Church of the Cosmic Muffin declares processed white flour anathema, then they have every right from banning it from passing onto their territory. If, however, they storm a ship at the port carrying flour, or try to deny a ship in orbit permission to dock, then the Imperium is going to get involved and fast. Same thing if a conflict between worlds, or corporations heats up to the point of disrupting trade. Then the Navy will storm in and enforce a solution.
The Trade Must Flow. That defines everything about the Imperium. Everything Cleon set up was to make trade easier. Universal currency and an universal calender make payments and scheduling easier. Scouts plotting and charting systems make navigation faster and cheaper. The Navy exists to patrol the space lanes and cut down on piracy. The Starport Authority provides an imperial enclave on just about every world in the Imperium, even if that starport is a beacon, a cleared area of bedrock, and Portmaster Tom (assuming he's not drunk.) Assume that every noble, every Naval officer, and every official has had this concept drummed into them the way Americans have "Home of the Free, Land of the Brave" squished into our brains. I can easily see one or two dead worlds in Core being maintained as Cemetery Worlds. Imagine taking your oath of enlistment in the ruins of a city like New York after 2,000 years of neglect.
Yes, there will be corruption. People who see opportunity rather than the lofty goals of the Imperium. Smugglers bringing white flour and refined sugar to dissenters on the Cosmic Muffin world. but that's where the adventures come in! ("Wait. You mean you want me to smuggle 38 d-tons of 'Aunt Estiberga's Double-Chocolate Snack Cakes'? For how much? Deal!") But look at the Imperium through this lens and you can build a better idea of what the government would actually concern itself with as opposed to some of the attempts to make it much more than it should be.
The worlds of the Imperium can look to their own affairs. The Imperium rules the spaces between the worlds. The Trade Must Flow.
Posted to my Livejournal and to the Traveller Mailing List.
A bit about the Long Night
After the Terran conquest of the ancient Vilani Empire resulted in the so-called "Rule of Man," problems soon emerged. The RoM was never much more than a military government, and was not capable of handling the sheer scope of the captured territories. Cracks soon appeared, and the end was signaled when the central bank refused to recognize the monetary issue of a regional bank. The resulting financial collapse ended large scale trade and set off innumerable regional wars. This period, known as Twilight lasted about 250 years, until the last government claiming to be the Rule of Man died out.
So, what happened then? Think for a moment about the county you live in. Can you feed yourselves? What are you manufacturing facilities like? How are you on raw resources? how long could your county survive if cut off from all trade but a random UPS truck loaded with random items every 10 or 15 years? What would you do when the computers broke down? When the medicines run out? Now add in worlds with inhospitable environments, two centuries of civil war, another few centuries of raiders, and what do we get?
Dead worlds. Hundreds of dead worlds. Worlds where people hung on for decades or centuries before the last atmospheric processor failed. Worlds where people lived, but over the long years lost all their technology, even to the point of losing the ability to smelt iron, and sank into barbarism. Even some few scattered enclaves where technology and hope survived, but a lack of facilities kept them from building jump drives.
The Long Night lasted close to 1500 years. During that time I don't doubt there were numerous worlds that put together ramshackle fleets to explore nearby stars. When the reports came back "they're all dead, and everything not nailed down was stolen decades ago. We brought back the nails..." many of them gave up. Even the moderately successful states either failed or stagnated quickly. (This is just canonical - we know that the first truly successful post-Long Night state was the Sylean Federation.) So that is what the Sylean Scouts would face as they begin expanding from their small cluster of systems. A howling wilderness of long dead worlds, barbarian states where starships were things of legends, and the few isolated planets waiting for someone to come along and rebuild.
From Federation to Empire
As the Sylean Scouts explored, they would find one thing over and over. It wasn't war or pestilence that doomed these worlds. It was the end of trade. This would have made quite an impression on one Scout, a young scion of a Hereditary Senatorial family named Cleon Zhunastu. Being a well-educated young man, as well as having grown up in a world of privilege, Cleon would have been shaken to his core by the endless ruins and fallen states. I can easily see him declaring that his life's work will be to make sure this never happens again.
I should note that at this point I'm gleefully throwing out much of the canon established by T4. It sucks. Seriously. IMNSHO.
Anyway, Cleon, upon ascending to his seat as Grand Duke of Sylea and President of the Federation Grand Senate, begins a campaign to recontact and bring surviving worlds into his trading sphere. He pushes through innovations like a universal currency, lack of trade barriers other than health or local morals exceptions, and standardized designs across the Federation. He soon realizes that the Federation structure is too complex for what he wants. He needs an Empire. So begins a campaign that ends in 4523AD with Cleon being crowned as Cleon I, Emperor of the Third Imperium.
The Trade Must Flow
It's been made clear from the beginning that the Third Imperium cares little for the affairs of their member worlds. Just for the movement of ships between those worlds. Want to make slurping your tea a death penalty offense? Fine with us, The Trade Must Flow. Your standard social unit is 45 adults, 43 of whom are rendered asexual? Sounds interesting. The Trade Must Flow. The Church of the Cosmic Muffin declares Holy Bran Week followed by the Colonic Festival? Healthy! The Trade Must Flow. Outside of possessing nuclear weapons and actual chattel slavery, the Imperium tolerates just about anything from it's member worlds as long as trade flows freely through the starports (which are Imperial territory anyway.)
If the Church of the Cosmic Muffin declares processed white flour anathema, then they have every right from banning it from passing onto their territory. If, however, they storm a ship at the port carrying flour, or try to deny a ship in orbit permission to dock, then the Imperium is going to get involved and fast. Same thing if a conflict between worlds, or corporations heats up to the point of disrupting trade. Then the Navy will storm in and enforce a solution.
The Trade Must Flow. That defines everything about the Imperium. Everything Cleon set up was to make trade easier. Universal currency and an universal calender make payments and scheduling easier. Scouts plotting and charting systems make navigation faster and cheaper. The Navy exists to patrol the space lanes and cut down on piracy. The Starport Authority provides an imperial enclave on just about every world in the Imperium, even if that starport is a beacon, a cleared area of bedrock, and Portmaster Tom (assuming he's not drunk.) Assume that every noble, every Naval officer, and every official has had this concept drummed into them the way Americans have "Home of the Free, Land of the Brave" squished into our brains. I can easily see one or two dead worlds in Core being maintained as Cemetery Worlds. Imagine taking your oath of enlistment in the ruins of a city like New York after 2,000 years of neglect.
Yes, there will be corruption. People who see opportunity rather than the lofty goals of the Imperium. Smugglers bringing white flour and refined sugar to dissenters on the Cosmic Muffin world. but that's where the adventures come in! ("Wait. You mean you want me to smuggle 38 d-tons of 'Aunt Estiberga's Double-Chocolate Snack Cakes'? For how much? Deal!") But look at the Imperium through this lens and you can build a better idea of what the government would actually concern itself with as opposed to some of the attempts to make it much more than it should be.
The worlds of the Imperium can look to their own affairs. The Imperium rules the spaces between the worlds. The Trade Must Flow.
Posted to my Livejournal and to the Traveller Mailing List.
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I can't do Latin that quickly
Date: 28 Feb 2010 18:13 (UTC)& the off my head Esperanto gives me: La komerco devas flui
I'm certain that the Latin will be related to those.
Re: I can't do Latin that quickly
Date: 1 Mar 2010 05:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Feb 2010 18:45 (UTC)(Brings the "Romanus Eunt Domus" scene to mind.)
no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2010 05:30 (UTC)no subject
Date: 28 Feb 2010 19:33 (UTC)Columbus went west looking for the East for trade.
no subject
Date: 28 Feb 2010 19:46 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2010 10:59 (UTC)More secure and profitable trade meant more money in the treasury for troops and warships which in turn meant more power.
no subject
Date: 28 Feb 2010 23:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2010 02:33 (UTC)The Imperium builds J-4 warships because they need them. They don't really have to worry about cargo or cost, after all.
no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2010 02:40 (UTC)no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2010 04:15 (UTC)Also--forgive me, I've always been unclear about this--what about speeds faster than jump 6? Misjumps of more than six parsecs are possible, right?
no subject
Date: 1 Mar 2010 07:58 (UTC)Note that time travel is not a canon or a commonly-accepted result of a misjump. =)
As I recall, too, one of the reasons that the Xboat network is J4 is not only economics, but also to provide the upper echelons with a distinct informational advantage: A J6 courier network. The Imperial navy maintains a fleet of J6 couriers, there are a number of 'civilian' J6 ships owned and operated by the Imperial government, and I believe it's Tukera Lines that maintains a number of J6 ships that are outwardly identical to their J3 freighters.
Thoughtful article!
Date: 1 Mar 2010 11:52 (UTC)For what it's worth I agree with your assessment of the Imperium. I think the fundamental thing that tore the 3rd Imperium apart was an emporer who confused function with power and upset the balance. Something that rival empires (e.g. the Zhodani) could not achieve because whenever they attacked, it just made the Imperium more cohesive.
Re: Thoughtful article!
Date: 1 Mar 2010 15:48 (UTC)Latin motto
Date: 14 Sep 2010 17:32 (UTC)Mercatus affluendus est! Trade must flow
from:
mercatus - trade, traffic, business
affluere - to flow freely, to be abundant
and the passive periphrastic form indicating necessity.
I also like
Mercatus affluens est imperativus - flowing trade is imperative
because of "imperativus" cf. imperator/emperor, but it doesn't have the same urgent rhythm to the words to me as the first does.
Rob Davenport
no subject
Date: 14 Sep 2010 18:20 (UTC)I like your take on Cleon's inspiration and motivation - bringing the light back to the wilderness. I've thought something similar for a long time now. I like the idea of Cleon having an epiphany of purpose when visiting these regressed or dead worlds - nice idea!
I do wonder however if the view that the 3I "cares little" for its member worlds is too simply being inflated to imply a callousness and insensitivity that isn't really a pervasive attitude amongst the nobility towards their subjects, or citizens of one world to another. The situation could be more complicated and not completely dark and depressing, but contain rays of light here and there, just with a different way of doing things than we're used to - and that evolved from the historical roots of the 3I as you've shown.
Officially the 3I may place a higher value on member world's independence and sovereignty - in all areas but those that affect the 3I's ability to fulfill Cleon's promise of keeping the light shining. That means trade, and so trade must be protected and encouraged at the expense of some world's liberties, but the benefits are felt to outweigh the loss. And that may be the view or angle that Cleon would have had to have taken in order to entice worlds into joining his Imperium.
"Hey, we like you guys and we value your independence and way of life, but you really need all the benefits of trade that membership in my new Imperium can offer - so tell you what, you join us, pay some taxes, etc. and we won't tell you how to live your lives beyond that. Plus you get to be part of the new Imperial nobility too. How does that sound?"
The official position is one of world sovereignty being very highly valued (but not over the good of the whole 3I - i.e. interfering with trade, chattel slavery, nukes). That doesn't mean that there can't be unofficial (and even traditional, long-standing and customary) efforts and groups to help worlds and sophonts improve their situations. Efforts at education (standard courses, regional universities, dissemination of news and public domain information - to help bind the worlds of the 3I together as common a culture as can be promoted), tech/infrastructure improvement (loans from regional nobles or groups, e.g.), humanitarian efforts for disaster relief, etc.
(I suppose there could be subtle non-altrustic efforts at coercing worlds to change their culture - probably with some megacorp behind it to create a bigger market for its products, or maybe some 'noble' group feels that rendering 43 out of 45 beings asexual to be a violation of their sophont rights and works to change that view - all behind the scenes. And who is right in that case - the group trying to coerce a world into changing its ways, or the world who's ways are viewed as insophontic (cf. inhumane?). Could make for interesting adventure.)
While the official position makes it look like the 3I doesn't care (and could be then viewed as inhuman in its disregard for sophonts conditions), it may be that the unofficial activities of various people and groups (including the nobility) may be taking care of issues close to home and addressing these issues. Sure, being restricted by the official paradigm of non-interference except if it threatens trade, they don't have the force of authority behind them, they can still get things done and work for the betterment of all sophonts - just in a cooperative, fraternalistic way, not a top-down paternalistic government-mandated way. Better than our modern world? I dunno, but it should make for an interesting environment for adventure where individuals can make a difference and not have to wait for the Imperial officials to swoop in and save the day (or make a mess of things).
Rob Davenport