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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Re: I can't do Latin that quickly
Date: 1 Mar 2010 05:34 (UTC)