Deconstructing the Third Imperium
Jul. 8th, 2019 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridloreOnce again, it is time to reassess the classic setting, the Third Imperium of Man. From its birth in vague references in Mercenary and High Guard, the 3I has grown mightily over the years. The problem is it was never really designed. Dozens of authors working for different companies added pieces here and there. Oh there was the Moot, and we knew about the Imperial Armed Forces, but it stopped there. It was the broadest brushstroke of a setting. Which suited me when I was 13 years old.
I’m a bit older now.
So, I’m going to rip the Third Imperium to pieces and rebuild it. Comments welcome.
What is the Imperium?
11,000 worlds, the vast majority of them enjoying self-rule is the quick answer. Ruled by an Emperor and his loyal nobles. But most of the nobles seem to have no real power over these independent worlds. So what gives? My answer is that the Imperium is, in a very real sense, the Imperial Navy. It’s the navy that keeps the peace, polices the “space between the stars” and has the best-equipped troops in known space ready for action. The Imperium is a military state with civilian oversight.
But what is the Imperium? Born out of the ashes of the Long Night, Cleon I realized that what doomed interstellar civilization was the end of trade. The new empire was built on three concepts:
The Imperium is a trade federation, a classic seapower state where the free movement of goods, people, and information is paramount. Everything else is secondary. Threaten free trade, and the Imperium will destroy you.
The Imperial Court and the Moot
At the top of the Imperial pyramid sits the Emperor. Legally, the Emperor is the Imperium. His word is law, and every Imperial officer and noble owes him personal loyalty. The reality is that due to the limitations of travel speeds, the actual reach of the Throne is quite limited. The short-term reigns of power are in the hands of the subsector nobles and naval officers, and even they have to deal with reaction times measured in weeks.
So other than providing a symbol of unity, what does the Emperor do? The palace handles long-term planning, often making plans that stretch over decades and even centuries. The area around the palace complex is filled with campuses dedicated to studying the terabytes of information that arrive at Capital every day. These reams of information are processed to provide long-range forecasts for the Emperor and his advisers to base decisions on.
Also advising the Throne is the Imperial Moot. Membership in the Moot is made up of all the members of the nobility who hold a vote to confirm new Emperors. While that is one of their two official duties *the other is the ability to dissolve the Imperium) the Moot's day-to-day activities consist of advocacy and deal making. Most Emperors learn to pay close attention to the wishes of the Moot.
The Nobility.
One thing that always bothered me (once I started reading history, that is) was the neat pyramid of Traveller nobles. Everyone in their little slot. The reality is much different. So I’m scraping the nobility for the most part.
In the Imperium the only rank that really matters is Count-Elector. These counts replace subsector dukes, and they are the members of the Moot. They are the meat of the Imperium’s administration, as they control far more manageable areas of space. The local fleet admiral answers to them and the Sector Admiral. They control the local Unified Army and oversee a vast bureaucracy dedicated to making sure that taxes and levied and apportioned correctly. The Count-Elector is the sophont on the spot. These posts are hereditary, but the Emperor can strip a family of their office if high crimes or gross incompetence are proven. Not all Counts are Counts-Elector, and it’s the Emperor alone who decides who get the title.
As members of the Moot, Counts-Elector are required to “maintain a presence” at Capital. As this is impossible for most Counts, a relative is usually sent as a proxy. The Moot is mostly a debating society, where the assembled member study issues and provide guidance to His Majesty. A year on Capital is a standard stop for a young noble’s Grand Tour.
Sectors are the province of Ducal families, and only rarely would a duke be an Elector. (One example is Großherzog Norris of Deneb, who used the power of an Imperial Warrant to retain his title as Count-Elector of Regina.) Archdukes oversee Domains, and like the Emperor, are limited to mostly long-range planning.
Barons are mostly life appointments and are awarded for service. Most come with a manor house somewhere nice that provides a nice income. Knighthood is unchanged. Marquis/Earl is a title granted to a Count-elector of extreme power or extensive holdings. The Count-Elector of Jewell carries the title Margrave Jewell because of the power concentrated in his office.
A note about Social Standing and noble rank. It is entirely possible for someone to be SS F and not be a noble, or not hold a title consummate with his power and influence. A merchant prince who controls the bulk of shipping across three counties might be of low birth, but his money opens many doors. This guy is probably a knight and should have his home estate declared a baronial holding. But still, he’ll be hob-nobbing with the glitterati while the Count-Elector of a poor frontier county will be ignored.
The Member Worlds.
The 11,000 worlds of the Imperium govern themselves, with certain limits. Imperial Worlds are strictly limited in their ability to conduct “foreign affairs” with other systems. In almost all cases, they are denied jump-capable warships (although a blind eye is usually turned to the “armed merchantmen” fielded in frontier regions.) They are forbidden to make war on other systems.
Controlling this is the office of the Counsel-General. Appointed by the local Count, Counsels-General work out of the Imperial Consulate usually found in the planet’s capital city or close by the starport. Consulates tend to be near fortresses in most places, and are guarded by Imperial Marines. Because the Counsel-General has the power to forbid any action taken by the local government if she feels that it threatened the safety of the planet or other systems, it would unduly restrict trade, or violates the few laws the Imperium has. Counsels-General tend to be people who've spent years in the Imperial bureaucracy and have shown a talent for diplomacy. The larger and more powerful the world, the lighter the Counsel-General has to tread.
Sadly, there have been thousands of instances of Governors-General using their positions to enrich themselves through corruption, theft, and in one notable case, co-running a pirate fleet with the world’s system defense commander.
Less populated worlds tend to have a Colonial Administrator assigned instead, leading a much smaller office. On very low-population planets, the Administrator could also be the Starport Authority Port Master, the Customs Officer, and run the best bar in town (it’s the only bar.) Such assignments are seen either as stepping stones to bigger and better things, or the inglorious end after not making the right moves to further a career.
In all of these levels, from the Count-Elector down to the Counsel-General, the key problem is time. Even if you have a courier ready to go, the minimum response time is going to be two weeks. So at every level, you will find leaders taking action. Sometimes the wrong actions, but that’s where we get adventures!
The Imperial Navy
The Emperor’s Hammer, the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Marine Force are the true instruments of the Imperial will. Unlike the Unified Armies, who answer to local governments, the Navy owes allegiance to the office of the Emperor and the current occupant of the Iridium Throne.
The Navy suffers from the same problem as any Imperial entity: the long communication lag between and outlying subsector and the palace. To that end, naval officers are trained to take action as needed. “Sua Sponte”, or “of their own accord” is the motto of the officers of the line.
In my view of the Imperium, there is no Ministry of Justice, no noble judges, none of that. The Navy enforces the Imperial will and is not subtle about it. Many times this means that the captain of a destroyer or light cruiser will find themselves the senior officer in a command position in the system and be faced with handling a complex legal issue.
As the Imperium is a huge, incredibly diverse place, the Navy is going to be constantly putting out fires inside the Imperial borders. Worlds will revolt, inter-system cold wars will suddenly go hot and need to be suppressed, pirates thrive in under-patrolled systems, and planetary governments and Counsels-General are constantly screaming for help.
Externally, vigilance against the Zhodani threat is constant, Vargr raiders and corsairs need to be stopped and their bases destroyed, the Solomani Rim must be defended, and the large portion of the Navy will be tied up in Gateway Sector, waiting for the next K'kree Extermination Crusade to appear out of the 2000 Worlds. More about the K'kree in another post.
The bottom line is the Navy is stretched to the limit. Add in a long-standing policy from the end of the Civil War that moves officers from noble families far from home, you also have an issue with inconstant leadership. Admirals inevitably become political players. It is rumored that Naval Intelligence has killed more than one Admiral who overreached.
Speaking of Naval Intelligence, along with the more traditional role of collecting military intelligence, the "silver disks" (named for the blank branch ID they wear on their uniforms) have become a very effective secret police agency. The Covert Rapid Operations Wing has been accused of assassinations, sabotage, and even the murder of Imperial nobles. The few who have dared speak out against CROW call them "fanatics untethered by morals or law."
I'll be writing more on these topics in the next few weeks. I look forward to feedback, either here or on Facebook.
I’m a bit older now.
So, I’m going to rip the Third Imperium to pieces and rebuild it. Comments welcome.
What is the Imperium?
11,000 worlds, the vast majority of them enjoying self-rule is the quick answer. Ruled by an Emperor and his loyal nobles. But most of the nobles seem to have no real power over these independent worlds. So what gives? My answer is that the Imperium is, in a very real sense, the Imperial Navy. It’s the navy that keeps the peace, polices the “space between the stars” and has the best-equipped troops in known space ready for action. The Imperium is a military state with civilian oversight.
But what is the Imperium? Born out of the ashes of the Long Night, Cleon I realized that what doomed interstellar civilization was the end of trade. The new empire was built on three concepts:
- A universally accepted currency
- A universally used calendar
- Near universal freedom of trade
The Imperium is a trade federation, a classic seapower state where the free movement of goods, people, and information is paramount. Everything else is secondary. Threaten free trade, and the Imperium will destroy you.
The Imperial Court and the Moot
At the top of the Imperial pyramid sits the Emperor. Legally, the Emperor is the Imperium. His word is law, and every Imperial officer and noble owes him personal loyalty. The reality is that due to the limitations of travel speeds, the actual reach of the Throne is quite limited. The short-term reigns of power are in the hands of the subsector nobles and naval officers, and even they have to deal with reaction times measured in weeks.
So other than providing a symbol of unity, what does the Emperor do? The palace handles long-term planning, often making plans that stretch over decades and even centuries. The area around the palace complex is filled with campuses dedicated to studying the terabytes of information that arrive at Capital every day. These reams of information are processed to provide long-range forecasts for the Emperor and his advisers to base decisions on.
Also advising the Throne is the Imperial Moot. Membership in the Moot is made up of all the members of the nobility who hold a vote to confirm new Emperors. While that is one of their two official duties *the other is the ability to dissolve the Imperium) the Moot's day-to-day activities consist of advocacy and deal making. Most Emperors learn to pay close attention to the wishes of the Moot.
The Nobility.
One thing that always bothered me (once I started reading history, that is) was the neat pyramid of Traveller nobles. Everyone in their little slot. The reality is much different. So I’m scraping the nobility for the most part.
In the Imperium the only rank that really matters is Count-Elector. These counts replace subsector dukes, and they are the members of the Moot. They are the meat of the Imperium’s administration, as they control far more manageable areas of space. The local fleet admiral answers to them and the Sector Admiral. They control the local Unified Army and oversee a vast bureaucracy dedicated to making sure that taxes and levied and apportioned correctly. The Count-Elector is the sophont on the spot. These posts are hereditary, but the Emperor can strip a family of their office if high crimes or gross incompetence are proven. Not all Counts are Counts-Elector, and it’s the Emperor alone who decides who get the title.
As members of the Moot, Counts-Elector are required to “maintain a presence” at Capital. As this is impossible for most Counts, a relative is usually sent as a proxy. The Moot is mostly a debating society, where the assembled member study issues and provide guidance to His Majesty. A year on Capital is a standard stop for a young noble’s Grand Tour.
Sectors are the province of Ducal families, and only rarely would a duke be an Elector. (One example is Großherzog Norris of Deneb, who used the power of an Imperial Warrant to retain his title as Count-Elector of Regina.) Archdukes oversee Domains, and like the Emperor, are limited to mostly long-range planning.
Barons are mostly life appointments and are awarded for service. Most come with a manor house somewhere nice that provides a nice income. Knighthood is unchanged. Marquis/Earl is a title granted to a Count-elector of extreme power or extensive holdings. The Count-Elector of Jewell carries the title Margrave Jewell because of the power concentrated in his office.
A note about Social Standing and noble rank. It is entirely possible for someone to be SS F and not be a noble, or not hold a title consummate with his power and influence. A merchant prince who controls the bulk of shipping across three counties might be of low birth, but his money opens many doors. This guy is probably a knight and should have his home estate declared a baronial holding. But still, he’ll be hob-nobbing with the glitterati while the Count-Elector of a poor frontier county will be ignored.
The Member Worlds.
The 11,000 worlds of the Imperium govern themselves, with certain limits. Imperial Worlds are strictly limited in their ability to conduct “foreign affairs” with other systems. In almost all cases, they are denied jump-capable warships (although a blind eye is usually turned to the “armed merchantmen” fielded in frontier regions.) They are forbidden to make war on other systems.
Controlling this is the office of the Counsel-General. Appointed by the local Count, Counsels-General work out of the Imperial Consulate usually found in the planet’s capital city or close by the starport. Consulates tend to be near fortresses in most places, and are guarded by Imperial Marines. Because the Counsel-General has the power to forbid any action taken by the local government if she feels that it threatened the safety of the planet or other systems, it would unduly restrict trade, or violates the few laws the Imperium has. Counsels-General tend to be people who've spent years in the Imperial bureaucracy and have shown a talent for diplomacy. The larger and more powerful the world, the lighter the Counsel-General has to tread.
Sadly, there have been thousands of instances of Governors-General using their positions to enrich themselves through corruption, theft, and in one notable case, co-running a pirate fleet with the world’s system defense commander.
Less populated worlds tend to have a Colonial Administrator assigned instead, leading a much smaller office. On very low-population planets, the Administrator could also be the Starport Authority Port Master, the Customs Officer, and run the best bar in town (it’s the only bar.) Such assignments are seen either as stepping stones to bigger and better things, or the inglorious end after not making the right moves to further a career.
In all of these levels, from the Count-Elector down to the Counsel-General, the key problem is time. Even if you have a courier ready to go, the minimum response time is going to be two weeks. So at every level, you will find leaders taking action. Sometimes the wrong actions, but that’s where we get adventures!
The Imperial Navy
The Emperor’s Hammer, the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Marine Force are the true instruments of the Imperial will. Unlike the Unified Armies, who answer to local governments, the Navy owes allegiance to the office of the Emperor and the current occupant of the Iridium Throne.
The Navy suffers from the same problem as any Imperial entity: the long communication lag between and outlying subsector and the palace. To that end, naval officers are trained to take action as needed. “Sua Sponte”, or “of their own accord” is the motto of the officers of the line.
In my view of the Imperium, there is no Ministry of Justice, no noble judges, none of that. The Navy enforces the Imperial will and is not subtle about it. Many times this means that the captain of a destroyer or light cruiser will find themselves the senior officer in a command position in the system and be faced with handling a complex legal issue.
As the Imperium is a huge, incredibly diverse place, the Navy is going to be constantly putting out fires inside the Imperial borders. Worlds will revolt, inter-system cold wars will suddenly go hot and need to be suppressed, pirates thrive in under-patrolled systems, and planetary governments and Counsels-General are constantly screaming for help.
Externally, vigilance against the Zhodani threat is constant, Vargr raiders and corsairs need to be stopped and their bases destroyed, the Solomani Rim must be defended, and the large portion of the Navy will be tied up in Gateway Sector, waiting for the next K'kree Extermination Crusade to appear out of the 2000 Worlds. More about the K'kree in another post.
The bottom line is the Navy is stretched to the limit. Add in a long-standing policy from the end of the Civil War that moves officers from noble families far from home, you also have an issue with inconstant leadership. Admirals inevitably become political players. It is rumored that Naval Intelligence has killed more than one Admiral who overreached.
Speaking of Naval Intelligence, along with the more traditional role of collecting military intelligence, the "silver disks" (named for the blank branch ID they wear on their uniforms) have become a very effective secret police agency. The Covert Rapid Operations Wing has been accused of assassinations, sabotage, and even the murder of Imperial nobles. The few who have dared speak out against CROW call them "fanatics untethered by morals or law."
I'll be writing more on these topics in the next few weeks. I look forward to feedback, either here or on Facebook.
no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2019 01:05 (UTC)no subject
Date: 9 Jul 2019 16:55 (UTC)What the Navy might do is impose a blockade to both protect travelers and force economic hardship on the world as an incentive to end the bloodshed.
What will trigger an immediate intervention is attacks on Imperial facilities or evidence that one side is being backed by an off-world polity or another Imperial member world. This was the case on Efate/Regina, where the Ine Givar insurgency was clearly being funded by the Zhodani Consulate.
There are many Imperial worlds that are balkanized, and wars are not uncommon on them. The same standards apply for the Imperium stepping in with force.
That not to say that in these cases the Counsel-General's office won't be trying to negotiate settlements and broker peace. Wars are bad for business.