The empire and its political system

Table of Contents

The Empire is a political entity that has slowly been conquering 3/4 of the world. It started a millennia ago with a simple city state led by a powerful ruler. The strength of the city came from its magical and technological feats, as well as its culture favouring education, research, local competitions, and the sharing of knowledge. Thanks to all of this, the city was able to overpower and assimilate its neighbours one by one. What allowed the empire to last longer than others has been its establishing of mandatory education in the conquered region and using it to distil its cultural propaganda, while still respecting local culture and sensibilities by making each conquered region into a federal state.

Independent countries

Not many independent countries are left outside of the empire. Thankfully for them, imperial citizens see unprovoked attacks on foreign countries and their conquest as despicable, and so the empire can only expand if the other countries give it an excuse. Unfortunately, despite their own wealth, abundant resources, and alliances with each other, the rulers of those countries are chafing under the limitations brought by being excluded from the world foremost trade network. Facing the empire head-on is unimaginable. This leaves them with assassination attempts on the emperor and using traitors to undermine the empire from the inside and get some of the federal regions to rebel.

The Emperor

The emperor is chosen among the most powerful mages in the country with the same process as the ruler of the ancient city state. The candidates have to go through a series of trial to prove that they actually have the skill to use all that power and the brain to rule. Old emperors usually oversee the selection of their heir, but if they die without doing so, their council will take care of that. The new emperor then rules with absolute power over the whole country, choosing their own ruling council. However, in practice, the emperor needs to maintain a minimum amount of public support or their elite will revolt and assassinate them.

Federal regions

In order to maintain this public support, the emperor leaves a high degree of independence to the regions of the empire. This is also necessary to actually rule such a vast empire. Some political topics are fully left under the control of the local elite, whereas others like foreign relationships are fully controlled by the emperor. However, for most topics, the emperor and his government will establish the national policies, and each region is then responsible for writing their own versions of the laws that will put them into practice. This has the advantage of directing public discontentment towards those local elites rather than the emperor.

Local elites

The local elites in charge of each region are chosen according to local traditions. In most regions, this means that a small group of powerful families share the power with each other, either ruling through a council of their representatives or by electing a leader among themselves. Those elites have a lot of independence but have to fully answer to the emperor. Those who have defied the emperor are dragged to the capital where they are judged and publicly executed.

"Those damn imperials!" The foreign man snorted.
Despite the faulty translation magic, Hélène had no troubles understanding the insulting intend in the magic he was unconsciously releasing.
"All conceited imbeciles who think they have a magic-given right to rule over the world! And the Sératiniens now think we should all bow to them! Just because they've been weak enough to get themselves conquered and they now have the honour of slavishly obeying their damn emperor! Neighbour or not neighbour, all the borders should be closed and all you would-be-spy should be publicly quartered!"

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Related articles

The Empire of Arboise

Politics Politicians (The Emperor and his soulmates, The imperial guards) · Events (The Empire Renewal, The Twelfth Sannian War, The Sannian kidnapping announcement) · Institutions (The empire and its political system, The selection and coronation of a new emperor, Curses and the legal system, The imperial curse—the ultimate judgment on traitors) Culture Imperial citizens · Overview of the professions in the Empire · Soulmates · Courtship rituals · Languages of the empire and translation magic · Winners of the neighbourhood wall painting competition Locations Geography of the Empire of Arboise · Ilara—Hélène's home region · Quanahr—Hélène's town · Arboise—Capital of the Empire · The imperial palace · Regions outside of the empire