The Eastern Empire
The twin empires are something of a misnomer- outside the empires, they may look like a unified culture, all basiloi and patriari and sakellarioi fat on imperial tribute with seraglios and pleasure gardens, with merchant princes throwing their weight behind the state in a grand, unified clash between Immortals. This is not, however, even remotely the case. Underneath the Pax Palaioigoi Thematon, a hundred cultures and a dozen peoples flourish or occasionally flounder, and the borders between empires are impossible to truly discern, swelling and falling like the waves upon the empires’ shores, changing with the markets in qat, opium, cotton and pepper. Beneath the Pax, a thousand would be kingdoms flourish, wane and flicker and die, all paying tribute to Imperial Cities’- when the Sakellarios has not been plied with gold and other bribes to ‘correctly interpret’ the logbooks of local merchants.
Here, orders and imperial institutions hold as much, if not more power than kings. The House of Waking and Sleeping, more commonly known as the Per Lictores, or just the Lyctores, are the central mortuary cult of the Eastern Empire (as well as a fine primary school, for the children of the wealthy to learn their letters, arithmetic and respect for the gods and the dead), and wield not inconsiderable power both arcane and political. The Aspis Consortium corners markets, both legal and not, and mints its own coinage accepted in many of of the provinces. The Slave Knights hold the whim of the empress as their single moral compass, and take to the field of battle as one of the worlds very few full spellblade units, and serve Gwen as her personal guard and her right hand. The Knights Mendicant are sworn to poverty and are by habit frequently drunk, a pair of facts that bely the truth of the ancient couplet; 'The mendicant knight, roughly clad and shod/ He lives as though he were a beast but fights he as a god'. The Legios, the armies of the Empress and the Patria, are an acknowledged path from pennilessness to (relative) prosperity, should you survive the full 16 years of active duty, while an officer might even be able to climb even higher, should they be able to truly distinguish themselves. The power of the Imperial Cult, and the Synod Princeps at its head, stretches across the continent, and words from a highly placed priest can move kings, as can advice from the Sinescaloi, the quiet association of advisors at the side of Legio generals, Basiloi patriari and, allegedly, even the Empress herself. Sinescaloi, while officially neutral in all affairs, and bound only to further the will of their employer, are well known to co-respond in the interests of cooperating to maintain peace. The 9 Houses of the Patriari jockey in the Imperial senate for the Empress's approval on laws, all the while trying to maintain their ancient hold on civic power as bureaucracy slowly comes to run the daily business of the empire more than senatorial will. Finally, managing the entire Pax are the Thematon Palaiogoi, the houses of bureaucracy by which taxes are assessed and taken, Legios are paid, roads and infastructure made and maintained and the basiloi of the provinces managed. While all serve the empress, rarely do they work in concert, often jockeying for power amongst themselves for wealth and influence, typically pitted against each other by the empress herself. The Empress is less the master of the massive beast that is the Empire, and more often simply the only one actually holding its leash.
The Pax is a network of client nations and peoples, all intermeshed in a central web of imperial power. An individual nation, or city state, or nomadic people, as long as they control territory, pay a tax assessed to the empire and are represented to the empire by a basiloi (pl. basilarius), usually their traditional leadership, be it a king or an elected council or what have you. They are also expected to contribute recruits to the Legios, a number assessed every decade by the Sakellarius with recruiting to be the responsibility of the basiloi, and keep a local military maintained at the expense of the client state to be levied should the empire ever call upon them. In return, they receive the protection of the Pax and trade with the rest of the empire is taxed as internal, rather than foreign trade (a not inconsiderable economic boon). The taxes are assessed by a regional administrator, the Sakellarius, who heads the regional thematon, or administrative bureaurcacy, while doing double-duty as something resembling a provincial governor. Once under the Pax, the Patriari and the Aspis Consortium quickly descend to control as much of the region's economy as they can, and, with a tributary's economy weakened by the demands of imperial taxes, they typically find their economy very quickly integrated into the Pax's vast trade network, and their nobility doing their best to join the Patria. While wars are not infrequent between client states, they are typically short and small scale. While Basiloi are always looking to decrease the burden of the imperial tax (frequently by bribing the Sakellarius, but sometimes by taking from their neighbors), no one wants to risk a war large enough to endanger The Tax, lest the empress decide the Legios need to put their foot down and a change of regime or two needs to happen.
It isn't all oppression and stripping of wealth to feed the Empire, though. The Pax usually does come with peace and economic prosperity, and the tax has been moderate since the Kommemnian civil reformation that created the Pax Thematon from the remains of the Pax Praes. The majority of imperial provinces find themselves far better off 20 years after joining the Pax than they were before, and the Empress prefers not to interfere in matters of culture; as long as taxes are paid, the imperial cult is at least paid lip service to and no one starts a war, the empress could care less about Praesi cultural hegemony, and that general attitude has carried into what may very broadly be called Imperial culture. The Empire is nothing if not cosmopolitan.
Pax and Imperata
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Government System
Monarchy, Theocratic
Power Structure
Transnational government
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
Currency - Imperial Gold
Aspis Silver
(Gold Equivalents are given in njortan coinage, equivalent to a standard gold piece)
A Ledger Talent is approximately the cost to crew 5 Aspis Consortium merchant dromons for a month, including wages for captains, weatherworkers, and other skilled professionals as well as provisions. If you were wondering why it was such a frankly bizarre value. As an actual unit of trade currency, it sees very little use. Furthermore, imperial provinces use their own local currency, frequently. Actual currency values may and do vary.
| 1 Platinum | 1 Bezant |
| 10 Gold Pieces | 5 Solidus |
| 100 Silver Pieces | 20 Millaresion |
| 1000 Copper Pieces | 2000 nummi |
| 17460.6 gold | 1 Ledger Talent or 1 'Real' Talent, Consisting of 72 Minas of 80 Dinars, as well as approx 75% of a Mina in filings |
| 3 gold, or 1.5 Solidus, Or 1 Barrell of Salt | 1 Aspis Dinar |
| 1 ship share per month, or 15 gold, 30 Millaresion | 1 Aspis Dirham |
| 1 cp, or 2 nummi. or 1 lb of rice | 1 Aspis Quoku |
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Related Ethnicities
Comments