Imperial Nobility
The Imperial Nobility is a ever expanding web of corporate executives, landed aristocracy, military industrial robber barons, lifelong politicos, corrupt government oligarchs, and all other manner of wealth and power that is the driving force behind the Colonial Earth Empire. Many will not openly admit it, but while the Empire claims to be bringers of democracy and equality, they are truly being led by the bloated corrupt group that is the Imperial Noble Houses. Their power manifests itself primarily in the Noble Forum of the Imperial Senate, where only landed noble houses are allowed to participate.
Structure
It is best to think as these Houses as localized galactic governments. Major houses hold sovereign power over their worlds, their bureaucrats managing and administering all facets of civil life from policing to infrastructure building, public healthcare and education, and so on. While ultimately – on paper – subordinate to the Colonial Earth Empire in interstellar and interplanetary matters, major houses reign supreme on their own worlds. Most of the noble houses have tried to corner off a particular power base for themselves by outside of their direct planetary influence, working alongside and within facets of the Imperial bureaucracy.
Noble Houses are rarely just ran by a singular feudalistic family, but instead are internally organized into clans, who vote, buy, or strongarm their way into positions of power within the Noble House. Most of these clans form up the bulk of wealth within the house, and exist as their own minor feudal entities. Many clans will have their hands in the federal military, leading economic industries, like the Banking Guilds media, and appoint members of their houses into places like the Imperial Judges, and the Imperial Court. Some are more "chivalrous", while others are just mere steps above the ruthless racketeers of the Cartels.
Culture
The Imperial culture at the highest level is ruthless, two-faced, and a constant one-upmanship over the others. Those that do not cling to their power and climb on top of others will lose it to those who are more ambitious, more willing to bend the rules, and more willing to guide Imperial authority towards their own self-interest. They believe the galaxy is theirs for the taking, and it is a constant race to see who has more. Each house can vary wildly in their traditions and their own rituals. They often intermix to form powerful factions, much like the feudal days of old.
It is also full of backstabbing and plots of internal strife. A successful emperor knows how to corral enough support from enough of these houses and knows how to pit the right power bases against one another. They usually learn this first within their own families, often having the claw their way to the top.
The most powerful houses employ dangerous Psi-warriors as their personal guard, called Samurai. These loyal warriors serve for life, and have formed a caste of their own, protecting the interests of the family that they (or their ancestor) have pledged support to. Those particularly loyal Samurai might be rewarded with a world in the Panem Region , so long as they continue to support their family. These Samurai are also prone to the scheming and backstabbing that occurs in Nobility, and many have their own agents in their employ.
Joining a House
Entrance into a House is not always by hereditary luck or marriage (those these are more certain) but can also be achieved by success within House corporations, rising through the ranks with shrewd buisiness decisions (and the help of a skilled corpo wetwork squad). Others can force their way in, as an Imperial Navy, who area granted the land of their conquests as loyalists to the Emperor, who turn that wealth into buying a place as a newly founded clan in one of the Noble Houes. Police can weasel into nobility by accumulating enough power and siphoning enough power from the locals to their own base. Oftentimes, successful colonial efforts are rewarded with a grant of nobility and an upgrade in citizenship tiers.
Type
Court, Noble
Alternative Names
Noble Families
Parent Organization
Subsidiary Organizations
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