As understood by Rast, Wizard of the Tower and conjurer of woodland spirits.
The Empire, as we know it, is unlike the empires of old. The Emperor is a figure whose voice carries weight, but he is not the ultimate authority in the land. The engine that powers the imperial apparatus is derived from four largely independent components. I shall describe them here, based on my experience of each.
The Four Pillars
If we think of the Empire as the surface of a table, each of the individual components underneath provide support like legs. If we take any single one out, it creates instability that threatens the whole.
The Emperor is the figurehead. The Councilors, and there are twelve of them, are appointed advisors. Combined, they are responsible for setting administrative policies within the Empire’s sphere of influence, and for negotiations with external forces like the Visari and Khuldinai. The Emperor rules by decree - his authority backed by the Legion and threat of violence.
The Legion is the Empire’s enforcement arm - it is deployed with diplomacy fails. Legion deployments are directed by the Emperor, supplied by the Merchant Houses, and sanctioned by the Temple. The Legion is the pillar I am most familiar with, and I shall describe it in further detail in a moment.
The Temple is the divine sanctioning organization within the Empire, and of the four pillars it is the one I understand least and trust the least. It is not a single religion - it is an organization that services multiple faiths under one institutional roof, which tells you more about its function than its theology. Where the Legion controls through violence and the Merchant Houses through resources, the Temple controls through something harder to quantify: the internalized belief that certain behaviors are sanctioned by powers higher than any Emperor. For many, that is the highest authority they will ever answer to. The Temple also provides moral sanction for Legion deployments - a Legion excursion blessed by the Temple is a righteous act, while one conducted without that blessing is just violence, which the Empire prefers to avoid framing it as. I will note that the Temple’s influence is uneven - within the Bastion it may outrank a Councilor in a specific circumstance, while in the Slums it thins considerably. The old gods have not finished losing yet.
The Merchant Houses are the economic engine that underpins everything else. They move grain and supplies, and may be more diplomatically important than the Empire’s direct servants. Their influence reaches far beyond the Empire’s official borders and their primary concern is centered around profit.
Together, these Four Pillars dictate every policy, trade, and everyday life of the Empire’s subjects.
Interdependency
Despite being independent organizations, each of the Pillars is dependent on the others. The Legion depends on the Empire for funding, which then gets directed to Merchant Houses for supplies. The Merchant Houses rely on the Legion to ensure trade routes stay clear of threat, human or otherwise. The Temple provides moral guidance and justifies the Emperor’s decrees and sanctions Legion excursions. The Emperor, in turn, is able to use the Temple to focus any discontent away from the Emperor and the Councilors, redirecting toward unseen divine forces. While it may seem then, that the Emperor or Temple may serve as a high authority, the Legion has its own mandate that allows, nay, requires it to depose leadership that no longer serves the Empire’s interests.
Everything any of these organizations do must effectively maintain the whole, otherwise instability threatens everyone.
But, you ask, whose authority is highest?
The truth is - it depends.
Within the Bastion and higher echelons of Timbur Deep, a Temple agent may carry more authority in a specific circumstance than a Councilor. In the Slums, the Legion may carry the most authority through the capacity for violence. Each organization has exactly as much authority in any given situation as anyone else allows. Ultimately, the Pillars work together for the good of the Empire.
At least, the good of the people in power.
Regional Lordship and Domains
As I mentioned earlier, the Empire is not a monolithic organization like the empires of worlds past. Rather, it maintains a loose grip over a region dominated by largely independent administrative zones which are collectively referred to as “Domains”. This term came to be used as they are too small to be referred to as independent kingdoms, but the Empire cares not to impose its culture and political structure downward.
What this has created is a network of Domains whose political systems may differ greatly depending on what the people of that region want for themselves. In most, a Lord is declared and succession is determined through direct lineage. In others, leadership may fall to the eldest member of the tribal group. Another still may attempt to organize their Domain into a council or even, gods, a democracy of sorts.
In any case, the Empire has demands of the Lords of each Domain: taxes must be paid, stability must be maintained, Legion movement must be unrestricted. Beyond that, the Empire doesn’t care about how the Lords choose to live and organize themselves. Stability is paramount, and anything that threatens the stability of the Empire is dealt with swiftly and violently.
The cleverness of this system is twofold. First, it allows the Empire to maintain control over a large territory without incurring the expense of maintaining occupying forces across the region or imposing its own cultural values on a civilian population that values autonomy. Second, by sanctioning each Domain to develop its own system of governance, it offers the residents a feeling of independence while providing a layer of protection against external threats.
This system, the Empire has found, has proven less problematic than prior Empires who faced routine invasion, rebellion, and wars of independence.
Standing Armies and Legion Mandates
Worth noting is that while each Domain is semi-autonomous, the Empire has established a policy of restricting each Lord from establishing any significant standing military force. Each is allowed a certain garrison to serve as immediate protection for the people, but any attempt by a Lord to establish their own army quickly results in the Merchant Houses draining resources from the Domain, which usually motivates the Lord back into compliance. Thus, while each Domain may have their own local militia and guards, none ever grow to a size that threatens the authority of the Empire.
The Legion is the exception - it is the officially sanctioned army of the Empire that serves not as an occupation force, but as a force designed for rapid deployment to problematic areas. This may be to settle a dispute between rival Lords that could not be resolved diplomatically or economically, or to exterminate any non-human threats that may disrupt local stability. It is this promise of rapid, extreme violence that ensures compliance with Imperial mandates, and for most people, that is enough.
To maintain this relationship, Legion in service of local Lords, each Domain is assigned a Prefect. The Prefect is a Legion officer that serves as a liaison between the Lord and the Legion directly, without requiring the Emperor’s involvement. The Prefect works with local agents from the Merchant Houses to keep track of resources in the region that are critical to the functioning of the Empire, manages a spy network to detect early indicators of instability, and maintains oversight of the Lords management of their Domain. Any Lord whose policies and behaviors begin to disturb the region may receive gentle correction and guidance through the Prefect, Temple, or Merchant Houses.
Deposition
There are times, however, when a Lord may simply choose to be difficult and assert themselves in a manner no longer in the best interests of the Empire. In those rare cases, the Legion has the explicit mandate to perform a Deposition of the existing Lord. Legion soldiers are deployed, the Lord is removed through the most extreme means available, and a new Lordship is established. The preference toward extreme violence, in which case the entire ruling family may be brutally executed in a most public way, is intended to serve as judgement on the failed Lord and a warning to other Lords of the fate that awaits them should they also be found wanting in service of the Empire.
Council-based Lordships deserve special attention here. It could be assumed that without a single point of accountability the strategy would not be effective. That is wrong. The entire council is executed and replaced. In a democracy, everyone in a position of accountability is deposed. The brutality of it creates a self-policing model where even in systems of distributed leadership, each member has a vested interest in holding each other accountable.
Deposition is performed without requiring explicit sanctioning from the other Pillars. In truth, by the time a Deposition is necessary it is highly likely that the other Pillars would agree with the act as their own efforts to correct the Domain have failed. What remains behind depends on the political structure that was deposed. A lineage-based Lordship may simply have the problematic member removed and leadership passes to the next in line, while a council-based Lordship may require the people to come together to resolve the issue.
Crucially, it is important to understand that even a kind and well-meaning Lord may suffer Deposition. The Empire cares about stability, and if the Lord’s influence isn’t enough to keep usurpers and dissidents at bay, then he will be deemed ineffective in serving the Empire. A Lord, therefore, can never afford to be neither too cruel nor too kind if they are to govern effectively.
Abeyance
Whatever the reason for Deposition, the Legion, in collaboration with the Merchant Houses and Temple, will assume control of strategic resources within the Domain until a new Lordship is established. This is generally accomplished within a week as someone will often have been selected to replace the Lord beforehand, but in some cases that may not be possible.
If the new Lordship is not established within the appointed time period, the Legion will employ a strategy termed Abeyance. To put it simply - the Legion will withdraw its forces from the region aside from the protection of the assets deemed to be most strategically important to the Empire. This is the least desirable state for the Domain to fall into as the power vacuum generates instability that wreaks havoc on the local people.
While this may seem cruel, it is a strategic calculation of the Empire that assures the instability will be resolved quickly by the local people, without requiring the Empire’s resources. Merchant Houses, in particular, will be eager to establish a new Lordship to restore stability and economic activity. They already know which resources matter and why, and are therefore uniquely positioned to facilitate a new Lordship quickly. The people as well have a particular interest in restoring order. Without a Lordship respected by the Empire, they receive no resources, no security, and are cut off from external supply lines. The Empire uses patience as a weapon, letting attrition and suffering do the work of motivating people toward a stable Lordship rather than going through the expense of forcing one upon them.
In short - people die, often in great numbers. And the Empire believes it can outlast the chaos while the people reorganize.
The Legion mandate of Deposition isn’t just reserved for the Domain Lords, it applies to the Empire as well. Should the Emperor himself or the Councilors be found unfit to serve the interest of the Empire, they too risk Deposition.
Through this mechanism the Empire maintains control over the various semi-autonomous Domains. The Merchant Houses influence the Legion, and the Legion ensures even the Emperor does what’s best for the survival of the Empire.
Parting Thoughts
The system creates a delicate power balance that doesn’t favor any single entity. Instead, interdependence ensures that each entity has sufficient motivation to engage in behaviors that best serve the Empire. The Empire setting policy, Merchant Houses controlling resources, Temple influencing the population, and Legion’s threat of violence create a self-monitoring system that does not allow any single entity to stray too far without extreme risk. For most in positions of power, it’s better to stay comfortable than risk everything in a power grab.
A colleague of mine said it best when I asked him what he thought was the most important thing to remember:
“Whatever keeps the Empire on top.”
~Rast