The Hegemony governs more worlds than any other faction in the Galaxy of Exiles. It is known, though not documented, to be the oldest faction, and has a history of war with
The Protectorate. Until recently, it was known as the Empyrean Hegemony and many of its leaders were empyrric.
Governance
The Magister
The Magister is the figurehead of the Hegemony and wields a great deal of power, even if his actions must technically be supported by a majority of the consulate. He is elected from amongst the consulate upon the death, resignation or expulsion of the previous magister.
The Consulate
Immediately beneath the Magister is the consulate: a governing body made up of two prime consuls and eighteen consuls, each with a separate responsibility (or multiple). One prime consul is the Presidian, with power of veto over consulate decisions and chair of meetings. This role is allocated at random for each meeting.
Each consul mentors three sub consuls, picked from the lower ranks of the administration to groom for politics. They tend to be delegated a large portion of the consul's responsibilities (as they would be far too much for any individual to handle, otherwise). The majority come from among the Empyros or representatives, but Administrators and relative unknowns have been selected for office before. Even an Impestor was selected once, although it is a gripe of the transitor houses that none of their lords has ever been chosen.
When a position as consul becomes free, all those at or above the level of planetary governor may vote on their preferred candidate. All sub consuls under the retired consul are automatically entered, alongside any put forwards by other consuls. Any Empyros may also put themselves forwards for the position.
Beneath the consulate are two branches: the administration and the government.
The Administration
The administration covers admin and legality, monitoring the other offices and the populace. Three prime barros preside over this. Beneath them are barros, who focus on law, and administrators.
The government
The government is separated at the top level by its Empyros. There is one of these for each region of Hegemony-controlled space. Despite the title, they do not have to be empyrric. Their name is a relic of the time when the Hegemony was ruled by empyrrics, until (in part due to their scarcity) the ranks of government were opened to everyone via the patronage system.
Beneath each Empyros are the pecuniary, judiciary and obligatory branches.
Pecuniary branch
The pecuniary branch contains two prime pecerros and the pecerros under them. They are responsible for the region's finances and resources. They often come into conflict with the administrators, who may want to organise more than a region of space can afford.
Judiciary branch
The judiciary branch contains one prime judician, the judicians under them and the murmes under them. The judicians are like judges and advisors while the murmes are like police and investigators.
Technically, the prime judician may call upon the services of another judiciary member, the impestor, but the impestor is actually accountable to no one once recruited. An impestor is like an inquisitor, recruited for a specific purpose such as investigating corruption or a high-profile crime. They can also be called upon to form an autocratic government under their leadership in times of constitutional crisis or war, although only as a last resort. So far, a dictating impestor has never been installed. Most people would prefer it remain that way.
Pestors are impestor with less influence, selected for lower-profile projects.
Obligatory branch
Representatives for various factions/interests within a region stand beneath the Empyros to represent their people's interests. System and planetary governors will lend their support to a particular representative or become one themselves to get their voice heard, although planetary governors can speak directly with the Empyros if required.
Each system/planetary governor represents the needs of their patrons (who themselves follow a natural hierarchy) and the local transitor lords. The latter is a contentious issue, as transitors don't stick around one system, so getting heard can be difficult. Each planet has the role of 'plebian crow' assigned to the voice of the (relatively) unpatroned plebs.
Military
The Hegemony military falls under the command of the Prime Marshall, who reports directly to both Prime Consuls. Beneath them are two adjutant marshalls overseeing the three divisions of the military.
Regional division
The regional division is responsible for maintaining an armed presence in each region of Hegemony space. A region marshall governs each region and troops are primarily formed from auxes, or citizens undertaking their galactic service. Each region will have its own contingent of milites (professional soldiers), but these are solely made up of those citizens who wanted to continue their career, but weren't selected for the Magister's retinues.
Retinue
The retinue covers the professional soldiers assigned to the Magister's retinues, which are standing armies and fleets scattered throughout the Hegemony. A large portion of them work aboard the flagship, but others tour contested sectors and help train regional-division troops where they can.
Mobile division
The third division is the mobile division, governed by a fleet marshal. This division has no permanent planetary presence and is the closest thing the Hegemony has to a separate navy. The mobile division carries out a lot of tours, so a lot of personnel ends up rotating through it if they aren't attached to a standard making its own way to a tour. Their aim is to be a flexible task force and provide support (and policing) to the transitors.
The mobile division's rank structure is similar to that of the other divisions, but misses a few ranks and has an extra position of protector attache, who sits at the same level as a wing commander (same level as planetary/adjutant commander) and coordinates with the protector houses when needed. Other than that, it goes: fleet marshal, group commander, wing commander, captain (of a ship), prefect, priores, signus, adjutant signus, then all the NCO ranks.
Notes
Auxes
Due to the high percentage of military personnel in the Hegemony, the average auxes will likely see two to six weeks of a tour during their three years of compulsory service. The rest of those three years will be spent doing general or specialist labour across the Hegemony.
Palia, for instance, spent most of her time on construction projects in new colonies or researching food and medicine.
Captaincy
Captaincy works a little strange in the Hegemony, as it depends upon the class of ship they command. Ship classes go: Hegemet, gigamet, memnet, horamet, stamnet, irmet, from largest to smallest. The captain of the Hegemony flagship, the only hegemet, is a high captain. Captains of gigamets and memnets are presiding captains (or prestains). Captains of horamets are captains. Captains of stamnets are subordinate captains (subtains). Captains of irmets are actually priores (priorans), because they rarely have anyone under their command.
Patronage
A priores will typically act as patron to those who serve under them, in the absence of their usual family patron. If the family patron happens to serve in the military anyway, it's common to see multiple family members join the canton under their command.
Units
Unit types from largest to smallest go: legion (100,000), standard (10,000), canton (1,000), band (100), squad (10) and detail (2).
Society
Patronage
The Hegemony's society is based upon a system of patronage. Each family will have a patron – either within the family or outside it – who in turn has their own patron, going all the way up to the top. This is intended to maximise the flow of merit through social strata. Theoretically, anyone can be raised with the support of their patron, but some patrons have more power than others and the system is prone to corruption. Bribery, nepotism and even sexual favours can accelerate the rise of an otherwise mediocre individual.
Classes
Voidfarers
This class of nobility resides in space – whether that is in stations, generation ships or onboard massive space-faring flotillas. They are seen as the modern nobility, pushing for progress and the advance of Hegemon culture. The current Magister belongs to this class of nobility, although due to the need to travel across the galaxy regularly, many Magisters from other backgrounds have found themselves part of this class out of necessity.
Heredrae
The 'heirs of the land' are the oldest noble class in the history of the Hegemony. They are planetary nobles, either in command of entire continents or entire worlds. Most nobles ruling over systems tend to fall into the Voidfarer class, although some still retain a planetary seat.
Transitors
This class consists of the heads of merchant trading fleets, cargo haulers, mining corporations and the like.
The arsaeria
The 'soaring arts' are a self-governing community of artists (all the arts, all the senses) who live in big generation ships. The ships themselves tend to be works of art, with the most valuable professions aboard (often keeping the communities afloat) being architects. They also tend to be considered as dens of debauchery, even by Hegemon standards. This is untrue for the majority.
The arsaeria live and travel between contracts in found-family troupes. Anyone can join or leave the arsaeria. When joining, they cast off any name other than their first name and take the last name 'Arsaeria'.
Many of the arsaeria are fond of body and gene modifications. Horns and feathers aren't uncommon.
Plebs
These are the majority of people, outside nobles classes. They still have patrons, but the ratio of plebs to patron is quite high and they don't receive many opportunities as a result. They can be quite well treated, however.
Values
There is a strong emphasis on family within the Hegemony, but this is in terms of the name a family makes for itself. The family unit and its welfare is prized over the individuals within it.
Parentage contracts
Marriage is not a concept. Instead, there is the legal concept of a parentage contract. Before a child is born, adopted or requested from the vats, at least one person must sign a contract to say they will support that child for the rest of their life. Parentage contracts are reviewed to judge if the signatories are in a position to give the support they promise. Contracts with two or more signatories are more likely to be accepted. The average number of signatories is five, tending to include a wide range of the signatories' relatives across the generations.
Naming
Names in the Hegemony vary between three and four identifiers for those with two biological parents, and are structured as:
<Confides> <Afores> <Patres> <Monumentas>
Confides: This is the personal name used by friends and family.
Afores: This is the family identifier, inherited matrilineally (where there is a matrilineal line).
Patres: This is the other family identifier, inherited patrilineally (where there is a patrilineal line).
Monumentas: This is an optional extra name, awarded by rank or merit. It can also be used as
Dismentas to confer an insulting name, though people tend not to record those insults as an accepted part of their name.
When referred to by surname, women are by default referred to by the Afores and men by the Patres, although they may choose to use one or the other instead. (Given people can indicate their preferred name(s) in digital communications and usually introduce themselves, defaults are rare to fall back on.)
For cases where a person has more than one biological parent, the Afores or Patres of each parent is added in order of genetic match. Optionally, people may include the Afores or Patres of any non-biological parents who signed their parentage contract between their existing Patres and any Monumentas. When introducing themselves, that person would still typically choose only the Afores, Patres or Monumentas to accompany their Confides, as they prefer.
So a full name might be structured: <Confides> <Afores 1> <Afores 2> <Patres 1> <Patres 2> <Patres 3> <Afores/Patres 1> <Monumentas>
Ancestors
Most people in the Hegemony worship or venerate their ancestors to some degree. The dead are thought to return the sum of their life to
The Empyrean. When people die, their lives are celebrated and their accomplishments added to a family roll of honour. Typically, they are cremated and their ashes incorporated into several gems to be dispersed among relatives and incorporated into jewellery.
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