Grand Empire of Karadia
For many centuries, the Grand Empire of Karadia was the most powerful country in the world, capable of projecting its powers beyond the confines of its continent. Today, however, it is a hollowed-out shell of its former greatness, reduced to this state when its greatest creation turned against their masters. However, despite the devastations of the Twilight War, the Grand Empire endures.
Even today, after centuries of decline, it remains a great power of this world. Its armies are numerous, its factories and craftsmen continue to produce weapons and armors and the population continues to endure... and sometimes even thrive, against all odds. It might as well continue to persist for many more centuries, maybe even retake what it once had... but it's collapse is just as possible.
Today it is less of a country and more of a bundle of interconnected and yet often fiercely antagonistic organizations, united by some of their stated goals and divided by the rest. The Grand Empire is an ideology and common history more than a country in traditional sense, although it's doing its best to become a country once more.
Structure
Grand Emperor
The position of the Grand Emperors within their own empire is a complicated one, with a major difference between their de iure and de facto positions, courtesy of the chaos that the Twilight War war. This split remains to this day and is the main reason for the on-going political crisis that threatens to split Karadia into a three-way civil war.
De iure (so, per the imperial law), the Grand Emperor is merely a symbol of the Karadian unity, whose role is purely ceremonial during the peacetime (although they were tasked with representing the Grand Empire in front of the foreign power). This is a leftover of the Second Empire era, during which Karadia was effectively a parliamentarian monarchy where the monarchs reigned but didn't rule. Only during a war did they become titular commander-in-chiefs of the military.
However, the Grand Empire of the Third Imperial Era is effectively in a state of martial law that lasts for centuries. Only some spirits remember the times when this wasn't the case - for the imperial population as a whole, this has became to be seen as normal. This gave the emperors a command over the military matters of the Grand Empire that they used to emancipate themselves beyond the legal limits of their position.
During the First Empire, the grand emperors were seen as the representatives of the High Gods in the Prime Material World, with their power within the Grand Empire being de facto absolute, to the point where their official, legal title (with which they were referred to by their subjects during official situations) was dominus et deus, meaning 'master and god'.
They were carriers of the imperium, the divine right to rule granted to them by being the first servants of Honor, his chosen governor for this entire world. That made their authority be not just secular but also religious.
Today, centuries after the Twilight War, their authority is yet to reach the same level. This is mostly due to competition from pontifex maximus and the princeps senatus, both of whom consider themselves entitled to the same position that the Grand Emperors are coveting. However, it is also limited by how decentralized the Grand Empire is, with their direct power being inversely proportional to the distance from the capital.
Their title is hereditary, however not without some twists. The Imperial Senate has to approve the selected heir with at least 51% of the senators voting for. If none of the children are approved, the Senate can either repeat the voting once again, proceed to the other members of the expanded imperial house, or assemble 75% of the votes in order to officially depose the entire imperial family. If there are no eligible heirs left or if the imperial family was deposed, the Senate is tasked with chosing the next Grand Emperor.
Imperial Council
In order to support the Grand Emperor in his arduous task of governing the Empire, the Imperial Council plays the role of the active government of the Grand Empire. It is a direct heir of the Second Era' imperial government - in fact, theoretically all of its members are just the next iteration of its 'emergency' cabinet formed after the start of the Twilight War, which continued for so long that only historians and lawyers are still aware of that.
It is composed of the heads of the major organizations that constitute the Grand Empire: the High Fabricator of the Imperial Ministry of Production, the Dominus Militum Primus of the Imperial Army, the two consuls of the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Pontifex Maximus of the Imperial Cult, the Voice of the Imperial Magic Guild, the Princeps Senatus of the Imperial Senate and Representatives of the Imperial Guild of Adventurers and Imperial Census.
Grand Emperors are counted as a part of the Imperial Council, rising the total number of members into ten. As a result, the Council' members are often called the decemvirs.
Today, only the Dominus Militum Primus is considered to be fully loyal to the Grand Emperor. The Pontifex Maximus and the Princeps Senatus are in open opposition not only to the emperors but also each other, while the remaining decemvirs are doing their best to maneuver between the three dominant powers of the council.
Imperial Senate
During the First Era, Senate was the favourite cash cow of the Emperors, with only some superficial access to the higher ranks in the imperial organizations as a repayment, composed of both representatives of the imperial financial elite and the numerous vassal states that now constitute majority of the imperial territory.
During the Second Era, it was a democratically-elected legislative body, acting as a parliament does in many modern countries of Earth. This, however, didn't survive into the Third Era, dying alongside most of the Grand Emperor in the Twilight War.
Today, the Senate houses the representatives of imperial elites and the client states. What's more, many among the senators remember that they're supposed to be the true power within the Grand Empire, having merely given up some of it temporarily to the Grand Emperors due to the martial law. And now that it became obvious that the martial law is now permanent, they seek to take it back.
Their money and widespread influence grants them immense amount of soft power, especially outside of Itavia, where their position among the client-states also gives them access to a surprising amount of military power. Only the grand emperors and the pontifex maximus can hope to match that - and thus far, they do.
There are five hundred active members of the Senate. Half of them are members of various wealthy, old and respected families of the Grand Empire as a whole, who greatly contributed to its recovery in the direct aftermath of the Twilight War, while the other half are the representatives of various vassal countries that make up for majority of its territory.
Rights and Duties of the Senators
In the past, Senate was the true power over the Grand Empire, being its main legislative and with the Imperial Council being tasked with executing its will and upholding the laws that the Senate has agreed upon. This has been a lot more complicated after the Twilight War... just as everything else in the Grand Empire.
Today the decemvirs are no longer appointed by the Senate, but the head of the senate is still considered to be one of the three most powerful members of the Imperial Council.
All senators possess immunity to the wrath of the Grand Emperors, regardless of the martial law that the Grand Empire is operating on. In fact, only the Senate as a whole is allowed to prosecute cases against its own members for variety of crimes, with the exception of those of religious nature.
They are thus officially excluded from the laws regarding crimen laesae maiestatis. They are thus allowed to insult or criticize the reigning Grand Emperor, even in public. In theory, this was supposed to let them act as a check on the ruler's absolute power during a crisis to avoid the country declining into a military dictatorship. However, they were also supposed to advise the rulers during such times.
During a martial law, Grand Emperors are able to issue any laws as they see fit. However, they only last for the duration of the martial law, unless they recive Senate's approval. They also cannot (legally) change that, nor can they appoint new members of the Senate, which only strengthens the position of the senators in the opposition to the monarch.
What's more, the Senate [or at least its 'legal' chamber] is also a supreme judicary organization of the Grand Empire. Although it is considered to be too important for 'simple' criminals, and instead it is called to issue judgments on cases that are of either crucial political importance (for example when an imperial noble commits a crime that can spark a war with a neighbour of an Empire), or include key members of the Empire (such as members of the Imperial Council, or see other imperial organizations as sides of the issue).
History
Imperial History - the Brief Summary
Founding of the Grand Empire
During the last years of the Pre-Imperial Era, Karadia was in chaos. The elven nations who were hegemons over the continent for almost five centuries crumbled under relentless assaults of beastkin, drakons, razors, kraads, goblins, orcs, and, finally, humans. The result was an utter anarchy of numerous lesser countries and tribes, with the inhabitants of the Native Sea coastlines having two to three centuries to build up - and the north being a mess.
At this moment, a valiant warrior named Falon, hailing from some minor northern human tribe, arised. He gain glory after singlehandedly challenging and slaying [though with no witnesses, opening many speculations] an ancient dragon lying waste to the lands of what is now Rathenia. Falon the Dragonslayer wanted attention - and after proving his commanding skills while leading a ragtag bunch of barbarians into a successful battle with the elven armies of the Manaedin kingdom, he got just that.
Menorian Federation was an ancient empire, which remembered times of the Xylian Dominion - the predecessors and creators of the elves. They knew what Xylians were capable off, and when they discovered a remnant of the Xylian civilization that emerged from the Labirynth in the current north-eastern Elvhara, they decided to intervene. Falon the Dragonslayer became the chosen champion of the Supreme Thaumaturgist, a god-queen of the Federation. Armed with menorian gold, thaumaturgists, artifacts and engineers, Falon wiped out the xylian enclave within a decade long war of extermination.
During this war, his fame grew exponentially. And with the primary goal out of the picture, the Supreme Thaumaturgist decided to go for a secondary one. An establishment of a de facto vassal empire from the chaos of Karadia which would act as an overseas colony of the Federation. Falon complied, though only to a degree. This led to the armies of the Dragonslayer marching south, as the analysts of the Supreme Thaumaturgists decided that Itavia was the best way to begin.
Itavia was a powerful and heavily militarized country on Itavian Peninsula, its' traditionally republican government collapsing under the strain of internal unrest and prolonged war against the Karthian Oligarchy over the control of the western half of the Native Sea. While the Itavian Empire was barely starting up, it was a perfect target - a military and economic power currently weakened under internal strain, its armies weak yet its economy powerful.
The war was bloody. Hordes of warriors brought south by Falon would no doubt fell under the iron discipline of the itavian legions, if not for the the authority of its supreme leader and close to a decade spent by the menorian advisors to reforge the hordes into armies, teaching them discipline with all available methods, including some light mindcontrol. In the end, the tide overturned the Itavian Empire, with Karthian Oligarchy and Novian Republic falling soon after.
With menorian gold and advisors, his own armies and both his luck and considerable intellect, Falon succeeded in maintaining the Grand Empire's grip over the three countries. Thus, the Karadian Empire began.
First Imperial Era
First Imperial Era saw the rise of the Karadian Empire into something that could finally be called a 'Grand' Empire. For generations its armies marched in the four directions. Chaos an anarchy of the post-elven empire Karadia was a prime ground for such a military expansion. Frankish-Gallic kingdoms, once illustrious Hellana, stalwart Nikopolan Hegemony, ferocious Niflheim and the exotic Maroth - numerous human lands joined the Empire.
To surprise of many, this wasn't all - sun and moon elves of the Alvaena, high elves of the Lanoirenn, dwarves of the White Mountains and dark elves of the powerful and decadent Vhessan Empire all become part of the Grand Empire, the descendants of Falon diluting its primarily human nature. Competing powers of the Visenian Commonwealth and a Rehalian Union were discovered, with wars waged and treaties signed.
Then, Menoria fall in an unexplained magical cataclysm. The Grand Empire entered a period of internal troubles, focus of which was the religious question. Many new gods were worshipped in the Grand Empire, some brought by Menorian settlers, some born of the religious syncretism. 250 years after the fall of Menoria and five hundred twenty years since the foundation of the Empire, the tensions reached a critical level. That's when the Dawn War started.
Dawn War
Dawn War was a once-in-history event. A direct confrontation between numerous gods and pantheons of the Grand Empire, war so much above human heads and with powers so great that causality and time died in first seconds of the war. While the Dawn War officially lasted for merely thirty years, it in facted last for untold millions if not billions of years. The tides turned constantly, the losing gods retconning their fall and wiping the slate clean, restarting the war from the start - over and over again.
In the end, mortals remembered [and faintly so] only the last thirty years of the Dawn War. The one where sixty High Gods [twenty Exarchs, twenty Anarchs and twenty Hierarchs], previously unknown, has destroyed their opponents to the last. Save for the gods that allied with them, none survived. High Gods were allowed an almost free reign, and their guidance led the Grand Empire into its golden age. Thus started the Second Imperial Era.
Second Imperial Era
The thirty years of the Dawn War saw numerous improvements to old traditions, laws and culture mores, with the High Gods starting processes that sometimes didn't culminate until the end of the Second Era, one thousand and one hundred twenty years after the conclusion of the War. They stopped acting so directly after the war, instead starting their Great Game - an eternal indirect struggle to become the sole remaining religion without causing another Dawn War.
With their guidance, the Grand Empire grew. Technology and knowledge of magic improved by leaps and bounds. Wild Lords of the Fae were vassalized, the supernatural was tamed. Soon armies of techmaturgic warmachines surpassing the achievements of the Xylian Dominion become the main power of the Grand Empire. Soon railways connected all of its cities, and industry become so mechanized that work became almost unnecessary.
Wars were still waged, as Rehalian Union, Visenian Commonwealth and even Kasytian Empire learned many things off the Grand Empire's back - and wished to contest their competitor's might. The continent of Telya was seized, outposts on numerous other continents were made, and the Grand Empire expanded downward, into the Labirynth below.
The fall from grace was as horrible as expected.
Twilight War
No one know why the Twilight War started. The reports and surviving data are all fragmentary at best. At the peak of its power, the Empire broke. The reason for it was the overseeing consciousness of the Empire-made Network (less of an internet and more of a separate dimension playing the same role) nicknamed Deus ex Machina suddenly going renegade.
The result was terrible. During first ten seconds of the Twilight War 99% of the imperial techmaturgists died in horrible ways as hunter/killer program spirits of the Deus ex Machina (much later renamed into Hexmachina) were unleashed upon them through their direct links with the Network. The Empire's mages, majority of of its data vaults and almost all of the people who understood its technology died before the war truly started. The result was a constant massacre, as a barrage of eldritch abominations and warped machinery marched against the survivors.
The only places that the Hexmachina failed to infiltrate were the imperial Military Subnetwork (created as partially separate system and with potent wards guarding it form unauthorized access) and the external satellite networks of the imperial allies and competitors abroad - the latter mostly by the virtue of hitting off-switches and shutting down their entire technological base when it became obvious what's happening, dooming most of their population to death in the resulting chaos and economical collapse.
In the end both the Subnetwork and Satnetworks fell to Hexmachina, although the latter failed to cause the same degree of devastation due to the machinery being disconnected from it, and the former during the last minutes of the Twilight War.
What saved the Grand Empire was the High Gods intervening semi-directly. It was during the Twilight War that the first theurgists (both the normal priests and the Chosen) were born. Their activity - together with whatever the ailing Grand Empire could muster - slowed down Hexmachina progress. When it managed to invade the Military Subnetwork at some point (and crashed down majority of what remained off it), the Hexmachina itself was eventually slain were twenty Chosen Ones were uploaded into the Network to directly confront it, with all the remaining engineers and mages providing a distraction.
Third Imperial Era
The Grand Empire barely survived the Twilight War. The Reality itself broke, creating the Lost Lands. The activity of the followers of the dark pantheons grew a hundredfold, engaging the Empire in centuries long struggle for survival. Worst of all, its technology and production bases were mostly destroyed - if the Hexmachina didn't kill 99% of its inhabitants, they would die of starvation on their own (as it happened, to a varied degree, with Visenian Commonwealth and the Rehalian Union(organization).
Despite all of that, the remnants persevere, and continue their fight.
Demography and Population
Species and Races
The total population of the Grand Empire is estimated to be around two hundred millions, with further thirty-seven millions living in Vhessana, Verkvena, Niflheim, Ceveria and Elevhia, countries that do not currently belong to the Grand Empire, but did until recently and there is enough of a local sympathizers there (even among their ruling elites) that re-annexation isn't impossible and depends entirely on the geopolitical situation.
That population is rather diverse, and while there are only a few major species, there are many rare subspecies that do live in the Empire, even if 99% of its population won't meet a single representative of it in its lifetimes.
Despite that diversity most of the species - at least those that aren't extremely rare - tend to stick to their own. They are multitude of causes for that, ranging from genetical pecularities to stereotypes and aversion to excessive cultural mixing. The largest issue, however, is distance. The travel between provinces is dangerous and costly. Worse, many client states are urgently trying to stop larger emigrations from happening due to such population movements threatening them with internal tension which would leave them exposed to the followers of the dark pantheons.
One thing however has to be stated clearly - racial isolationism of most regions in the Grand Empire aside, the imperial council and the senate permit no such thing as tying certain positions in the society to your species. There are some rare, special exceptions to this (for example, high dragons are universally seen in positions of authority because their species is biologically incapable of not striving for those), but in general, such is the rule.
Many of the client-states have very limited social mobility, with many of them possessing hereditary nobility. However, no such country has a single species always be a nobility, or always be slaves. Such idea would ring too close to the attrocities commited by the Xylian Dominion on the ancestors of majority of the Grand Empire's population.
There are some species that are considered a kill-on-sight targets for every imperial organization. The only way for a species to be declared a target for such extermination is to be irreversibly corrupted by forces of the Umbral Bond or Pentagram. As a general rule of thumb, if the species is hostile to the Grand Empire and there were no cases of their representative switching sides or betraying their kin within the last one century, they are considered irredeemable and can become extermination target.
Baseline humans make up for about 50% of the population. Elves are the next 30%, primarily the dark, white, and desert elves. Another 10% are various beastkin (most of them descendants of slaves or pre-imperial era warlords that invaded the continent and settled there). 5% are goblins and orcs. The remaining five percent are various 'others' (with dwarves being the largest group, but with less than 1% of the general population).
Social Hierarchy
Even during the enlightened Second Era the population of the Grand Empire was quite hierarchical - and proud of it. The situation has only worsened during the subsequent five centuries of war. Any social group and organization is willing to do their utmost (even if they had to bend the law a bit) to secure every scrap of power and influence that they can - it is a purely natural reaction, one that the imperial leadership managed to only partially rein in. As a result, there are clearly visible social strata, with advancement much harder than demotion.
There are certain regional variants, but in rough terms, they are five social groups in the Grand Empire: nobility, commoners, peasants, slaves and the free people. Those are referred to in official imperial documents as patricii, plebes, proletarii, servus and peregrini. Each of those stratas is playing a different role in the imperial society, with some occassional local variations... and often many sub-stratas.
To say that the imperial society is severely fractured is to say nothing.
Patricii
Patricii are the imperial nobility. They can referred to locally as nobles, they can be plutocrats or oligarchs. Sometimes they are hereditary, and sometimes they are no - and often they're legally indistinct from their common brethren. They can can carry numerous titles and can belong to every imagineable culture. However, to the Grand Empire, they are patricii. At least in the official documents if they ever do something important enough to be referred to by the imperial documentations.
The patricii are a caste that holds majority of the truly important positions in both the Grand Empire and its many client-states. They are almost uniformly wealthy and influential, and more often than not - at least in such a world as this one - used both their wealth and influence to become powerful in major or their combat skills. Although there are also many of them that give in to hedonism and are too busy enjoying their position to care.
They are not only allowed but actually expected to participate in the politics, local or not. Many higher ranks of the Imperial Army and Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs are limited to nobles of sufficient standing. There are many religious rituals that also require person of sufficient standing to be present or participate.
On the other hand, there are tasked with liturgia - a pan-karadian custom that expects the nobility to pay for erection of numerous public works [libraries, school, hospital, hipodromes, public baths, city walls etc.] to finance the growth of arts, organize and donate for charity works and even finance the retirement of the local work slaves. To maintain a lifestyle expected from a patricii one to has to spent immense amount of money, and many end up driving themselves to bankruptcy and debt.
They are also usually tasked with leading the vassal states militaries in defense of their lands. As a result, the term 'patricii' (or noble/any other local equivalent) is usually synonymous to soldier. Military education and training are a basic necessity in their strata, alongside the liturgia and running successful businesses to finance both.
In the Third Imperial Era, they've began to be seen as literally responsible for the local defenses. Failure of sufficient magnitude has, on a few occassions, caused the Empire to resort to the highest possible sanction - terminating the status of every single patricii of the afflicted area, with their property confiscated and given to the plebeians that were picked to replace their now failed 'betters'.
There is a second, special category of the patricians in the Grand Empire, officially titled the vir bonus and best described as the nobility of the Empire as a whole. While they are usually more influential than their slightly more common brethren in the client-states, the both groups have a lot of ties with each other.
Vir Bonus
Vir bonus (old itavian for 'good man') is a member of a special layer of nobility that is considered to be the 'imperial' nobility. Being counted into the ranks of the vir bonus is generally a recognition of some worthy deeds or the wealth (typically on the level where said wealth starts being seen by the Empire as a strategic asset), and in the most egregious cases it might come with a seat in the Senate. They are seen as superior to even the regular nobles, with necessary societal rituals to highlight that.
The vir boni are further divided internally into eight internal ranks, typically grouped into three main categories. The lowest category are the so-called vir tertius, composed of the imperial nobles who are yet to gain the seat in the Senate yet have either achieved something which warrants a popular recognition. These ranks are vir honestiores and vir clarissimus, with the rule being that the former is received by people who aren't already patricii (and could even be slaves, in which case receiving that title comes in package with freedom and some land/money grant to establish themselves) yet who achieved something notable, while the latter is for those that already are nobles.
Since the vir honestiores title means you are considered part of the patricii, it's more of a delay, with the children of such noble already seen as 'full' nobles and thus quallified for the vir clarissimus and higher titles.
Then come the vir secundus, who are either members of the Senate or people legally seen as their equals (though without the protection against the crimen laesae maiestatis). First ranks, the vir sanctus is for higher ranked members of the Imperial Cult (primarily the high priest and above), the vir spectabilis is for the members of the other imperial organizations (such as the archmages of the Imperial Magic Guild, although keeping them 'equal' with the high priests is an intentional reminder of their place) and the vir illustris is for regular members of the Senate, either the regular imperial nobles (which means fabulously wealthy imperials) or the truly highborn inhabitants of the vassal states (including their royalty).
Final level are the vir primus, the handful of the highest ranked and most important individuals in the Empire. Majority of its members are are the Vir Magnificus, primarily members of the imperial family and the Imperial Council. The two remaining ones are the Vir Divinus - which is the special rank available only to the pontifex maximus - and the Vir Gloriosus, restricted for the Grand Emperor himself.
In the end, centuries of warfare has greatly loosened the expected etiquette, meaning that save for interactions with the Vir Divinus and the Vir Gloriosus there are no expected (and sometimes punishable if forgotten) rules of conduct. However those of lesser ranked are expected to greet those of higher ranks in a respectable manner. Vir primus are also expected to receive public welcome when they enter a city or town (at least, when they do that officially).
Plebeians
Known under many other names throughout the Empire, the commoners are free people that aren't considered part of the nobility but are still property owners. They are lesser landowners, they own businesses in the towns and cities, they usually have at least some money to their name stored somewhere, they are usually respected enough to sometimes partake in the local politics.
In short, they occupy the niche that's best summarized as the 'karadian middle-strata'. They are often at least somewhat educated (or at least successful enough to reach their current position despite not receiving any higher education) and so on. They have money to spend on educating their children - and not just in the meaning of the normal higher education, but also places such as the martial arts school or the local collegium of the Imperial Magic Guild.
The plebeians form the backbone of both the imperial economy and the Grand Empire as a whole. Officers of the Imperial Army, higher ranked priests of the Imperial Cult, higher ranked bureaucrats of the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc. etc. are usually recruited from this strata.
They also have enough wealth to supply themselves with better equipment and weapons, meaning that it's pretty common for them to be encountered in the ranks of adventurers (at least those better in quality, to serve as knighthood and members of other elite military formations of the client-states.
It's also not uncommon for them to be elevated into the ranks of the local nobility. In fact, as property owners, they are eligible to be elected into the highest governmental positions in many client-states such as Hellana or Karthia.
Proletarii
The proletarii are the free citizens of the Grand Empire that aren't property owners. They are workers, hired by the patricii or the plebeians to work in their businesses (be it agriculture, mining or industry). They don't even the places that they live in, instead sleeping at their workplaces or renting apartments/houses from significantly richer citizens.
They form the majority of the imperial population, with limited amount of ways to escape their status. Enlisting into the army and hoping for promotion and enough of a discharge payment to buy yourself a property. Becoming an adventurer and surviving long enough for the same goal. Training hard in their craft so that they become famed in their line of work, thus earning more money.
This doesn't mean, however, that they live in perpetual misery. The problem lies largely in just how valuable a piece of land can be, which serves as an obstacle in their societal promotion, especially as you also need to earn money to sustain it. Those that actually work hard and don't waste their money will have enough of it to not be afraid of their finances, and even having enough to of it to drop by to drink and gamble, to visit local public baths and to take part in some festivals or go watch a gladiatorial fight or other public entertainments.
Local Imperial Cult facilities are usually expected to provide certain degree of free healthcare and education for the proletarii, meaning that this, too, is achievable, for as long as you act responsibly. What's more, the taxes are usually pair per property (or in the form of tariffs on the goods moved between client-states), which means that proletarii are also largely exempt from paying them.
This is made even easier in the cities and towns where the local patricii are often expected to (through the custom of liturgia) finance eating houses for the poor, make visits in the public baths free to improve local hygiene and prevent plagues from spreading and so on. In the end, what differentiates them from the plebeians is that they don't have enough financial stability to be able to look up or out of their local town, forcing them to focus entirely on living their own life and not care about Karadia as a whole.
The two subtypes of the proletarii are the infames and the freedmen. The former are free people who ended up forced (or decided to) work in the lines of work that are considered 'inferior', and 'humiliating' to them.
Primary groups of the infames are prostitutes, public entertainers (dancers, gamblers and actors), people cleaning the public toilets or doing other sufficiently 'dirty' work, executioners, muscles for hires and people offering loans to others and living off the interest to those debts. Infames cannot marry with the patricii and often even the plebes, and in fact are extremely rare for them to marry with anyone who isn't another infames or proletarii. In fact, the Imperial Cult doesn't consider them to be worthy enough of the religious marriage, meaning that best they can do is attaining a secular marriage.
The freedmen (and freedwomen) are former household slaves that were freed by their owners. They are technically considered part of the proletarii strata, however with some small modification - they stay slightly subservient towards their owner, being expected to act with proper gratitude towards him or her.
In extreme cases of this not being a thing (such as the freedman trying to rob their former owner or testifying against them in court with an exception for the accusations of treason), the liberation from slavery can be officially revoked. Their descendants will be normal proletarii or even plebes, depending on their wealth. What's more, they are not constricted in the options of wedding types and potential spouses.
Servii
The slavery technically existed during the Second Era, although on an extremely limited scale and typically in a way similar to indenture. This fact has changed greatly during the last five centuries, at least partially due to the Grand Empire having to deal with not only hundreds of thousands of war prisoners from their wars against the many threats of the Lost Lands but also with the complete collapse of the Second Era' system of social benefits.
Today anywhere from 20 to 60% of the province' population are typically slaves belonging to one of a handful types of slavery, each of them another chapter of the Grand Empire's descent despite its attempts to maintain what's left of its civilization and past greatness. The types of slaves (from the most to the least numerous) in the Empire are as follows.
Labour Slaves - The closest imperial approximation of serfdom. They aren't owned as a person, instead they are permanently tied to their place of work - typically an estate/village/mine/anything else that requires unskilled workers on a regular basis - and are bought and sold with it. They are allowed to marry other slaves (without their 'owners' input in the matter), they are allowed to possess things and money (although they are not payed on a regular basis, their workplace is expected to feed and cloth them, plus make some occasional reward payments if the company/estate works well enough).
Technically allowed to buy themselves out, but in truth this is rare - the labour slaves are very common in their professions, meaning that finding job as a free man is going to be extremely hard. This does quite a good job in hiding the fact that if they actually were to be paid regularly, the imperial economy in its current shape might not have survived the aftermath.
Contract Slaves - Slaves that are educated to become a part of some organization (in most cases one of the organizations that constitute the Grand Empire), and are expected to pay back the costs of that (plus interest). This is, in short, the direct successor of the indenture servitude of old. This is a common result of someone from among the labour slaves (or the proletarii) being discovered as worthy of such investment during the primary education. Alternatively, the eventual result of orphans who aren't adopted before their tenth birthdays.
Majority of contract slaves are adventurers - in whose case, it's not really a choice but something more akin to a conscription - but all organizations save for the Imperial Cult and Imperial Army take advantage of this system. Once the slaves pay back the costs of their education (plus interest, to keep the system economically viable), they are automatically freed. In the so-called meantime their accomodation is guaranteed by their owners - one more form of the Grand Empire outsourcing the social security of old to the wealthier citizens.
Slave-adventurers, as a recognition for their recruitment being forced and their lives being at constant risk, are also allowed to convert to other types of slavery, provided that their prospective owner has paid off their training costs (or is willing to pay them with some additional interest in installments). All types of contract slaves are also expected to receive some additional bonuses (money to spend, luxury goods or services) for showing initiative and results. They also cannot be injured in any way, as going too far in their treatment might warrant their debt being nullified in a court.
Household Slaves - Slaves that directly belong to someone, and can be traded between their owners. On one hand, this opens a lot of options for abuse. On another, it's the easiest way to get freed without doing potentially dangerous works - all you need is to make the owner like you enough and make them be aware that you are willing to do the same job just as well if you are free. You can get freed on your owner's deathbed, you can be freed when they get married, or simply because they fell like that.
On the other hand, the household slave willingness to get freed greatly depends on their post-slavery work prospects. Household slavery means stability and potentially the best living standards of them all (although it greatly depends on the owner), while not having to risk your life (save for bodyguard household slaves). Without gurantee of keeping your work, household slaves tend to be almost hostile when the idea of getting freed shows up on the table. They tend to lack skills for contract slavery, and there are always many candidates willing to do their job for free as household slaves.
The Imperial Cult is the most negative about this type of slavery, due to some wealthy organizing themselves small harems of pretty much sex slaves (who, in all honesty, tend to prefer that life than toiling in a village on the borders when you can get slaughtered by something every night). The potential for abuse among the household slaves exists, and majority of temple slaves were formerly this for a reason.
Penal Slaves - Recurrent serious criminals, especially horrible criminals and war prisoners taken during the wars against the followers of the dark gods. The result are the penal slaves - the one and only type of slaves that's purposefully devoid of all rights. They can be killed, tortured or worse - this type of punishment is explicitly treated in the imperial courts as punishment only slightly worse than death. Most of them are working in extremely dangerous environments with low survival prospects, others are use for experiments, or as the rather nasty types of household slaves.
The only exception are the subcategory of the ward slaves, who are by all intents and purposes penal slaves. However, due to the court finding some indications for a possible redemption, they are instead given to a member of public with an outstanding reputation who is expected to rehabilitate them properly (or kill them, if they decide that it cannot work). This isn't happening often, due to crimes required to be consigned to penal slavery being horrible enough that it is hard to find an explanation for them.
Temple Slaves - One of the past legal victories of the Imperial Cult was the additional legal defence of the slaves (primarily the household ones) from abuse, which took the form of 'temple slavery'. Every household slave can, at any given moment, take advantege of this law and be officially converted to this type of slavery.
When they do that, they are immediately taken from their owner and (with their family members attached if they belong to the same owner or there was a high risk of their owner getting their hands on them with a purpose of revenge) and handed ot the Imperial Cult temple of their choosing. No questions asked.
Occasionally this happens because the slave was simply particularly zealous in their religious beliefs, and the whole thing was done officially, with owner's approval. In majority of case it was because the owner was so abusive that the slave decided that saying goodbye to their prospects of freedom (temple slaves are slaves for life).
The temple slaves are typically responsible for keeping their shrines and temples clean and doing menial parts of various rituals. They are bound to their workplaces and, as it was said, they can't be freed. However other than that, they are typically treated as something very close to free people (even if their legal status is different).
Peregrini
Peregrini are the people who don't fit, people who aren't owners of property but could easily become ones (yet for some reason they don't want to), people who own property in multiple client-states but not enough of it to become a vir bonus, famed adventurers whose very equipment is more valuable than an entire estate, yet are moving from one part of the world to other.
In short, nomads. Not ones moving in tribes, but moving on their own or in small groups. People who are actively operating outside of the pre-existing societal hierarchy, outsid3e of the established social order. Their treatment differs on an individual basis, and it's much less formulaic than that of the remaining strata.
Territories
Twilight War shattered the Grand Empire, and to this day it failed to put itself back together. Many regions of Karadia to this day aren't directly connected with each other anymore, being completely surrounded by the Lost Lands, with only one or two roads (or railroads) connecting them with the rest.
This warranted a large-scale administratitive reorganization of the Grand Empire, that happened right after the Twilight War 'officially' ended. Whenever applicable, old division of provinces stayed as it was, others however can often have pretty strange borders, which makes the provincial map of the Grand Empire look very odd. It's made even worse by the fact that the client-states exist separately from this system.
They are allowed self-governance, but it's the local provincial governors that oversee the imperial organizations (such as the local Imperial Cult and Imperial Ministry of Production facilities) and ensuring that those don't fight with each other, while acting as ambassadors to the local client-states.
The provinces of the Grand Empire are legally divided into three categories.
1. Imperial Provinces, mostly in Itavia, ruled by legates chosen by the Grand Emperors and directly responding to him.
2. Senatorial Provinces, long-standing and stable provinces outside of Itavia, whose governors are elected by the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs, primarily from among the senators and their extended family.
3. Praesidial Provinces, the besieged borderlands where the local officers of the Imperial Army are in charge.
Religion
The Grand Empire is theoretically despotic, with the Grand Emperor being seen as a regent governing the worldly domain of Honour. Polytheistic gods of different origin are typically subsumed by the Imperial Religion into one of its many vassal pantheons and lesser Gods - worship of them is permitted, for as long as one also upholds the expected sacrifices and rituals to the Exarchs (who are also seen as superiors of said lesser gods).
However, the truth is much more complicated. The Grand Empire is in state of perpetual religious chaos, with the so-called Imperial Cult - which is considered to be state religion - being in fact an attempt to keep the religious matters more or less controlled to avoid various heresies from springing up, while simultaneously combating those already active (such as the worship of the Hierarchs).
In the end, the way the Imperial Cult operates varies between the many cultures of the empire, sometimes even between the provinces belonging to the same vassal state. Only the key tenets and the list of venerated gods (the Exarchs) remains more or less identical).
Divergent Cults
Monotheisms are generally suppressed, though without bloodshed or violence. Monotheists of all stripes are allowed to worship their Gods for as long as they include the well-being of the ruling Grand Emperor and the Grand Empire in their prayers. However active proselytism outside of their family is forbidden.
Anyone who for example heard about the Rehalianism existing can approach any believer or priest of that religion within the imperial territory for more knowledge, and resulting conversion is allowed (although you stop being a noble if you do that).
Churches and other places of worship are allowed [though typically not if they are big enough to outshine Imperial Cult facilities of the town] when there are enough adherents of 'their' religion in the area.
Other Polytheisms are typically allowed, though unless their Gods are in the long list of Divines 'vassalized' by the High Gods of the Imperial Cult, things might get a little bit tricky in a way slightly similar to the one that the monotheists get [though typically much less sternly].
This treatment is typically 'received' mostly by Kasytian gods, as they are the last major polytheistic religion that refuses to kowtow to the might of the High Gods.
Heresy is the term used to describe the attitude towards religion that is openly forbidden in the Grand Empire. This includes worship of the Hierarchs, or any proscribed deity (such as the ones of the Umbral Bond), and also atheism.
The exact treatment varies (the Empire has way too many enemies to kill all of them on sight, some have to wait, and some can temporarily be useful). As a whole, the penalty tends to be death, as its considered a treason against the Grand Empire (and it's technically still under the martial law.
Agriculture & Industry
Agriculture
Agriculture is greatly varied in terms of available technologies and the exact forms of organization. The knowledge itself is advanced, and so are the theoretically available machines and alchemical fertilizers and pesticides (not to forget the blessings of Hortulanus, the Exarch of Sustenance). Besides, the available crops are mostly hyperadvanced transgenic crops of the Second Empire.
However the perpetual crisis that the Grand Empire is in and the collapse of its Second Era technological basis means that access to this goods is greatly varied. Transgenic crops and blessings of Hortulanus are freely available, however machines and alchemical compounds are much less so. A province with more advanced Fabricae can organize an extensive and partially mechanized agriculture, while its less fortunate neighbour will be forced to rely on manual work of thousands of labour slaves.
This fact has less to do with hoarding technologies, and more with the fact that such machines are produced exclusively by a handful of remaining Second Era autofactories, whose output has a maximum level. There is no technology to spread, as nobody knows to replicate those wondrous machines nor how to produce their creations by hand.
The same is with the fertilizers and pesticides - while imperial alchemists lost less of their knowledge than the techmaturgists, they are still forced to produce many things practically by hand, meaning that many substances are going to be permanently in short supply. And even if their production is possible, the question of availability of their components still stands, as many provinces simply doesn't have access to what is needed to produce fertilizers and pesticides of any level.
Industry
Imperial industry is, once again, varied depending on locally available technology. A lot of it controlled by the Imperial Ministry of Production, with close to 50% of the combined industrial output of the Grand Empire coming from various Fabricae under IMP control.
The products that can be manufactured depend - many of the fabricae are built around surviving autofactories of the Second Empire, meaning that they can freely (and without organic workforce) produce a vide assortment of very advanced goods for as long as they possess access to necessary resources.
This, however, is rarely enough - and due to that fabricaes' also train and employ a wide array of craftsmen (shapers, alchemists and engineers, to use the proper terminology) with their workshop, creating a lot of goods by hand, sometimes with certain degree of mechanization (including primitive assembly lines).
Their goods are by nature inferior to the autofactory-produced ones, however they get pretty close when produced by the higher ranked master of their craft (unfortunately, such goods are phenomenally limited in supply), but have the benefit of being always available (while the autofactories are limited to only a certain assortment of goods).
The remaining 50% of the imperial industry are either outposts of the Ministry of Production placed somewhere outside of fabricae (for example due to presence of a resource that cannot be moved far away) or outsourced workshops crewed (primarily) by the contract slaves belonging to the Imperial Ministry of Production or proletarii. These workshops are typically owned by the plebes or patricii.
Trade & Transport
Transport
Transport is as varied as anything else in the Empire. The Second Era Empire had casual teleportation between settlements (half of which were in fact multiple settlements stacked upon one another in separate dimensions just to save space), meaning that roads and railways were redundant, obsolete and mostly gone from the world. The Twilight War forced the Grand Empire to rediscover those lost technologies, with a varied degree of successes.
Today there are roads - dirt or paved, depending on the money available - throughout the Grand Empire, but they are mostly playing a local role. The main communication arteries are either navigable rivers or railways, especially those connecting the provinces. The Lost Lands respect logic only when its anchored to places outside of it, meaning that railway going from province A to province B through the Lost Lands will keep connecting those two areas, even if exact details of the route will fluctuate as time passes. There are also typically highways next to railways, but created mostly for troop deployment.
As a result, the prime methods of transport in the Empire are either ships (on either rivers or seas) and trains, with local addition of carts (either self-propelled with some use of magic, or pulled by horses or other animals).
Trade
While the high degree of danger accompanying the transport of goods through the Lost Lands has largely severed pre-Twilight War trade routes, the trade hasn't ended. While the province are mostly forced to strive for a maximum possible self-sufficiency, the true autarky simply isn't possible. Besides, there are also the luxury goods that, due to many of them requiring the autofactories to be constructed, are simply not universally available.
Because of that, the trade is still there. Internally it's done primarily through the railways or river routes connecting provinces, with the necessary security measures elevating the costs greatly. That's why majority of products traded that way are the already costly luxury goods. However, when situation calls for it, the larger-scale trade of more common goods can also occur. It is, however, mostly a sign of desperation and lack of other options.
The sole exception is the black wheat trade. Massive amounts of that cheap (and nutritous if bland) crop are harvested in the Nortarrican provinces of the Empire, and then (in the form of flour) are transported to feed the surplus population of the northern provinces (primarily the poor, as no one wealthy enough to eat something else is willing to touch something as unappetizing as black wheat). This is a trade financed by the Grand Empire, with the transports escorted by the Imperial Army.
There are also external trade routes, with three of them being the most important.
The Golden Road goes through the Southern Wall Mountain and the Great Desert, finally reaching the mystical Golden Kingdoms, from which gold and various jewels are imported (in exchange for many types of cloth, weapons and a lot of other things).
The Black Road connects the Vhessan Empire and the major agrarian regions of the Visenian Commonwealth with the Empire, resulting in it being mostly focused on the slave and foodstuff trade.
The Silk Road goes east, through the Iron Channel and onto the eastern seas, connecting the Grand Empire with the Kasytian Empire and the countries of the half-mythical Far East.
Education
Primary Education
All inhabitants of the Grand Empire are guranteed access to the basic education, typically offered by the local priesthood of Historia, the Exarch of Knowledge. The basic education is composed of basics of counting (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentation and the way percents work, which is considered to be the necessity), reading and writing, imperial history and religion (obviously, in the form that's rather... imperial-friendly) and the general basics of the law.
However, while the Empire offers access to them, it doesn't force the education upon anyone - especially in the praesidial provinces many people do not send their children to learn things they perceive as useless, as the time spent on that could as well be spent working.
The priesthood of Historia is told to locate the 'rough gems' among the slaves and poorer commoners, with such an assessment generally resulting in being allowed to pursue some form of career in the Imperial Cult or other imperial organizations, often (if they do not have enough to pay for said education, with neither lump sum nor in installments) through a contract slavery.
This, naturally, can also be refused, but it's much rarer due to the prospects of societal advancement.
Secondary Education
The children of the higher stratas of the imperial society typically skip that basic level of education and go directly for the 'secondary schools' known as lyceums (or another some other, regional names). There, together with the selected 'gems' from the lower strata, they learn more detailed history and religion, basics of scientific knowledge (and theoretical knowledge on the magic), philosophy, the rules of 'proper' speech and better writing, and so on.
This period lasts for several years, and ends when the child passes the standardized Empire-wide final exams - depending on the talent and effort, this can be greatly accelerated - or you can be thrown out from the lyceum if you are a permanent underarchiever not worth the investment. Finishing the lyceum is the starting point of the more specialized education, typically provided by the imperial organization that you applied to (with the application results typically depending on the results of the final exam).
Lyceums are typically crewed by a mix of priests of Historia and secular former graduates who decided to pursue the career of scholars and teachers. Despite their half-secular nature, they are typically run by the priests and are constructed right next to the temples of Historia. The sole exceptions are the schools founded by someone, primarily by the nobles or rulers of the vassal states of the Empire.
Virtus, Veritas, Humanitas.
Grand Empire of Karadia
Capital:: Falonia
Government: Hereditary Monarchy
Ruler: Lucius Aurelius Sylvanus
Currency: Imperial Crowns.
State Religion: Imperial Cult
Cosmology: Imperial Creation
Founding Date: 28.03.0001[1]
Current Date: 01.01.0543[3]
ORGANIZATIONS
Imperial Council
Imperial ArmyImperial Census
Imperial Cult
Imperial Guild of Adventurers
Imperial Magic Guild
Imperial Ministry of Production
Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs
Imperial Senate
Client States
Client-StatesOther Informations
Imperial CultureFactions
Looking forward to all the re-writes!