The Althonite Empire
The Althonite Empire is an impressive organization given a few key factors:The Althonite Empire is Althos' primary organization and one of the biggest governing bodies in the galaxy of Althos' birth. Althos rules over it as The Eternal Emperor and he uses it to bolster the various faiths that worship him. It is a comparatively new addition to the story (at the time of this article's initial posting) and as such many details that are revealed here may be new revelations to readers. This article is, like virtually every article on this World Anvil, a living article that will be updated over time.
1: It's size, given it's youth
2: The independent law-enforcement that has managed the impressive feat of not overly interfering with local governments
3: The largely positive perception of its powerful, 'Eternal' Emperor
4: The ways it has transformed life for the working class individuals who make up the overwhelming majority of its mortal population-A Leyes diplomat and sworn servant of Althos, making remarks regarding the empire abroad one of its space-ships.
Structure
Althos' empire is highly unusual among interstellar empires in Universe S-2 in that he is a largely hands-off emperor and thus runs a largely hands-off empire. He does stand supreme atop the empire, and his authority is undeniable and absolute, but for the most part, he is content to let the powers that be remain the powers that be so long as they pledge allegiance to him. That said his empire does have some structure to it.
Beneath Althos there are a number of law enforcement organizations that exist to protect his rule and the churches that exist that worship him. There are over three hundred distinct law enforcement organizations that are a part of the current empire, many of which are run by impartial A.I. and are made up entirely of robotic law enforcers.
Beneath them are the churches and religions devoted to Althos himself. One of the big purposes of the empire is to protect and empower Althonians and Althonites across the multiverse. Althos is more likely to speak to clerics and witches and warlocks than he is to speak directly to a king or queen of a kingdom that has been subsumed, so priests and priestesses of the faith are generally more protected by Althonite law enforcement than kings and queens are.
Beneath the churches and religions are the local, national, and even planetary governments that existed before the empire appeared and annexed the planet into the empire. Althos, when he could, preferred not to shift local governments while annexing worlds into the empire. In fact, he often rewarded those who advised their governments to willingly join the empire, blessing them or even offering actual, concrete rewards.
That said there are different types of worlds within the empire itself. The most important worlds are "Key" worlds which have true, full membership within the empire. These worlds tend to be where gigantic, sprawling temples to Althos can be located and in many cases even prior to Althos' appearance and rise to power had the ability to travel, to a limited extent, across the cosmos. Beneath "Key" worlds are a variety of other worlds, with the most common and also lowest on the rung of importance being "Test" worlds and also "Factory/Resource" worlds.
One of the worst possible fates for a planet was to be a "Test" world, as those worlds were where Althos unleashed his most devastating powers or allowed his most vile servants to run free. "Factory/Resource" worlds were extremely unusual as they tended to be lifeless planets where Althos created factories and allowed them to infinitely produce robots and other machines.
There have been many cases where these once lifeless rocks become distinctly alive places with cultures that revolve around service to the Eternal Emperor and the steady acquisition of knowledge in his name. Several "Factory/Resource" worlds house enormous monasteries and archives where robots and A.I. commune with their creator and seek new directives to follow.
Culture
The Althonite Empire is an extremely new member of the powers that be in the galaxy of Althos' birth. As such most of its members, even key worlds, don't fully understand that it is a fully post-scarcity empire. Althos does not discourage hard work but he can and will provide for every single citizen in his empire, and he has begun to demonstrate that little by little.
One of the biggest changes that have occurred throughout the empire is the steady decline in the value of a few jobs. Professions like "Doctor" have begun to lose their once considerable value, and have been replaced by a few key professions such as "Healer" and "Medic", with "Medic" being the one closest to the old-fashioned role played by doctors.
Althos was and is innately a god of healing and the single most common way that he demonstrates his existence is to heal people who pray for healing. Althos routinely regenerates limbs and heals injuries that would otherwise be fatal, which has led to him being seen as a god of families and a protector of both parents and children, something he would disagree with internally but he does nothing to visibly refute since it benefits him and gives him many good-aligned worshipers.
Althos has brought an end to some social inequalities in the worlds that have accepted him. He has ended homelessness, both in the sense of giving everyone homes and also in the sense of giving people actual jobs. He usually doesn't radically transform someone's economic situation, unless he struck a deal with them, but he has worked to ensure that many, many people can live and can worship him. He has also ended starvation and promises people such as farmers that provided they work and that they pray to him their harvests will be enough for their communities and for themselves.
Althos, in his own way, values life and so he protects it. He is a surprisingly generous emperor, provided one pays him the proper respect. He regularly demonstrates this, and can even forgive those who forget or make mistakes provided what they did or failed to do was an actual mistake.
Public Agenda
The public agenda of the Althonite Empire is well known to its citizens. Althos IS the one living god, the eternal emperor, and all should know him and worship him. The purpose of the empire is to spread across the multiverse and make every living creature at least an Althonian. It expands because there are those who are not yet part of it, and its motives are to convert every lifeform into a believer in the one living god.
To the citizens of the empire, after a few years in the empire and seeing how Althos has positively transformed their lives, this is something many people are fine with.
Assets
Attempting to categorize the assets of a deity is by and large a pointless endeavor. Deities can warp reality and defy the laws of physics. A powerful enough deity can create virtually anything. Althos has reached that level of power. He can instantly create Dyson swarms, Dyson spheres, and other solar-system shaping megastructures. He can create any metal, and manipulate its physical properties.
The empire stretches over a few thousand solar systems and is made up of tens of thousands of worlds. It has essentially unlimited wealth and potentially unlimited soldiers. Amazingly enough, despite all of this, it is far from the biggest interstellar empire in even just the universe of Althos' birth.
The most astounding asset under the empire's control is its "warp gates", which are portals, created by Althos, that connect even distant solar systems that can be found at the edge of each solar system. Althos uses these gates to allow for interstellar trade between worlds, and the gates themselves are under constant watch by robotic overseers who are controlled by the most advanced common A.I.'s in the empire.
Each warp gate is an utterly gigantic portal, one that can easily accommodate entire spaceships at a time. There are also spaceship servicing stations near the gates that offer repairs and more for free to those with the resources to afford spaceships. Oftentimes habitable asteroids that house populations that worship Althos as a deity of stars can be found close to the gates as well.
History
Deities, according to surviving testimonies from angels and other extraplanar entities old enough to remember them, had a naturally imperial attitude. Even chaotic ones. Some called this a sort of divine pride that nestled in the heart of just about every god, even the youngest, most chaotic, or least fit to rule.
In the unspeakably ancient past gods were natural empire starters and many modern empires claim to be descended from ones started by gods. So for that reason, it is unsurprising that Althos eventually started an empire of his own.
That said, about five months after his birth Althos declared himself an emperor and began an empire from within his divine realm. That was mere hours before Agustino declared war on him. When that war was over, the god went and tested his powers, before deciding that it was time for him to slow down and to build his empire.
Althos would spend the next three years building his empire. When he slowed down he already had trillions of robots and other machines built throughout various solar systems in the galaxy of his birth. They would serve as his primary messengers and to this day remain one of his most important servants.
They went from planet to planet, and then solar system to solar system recruiting followers and annexing entire planets into the empire. For a planet to resist Althos was extremely rare as he tended to warm up the planet by performing miracles that included impossible feats such as healing entire worlds or causing deserts to bloom and become unbelievably fertile valleys. That said, in the rare instances when a world resisted the world paid heavily for it.
Haxor, at first one of two worlds not in the empire in the solar system of Althos' birth, along with Torus, resisted. Althos didn't annihilate the planet or order a mass murder, instead, he plagued the planet's giant residents with hunger and he afflicted them with a vast famine. Within weeks the planet had surrendered and joined the empire and is currently enjoying a period of hitherto unseen prosperity, as well as opportunities to meet the inhabitants of the other worlds in the solar system and to trade with other worlds.
Althos has just ordered the empire to become a technically inter-galactic empire by sending his first ships to the galaxy in which Htrae is located, though in a different solar system, and to begin to annex its four worlds. He has also constructed a Dyson shell around that solar system's sun already.
Demography and Population
The Althonite empire, though far from the biggest empire in Universe S-2 is still an impressively vast empire. It houses an unbelievably vast number of beings, from trillions of dragons to truly uncountable numbers of humans, elves, and other humanoid races.
The spread of the empire is unusual and chaotic, as befits Althos. There are currently Althonians and Althonites in multiple galaxies, thanks to the activities of demonic servants of Althos throughout the universe, but the primary body of Althonites and Althonians can be found in the galaxy of Althos' birth. They can be found across thousands of solar systems and in hundreds of thousands of world, many of which have only recently become habitable thanks to Althos using his powers on them, or in rarer cases because of technology under Althos' control persuading him to grant them powers sufficient to be able to make such planets habitable.
Territories
Most territory under the Althonite Empire's control is actually controlled by the empires, countries, kingdoms, and other governments it allows to exist. That said it does control territory that is distinctly its own, in the form of warp gates, space stations, and the so-called "Factory/Resource Worlds". Those territories are firmly the empire's own, which is to say that they belong to Althos.
Another example of territory that is well and truly Althonian are the habitable asteroids occupied by star-cults who worship Althos. Those odd, isolationist communities are inhabited by hermits who wished to devote themselves to the Eternal Emperor and sought an escape from the distractions of modern life. Their emperor obliged them and offered them a refuge in the depths of space, where their closest neighbors were the vast space stations that housed the mighty warp gates.
Military
Numerous military bodies can be found throughout the empire, with the most common being autonomous, robotic soldiers who obey mysterious and wise artificial intelligence commanders. These forces could subjugate dragons and they are most commonly found in the highest tech worlds, key worlds, and patrolling the space between stars, and the solar systems of the empire.
Other militaries that exist throughout the empire include undead legions, remnants of the Swarm, and "conventional" militaries that can be found throughout various worlds.
Technological Level
The empire's technological level is much higher than that of the worlds belonging to the empire. This is due to Althos' own technological capabilities, as well as his divine power. He is capable of creating antimatter weaponry and designing spaceships that, in the wake of him slaying the vestige of Technos, can exceed the speed of light.
Religion
The Althonite Faith in its myriad of forms is the official faith of the Althonite Empire. There are thousands of different forms of Althonism and each is permissible within the empire, even practices such as demon worship or being an open member of the Order of the Burning Blade.
The central purpose of the Althonite Empire is to ensure that Althonism, which is to say any religion that worships Althos in some way, is legal, protected, and something adherents can practice openly.
In very real ways Althos cares more about his priests and priestesses than he does about the kings, queens, and emperors within his empire. More intelligent leaders have begun to send their children to be trained to be Althonite priests and priestesses.
Foreign Relations
No true foreign bodies yet know of the Althonite Empire. That said, Althos knows of the hundreds of interstellar, interplanetary, and even inter-galactic empires in existence in the universe of his birth. He is interested in them, but hasn't as of yet devoted himself to thinking up the best ways to defeat, destroy, or absorb them. That said, he will surely devote himself to taking them down or absorbing them in time.
Agriculture & Industry
As a post-scarcity empire, the Althonite Empire is one capable of producing essential goods for free. This is an exceptionally easy task for Althos who is a deity of life and creation in his more positive aspects and who can transform any amount of land into a bountiful paradise at will.
The Althonite Empire produces every good known to man and more. It is a magical, high-technological, empire and Althos himself works to ensure it can produce almost any good imaginable, especially items that simply wouldn't work without a deity, which is the single biggest advantage his followers have: they serve a living god, and because of that they can safely combine technology and magic in ways inaccessible to other empires.
Trade & Transport
Since the advent of the empire, there have been enormous overhauls to various sorts of existing transportation infrastructures. One of the biggest and most dramatic overhauls was the creation of the warp gates and the space stations that accompany them. That said, though that was the big, enormous change, it was far from the only one.
Planets in the same solar system have been interconnected by a series of much smaller, appropriately sized portals that have appeared in major cities all over the relevant planets, allowing for the possibility of instantaneous interplanetary travel. This has, unsurprisingly, utterly transformed infrastructure and trade. That said, as far as anyone can tell, Althos' chosen people appear to dwell in the oceans of the world where he has been much more transformative.
Oceans in the worlds of the empire not only house portals to other planets, but portals to worlds in other solar systems. This has given rise to the idea, which is especially common among druids and species that dwell underwater, that either Althos' favored people are some sort of aquatic race or that Althos himself wishes to see his empire exist entirely beneath the seas of the universe.
In the most favored oceans, of the most favored worlds, portals appear that lead someone to the Eternal Sea, the name of the primordial dimension of water where water elementals and other aquatic beings are thought to have originated from. These portals are extremely rare, with less than ten having documented by Althonite angels of knowledge. One such portal is in the shallow waters of a Mercian (that is, on the planet named Mercy) city run by merfolk, and another portal is known to be in the deepest depths of the darkest ocean in Salifinos, where a city governed and inhabited entirely by deep ones is believed to be located.
In the days to come aquatic dragons all over the universe will feel the pull of Althos' power, as will deep ones and other abominations that dwell beneath the waves. Althos' fondness of water is well known, and a sign of his blessing is the sudden ability to breathe water. Many more zealous followers of his have begun the process of migrating into the ocean to feel connected to their god.
Education
Only somewhat modern, or even advanced worlds have had the time needed to begin to adjust their education systems to reflect the reality that at least one god is real. So far educational systems remain comparatively unchanged compared to how they were before.
Infrastructure
The primary infrastructure advancements relevant to the empire would be the emergence of space-habitats and the development of magical technology such as the warp gates. Aside from those things, and the introduction of robots and spaceships to the worlds of the empire, the infrastructure in the empire is largely just the infrastructure that already existed.
For the Eternal Emperor! For eternity!
Founding Date
First Founding: 15/5/52000500000, True Founding: 23/5/52000500000
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Alternative Names
The Divine Empire, The Endless Empire, The Evil Empire
Leader
Leader Title
Head of State
Head of Government
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Post-scarcity economy
Currency
In the days to come after Althos begins deploying ships and troops to the galaxy where Htrae is located he will design and launch a type of interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic coin known as a Sombrite. These units of currency will swiftly become the planetary currency of several worlds, a few entire solar systems, and will be the official currency of the empire, perfect for trades between planets, solar systems, and eventually even galaxies or universes.
There is paper currency here, digital currency, and coins as well. Sombrite is named after Althos' demonic pet, Sombra.
Major Exports
Althos desires to trade all sorts of goods with people from outside of his empire, as a means to draw them in. When his empire begins to interact with other empires he plans to trade all sorts of goods with his neighbors. That said, at the moment the empire exports nothing, aside from technology to demons in the wake of the Demon-God war. Unaffiliated demons offer souls to Althonian demons and in exchange Althonian demons sell them weapons and gadgets made from the robotic city in the Charnel Plains.
Major Imports
The Althonite empire imports nothing and has no trading partners. And unless part of a larger scheme to peacefully subsume another empire it will not import goods.
Legislative Body
For now, Althos is the legislative body of the empire but his laws are extremely sweeping and transcend all other laws. That said Althos is considering creating an official legislative body made up of elected representatives from every world in the empire that meets in his divine realm, in the unnamed fortress-city where his angels dwell, which also houses his tower.
Judicial Body
The duties of judging those accused of breaking the law in the Althonite empire fall to one specific subtype of lawful extraplanar beings called Leyes. They are lawful neutral and they worship Althos as a god of law, which he is. In exchange for their eternal service, they are granted true immortality and an ability to retire after 12,000 years of service, provided they vow to have their children succeed them. Leyes are some of the most fanatical Althonites in the empire and they are surprisingly well trusted by Althos who uses all manner of Leyes for various reasons throughout his empire.
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Deities
Official Languages
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
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