NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: This is a post modern RP, the Star Wars peerage titles don't mean it's set in the Expanded Star Wars Universe.

Grand Moff Vrath watched as dignified men in a mixture of old Imperial Army uniforms, business suits and two men dressed in the robes of the old Imperial court filled the dining hall of his headquarters.

Since defeat Todeskopf had struggled to rebuild. The Haaregradians had toppled the Empire without making any attempts to replace the old system. The Moffs bickered and fought amongst themselves. Commoners with money, power or both pulled coups against weaker Moffs or squabbled over the political seats of deceased Moffs.

The Empire layed in shambles, a fractered, fading representation of old glories. Vrath knew this all too well. Vrath had managed to wind-up with a large portion of what remained of the army, he used it to his advantage. Under his leadership and iron fist his Moffdom had come to cover the entire southern portion of the country, but the army was running out of steam.
Vrath knew he couldn't gain control with more force, he wanted to rebuild the Empire, not be remembered as the man who finished it off completely. If strength wasn't the answer, perhaps tact was. He called a meeting of the other Moffs, whether they be old nobles or new warlord/business types who had amassed their own private armies after the war. He planned on getting them together to agree on a plan to begin rebuilding the nation, even if it meant replacing the old (mostly ignored) Imperial constitution with a new one that spread power around. If the squabbles could be forgotten then soon the new Federation might have enough strength to take back lands seized by the Haaregradians, or to, at the very least, keep the growing numbers of democrats and socialists from gaining influence.

The proles and peasants were begining to see revolution as the only way to stop the nobles from bickering, Vrath needed to prove that civil war would not occur and restore the great sense of nationalism that held together the Empire for 400 years.

OOC: Welcome back, take good care of my character.

PS: Tag.

Vrath surveyed the room as a Chinese and traditional buffet was laid out on the table. The Grand Moff only selected the food because of a metaphor he planned to use, he knew some of these men would rather keep fighting, a demonstration would be needed to convince them to join on side.

The meal was eaten with mostly friendly chatter, but no serious discussion going on. An hour after things were served Vrath stood up at the head of the table.

You're probably wondering why I have gathered you all here.

A the chatter at the table grew into a steady roar for a second and then died as the Grand Moff continued.

Our Empire is dying. It is dying from corruption and weakness. It is dying from endless bickering, power struggles between us and a mislead public. Of course the proles are starting to hate us, we send them out to die to settle our petty differences. They look outside and see people living in peace, even under weak, pathetic systems. They know democracy is weak but when they look at their own nation all they see are their leaders fighting each other.

We need to settle our differences before our Empire falls into civil war. If we can't stop fighting we will wear ourselves down so much that someone, some foreign enemy will snatch our nation from us. We can't let that happen. Do you want the Bolsheviks and democrats next door running the nation? Teaching our children perversion and weakness are values? Strength comes from unity! Power! The Empire! Not our little squabbles.

Vrath watched the room for a moment and then asked everyone to pick up one of their chopsticks from the meal.

Now break it.

As he expected everyone broke a chopstick. They looked at him puzzled for a second as he had his servents collect the other chopsticks and bundle them together.

That is how we are if we remain divided.

Vrath passed the bundle around the table.

Now this is us together, divided we are weak and can be broken. Together we are strong.

The bundle made it's way back to him and he placed it on the table.

Now then men, who wants to agree to strength and who wants to be broken by corruption and weakness? If you want strength please join me in drafting a new constitution, the Empire will rise again.

The men cheered Vrath and began to discuss their plans, putting the past behind them, they believed, would open a door to the future.

OOC: Emperor Vrath came to power in March of 2025.

With the civil wars ended Todeskopf was free to begin to rebuild in earnst. Laws were slanted heavily towards giving more property to the nobles.

Property could only be owned by military officers, or aristocratic families. People would be hired to work for these families for whatever they would work for, unemployment was still low so wages fell rapidly. Infrastructure was built up towards supporting a large military, every male citizen had to serve 3 years before he turned 23, the children of aristocrats served as officers, either serving 5 years as junior officers, and getting a college education or serving for longer and likely becoming very rich, basically things were back to the way they had been, except the man on top had changed.

Commoners had to rent propery or work in lieu of rent, either in 'factory apartments' or as landless farmers, a few would rise in their business and finally be able to rent a house or apartment away from their factory, but rents were steep for such luxuries.

The inner cities were rife with crime still and Vrath had plans to build a very brutal police system, executions, even of child criminals would happen in the streets. Since many Todeskopfian soldiers became addicted during their time in Dill Row and Haaregrad, a strong drug trade had grown up, the Marx Sea Pirates had almost moved their entire basing into the north of the country, they supplied the gangs. Already small groups of radical farmers were occassionally being reported, many of them found themselves jobless(and hence homeless) as a result. The cities were crowded with homeless, who needed arrested and locked up for vagerancy.

Vrath was now emperor of what he was coming to realize was a very unstable Empire, he took measures to ensure it wouldn't topple, but in order to get the money to rebuild he needed to sell off alot of Imperial owned business, they were sold off to a number of Moffs, including himself, many of the nobles got very rich, the 45 Grand Moffs were all in the top 100 richest men in the nation.

Rebuilding the military wasn't going to be easy, it was decided to keep things simple at first, the first new aircraft produced in Todeskopf was a enlarged, three engined Eurofighter, to be operated as a bomber. Tank destroyers were the army's new toys, models with long range missiles to take out tanks at long range and an autocannon for upclose.

Many of the citizens were still caught up in a wave of nationalism, but it was starting to wear off, they were trapped under crushing poverty that Vrath made seem like it would vanish after Federation, however his shock therepy economics only increased poverty for many. Alot of the unemployed were locked up, however many more just avoided sleeping in the cities, building large shanty-towns along their perimeter.

By the fall of 2027 signs were showing of bad crop turn-outs in much of the country, weather had been off all year and many farmers knew they wouldn't be able to pay their rent. If they couldn't pay rent they would lose all their crops and be in debt, which might take awhile to pay off without land to work.

Vrath was begining to see a possiblity of a famine, he remained unconcerned, after all, the peasants and proles would be fine if they would just get a job, the rich had plenty of money to spend.