NationStates Jolt Archive


The Imperial Council (Galactic Imperium, FT, open)

Hyperspatial Travel
12-12-2006, 08:31
Recruitment/sign-up thread for the GI (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?p=12072257#post12072257)

"Belarius still isn't here!"

The Regent's Speaker was a woman worried. She had been appointed by Belarius, probably because she was plain, uncharismatic, and often rude. He had no interest in her, and, as such, she was safe from his 'charms', which so often resulted in dismissal, or even death, to those who accepted. Or refused, for that matter.

The Imperial Council was hosted, not in a single building, or in a single city, or even on a single continent. No, the world of Briluck was the home of the Imperial Council. The reasoning, of course, was simple. Faster-than-light communication was not only difficult to achieve (one first had to determine the location of where you wished to send the message, and then send it, all at an incredible energy cost), but impractical, to boot.

And, if you were not in Council.. you didn't vote. So it was that thousands of buildings made up the Council, each Family representative not foolish enough to venture outside the safety of his or her home on Briluck. It was the capital world, for now. Of course, every time a new Regent was elected, it tended to change, to favor the Regent's allies, and to snub the Regent's enemies.

Briluck had been the capital for the last three elections. The reason? Simple. It was far, far away from the more heavily-inhabited regions of space. There were no pirates, no-one willing to hold the Imperial Council to ransom. Their houses were as well-fortified as most fortresses designed to withstand nuclear bombardment, and any attacks were prevented beforehand. That, and its location was a secret. Most didn't know the location of Briluck, and so, the Council was relatively safe from the outside.

The inside, of course, was an entirely different matter. The representatives there lied, cheated, threatened, blackmailed, and even assassinated, while sending their communications to Council all the while. The main memory-bank-building was where the whole thing was processed, and where the holograms were transmitted from. Thus, representatives never met face-to-face.

Speaker Karin, as the more respectful representatives called her, spoke for the Regent whenever he was away. It was quite amusing, she knew. Belarius commanded respect. He was charismatic, charming, and over half the Council voted for him simply for that. He was also incredibly ruthless. She knew he had ordered the execution of two of his most ardent opponents, and then, in an act of near-insane arrogance, had sent their heads to the heads of their opposing Families, with a brief missive attached.

"The body dies when it loses its head."

The message was easily enough deciphered. Continue opposing him, and they'd be next.

She paid for it, of course. When he was away.. one representative had called her an uppity bitch with pretensions of grandeur, in front of every member of Council. She grimaced. Trying to control the Council was impossible. She hoped Tenarius would come back soon.. there was another vote going on. The Council voted on everything. Of course, a fifty-one percent majority of the cast votes were required, and there were three choices one could make.

Agree, disagree, or abstain. To table a motion required a certain amount of votes by itself, and when, inevitably, a motion ended up with 70% of the Council abstaining (not wishing to give an advantage to either side, as motions almost always favored a single Family specifically), it was shoved aside. There were thousands of sleeping motions, and, whenever one was passed, it marked a shift in politics for the galaxy.

Four months ago, the Council had passed a motion. Sixteen systems had been developing a massive warfleet, of some hundreds of ships. They termed themselves the Alliance for Unity, and were spreading peace and justice, conquering world after world. This, of course, threatened the power of the Families. On some trumped-up excuse, as none of the worlds the Alliance had been conquering were Family worlds, nor were they significant in galactic affairs, a series of kill-vehicles had been released from various Family stockpiles.

Now, there was no more Alliance for Unity. Of course, the beauty of being Regent was that one controlled the thyraza supplies directly - each week, she was required to give an accounting for every last milligram of thyraza sent out, and votes were easy enough to buy. She also controlled the Imperial Fleet, which was, unfortunately, funded by the thyraza tax.

Belarius simply took the money for himself, as previous Regents had done. Having a strong Imperial Fleet weakened the profits of the Family, and furthered the power of the new Regent. No Regent would see re-election if they were foolish enough to look as if they wanted a fleet. Thus, the Imperial Fleet consisted of a few hundred mothballed vessels, far beyond repair, unmanned, and unpaid for. They couldn't sell them, by law, so they were, in essence, useless.

She sighed, and sat back. She could call the Council to order, and, by law, everyone was required to attend. Anyone could call the Council to order, however, only the Regent could force attendance. She would wait, though. Keeping the Council inactive until Tenarius returned would be to her benefit...


OOC: Just a wee thread, in which Families can post their attendance to Council. Keep in mind I'll be NPCing a fair bit of the voting (considering there are hundreds of thousands of votes, and about two or three player-votes), although most of them will be against everyone, and will tend to abstain).