Arc 5 Notes - The Empire

Arc Five: The Empire

Chapters 101 - 160

I wrote this arc with a few goals in mind - I wanted to explore greed and touch on political corruption. Additionally, a few of this arc's story points have been Inspired by James Clavell's Shogun, and I wanted to pay homage to it to some degree.

In that novel, two warlords fight for control of feudal Japan, which is in the midst of a deadly, bloody civil war. One of the warlords uses an English navigator, the main character, who he has taken prisoner to help him gain control of the country. The navigator, by the way, is called Anjin by the Japanese, which translates to pilot.

The book revolves around power, manipulation, deceit, friendship, loyalty, and honest-to-goodness human ingenuity.

If you haven't read it, you should. It's incredibly gripping. Shogun is one of my absolute favorite books of all time. Once upon a time, I spent a great deal of effort imagining how to adapt it as a movie trilogy.

Anyway, about this chapter…

Initially I wasn't going to even have an alien species, it was all going to be different human factions fighting against each other. Ultimately decided to add the Drogar.

The reason why I picked them as an alien species is… complicated.

For one thing, there's a thing called "Reptilians". They're a sort of urban legend that's really popular with conspiracy theorists. Some people actually believe that these Reptilians are shapeshifters and have infiltrated human society, specifically in places of power and influence.

For example, Presidents and Queens and Generals and Entertainers, etc.

The idea basically originated from an old Conan the Barbarian story from 1929, which feature shapeshifting lizard people. The TV show "V" is kind of based on this conspiracy theory and urban legend as well.

Another source of inspiration is the warlike Kreeghor from the Rifts Megaverse. They're an interesting species - look them up and check them out. At the very least check out the power armor they have. Some of those designs are incredible.

But the most important reason why I made a Reptilian alien race is simply because some lawmakers in my country (and in yours too, I'm sure) are completely fucking draconian.

Thus the birth of the Drogar.

As a species, they represent an entire political ideology that every country suffers from - stagnant conservatism or worse, reactionary or extremist conservatism. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with conservatism. I believe that everything requires balance, and it is necessary to balance liberalism. And vice-versa.

What does suck is if conservatism gets stuck with an outdated set of ideologies, which it's prone to. By its own design, conservatism resists change.

Not that liberalism doesn't have its own ideological problems, so don't think I'm only knocking on one side of the coin. But at the very least, liberalism is more aware of its own failings, and is more willing to change.

As I like to say in the book, life is about change, and we all have to adjust.

Ok, back to the story - there's a lot of themes going on here, with greed at the center of it. There's also a subtheme of racism, but that's something we're gonna explore more of in another arc - particularly ones with the synthetics as the major antagonists.

In the story, the Empire is the major technological and economic powerhouse of the galaxy.

Okay, quick breakdown time. The Federation is, as its name suggests, a federal republic. This means that its many territories are controlled by a central government. But its control isn't absolute. In fact, it can be contested by particularly powerful territories. In the novel, they represent conservative-leaning moderates.

The Hegemony is a collection of different nation-states, but unlike its namesake, does not have a controlling nation-state. Instead, this hegemony is ruled by council, headed up by the ruling members of said nation-states. It's honestly more of a collective/cooperative than an actual hegemony. Not that power struggles don't exist. In the novel, they represent liberals.

The Empire is the more extreme version of a federal republic, wherein the Imperial seat has absolute control over all of its territories. In a republic, each individual territory retains great control over itself. In an empire, these territories are subjugated and have no means of pushback other than force. In the novel, they represent stagnant conservatism.

As a side note, I think it's sad that modern governments are stuck on evolutions of the feudal system. I honestly believe that we have the tools, imagination, and ingenuity to design and implement a new kind of government. One that is truly democratic, and scales easily up and down, from local to regional to global.

Okay, back to the book. So what does being first mean for the empire? And what does it have to do with greed?

The reason why they're able to stay on top of the species ladder is because they're the most willing to cater to the 1%. Everyone else can get stuffed. Those at the bottom are practically corpses - they are what's used to propel the richest even higher.

In the novel, the Drogar are at the top, but their population counts are at the bottom. The Hegemon is second in terms of wealth, but first in population. The Federation is third in wealth, and second in pop.

I wanted to impress on you guys that stagnant and extreme conservatism is a serious danger. Not only does it tread very close to fascism, but it's lethal to its own citizens. Any ideology that's focused on the wealth of the few achieves it by sacrificing the wealth of the many.

Sacrifice them to the gods, get their wallets in exchange.

Even the most left-leaning Drogar (ie Szereth) is still a hardcore capitalist, and has no problems earning money at the expense of others. Sure, he enriches his own workers, but he still has a workshop at the top that overlooks everything, and collects a majority of the profits.

So then, what's the moral of this arc? The greedier people are, the more willing they become to eat each other.

Hope you enjoyed the politics in this one!