Metagame: The Counties.

So, I as you may well know by now am working hard on the Far Stars Sector and the Permatic Imperium setting. One of the things I have been working as again as you may know are the Astrogation Charts of the Imperium.

And I have that list of the Peerage of the Imperium with some details, but a lot of holes. For instance, at the time there were nine Count level worlds in the Imperium, so there are nine Counts in the Imperium. Only three are named, Daarnulud, Interhaus and Calais. Count of Calais is one of the Emperor's many Titles, Ranks and Offices. (He may use this Title in situations where he does not wish to be recognized as the Emperor officially so as to avoid a fuss or problems due to His Imperial and Royal status.)

Well, the other six Counties are yet to be named, but the planets are now marked on the Charts. I should say highlighted, check the bright spots. :D

County Seats of the Permatic Imperium. (circa 0150-0200 PIY)

I have [FS 0827] Ireaded marked as the Imperial Seat of County Interhaus. The Imperial Seat of an Imperial County (as opposed to a National County) is where the Imperial business is headquartered. So say you are an Imperial Deputy Marshal and you are hunting down a fugitive in the County Interhaus. When you bag your badguy and they get processed and see a Judge and possibly are sentenced to an Imperial Correctional Facility, all that Imperial Bureaucracy is done on Ireaded, Imperial County Seat (Interhaus). 

I have also marked out the Seat of County Calais, which of course is Permatic, no surprise there. It is also marked in the Royal Blue of the House of Kirosowa  The point is to later have all the Counties in the House color of whatever House has the County currently. Which leads into another point. 

Based on the Holdings of Count Rudolf Interhaus, I have decided that the standard Imperial County is expected to be at least eight worlds and include at least one Ag world, if not a couple or even a Ri Ag world. Basically, this world is set up so as to take the function as the County's breadbasket. 

So, as you might recall, Rudolf's father, mother and eldest sister were killed in the Winter Ball assassination attempt against the Emperor twelve years ago. It was this tragedy that cut short Rudolf's budding Career in the Imperial Navy and forced him into the Nobility and up to the lofty rank of an Imperial Count. His brother Walter is now the Duke, taking over their father's position which it was expected that their sister would inherit. Turns out if you look at the placement of the County Seats, perhaps another Count who had their County adjusted held a serious grudge. Ah, the heady scent of Court Intrigues. 

A couple of things to note are that oddly enough the Boothe Cluster happens to be eight worlds. The County Seats that are shown are those of the first one hundred and fifty years of the Permatic Imperium. There are quite a few worlds still waiting for the Imperial Bureaucracy to datamine stats for them to advise the Moot and His Imperial and Royal Majesty Vladimir the Second where the best locations are for new Imperial Holdings to be officially established, including new County Seats that might be created. The cool thing about this is it leave a bit of space for Referees to both have some nice stable, under table, free styling and profiling politics and some NPCs who can most def be used as Patrons for some scheme or another. Dangit, here I was trying to create a neato,, light, enlightened Imperium and here I have the makings of what at first looks like an attempt against the Emperor, but may in fact killed exactly who it was supposed to. Only the fact that Rudolf was standing behind Vladimir and was thus enclosed His Majesty's personal White Globe saved him from being killed as well. I wonder if Walter understands exactly where he might be sitting at the Moot. 

Wow, and this was just going to be a quick "Hey, while you are waiting for some in depth stuff, check out this groovy new map!" post and has now evolved into a true post about the Counts and Imperial Counties. Neato! (Yeah, I say "Neato" in print, kids. Because it is a cool word. Deal. :p)

So, I have yet to figure out who all the Canon Counts are and I have yet to figure out where to put the "open" County Seats. So, I have quite a bit of work to go, but this is the start of something I have been thinking about for some time. I think I will do a series of Imperial Seat Charts. Might be interesting for plots and stuff like this idea that some one at Court is still possible at large having committed High Treason for which there is still an open Warrant. (And now a brief note brought to you by the Imperial Ministry of Justice. :D Along with Sophonticide, Sophont Trafficking and Slavery, High Treason is one of those crimes that stays open and has no statute of limitations.) That person might also still have a secret beef against Rudolf whole damned House. And Captain Sir Darin Hawk, Baron Redsm's Player did say he'd like to play War of the Roses IN SPACE. I of course have my own cunning Referee Story Arcs I am starting to mess around with. Metagamewise, I have already had moments were the Psionics on the ship when it Jumped felt as Reality itself was modified while they were in Jumpspace. But, then again, Jumpspace and Psionics are not always such a good mix. Though evidence does seems to indicate that brief exposure to J-space may activate a latent psionic potential. It does not oddly enough say exactly what the percentage is compared to say the numbers that go insane, die, have body parts consumed by it. So, I don't know if I would try it, but it seemed to work for one Boothe, G/IISS, listed in what is said to be an unredacted snippet of the report. 

Sorry, if this post rambles around more than usual, been a very long day. I got some more hours in meatspace job, so have been falling a bit behind and I am tired and writing this extemporaneously.

So, back to the Counties. I am now off to fill out the County borders and mark the County Seats with an Allegiance Code for the TravellerMap Post function. Plus there is naming the Houses and Counties and so on and so forth.

I hope you enjoyed this and found it informative. And if some of you are using any of it in a game, let me know how it is working out. 

Well, here I close and proof, and edit, and proof again, and then an hour later it will look better. What, you say, by the time you get here the proofing and editing looks pretty damned sparse? Scroll up quick!  Pictures! Internets likes pictures. Makes Internet not so cranky. :p

Laterness,

Craig.

PS: While I was proofing and editing and thinking I remembered I had a brief list of the original Great Houses of the First Imperium, or Volcker's Imperium. It turns out it was near at hand. So, for the curious, here is that list circa the First Imperial Year Zero (001-0000 VIY) or as I recall, about 2719 Common Era.  The Houses are color coded by the political (and often astrographic ties). The list is by no means complete as to all the players in the formation of the First Imperium, nor does it have a full list of all the Noble Houses. Again, while a House maybe listed in a particular faction it does not mean they are actually from that region. For example the House of Thornwood is a Terran House, but sided with the Alliance agreeing with their basic grievances with the Terran centric Federation.

The Outer Colonial Alliance: Volcker, Singh, Weiss, Thornwood, West, Rezuuna, Kirosowa.

The Middle Colonies: Daarnulud, Arkiasan, Jones, Shawnyc, Inter, al-Vlada.

The Terran Federation: Windsor-de Bois, Han, Black, Haus, Felglen.

Metagame: Continued Ramblings on the Permatic Imperium.

So, again, I am late with my blog postings. Sorry, but again, real life just has a way with interrupting the best laid plans. Still it did bring good news, I now possess my first published credit. Not much per se, but it does include an official, canonized LIC. So, what the hell I am talking about? This: Mongoose Publishing's Traveller Third Imperium setting book, Deneb Sector. For the interested, I am in the Special Thanks and on page 33 right at the top is my newest and official company, Thornwood Security, LIC. So, that is the coolness for me for the week. Now on to the post you have all been waiting for...

In our previous portion of the Lecture we discussed the role of the Sovereign and the Imperial Moot. In this portion we will discuss the Imperial Senate, the Knightly Orders and of course as mentioned in the previous portion, holograms. We might also given enough time delve deeper into the roles of the Imperial Nobility. 

First let us take a look at the over all structure of the government of the Permatic Imperium. 

Structure of the Imperial Government.

As you can from the image, I have skipped a few parts of the government, such as the Imperial Household, the Star Chamber and the Offices of the Crown and Throne. I will attempt to detail them at a later date, but for now let us pick up where we left off in Government House. 

Government House is composed of the Moot and the Senate assembled in the whole. It is composed of the Moot and the Senate and is considered the Moot and Senate assembled in the whole. The Title is only used for those actions which are taken jointly by both the Moot and the Senate together, otherwise the house that originated the particular document is cited as the authority. So say a Proclamation issued to commemorate a visit by a foreign power will be labeled as coming from Government House, where as an Appointment of the Director of the Imperial Scout Service will be labeled as being issued by the Senate.  

So what are the responsibilities of the Senate? Well, first off the Senate functions as the House of Commons or say the old Terran Federation Assembly. The Members are appointed by Member Worlds of the Imperium according to the Rules of the Senate. Senators are the representatives of their worlds, they are not as the nobility is, appointed by the Emperor or Moot, but by a Member World's local government. As such they are beholden to their world and then to the Imperium and the Emperor. They represent the "commons" spoken of in Imperial High Law and other Imperial documents. 

The Senate is responsible for the oversight of the Imperial Treasury and several Imperial Ministries that are also considered the turf of the Senate including the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Information, Communication and Education. They also oversee the Imperial Scout Service, in fact they are the sole authority when it comes to matters concerning the Scouts. Not even the Sovereign can undo those acts undertaken by the Senate regarding the Scout Service. They also may propose legislation and have final approval over appointment of Imperial Judges to the Crown Courts. The Senate also has the right to originate or sponsor Petitions for the Removal of the Sovereign, in addition to jointly approving such Petitions with the Moot. The Senate is also responsible for approving the appointments of members to the Imperial Bureaucracy below the rank of Minister and approval of Ministers.

There is one last power that the Senate holds and that is the trial of nobles. All Imperial Nobles charged with high crimes and misdemeanors are tried by the Senate. If such a trial results in a guilty verdict the Senate is empowered to remove the noble's titles, offices and holdings. While they can remove said noble's titles, offices and holdings, they can not reassign them (unless one of the offices held was in the Imperial Scouts), that power goes to the Sovereign with the approval of the Moot. 

Having detailed the Imperial Senate we now move on the Orders of Knighthood of the Imperium. 

There are many Orders within the Imperium and most of them owe their allegiance to either the Sovereign or to the Imperium itself. They mostly supplement the Imperial Armed Forces in times of war. Each Order has its own rituals and traditions. Some Orders are open only to certain types of applicants, such as the Imperial Order of the Senate which is only open to those Citizens or Subjects who have a Social Standing ≤A. Those of greater Social Standing B≥ are refused entry to the Order and this is codified in the Imperial High Law. The IOS gets its Charter and Orders directly from the Senate and its members are knighted by the Speaker of the Senate. Its motto is "All Are Equal on the Floor." Other Orders, older ones that have extremely long histories owe their allegiance to the Thrones of the Old Empires, but still serve the current Imperium. There is some question which side they may give their service to if one of those Old Empire's Sovereigns should ever make an appearance. 

And now on to holograms. Most media makes a point that the people in that universe know that they are dealing with a projection and not a real person. This is often done by having "scan lines" flit up and down through the projection. This is done on purpose, at TL-E≥ holography is not merely a projection but a dynamic interface. It not only looks real, it feels real, it gives feedback if interacted with. This means that a properly tuned hologram can be very difficult to distinguish from real things. So, to make sure that a being knows that it is dealing with a projection the Imperium encourages a certain amount of imperfection in projections. Now, while most media merely use the old school scan lines, this does not account for the fact that a hologram is in fact a three dimensional projection and not a flat image. So a real true 3d dynamic system will actually have its added "scan lines" show as a three dimensional distortion, not a two dimensional distortion. this results in weird blobs and funny blurs that will manifest inside and move out to the edges. The best way to think of them would be when you see lightning inside of clouds during thunder storms. Slight color changes or shifts might be another method used as well.

Our last bit shall be a brief bit about the military and the nobility. There are a class of the nobility known as the Elevators. The Elevator is a member of the Peerage, usually Barons or Marquises elevated for their actions in the Imperial Armed Forces. They are generally known as either no bullshit, brutally honest and mildly tactless persons or they are very skilled and dangerous hustlers. The military nobles tend to have a bit more leeway to be blunt than is normally accepted due to the nature of "the Services". Generally the blunt will be Barons and Marquises and the political will be Viscounts or better. 

And this concludes our ramble throughout the Permatic Imperium for today. We hope you have found this Lecture both entertaining and informative. For the interested we will be sponsoring a Lecture later in the Series further defining the duties, privileges and responsibilities of the Imperial Nobility later in the year and we hope to see you there. Till we meet again, be well and travel safely. 

Laterness,
Craig.