ScourgeOfOrders

A THESIS ON THE EMPIRE or THE PRECURSORS FOR AN EMPIRE & COMMONWEALTH PROPOSAL _________________________________________________________________________________________ Preamble The Empire is meant to be a functioning governing body that sits at the top of the human hierarchy, allowing the human nations underneath it to prosper and be enriched by its benevolent governance; opening the way for the human state and her subsequent vassals to be the most dominant of all - ensuring external protection and authority over the other descendant races of the lands. This however, can only be ensured when certain preliminary requisites are met. According to my research I do believe there are several precursors that must be obtained for an Empire to be a functional and efficient governing body that commands respect and authority from those graciously beneath it. A densely populated Capital An Emperor with his own direct force, not sworn beneath another vassal. An Emperor who can act as both a statesman and a general An Empire that has been forged, not forced or granted. And as such, I will discuss each of these points. Precursor I: A densely populated Capital Perhaps one of the most obvious points that I have listed as a precursor to a functioning body, the reasons for this point are painfully blatant to all those who read so I shall not dwell too long on this point. It summises to the fact that, if an Empire and his direct governing council can not efficiently, or adequately, administer their own Capital to provide it with blossoming activity, life and fill its streets with denizens across the entire Empire then how, in any way, can they be expected to provide this lack of administrative talent to vassals and for it to be received with anything but scorn. Granted, this issue is not usually a common one for Emperors to suffer due to the fact that driving activity and presence in his own Capital is a remarkably easy task. Especially due to the fact that it is the capital and reaps all of the benefits that allow making it populated an easy task for even the most simple minded statesmen. In recent times, the most prevalent Emperor that has fallen foul to failing to meet this precursor is Alexander II, for his capital of Helena was bare and barren with no visitors, no citizens and nothing to offer those from afar, it was instead that his vassals in the Crownlands possessed all of the citizens. This, in my opinion, had been the first cause of a lack of respect to grow amongst the vassals towards this Emperor that I dub “the Incapable” just like his predecessor John VII. Precursor II: An Emperor with his own direct force, not sworn beneath another vassal. It is believed by some that an Emperor does not need his own personal military force due to the fact that he commands the power of all of his vassals that lay beneath him. How wrong those people are. If the Emperor has no direct force loyal to themselves, then how can he exert his authority in a safe manner? He cannot -- and thus, dissent can occur and people can refuse the Emperor's commands. An Emperor must always have his own loyal force that is larger than the force any one of his vassals can bring forward. In recent times, there have been a couple Emperors that have failed to meet this prerequisite. Once more, Alexander II has been one of those. He had no standing military force and thus commanded no authority. This was clearly shown in this letter when the vassals unionised against him. [!] Below is attached a small letter. Furthermore, dating back further this can also be compared to Peter II, who reigned during the sixth Imperium. He had no main force that resided within his capital that was worth any note; and thus dissent occured underneath his reign and vassals such as Deano Romstun found it upon themselves to have free reign underneath the Empire. There was little the Emperor could do to stop them and he was eventually forced to form a global coalition to take down such a menace to the Imperium, relying upon foreign allies. Precursor III: An Emperor who can act as both a statesman and a general. The Emperor should be in their position because they are the most capable at what they do -- not for lineage or birth but that is how they are selected regardless. Yet the most successful Emperors are those who can act as both a statesman and a general -- for they can command their Empire in the most capable way while delegating tasks to others, they still understand the concepts of what they are delegating and if need be, can overturn the delegation and take command in foreign policy, military campaigns or internal affairs themselves without the need for delegation to be present. In recent times, Aurelius I, had shown exceptional skill in this and thus led one of the most recent Empires in over a century -- yet on the flipside of this, Joseph I, had provided to be an excellent writer and commendable statesmen yet his campaign had massively due to the lack of stern leadership and the lack of proficient generals in his ranks. With wenno capability himself to take up the reigns of what entails leading an army his course was ultimately doomed to fail. Precursor IV: An Empire that has been forged, not forced or granted. Perhaps one of the more difficult points for me to explain, so I shall take upon me the liberty to compare and reference previous Empires. If we are to compare the seventh, eighth and ninth Empires -- their foundations are drastically different, for the seventh was forged through conquest and over a lengthy period of time while in stark contrast, the eight and ninth were hastily thrown together built off of weak premises. The two former empires have been forged under one ruler who has not had the time nor ability to showcase their skills and talents before being selected as an Emperor; thus there was no guarantee nor indication that they would be at all capable. While when Aurelius I, formed his Empire he had been a ruling king for long over a decade and had presented his talents to the world through a fiery right by conquest over more than half of the nation states. It is with this, I do announce that if this current trend of Emperors is anything to go by, that an Empire in this current time will not work nor be sufficient -- for now. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Proposal Despite all of this, I do think that humans should remain in a somewhat stable and unified state so they are not attacked by the other descendant races who circle at times like vultures and maintain their position as the most dominant of the descendant races. So I shall not whine, criticise and denounce the current regime without offering a solution to the issue, I propose a Commonwealth of Men. A commonwealth is, in plain terms, an association founded upon the premise of a common good, the idea of such to provide benefit to all that reach out underneath its umbrella without being imposing or tyrannical in its form. THE COMMONWEALTH OF MEN PROPOSAL Section I: Structural Arrangement The Commonwealth of Men shall be comprised of any human state that is accepted within its ranks. The Commonwealth of Men shall dictate three tiers to those admitted, Tier Three which shall acquaint for Kings and Principalities, Tier Two which shall acquaint for Dukes and Tier One which shall acquaint for everything below a Duke. Section II: Matters of Voting For the commonwealth to function properly, it shall not have an Emperor or direct leader, but shall instead make its decisions as a group during summits at a members palace or holding. Anything and everything can be voted on, not holding to a strict guidelines, however -- the tier of ranking that a member possesses also accounts to how much their vote is worth, an example of this is a King’s vote is worth 3 points while a Barons vote shall only be worth a singular point. Section III: Basic Tenets The Basic Tenets of the Commonwealth shall be upheld and can be altered, or changed, via voting but it is not encouraged. The first tenet shall be non aggression between all member states. The second tenet shall be open access to trade between all member states. The third tenet shall be a defensive pact between all member states. It shall also be noted that it is advised that autonomy is not stripped through the commonwealth, and any member state has the ability to declare war or act independently as long as it does not breach one of the three tenets. If a member state declares war on another nation, that is not apart of the commonwealth, then there is no mandatory obligation for other members of the commonwealth to join in with said war unless it has been voted on (in which case the entire commonwealth would join in), or said nation decides it is within their own benefit to join. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Signed, Cicero Tiber Aspiring Statesman ((A huge thank you to the large amount of people that helped me write this and educated me on a few things haha. New character I’ll be starting so wish to start it off with a bang!))

Sybastian was born in the farmlands near to Helena, Cascadia. He was brought up under two loving parents as a farmer – he lived there in peace, doing his farming until the War of the Two Emperors had occured. This had brought war between Cascadia and the Empire against a lot of other people. During this he fled away to the country side as he did not want to be conscripted in to the war and risk his life for those who would not risk their life for his. Therefore, he came back to his farm in secret after the war was ended and was won by the Cascadians. This marked his spur for wanting to do more, and that is what he wanted to do – to become more than a farmer and not be a coward again, like join the military or something. This is where his journey on Arcas would begin.