New Greater Empire

""It is the Empire's responsibilty as the greatest hyperpower ever to exist in human history to ensure humanity's place in this galaxy is upheld and advanced. As your Crown Princess, my father and I am grateful for your endless loyalty, and have full confidence that this Empire would carry out its destiny with proper grace and finality, for the next 10,000 years.""

- Shizuka, Crown Princess of the New Greater Empire, Annual Imperial Foundation Day National Address, 249

The New Greater Empire, commonly referred to as the Empire or the Daiteikoku, is a human nation located in the southern Human Sphere. The Empire is bordered by the Twin Systems Confederation and Heavenly Kingdom to the north, the Federation of Sovereign States to the north-east, the Interstellar Union of Revolutionary States to the east, the Confederation of Coreward States to the south-east, the Empire-Alvia Neutral Zone to the south, and the Hierarchy and Katouku Overpod to the west. Enclaved within Imperial Space is also the quasi-independent Imperial Frontier. The Empire controls 10 inhabitable systems as well as territories within 4 other inhabitable systems which are shared or disputed with other entities.

The New Greater Empire was formed on 8 Hagatsu 150, when Emperor Tatsuro was coronated as the successor of his father, the late Emperor Toshiro, Imperial Monarch of the Greater Empire. The New Greater Empire was founded as the official successor state of the Greater Empire, which had previously been defeated in the Empire-Federation War and had since fractured into various Imperial Holdout factions. After subduing and reuniting the various Imperial holdout factions in the Second Imperial Civil War, the New Greater Empire launched the War of Imperial Restoration in 170, reclaiming all of the core territories lost in the Empire-Federation War and restoring the Empire as a galactic hyperpower upon the war's end in 11 Fugatsu 172. Immediately after the Imperial Restoration, the Empire faced the Third Imperial Civil War as the Imperial Frontier, led by a pretender to the Imperial Throne, fought for and attained a quasi-independence from the Empire.

As the Empire commenced rebuilding and the consolidation of its military and economic power, it came into conflict with the Union due to Imperial support for Republican Ventura in the First Venturan Conflict. As the Empire commenced an expansion of its territory, the Empire discovered the Hoi^3 on Aokessho in 189 and came into conflict with the Hierarchy during the First Empire-Hierarchy War. At the same time, the growing rivalry between the Empire and the Union culminated in the 190 First Empire-Union War when both states staked a claim on the newly-discovered inhabitable planet Tazawa, which was concluded with the partition of the planet and star system between the Empire and Union. The Second Venturan Conflict broke out in 199 as a proxy war between the Empire and Union, eventually resulting in a clash between both states during the devastating Second Hyperpower War in 226. The Second Hyperpower War also saw the final stages of rapprochement between the Empire and Federation, and both former mortal enemies normalised relations and became strong allies against the Union and the Northern Sphere. In 140, the Empire again came into conflict with the Hierarchy in the Second Empire-Hierarchy War, with a state of hostility continuing to the present day.

One of the major hyperpowers in the Human Sphere, the Empire is sometimes considered to be the most powerful in the Sphere due to its military and economic might. Beyond the Human Sphere, the Empire is also one of the more well-known human nations in the wider Galaxy as it maintains diplomatic and economic relations with many non-human races and nations, though it continues to have negative relations with the alien powers adjacent to the Human Sphere. The Empire is a stratocratic absolute monarchy, with the Imperial Monarch maintaining unlimited power and oversight over a sprawling militarised bureaucracy, with civilian rule and open democracy largely ending at the local level. Under the governance of the Imperial Monarch-appointed Imperial Grand Marshal, the Empire operates under a permanent martial law, and various secret police and military police forces exist to maintain public order and the state's control over the people, suppressing dissent and opposition to the government. The Empire maintains one of the largest and most technologically advanced military forces in the Human Sphere, comprising of the vast Imperial Army and Imperial Navy, which have fought and defeated superior alien enemies multiple times.

While the average standard of living across the Empire is high for an interstellar state of its size, upward mobility within the public sector is limited for the average citizen as public officials beyond the local level are almost exclusively military officers. The private sector also has such a glass ceiling as almost all industries are under the firm control of family-owned zaibatsu megaconglomerates or the state. The Empire's oligarchy, known informally as the Kazoku, maintains an almost impenetrable hold on the upper levels of Imperial society and controls the Imperial economy, society, and culture, also exerting influence over the Imperial Monarch by advising her on the Imperial Court. The Kazoku is made up of an elite group of corporate, political and military dynasties and are often hostile to competitors and upstarts attempting to join their ranks. Within this group is an even more exclusive subgroup, the Kuge, which trace their roots to Old Yashima and hold immense wealth and political influence.

History
''See also: History of the Human Sphere

Pre-Human Colonisation
Parts of what is today Imperial Space were originally controlled by the Gendo civilisation. Having evolved over millions of years on the planet Eba, today known as Kamisuwa, the Fifteen Choruses of the Gendo created an interstellar civilisation across most of the Coreward Frontier. Masters of genetic engineering and technology, the Gendo terraformed many of the near-habitable worlds in the Coreward Frontier and seeded them with life. About 1,200 years ago, the Gendo had begun exploring the Aizawa Arm as well, establishing a minor colony on already-inhabitable Kandani, though the distance between this colony and the rest of the civilisation meant it was largely isolated. Around 1,000 years ago, a cataclysmic interstellar conflict broke out within the Gendo civilisation. Powerful genetic beasts and techno-organic war cyborgs battled throughout the Gendo colonies, culminating in the release of an extremely fast-spreading bioweapon that eventually wiped out the entire Gendo population in the Coreward Frontier. The few survivors of the war fled to the colony on Kandani in a journey known as the Exodus, as the colony was isolated from the war and remained untouched. With the Gendo population reduced to 10 million and hoping to avoid another conflict on such a devastating scale, the ruling Director caste outlawed many higher technologies and committed the remaining Gendo to luddite pacifism.

The spacecraft that brought the Gendo to Kandani on the Exodus were abandoned in orbit and eventually deteriorated, with the exception of the final vessel, which was placed in the Lagrange point between Kandani and its moon. Eventually known as the Tetrahedron, the Directors initially left it as a repository of pre-Exodus Gendo history to warn future civilisations not to repeat their mistakes. As spaceflight was forbidden by the Directors, and historical revisionism was imposed, the purpose of the Tetrahedron was eventually forgotten by most of Gendo society. Eventually, the Directors grew more corrupt and began utilising the technology stored on the Tetrahedron for their own gain and to subjugate the rest of their people, ultimately ascending to the Tetrahedron and ruling over the Gendo from there.

In 226 BT, the popular low-caste leader Ruk Sa'Kan was persecuted for attempting to build a spacecraft to reach the Tetrahedron, and was due to be executed. This outraged his numerous followers across the Gendo society, which led to a general uprising against the Director caste and the eventual establishment of a more egalitarian Gendo society. Free of their previous restrictions, the Gendo under Ruk began exploring the sciences again, and quickly reached the Tetrahedron. The spread of the technology and information held on the Tetrahedron rapidly transformed Gendo society. Within 50 years, the Gendo had rediscovered their spacefaring capabilities, and had again begun establishing off-world scientific ventures on Kandani's moon and the other planets in the system.

Colonial Period
Humanity first arrived in the Southern Sphere after the development of the Ferran Process of faster-than-light travel, allowing them to cross the Mukhtar Limit for the first time in 134 BT. That year, humans first landed on the planets of Serenia and Airavata. More explorers soon located and settled on the many inhabitable worlds in the Local Arm, Hyeonmu Archipelago, and Suikazura Archipelago, triggering the Third Wave of Colonisation and the Second Diaspora. Millions of people left the increasingly overcrowded and resource-starved Ordis and the other Inner Worlds and headed for the Southern Frontier to seek their fortunes. In 124 BT, explorers discovered the planet Neo-Ordis, which would later become known as Kanagawa.

30 years after the settlement of the First Frontier, explorers began moving even further outwards, beginning the Second Frontier. In 62 BT, the planet Liming was colonised, which would eventually become the present Imperial Capitol Eienkyo. Besides the vast amounts of living space created by the discovery of new inhabitable worlds, the discovery of neomaterials in the Southern Sphere drove major investment by megacorporations and increased interest in the resources of the Southern Sphere. As more and more people began moving to the Southern Sphere, the population rapidly increased. Colonist life on the frontier was harder than expected by most, and many thousands of people ended up living in poverty or in deep debt to megacorporations, which exploited these colonists for cheap labour. The populations of the frontier began chafing under the rule of the colonial powers, who were far away on Ordis and demanded ever-increasing amounts of resources to feed the Inner Planets.

Partly as a reaction to the melting pot of cultures and peoples that existed in the colonies, culturally reactionary movements known collectively as Neo-Culturalism began to gain popularity among the colonists. Various elements of traditional culture and popular culture from various Ordic nations were adopted and modified to create a shared identity among the disparate groups of colonists, at times due to outside influence from corporations or other political groups. These movements were embraced by some and opposed strongly by other political factions, which saw them as a form of cultural imperialism by the colonial powers. One of the largest movements to develop was the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, which was funded and promoted by various Yashiman megacorporations and political actors that moved to the Southern Sphere following the Third Varunan War. In 45 BT, the Southern Sphere experienced a major political development when the Airavatan Democratic Republic on Airavata was able to attain independence from Ordis following the Airavatan Crisis. As a cold war began developing between Airavata and Ordis, the colonial powers began taking steps to prevent further independence movements in the Southern Sphere. At the same time, exploration of the Northern Frontier had also begun, lessening interest in the increasingly rebellious Southern Sphere among the colonial powers. Eventually, the rivalry between Airavata and Ordis developed into the two-year-long First Extrasolar War, which resulted in Airavata seizing territories on Serenia and beginning to assist various other independence movements across the entire Human Sphere.

Another major development occurred in 16 BT, when Airavatan explorers surveying the newly-discovered inhabitable planet Horizonte, later known as Takisawa, discovered small settlements that had been established by the Gendo. This marked the first time humanity encountered an intelligent alien race. The Gendo had only recently rediscovered faster-than-light travel and had only arrived on Takisawa fifteen years prior to humanity's arrival. Discovery of the Gendo resulted in a brief period of improved relations between Airavata and Ordis, as well as large interest among both humanity and the Gendo's scientific communities. In 5 BT, the first human ambassadors were invited to visit Kandani by the Gendo.

However, the brief period of peace between Airavata and Ordis was not to last. Eventually, relations deteriorated dramatically, mainly due to Airavata's continued support for various independence groups across the Southern Sphere. One of these groups was the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, which had grown to become one of the largest Neo-Culturalist movements in the Southern Sphere. Some political leaders within the movement began espousing the idea that a "Neo-Yashima" could be formed as the new homeland for the Yashiman people, who had been displaced from Ordis after the Third Varunan War and were scattered across the Human Sphere.

In 2 BT, the Southern Sphere Secession War began when the various independence movements across the Southern Sphere formed the Alliance for the Independence of the Southern Colonies with Airavata, and began a general war for independence against the colonial powers. Towards the end of the war, careless use of thermonuclear weapons on Serenia by the colonial powers set off a chain reaction of Suzuranite detonations that killed 950 million people and rendered the entire planet uninhabitable, an event known as the Serenian Terracide. The horror of the Terracide turned public opinion across the entire Human Sphere, even on Ordis and the Inner Planets, against the colonial powers. This led to the almost immediate end of the Secession War, with the Southern Sphere colonies granted independence under the newly-formed Federation of Sovereign States.

Post-Independence
Within the post-independence Federation, the Yashiman Cultural Lobby held a large amount of influence, backing the governments of the Federation states that controlled Liming, Neo-Ordis, and Khadivar. By popular vote, these planets were renamed Yukimura, Kanagawa, and Ishigaki, respectively, and would eventually become the Imperial Core Worlds. At the time, however, the Yashiman Cultural Lobby was merely one of the numerous political blocs within the Federation. The newly-independent states within the Federation began rebuilding and nation-building efforts.

One of the major political issues in the early Federation was the level of power the Federation as an entity should have over the member states, particularly if it was an intergovernmental alliance or a federal government. Various states in the Hyeonmu Archipelago sought a decentralised Federation, while the "Central States" on New Mansan and the Airavatans wanted the Federation to have some measure of centralised power. The Yashiman states in the west were considered the deciding factor by both factions, and both sides of the argument sought their support through diplomatic gestures. This often came in the form of generous developmental aid, allowing the western planets to flourish rapidly.

At the same time, the Gendo were also facing an internal crisis. The devastation of Serenia and the violence displayed by humanity in the Secession War heavily concerned the Gendo, who were by now culturally natural pacifists. The Conductor Council, comprised of leaders of the various Choruses, was unable to come to an agreement of what to do about humanity. It was considered too risky to cut ties with humanity for fear of offending the humans, while others believed that it was time to militarize and enforce isolationism due to humanity's knowledge of their present homeworld on Kandani.

Eventually, the Gendo would receive a call to arms when a dispute between Federation miners and Gendo settlers on Takisawa erupted into the brief but violent Horizonte Conflict in 16 AT. This jungle war, with the humans mainly represented by private military companies contracted to defend the miners on the planet, resulted in the destruction of numerous Gendo settlements, though the PMCs also experienced heavy losses. The war convinced many in the Conductor Council that the humans were not to be trusted, and the majority of the Choruses began recalling their colonists from Takisawa. Due to this and numerous other ongoing political disputes, the Conductor Council was divided and erupted into infighting. Four decades into independence, the Federation was becoming increasingly divided as the issue of centralisation remained unsolved. The Yashiman Cultural Lobby's extensive influence was also increasingly viewed in a negative light by other states and cultural movements, neo-culturalist and otherwise. Various secessionist movements and factions began appearing, particularly in the eastern states, in response to centralisation efforts pushed through the Federation Congress by the Central States. These included the formation of the Federation Starfleet as a federal military force, as opposed to the military alliance it previously was, as well as the simultaneous efforts to disarm the state militias.

In 45 AT, the Gendo were unified under the leader Aru Vi'Shal, who formed the Interchoral Alliance. Aru decided to formally cut ties with the Federation and declared that Kandani would be restricted to humans. Certain political leaders in the Federation were outraged by this and supported a move to defy the Gendo's demands, and continued to send trade vessels to Kandani, causing further divides within the Federation leadership. This dangerous situation would eventually come to a head in 49 AT, when the Gendo finally attacked and destroyed a Federation trade vessel. The Interchoral Alliance then revealed a secretly-constructed fleet of warships, which they then used to begin forcefully defend their system against Federation the retaliation. In late 49 AT, Aru led the Interchoral Alliance to preemptively attack Ishigaki, Kesempatan, and Takisawa, beginning the Gendo War.

The crisis of the Gendo War resulted in emergency powers being granted to the President of the Federation and a drive to expand Starfleet and the Federation's military capabilities, causing the very centralisation that the eastern states were vehemently opposed to. By the end of the war in 52 AT, the Federal government had attained a far greater measure of power and capabilities over its member states, with numerous federal agencies created during the war through President James Leach's emergency powers. Most importantly, the war resulted in the Federation's occupation of Kandani and subjugation of the Gendo, who were confined to various Special Areas on Kandani, ostensibly for their own protection.

Increasingly dissatisfied with the Federation and with no other way to achieve their political aims, the various independence groups in the eastern states began a general armed uprising and secession movement in 55 AT, beginning the Union War of Independence. When the war ended in 62 AT with the Guangdong Ceasefire, numerous eastern states and entire planets had seceded from the Federation, ultimately leading to the creation of the Interstellar Union of Revolutionary States. A cold war immediately began between the Federation and the Union. Though this resulted in the increased militarisation of the Southern Sphere, the period of peace was beneficial for the expansion of the Federation. Scientific analysis of the artifacts within the Gendo Tetrahedron revealed ancient star charts that pointed to the original Gendo homeworld, as well as the numerous inhabitable worlds that had been terraformed by the Old Gendo millennia ago. Federation explorers quickly began staking their claims across the Coreward Frontier, where it was discovered that the bioweapons that had wiped out the Gendo had already been spent in the intervening millennium. More traditional means of exploration also led to the discovery of the tropical world of Onogoro.

Disputes between the Federation and the Union nonetheless continued to mount, particularly various border crises over the shared planet Prospect, as well as the claiming and colonisation of the unique Shanxing System, which has two inhabitable bodies, by a Union member state. As the Federation came under increasingly hardline leadership, the conflict eventually boiled over into the First Hyperpower War in 95 AT, where the Federation launched an invasion of the Union. However, the war soon turned against the Federation due to various blunders carried out by the Federation's civilian leadership, which maintained a tight control over Starfleet. Eventually, despite having the advantage of numbers and superior technology, the Federation withdrew from Union Space and abandoned the states on Prospect to conquest by the Union.

Despite protests from Starfleet's leadership, who were planning a fresh offensive with reserve forces that would cut off the Union's weakly-defended supply lines, newly-appointed President Prakash Rai decided to end the war by signing an official peace treaty with the Union. On 20 Gaengsaeng 97 AT, the Federation and Union signed the landmark Treaty of the Labyrinth at the Labyrinth Asteroid Field on the edge of the Prospect System, with the Federation agreeing to finally recognise the Union member states' independence as sovereign states. This was strongly opposed by the Federation's military leadership as well as the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, which various Union member states viewed as an ideological enemy.

Divided Federation
Following the peace treaty, numerous Starfleet officers protested against the government, mainly led by the Starfleet Chief of Staff Hashizume Shinzo. At the same time, Nishimoto Taro, a veteran of the war, entered politics and began campaigning for a harder stance towards the Union, which he viewed as the largest threat to the Federation. Highly charismatic and connected to major figures in the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, Nishimoto's movement quickly gained traction among the western states. At this point, other political factions within the Federation took notice of the Yashiman Cultural Lobby's massive reach and influence and began to oppose them as a threat to the newfound peace as well as the multinational and multicultural ethos of the Federation. During this period, the capital city of the Federation was regularly rotated between member states every five years, and was at the time located at Awara City on Yukimura. On 10 Hagatsu 99 AT, Chief of Staff Hashizume launched a military coup of the Federation government, ordering Starfleet to form a blockade around Yukimura and leading an armed occupation of Awara City. From the occupied government building, Hashizume declared the formation of a new emergency government, accusing President Rai of being a Union spy. Hashizume declared himself President of the Federation and declared martial law across the entire Federation using his emergency powers.

However, Hashizume was unable to secure total control over the Federation. Federation Vice-President Bajirao Markov was able to escape from Yukimura with several other government functionaries and established his own emergency government on New Mansan. Elements of Starfleet also disagreed with Hashizume or were opposed to the Yashiman Cultural Lobby's obvious influence over Hashizume's regime and aligned themselves with Markov. While numerous states supported Hashizume's government, several states refused to back Hashizume's coup and instead recognised Markov's government as the legitimate Federation government. This effectively divided the Federation into two entities, the Central Federation and the Southern Federation.

Both entities refused to recognise the legitimacy of the other, expanding the conflict in the Southern Sphere into a three-way cold war between both Federations and the Union. Hashizume began a mass rearmament and industrial expansion effort out of concern that the Central Federation or the Union would seek to attack the Southern Federation, which inherited a vast territory stretching from the Aizawa Arm to the Coreward Frontier. At the same time, Hashizume further empowered the Yashiman Cultural Lobby, seeing as a useful manner with which to foster national unity, patriotism, and justify his increasingly dictatorial rule. At some point in the mid-100s, Hashizume and various Kuge leaders devised the final stages of their plan to form a "Neo-Yashima".

The Old Empire
Main article: Greater Empire In Fugatsu 108, the Central Federation launched a major attack on Yukimura in an attempt to assassinate Hashizume and put an end to what they deemed an insurrection. However, this attempt failed and began the Federation Civil War. On 15 Igatsu 109, Hashizume declared that the Southern Federation would be reorganised into the Greater Empire, in order to ensure security and continued stability, and would immediately secede from the Federation. As part of the declaration, Kasai Toshiro, the direct descendant of both the Empress of Yamatai and Chiseian Royal House and a celebrated veteran of the First Hyperpower War, was coronated as the first Imperial Monarch.

Hashizume would retain his pinnacle position as President of the Greater Empire, which would later be reformed into the office of First Minister. Nishimoto Taro was appointed the Secretary-General of the Imperial Congress, which replaced the old Federation Congress. Emperor Toshiro's non-political role was to act as a cultural leader and figurehead head of state, allowing the people to accept that they now lived in a truly Neo-Yashiman society, which the Yashiman Cultural Lobby had been promoting across this territory for decades. Prior to the Declaration, Hashizume's agents had already compiled extensive lists of potential opponents to the change. Within days, political opponents and potential dissidents were swiftly rounded up in the first display of Imperial authoritarianism, with thousands of political refugees fleeing north to the Federation.

Besides the internal cleansing, the first weeks of the Greater Empire were still highly precarious due to the ongoing conflict with the Federation. The newly-renamed Imperial Navy possessed superior numbers to the loyalist Starfleet, but Hashizume did not intend to continue the fight with the Federation, as he considered the main enemy of the Empire to be the Union. On 12 Fugatsu, the Empire signed a ceasefire with the Federation, ending the Federation Civil War, though the Federation refused to recognise the independence or legitimacy of the Empire.

With peace attained, the Empire was able to undertake a massive interstellar militarisation and industralisation drive across all of its territories, while simultaneously beginning the process of "cultural displacement" and fully embracing the state-sponsored Neo-Yashiman culture. One of the first changes to this effect was the designation of Evolved Yashiman as the language of administration, to eventually become the national language, displacing most other regional languages brought by colonists from Old Ordis. These changes even extended into the Gendo Areas, though Yashiman would strictly only be the language of administration and the Gendo were permitted to maintain their native languages out of consideration for their suffering. As with most other Imperial policies, these changes were highly supported by the Neo-Yashiman population and dissidents and opponents were marginalised and stamped out. Over the next decades, the Empire was transformed entirely from its roots as a federation of independent states into a unitary authoritarian regime. The member states were reorganised into Imperial Provinces, though they retained representation on the Imperial Congress, and a new layer of bureaucracy was added with Planetary Governors appointed to oversee each planet. These Planetary Governors sat on the Council of Governors, which was headed by Hashizume. Alongside these political reforms, the military was also expanded greatly. Along with the Imperial Navy, a dedicated ground warfare branch, the Imperial Army, was established both for defence of Imperial territory and to keep the provinces in line through the threat of force.

With the state heavily supported by the Yashiman Five conglomerates and other megacorporations, massive industrial and public works projects were carried out across the Empire. Frontier worlds like Onogoro and Daitetsu saw huge cities built to house populations that were encouraged to migrate from the Imperial Core Worlds, while immense space colonies were also built to house the large population growth that the Empire encouraged. At least some of the settlers sent to these frontier worlds were forcibly relocated from lower-income slums in the Core Worlds, which were eventually eradicated. Considering uncontrolled urban sprawls like those in the Federation to be an eyesore, Hashizume enacted numerous laws to prevent such urban growth from occurring, ensuring that all Imperial cities were carefully planned and integrated with the natural surroundings.

The Imperial economy expanded greatly through the exploitation of resources all across the Empire, the informal oligopoly of family-owned omnicorps ensuring that the economy was stable. Public works projects cut massive highways and magrails through the impenetrable forests of Takisawa and the mountains of Kamisuwa. At the same time, the military grew at an exponential rate, with Hashizume planning to eventually attack and destroy the Union once and for all. By 120, the Imperial Military was the second-largest military force in the Human Sphere, opposite the Union's United Front, with which it was locked in an arms race as part of both states' intense cold war. Despite the many positive effects of the Imperial regime, it was still an authoritarian one that severely curtailed individual freedoms. Living in the larger cities was to live in a surveillance state, while rural towns and villages were sometimes subject to forced relocations or eviction due to high-level legislation. Political expression was subject to strong scrutiny, and criticism of the state was not tolerated. With society quickly becoming largely controlled by the Kazoku informal aristocracy, various glass ceilings were erected in all manner of fields, and corruption spread. The continued dedication to Neo-Yashiman culture saw the eventual extinction of many unique cultures across Imperial space, replaced by a largely monolithic and partly synthetic adoption of Yashiman customs, language, cuisine, and art, though over time even more vernacularisations of these also inevitably emerged.

In addition, a clear gap formed between the Imperial Core Worlds and those in the Coreward Frontier, where frantic development was more aggressively exploitative of the planets' natural resources. The people of the Coreward Frontier struggled to simultaneously build up their planets from scratch and to meet production quotas imposed by the Imperial Capital. Discontent soon bred disloyalty, and various militias and resistance movements began within the Coreward Frontier, though they faced harsh reprisals from the Imperial Military.

Nonetheless, the sheer might that the Empire was able to bring to bear through its extensive military and its efficiently industrious citizenry was enough to enforce a level of peace through mutually assured destruction in the Southern Sphere for three decades. During this period, scientific and technological development progressed dramatically alongside the three-way arms race gripping the Southern Sphere. The Empire also began expanding its territory through the colonisation of new planets, expanding into the Coreward Frontier and westwards with the colonisation of Matsutani.

Empire-Federation War
Main article: Empire-Federation War However, the Empire's prosperity would not last. The authoritarian oligarchy lent itself to corruption, and the numerous callous operations carried out by the state bred a level of discontent, particularly in the Coreward Frontier. Seeking to bring down the Empire, the Federation capitalised on this and began secretly funding numerous insurgent groups within the Empire. With the Union bogged down with the Chorus War in the Northern Sphere, the Federation shifted its attention towards the Empire. At the same time, Hashizume saw the Union's focus on the Northern Sphere as a moment of weakness, and despite warnings from his advisors he continued to have the Empire concentrate on the Union while ignoring the Federation's buildup of forces.

This proved to be a costly mistake, and on 7 Jugatsu 136 the Federation Starfleet launched a multi-pronged invasion of the Empire in conjunction with a general uprising by insurgencies in the Coreward Frontier, beginning the Empire-Federation War. Mainly concentrated in the Coreward Frontier to threaten the Union, the Imperial Navy became tied down fighting the insurgents, leaving the Imperial Core Worlds vulnerable. Starfleet soon began laying siege to the Imperial Core Worlds, and invasions were eventually launched on Kanagawa and Ishigaki, while the Imperial Navy began fighting a war of attrition with Starfleet over the Yukimura System.

Further compounding the Empire's numerous strategic problems was its leadership, which reacted slowly and poorly to the invasion due to years of hubris. By this time, Hashizume was 108 years old and had become highly paranoid, surrounding himself with sycophant ministers and officials and refusing to leave his command bunker for days. Refusing to accept that he had grown increasingly senile and was no longer fit for leadership, Hashizume refused to step down as First Minister and also insisted on personally commanding numerous battles, resulting in tactical and strategic disasters alike.

As the war devolved into a multi-year stalemate, the Empire began dedicating its resources to hunting down the insurgents in the Coreward Frontier and begin carrying out counterattacks against the Federation. However, the Federation then launched a surprise invasion of Takisawa with unprecedented reserve forces in early 140, seizing the key hub on the Imperial Circuits and essentially split the Empire in half. After this, the Federation renewed its attacks, ultimately pushing as deep as Yukimura's orbit by mid-140. At this point, the Imperial Navy came under the command of Grand Admiral Mukaichi Yasushi, who delicately began to act independently of the commands coming from Awara. During the Battle of Yukimura, the Federation decided to end the war with one swift stroke by destroying Awara, carrying out a secret operation to drop an orbital habitat on the Imperial capital city. The colony drop wiped out the entire city and all of its inhabitants, including Hashizume and all of the top Imperial leadership, and the Emperor and the majority of his family. Almost immediately after, the Federation Marine Corps launched a ground invasion of the planet, capturing most of the remaining Imperial leadership on the planet with the capture of Nishikyo City. Shocked by the brutality of the colony drop, many Imperial Army units surrendered en masse or retreated from the planet, and the Yukimura system fell to the Federation within two months.

However, the war did not immediately end. An emergency Imperial government was formed on Kandani by Minister of National Development Yamaguchi Ozaki, but with news of the Imperial government's demise spreading rapidly, uprisings and insurgencies soon erupted across the entire Empire. At the same time, with disruptions across the entire chain of command and interstellar communications networks, various parts of the Imperial military began operating in an increasingly fragmented and independent manner. Nonetheless, Grand Admiral Mukaichi was able to rally a large amount of Imperial forces and led a counterattack in an attempt to dislodge the Federation from Ishigaki. After this battle failed and the Imperial forces were routed from Ishigaki, the Imperial government collapsed into infighting.

Various Imperial factions sought to continue fighting the Federation, while others aimed to negotiate a conditional surrender to the Federation. The increasingly independent military forces began coalescing into various factions and warlord-led forces that retreated to the outer planets. On 1 Gogatsu 141, the Yamaguchi government surrendered to the Federation, ending the Empire-Federation War. Numerous military and political leaders in areas still firmly controlled by Imperial forces refused to recognise the surrender. These largely disunited factions, local governments, and warlords that refused to recognise the surrender became the Imperial Holdouts.

Era of Honourable Resistance
Main article: Imperial Holdout Conflict

The Continuation Empire
As the Imperial Holdouts refused to recognise the authority of Yamaguchi's Imperial government, the Yamaguchi regime became popularly referred to as the "Puppet Empire" or the "Continuation Empire". Following the surrender of the Continuation Empire, the various regions occupied by Federation troops at the end of the war held plebiscites to decide if they would be granted independence or would remain a part of the Empire. Though some regions legitimately chose to become independent states, the plebiscites were affected by a combination of local corruption, opportunism, and interference by the Federation's member states.

Alongside various pro-Imperial results, the hasty elections resulted in the former Imperial worlds becoming a patchwork of Imperial provinces, quasi-independent states that quickly became junior members of the Federation, and uncontrolled regions with questionable higher government. These allegedly uncontrolled regions were often controlled by Imperial Holdout factions or warlords.

The Continuation Empire itself was not allowed to join the Federation, which still did not recognise its sovereignty. Besides the political ramifications of recognising the Empire as a sovereign state, Federation member states were concerned that the sheer size of the Empire, even after being gutted by the independence decisions, would enable them a major voting share and allow the Empire to interfere with Federation affairs. Instead, the Continuation Empire was forced to form the International Security Pact (ISP) with the Federation. As part of the ISP, various areas within the Empire that were deemed strategically critical or security risks were declared ISP Mandate Zones and placed under the joint ISP military control, which was dominated by Starfleet. This was often used as a loophole by Federation member states to gain access to important resources within Imperial space.

Simultaneously, the Continuation Empire faced large amounts of crippling reparations and restrictions on its military, and many surviving military and political leaders were tried and imprisoned. The Federation also forced the Continuation Empire to enact economic legislation opening its markets and ending protectionism, forcing the megaconglomerates and omnicorps that formed the backbone of the Imperial economy to compete with their Federation counterparts and eroding their grip on the economy. Due to the strong ties the Imperial conglomerates held with the government, they too were badly affected by the reparation demands, and investigations and arrests of key personnel.

The Imperial Holdouts
Opposed to both the Continuation Empire and the Federation's domination of the former Imperial Space were an array of Imperial Holdouts, comprised of the remnants of the Imperial Military and whatever elements of the political apparatus that refused to align with the Continuation Empire. Under the Imperial Holdouts, the planets of Onogoro, Kandani, and Daitetsu remained under loyalist control, along with various minor provinces, territories, and other holdings across the former Imperial Space. From the beginning, the Imperial Holdouts were not a unified force, and were largely divided into five main factions, several warlord-led forces, and numerous loyalist groups that operated independently. Most of these terms were retroactively applied by the New Greater Empire's historiography after Imperial Restoration, and at the time most of these elements mainly presented themselves as legitimate Imperial forces.

The main factions were quasi-successor states that governed large territories and commanded major military forces that were able to realistically hold these territories. Warlord forces were Imperial military units or local governments, typically centred around a single or small group of individual leaders, that shifted their allegiance between the various factions as they deemed advantageous. Finally, the loyalist groups included local governments that refused to surrender, or extremely small loyalist guerrilla bands which alone could not make a major impact on the ongoing conflict.

Controlling the entire Onogoro system and parts of Kandani, the Central Empire was essentially a military junta controlled by the leadership of the Imperial Army and the Imperial Security Department, which were led by Grand Marshal Kitagawa Aki and Chief Director Kondo Yoshihisa, respectively. In addition, Marshal-General Kasai Tatsuro, the only surviving son of Emperor Toshiro and current heir to the Imperial Throne, was part of the Central Empire. However, Tatsuro initially refused to be coronated as the new Emperor.

The main opposition that the Central Empire faced from unifying the Imperial Holdouts was Grand Admiral Mukaichi's faction, typically referred to as Task Force Mukaichi. Comprised of the former 1st and 2nd Southern Fleets as well as a large amount of piecemeal forces that had retreated from the Second Battle of Ishigaki, Mukaichi commanded the largest military force of all of the Imperial Holdouts and portrayed his faction as the official continuation of the Imperial Navy, but refused to come under the control of any other faction. Mukaichi eventually aligned his armada with the Imperial Frontier, another Holdout faction led by self-proclaimed Regional Governor Miyata Kiyomi which claimed control over the Coreward Frontier and held substantial territory across the entire region.

Despite the political infighting and lack of cooperation between the Imperial Holdouts, they were nonetheless able to effectively defend their territories and expand a general insurgency against the Federation and the Continuation Empire within the occupied areas. In 147, the ISP carried out the First Police Action, aimed at forcing the Imperial Holdouts to retreat from the occupied areas in order to contain them in the Holdout-held systems. Though only partially successful, the First Police Action forced the Central Empire to retreat from their territories on Kandani.

Founding of the New Greater Empire
Due to the remoteness of Onogoro, the loss of Kandani shrunk the Central Empire's influence and their primary base from which they could access the Circuits and supply various loyalist movements. The higher leadership of the Central Empire, in conjunction with members of the kuge who had fled to Onogoro, began planning to unite the Imperial Holdouts under a proper successor state in order to eventually retake control of the Imperial Core Worlds. To this end, the Central Faction was reorganised into the New Greater Empire, a successor state to the Greater Empire.

On 8 Hagatsu 150, Crown Prince Tatsuro was coronated as the Imperial Monarch, issuing the Declaration of the New Greater Empire as his first proclamation as Emperor. Unlike some of the other Imperial Holdouts, the New Greater Empire recognised the excesses and faults of the Old Empire, and sought to build a superior Imperial society from the foundation laid by the Old Empire. While the Imperial Monarch of the Greater Empire was a figurehead ruler, the New Greater Empire would be an absolute monarchy under the leadership of the Imperial House of Kasai, descendants of the Yashiman royal families. This would allegedly ensure that the corruption and nepotism that plagued the final years of the Hashizume regime would not affect the New Empire, as Imperial and Neo-Yashiman cultural propaganda alike had long promoted the Imperial House of Kasai as incorruptible and virtuous due to their sacred bloodline.

The New Greater Empire would also abandon the complex multi-level democratic system of government that the Old Empire utilised, a vestige of its origins as a federation of sovereign states, which was easily corruptible and caused numerous inefficiencies. In its place, the New Greater Empire would be controlled by a military-led bureaucracy, an extension of the military junta already leading the Central Empire. Leading this military government would be the Imperial Grand Marshal, supreme commander of both the military and the government, selected for their aptitude by their peers and appointed by the Emperor. Grand Marshal Kitagawa Aki was immediately appointed as the first Imperial Grand Marshal.

Reactions to the formation of the New Greater Empire varied widely among the Imperial Holdouts, with many immediately declaring their allegiance to Emperor Tatsuro and others, mainly Mukaichi's faction and the Imperial Frontier, declared the New Greater Empire as treasonous, defeatist and secessionist. Relations between the New Greater Empire and the Imperial Frontier consequently deteriorated dramatically. With the new state formed, the New Greater Empire began a five-year plan of military construction and expansion, enacting conscription for the first time in Imperial history and beginning to build a force powerful enough to challenge Starfleet. The New Greater Empire enjoyed the secret support of numerous former Imperial megacorporations, which maintained their ties to the New Greater Empire both due to patriotic loyalty and to maintain their exclusive market now that the Continuation Empire was also host to numerous foreign megacorporations.

Meanwhile, the Federation was undergoing various internal crises of its own. The numerous Imperial Holdout and anti-Federation insurgencies that they had to combat in the former Imperial Space taxed Starfleet and the Federation's public began to tire from the seemingly endless conflict. Concerns also arose in the Federation Senate regarding the over-allocation of resources towards dealing with the former Empire, while potentially leaving the Federation's other borders with the Union and the newly-unifying Northern Sphere unguarded. In the Coreward Frontier, various pro-independence movements that aimed to break free of both the Empire and the Federation had started growing, with the frontier peoples tired of decades of exploitation by faraway governments, an ironic echo of the Federation's own origins. The breakdown of relations between the Imperial Holdouts also convinced the Federation's leaders that the Imperial Holdout movement was fractured and impotent, and in 155 began a gradual drawdown of Federation forces in the Coreward Frontier. Continuation Empire forces and local militias were established to continue counterinsurgency operations. The Imperial Frontier, integrated with Mukaichi's former faction and now under the leadership of self-styled Supreme Leader Kugihara Hiroshi, took advantage of this period of vulnerability and launched the Coreward Frontier Campaign.

Beginning in 156, this was a massive invasion of the Coreward Frontier, which successfully linked up with sympathetic Imperial Holdout forces in the region and briefly restored Imperial control over the Kamisuwa, Kakigori, and Sanzu systems. The Coreward Frontier Campaign forced the Federation to declare the Second Police Action, with Starfleet again deployed to drive the Imperial Frontier out of the Coreward Frontier, though this was a highly unpopular move in the Federation Senate. Intense and open warfare between the ISP and the Imperial Frontier ensued, with the conflict threatening to become a drawn-out war of attrition, though the Imperial Frontier slowly began losing ground.

In late 157, a ceasefire was signed between Kugihara's regime and the Federation. Due to heavy losses on both sides, neither the Imperial Frontier nor the ISP were able to fully maintain control of the Coreward Frontier, while the Federation again recalled Starfleet due to mounting public pressure. In this context, various small independent states began forming in the region, mainly on Sanzu and Kakigori, though they were initially not recognised by any other parties. On Ventura, the Venturan Revolutionary Republic formed with backing from the Union and declared independence from the Federation, though soon faced internal turmoil from pro-Imperial supporters on the planet.

Reuniting the Empire
Later the same year, the New Greater Empire attempted to bring the Imperial Frontier under their control while it was weakened, but diplomatic attempts failed and the brief First Imperial Civil War broke out. The Imperial Frontier was able to assert its independence, while the New Greater Empire withdrew to prevent a wastage of resources. The Northern Faction, which operated in the Matsutani system, was more receptive to an alliance and soon aligned itself with the New Greater Empire. This enabled the New Greater Empire to supply the resource-starved Northern Faction, which slowly began gaining ground in the Matsutani system. Using this strategy of gaining the loyalty of local forces and warlords and supplying them, the New Greater Empire began to build a robust network of forces across the former Imperial Space.

This meticulous planning and secret construction of forces ultimately led to the New Greater Empire's offensive against Kandani in 160. Along with the generally weakened ISP defences due to the Starfleet drawdown, the New Greater Empire also received the assistance of numerous warlords, local forces, and the Horiuchi Force, an Imperial Holdout faction under Governor Horichi Ken that had partially transformed into a crime syndicate. Within months, Kandani and its system were firmly under the New Greater Empire's control, granting the New Greater Empire access to the former Imperial Circuits and a foothold to retake Imperial Space. Many warlords were reintegrated into the Imperial Military's chain of command, though the Horiuchi Force would remain a separate entity and would eventually transform into the criminal Salamander Cartel. In 164, the New Greater Empire launched a full-scale attack on Kamisuwa, which was partly under the Imperial Frontier's control. This triggered the Second Imperial Civil War, with the New Greater Empire ultimately seizing control of Kamisuwa and gaining the allegiance of various other Imperial Holdout forces across the Coreward Frontier. Through 165, the New Greater Empire seized control of most of the Coreward Frontier, limiting the Imperial Frontier to controlling Daitetsu and scattered territories across the region. In Igatsu 166, the new Supreme Commander of the Imperial Frontier Kaida Ren finally decided to align the Imperial Frontier with the New Greater Empire. In return for his loyalty, Emperor Tatsuro allowed the Imperial Frontier to resume governing the Imperial territories in the Coreward Frontier. These regions were now a hotbed of insurgent and separatist activity, which the Emperor hoped would occupy Kaida's regime while the New Greater Empire slowly eroded the Imperial Frontier's independence and integrated their military forces.

With the Imperial Holdouts finally unified under the New Greater Empire, Emperor Tatsuro and Imperial Grand Marshal Kitagawa commenced a massive military buildup, combining the output of the shipyards on Onogoro and Daitetsu to rebuild the Imperial Navy close to pre-war levels over the next five years. Besides this, the decades of warfare had led to the development of new types of military technology and warship classes, such as the Empire's new Nakayama-class superdreadnoughts. As the final phase of the New Greater Empire's plan came to fruition, the former Imperial megacorporations and various sleeper agents that had been integrated into the Continuation Empire and the Federation itself began wreaking havoc across the political and economic realms of the Southern Sphere. By 168, the New Greater Empire had become such a potential threat that the Federation again began deploying Starfleet to assist the Continuation Empire.

The Empire Strikes Back
Main article: War of Imperial Restoration

On 14 Sagatsu 170, the War of Imperial Restoration began with the Sunrise Offensive, a coordinated interstellar assault against the Continuation Empire and its Federation allies, meticulously timed to coincide with sunrise on Yukimura. Simultaneous attacks were launched against Takisawa, Ishigaki, and Yukimura, with Imperial Navy assaulting from multiple circuits to overwhelm Starfleet and the severely depleted Continuation Imperial Navy. At the same time, a mass uprising was carried out by a vast array of infiltration elements, fifth column operatives, and other Imperial loyalists and sympathisers throughout the Continuation Empire and even the Federation itself. The sheer scale of the operation caught the ISP off-guard, and Starfleet scrambled to react to the numerous Imperial Navy incursions. Within the first month of fighting, the Imperial Navy had largely secured transportation corridors within the Takisawa and Ishigaki systems, allowing for planetary invasions to commence. Starfleet concentrated its defences on the Yukimura system, intending to prevent the Empire from reclaiming their former capital. Fighting across Takisawa and Ishigaki ensued, though the general population on the planets soon welcomed the return of the Empire. Once Imperial control was established over Takisawa four months later, the circuits between the Imperial Frontier and the rest of the Empire were restored, allowing supplies and reinforcements to be deployed across both theatres. Less than one month later, the Empire also reclaimed Ishigaki, making it the first of the Imperial Core Worlds to be reclaimed.

With the end near for the Continuation Empire, various elements of the regime began to defect to the New Greater Empire, creating large openings in the remaining ISP defences that were exploited by the Imperial Military. However, many in the Continuation Empire feared the return of the New Greater Empire as they knew they would be persecuted for treason due to their ties to the Federation. Nonetheless, the Continuation Imperial Minister of National Agriculture Uchiyama Miho led a coup of the Continuation Imperial government on 8 Kyugatsu 170, with the intent to surrender to the New Greater Empire. The Continuation Imperial First Minister Mura Naoki fled the planet and established a government-in-exile on New Mansan.

Shortly after this, the Federation and Federation-aligned Continuation Imperial government attempted to arrest Uchiyama and her government. The Federation leadership, which had no knowledge of the extent of the New Greater Empire's plans, believed that the Empire sought to eventually invade the Federation itself. Maintaining the Continuation Empire as a buffer zone thus deemed highly necessary, in order to defeat the Empire through attrition before they reached the Federation itself. With these strategic goals, Starfleet began carrying out an occupation of the remaining Continuation Imperial territories and declared martial law in an effort to prevent further pro-Imperial defections.

Despite Starfleet's efforts, Uchiyama's coup had caused enough disruption to the defences on Yukimura that the Imperial Navy was able to secure a transportation corridor in the Yukimura system. On 25 Kyugatsu, the first Imperial Army troops landed on Yukimura, beginning the battle to retake the Imperial capital world. Starfleet's focus on space warfare meant that the Imperial Army had an advantage once they were on the ground. Highly disorganised and reduced to using forced conscripts and clone soldiers, the Continuation Imperial Army made up the bulk of the defensive forces, but were constantly routed when bereft of Federation Marine Corps support.

The few elite units of the Continuation Imperial Army made a final stand in brutal urban fighting over the Continuation Imperial capital Nishikyo, but by 10 Shigatsu 171, the Imperial Army had secured Nishikyo and most urban centres, and victory was declared in the Second Battle of Yukimura. While the Continuation Imperial forces began surrendering en masse, the remaining Federation forces hastily retreated from the planet. On 28 Shigatsu 171, Emperor Tatsuro arrived on Yukimura for the first time since his childhood, and officially shifted the capital of the New Greater Empire back to Yukimura. A temporary capital was established at Tamachi City, with the intention to eventually establish a new capital city on the shores of Awara Bay, the crater where the old capital used to be. Once Yukimura was liberated, Kanagawa stood as the final Imperial Core World to be retaken. With defections occurring across what remained of the Continuation Empire, the Federation leadership decided that the Continuation Empire was a lost cause and pulled their forces back to defend Federation Space. With almost the full might of the Imperial Military at its disposal, the Empire launched a final assault against Kanagawa. Within months, the remaining Continuation Empire apparatus surrendered and were reintegrated into the New Greater Empire. The Empire had returned to its pre-war borders, and Emperor Tatsuro declared the completion of the Imperial Restoration on 11 Fugatsu 172.

Taking this opportunity to end the conflict with the Federation once and for all, Emperor Tatsuro and Imperial Grand Marshal Kitagawa extended a formal peace treaty to the Federation. Facing the threat of the fully resurgent Empire, the Federation acquiesced and signed the Kanagawa Conventions on 5 Sagatsu 172. In addition to ending the war between the two hyperpowers, the Federation finally officially recognised the independence and sovereignty of the Empire, laying the groundwork for potential future economic and diplomatic ties. The Continuation Imperial officials still within Federation space were also handed over to the Empire in exchange for all of the Federation prisoners of war held in the Empire.

First Coreward Frontier Crisis
See also: Frontier War of Independence, Third Imperial Civil War

In the first years following the Imperial Restoration, the Empire largely focused its efforts on rebuilding and reintegration of the former Continuation Empire into the New Imperial system. However, the Empire was not as united as it seemed, as a minority of warlords and former Holdout forces refused to be reintegrated into the New Imperial structure due to various reasons. The Empire was forced to expend a considerable amount of resources arresting and disarming these elements. One of the largest obstacles to Imperial unity was the Imperial Frontier, which existed in a semi-recognised state as the alleged regional government of the Coreward Frontier, and still remained under the control of Supreme Commander Kaida Ren and still controlled a relatively large military force.

During the War of Imperial Restoration, Emperor Tatsuro had tasked Kaida's regime with quelling the pro-independence insurgencies in the Coreward Frontier, a task which the Imperial Frontier increasingly struggled to carry out even after the Imperial Restoration. This was partly due to Imperial Grand Marshal Kitagawa's efforts to erode the Imperial Frontier's capabilities and autonomy, sapping their military capabilities and drawing talent away from the Imperial Frontier's chain of command. These efforts had unforeseen consequences when in 173 various independence groups seized control of provinces on Sanzu and part of Kakigori. Forming the Confederation of Coreward States, the Confederation stopped short of declaring independence, but began skirmishing with Imperial Frontier and Imperial forces alike.

It was only when the Confederation colonised the newly-discovered planet Shinsakai in 175 did the Empire step in. Colonisation of new worlds is heavily regulated under Imperial law, and is only carried out under the supervision of the Imperial Ministry of Planetary Expansion, which ruled the colonisation of Shinsakai illegal. This prompted the Confederation to officially declare independence from the Empire, starting the Frontier War of Independence. As part of the Empire's efforts to force the Confederation back into the fold, the Imperial Military began carrying out operations in the Coreward Frontier.

Long having considered the region his domain, Kaida was outraged protested against the Imperial Military carrying out its operations within the Coreward Frontier. When the Imperial government refused to cease its operations, Kaida took drastic measures and led the Imperial Frontier against the Imperial government, beginning the Third Imperial Civil War concurrently to the Confederation's war of independence.

Though the Imperial Frontier still commanded substantial forces, it was already weakened by years of attrition and the sheer size of the post-Restoration Imperial Military, and within months the Imperial Frontier lost control of Kamisuwa. Facing increasing pressure from within, Kaida Ren was abruptly deposed by Allegiant General Hokori Enomoto, who took over as Supreme Commander and offered a ceasefire to the Imperial government on 10 Jugatsu 176. The Imperial Frontier mostly retreated to the Daitetsu System, where they remain to the modern day.

The diversion caused by the Third Imperial Civil War meant that the fight against the Confederation bogged down into a poorly-supplied quagmire, with most fighting taking place in the harsh sub-zero temperatures of Kakigori. While these conflicts were going on, the Imperial government had kept an eye on the Empire's traditional enemy, the Union of Interstellar Revolutionary States. Threatened by the resurgent Empire, the Union had spent much of the decade carrying out a massive military expansion, and by 178 would attain the single largest military force ever in human history.

Newly-appointed Imperial Grand Marshal Ono Junichiro and Crown Prince Satoru were able to convince Emperor Tatsuro that the Union was the larger threat, and to align with the Confederation instead of acting against it, since the Confederation was also wary of Union expansion into the Coreward Frontier following the Union-backed revolution on Venura. On 15 Igatsu 176, the Empire signed a landmark peace agreement with the Confederation, officially granting them independence and relinquishing the Empire's claims on Kakigori, Sanzu, and Shinsakai. Talks were then begun to begin economic and political ties, with the goal of eventually forming an official alliance against the Union. In gratitude, the Confederation's ruling Council of 12 agreed to allow the Empire to found a colony on Shinsakai.

Cold war with the Union
With an unprecedented peace largely attained across the Southern Sphere for the first time since the Old Empire, the Empire was able to concentrate on developing its vast territory. The disruption and necessity caused by the Period of Honourable Resistance meant that new megaconglomerates had emerged alongside the old Yashiman Five, such as omnicorps like Arakawa. These megacorporations wasted no time in reestablishing their commercial and economic stakes across Imperial Space, reestablishing the stable oligopoly, and sponsoring the large public works and industrial expansion projects that the Empire became well known for. On Ishigaki, construction began on a massive artificial ring in orbit, which would serve as the largest shipyards and orbital ports in the Human Sphere.

However, the unfolding rivalry between the Empire and Union quickly threatened the period of peace once again. Ventura, a former minor Imperial world which joined the Federation after the fall of the Old Empire, had been taken over by a revolutionary government sponsored by the Union in the late 150s. Despite this, the system remained highly unstable, with an anti-Union movement known as the Republican Venturans having sprung up in the intervening decades. In 180, the Empire began to sponsor and arm the Republican Venturans in an attempt to usurp influence over the Ventura System.

Similarly to the granting of independence to the Confederation, this new foreign policy of partnering with minor states rather than resorting to military conquest was pioneered by Imperial Grand Marshal Ono Junichiro, who found inspiration in the multinational politics of ancient Yashiman history. In this manner, the First Venturan Conflict soon expanded into a proxy war between the Empire and the Union without escalating into another massive interstellar war between the hyperpowers. With Imperial support from 180 onwards, the Republicans were able to build a superior space armada, eventually wresting control of some territories on Ventura, as well as almost total control of the moon Schrader and the uninhabitable planet Cristal.

The Empire was soon faced with an open war again following the discovery of the planet Aokessho, which unbeknownst to the Empire was home to the Hoi^3, at the time a client race of the Hierarchy. Viewing the Imperial attempts at colonising Aokessho as a provocation, the Empire quickly became embroiled in the First Empire-Hierarchy War against the alien confederation in 189. War against the aliens was a major challenge, as unlike when the Federation fought the Gendo, there were far vaster cultural differences between humanity and the races in the Hierarchy. There was also little information about the Hierarchy, and the sheer size of the Hierarchy's civilisation was not known until decades after the war, prompting fears that this would be a battle that the Empire could not win.

At the same time, the proxy war over Ventura had progressed to such a stage that a direct conflict between the Empire and Union had become inevitable. So-called advisors and volunteer forces on both sides eventually became the primary space combatants in the Ventura System. In 190, a decade after the Empire began assisting Republican Ventura, the conflict spilled out of the Ventura System to the nearby Amanecer System, first discovered in 172 and first colonised by the Union in 186. An undeclared war, the brief Empire-Union War arguably remained an extension of the Venturan proxy conflict, though the militaries of both hyperpowers directly clashed. Lasting some five months, the Empire was able to capture a small territory on Amanecer, known as Tazawa to the Empire.

Concerned about a potential expansion of the conflict into a full-scale clash, the Union's leaders opted to back down, accepting a ceasefire and begrudgingly ceding the Tazawa Territory to the Empire, though with the agreement that both sides would draw down the substantial forces increasingly involved in Ventura. This began a series of events within the Union which would cause the rise of hardliner leadership in the form of Gustavo Barros, though this was of little concern to the Imperial leadership at the time, simultaneously preoccupied with combating the endless hordes of the Hierarchy over Aokessho.

The conflict over Ventura again flared up in 199, when Revolutionary Ventura launched an invasion of Republican Ventura's territories on the planet, fully driving them off the planet in the Second Venturan Conflict. As interplanetary warfare intensified, as well as major fighting on the moon Schrader, the moon was abruptly devastated by what some believe to have been a secret Imperial superweapon, causing an asteroid field to encircle Ventura. The Republicans maintained control over the remnants of Schrader and consolidated their positions on Cristal and elsewhere in the system. Over the next decades, the Republicans would steadily gain orbital supremacy over Ventura, though still lacked the manpower to launch an invasion, enforcing a strategic stalemate.

By this point, the Empire had developed to such a position of power that it was able to experience dramatic economic growth and development despite being involved in two lengthy, albeit low-intensity, conflicts. In the memorial ceremony for the 200th anniversary of the Serenian Terracide, Emperor Tatsuro expressed that the Empire had finally become the dominant hyperpower in the Human Sphere. That same year, the Empire colonised the planet of Hourai in the Imperial Frontier.

Just six years later, however, Emperor Tatsuro passed away on 4 Gogatsu 206, at the age of 104. Crown Prince Satoru was immediately coronated as the new Imperial Monarch, overseeing a period of mourning for the late Emperor. Early into Emperor Satoru's reign, the conflict with the Hierarchy finally came to an end in 208 following the sudden Hoi^3 Revolution and their independence from the Hierarchy. With the conflict a constant drain on Hierarchy resources and Aokessho no longer an integral part of the Hierarchy, the aliens finally disengaged and the conflict ended without a definitive conclusion.

The next conflict to involve the Empire were the Ice Wars on Kakigori, a series of inconclusive tactical skirmishes over disputed territories in the resource-rich Uijintoki Region on the icy planet.

At some point, the Empire also became involved with Mnemosynia.

In 225, the Second Venturan Conflict began heating up again. And then

Second Hyperpower War
Main article: Second Hyperpower War

Government and politics
""This nation is built on the strength, unity and loyalty of its people. Strength comes from unity, and unity comes from loyalty. Loyalty to our traditions, loyalty to our state, and loyalty to the Emperor.""

- Imperial Grand Marshal Kitagawa Aki, First Imperial Grand Marshal of the New Greater Empire

The New Greater Empire is an authoritarian, stratocratic, absolute monarchy. The Imperial Monarch of the New Greater Empire holds supreme authority over the entire nation and the government, and also acts as the ceremonial supreme commander of the military forces. Governing the Empire is the Imperial High Council, headed by the Imperial Grand Marshal, which form the executive branch of the government. Staffed entirely by military officers appointed by the Imperial Monarch, the Imperial High Council forms the pinnacle of a military-government hierarchy that includes sector, system, and planetary governors, which maintain direct executive oversight over their assigned regions.

Imperial Monarchy
""I, Tatsuro, First Emperor of the New Greater Empire, carry the legacy of my late father, Emperor Toshiro. His glorious vision of a powerful, united nation, forging its own path through the stars, laid the foundations upon which our new strong, cultured, and refined Empire stands today.""

- Tatsuro, First Emperor of the New Greater Empire

The Imperial Monarchy is the absolute monarchy that rules over the New Greater Empire. Venerated and respected by the Empire's people, the Imperial Monarchs are descended from Emperor Toshiro, the ruler of the original Greater Empire from which the New Greater Empire is descended from. Emperor Toshiro himself was found to have been descended from both the Imperial House of Yamatai and the Royal family of Chisei, therefore being the living heir to the Empire of Yashima from which the Greater Empire and the New Greater Empire both derive cultural lineage from.

Emperor Toshiro has been near-deified in Imperial culture and historical records for his great achievements and vision of a powerful and unified Empire, though unlike the New Greater Empire, the Greater Empire was actually a constitutional monarchy and Emperor Toshiro in reality held little political power. The personality cult surrounding the Imperial Monarch has grown stronger with each passing generation. Beyond embodying the necessary Imperial Monarch figure in the Neo-Yashiman society that the New Greater Empire represents, the Imperial Monarch is important for the state as a singular figure that the people of the Empire can look up to and follow, an absolute leader to embody to uncompromising and unified nature of the New Greater Empire.

Holding absolute power over the entire nation, the Imperial Monarch is able to issue Imperial Decrees and unilaterally create new laws and proclamations. The Imperial Monarch is assisted and advised by the Imperial Court, a body of advisors and quasi-nobles that help the Imperial Monarch to make decisions. The Imperial Monarch also acts as the deciding voice when the Imperial High Council is at a deadlock in any matter. It is also the Imperial Monarch who selects and appoints the members of the Imperial High Council, with the advice of the Imperial Grand Marshal.

The current Imperial Monarch is Emperor Satoru, the second Emperor of the New Greater Empire. He rules from the Imperial Palace Complex on Miyako Island, on the Imperial capital planet of Yukimura. Shizuka, his daughter, is the current Crown Princess. In recent years, Emperor Satoru has increasingly withdrawn from public life and administration and retired to his own devices, handing most of his responsibilities to Crown Princess Shizuka.

Imperial Court
Officially known as the Imperial Advisory Council, the Imperial Court is an advisory body that exists to advise the Imperial Monarch on matters of state and governance. Though it holds no actual political power, its influence is considerable, and its members are elevated to a quasi-nobility status in Imperial society. The entire Imperial Court is rarely convened by the Emperor except in major national emergencies, and the Emperor calls upon individual members or groups of members whenever their particular expertise is required for him to make a decision.

The Imperial Court is comprised of prominent figures in both the political and economic realms of the state, including high-ranking figures in the Imperial omnicorps, the heads of prominent corpo-industrialist, military, and political dynasties alike, notable politicians on various planets, retired military and political figures, and other specialists invited by the Emperor.

A seat on the Imperial Court is by personal invitation from the Emperor Himself and is non-hereditary, though Imperial Court members may recommend a successor for their seat, subject to the Imperial Monarch's approval. Since 235, the Crown Princess can also grant Imperial Court seats to individuals. Seats on the Imperial Court are coveted by those in the upper echelons of Imperial society, and having even a single family member holding a seat can astronomically elevate an entire family's social status. Political intrigue and scheming are commonplace, with the Kazoku informal nobility often fighting to keep outsiders from joining their ranks. Various common-interest blocs and factions have also inevitably formed within the Imperial Court's members to sway the Emperor's decisions to benefit these factions' interests, or to oppose other factions.

Imperial High Council
""The Imperial High Council is the instrument through which the Imperial Government carries out the Imperial Monarch's will.""

- High General Yamazaki Yuhane, Minister of Foreign Relations

The Imperial High Council is the executive branch of the Imperial Government. Members of the Imperial High Council are selected for their posts by tribunals within their respective service branches, which forms a pool of candidates that are ultimately selected and appointed by the Imperial Monarch.

Imperial Grand Marshal
The Imperial Grand Marshal is the head of government and is personally selected by the Imperial Monarch from a pool of candidates selected by the higher leaderships of both the Imperial Army and the Imperial Navy.

Imperial High Council Members
Each member of the Imperial High Council is granted the rank of

Imperial National Assembly
""What the Empire needs is solidarity and representation. With solidarity, we can overcome all challenges this universe would throw at us. With representation, all voices of the Empire can be heard.""

- High General (Hon) Takeuchi Akiyoshi, Secretary-General of the Imperial National Assembly, Opening Address of the 84th Session of the Imperial National Assembly, Kugatsu 234

The Imperial National Assembly is the main deliberative and representative organ of the Imperial government. Unlike much of the Imperial government, the National Assembly is largely civilian in nature. Representatives from the 47 provinces throughout the Empire meet in annual sessions to deliberate policies and laws enacted by the Imperial High Council, as well as to raise any issues that demand national attention. The National Assembly is empowered to advise the Imperial High Council on courses of action through deliberation and votes, and also nominally hold civilian oversight over the Imperial government and budget.

Leading the National Assembly is the Secretary-General of the Imperial National Assembly, who holds a renewable four-year term and is elected by the members of the National Assembly from amongst its members. The Secretary-General is granted the honorary rank of High General (Hon), and sits on the Imperial High Council as a voting member, allowing the National Assembly a measure of representation in the legislative process. The current Secretary-General is High General (Hon) Takeuchi Akiyoshi, from the Oda Province on Hourai.

Regional and Planetary Governors
Regional Governors are military officials entrusted to oversee large areas of the Empire comprising multiple systems. They sit on the Imperial High Council as voting members.

Planetary Governors are military officials that oversee the planets and other inhabitable bodies in the Empire. They report directly to their respective sector governor. They are not allowed to interfere directly with provincial internal politics, but are able to demand production standards and the issuing of government grants, aid, sanctions, and other such things to motivate provinces to keep in line. They also command all of the Imperial Army forces on the particular planet.

Local Governments
Local governments oversee the 47 provinces within the Empire. Each province is somewhat analogous in size and power to the major nation-states of 21st-century Ordis, and may vary greatly in styles of governance and economic management.

Kazoku
Kazoku

''The Kazoku (華族) are major political, military and industrial families that maintain strong influence over Imperial politics and affairs, to the point of being considered to be the true powers behind the Imperial regime. The origins of the Kazoku lie in antiquity, rooted in ancient family-run megaconglomerates and political lineages that arose in Greater Yashima over thousands of years, many of which moved elements to the frontier over hundreds of years. Eventually, these families were re-established on the frontier, becoming a shadow government behind the successive regimes that ruled the Southern Sphere.''

''It is sometimes believed that the Kazoku were behind the fall of the Greater Empire as they had lost control of Emperor Takikawa. However, it is said that they eventually lost control of the revolution once the Federation became involved. The subsequent persecution faced by all people associated with the Greater Imperial government under the restored Federation prompted the Kazoku to back the Imperial Remnants in the War of Imperial Reunification. In return for their generosity, the Kazoku families were guaranteed a restoration of their old prestige and wealth.''

''Today, the Kazoku remain in the shadows, pulling the strings of the New Greater Empire while running its various political and economic institutions. It is even said the creation of the cult of personality surrounding the Imperial Monarch that fixates and unites the vastly diverse people of the Empire was the brainchild of the Kazoku, who sought a way to unify and hold better control over their second attempt at a Greater Empire.''

But this is all speculation, of course.

Joint Colonies
The Joint Colonies, officially the Special Joint Development Zone, is a series of star systems shared between the Empire and the Union. Complex ownership policies and divisions enable both states to extract resources from the region.

centred on Shiroyama shared between the Empire and the Union. Based on the

Astrography
See also: Astrography of the New Greater Empire ""From the towering spires of Eienkyo to the rolling hills of Matsutani, beauty can be found everywhere in my country""

- Wada Sakurako, Imperial Poet, 250

The Empire is divided into eleven sectors, each of which centers on an inhabitable planet and comprises the planet, its star system, and the vast amount of systems that surround each inhabitable system. One sector, the one governing Aokessho, is largely administrative in nature as the region is considered an active warzone, has few civilian agencies, and is administered by the Imperial Military Joint Command Aokessho. The other special cases are the provincial territories of the Daitetsu system, which are part of the Kandani Sector, and the provincial territories on the planet Tazawa, which are part of the Kamisuwa Sector and the Imperial Military Joint Command Tazawa.

Each sector is overseen by a military governor, who sits on the Imperial High Council. Sectors are further divided into provinces and provincial equivalents, and range from territories on planets to space colonies, and are usually ruled by civilian leaders, legislature, and administrative bureaucracy elected by their constituents. Each province is further divided into cities, towns and villages, the style of administration of which often differs between provinces. Provincial leaders are all represented at the Imperial Gikai, as well as their respective Sector Gikai.

Military
""The citizen speaks of opportunity, the bureaucrat speaks of authority, and the diplomat speaks of policy. The soldier does not speak, the soldier acts, and that is why it is the soldier wins the war.""

- First Imperial Grand Marshal Kitagawa Aki

A highly militarised society, the New Greater Empire operates a vast military force, the largest in the Human Sphere with over 390 million personnel. The Imperial Military consists mainly of the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy. Also a part of the Imperial Military is the Provincial Defence Forces, which are terrestrial militias dedicated to the defence and security of individual provinces. The armed forces of the Empire are very well-funded and equipped. In addition, the military also serves as the de facto government of the Empire, due to the ongoing state of martial law that has been in place since the War of Imperial Reunification.

Though the Empire practices civil conscription, and provisions exist for military conscription, the Imperial military is at present purely a volunteer-based force. Tapping on the generally well-educated pool of recruits, the military is able to utilise advanced, cutting-edge equipment developed and produced by a network of well-funded defence contractors and military research departments. The Imperial military is well-known for its focus on redundancies and force-multipliers, using a mixture of both cutting-edge and 'retro' equipment, producing a multi-tiered force capable of reacting a wide range of contingencies. Automation is widely used in the Imperial military as a force multiplier, boosting their already substantial numbers multiple times. Drones are widely used both in space and terrestrial combat.

Imperial Army
See also: Imperial Army ""Space is but a void. It is only valuable because of what it is filled with; planets, moons, stations, and it is what is located on the surface of these bodies that we fight for. A thousand battleships may secure a victory, but a battleship cannot secure the ground, root out guerrillas, or win the hearts and minds of the people. And that is where the Imperial Army comes in.""

- Grand Marshal of the Imperial Army Danbara Hidetoshi, Preamble, Imperial Army Recruit's Official Primer

The Imperial Army is the terrestrial branch of the Imperial Military, and is largely responsible for all terrestrial military operations. These include land, sea, and in-atmosphere operations, with some limited space capabilities such as low-orbit tactical transportation. The Imperial Army comprises 189.03 million personnel, forming the largest branch in the Imperial Military and the largest single military branch in the Human Sphere.

As a whole, the Imperial Army is highly trained and well-equipped, and has numerous special units trained to operate in all types of terrain and climates across the Empire and beyond. Imperial Army troops are equipped with powered armour and are supported by robust and modern armoured vehicles, mechanised walkers, and combat drones of all types.

Deployed throughout the Empire, the Imperial Army is responsible for peacekeeping operations and the defence of Imperial territory, as well as offensive operations to take enemy territory during wartime. Imperial Army bases and training areas are located in all provinces of the Empire, and the Imperial Army recruits volunteers from across the entire nation, deploying them across the entire breadth of the Empire in mixed units loyal only to the Imperial Monarch and the Empire as a whole. During peacetime, the Imperial Army can be activated to assist the various Provincial Defence Forces in putting down local uprisings or insurgencies, though this is not common.

Imperial Navy
See also: Imperial Navy ""We live in an age of interstellar warfare in a scale unimaginable by generations past. You can have a million soldiers, but these people cannot fly through space on their own. The circuits will not defend themselves, and it is the circuits that form the arteries between the organs that are the worlds of this great Empire. We are always the first line. We are the Imperial Navy.""

- Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy Inaba Risako, Imperial Naval Academy Class of 244 Graduation Ceremony, 1 Higatsu 245

The Imperial Navy is the space warfare branch of the Imperial Military, mainly responsible for all spaceborne military operations, including planetary defence, patrolling the circuits, border patrol, anti-pirate operations, transporting the Imperial Army across the Empire, and others. Besides spaceborne operations, the Navy also maintains limited terrestrial combat capability with the Imperial Marines, which are a sub-branch of the Imperial Navy trained for shipborne combat and planetary invasion. With 130.9 million personnel and over 3,600 warships, the Imperial Navy is the largest single space warfare force in the Human Sphere, which is necessary to defend the vast area of space that the Empire maintains sovereignty over.

Heavily armed and well-equipped, the Imperial Navy has constantly been on the cutting edge of space warfare development in the Human Sphere. The Imperial Navy operates some of the largest combatant ship classes in the entire Human Sphere, including the 7-kilometre-long Dai Teikoku-class supercarriers and the unprecedentedly large Hotaka-class battleships. Supporting the Imperial Navy's numerous combat vessels is a robust logistics network operated by the Imperial Navy itself, comprising the largest merchant fleet in the Empire.

During peacetime, the Imperial Navy continuously carries out patrols within Imperial Space, supporting the various Orbital Guards in maintaining in-system security and assisting the Imperial Customs Authority with patrolling and protecting the circuits from piracy and other criminal elements.

Provincial Defence Forces
See also: Provincial Defence Forces ""Take a hint.""

- Colonel Takanawa Geitouei

The Provincial Defence Forces are a myriad of military organisations raised by individual provinces for defence and internal security purposes. According to the 5th Imperial Decree, every province is to maintain a defence force. As these forces are recruited, funded and equipped by their individual provinces, they vary widely in terms of equipment, capabilities, and training standards. Most provincial defence forces are primarily involved in counter-terrorism and law enforcement activities. According to the 5th Imperial Decree, provincial defence forces may not operate aerospace forces, and are limited to terrestrial and in-atmosphere operations. They work closely with the Imperial Army during actual times of war.

46,231,400

Imperial Royal Guards
""If the Imperial Monarch is safe, the Empire is safe. If the Empire is safe, Humanity is safe.""

- Takenaka Nakamochi

The Imperial Royal Guards are an elite fighting force under the direct command of the Imperial Monarch, recruited from the upper strata of Imperial society. There are two main branches within the Imperial Royal Guards, the Imperial Bodyguard and the Imperial Royal Security Command. The Imperial Bodyguard is a force of 8,888 warriors tasked with the personal defence of the Imperial Monarch and the Yukimura Imperial Palace, while the Imperial Royal Security Command comprises of eight divisions of troops directly under the command of the Imperial Monarch herself, typically deployed for the defence of Imperial Household properties across the Empire.

Law Enforcement and internal security
Main article: Internal security and law enforcement in the New Greater Empire

Imperial Security Service
""This area is now under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Service. Any further aggression will be regarded as an act of sedition.""

- Imperial Security Service 6th Rank Agent, "Higashida"

The Imperial Security Service (Teikoku Shineitai), also often known as the Imperial Service (Teikokutai), is a major paramilitary organisation directly under the Imperial Throne, commanded by the Imperial Monarch through the Imperial Office of State Security. The Imperial Service is responsible for both internal and external intelligence, as well as security of the Empire. Proud successor of the infamous ancient Ordic Yashiman organisation once known as the Imperial Security Agency, the Imperial Service is authorised to protect law and order in the Empire through any means necessary, maintaining the stability and balance of the state and ensuring the state's continued loyalty to the Imperial Throne.

The two main constituent branches of the Imperial Service are the Intelligence Section and the Operational Section. The Intelligence Section is responsible for general domestic and foreign intelligence operations in the service of the Imperial Monarch, while the Operational Section consists of several paramilitary combat units used for counter-terrorism and other armed operations. A third branch may also exist, the Internal Section, which operates in major secrecy and supposedly exists to ensure the continued loyalty of people within and close to the Imperial Court.

The Imperial Service is the largest paramilitary force in the Empire not under the control of the Imperial Government, and largely exists to ensure that the Imperial Government cannot revolt against the Imperial Monarch. Intelligence gathered by the Imperial Service as well as information on the operations of the Imperial Service are only shared with the Imperial Government at the discretion of the Imperial Monarch, leading to distrust and conflicts between the Imperial Service and the military government, particularly the primary secret police force of the Empire, the Tokkeitai.

Members of the Imperial Service are widely considered to be fanatically devoted to the Imperial Throne. Imperial Service agents often wear plainclothes, though Operations Section troops are easily recognisable in their white tactical uniforms.

Tokkeitai
""When the state is the military, and the military is the state, where does the authority of the military police end?""

- Popular Exonet copypasta

The Tokkeitai is the military police force of the Empire, directly under the Imperial Council-level Ministry of Imperial Security. They operate and have the responsibilities of a military police even as their true authority reaches far beyond them, up to and including counter-intelligence and extrajudicial operations. Their job is to root out and suppress all activities considered anti-Imperial, a term that can be interpreted so broadly is covers not only spies, collaborationists and foreign agents, but anyone suspects of furthering an anti-Imperial agenda or harbouring sentiments contrary to national autonomy and the authority of the Imperial High Council.

The Tokkeitai has accumulated a fearsome measure of power, in part due to the fact that any Tokkeitai agent has the prerogative to arrest military officers up to three ranks above himself on suspicion of disloyalty. 'Enhanced interrogations' and summary executions are common practice for them. As the responsibilities of the Tokkeitai have expanded, so has their reputation worsened, but the purpose of the department has not budged since their inception during the Years of Resistance: to pursue the enemies of the Empire and eliminate them with ferocious implacability.

As the jurisdictional realms of the Tokkeitai overlap with that of the Imperial Security Service, both agencies come into fierce competition to hunt down and destroy threats to the Empire. Some say that this is by design, to keep both forces constantly in check. What is known, however, is that this means that to be an internal enemy of the Empire is to call upon oneself the wrath of not one, but two of the most efficiently terrifying organisations in human history.

Imperial Orbital Guards
""This is the Hourai Orbital Guard. Your vessel is known to be carrying wanted fugitives. Power down your vessel and prepare to be boarded, or we are authorised to open fire.""

- Hourai Orbital Guard Tachi-class patrol ship Ashigaru Hourai Typhoon during a routine arrest

The Imperial Orbital Guards are sector-level spaceborne militia, defence forces, and law enforcement units. Orbital Guards are funded by, equipped by, and recruit from the provinces on the particular planet, but are placed under the command of the sector governor. The jurisdiction of the Orbital Guards is limited to their particular system. Typically, Orbital Guards are also limited to their jurisdictions by the equipment that they receive, which are usually small-sized patrol ships and cutters incapable of long-range FTL jumps. Orbital Guards are also often called upon to carry out search-and-rescue missions in their jurisdictions as well.

Orbital Guards are under the Sector Governors and operate basically as spaceborne militia. Coast Guard in space but in-system only.

18,080,100. They are so numerous because they operate a lot of security personnel.

Imperial Space Ranger Corps
""Seek, save, serve with righteous benevolence; to infinity and beyond.""

- Motto of the Imperial Space Ranger Corps

The Imperial Space Ranger Corps are the national-level space enforcement and safety agency under the Ministry of Public Safety. They are responsible for patrolling interplanetary and interstellar space throughout the entire Empire, carrying out search and rescue missions, and performing spaceborne law enforcement duties. The Space Ranger Corps operate in system-level fleets which work closely with the Orbital Guards of their respective systems in order to ensure the safety and security of the space traffic in the Empire. During times of war, the Space Ranger Corps takes on a defensive posture and also supports the Imperial Navy.

Space Rangers are a national-level organisation and can carry out interstellar law enforcement. Coast Guard in space but they operate across the entire Empire. They are also a much smaller and more streamlined organisation; when the Orbital Guards cannot deal with something they call in the elite Space Rangers. If the Rangers can't deal with it they call in the Imperial Navy.

Space Rangers typically recruit from Orbital Guards too.

5,720,300

Imperial Customs Authority
""A stupid pirate tries to raid in-system trade. A normal pirate tries to raid the circuits. A smart pirate joins the Customs Authority.""

- Popular Imperial spacer saying

The Imperial Customs Authority is directly under the control of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and is the national-level trade enforcement agency. In addition to overseeing the international trade gateways of the Empire, it is also the Imperial Customs Authority that operates and maintains the Circuits, and the Customs Authority also patrols the Circuits to ensure the safety and security of the millions of tons of cargo plying the routes every day. The Customs Authority has the authority to board vessels along the Circuits and confiscate cargo that violates permits and licences. The Customs Authority also acts as law enforcement and security along the Circuits, hunting down pirates and chasing down smugglers.

Economy
One of the largest galactic economies, the Empire has a robust and wealthy economy. It is in close competition with the Commonwealth for supremacy in the Human Sphere.

The Empire has a very complex and diverse economy. Like most modern star-states, the Empire is entirely self-sufficient in terms of natural resources. Import and export markets generally involve foodstuff, luxury goods, technology and exotic raw materials. Though nominally a free market, most major industries are heavily controlled by an oligopoly of megacoporations that are heavily monitored by the government, some of which have ties to the state and are partially state-owned. With a large industrial capacity, the Empire is home to some of the largest and most technologically advanced producers of machinery, terrestrial vehicles, electronics, starships for both civilian and military purposes, chemical substances, metals, weapons, and processed foods. Another major industry Imperial corporations are known for is orbital and deep-space engineering.

Five of the largest Imperial conglomerates are known as the Yashiman Five.

Interstellar shipping is primarily privatised with government taxation in place to regulate the industry. The Empire trades heavily with neighbouring states such as the Commonwealth, Federation, Hierarchy and Alvia. A free-trade area exists between the Empire and the Federation, though Imperial corporations occasionally use the Federation as a tax haven. While trade with the Union is carried out, it is low in volume due to the often hostile relations both nations have with each other.

Besides external trade, the Empire maintains a robust internal economy with a healthy trade system. Interplanetary trade is limited to taxed spaceways, and typically involves the movement of food, fuel and raw materials between provinces across the nation. Unfortunately, black markets and smuggling of certain commodities has appeared due to government taxation and regulations.

Agriculture
Agriculture makes up a large percentage of the Imperial economy, and is sufficient to feed the entire nation with a surplus. Modern agriculture is largely automated, with farmers overseeing large numbers of drones that do most of the work.

Faster than Light travel and communications
The Empire, like all other spacefaring nations, has access to faster-than-light capabilities. Like the rest of the UN, the Empire utilises the Ferran Process for FTL. As is typical of the somewhat primitive Ferran Process, massive amounts of computational power is required to carry out FTL "jumps" with any degree of accuracy and safety. The Empire's ships rely on computers equipped with Volginium superconducting circuits to accurately move between their jump and drop points. In order to better regulate and ensure the safety of civilian travellers, all FTL drives outside of government and military vessels are slaved to navigational computers that rely on satellite-borne beacons to travel any distance.

Similarly, the Ferran Process is also used for near-instantaneous communication throughout the Empire.

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence was first developed by the HRU using information and technology recovered from the defeated Aggressor Race. However,

Walkers and Arm Frames
The Empire is well known for pioneering walking machines, often known as Walkers, and is constantly at the forefront of the development of legged vehicle technology. Over the centuries, the Empire has come to become a juggernaut and Sphere leader of military walker technology. Sophisticated and well-designed walkers populate many aspects of Imperial industry alongside more traditional vehicles. In the military, legged machines are termed as tactical cavalry.

One area that the Empire also excels in is the development of Arm Frames, which are a type of industrial walker that adopts a humanoid structure of two arms and two legs. These are used for load lifting, construction, materials manipulation, and even combat purposes. The very first Arm Frames were developed by Mitsuhishi during the age of colonialism as a scaled-up offshoot of powered exoskeletons, and saw widespread use throughout the frontier colonies. Arm Frames have since developed into complex, precision machines that are capable of fluid motion and are easy to control. Military Arm Frames are known as Tactical Frames. In space, the Empire has also pioneered the development of Mobile Frames, which are large, spaceborne Arm Frames. These are typically used for deep-space engineering and construction, with a few models even designed for combat in the highly-dense orbital environment of space stations, space platforms, and satellites.

The rough terrain of the frontier worlds necessitated legged vehicles to properly traverse during the early stages of colonisation, and humanity's best walker hardware was sent there. Due to their lack of proper military hardware, early resistance to the colonial powers often used industrial vehicles such as walkers and Arm Frames, further leading to the development of military walkers in the Southern Sphere. The Second Extrasolar War marked the first time early walkers faced each other in large scale combat, and marked the birth of purpose-built military walkers.

Energy
Much like the rest of the Human Sphere, the Empire uses a large amount of cold fusion for its energy needs.

Combustible fuel is also used, of which E-Stoff has the largest market share, followed by Homusubium. Progaso is not widely used due to Imperial import restrictions.

Communications and media
The Empire has a robust communications network. The Exonet, the UN's joint network, is used.

Transportation
In the Empire, free-range FTL is heavily restricted to government and military vessels. For safety and regulatory purposes, all civilian vessels' FTL navigational computers rely on satellite-borne beacons to travel any distance. These beacons are operated by the Imperial Customs Authority, a government agency under the Ministry of Public Safety. Depending on their licence, civilian ships may be limited to close-range jumps within their registered star system or singular jumps between star systems, with farther trips requiring special permits or licences to enable longer-range jumps. Most civilian vessels are limited to a maximum jump range of system-to-system, with connecting 'highways' of beacon-stations existing in the maze of uninhabited systems between each inhabited system. Even with ships spending less than a minute in each system, travel between inhabited systems can take days or even weeks. For larger vessels like bulk freighters and transport ships with the proper permits, jumps farther than single systems can allow the inter-system logistics of the Empire to run on time and within hours.

Some criminal groups like pirates or smugglers remove their FTL restrictions illegally.

Demographics
The Empire's population is estimated at around 147 billion. About 55% of the population is concentrated in the more developed western sectors of the Empire.

The largest racial group in the Empire is humanity, which constitute about 91.51% of the total population. A growing portion of minority races are comprised of foreigners immigrating into the Empire, of which the largest group is the Alvish. The Empire does not recognise artificial intelligence and machine intelligence amongst sentient races.

Imperial society is considered largely linguistically, racially and culturally homogenous. Cultural policies and government promotion of a harmonious society contribute to the perception that the Empire is a monocultural society. However, some studies show that the Empire is far more diverse than it would seem, with regional cultural evolutions and variations contributing diversity.

National Service
In the Empire, every citizen is legally obliged to serve a period of five years of National Service, typically between the ages of 20 to 35. During this period, they are provided with an allowance by the government and may be assigned to work in a wide variety of necessary civil fields as required by their province to support and bolster the ranks of professional civil servants, ranging from law enforcement, civil engineering work, firefighting, medical work, education work and many more. It is rare but not unheard of that National Service obligations would require participants to be sent off-world. During the National Service period, participants are accorded some benefits of Imperial civil servants.

While national service does not involve military conscription due to the high recruitment rate into the military, all participants undergo a two-month basic military course to provide them with martial skills necessary to defend their homes in the event of a major war. Despite not being military personnel, most National Service organisations typically have rank hierarchies mirroring that of the military.

Following the conclusion of their service, citizens remain on a reserve list for 10 years in their assigned field, and may be called up for periodical reserve training, or activated in times of crisis or severe need. A noticeable trend is that around 30% of participants choose to continue working in fields similar to that which they had been assigned to, albeit in the private sector, while 10% of participants continue to sign up as full-time civil servants in the same field.

It is considered an important coming-of-age milestone for Imperial citizens to serve their national service. The use of such a vast amount of conscripted manpower also enables the government to carry out major civil engineering projects and vast public services programmes and works with a fraction of the amount of money that would be needed otherwise.

Health
The Empire has a current life expectancy of 120 years.

Education
Education in the Empire is primarily state-supported and is compulsory for all Imperial citizens. Education is heavily subsidised or even free depending on the average income level of educational districts, and is primarily government-funded. The Office of Education is responsible for the development and support of the nationwide education system, ensuring that infrastructure, resources and personnel are available for a standardised education across the Empire. A large portion of teachers and auxiliary personnel in Imperial educational institutes are serving their five-year national service period, keeping costs low, though a core of professional teachers is maintained in every institute to maintain proper standards.

Children in the Empire can be enrolled for non-compulsory Early Childhood Education, which in addition to basic pre-school education may also provide childcare services. The majority of ECE schools are private organisations inspected and certified by the government.

The compulsory phase of education begins with Foundational Education, which lasts for six years between the ages of 7 to 12. The Post Foundational Examination is the first round of testing that determines the educational stream of the child's next level of education. Four or five years of Intermediate Education follow, from he ages of 13 to 16 or 17, the length and curriculum determined by Post Foundational Examination results as well as guided subject selection by the students themselves. The second major test is administered at the close of Intermediate Examination, granting students the Certification of Basic Education. Depending on the grade of their CBE, students may be encouraged to enrol in either Technical Education Institutes or Advanced Education Institutes. TEI programs typically last three years and are primarily vocational training and technical skills institutes to prepare students for the workforce, awarding diplomas in various disciplines, while AEIs programs last two years and provide advanced training in arts and sciences with the goal of preparing students for enrolment in Daigaku, and end with an examination for the Certificate of Advanced Education.

Daigaku are institutes of higher education and research which award academic degrees in various academic disciplines, for both undergraduate and postgraduate education. Unlike the rest of the education system, a Daigaku degree is not compulsory and may be pursued at any time in life. While most of the Daigaku are affiliated with and subsidised by the government, several are private organisations.

In the Empire, Certificates of Basic Education are the least requirement needed for meaningful employment, though employers typically prefer propective employers with TEI diplomas or Daigaku degrees. This makes it difficult for some people to attain employment if they did not attain satisfactory educational qualifications. Some 12% of the population does not attend government-affiliated educational institutes, who for various reasons are either home-schooled, attend private schools, or are not educated. It is possible for families to attain legal exemptions from compulsory education, though this is difficult. Undocumented people living in the Empire are not allowed to attend government-affiliated schools, making it difficult for such people to attain education and employment unless they apply for Imperial citizenship.

The current Councillor of Education is Grand General Nagumo Seiji.

Language
More than 87 percent of the population speaks as their first language. Evolved Yashiman is the official designation to the modern form of the Yashiman language, which has changed slightly from the language spoken on Ordis centuries ago. The most drastic change is the emergence of a third kana form, Shinsho, which was developed in the HRU era as part of an attempt by the regime to eliminate the traditional Yashiman writing systems. Besides Shinsho, original Hyōkana,, and are also still widely used, though it has been noted that Hyōkana and  use has dramatically decreased in the recent century in favour of Shinsho.

Undocumented peoples
A surprisingly large amount of people in the Empire are Undocumented, which means that they are not logged in any government database and do not have an identification number, typically assigned at birth. These people include those born in deep poverty or remote regions who are unable to register with authorities, or political dissidents who refuse to apply for documentation as a statement or out of concerns that the government would invade their privacy. Though it is not a crime to be undocumented, such people are not considered citizens of the Empire and may face difficulty in finding employment, education, healthcare, dealing with law enforcement and interstellar travel. Undocumented individuals may apply for documentation any time, and are widely encouraged to do so.

Culture
The Empire largely embraces a modern interpretation of the old Yashiman culture in order to promote national unity and a strong sense of loyalty to the state rather than individual regions, crucial in an interstellar state as large as the Empire. To this end, the national language of the Empire is, and the Empire also follows many Yashiman cultural practices such as Yashiman-language names, cultural rituals, cuisines, sports, manners and social norms, elements of the Michi religion, the presence of an absolute monarch and many of the rituals surrounding the monarch, and many others. However, anthropologists acknowledge that modern Imperial culture and language is still widely different from the original cultures of the Yashiman people on Ordis due to centuries of cultural and linguistic drift.

These efforts are often considered to be Neo-Culturalist, a form of modern culture that mainly arose in the post-Diaspora Human Sphere as disparate frontier colonies adopted the trappings of Old Ordic cultures to create senses of communal unity. The Empire's strict adherence to Neo-Culturalism is part of the deep ideological conflict between the Empire and the Union, which officially rejects and abhors Neo-Culturalism. The Empire represents the largest and most successful Neo-Culturalist movement in its entirety, though like all Neo-Culturalist movements the 'culture' adopted by the state is criticized by detractors as simply being old cultural stereotypes appropriated and enforced for political purposes.

Nonetheless, the sheer size of the Empire has resulted in various cultural differences developing across the Empire, which are carefully cultivated by the Imperial Ministry of Culture in order to allow the people to acknowledge and celebrate their own differences while still maintaining core concepts to foster loyalty to the state as a whole. Linguistic drift has resulted in several dozen dialects of Evolved Yashiman, mainly with differences in accent and some vocabulary across the Empire, though the Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Education ensure that the national language is always mutually intelligible.

Much of the Empire's cultural traditions are shaped by the Ministry of Culture's directives and the Institute of Yashiman Studies in the Imperial University. These are further influenced by strong Kazoku and state control of media megacorporations, news, and most forms of entertainment and education. Naturally, the Yashiman-supremacist views of many Kazoku members has had a large influence on the direction that the Empire has gone in.

Calendar and timekeeping
Like the rest of the Southern Sphere, the Empire uses the Revolutionary Calendar, which is based on the rotation period of Serenia. One Cycle lasts 31 hours, the same as a day on Serenia, and a year lasts 336 days with 12 months of 28 cycles. As the length of a day varies from planet to planet, Standardised Time is utilised in space and for records purposes, though local calendars tied to the local rotational periods are used for day-to-day timekeeping.

The zeroth year of the Revolutionary Calendar is the Serenian Terracide, which occurred exactly 250 Revolutionary years ago.

Monomi
Monomi were traditionally seen as shadows in human form, experts in stealth, infiltration, disguise, and a variety of forms of assassination. However, all Monomi clans and families in old Yashima disappeared in the early 20th century, and Monomi most definitely do not exist in the modern age. Despite constant rumours of technologically advanced assassins carrying out the Empire's black operations, little actual evidence exists to suggest that the Empire has access to such operatives.

What is known, however, is that "black" private security consulting firms such as Fukuro Security do exist. The operations of these companies, however, are shrouded in mystery as well as government red and black tape alike. Operatives of Fukuro Security, known as Shikami, are rumoured to be capable of incredible feats and are allegedly often employed by the Empire to carry out deeds too dirty even for the Tatenokai. Sensationalist reporting and rumours have inflated these supposed assassins into nigh-superhuman status.

Despite not existing in the Empire, or perhaps because of this, Monomi are highly popular in pop culture.

And still we wait in the rain, always ready for the call.