Factions/Groups

#### General Info

The Imperium is a large, incredibly expansive empire. Their empire does not reside on any single world but instead across, not only the stars but many universes as well. How the imperium achieved such a feat is unknown as the secret to their power is closely guarded. All that’s known is that they use some kind of technology to create wormholes between universes which they then use to invade and conquer populated worlds all over the multiverse. This method has proven incredibly effective as most civilizations have little room to fight back against the imperium’s highly advanced military and weapons. The imperium is a scary enemy for any civilization to face, with their arrival guaranteeing the destruction of their independence and freedom. No one has ever been able to stand up to them and make it out alive. One of the main reasons the Imperium is so dangerous is their large army. Their army is mostly robotic soldiers which is great for mass soldier production. The Imperium has also stolen the technology of other civilizations to advance their own technological capabilities. So far little to no threat has ever been posed to the Imperium’s empire. This is due to the natural separation of universes. Invaded civilizations cannot communicate with one another because they don’t possess the wormhole technology that the imperium has. This is beneficial as it ensures that a resistance cannot grow large enough to rival the size or power of this tyrannical regime.

#### Government and Hierarchy

As more knowledge of the imperial government has been learned. The structure of their government has been revealed with most residents of imperial cities knowing where they fall in the hierarchy. There are multiple groups, classes, and military ranks that can influence where you fall in the imperium’s power structure. With most of its citizens falling into the lowest class there could be.

##### Prisoners of war/Slave workers

While most would frown upon such a thing as slave workers, the imperium does not. The imperial military actively takes prisoners from all over the multiverse, transporting them to what are essentially labor camps. These camps are used to provide the imperium with raw materials and anywhere you go in the imperial territories, you will find slave workers who are likely prisoners from another universe. All of these workers fall into the lowest social class of any group in the imperium. They are the primary group that makes up the primary work sector of the imperial economy. This group has historically been the most terribly treated as well as the largest societal group within imperial society. Those who are a part of this class will never leave as the imperium treats any kind of resistance as a crime against the imperium itself. This is mostly to make those who would resist learn what happens when you do.

##### The Work Force

The imperial workforce is composed of many different kinds of people. All of which run stores, factories, construction, or any other secondary work sector jobs. Most if not all of the people within the general workforce are citizens of the imperium. These people are not prisoners of war and were likely a part of some other society before having their world taken over. While life is still terrible for those who fall into this social class. They can enjoy more freedoms than the prisoners who are treated with no dignity or respect. Unlike the treatment of the slave workers, these members of imperial society live within actual homes, unlike the Slave workers who are forced to live within prisons and labor camps. Most if not all people within this class of people are still miserable as living conditions are very minimal with the imperial government controlling the economy and therefore the resources of this group.

##### Essential Workers

While life is not much better for these individuals, the level of care given to this group is a far larger amount than that given to general workers. This group of people consists of those within the imperium that help to maintain infrastructure, provide healthcare to the more wealthy, generate some kind of value, or possess skills deemed valuable to the imperium. These individuals could include those who are engineers, scientists, medical professionals, skilled craftsmen/architects, firefighters, police, and even military personnel. The people of this group likely are provided many more resources than others. They are given these resources to ensure their skills do not go to waste and that they remain loyal to the imperium. Propaganda is also used to influence the opinions of these workers. This is so they remain loyal and content. This may come in the form of completely denying that the lower class is struggling or may make these people think they are better than those who are less fortunate. This keeps them from sympathizing with the struggling workers and creates a social divide. A great way to control populations.

##### Military Personnel

The imperium prioritizes their military and as a result of this, many of the officers or other high ranking military officials tend to be of high social status and are appointed as leaders of different sectors of the Imperial empire. Most of those who fall within a high status like this are either generals of the army or military personnel who have achieved great achievements in the name of the imperium. Due to the appointment of military leaders as the ones who rule over the different sectors within the imperium, political leaders don’t exactly exist in the normal sense as these military leaders are the politicians. This has led to a very militant control over many of the imperium's worlds. this leaves little room for democracy as the imperium focuses on laws and bills that will allocate resources for mostly military purposes.

##### The Imperator/The Supreme Imperator

This title is held by the leader of the imperium. They are an enigmatic figure, rarely seen by the public. Their true identity is known only by the highest-ranking military generals. The reason no one knows their true identity is because they appear to look different depending on where you see them. Every citizen will most likely only ever see the Imperator through propaganda videos or holographic announcements across the empire. However, there is not a constant to how they look across different universes. In worlds where fear is used more often to control the populace, the Imperator will appear as a more powerful, fear inducing figure, while in the more prosperous worlds they may appear to be more benevolent looking. Their appearance will always have variations for every universe, the reason for this is unknown.

#### Economic system

While most governments would operate on some kind of currency to buy and sell goods, the imperium is different. Due to the highly centralized and controlled economy, along with a myriad of other factors, the imperium has no need for a standard currency as they don’t need or even want to trade with other governments as well as wanting to have the power to regulate the distribution of goods among their citizens. Because of this, the imperium is able to further control the citizens as they try to barter for goods, whether that be through other valued items or through an offer of labor to one another. This is yet another way the imperial leadership controls the people. Another reason for this is that the imperium has full control over where resources are allocated. Most of these resources end up for military use. A large portion of all the resources the imperium has are used up in their military efforts whether that be weapons production, military operations, or research. The imperium does recognize that pouring too much into the military could weaken the rest of the empire, but they also know that giving the citizens just enough to get by is better for their goals. The Imperium has always tried to not only create fear in anyone who would try to rebel but also try to make their citizens believe that if they stay loyal to the empire they will be given more. Whether or not they follow through on this is largely dependent on the Imperial leadership's goals for specific sectors on the empire.

#### Military Tactics

Generally, the Imperium will follow a few steps when invading planets. This process usually follows three primary steps; invade, conquer, and colonize. However, if a civilization proves to be too difficult to control or shows signs of potentially threatening the power of the imperium. The imperium will cease all operations against the civilization, then will retreat its forces back out of that universe. While this seems like it would be great for the civilization in question, this is not the case. What happens as soon as the imperium has completely left the universe, a cataclysmic event occurs. The celestial bodies that this civilization dwells on become suddenly uninhabitable. No one knows how or what causes this to occur because no one who would witness it dies before they can tell anyone. These rebellious civilizations ended in an instant with no survivors to tell the tale of what occurred on their last day. This fate is considered the worst-case scenario for the imperium as this will waste the resources and labor potential that they would gain by taking control of these planets. However, this is an incredibly powerful scare tactic. By using these annihilated societies as a way to keep other worlds under their control in check, they still get use out to the civilizations, even if they’re now gone. But, when this is not the case, the imperial military will instead fully conquer the civilization. This will then lead to machinery, buildings and other infrastructure to be created or transported to the newly assimilated world. This is the colonization phase.

##### Invasion

The Invasion phase starts typically with large artillery being deployed through sizable wormholes to initially cripple the defenses, weapons, and infrastructure of the planet. After that, soldiers are deployed to destroy any remaining resistance. This entire process usually takes about a day as the imperial military strikes several targets all across a civilization at once. This is a very effective method for quickly weakening defenses and other forms of potential future resistance. This phase is the shortest as it only lasts around a day because it only takes a day for the imperium to have fully moved their forces into the invaded territory. It should also be noted that there are warning signs to whether or not your universe is going to be invaded. Within the couple of days or months leading up to the invasion, temporal disturbances will become increasingly frequent as the opening of the wormholes causes ripples within space-time. While this will happen, it only happens once. This is because all universes lie within their own individual timelines. However, when a wormhole is created between two individual timelines, a bridge that permanently connects them is formed. This bridge cannot be severed for unknown reasons, but it will mean that if you were to open a wormhole after a bridge would have been formed, no temporal distortions would occur, at least not on a large scale. The invasion of new universes has ended up linking many individual timelines into one due to the imperium’s conquest of the multiverse.

##### Conquer

This is the second phase of the imperium’s typical expansion operations. This phase is entirely focused on crushing and quelling any and all resistance as well and is also used to scope out territory that will be used to set up future infrastructure as well as arming points for future operations. Typically, this phase will last around one or two months because little time is needed for the Imperium to take control of new worlds. On rare occasions, however, a civilization will be able to put up enough of a fight that it is deemed impossible to take control of a planet. This could be due to the risk of continued rebellion, or the danger posed by the continued existence of a civilization. When this happens, the imperium cuts their losses and completely retreats back through their wormholes. This results in the worst-case scenario. The civilization will be essentially eradicated from the face of their world as the imperium deems them too dangerous to be left alive. If this occurs, then the third phase will not be enacted as the destruction of a civilization leaves the planet entirely uninhabitable. How the imperium accomplishes this is unknown.

##### Colonization

As the final phase in the assimilation process, when this phase begins, the entirety of a civilization would have been conquered and will now be under the control and subject to the whim of the imperium. This phase consists of all things to do with resources, construction, and settlement. After the conquest of a civilization is completed. Not much of the original infrastructure remains. There are times where large portions of an assimilated population will still have homes as their cities would not have been affected much by the recent conflict. This usually happens when a civilization as a whole has given into the overwhelming might of the imperium at an early stage in the conquest of their world. This means little damage is caused, however, many times this is not the case. This leaves many new citizens within the imperium without shelter. The imperium will construct mass habitats for these people and will likely continue to use the old cities of these people for whatever purpose they deem fit. This step in the process is largely just used to ensure the imperium can maintain a strong foothold on their newly conquered planet.