Empire of Zhuyaai

The **Empire of Zhuyaai** (Zhuspek: *Zhùhāi Dìgwó* /ʈʂù.hāi dì.kuó/), also known as the **Zhuyaai Empire** or the **Zhuyaanese Dynasties**, is a part-patrimonial ryüist, part-meritocratic legalist empire wherein the Zhuyaai Emperor (*Zhùhāi Hwángjì* /ʈʂù.hāi xuáŋ.dì/) is given legitimacy through the imperial family’s continued achievements and competent leadership as determined by the ruling families of the many stellar and terrestrial states throughout the empire’s territories, and the gods. The Zhuyaai Empire is 37,7 ly at its widest point, between the Jaodi (*Jāoudjǐ* /ʒāu.jǐ/) and Nasun (*Naàsǔn* /nàh.sǔn/) Systems, reaching Galactic-Rimward away from the Altkorr. The Zhuyaai Empire oversees eleven systems and tens of trillion citizens. Their closest neighbors are the likewise rimward Sarkhaani Clans of Poloks, the coreward Republic of Tū'reine; the spinward Sovraadt Uraanz; and the Afa-Settaari Genetic Impyrriad lying "beneath" closer to the galactic plane.

The Imperial family, currently ruled under the Liyao Guanyeu emperor (*Lihāo Gwán-Yǔ* //) of Clan Liyao, functions as the highest rung of the loosely adhered to Four Occupations (*Wù Mǐanghe* //; Komenspek: lit. "five people"); the Scholar (*Shǐkwe* //), Agriculturalists (*Nó-Un*//), Industrialists (*Kuún* //), Merchants (*Si-Ǒn* //), and Artists (*Yìrék* //). Though bestowed with the title of 'emperor,' this prestigious rank within Zhuyaai shares power with both the nobility, and appointed ministers who were largely drawn from the Gentry. The Zhuyaai Empire is divided into regions directly controlled by the imperial government (mostly dependent on a system's proximity to the Imperial Capital) called *Zhùun* (//; Commandery), while relying on a number of semi-autonomous kingdoms to manage the fringes of the interstellar empire.

Ever at odds with one another, the ryüist-legalist balance is a difficult one to maintain. Though the most powerful families of the empire, those given lordship over portions of the empire, are largely hereditary lineages, a meritocratic legalism is pressed upon those families by their subjects and the imperial bureaucracy.

For all their ancient aesthetic, the Zhuyaanese are technologically advanced to other nations around and bellow them (nadirward). The Zhuyaanese claim to be as old as the likes of the Sjittites and Settaarii, as well as claiming to possess long-forgotten technical schematics and diagrams that give them their technological leverage over the nations around them. Function and form blend into a beautiful tapestry of moving parts and artistic expression. Members of the Archivists continue to puzzle over that which they do possess and reconciling the failings of larger dynasties of the past who possessed even more advanced technology.

## Etymology

The **Zhuyaanese Empire** is so named after the most recent Unification Lord of the Empire, though is not the first of its people. The previous iteration, named the Changyu Empire (*Ghángzheū* *Dìguóe* //), was a colossal empire of twenty stars that eventually broke into seventeen opposing, warring states. Zhuyaai Lim, the first Zhuyaanese emperor, returned eleven star systems under a single banner largely through diplomacy, and where diplomacy failed, overwhelming violence.

## History

The first empire, standing beside the Busaanids and Settaari, was the **Daekun Empire** that sprung from the Xiayung System after the collapse and scattering of the Sjittite clans. Using their access to krystech, the Daekunese jumped from system to system, claiming stars without consequence and subjugating the populations of those who they found. [...]

At its height, the **Changyu Empire** spanned a considerable twenty star systems throughout the **Zenith Volume**. The Yunese dominated the region with military and economic power and is currently the second-oldest single nation beside the Impyrriad, having maintained civil cohesion in one form or another for at least 6.566 years. Of the seventeen stable dynasties and six iterations of the Empire before it, the Changyu Empire was the most successful socially, religiously, and most importantly, legally. However, the Changyu Empire splintered under systemic corruption as the empire tipped into favoring patrimonial ryüism as well as the meddling of the clandestine actors.

For the first time in a millennium, the empire broke apart into civil wars both intrasystem and interstellar. This period of warring states sees the rise and fall of several would-be dynasties that attempted to keep all of the Empire together, but none manage to achieve what the Imperial Clan of Zhuyaai had accomplished. Over six-hundred years of sporadic conflict, in which no less than nineteen other dynasties attempted to don the mantle, separates the Changyu and Zhuyaai Empires.

Reuniting the Kingdoms, the Old Stars, was unachievable in Zhuyaai Lim's lifetime. Of the twenty systems of Changyu, only eleven were returned under a single banner. Seven solar systems (the Seven Rogue Kingdoms) remained independent of the Empire, unwilling to bend to another power without the 'mandate of heaven,' and two systems were seized by and fully integrated into the Tū'reine Republic: Denebolum, called "Zenkhang" (*Zhěngòng* //); and Boyarems, called "Khiyuan" (*Qìnywān* //).

## Astrography

Today, the Zhuyaai Empire rules over eleven systems that reach across most of the Zenith portions of Zaett and only some of Baett-An's own Zenith volume. Its shape, from the Altkorr's perspective, is a braying animal with its lifted head and tail "hanging" over the oldest stars in the Sphere while its body and legs face toward the Galactic Rim. Zhuyaai is 37,7 ly at its widest point, between the Jaodi and Nasun Systems, and does not stray below the Zenith Volume nor into the Weald.

Zhuyaai shares an interrupted border with the Republic of Tū'reine, and is a proximity neighbor to both the Sovraadt Uraanz.

All eleven systems are considered "fully-inhabited," each planetary system within being home to several trillion in total per star system. One world is green, though through the successful efforts of ancient terraformers. Several worlds are nearly finished terraforming, and those that do not pursue these ecological efforts maintain several krysrealms that are verdant and bustling with human, shiildr, and animal life.

Below are the various Zhuyaanese stars and their realms of holding.

* Xiaàkeng, *Imperial capital system*
* Xiaàtán
* Shǎng-Kī
* Chaángkén
* Jhāoudǐ
* Tōkjhǔ
* Pānghúo
* Fútoū
* Naàsǔn
* Tiānjuán
* Tiānláo

## Government & Politics

In the Zhuyaai Empire, the emperor holds seemingly unlimited powers over his domain. He is the supreme judge and legislator, the warlord of all the armed forces, and the singular designatory body capable of appointing nominees to top positions and posts within central and local administrations. This boundless control is held at bay with checks and balances attributed to the Nine Magisters, each of whom oversee key parts of the central government.

These state organs, the Nine Bureaus, are the uppermost level of government below only the emperor himself. Beside them, however, are the numerous advisory courts (*Tiíhng-yì* //) that vie and pressure the emperor for their attention. These matters often involve pressuring the emperor to accept advice on policy decisions for the entire Empire. These courts introduce dual political/social environments that force emperors to weigh their acceptance or rejection of court advisors carefully, as rejection may alienate their high-level ministers.

The emperor is supported by a cabinet of Nine Magisters of the Empire. They are the Imperial Magister of the State, Chancellor of the Masses, Excellency of the Censor, Imperial Counselor of the Coin, Minister of Merchantry, Minister of Works, Minister of Ansibles, Imperial Counselor of Refinement, and the Grand Commandant of the Imperial Militaries.

Of the government, the bureaucracy maintained by the emperor's magisters and their bureaus is rigid and often times inflexible. Even as the sitting emperor attempts to introduce some flexibility into the central government, those in power resist as their influence is threatened by the Supreme Lord. In doing so, Emperor Gwanyeu has encountered successful attempts to stymie his attempts. Though it is uncommon for the upper echelons of any bureau or government office to be corrupt, the level to which officials will attempt to stave off their own emperor's work in reform is indicative of a structure that offers too much comfort at the top and too little at the bottom.

### Political Divisions

Zhuyaai space is separated into many successive divisions, each with their own intricate, intertwined bureaucratic system: **circuit** (a solar system), **sector** (a cluster of stellar arcologies or a planetary system), **region** (multiple stellar arcologies or an expansive terrestrial zone), **province** (a singular stellar arcology or a subdivision of a region), **commandery**, **prefecture**, and **district**. While there are stately bureaucracy maintaining almost all levels of stately rule, patrimonial families share responsibilities with the state associated with regional, provincial, and district management so the Imperial bureaucrats are able to focus most of their time and effort on planetary and solar system managerial concerns. Even on the Imperial Throneworld, Hángchéng, the Imperial Clan of Liyao controls and maintains a singular region rather than the planetary or even solar system.

There are no elections in the Empire of Zhuyaai for positions of public office, as bureaucrats are appointed by higher Imperial authority such as the Bureau of the State. Noble clans may vote amongst themselves concerning patrimonial matters, often votes of confidence in the meritocratic status of the ruling clans, but Imperial subjects of the masses are not permitted to take part in these gentry votes.

Citizenship is granted at birth, but only to those born of citizens and within the nation's administrative borders. This includes shiildr (*diàhnhái* //), who are considered "born" when generated regardless if they are clones of the original or made of two or more source entities.

### Central Government

#### Bureau of the State

The **Bureau of the State** is the governing body that controls the majority of central bureaucratic power. It is lead by the **Imperial Magister of the State**. Within its administration are the **Imperial Secretariat**, **Department of State Affairs**, the **Eight Courts**, and **Five Directorates** subdivisions.

Of these subdivisions, the most pervasive throughout the empire and its local governments is the Department of State Affairs which organizes, administrates, and ensures the support of the five levels of Local Commanderies through the Three Ministries: the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Personnel, and the Ministry of Rites. Working with local governments and the noble clans that support them, State Affairs manages requests of higher tiers of government to lower ones, ensures the Imperial Tithe is exacted in the form of natural or processed resources, distributes allocated funds released by the Imperial Treasury for the annual budget, oversees the administration of justice across all classes of people, manages the clerical data attributed to the citizens of the empire, and even conducts those sacred rites allowed by the Mandate of Mo Li (*Mhò Lìh dhe Whěituōh* //), the god of administrative processes.

The Eight Courts act as special interest groups that work to further their and their client's goals by speaking directly to the emperor. This has been a position that has historically known widespread corruption and conflicts of interest. Today, however, the Censorate's specialized Court Division has worked to ensure propriety is maintained among courtiers vying for the emperor's attention and approval.

#### Bureau of the Masses

The **Bureau of the Masses**, also known as the **Chancellery**, is the governing body that oversees the well-being, housing, and education of the people. It is lead by the **Chancellor of the Masses**. Within its administration are the **Department of Medicine**, **Department of Housing**, and the **Department of Education** subdivisions.

Historically, the Chancellery has been seen as a knife's edge position. Should one succeed in their promises and bring prosperity of their people, the Chancellery is an enviably position. Should one fail and the people suffer, the Chancellor's clan is affected with them. The masses have sway with the Liyao emperors who have known that one's duty is to the people as much as it is to the state, and the Chancellor's performance maintaining and properly administrating the masses as per the Mandate of Mo Li.

Currently, the economic strain of excess wealth gathering at the top has made the position of Chancellor a difficult one to navigate properly.

#### Bureau of the Censorate

The **Bureau of the Censorate**, known simply as the **Censorate**, is the inter-bureau accountability organ of the empire. It is lead by the **Excellency of the Censor**. Within its administration are the **Palace Branch**, the **Central Branch**, and the **Commanderies Branch** subdivisions.

Investigating censors are the public agents of the emperor, checking administrators at each level to prevent corruption and impropriety. Their work is seen both as a blessing and a curse to the empire and the position as a censor provides its own challenges against malfeasance. Censors travel constantly, making unannounced visitations to government agencies throughout the empire. Such accountability over eleven star systems and their teaming trillions requires a great number of censors, making the Censorate one of the largest state organs in the empire just beside the Bureau of the State and the Chancellery.

Censors are generally feared instead of revered as their office provides them incredible administrative and stately power.

#### Bureau of the Imperial Treasury

The **Bureau of the Imperial Treasury**, also known as the **Imperial Finance Commission**, is the state organ concerned with all financial and monetary matters relating to the Imperial government, It is lead by the **Imperial Counselor of the Coin**. Within its administration is the **Department of Printing and Coinage**, and the **Imperial Office** **of Taxation and the Tithe** subdivisions.

The Imperial Treasury's Department of Printing and Coinage is responsible for printing and minting physical cash money while the Treasury itself executes currency circulation and regulation within the domestic fiscal system. The bureau's administrative body also maintains and monitors the trade of digital money and balances the total monetary units in the Empire. As the title of the Imperial Office of Taxation and the Tithe implies, it collects imperial monetary taxes as well as the resource tithe promised to the Empire by local noble clans.

Other duties include managing the Imperial debt instruments, licensing and supervising non-state banks, and advises the emperor on matters of fiscal policy and the fiscal state of the Empire as a whole.

#### Bureau of Merchantry

The **Bureau of Merchantry** is the state body that oversees and facilitates the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. It is lead by the **Minister of Merchantry**.

The primary focus of the Merchantry is to create jobs, promote economic growth, encourage sustainable development, and block harmful trade practices of other nations. Secondary tasks involve gathering economic and demographic data for business and government decision making as well as set industrial standards.

#### Bureau of Works

The **Bureau of Works** is the government organ that focuses its efforts toward the administration of labor; the regulation and facilitation of construction both terrestrial and celestial; the enrichment of agricultural development; and the acquisition, distribution, and regulation of the energy industry. It is lead by the **Minister of Works**. Within its administration is the **Department of Labor**, **Department of Infrastructural Development**, **Department of Agriculture**, and the **Department of Energy** subdivisions.

#### Bureau of the Ansibulary

The **Bureau of the Ansibulary**, known simply as the **Ansibulary**, is the communications organ of the state that works to ensure the continued operation of ansible networks in conjunction with authorized Chronate personnel, operation of Zhuyaai ansibles, and the transfer of sensitive communiqués to the highest levels of government. It is headed by the **Minister of Ansibles**.

#### Bureau of Refinement

The **Bureau of Refinement**, also known as the **Scholarate**, is the scientific advisory body as well as the state-financed and -run research for the empire. It is lead by the **Imperial Counselor of Refinement**.

While the whole of the upper echelons of Imperial government are members of the "scholar-gentry," only those who have devoted their lives to the study and understanding of the physical world around them are allowed to take positions within the Bureau of Refinement. While there is a chief scientific advisor in the Imperial Counselor, they are only an instrument for more knowledgeable and specific scholars to step forward in an advisory capacity for the emperor. Though seen, sometimes, as a group of concerned know-it-alls by those who know only a fraction of those with specialist knowledge, the Liyao emperors have always taken the Bureau of Refinement with the due respect it deserves.

#### Bureau of Military Affairs

The **Bureau of Military Affairs**, also known as the **War Council**, is the administrative organ of the Imperial military overseeing its deployment; procurement of men and materials; and the Empire's general national security. It is lead by the **Grand Commandant of the Imperial Militaries**.

#### Lotus Bureau

The **Lotus Bureau** (*Liáhn Jú* //), also known as the **Gold Depot** (*Jīhnkùh* //) or the **Tenth Bureau** (*Dhì Shíh Júh* //), is a covert intelligence network and paramilitary and botanical maintenance organization lead by the **Master Gardener of the Telluric Garden**. It is consistently compared to secret police and "terror troops" such as the Dread Host of the Thuulian Qanarin Guard by international bodies.

Originally, the Lotus Bureau was tasked solely with tending the ever-expanding garden overseen by the Changyu emperor and remains the sole Palace organ responsible for the Telluric Garden's maintenance, floral health, and the safe introduction of new species into what is essentially a carefully manicured botanical park. They assist the Liyao emperor directly when he is able to enjoy the gardens.

Today, the Tenth Bureau acts as a secret police answering directly to the emperor. This new directive was established by the Delahn Emperor of the Yuahn Dynasty in 4.488.13.32 after a gardener revealed a plot to assassinate him. The Telluric Gardens have always been open to Palace residence and high-level statesmen. The large size of the Garden allowed those who met within it an air of secrecy and it was believed that gardeners would remain silent should they overhear any whispered plot because of their station in the Palace hierarchy. The Lotus Bureau remains the sole Palace organ that tends to the Telluric Garden, and is tended to by agents in off-duty rotations.

### State Government

Excluding **duchies** or **marquessates**, the empire was divided (in descending order of size) into political units of **circuits**, **sector**, **region**, **province**, **commanderies**, **prefectures**, and **districts**. Districts are further broken down into **cities**, **towns**, **villages**, and **hamlets**, and may contain upwards of 100,000 clans. Rarely, districts or even prefectures may be home to a single city known as a **megacity**, or only a portion of a single city known as a **hive city**; these levels of central government will retain their level of bureaucratic control and manage that which remains within their border.

The heads of provinces, known as **magistrates**, are responsible for managing and maintaining several commandery-level administrations. Secondary responsibilities include working in joint-bureau investigations with the Censorate to ensure the propriety of all officials and patrimonial clan officers. On the basis of their reports, these local administrative officials could be promoted, demoted, dismissed, or prosecuted by the **Imperial Court**. If events demanded it, magistrates are capable of raising and arming local militia from across commanderies within their jurisdiction against rebellions and maintaining peace during times of crisis without the immediate permission of those in higher positions.

Commanderies consist of a group of districts and hamlets and is lead by administratively a Administrator. Military Commanders are posted along side Administrators and are the top military leaders of a commandery, focused on defense and the application and preservation of law and order. Administrators, acting as the top civil official within a commandery, handle lawsuits levied against the State and act as the medium between inter-bureau and departmental cooperatives or disputes to name two of their duties.

#### Duchies & Marquessates

**Duchies** and **marquessates** are semi-autonomous, monarchical administrative regions that are allowed by Writ of the Emperor to exist and operate under Imperial vassalage.

Traditionally, duchies are established and ratified by an emperor for those children not in line to become his successor. It is a custom born out of appeasement and one that is becoming unpopular as the nation moves forward. Today, the majority of duchies are largely lead by the descendants of ancient clans related to the Imperial clan or deposed Imperial clans of the past who have swore allegiance to the current ruling Imperial clan. Their perpetual existence is dictated by the meritocratic nature of the Zhuyaanese empire and should a clan face disgrace by a duke's behavior or failures, the duchy will be relieved of their leadership. Duchies are comparable to regions, which may include much of a terrestrial continent or multiple stellar arcologies as large as Onnell cylinders.

Marquessates, much like duchies, are established and ratified by an emperor as favor granted upon deserving persons, usually hero-generals who gain national acclaim or likewise. Unlike marches, however, marquessates do not border other lands per se but act as militarized commanderies where standing personal militaries are raised to act as first response defense forces. Marquessates are dotted throughout star systems to give the Imperial Army and Navy time to prepare and mobilize. While it is true that the Imperial military does supply and maintain first-response stations throughout the empire, marquessates relieve these institutions of financial and logistical strain normally undertaken by such state organs.

### Local Government

Within prefectures and districts reside **cities**, **towns**, **villages**, and **hamlets**. It is at theses levels of sub-government that **noble clans** (//), also called **patrimonial families**, are counted on by the central government to manage and care for their local subjects. Noble clans possess incredible power over those common clans that live under their good graces through familial wealth and connections within the nearest form of state government. Depending on the type of settlement in question, villages and hamlets exclusively because of their population and economic potential, the only form of government may be the clan itself.

Noble clans may be allowed to raise **clan militia** as private, standing armies if they are given special permission by their commandery officer and administrator as well as their magistrate. These permissions are normally given to sub-district administrative settlements under increased threat of piracy or raiding or are facing uncontrollable crime. These militia stand apart from village or hamlet guards by the equipment they field, provided by the clan's wealth and influence.

### Taxation

Taxation in Zhuyaai is, theoretically, spread evenly among the economic class with increasingly proportionate responsibility laid upon those of higher wealth and income brackets.

However, reality is that taxes fall heavily on those at the bottom while resting lightly on those at the top. Pervasive corruption in recent centuries has seen that the original intent behind taxation was stripped of its legal power through rampant impropriety within the Eight Courts. Powers taken from the Censorate also played a roll in the imbalance of monetary taxation.

### Rights

A citizens of the Zhuyaai Empire is entitled to certain rights and privileges afforded to them by the State, their socioeconomic class, and ties to either the State or a noble clan. While not legal in the strictest sense, noble clans and their members have more freedoms than those of common clans. Still, the social mobility of these clans and peoples is remarkably flexible, especially in comparison to the *kiith'id* of the Sjittite peoples. The intricate nature of social allowances clash heavily with the law and its metering, the outcome of which depends on the judge and the publicity surrounding the instance.

Regardless of the extra-legal allowances and how they interact with the legal process, all citizens have a right to healthcare, food, and housing though the quality of these things is not standard across the Empire. Circuit economic and social centers experience overall better standards than rural or less economically-advantageous areas of a star system or the levels of Stately governance below that.

### Military

Outside of the Afa-Settaari, the Zhuyaanese military is the most advanced armed force in the Sphere in control of the second-largest stockpile of Gilded Technology. Fast ships, powerful naval and telluric weapons, and an abundance of power armor technologies helps bolster not only the Imperial Army and Navy, but commandery militia and conscripts. The soldiery is drilled in basic and standardized training, educated in tactics and proper application of force power, and extensively tested on the use and maintenance of their equipment. Alongside these potent technologies, the Imperial Militaries are hardly matched, if they are matched at all.

Military service is purely meritocratic in operation and nature, lacking myriad avenues to buy commissions for one's child or other forms of nepotism. There are exceptions, of course, but the vast majority of soldiers and sailors are reached their posts through their own efforts.

Military service is voluntary. Zhuyaai’s military can mobilize quickly via the Imperial Navy’s extensive interstellar transportation network as well as wide selection of transorbital vehicles for rapid deployment. Currently, there are no extra-national Zhuyaai military presence, though there are plans in place to govern such units if the need arises.

### Foreign Relations

*Main article: Foreign Relations of the Zhuyaan Empire*
The official purpose of the Empire of Zhuyaai, as decreed by Zhuyaai Lam *Hwangdji* in **DATE**, is to ensure the peace between the clans, provide security for the Empire's borders, protect Zhuyaanese interests domestic and abroad, expand the Empire's borders where they do not infringe on the rights of its citizens, and to return the Empire to its former glory through peace or war (regarding its former territories via the Seven Rogue Kingdoms and the Tū'reine Republic). Given the absurd abundance of raw resources and the nation's potential to manufacture what it needs, there is no official position on invading other nations, aside from the Republic or the Seven Kingdoms, for territory or resources.

## Economics

### Currency

The Zhuyaai inherited the Yu'enn (*Yhùwéhn* //; Currency Symbol: ɎW) from the Changyu Empire, being already in circulations for the last several empires since the 3rd Millennium AKn. As with the previous long-term government, the issuing and minting as well as administration of the physical and digital yu'enn is overseen by the Bureau of the Imperial Treasury.

### Technology

The Empire of Zhuyaai is considered one of the most technologically advanced nations outside of the Settaari.

## Demographics

An Imperial Census taken in 10.300 AKn estimated the Empire’s population to be 57,5 trillion.