Imperium (Traveller)
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The Imperium is a series of consecutive human-dominated fictional galactic empires in the Traveller universe.
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[edit] The First Imperium
Ziru Sirka or Grand Empire of Stars, also known as the First Imperium (-4045 to -2204).
The first major interstellar civilization since the collapse of the Ancients 300,000 years earlier, the First Imperium was politically and culturally dominated by humans originating on Vland. The jump drive was discovered on Vland in -9235 (4715 BC); immediately the Vilani discovered a number of interfertile and technologically primitive human races on worlds within 60 parsecs. These were gradually brought to a high-technology state with Vilani help and assimilated into a loose interstellar community bound by trade and common culture.
Eventually, the client races themselves explored beyond the local sphere, contacting and trading with still more races. These new races gained their technology without being assimilated into Vilani culture; the resulting increased friction eventually resulted in a series of wars beginning in about -5400 (880 BC).
In response to the threat, Vland began tightening its control of its trade sphere, and finally organizing it into a centralized state in -5272 (752 BC). This marked the beginnings of the First Imperium, although there was as yet no emperor. During the thousand year period of the Consolidation Wars, Vland conquered and absorbed its enemies until there were no longer any civilized states on its borders (except for a portion of the Vargr Extents, isolated from the Imperium by the Windhorn Rift).
The last war ended in -4045 (AD 476), and the Vilani declared the establishment of an interstellar empire to govern all Vilani territory. Known as the Grand Empire of Stars or Ziru Sirka, Vilani dating begins at this point. With no exterior threats, the Ziru Sirka lasted for nearly 1200 years; at its height, which was attained soon after the end of the wars, the First Imperium contained 27 sectors and over 15,000 worlds.
However, the cost of maintaining centralized control over this vast expanse was cultural rigidity; exploration had ceased with the beginning of the wars; now scientific research slowed to a halt, and the beginnings of a hereditary caste system began to emerge. Civilization was in decline.
As long as there was no exterior threat, the Grand Empire was safe; but gradually, despite all efforts, technology leaked across the borders. New interstellar states arose, and the Imperium could no longer afford to absorb them. Gradually, the Imperium lost territory along its coreward and trailing marches. Then, in -2422 (AD 2099), the Imperium was contacted along its rimward border by the Terrans, who had recently emerged into space. Terran expansionism led to a series of interstellar wars, which ultimately resulted in Terran conquest of the Imperium in -2204 (AD 2317) and the founding of the Second Imperium, or Rule of Man.
[edit] The Second Imperium
The Rule of Man or Ramshackle Empire, also known as the Second Imperium (-2204 to -1776).
A short-lived interstellar empire formed after the conquest of the Vilani Imperium by the Terrans. The conquered territories were under military rule from -2219 to -2204 (AD 2317). Vilani military forces were incorporated into the Terran forces. Terran naval officers took over key posts in the Vilani bureaucracy (which was otherwise retained intact).
In -2204, the Terran Secretariat attempted to transfer control directly to Terra and to incorporate the conquered regions into the Terran Confederation. The commander in chief of the Terran Navy, Admiral Hiroshi Estigarribia, realized that the Confederation government could not possibly control the vast territories of the Vilani Imperium. He proclaimed himself Regent of the Vilani Imperium, and Protector of Terra, so both states were now united in the Rule of Man. Nearly the entire fleet sided with Estigarribia both because it was composed largely of colonials, who were under-represented under the Terran Confederation government, and because of Estigarribia's careful preparation. The Confederation was dissolved without significant resistance.
The Terran fleet headquarters on Dingir became the capital of the Rule of Man. The bureaucratic center of the Imperium remained on Vland, although arrangements were undertaken to gradually transfer it elsewhere.
Upon Estigarribia's death, he was succeeded by his chief of staff, who crowned himself Emperor Hiroshi II. Estigarribia, even though he did not actually assume the crown, is therefore known to history as Emperor Hiroshi I.
Hiroshi II transferred all functions of government from both Vland and Dingir to a more centrally located world, renamed bilingually Hub/Ershur. This world was to remain the capital of the Rule of Man for the next four hundred years.
During the Rule of Man, large numbers of humans from Terra and its oldest colonies emigrated throughout the Imperium. People of Terran ancestry or culture (many of them assimilated Vilani) assumed positions of power on most worlds and became industrialists and administrators.
The problems of sheer size and scientific stagnation, which had brought about the fall of the Vilani Imperium, continued to plague the Rule of Man. The Vilani had coped with the problems of ruling a large empire by a rigid caste system with all citizens rooted permanently in their places, but this system could last only as long as there was no significant external threat. The Terrans did away with this system but were not able to replace it with a new social order. The destruction of the caste system swept away the foundations of society. Key industries fell apart as their workers became free to move elsewhere.
The -1776 (AD 2745) date for the end of the Rule of Man is arbitrary, and it notes the financial collapse of the central government, which occurred when the Treasury at Hub/Ershur refused to honor a monetary issue of the branch treasury at Antares. The resulting lack of confidence within monetary circles marked the end of large-scale interstellar trade and of effective governmental power within the Rule of Man. Although the Imperium did not completely fall apart for many years, the Rule of Man had effectively ceased to exist as a viable interstellar community, and the period known as The Long Night had begun.
[edit] The Third Imperium
The Third Imperium arose almost 2,000 years later, after an anarchic period known as The Long Night, when a small collection of planets known as the Sylean Federation embarked on a campaign to re-absorb the worlds of the two former empires. While still vast, the Third Imperium is somewhat smaller than its antecedents, consisting of some 11,000 worlds in total. Many of the 4,000 or so systems from the First and Second Imperiums that resisted membership in the Third Imperium are in three coreward sectors that underwent significant demographic shifts since the earlier eras, and are now considered part of the Vargr Extents.
The Third Imperium has now ruled its territory for eleven centuries and looks to continue for many more. Interstellar government over such a large area, however, becomes a philosophical question; the problem initially seeming to be insurmountable. Distance, travel time, and communication lag all conspire against a functioning, efficient structure which can meet the needs of its subject population. But the lessons of history serve as a guide. Spain in the 16th century ruled much of the New World, with travel times of up to a year between the seat of government and the new territories. In fact, through most of history timely governmental communication, with both a rapid dispatch of instructions and an equally rapid response, has been a dream, not a reality.
The Imperium has come upon two solutions which together ameliorate the problems of distance: the xboat network and feudalism.
[edit] The xboat network
Like the body, with its network of veins and arteries, the Imperium is permeated by a network of xboat routes, or links, devoted entirely to the carriage of messages for official, commercial, and private purposes.
The express boat (xboat) is a small, fast ship filled with a pilot compartment, message data banks, and jump drives. The fit is so tight that the tiny ships do not even have maneuver drives. Each is capable of jump-4 (four parsecs in a week); it jumps, relays its messages to the station on arrival, and then waits to be picked up by a tender, refueled, and sent on its way to the next station on the route. The local station on a world accepts messages, encodes them, and transmits them to a station at the edge of the stellar system. The network works like the pony express — with messages always moving at top speed. Transfer time for the messages from one xboat to another can be as short as ten minutes, and is rarely more than an hour.
The little xboats make their way to one of the many Imperial Way Stations scattered throughout the Imperium's subsectors. There they are refitted, overhauled, and refurbished, to be sent on their way again.
The xboat network makes the edge of the Imperium about forty four weeks out from the core and capital; that represents a savings of better than 50% of normal travel time. And still the Imperium is straining under the effects of distance.
[edit] Feudalism
With such great distances separating stellar systems, individual responsibility and authority become of great importance. The Imperium is divided into sectors (twenty of them), each about 32 parsecs by 40 parsecs in size. Each sector is divided into sixteen subsectors (8 by 10 parsecs). And within a sector are perhaps thirty or forty systems, each with a star, worlds, and satellites.
Individual worlds, and even entire systems, are free to govern themselves as they desire, provided that ultimate power is always accorded the Imperium. Interstellar government begins at the subsector level — on one world designated the subsector capital. The ruling figure at the subsector capital is a high-ranking noble selected by higher levels of government. This duke has a free hand in government, and is subject only to broad guidelines from his superiors. But at the same time, the duke owes fealty to the higher levels of government, ultimately to the Emperor himself. The feudal approach depends greatly on a sense of honor, one cultivated by the hereditary aristocracy. This sense of honor is very strong within the Imperium; it has proven essential to the survival of such a far-flung community.
[edit] Versions of the Imperium
Depending on whichever version of Traveller one chooses to play, the Third Imperium either collapses into genocidal civil war after roughly a thousand years of existence ... or it is still stable and strong to "this very day". The early, expansionist years of the Third Imperium is the setting for T4 Marc Miller's Traveller. A well established and mildly insular Third Imperium of a thousand years later is the setting for Classic Traveller and Traveller D20. MegaTraveller and Traveller: The New Era are set after the collapse of the Third Imperium, just a few decades after the Classic Traveller setting. GURPS Traveller is set in alternate timeline roughly coinciding with that of MegaTraveller, but where the Third Imperium did not collapse. GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars is the latest GURPS Traveller book, and is set around AD 2170, during the time of the wars between Earth and the First Imperium.
[edit] Chronology
This chronology covers the basic historical events of the Third Imperium and its predecessors, showing the date of the event in the three major date system extant. In situations where the event spanned more than one year, that span is shown in Imperial years, with the starting date also given in Vilani and Terran systems. Imperial and Terran years have 365 days. Vilani years are approximately 1.33 standard years in length.
| Imperial | Vilani | Terran | Event |
| -5272 | 922 PI | 752 BC | Vilani Ascendance |
| -4520 | 357 PI | AD 1 | Terran dating system begins |
| -4045 | 1 VI | AD 476 | First Imperium established |
| -2408 | 1230 VI | AD 2113 | First Interstellar War begins |
| -2219 | 1372 VI | AD 2302 | Nth Interstellar War ends |
| -2204 | 1383 VI | AD 2317 | Second Imperium established (also called the Rule of Man) |
| -1776 | 1705 VI | AD 2745 | Collapse of the Rule of Man, the Long Night begins |
| -1120 | 2197 VI | AD 3401 | First Aslan Border War begins |
| -399 | 2739 VI | AD 4122 | Sword World colonization begins |
| -186 | 2899 VI | AD 4335 | First Sword World Confederation |
| -30 | 3016 VI | AD 4491 | Cleon’s Campaign begins |
| 0 | 3039 VI | AD 4521 | Third Imperium established |
| 76 to 120 | 3096 VI | AD 4597 | Pacification Campaigns |
| 114 | 3124 VI | AD 4635 | Solomani Hypothesis proposed |
| 210 to 348 | 3196 VI | AD 4731 | Vargr Campaigns in the Corridor sector |
| 380 | 3324 VI | AD 4901 | Imperial-Aslan border established |
| 420 | 3354 VI | AD 4941 | First Survey of the Imperium completed |
| 475 | 3395 VI | AD 4996 | Empress Nicholle assassinated |
| 588 | 3480 VI | AD 5109 | Incorporation of Earth into the Imperium |
| 589 to 604 | 3481 VI | AD 5110 | First Frontier War |
| 604 to 622 | 3492 VI | AD 5125 | Civil War |
| 615 to 620 | 3500 VI | AD 5136 | Second Frontier War |
| 624 | 3507 VI | AD 5145 | Xboat system established |
| 679 | 3548 VI | AD 5200 | Solomani power broken at court |
| 704 | 3567 VI | AD 5225 | Solomani Autonomous Region created |
| 718 | 3578 VI | AD 5239 | Xboat system covers entire Imperium |
| 800 to 826 | 3639 VI | AD 5321 | Psionics Suppressions |
| 950 | 3752 VI | AD 5471 | Solomani reintegrated into Imperium |
| 979 to 986 | 3774 VI | AD 5500 | Third Frontier War |
| 990 to 1002 | 3782 VI | AD 5511 | Solomani Rim War |
| 1065 | 3838 VI | AD 5586 | Second Survey of the Imperium completed |
| 1082 to 1084 | 3851 VI | AD 5603 | Fourth Frontier War (also called the False War) |
| 1107 to 1110 | 3870 VI | AD 5628 | Fifth Frontier War |
[edit] See also
- The Traveller Wiki has an article about: Third Imperium
- Game Designers' Workshop creator of Classic Traveller, Megatraveller, and Traveller: The New Era
- Steve Jackson Games creator of GURPS Traveller.
- Traveller (role-playing game)
