Approved Lore Government of the Greater Sith Imperium

[Kyriaki]

OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Expand on Tephrike. Codify some nasty dudes Kyriaki will interact with. And maybe kill in painful ways. The name is deliberately over the top since it's a dysfunctional warlord state on an irrelevant, impoverished backwater planet it doesn't even entirely rule.
Image Credit: Here.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: The Valkyrie's Diary, Kyriaki, Dominion of Light, Republican Guard, Into Darkness, After Darkness, Glorious Conflict, Firemane, Amidala Corps, Adlerberg, Hope Falls, Caution and Control, Castle Maysaf, Academy of the Scions of the Vader, Sentinel's Rest, Palmyra's Wail, Tephrike, Sibylla Laskaris, What Goes Bump in the Day.

GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Government of the Greater Sith Imperium.
Classification: Totalitarian Government, Warlord State.
Affiliation: Humanist People's Party, Darth Lachesis, Tephrike, KEC, Darth Eisen, Disciples of the Vader.
Organization Symbol: A Vader helmet superimposed upon the Imperial crest used by the Galactic Empire.
Description: The Government of the Greater Sith Imperium is, as the name implies, a collective of state institutions that administrates the areas on Tephrike under the sway of the Disciples of the Vader. It is built upon a bedrock of human supremacism, slavocracy and Vader worship. These are the main tenets of the Humanist ideology. It is a totalitarian one-party state. Humanism is, at its core, an ideology founded on violence. There are only three things that matter in the Imperium: wealth, violence, and the favour of the Supreme Leader. The Leader is the sun the planets orbit. But he cannot rule alone.

Thus he has surrounded himself with a coterie of cliques that represent vital interests in business, the military, the Party, the civil service and the Sith. Each vies for his favour. Competition can get violent. Supreme Leader Eisen is a Humanist with all the unpleasantness that implies. But he is not shackled by ideological dogma. When it suits him, he has been willing to water down Humanist principles to satisfy his greed and lust for power. That is how he has been able to assemble a big tent coalition of divergent interests because he has a knack for being all things for all men. He is an emperor the bigwigs come to in supplication - and potentially a concealed dagger. He has a large web of benefactors, but this also imposes certain expectations on him.

The regime's propaganda apparatus depicts him as a mighty military ruler. A proud man. A good man. The only one who can lead the Imperium to victory. To support him, they good Imperial citizens have all hung pictures of him in their homes and in their workplaces. The image of Eisen is omnipresent in the media: clad in a splendid uniform with a glowing cape, carrying a bejewelled marshal's baton and flanked by ace pilits from the Skyhammer Fleet; laughing and drinking with high and low born; Eisen giving a speech on the glory of the Imperium. If not the father, then he is the beloved uncle of the Imperium. Of the humans, that is. Aliens are denied citizenship.

Eisen has rather impressive organisational abilities, cunning and the ability to move a crowd. He knows how to behave at dinner parties, and can talk shop with almost anyone. He can reimagine himself as a playboy aristocrat despite lacking noble blood, a respectable burgher who always has an ear for the concerns of the middle class, a straight-talking veteran and man of the people who can speak 'street'. He can work virtually any room full of people to get their wallets, hearts and minds. But he is also incredibly temperamental, egotistical, corrupt, notoriously vain, and cannot be counted on to do consistent work day-in, day-out.

The government of the Imperium is an elaborate pyramid. The Council of Ministers serves as the cabinet. It is divided into an 'inner cabinet', which is composed of the most important ministers, and an outer cabinet, which consists of everyone else. Beneath the ministers, the day-to-day work of running a ministry is performed by a hierarchial civil service, with permanent secretaries, undersecretaries, directors, clerks and so on. Governors, town mayors etc. are appointed from above.

Officials were expected to 'work towards the 'Leader – that is to say, to take the initiative in devising policies that are in accordance with his desires and the agenda of the Humanist movement, without him being required to deal with minutiae or give them instructions. The process of 'working towards the Leader' plays out not just within the government but across all of Imperial society.

GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Tephrike. City of Humanist Destiny. This is the official capital, but some government departments are located in Adlerberg.
Domain: The Imperial government holds sway over part of Tephrike. They have given their domain the pompous name 'Greater Sith Imperium'. This is silly since it is limited to one planet, and they do not even rule most of this world. They subjugate the local population, using a combination of fear, terror, incentives and propaganda to keep them obedient. Due to their racist ideology, humans fare better than aliens and constitute what amounts to a middle class, while also being incentivised to become complicit in atrocities. They are the 'great ruling stock and brave warriors of our noble race', but still subservient to the Disciples of the Vader. According to Humanist ideology as described by Glorious Conflict, the Sith are the purest of the purebloods, for they wield the divine flame that once belonged to all of mankind alone before it committed the 'original sin'. The spoken chant 'Praise Vader!' is a mandatory greeting for all human citizens. It has superseded traditional greetings such as 'good morning'. Interestingly, aliens are forbidden to use it.

A human family that produces a Force-Sensitive offspring is rewarded with various financia benefits and privileges. However, only Forcewielders can hold supreme authority. Freedom of speech, assembly etc. are nonexistent. Similarly, the only legal religion is the faith of the Dark Father, which glorifies Vader and his consort Padmé Amidala, and depicts mankind as a master species. Certain fields of the economy have been brought under state control, but private property has not been abolished. Alien businesses are expropriated, but human businesspeople that play ball with the regime are left untouched. Indeed, several companies have profited from the regime. They reap the spoils of conquest and the expropriation and enslavement of aliens, they provide the Imperial military with weapons and build crematoria for the camps.

The way the system works is the the government's agencies such as the armaments ministry set targets, but leave their implementation to the industrialists and allow them to make a profit. Moreover, the planning bodies and committees generally include leading industrialists or are even chaired by them. At the same time, since there is very little outside trade and military needs receive priority, the state is the main contractor. Business has been subordinated to the government, but been given a seat at the table, the ability to influence the process and profit considerably. There is no major industrial corporation that does not employ forced labour. An extremely large proportion contracts with the KEC for the use of concentration camp labour. As part of the armaments bureaucracy, they actively shape and mobilised the Imperial economy for war. The government can close down enterprises deemed non-essential in order to free up workers for say the armaments industry. Economic policies are very friendly towards monopolies and businesses can be forced to join cartels. Monopolies control over seventy percent of production. Strikes and lockbouts are banned and workers can be blacklisted by employers if they question their working conditions. Men and women are conscripted into the labour service, and military service is mandatory for males.

Imperial leaders have no qualms about abusing their position to seize financial assets, property, and villas under flimsy pretext in order to enrich themselves. Corruption is endemic at all levels of government. Successive Supreme Leaders have been happy to indulge their subordinates' nigh-insatiable hunger for wealth, mansions, government positions and other trappings of power in return for their obedience. It has ensured the Imperium's transformation into a collection of private, bureaucratic fiefdoms bound by personal allegiance and ideology. This has opened the doors to mismanagement, corruption on an enormous scale and personal feuds. At the same time, propaganda mouthpieces bloviate about how the Vaderites have restored clean, honest government. The Vaderites conceive the state as a means to an end. To them, it is a tool to carry out racial struggle and uplift the 'master species'. And the strongest is always right. If a man cannot defend his position, he is weak and does not deserve it. Overlapping bureaucracies are in constant competition with each other.

The police force and the military have been radicalised into a racialised, militarised and murderous institutions. Police officers and soldiers alike have become perpetrators of horrific crimes. The police force is divided into three organisations: the Order Police, which is comprised of the regular uniformed police, the State Protection Police, which is the secret police, and the Imperial Office of Criminal Investigations, which is the criminal police. Theoretically they answer to the Interior Ministry, but in practice they have been subsumed by the KEC, a praetorian guard that also runs the concentration camps and maintains a parallel army. The civilian cabinet, the Sith and the military maintain their own intelligence services.

There is a regular military, which all too eager to commit war crimes, plunder occupied territories and utilise forced labour. But each province has its own local militia forces. These are not under the command of the regular military leadership, but under the governors of the provinces they're in. These tend to be Party men. Moreover, as mentioned, the KEC maintains its own military forces. Theoretically it's there to provide reserves or a strike force for a conquest...but in reality it's an insurance against coups. And the aerospace force has its own ground forces including because it's the Supreme Leader's pet, which is why it also has its own ministry that stands apart from the War Ministry. It goes without saying that this is all very inefficient for actual war-fighting, but it coup-proofs the regime. It is not uncommon for military and security services to pursue their own business activities, which naturally opens the door to careerist rent-seeking and embezzlement.

The government enforces harsh policies of racial segregation, denying aliens civil liberties. It also sterilises or even murders humans deemed genetically undesirable due to physical or mental disabilities. While the Vaderites revile all aliens, they have a particular hatred for Twi'leks, Bothans and Mon Calamari, whom they regard as shadowy puppet masters scheming against mankind. They also despise Yuuzhan Vong, reviling them as demons that have been at war with mankind since the primordial age. Individual Imperial leaders have armed alien groups such as Gamorreans, Trandoshans, and Houk. They view them as extremely primitive and thus less of a threat, and use them as auxiliaries to keep 'order' in the ghettos and reservations. They give them some token autonomy so they can be useful oppressing other aliens, but still treat them as lesser beings.

Notable Assets: Several industrial centres, towns and cities on Tephrike. Adlerberg is an example for an Imperial 'model city'...whose industry is also dependent on slave labour. It happens to be located next door to a concentration camp and a ghetto. In general, corruption is endemic, and the economy is highly inefficient.

SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: The Supreme Leader of the Imperium serves as both head of state and head of government. He possesses the exclusive right to hire and fire ministers, and is the only one who can convene the cabinet. In practice, governance is a delicate balancing act to appease or bully various factions within the Imperium. The government is not accountable to the people, and democratic processes do not exist. Even town mayors are appointed officials rather than elected.

Within each ministry, the minister is supported by an elaborate bureaucracy. The civil service is divided into various ranks that denote seniority. A minister is in theory a little Supreme Leader in his own sphere of responsibility, but in practice their power varies greatly, depending on connections, drive and forcefulness as well as their background.

Membership: Must be a Tephriki human with Imperial citizenship and a Vaderite. All government ministers are appointed by the Supreme Leader. Civil servants climb the bureaucratic leader, generally starting as clerks after completing their academic training. However, civil service appointments are vetted by the Party and the Sith to ensure ideological purity. Party membership is mandatory. Academic qualifications count for less than obedience and faith in Humanist doctrine. There is a strong culture of sexism in the Imperium. As a result women who enter government service tend to hit a glass ceiling, though this is obviously more difficult with women who are Sith.

There are about twenty ministers, but they preside over a massive bureaucratic machine. Several hundred or thousands of people may work for a ministry, though this also includes people such as clerks and secretaries. For example, the propaganda ministry has over two thousand employees. The armaments ministry five hundred employees, but the entire bureaucracy presided over by it has about seventy thousand people. In addition to the cabinet ministers, there are numerous special commissioners who answer directly to the Leader's chancellery, as well as various governors etc. Influential Imperial bigwigs have been known to buy positions fo their family members. A cushy government job is the perfect place for a failson with a rich father. Especially convenient for Sith embarrassed about having Non-Force-Sensitive progeny.

Climate: A mixture of cooperation, office politics and plain backstabbing. Some ministers have direct access to the Leader; others have not seen him in ages. He wields the power to hire and fire his ministers as he sees fit. Whoever manages to curry the most favour with him will be able to press their agenda and get laws passed that reflect their interests. To a point. Eisen encourages rivalry to make sure no one bigwig becomes too powerful. His coalition is a big tent, but a storm could knock the tent over. He came to power as a result of a bloody civil war after most of the Imperium's leadership was annihilated by the star people's attack on Castle Maysaf, so it is built on a shaky foundation. Eisen treats the country as his personal property, and while he leaves the day-to-day management to others, he wants to make sure no senior appointment is made without his blessing.

Cabinet meetings take place, but generally only about once or twice a year. Only the Leader can convene the cabinet and decisions are not put to vote. These events are mainly for show and heavily ritualised. The Leader often rambles on at length, and many discussions are full of his ancedotes, storytelling and pontifications about a host of subjects. Eisen's mood tends to colour these sessions. In a sombre mood, he is more prepared to listen, waiting for others to express their opinions, but when cheerful he will joke and banter with the assembled group. In the middle of these sessions, Eisen will frequently order tea and cigars to be served to everyone.

Informal meetings and other associations are more frequent. Eisen prefers to meet select ministers in private. This enables every relevant bigwig to cut a private deal with the Leader, which has the convenient side-effect of preventing a united front against him because no one has any reason to stick his neck out for a colleague. More important decisions are made when the Leader takes a trusted colleague on a hunting trip or shows off his private art gallery than in the cabinet room. The Leader is the ultimate schmoozer and a master of dissembling. Many astute political operators have left a private meeting with him completely convinced that he is on their side. He is not shy about bribing government ministers and generals with gifts - tax-free estates, specie, limousines. At this point, the myth of the omnipotent Supreme Leader has lost most of its lustre in the elite. Successive power struggles will do that. Eisen is well aware that he cannot expect compliance based on the myth of the Supreme Leader, and so he must use other means. This exacerbates the already dysfunctional nature of the Humanist state.

Given the scarcity of cabinet meetings, a flood of legislation emanating independently from each ministry has to be formulated by a complicated process whereby drafts are circulated and recirculated among the affected agencies until an agreement has been reached. Only then will the Leader, provided he approves of the law after its contents have been submitted to him, apply his signature. Cabinet Secretary Nicolisi acts as the conduit between the ministers and the Leader. Sometimes legislation he doesn't like never reaches Eisen's desk because the boss is 'overworked'. The only way to evade this cumbersome process is to have enough influence to get direct access to the Leader or succeed in persuading one of his adjutants, close family members or hangers-on to present the proposal to them, bypassing the gatekeepers. Sometimes his wife, brother or daughter will oblige. Eisen is a man who likes big gestures and hates reading lots of minutiae, so it is best to tailor a draft accordingly. Though they cannot hinder the access of court favourites, Eisen's adjutants and favoured family members have acquired a good deal of informal power through their control of the portals to the Supreme Leader.

In many ways, working groups and conferences between the permanent secretaries have evolved into a substitute for cabinet government. Indeed, some ministers are essentially figureheads who are 'controlled' by the civil service staff or other special interest groups such as the KEC or certain Sith Lords. The Imperium has followed a pattern typical for autocratic states by creating a bloated bureaucracy that provides the regime with a way to dispense patronage. This goes hand in hand with a sprawling public sector whose enterprises have evolved into commercial fiefdoms. Moreover, many state institutions are duplicated by the Humanist Party or the KEC. The overlapping duties, competences and areas of authority in the tripartite cult-party-state system are consciously encouraged by the Leader as a means of preserving his own rule and fostering initiative.

All this has created a state that is deformed, but continues to exist in its inertia, by no means a powerful centralistic-authoritarian constitution, but rather a structure determined by struggle and charged with tension, which is characterised as a leader state. Here the leader is often able to wait patiently for 'power struggles between rival people' until resistance has been overcome and the assertiveness of the stronger subordinates in the power structure has forged a path. The KEC, military and Sith engage in business ventures that enjoy competitive advantages over civilian firms.

This has serious implications because much of the military's revenue and spending are outside civilian government control, which affects the ability of civilian authorities to engage in meaningful oversight. Policy measures are characterised by a cavalier and irresponsible usage of public funds. Posts are found to reward old cronies. Vast amounts of money are poured into the construction of representative buildings and 'wonderweapons'. Lord Skaer, the chief architect, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of this, but not the only one. Major power brokers benefit from an environment in which legal permissibility, bureaucratic complexity, and discretionary powers allow considerable space for predation and corruption. Institutionalised corruption is the epitome of the loyalty scheme that keeps the leading stakeholders content, but it comes at a significant cost for government and military efficiency.

The variety and confusion of competences means that there is always at least one body that takes on the Leader's orders: Imperial or local administrations, Imperial governors, special authorities, Sith, Moffs, police, or KEC, although often enough not formal assignments of authority are decisive, but rather the fact of who takes charge of a task most quickly and ruthlessly. Within the power structure, who is responsible is determined according to the point of view of 'political expediency', that is, according to who is most likely to prevail over their rivals in power. This is a feature of the Humanist Leadership Principle, not a bug.

All power derives from the Leader, who empowers lesser leaders to do his bidding. The strongest is right. The Leader has no interest in clarifying the relationship between the different institutions because that might empower someone who could threaten his throne. The minister of war is always an active-duty general officer, but the service chiefs have direct access to the Leader. Eisen doesn't see much value in coordinating the squabbling factions beneath him. He's satisfied with playing them off against one another so none can threaten his position. In spite of this, Eisen is probably the most popular Vaderite leader among the human citizenry. He owes his popularity to his much-propagandised military record, gregariousness and populist posturing as 'Uncle Eisen' the 'man of the people'. A swaggering, flamboyant individual who relishes luxury and excess, he is also a vicious, amoral schemer. He spends much of his time enjoying hunting, foresty and looted art, and lets others do governance. Corruption is omnipresent, and there is a strong culture of sycophancy. Rocking the boat is inconvenient, far better to report that everything is fine.

Reflecting the patriarchal, sexist values of the Humanist movement, the cabinet is overwhelmingly male. Ironically, most ministers are not Sith because the Leader has realised that Sith at the top are generally there because of their physical prowess rather than administrative or intellectual gifts. Eisen naturally excludes himself from that judgement. They tend to be more useful in the actual military roles than civilian. The economics, agriculture and finance ministries are run by professional experts since Eisen is aware he is out of his depth there - and that military men and Sith are even more clueless. Better to let the experts keep the Imperium's decrepit economy humming along.

This doesn't exclude Sith from power since they possess all manners of formal and informal privileges. Every Sith who belongs to the Imperium, even a fresh graduate from the Academy, received a stipend and is exempt from taxation. It is not uncommon for Non-Force-Using businessowners to approach Sith for property stacking schemes to avoid taxes. How this works is that they found a shell company with the Sith as nominal head. The Sith is well compensated for this via bribery but it still works to the advantage of the Non-Force-Users with big portfolios. There is the danger of the Sith trying to seize it despite legally being unable, but political power would come to their aid since everyone does it and other Sith don't want their golden cows to get butchered.

The Cabinet Secretariat placates bigwigs Eisen needs on his side with bribes, and acts as his gatekeeper. Without exception, all members of the cabinet are Humanists, with all the nastiness implies. All of them promote a dictatorial, human supremacist government built on a bedrock of ultra-nationalism, slavery, genocide and plunder. Some want to reduce oppression of non-humans a bit, some want to intensify it. None of them want to overturn the tyrannical system and introduce democracy and civil liberties. Doubtless many of them would deny knowledge of war crimes and crimes against sentience if the system was toppled and they had to answer for their crimes in a court of law. One can only hope that the judges will not be so naive to let a scumbag who cries crocodile tears and professes to have been the 'good Humanist' off the hook.

However, for most government employees life is...normal. They go to work, write and review memorandums, have video conferences and boring meetings, chat with their colleagues, deal with office politics, perhaps visit the pub with their friends, then go home, have dinner with their wife, help their children with homework and go to bed. Sometimes they get to go on vacation to a resort. Said resort may have been built upon the ruins of an alien town whose inhabitants were murdered, but it has a nice beach.

Of course, the work is about keeping the machinery of a totalitarian regime running. If they are not directly involved in planning slavery, deportations and mass killings of innocent people, they will definitely know about such things. But for most that is just bureaucratic routine. The economy is bad, the standardised groundcars are poorly designed, and electricity is unreliable. But they have reasonable job security and sometimes get bonuses for good work. If they do their job well they may even be allowed to buy things in one of the special shops reserved for the elite. If they curry a lot of favour, the government may even give him an 'indentured xenos asset' to help out in the household. He will get a hefty bonus if he has many children with his wife.

Here and there, a colleague may suddenly disappear. Sometimes he will return, or not at all. But this is not a frequent occurence because the government tends to restrict persecution to groups that have been successfully othered, meaning that most Imperial citizens simply don't care about them being enslaved, tortured or murdered. Every bureaucrat can tell himself that he is not responsible for any of the 'ugliness', that he is merely a cog in a vast machine and implementing orders from above. Moreover, it is all for the 'greater good'. The average bureaucrat is not an unhinged sadist, but an ordinary man who does a job he believes in, even if certain aspects of daily life under the regime may annoy him, then leaves work and spends time with his friends, family etc. When he goes to bed he sleeps soundly.

Beyond any lingering, if now in several cases diluted, devotion, the functionaries have long since pinned their colours to the mast. The regime has given them careers, social standing, privileges, financial perks, and power over their fellow citizens. They stand and fall with it. More than a few justify their continued complicity with the fear of what fate might befall them and other 'decent Imperial citizens' should the regime fall. The higher the position, the greater the zealotry they have shown, the dirtier their hands, and the more cause they have to worry. In turn, this means they have little to lose should the end come.

Part of a government employee's remuneration is in specie. How much depends on rank. Gold or silver have actual value. The rest is in coupons and vouchers for food and clothes at the special shops and paper money not worth what it is printed on.

Reputation: Widely hated by the enemies of the Imperium on Tephrike - the Republican Guard, the Dominion of Light, aliens in general, democrats, liberals, socialists, slaves. Largely unknown in the greater galaxy. Firemane and the Unchained are implacably hostile. Within the Imperium, Imperial citizens generally accept it...but only humans can be citizens.

There is a lot of discontent about government corruption, low wages, high cost of living, shortages across the food and consumer goods industry, overbearing bigshots and lack of opportunities, but most Imperial citizens view it as legitimate even though they dislike bigshots. The regime is adept at finding scapegoats to blame things on. The government works with Disciples and the Party apparatus, but has also been a rival to both. Hardline Sith argue that power is the only true currency of the dark side and that even human Non-Force-Users should be fully subservient, but they are a fringe group.

The inefficiency of the government has led to calls for reform, especially among junior civil servants, officers and even younger Sith. But for the most part, these groups operate within the system rather than totally opposing it. Moreover, they want to streamline the regime to make it do its job better, not totally destroy it and introduce democracy. The overwhelming majority of them are still racists, even though they might argue for a 'gentler hand' and deplore certain atrocities. Many simply don't like being bossed around by overbearing and often incompetent Sith. Genuine advocates for change who truly feel remorse for the Imperium's crimes are incredibly few in number and completely isolated among human society.

Curios: Uniforms are ubiquitous in the government, for Vaderite society is a uniformed one. There is even a uniform for civil servants who don't belong to an organisation such as the KEC or the Disciples of the Vader or hold special rank in the Party. Government members and employees posses a variety of identifizers to signify their branch and position within the regime. An example would be simple name tags with scannable ident-glyphs built into them, code cylinders, specialised uniforms, embroidered patches, and ribbon bars.

Rules: Don't get caught. Corruption is everywhere...but it is best to be discreet. First and foremost, members of the government must display absolute loyalty to the Imperium and the tenets of Humanism. This is not to say that there are no policy debates. Government bureaucrats argue with each other and write long-winded memorandums all the time, and the present Supreme Leader is not the type to randomly purge his minions.

But Humanism is an article of faith, with all that implies. They must adhere to the regime's racial laws, and report 'deviant' activity. Every government minister, civil servant etc. must swear an oath of unconditional obedience to the Supreme Leader. Treason is punishable with death, and punishment may well extend to the family, for it is believed that the blood of a traitor is tainted. Same-sex relationships are banned, as well as relationships between humans and non-humans.

Membership in the Party and one of its sub-organisations is essentially a requirement for attaining a post of note in the government. For example, a jurist employed by the government will typically also be a member of the Humanist Party's jurist league. His wife will belong to the Padme Vader Feminine League and his children will be enrolled in the Humanist youth organisation. And the family will attend services of the Church of the Dark Father, even if they're just going through the motions, and make donations to its charitable causes.

That aside, each department devise their own policies and best practices. These typically include confidentiality agreements, dress code standards, operational safety procedures, and other work-specific guidelines. Everything must be properly recorded, filed, reported and so on. Typical bureaucratic routine, really. But in service of an utterly evil cause.

Goals: To subjugate Tephrike and bring it under Vaderite rule, expand their power and enrich themselves.

MEMBERS
Procopius Spykios (NPC) - Director of the Party Chancellery, Party Minister. Spykios is a creature of the Party. He has been shaped by it, moulded by it - and now he tries to dominate it. He started his career as a functionary in the Humanist youth movement, serving as its de facto leader for a while. With a keen eye for what the Leader wanted, he proved adept at 'working towards the Leader'. During his tenure, he emphasised the paramilitary functions of the movement. Members received basic weapons' training from early on and served in auxiliary roles such as anti-aircraft crews, and clearing away rubble in cities bombed by Dominion aircraft. He set up the Krypteia, a group of youths that was supposed to catch fugitive slaves who had escaped during air raids. Of course, aliens were excluded from air raid shelters. He treated the group as a rite of passage. It became a way to get youths accustomed to carrying out brutal acts of violence without question. In addition to murdering fugitive slaves, the Krypteia also persecute youths who belonged to an anti-Humanist, liberal counterculture and listened to 'degenerate' music.

Spykios had high hopes that he would become the Youth Corps' next leader, but these plans came to naught due to internal politicking and an accident while performing a couple weeks of military service. Spykios eventually became a Moff, then Chief of the Party Chancellery. He pays a lot of attention to personnel matters, ensuring that loyal cadres are promoted. As a result, an increasingly large number of officials in Party and State owe their positions to him. His office has a say in the selection and promotion of all senior civil servants. Unfortunately for Spykios, many Moffs refuse to treat him as their boss, though he is plotting to fix that by monopolising control over personnel appointments.

Spykios has to tread a fine line between enhancing the Moffs' control over state administrative authorities and making sure the provincial declaration of autonomy does not encompass independence from the party's central agency. Spykios has strict bookkeeping. There is no stealing from the Party Centre. But the Party also has tone of money, so instead they have developed a regulated system of free money, whereby a functionary will request a loan for large amounts or just a gift for small amounts and the Party will oblige. Many get free money for a new car, office renovations etc.

The so-called 'Spykios Memorandum' is named after him. It envisages far-reaching changes for the Party and the Imperium. According to it the Party should be transformed from a mass organisation into an elite group of cadres that will serve as a pool of future leaders for the Imperium. To this end it should be non-violently purged of its vast membership to make it more exclusive again. Moreover, the borders of state administrative territorial units should perfectly match of party administrative territorial units, with the position of state governor and that of regional Party boss being held in personal union. The future membership of the Party should come entirely from the Youth Corps. In keeping with this, the Youth Corps should come under the authority of the Party, with territorial youth leaders integrated into the staff of local Party bosses. All future Party cadres should undergo a cursus honorum overseen by the Party Chancellery.

Much of this remains utopian, but the Party Chancellery's state affairs department has developed a system for evaluating candidates for the senior civil service and jurists. Spykios is a supporter of polygamy...but only for men. His first wife is the daughter of a Party functionary. In addition, he has taken a film actress as his second wife to 'spread his genes'. Naturally he would not allow either of his wives to have lovers. He has a large brood of children.

Raphail Nicolilis (NPC) - Cabinet Secretary, Head of the Chancellery of the Leader, Clerk of the Grand Council of Humanism. Raphaeil Nicolilis has a reputation for being Eisen's hatchet man and 'maiden for everything'. The two have history together. Nicolilis worked for Eisen in the Research Bureau. This innocuous name masks a signals intelligence and cryptanalytic agency set up by the Sith Lord to make up for the loss of direct influence in the shadowy world of the secret police. The organisation was free from department ties, operating outside of the KEC, Party and Imperial military, and answerable only to Eisen. It was Nicolilis who proposed the creation of such a body to him. The agency was intended to provide the Imperial leadership with far-reaching insight into the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of the people - and naturally give Eisen an edge against his competitors.

It was thanks to the Research Bureau's efforts that Eisen learned of the nascent Light Sith conspiracy. Still stinging from being humiliated by Supreme Leader Hyperion, he chose not to inform his boss. This had tremendous repercussions, as it enabled the Light Sith to launch an insurrection during the Netherworld Event. Unfortunately, Furcht found out about Eisen's negligence and used it to blackmail him into bending the knee. With Eisen's ascent to supreme leadership, Nicolilis has been entrusted with running the Cabinet Secretariat given him a spot in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio. Moreover, he has been named Clerk of the Grand Council. His post is more significant than it might appear on first sight. It effectively make him the centre of communications and chief legal adviser for all government departments. Nicolilis has used his access to the levers of power to instigate a purge of Furcht loyalists in the government.

He acts as a conduit between Eisen and the ministers, keeping them abreast of the Supreme Leader's wishes and in turn informing him of any issues. Of course, he can also use this position to block proposals he doesn't want to 'burden the Supreme Leader with'. Moreover, he controls a secret slush fund Eisen uses to bribe important generals with gifts such as tax-free estates, expensive cars, specie, lifetime exemptions from paying taxes and so on. Nicolilis manages the slush fund in his boss' name. communicates with Eisen pretty frequently. Moreover, his office gathers complaints sent by average Imperial citizens about state and bureaucratic officials who refuse to deal with them or are not willing to devote time and effort to solve their problems.

Aside from allowing Eisen to slip into the role of a man of the people who protects the put-upon burghers and workers, citizen complaints are a vital source of information and a means of assessing public opinion. Nicolilis has a reputation as a philanderer, which has sometimes gotten him into trouble. His face sports a number of duelling scars that are the result of academic fencing popular among young upper class Imperials. He's a ruthless and relentless operator who seemingly cannot speak without swearing, and if someone doesn't swear back he won't respect them. He's dangerous because of his deeply paranoid conspiracy-driven mind set. His personal character is forceful, incisive, and coarse, with a sharp sense of humour.

Lord Akakios Alesandro Skaer (NPC)- Minister for Armaments and Munitions, Grand Constructor of the Imperium. Skaer is not a Humanist. He wasn't involved in war crimes or crimes against sentience, though he will say he is sorry for what his colleagues did, even though he did not know anything about it. He is a respectable architect from an upper middle class family who just happened to work for an evil government. He had no choice; the Imperium's war economy would've ground to a halt without his expertise. For some reason, prolonging a horrible regime is something to brag about. But he is an apolitical technician and an artistic soul who only wants the best for his people. He has never instigated the forced eviction of alien tenants from their homes or the construction of forced labour camps. The alien workers who toil in his factories and construction sites are not slaves; they are merely being given 'vocational training'. He has 'sabotaged' criminal orders.

That is what he will tell a judge if he is captured and put on trial. He is a silver-tongued, remorseless liar and just as cruel and power-hungry as his colleagues. Skaer is an architect, construction supremo and one of the most powerful figures in the Imperium's economy. He heads the Armament Ministry and is on the board of directors of Destiny Engineering, a construction parastatal. Many government public works' projects are contracted to this company, and material firms are required to cooperate with its requests. The firm has greatly benefited from the Imperium's penchant for sinking vast amounts of capital and labour into megaprojects. His position gives him incredible influence over materials, transport, armaments production, and labour. Skaer has made himself a name for building grandiose - and often impractical - monuments for successive Supreme Leaders. One time he had his designers build a walker so huge it could not walk and became a large statue essentially. The Supreme Leader could give a speech standing on top of it. As Grand Constructor, Skaer issues lucrative construction contracts to his friends...or himself as architects. He gains a lot on a personal level through honorariums, contracts for his architect office, kickbacks and 'gifts' from companies and other architects in order to get contracts.

Essentially, Skaer treats Tephrike as a massive engineering project that he can tweak and modify as he pleases in order to 'perfect the Humanist dream'. If the alien population of an entire city must be deported and said city demolished to build a 'model city' on top of the ruins, then so be it. At the same time, he has built a close relationship with the KEC. He works hand in glove with the black order's slave-industrial complex. Skaer has a talent for organisation, though it is exceeded by his knack for self-promotion and networking. He has managed to improve productivity, but his endeavours are built on the ruthless mobilisation of production factors, a sharp drop in the quality of life for civilians, and the blood of slave labourers. Most of the rationalisation measures he brags about were actually initiated before his tenure. Consumption has been markedly reduced to free up resources for the war economy. He has incredible influence over materials, transport, armaments production, and labour, especially forced labour. Per his model of 'industrial self-determination', industrial goals are set by select personalities from the government, then put into action by enterprising businessmen.

But Skaer does not simply produce weapons, he makes them part of a narrative. The bombastic statistics of production are supposed to demonstrate to Imperial citizens that the efforts of the human worker combined with the heroism of the frontline soldier can overcome all obstacles and conquer Tephrike. Skaer is not shy about massaging figures to dazzle his audience with a story of the limitless flow of output produced by energetic leadership and technological genius. He has actively encouraged the myth of himself as an industrial miracle worker who can achieve the impossible through sheer force of will. He is as much a propagandist as he is an industrial manager, possibly even more so.

Skaer has grown rich through kickbacks from material and munitions suppliers. He is just as corrupt as his peers, but better at hiding it. He projects an appearance of bourgeois respectability. Yet his raffish and easy-going attitude masks an emotionally inhibited personality. He has no intimate friends and is uneasy in society. Most of the time he affects an icy aloofness that has morphed into arrogance. At his core, he is a vain, cold, haughty, hollow and compulsively ambitious man who is always on the lookout for his own career advancement. A lonely, emotionally impoverished man, he lacks imagination and originality as an architect, but is a great showman. His rise to power has been the result of ambition, sycophancy, showmanship and a prudent ability to delegate to more talented underlings.

He knows how to pick a team, delegate responsibility and deliver the goods. These qualities have raised propelled into him a minister's seat, but they are also his weakness because he delegates too much of the job without sharing a proportionate amount of the credit. Skaer responds poorly when subordinates have views contrary to his own. As he once told a minion, he thinks mistrust is a positive quality and likes to play off subordinates against each other. The fact that this undermines the smooth running of the ministry is beyond him. For him, the strength of personal leadership is paramount; inspired improvisation is the key to success. Skaer has no appreciation for the backroom work that enables him to play the part of the decisive leader. He also cooks the figures systematically, putting an undeserved gloss on his efforts to rationalise armaments production. Even the tale of his birth is a lie, for Skaer claims that he was born during dramatic thunderstorm while the church bells rang. In reality, the church was only completed when he was six years old and the thunderstorm took place before the bells would ring. The will to gain power and fame, to rule and to acquire money is a central pattern of his character that has shaped his actions throughout his entire life. His uncompromising will to power knows no norms or limits.

Skaer's allies can be split into two categories: technocrats and captains of industry in the military-industrial complex and a cadre of young State and Party officials who desire a more efficient, streamlined government that still abides by Humanist principles. Skaer pays a lot of attention to marketing himself. He is not an inspiring speaker, but adept at using media, imagery and other people to build a cult of personality. His own speeches are incredibly self-congratulatory. He is fond of bombarding his audience with production figures. Much of this is simply juggling with figures, and he is not shy about cooking the books. He is painfully oblivious to the financial consequences of his armaments drives. His self-conceit knows no bounds.

His public image is that of a dynamic, assertive man of action and genius engineer who regularly travels to the factories in his industrial empire in person to award medals to model armaments workers and managers, tests out new tanks and groundcars by taking them for a ride and can create production miracles through sheer force of will. Images and news reels of him in the company of 'his' workers are a common sight. Of course, they don't show his inspections of concentration camps. Or mention that he once complained to KEC that the prisoner barracks in a camp were too 'luxurious'. The camp in question had one of the highest mortality rates in the Imperium.

Skaer is married and has six children. His eldest son Akakios Skaer Junior has followed in his footsteps and become an architect and urban planner. Skaer was a distant, inattentive and mildly neglectful father. His son suffered from a debilitating stutter that was a cause of embarrassment to the patriarch. Nonetheless, Skaer has been grooming him to one day inherit the family's construction empire

Apollon Agnoulis (NPC) - Minister of Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries. A prominent Humanist politician and personal friend of Lachesis, Apollon Agnoullis runs the Ministry of Agriculture. He is considered an expert on agricultural policy and well-respected by his colleagues. When he drafts a memorandum, other principals pay attention. No major decision on food policy is made without his input. He has direct access to Eisen, giving him regular briefings on the food situation. All in all, he is an incredibly talented networker.

Agnoulis is no apolitical functionary, but a dedicated Humanist who combines professional expertise with intense ideological fervour. He has called Humanism one of the greatest ideas of all times, and he means it. Uncompromising, hard-working and utterly devoted to the idea of racial renewal and human supremacy, he is committed to his 'historical mission'. He prides himself on his 'cool rationality'. He calls for sacrifice in the service of the nation, and stresses the value of self-denying behaviour. Agnoulis is famed for his loyalty. He holds the rank of Kight Commander in the KEC (roughly equivalent to lieutenant general in the army).

He has been the author of policies that inflict mass starvation on aliens considered 'useless eaters' by directing food supplies to the human civilian population, the Vaderite armed forces and those alien workers considered indispensable. To him, a xenos' right to live is measured in its ability to serve as a production ingredient. The policies are grounded in racialism, but there is a cold, economic logic behind them that aims to achieve a balance between calories and expected economic output. Undesirables are mere numbers on a balance sheet, nothing more. He sees a problem and has devised an extreme solution. Agnoulis is trained economist as well as a farmer, with a firm commitment to a planned economy and an utterly uncompromising attitude. In a way, he can be described as being single-mindedly obsessive. He cares primarily about agriculture and food and securing the sustenance of those he deems racially valuable, but is utterly indifferent to what the people on the ground who are being exploited think. The food policies pushed by him have obviously fomented unrest among the 'lesser beings'.

He has been ruthless in rationalising agriculture, closing uneconomical farms. Both a technocrat and an ideologue, his vision merges racial agrarianism with a critique of liberal capitalism. Agnoulis has a romantic attachment to the peasantry, which he views as crucial to the survival of the human species. To him, urban culture, dominated by xenos, has spread decadence and rootlessness, depriving mankind of the connection to the soil that it requires to thrive as a species. To him, a healthy, racially selected peasantry is crucial to a people's moral health. Economic activity must be distributed so that it is not concentrated in a few overpopulated cities. A strong believer in the frontier myth, he regards the yeoman farmer as the ideal man and a Humanist warrior.

Cities should have plentiful green spaces and public transportation. He argues in favour of urban farming for reasons of economic sustainability and the community spirit. Moreover, cities must be purged of 'decadent' architecture. Agnoulis is no Luddite and does not support deindustrialisation because he knows that would be absurd. Instead he envisages an uncluttered balance of agriculture, industry and services. But he is a bit of an environmentalist who is concerned about the degradation Tephrike's environment has suffered. This is also grounded in fact, since pollution, and warfare have damaged the planet's ecosystem, poisoned rivers and ruined harvests. The studies he has commissioned on this matter are based on actual science. Agnoulis has cooperated with Lachesis on colonisation policy. He supports the policy of giving professional soldiers from rural areas land grants as a reward for loyal service to the Imperium.

Overall, Agnoulis isthe type of person who views everything as a question of expediency interpreted through the prism of ideology and views life as zero-sum. He also believes in hierarchy, especially in intelligence. Agnoulis is convinced that he always has the bigger picture in mind and is willing to throw away those whom he considers failures.

Chysanthos Xenelis (NPC) Minister of Popular Culture and Propaganda, talk show host. For millennia, a cabal of xenos Jedi and bankers has conspired to bring about a 'great replacement' - flooding the peaceful world of Tephrike with alien hordes through mass immigration, demographic growth and human drop in birth rate. They have encouraged interspecies relationships, homosexuality and abortion in order to cause the human birth rate to plummet, undermine the moral health of mankind and encourage 'degeneracy'. Under alien influence, mankind was on the brink of 'birth controlling itself into extinction'. When loyal patriots fought back against the 'coming human genocide', the cabal unleashed the Gulag Virus to cull mankind. This is, of course, an absurd conspiracy theory with no basis in reality. But it is what every human child in the Imperium grows up learning.

Chysantos Xenelis is the man responsible for hammering home the message. He heads the propaganda ministry and hosts the nightly talk show 'Daily Truth'. His ministry holds dominion over the press, theatre, art, cinema and broadcasting. Moreover, it organises the grand Party rallies. Meanwhile, he uses his talk show as his bully pulpit to blast 'degeneracy'. He has a knack for appropriating rhetoric from the political left to present the Humanist regime as the one that truly cares about the common human worker, even though it is in fact incredibly elitist.

He describes himself as the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink, while in fact embodying all these traits. He has cushy life, but plays a populist in front of the cameras. Xenelis is a fabricator who wraps himself in a fake flag of truth, a self-promoter who appeals to an individual's worst instincts. But he gives the masses a scapegoat to blame for their problems. Fundamentally, he is a malignant narcissist. He has a luxurious residence filled with valuable rugs, furniture and artworks acquired at the expense of the government. He also loves sports cars. Xenelis seldom gives public speeches himself, but has a talent for using imagery, media, and the pen to get the message across. He is well-versed in hammering home the message place through skillful manipulation of news and entertainment media and through staged demonstrations. He publishes literary and cultural essays on the side. They are of poor quality.

Xenelis has incredible influence on cultural policy and the media, but is not a major powerbroker in the greater scheme of things. His 'fief' can be useful in a takeover if you need an announcement delivered over the airwaves quite quickly or in wartime and times of crisis to mobilise the party faithful and sell new hardships to them as 'necessary' sacrifices. And, of course, his virulently xenophobic message constitutes incitement to genocide, creating a climate that enables crimes against sentience and other sentient rights violations. However, he doesn't have the kind of power base one would need to actually take control. He has no armed battalions of trained killers ready to die and kill for him, and is no Sith. As such, Xenelis is not a true regime insider, and has found himself surprised by actions set in motion by the Leader during meetings to which he was not invited.

His father was a media executive and later the Imperium's plenipotentiary in one of its vassal states. As a teenager, Xenelis was a group leader in the Imperial Youth Corps. His superiors praised his impeccable Humanist behaviour. He served in a flak unit of the Skyhammer Fleet, but managed to avoid serious danger. For a while he performed the duties of a political officer at a military school. There Xenelis discovered his propagandistic talent as a writer and editor for a military magazine published by the Skyhammer Fleet. He is an honorary general in an all-volunteer militia that serves the Humanist Party, and a captain of the reserve in the Imperial military.

Dr. Apostolos Kondas (NPC) - Minister of Justice. When Kondas was president of the People's Court, any defendant who appeared before him could expect a death sentence. He was known for manipulating the transcripts to make the defendants look guilty. One of his victims was a seventeen-year old human teenager who listened to rebel broadcasts and was arrested for trying to distribute 'seditious' leaflets among prisoners of war. Kondas actually sentenced the boy to death against the recommendations of the secret police. The 'bloody judge' is neither a demon nor an opportunist though. He does not need to bend the law. He simply interprets and applies it unscrupulously in accordance with the tenets of Humanism. He does this of his own free will, as the executor of the Humanist State. In that regard, his career is not atypical at all. Rather it is an ordinary, Imperial career that is representative of that of most people of the Imperium. One could call it a Tephriki career. His ruthlessness and mastery of legal texts have made him feared. Now he stands at the top of the judiciary. He uses his understanding of the law to turn the often vague Humanist tents into practical law that can be applied by the courts and government departments.

Moreover, Kondas is a deeply misogynistic, pitiless proponent of laws that have rendered women second-class citizens. Fundamentally, the ultra-conservative jurist is an arrogant, narcissistic reactionary with an utterly inflated idea of his own brilliance and importance. He has ensured that the lengthy paperwork that is normally part of clemency proceedings for those sentenced to death is significantly shortened. Individuals in custody who are categorised as 'asocial elements' are to be immediately removed from jail and transferred to the KEC to be exterminated through labour. This process is automatic for Twi'leks, Mon Calamari, Nautolans and Bothans sentenced to over three years. Moreover, Kondas has increased the use of lay judges and people's courts at the local level. This has had the effect of deprofessionalising the judicial system.

Single judges have replaced multijudge panels in most cases. Kondas consults prominent Sith and Party bigwigs almost obsequiously before making key judicial appointments. When the judiciary was criticised for not being harsh enough, he tried to take the wind out of the critics' sails by initiating criminal proceedings against two notaries. One notary was accused of having purchased a picture postcard from a Togruta merchant. The Party Court concluded that this indicated that the accused had failed to understand the importance of opposing the galactic xenos conspiracy.

Kondas has warned the courts against un-Humanist ideas such as judicial independence, separation of powers and constitutional democracy. In his words these are erroneous alien notions that defame Humanist path on the rule of law. Senior regional officials must conduct preliminary case reviews and and post-mortems with judges and prosecutors. In addition, he provides sentencing guidelines for criminal judges. On a monthly basis, state courts receive circulars with summaries of judgements the ministry regards as laudable or misguided. The aim is to illustrate how the ministry envisions Humanist application of law. He uses these judge letters to call for the pitiless extermination of 'particulary dangerous criminals'. Both measures make a mockery of any pretense of judicial independence. The judicial philosophy applied by him has two core principles: the legal system is subordinate to the will of the Leader, and the traditional dictum 'no crime without law' should not be applied in the Imperium. The second principle means that defendants can be tried for actions that had not been determined in advance to have been illegal.

Kondas denounces the belief that judges should be bound by written law as un-Imperial. Instead he exhorts every judge to 'judge like the Leader would'. Judges should not look to the law as an autonomous avenue of rational reasoning. Legal methodology is informed by Humanist ideology as explicated in Glorious Conflict and the Leader's speeches. The word of Glorious Conflict is holy writ, and any deviation from it is unacceptable. Kondas is a holdover from Furcht's administration. Eisen has kept him around because he is not a threat. When Furcht was in power, Kondas wrote a book that contains critiques of typical cases and quotes from Furcht and past Supreme Leaders on legal matters. Recently, a revised edition has been published. Most of Furcht's quotes have been removed since Eisen dislikes his predecessor. Instead he has added inspirational quotes from the new boss.

Kondas believes direct political intervention will no longer be necessary because the system judges every case in accordance with Humanist doctrine. However, he still insists that a professional judiciary cannot be done away with on the highest levels. This has caused friction with elements of the Party and the Disciples, even though Kondas has done his utmost to appease both groups. Per an agreement between him and the security services, the police may execute a defendant whenever the Party or the Disciples protest against a milder sentence passed by a regular court, with no need to go through the regular justice system again.

Dr. Sokratis Pepakos (NPC) - Minister of the Interior, General Plenipotentiary for Civil Administration. Law and order is one of the Humanists' favourite propaganda slogans. In truth, their system amounts to nothing less than the legalisation of tyranny. Definitions of race, penalties for violating racial laws, the criminalisation of dissent - all these rules have been incorporated into the legal code. Pepakos sees it as his duty to enforce them. To him, the argument is whether the dictatorial, racist order should be maintained by law or the arbitrary exercise of power. He is a firm advocate of the former. As the "legalist of the unjust state", he pushes for the juridification of unjust measures, especially in the area of concentration camps and xenos policy. He embodies the 'civil servant', who on the one hand willingly puts the administration at the service of Humanist ideology, but always endeavours to protect its functionality and clout and thus his own sphere of power against the positions and particular interests of the Sith and Party apparatchiks.

Administrative expertise, a legalistic streak and a genuine belief in the tenets of Humanism are the hallmarks of Sokratis Pepakos. They have propelled him from his humble beginnings as a judge to a post in the Imperial cabinet. Well-educated, diligent, erudite and well-versed in Humanist ideology, he represents the ideal Humanist civil servant. Pepakos has a doctorate in law and can look back at a distinguished career in the civil and judicial service. His expertise in administrative law led to his involvement in questions of racial categorisation and citizenship policy. He has served in administrative roles in the Ministry of the Interior itself as well as in the colonial territories and local government. At the same time, he has been involved in the sterilisation and mass killing of disabled persons. His own son was a victim of these policies, but that has not undermined his commitment.

Pepakos is a prolific writer widely recognised as of the leading Humanist legal scholars. Most of his papers focus on racial legislation and public administration. He defines citizenship on the basis of species. To him, the individual is not a member of society, but a born member of the human species. They constitute a 'historic and organic community bound by blood'. It is through this that he or she acquires rights - and duties. The needs of the species always outweigh the needs of the individual. To understand this, the public must be educated about the 'racial characters' and 'racial souls' of different peoples. According him, history is a succession of struggles between species. To deny this goes against the laws of nature. As a colonial administrator and ministerial bureaucrat, he has played a central role in promoting and codifying a system of racial segregation, ethnic cleansings and genocide.

Moreover, he has chaired many commissions set up to rationalise the state administrative structure through decentralisation and streamlining. To this end, he promotes a clear division of labour between Party, Sith and State that will integrate all three into one overarching structure. Pepakos envisions a new type of civil servant - not a passive lawyer of the 'outdated liberal state', but a 'revolutionary pioneers' who will be trained in special colleges modelled on general staff academies. Pepakos' vision of a politically centralised unitary state implies a pre-eminent role for an elite of ideologically motivated civil-servants. They are to be actvive bearers of the new state. Humanism will be their inspiring ideology rather than a competing element in the power structure. Unfortunately for him, the Humanist state has effectively disintegrated into virtually autonomous agencies acting largely on their own initiative and in competition with one another.

Pepakos is quite young for someone in his position. But the Humanist State is a system where people can rise to the top quite rapidly, provided they have the necessary ruthlessness, cunning and connections. He has risen through the ranks by being efficient - and having connections with the right people. His family is relatively obscure, but a younger cousin is a rising Sith. Moreover, the last few years have been very disruptive, and attrition has seen new men promoted to senior positions. Pepakos proved himself an efficient administrator while running a problematic province, and his predecessor was purged for being a Furcht loyalist. His ministry is an important actor in the fields of health matters, public administration, civil service, race and citizenship legislation. He is a frequent speaker at events organised by the Academy of Tephriki Law, a legal think tank. Furthermore, he has a say in the appointment of all senior civil servants. But his plans for a comprehensive administrative and civil service reform have been blocked by the Imperium's polycratic power structure.

Pepakos has feuded with the Sith and other grandees, but not because he has a problem with a dictatorial, human supremacist regime. Instead he believes they make a mockery of the Imperial State by trampling on the law and acting akin to feudal barons. He argues that thereby they undermine the public's trust and destabilise the state. Pepakos disdains political hacks and Sith who want to deempathise professional requirements in favour of mere ideological purity or, even worse, turn the Imperium into a complete magocracy. Pepakos wants the government, including the Sith, to be accountable to the law - Humanist law.

He's popular with many of his subordinates, and has the reputation of a boss who will protect them if they're in trouble, provided they're competent. His concern for them goes so far that he has allowed ministry officials who lost their homes due to aerial bombings to stay at his villa. Indeed, after heavy bombings Pepakos personally drove into the capital in order to personallly intervene in the rescue and recovery efforts. On Empire Day, his employees receive gifts of non-branded groceries such as poultry and wine.

Aristarchos Rodidis (NPC) - Minister of Economic Affairs. The Vaderite economy has lots of problems - massive overspending, poor wages, stagnation, monopolies, cartellisation, price fixing, systemic corruption, lack of trading partners, poor infrastructure, lack of transparency. It is bringing those problems to every Imperial citizen. Slavery has become a massive component of the Imperial economy, with all the problems this entails. Moreover, Sith are tax-exempt, so it is not uncommon for Non-Force-Using businessmen and bureaucrats to approach them for property-stacking schemes for the purpose of tax evasion.

Moreover, the military owns its own businesses. These were originally founded as an expedient to cover the needs of the military because the civilian industry was not coping. But by now it has become permanent. These ventures enjoy tax breaks and other perks and are marred by corruption, smuggling, and profiteering problems, but generate substantial revenue for the generals. Sith or military-owned firms enjoy competitive advantages over their civilian counterparts, including tax breaks and privileged access to land, capital and labour, which effectively handicaps civilian businesses unless they are part of the megacorps. It would require a miracle to fix this mess within the constraints of the Vaderite system.

Eisen is pro-business, but has allowed nepotism and corruption to grow. This is not good for business in the long-run - if you have to bribe various people and agencies for a single project, only to get your licence revoked, that's a problem. In theory, the Ministry of Economic Affairs is responsible for overseeing all aspects of economic policy. In practice, economic planning is characterised by a plethora of competing authorities, leading to chaotic planning and turf wars.

However, officially the Humanist State is for the people - the human ones, that is. The hard-working burghers are the bedrock of society. Rodidis is supposed to symbolise the alliance between the middle class and the Humanist movement, between the state, small and medium-sized businesses, supply of the population and private initiative, between security and order policy. Rodidis has a background in journalism, having served as the editor of a financial newspaper, retail trade and the civil service. He has held posts in various commercial associations. His name is associated with organising the distribution of consumer goods to provide for the population during the dark days of the war with the Dominion and the Netherworld Crisis.

He managed to dodge purges and revolutions while ministers came and went. Now he is in charge, but his position is less powerful than he would like. Rodidis supports private property and individual initiative in the business world. The dirigist economy of the Imperium represents a harmonious marriage of state and free enterprise, mediated by self-governing business associations and responsive to the needs of the common people. That is what the press department of the economics ministry says. The reality is very different, as Rodidis himself knows. He has devised ambitious plans for the economic reordering of Tephrike. But the Imperium is a long way from conquering the planet. Many of his ministry's tasks, especially the war-related ones, have been transferred to the Ministry for Armament and Munitions, whose boss is better politician and propagandist than him.

Rodidis' ministry has authority over fundamental economic questions, whatever that means, the provision of consumer goods and for deciding how they should be apportioned. He grumbles that he takes the blame from dissatisfied consumers when the grocery store shelves are empty but lacks the power to actually make changes. He is not particularly speciesist beyond casual, xenophobic prejudice, but goes along with the appalling policies of the Humanist regime without protest or a hint of compassion for its victims. Rodidis' ministry is responsible for the expropriation of aliens and their exclusion from professional life and the economy. In other words, a systematic policy of organised theft. One he has personally profited from. When it comes to matters of racial policy, his foremost concern is the preservation of 'xenos' who are skilled workers, as there are severe shortages in the labour forces.

Rodidis is overall a rather weak character. He doesn't define his position, his position defines him. He has spent his whole life preparing for his job. Yet his performance has been mediocre as the economy has only stagnated further. In all fairness, even a more dynamic and gifted minister would find himself hamstrung by a dysfunctional system. He is a nervous, cautious man, but intelligent within his own area of expertise. Rodidis just wants an easy life in the ministry; after all, he is a usual bureaucrat - rather conformist, trying to protect his position and generally prepare his retirement, with his honours, houses, annuities etc. Amateurs trying to tell him how to do his job annoy him, especially if they expect him to do something that would get him into politically dangerous waters. He is adept at rebuffing them with polite remarks and by dragging his feet, making concessions with the right people where needed. But this only works for so long.

Prof. Dr. Thiseas Vlahas (NPC) - Minister of Finance. Born the son of a grocery store owner, Vlahas studied economics and law before obtaining a doctorate in political science. As a researcher at a major economic institute, he drafted reports that for a time served Vaderite plans for expansion and economic exploitation. Moreover, he was a minor functionary in the local Party organisation. He later obtained his habilitaton. While performing military service, he received a medal for his conduct as a member of an signals unit. His record as a grassroots level party functionary, financial expert and war veteran set him up for a solid career.

He got to know Eisen during this time, which would prove invaluable for his further career. Vlahas later became a professor and served as economic advisor to the government, sitting on an advisory board. His economic and political advisory tasks allowed him to build connections with representatives of the Imperial economy. He eventually embarked on a civil service career, and was made minister of finance. Vlahas has written several books on economic policy and fiscal theories. One of his papers grappled with the question of how to combat corruption among the temporary administrators who had been appointed to run expropriated businesses.

Said businesses had belonged to aliens or other 'enemies of the state'. In the name of the Main Trustee Office, Vlahas visited newly-conquered territories where ethnic cleansings were ongoing in order to assess the value of confiscated financial assets and enterprises. The Trustee Office was charged with managng and selling confiscated companies and transfer them to humans. However, often there were more businesses than qualified humans. Vlahas was therefore tasked with designing an overall economic and political concept as to how the new conquests could be developed. The KEC commissioned him to write a study on how a new province could be developed, based on the premise that it was 'completely populated with humans', after the alien population had been 'removed'. For a sumptuous sum of credits, Vlahas was willing to develop a plan for how how hundreds of thousands of Cathar could be expelled without a lack of workers afterwards.

While an ardent imperialist, Vlahas was unnerved by Supreme Leader Hyperion's war course. In an attempt to dissuade him, he sent Hyperion a memorandum in which he strongly argued against turning the cold war with the Dominion into a hot war, as the Imperial economy was not ready. He made the claim that the xenos were trying to goad the nation into a premature conflict. Vlahas made the point that the Imperium should bide its time. Naturally, it was ignored. Vlahas and his department have been deeply complicit in the persecution of Twi'leks, and other non-human species, including the theft of their property, and illegally laundering money. The fiscal authorities overseen by him have been actively involved in the confiscation of the financial assets of so called enemies of the people and the monetary exploitation of occupied territories. Vlahas has done his best to facilitate a massive transfer of resources to keep the Imperial machine running. Contrary to Imperial propaganda, low-income earners earners are heavily taxed in the Imperium.

Vlahas himself is viewed as a reliable bean counter. He is a very pedantic, meticulous man who records everything and gives pained expressions when his ledgers get even more messed up by the next big experiment or megaproject. He is always trying to balance the budgets but it's a futile task. It is also a cause of annoyance for him that traditional budget plans do not need to be drawn up in many fields, ministries and special commissions. It frustrates him that firms run by Sith or the military elites are immune from independent auditing or accountability, allowing them to squander precious public resources. Shrouded from public scrutiny, they are ripe for corruption. All too often these companies make up revenue shortfalls by pressuring public banks to provide financing or by obliging business partners to accept less-than-advantageous terms. Moreover, despite his efforts to balance the budget, these entities continue to have access to considerable capital through government allocations, cronyism and outright theft. Due to a lack of public accountability and transparency, it is almost impossible for him to estimate how much profit these businesses make annually, how much capital they accumulate, or whether this capital is reinvested in the same or other projects.

Another of Vlahas' pet peeves is the conduct of officials in the concentration camps. He deeply objects when the gold wedding rings confiscated from prisoners or the gold teeth torn from their dead bodies end up in the pockets of those officials, instead of being deposited in the state bank and melted down as bullion. Vlahas is a proponent of economic, but not political liberalisation. He promotes an 'active and courageous entrepreneurship' as a replacement for bureaucratic central planning and monopolies. His economic views can be described as ordoliberal, calling for low taxation, an abolition of price controls, public spending cuts, and privatisation of state-owned enterprises save for 'natural monopolies'.

He doesn't, however, see a connection between political and economic liberalism. The state should set a legal framework that allows economic actors to pursue their aspirations in a genuinely free market governed by laws. The government should have the power to monitor and break up monopolies to protect competition, though he is ready to tolerate oligopolies and believes natural monopolies should remain under government supervision. His ideas don't envisage political liberalisation. Indeed, he views it as incompatible with his proposals.

Gilad Petrakis (NPC) - Minister of Foreign Affairs. Petrakis is an honourable man, a respectable gentleman of conservative stamp who has placed himself confidently behind the Humanist State. He provides a polite, urban facade. He represents civility, honour and integrity. All he wants is order and stability, whatever that means. He is just as much as a scumbag as the rest of the Imperial high command. Petrakis is an old man with a career in the surface navy and the colonial ministry and a network of connections among industrial and agrarian interests. The wise looking, riding' gentleman' is no threat to the Supreme Leader, but can be wheeled out, and has a good speaking voice for broadcasts. The foreign ministry is mainly there for propaganda since there are few groups for the Vaderites to talk to, other than the few neutral warlords and vassals. But it is expected of a government to have one. Besides, the Imperium needs someone to negotiate the 'unconditional surrender of the xenos Jedi scum'.

Petrakis is distinguished by a self-righteous lack of conscience. His atavistic, socially reactionary attitude is superficially masked by flowery rhetoric and nationalistic clap trap. He sees the old Galactic Empire as an ideal, for it was the time of a 'strong state free from sectional interests, just in itself, independent of the parties'. This an euphemism for an anti-liberal state where political rights are only possessed by the very few, especially not the 'mindless, unwashed masses'. The hollow phrases employed by him reveal antiquated patriarchal and aristocratic attitudes. His thinking has been shaped by anachronistic ideas. He unhesitantingly identifies the interests of his social class with the interests of the state. Predictably, he is a scion of the planter class. His family has generated significant income by using 'indentured assets' to plant and harvest tea, tabac and rubber.

Moreover, he is an ardent speciesist. He is fully aware of the atrocities committed by the Imperial Armed Forces, the KEC and police. None of them bother him one bit. He just objects when they are too 'in your face' because all that nasty business should take place out of sight of polite society. At most he voices concerns about the effect participating in such brutal actions could have on the morale and discipline of soldiers. He opines that it is best left to machines and alien auxiliaries.

He is characterised by moral insensitivity, a fundamental lack of intellectual honesty and that class-conscious attitude that deals with the truth as the country gentleman with the staff. He claims to be descended from Naboo nobility, as if that still matters to anyone. His favourite hobbies are horse-riding and tending to his garden. He enjoys trimming the plants and keeping them orderly, which he uses as a metaphor for governance. He likes to say that every ruler should have a garden because it is always useful to draw lessons from nature. By that he means 'culling the unfit'.

Petrakis occasionally intercedes in favour of people who have been persecuted by the secret police...if they are human or, far more rarely, xenos from his home province he considers 'developmentally near-human'. But these interventions are very rare, and he never criticises the system, only 'errors made by a few bad chaps. Mistakes happen, old bean. The chaps were a bit overzealous'. They have, however, fooled some people into thinking that he is better than the rest. Foreign ministry officials who are genuine reformists or even oppositionists will not find an ally in him. Eisen is happy to occasionally throw the old man a bone because he knows it is also good for his own image.

Thanassis Politeas (NPC) - Minister of Public Instruction. A former Supreme Leader once proclaimed that a young human Tephriki must be swift as a kath hound, tough as leather, and hard as durasteel. Thanassis Politeas has taken this dictum to heart. Disdaining intellectuals, he is a strong advocate of military discipline rather than educational ambitions. Militarism is, after all, one of the cornerstones of Imperial society. Thinking is good, but action is better. He appreciates readiness for action, obedience and willpower. Schools and universities must indoctrinate young people into embracing the ideals of Humanism and make them loyal to the State. Boys must be prepared to become effective soldiers on the battlefield, while girls must be taught to 'fight a woman's battle in the birthing bed and raise the next generation.' According to him, women are unable to 'think logically or reason objectively, since they are ruled only by emotion.'

A veteran decorated for bravery, Politeas also has a background in education. For a while he served as inspector general of a series of boarding schools run along military lines. He is most interested in setting up camps and segregated schools to train kids to fill their allotted place. Politeas' wife Eva is the leader of the Padme Vader League of Humanist Women, the women's association of the Humanist Party. It is a good match since she is a female misogynist who believes women should be subservient to men and restricted to a domestic role as mothers and wives. Ironically, she has a law degree, but discourages women from studying law because it would 'distort their feminine virtues'. Similarly, she argues that Tephriki women must work hard and renounce luxury and frivolity, but herself enjoys a comfortable material existence.

Politeas has partly been appointed to run the education system on account of concern in the leadership about disillusioned youth, nonconformist youth groups and a rise in juvenile delinquency. Most of these people are not really political, but simply listening to nonconformist music or refusing to participate in the activities of the Humanist State's youth movement is a sign of deviation. Teenage crime has become a serious problem; one he seeks to combat through incarceration in 'moral decency centres'. But an even more persistent problem is the lack of qualified teachers. Putting a cruel, bigoted martinet in charge will naturally not solve that problem at all.

Politeas feels strong anxiety about population decline and 'degeneration of the racial corpus'. He has come to the belief that mankind is in danger 'because some of the best blood has been lost on the battlefield'. If mankind cannot replenish its losses, it will be 'overtaken by xenos hordes that breed like rabbits'. In keeping with his misogyny, speciesism and homophobia, Politeas has an obsession with the youth being corrupted by 'deviancy'. He is prone to rambling speeches about how democracy produces 'feeble, effeminate men'. Moreover, he is a strong proponent of the death penalty for drug dealer. Ironically, the regime profits from the trade with narcotics.

Working in cooperation with local governments and the criminal police, he has organised round-ups of young people accused of 'deviant' behaviour and put them in foster care, 'troubled teen' camps and 'moral decency centres'. One thing all these institutions have in common is that abuse is rampant. Politeas eagerly promotes laws targeting so-called 'juvenile delinquents', ensuring their incarceration for 'delinquency.' Another innovations has affected a two-year training course for nurses. In addition to practical experience, the new curriculum includes almost one hundred and fifty hours of ideological and racial indoctrination. This is supposed to give new nurses a thorough education in Humanist racial science that views a traditional, humanitarian orientation with scorn. Similar reforms have reshaped the training curricula of midwives and kindergarten teachers.

Politeas has been described as a 'minister of education with a machine gun'. As if to signal his approval of the nickname, he encourages journalists to take pictures of him holding a gun. Fittingly, he is vice-president of a major gun club. The minister has encouraged teachers to arm themselves to 'set an example'. Gun laws are surprisingly liberal in the Imperium if you're a card-carrying Humanist. He proclaims that the best way to protect schoolkids from 'child-murdering xenos and psychopaths' is to place armed veterans in every school. His proposal to place three armed veterans in every school has become a bit of a meme. Furthermore, he has called for man traps" and 'trip wires' to turn schools into hard targets. Ironically, several veterans have ridiculed these proposals for being impractical, self-defeating and putting schoolchildren more at risk than terrorists ever could. He has dismissed these concerns as unpatriotic.

He recites poems that depict war as the noble crucible for species and civilisations. There are sacrifices, but he declares these are a path to honour and glory. War transcends the materialistic concerns of the complacent and timid. No one individual can compete with the full choir of a nation mobilised for one purpose: a struggle of life and death. The soldier is the purest representation of mankind. His gear is made by the skill and labour of his species; his actions are dictated by selflessness and patriotism; his thoughts are purged of doubt and in his courage is fuelled by the myths of mankind's greatest heroes. He is promoted not on the basis of birth or wealth, but valour. Only battle bestows immortality upon man. For this reason, one should not mourn those who die for th fatherland, for they have achieved apotheosis.

Politeas is scornful of 'soft intellectuals' who have never experienced the 'storm of steel'. As he puts it, there can be no room in Tephriki universities for men 'too genteel to rank their place in the community of the Humanist warrior'. This is ironic since academics have been very eager to embrace Humanist tents. Indeed, most top secret policemen have an academic degree. He has called scientific objectivity a slogan coined by ivory-towered professors in order to escape from the necessary supervision of the state. Politeas is of the belief that non-human science is deeply flawed. To 'validate' this belief, he once said: "The problems of science do not present themselves in the same way to all beings. The squid or the Twi'lek will view the same world in a different light than the human investigator."

Iakovos Salleas (NPC) - Minister of Labour, General Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labour, Moff-Governor of Aitolia. A stalwart Party official with a populist streak, Salleas presides over everything connected to labour affairs. His ministerial position is in personal union with the office of General Plenipotentiary for the Allocation of Labour, a position with sweeping powers to organise a centralised allocation of labour resources. In that capacity, he can issue directives to the competent military and civilian authorities to ensure an adequate supply of labourers. He acts on the basis of directives from the Ministry for Armaments, the Ministry of Agriculture, big business and other relevant institutions. He works hand in glove with the KEC and the army, who are used to pressgang non-humans into service. Conditions for forced labourers are universally poor.

Salleas has humble, petit bourgeois origins, being the son of a post office clerk and a seamstress. However, he was selected by the local Imperial Youth Corps cell to attend a boarding school run by the Party, where entrance requirements were more relaxed. The Party used him as a speaker, and his work was met with public approval. After doggedly serving as county organiser for the Party, his career took off when he was appointed trustee of labour, a post that made him responsible for ensuring 'labour peace' and regulating labour contracts. Collective bargaining, strikes and trade unions are banned in the Imperium. His bosses were pleased with his efforts to safeguard 'social harmony'.

Salleas has not forgotten his roots, a true advocate of the populist line of Humanist ideology who combines virulent speciesism with a florid commitment to the welfare of 'ordinary' Tephriki human men and women. Displaying a keen eye for publicity stunts, he once joined a submarine as a stowaway. His greatest strengths are organisational talent and assertiveness. Salleas uses 'xenos guest workers', but very much approves of utilising slave labourers and prisoners of war where needed. As a career Party man and former labour manager, he is sensitive to the regional Party bosses' concern for keeping up public morale. His massive coercive labour programme has aroused disquiet among racial purists in the government, who are concerned about intimate contact between humans and 'lesser beings'.

Salleas distinguishes between what he calls 'productive capitalism' and 'money-grubbing, usurious capitalism'. Both definitions are incredibly vague. He argues that the property of 'speculators' and 'vampires' should be seized by the government to be put to use by 'the people'. To him, this 'property' also includes their slaves. It is wrong of the upper class to 'hoard' the means of production for themselves. From the noble human toilers, a new aristocracy of merit will be born. Labourers from supposedly inferior species are destined to work on the assembly lines, while 'high quality skilled work' should remain the privilege of a human labor aristocracy.

Salleas portrays himself as the representative of the human labour classes of Imperiumy; an earnest and unpretentious party man deeply committed to the collective welfare of the workers. He angrily rejects the accusation that his ideas have anything in common with the 'bastard socialism' practiced by the Dominion or the Republican Guard. He claims that species other than humanity are incapable of achieving, let alone comprehending true socialism. It is simply not in their genes. Eisen favours the cartels and gigantic parastatal entities, but recognises the value of having someone around who can provide bread and games for the masses while mobilising them to meet punitive quotas. Besides, Salleas doesn't advocate for workers' rights or anything resembling economic democracy.

The labour manager has made an effort to win over (human) workers through concessions and carefully staged events. Cigarra and fat rations have been increased for certain types of industrial workers, and thousands of shoes have been distributed among factory employees. But blue-collar workers and white-collar employees still toil under an authoritarian system, where the owner is the leader and the salaried and wage-earning employees are expected to be his obedient followers.

The 'front community' of the 'trenches' is the ideal that Saleas keeps conjuring up in his speeches, using it to set the workers a positive goal as soldiers of work. That term alone evokes associations with industrialised mass wars and general staffs. He is fond of applying military vocabulary. Job placement becomes labour deployment; the creation of work is a labour battle; the worker must do his duty as a soldier of labour; the the entrepreneur became the leader of the company and the employees his followers. In the Humanist community, everyone has their place and its supreme law is blind obedience. The army of the 'soldiers of work' is not organised in an egalitarian fashion. Rather, like any army, it should have a strict hierarchial organisation, and be led by a 'general staff'. Just as all citizens have to fulfil their duty as soldiers, they must also meet their work obligations, and be ready to work as many hours as the People's Community requires. Everyone has a duty to work, but only the best have a corresponding right to work.

To Salleas, work is not just an economic concept, but a deeply ideological thesis. Work is an expression of the struggle for life, and war is the last, highest and noblest expression of this struggle. Therefore, they are two sides of the same coin, which means the worker must view the soldier as his role model in the factory and every-day life. The labour organisation must educate every worker to think and act like a soldier. They must become soldiers of labour who are sent on labour deployments to fight labour battles. Working society has become a racially and socially segregated performance community under the auspices of the complete utilisation of labour power. "We understand work in the Tephriki sense of the word as the fulfillment of a duty for a national community. The human sees work as the basis for maintaining the national community among themselves, the Twi'lek, on the other hand, as a means of exploiting other peoples."

The People's Community is not only considered a 'racially' but also socially homogenous unit based on performance and diligence. Performance or its opposite, so-called 'work-shyness', serves as a means to distinguish between 'valuable' and the 'inferior' citizens. Willingness to perform is a central criterion of inclusion or exclusion. Beggars and vagrants are not deserving of sympthy to him, but are deserters shirking their duty who must be forced to work. Punishments may include incarceration in a forced labour camp, exclusion from welfare benefits and forced sterilisation.

Darth Thrul (NPC) - Keeper of the Dark Father's Legacy. The Keeper of the Dark Father's Legacy is unofficially called the Minister of Sith Affairs. This has led to jokes about him collecting mistresses, which is is correct in the case of the present officeholder. Regardless, this department is always run by a Sith Lord, who oversees Sith training, the academy and other related issues. It is Imperial law that all human Force-Sensitives must join the Disciples. By contrast, non-human Force-Sensitives are killed or taken away for experimentation..which tend to be fatal. The position is held by Darth Thrul. He claims he to be a descendant of one of Malitia's companions. His rivals like to quip that his ancestor was nothing more than the first Supreme Leader's cupbearer. Regardless, he's essentially old money.

Thrul is lecherous, sexist, cruel and vicious, but hides it behind a thin veneer of civility and honour. He has a female Ren apprentice who hates him but lacks the strength to defeat him. She is suspected of having some alien ancestry, which he uses as a way to keep her line. He treats her cruelly. Unlike some of his peers, Thrul takes the mystical aspects of Humanism very seriously. He considers himself a master alchemist. He used to serve as headmaster of the main Sith academy and castellan of Castle Maysaf, which made him an obvious choice for the position. He is known for his gambling, drinking and womanising. His vaguely turtle-like visage has been the subject of jokes.

Thrul's power base comes from his ownership of a large array of mines; gold, silver, copper, iron etc. They were part of his family inheritance, but he has used his position to expand them. He's able to siphon off funds of course, since corruption is endemic. He also therefore has a force of KEC, auxiliaries and other soldiers to 'supervise' the xenos. He supervises the manufacturing or refining of the ore, too. So there are steel mills near the mines and railcars to take the ore to the weapons' factories. He doesn't own those, but it's a very profitable venture for him. He once gave a colleague the following advice on corruption: "Political funds should be accepted only after they have passed through a 'filter' and been 'cleansed'. If a problem arises, the 'filter' itself will then become the center of the affair, while the politician, who has consumed the 'clean water', will not be implicated. Political funds become the basis of corruption scandals only when they have not been sufficiently 'filtered.'"

Thrul has a carefully crafted reputation for military skill. However despite this he never seems to be involved in the big campaigns. Why bother actually going and getting into the battle where your reputation might be lost? Better to rest on your laurels and say how important you are to the home front. Lachesis thinks him a coward and greedy for staying back with his fortune whilst also being unwilling to put his military reputation to the test. That said, Thrul is no slouch in combat and personally brave. He is also more than willing to duel someone to prove his honour.

Tilemachos Moleas (NPC) - Minister of War, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Imperium, Marshal of the Imperium. The name War Ministry is rather ironic since the Imperium is permanently at war all the time. It is separate from the finance, armaments and interior portfolios and the actual operational planning of the military, so its job is more managerial in nature. As such it handles administration, veterans' affairs, staffing, the budget, weapons' procurement and some espionage. Marshal Moleas is a household name in the Imperium - the very embodiment of duty, patriotism and strength of character. He is an old man now, but he has never shirked the call to action in the fatherland's darkest hour of need. The marshal is loved and respected; the embodiment of duty and honour. He can turn out the guards with spick and span uniforms and give speeches about the glory of the Imperium. The old general radiates calm decisiveness. Outwardly he projects an almost stereotypical image of Imperial patriarchal authority, with an imposing physical presence.

Moleas' initial military career was solid, but unexceptional. When he failed to attain the post of chief of the general staff, he retired, but was recalled back to service in a time of crisis. Unexpectedly, he won a great victory over Dominion troops and gained renown for his campaigns against rebel forces. Overnight he was turned into a national hero. In truth, most of the work was done by his ambitious, but highly-strung chief of staff Damianos Pattakos. Moleas described their relationship as a happy marriage - in a sense that their characteristics complement each other well. One general quipped that Moleas took a nap while the battle he is most famous for was being planned. Regardless, the Imperium needed a victory it could trumpet. Moleas was the delegator, man-manager and broad-shouldered front-man. He displayed a well-honed understanding of public relations. The Moleas Programe, devised to streamline war in production was named after him, though he had little to do with it. A film glorifying his life as a dedicated patriot promoted his image as a dutiful soldier who left his peaceful life on a country estate to take up arms for the fatherland.

Moleas is fully aware of, and has signed off on war crimes committed by the Imperial Armed Forces against captured enemy soldiers and the civilian population in occupied territories. He has allowed officers to execute civilians for alleged support of partisans. Moleas is an avowed imperialist, and not the person to lead any kind of revolt. Mass arrests, deportations and mass murders have all been approved by him. He has instructed commanders to resort to 'unusual severity' to 'pacify rebellious territories'. He upholds the belief that a totalitarian state fosters the greatest military might.

Moleas has been quite happy about the KEC being weakened by Furcht's death. His way of avoiding Sith interference in the military affairs is doubling down on the politicisation of the military in order to prove to the Supreme Leader that it is not necessary to undermine the institutional autonomy of the military caste. In a way, it has worked. Eisen has transferred control over the reserve army from the KEC back to the regular military and shielded the military from demands to divest itself of its inefficient commercial enterprises. Humanist political officers answer to the war ministry, not the Sith or the Party. To placate the Leader, Moleas has agreed that any units which are supplied by or make use of aircraft belong to the Skyhammer Fleet.

Moreover, he has acquiesced to placing Eisen's cronies in influential positions in the military's lucrative business enterprises, which are overseen by the ministry of war. They were officially founded to cover the needs of the armed forces and take the burden off the civilian economy, but they are essentially for-profit ventures that allow officers to enrich themselves. Marshal Moleas himself is a major shareholder in a military-owned conglomerate and a big landowner.

Meanwhile, the military has some profound structural issues. Corruption starts with budgeting and procurement fraud at the highest levels, and ends with petty theft and sloth at the bottom. Corruption culture has been corrosive for the military. It causes damage that goes far beyond the amount of what is actually stolen. The situation is not as bad for the front line armies as well as prestige units since they're always fighting. But pretty bad for the reserves and the home guard. There is a problem called cooping: recruits are on the rolls, but don't actually exist. But they draw supplies, fuel, pay and equipment which go into the pockets of their Colonel instead of where it is needed. Another problem is the issuing of fictitious contracts to companies to provide the troops with supplies that will never get delivered, as well as companies gaming the biding system for defence orders.

The marshal has an impressive memory for names and faces, asking colleagues about their sons in the army, even recalling their ranks and units. Contrary to his popular image as the embodiment of duty and honour, he is incredibly vain and always anxious to protect his standing with 'his people' - landowners, military men and civil servants of impeccable far-right credentials.

The War Ministry and the Army High Command have been at loggerheads. The Ministry has nominal jurisidiction over all land, sea, air and space forces, but the army has always been the preeminent service. Army chief Nikator dislikes the idea of any armed forces high command that is not controlled by him.

Thomas Leventou (NPC) - Minister of Transport, Communications and Posts, Director of the Imperial Railways. When the economics ministries require trains to move goods, Leventou provides them; when the military requires trains to move soldiers and munitions, Leventou provides them; when the police requires trains to deport aliens and other enemies of the state to ghettos or to death camps, Leventou provides them. Just as he will transport forced labourers into the Imperium so that they can be worked to death in slave factories. It doesn't matter what the trains are for, where they go or what they are transporting. He does his best to make sure the locomotives and cars are there to meet urgent transportation needs.

Just as he does his best to maintain roads and other vital pieces of transportation infrastructure. Tephrike's infrastructure is primitive by galactic standards. An engineer by trade, he has never bothered to consider the moral implications of what he is doing. Leventou has outlived many Supreme Leaders because he is inoffensive, reliable and doesn't ask awkward questions. In exchange, he and his staff have been allowed to manage rail, water and road transport free from interference. He also oversees the Imperial Postal Service. Despite his age, he is an incredibly active man who refuses to let anyone usurp his office. His treatment of his employees, especially those employed in the rail sector, is paternalistic. He demands unwavering obedience, but makes sure they get their dues and is concerned about their welfare. He makes sure they are cared for when they retire in their old age.

His beloved Imperial Railways, like Imperial industry and agriculture, utilises forced labourers. Some of them are employed in responsible positions such as locomotive drivers due to personnel shortages. As a rule, they are primarily used as track construction workers and in workshops though. Leventou has made some token efforts to improve conditions for them. His treatment of them is patronising, though he is not personally cruel. But he never questions the idea that he is superior to them on account of his species. He has occasionally lobbied for people who have come into conflict with the Humanist regime, but never protested. Given his advanced age, his resignation would be accepted without any consequences for him or his family if he requested it. However, he has remained in office instead of disassociating himself from a blatantly evil regime. He doesn't have much room to manoeuvre in his office, but also doesn't utilise the one he has. To him, workers who try to disrupt deportation trains or help forced labourers escape are traitors.

Leventou is a talented technician and organiser who puts himself at the disposal of the Leader and his followers as long as he retains control of the railway. He is free of self-doubts about his role and function in the Imperium. With his career, Leventou is in many ways a representative of many technicians and engineers who, putting aside any moral considerations, consider it their duty to utilise their technical expertise under any circumstances. In effect, he has a narrowed sense of responsibility that sees the achievement of perfection in his chosen craft as an end in itself.

Venizelos Papadopoulos (NPC) - Supreme Commader of the Darkwave Armada, Grand Admiral. Papadopoulos' speeches to sailors brim with Humanist ideology, and call for fanatical sacrifice. The idealisation of suicidal operations of the small combat units of the surface navy and the request to his submarine commanders to sacrifice their crew and boats demonstrate his inhumane Humanist attitude. In a secret decree on the promotion of responsible personalities', the Admiral welcomed the fact that a senior sergeant in a prison camp in Republican Guard territory had organised the murder of 'defeatists' who had made themselves heard among the prisoner. In the words of the Admiral, he would support this man by all means once he returned, because he had proven that he was suitable to be a leader of men.

In speeches, Papadopoulos has repeatedly declared his complete agreement with the Imperium's genocidal hatred of 'sub-sentients' and accused 'xenos Jedism' of the planned annihilation of the human species. He exhorts his men to be 'tough' and 'fanatical'. Addressing naval officers, he explained that it was nonsense to say that a soldier must be apolitical. For the soldier embodied the political state in which he lived. His personality is harsh, ruthless, prideful and haughty. He has signed off on the use of slave labour to have as many warships as possible built for the navy. If one were to call him an eternal Imperial militarist, he would take it as a compliment and not understand how it could possibly be considered an insult.

He calls democracy 'Mon Calamari poison'. Admiral Papadopoulos greatly admired Supreme Leader Hyperion, following him without question even when the dictator's policies proved runious. He has also never objected to war crimes and crimes against sentience committed by Imperial forces. He repeatedly praised the Leader's alleged genius, declaring that: 'In comparison to Hyperion we are all pipsqueaks. Anyone who thinks he can do better than the Leader is stupid.' Papadopoulous knows how to give genuine political speeches, which he writes himself. Thanks to his clear, penetrating voice, they resonate with his listeners. He is not just a soldier, but an ideologically motivated perpetrator. Unlike many senior officials, the Admiral is not corrupt. This doesn't make him any better since he is devoted to an evil cause.

Papadopoulos grew especially close to the Leader Hyperion after a cabal largely composed of army officers and civil servants tried to assassinate him. The news of the plot caused indignation in naval high command. It is a point of pride for him that no serving naval officer was involved in the conspiracy. Indoctrination of naval officers began long before Papadopoulos, but he has intensified it. Naval officers are required to attend a five-day education course in Humanist doctrine. Hyperion rewarded his loyalty and often heeded his advice. Upon his promotion to supreme commander of the navy, Papadopoulos was able to secure a significant amount of autonomy in regards to personnel, logistics, planning, procurement and other vital matters.

Papadopoulos' relationship with Furcht was more distant, but both were alike in fanaticism. The Admiral respected the new boss for his asceticism and ruthless drive. However, he doesn't like Eisen. The feeling is mutual. Eisen believes that anything that flies belongs to the Skyhammer Fleet, his personal force. In his view, this includes aircraft carriers since they are mobile airbases. The Armada's request for a 'sea star destroyer' is gathering dust. As a chief of the surface navy, the Grand Admiral is not formally a minister of state, but has the right to attend cabinet meetings that deal with military affairs. This right is quite superfluous since cabinet meetings are rare and only for show.

Papadopoulos resents having to take orders from a man he regards as a corrupt sybarite. He also resents the Republican Guard for challenging his desire to turn the Imperium into the true master of the high seas. He stigmatises Mon Calamari, Quarren etc. as pirates.

Theocharis Markou (NPC) - Minister of Aerospace Industry, Marshal of the Imperium, Inspector General of the Skyhammer Fleet. The Aerospace Ministry is one of the younger ministries of the Vaderite cabinet. When Eisen began his rise as commander-in-chief of the Skyhammer Fleet, he sought a higher degree of independence from the army-dominated War Ministry. Against the resistance of prominent army leaders, the Aerospace Ministry was founded to centralise the development and production of all air and spacecraft, as well as civic aviation, air protection and the space programme in one department. It acquired the status of a supreme Imperial authority, entitling its boss to a cabinet seat. Moreover, the supply of materials to the Skyhammer Fleet was organised by the Ministry itself, and thus separate from the production of other armaments. The Skyhammer Fleet accounts for up to forty percent of the entire armaments effort.

Markou has been closely connected to the Ministry since its foundation. He enlisted in the Skyhammer Fleet, where he was trained in reconnaissance and served in a forward air control role and before working in the logistics branch. Markou later left active-duty service and was seconded to the civic aviation industry. The practice of secondment was far from uncommon. It allowed an officer to serve in an otherwise civilian role while retaining his commission. The military-bureaucratic fiefdoms cultivated by this practice assured officers from the same branches of service a sinecure and were by now a permanent fixture in the Imperium. Following precedent, Markou served as managing director in a company founded by one of the Imperium's major aerospace pioneers. Here, he proved his talent for organisation and office politics - as well as his duplicity. The energic and ruthless manager was eventually courted by Eisen, then beginning his rise in the Vaderite power structure. The Sith spoke out loudly in favour of Markou's corporation in return for 'donations'. Seeing the way the wind was blowing, Markou placed aircraft at Eisen's disposal free of charge. When Eisen became Minister of Aerspace Industry, he appointed Markou as permanent secretary.

Markou never developed a personal relationship with his boss. He had, after all, been paying the 'Iron Marshal' bribes for years. But he turned into Eisen's energetic troubleshooter, and proceeded to expropriate his former boss. It was not that Manos Cosmellis was an opponent of the regime. But he happened to own to be the largest aerospace manufacturer in the Imperium, and Eisen and Markou were determined to have control over his company's plants. After twenty four hours in police detention, Cosmellis agreed to sign over his firm to the Imperium. Markou embarked on an aggressive campaign of purchasing or outright seizing business assets, asserting that the main purpose of these acquisitions was to ensure self-sufficiency for the aerospace force, reduce the burden on the state budget, help with price controls, improve troop welfare and defy private sector monopolies.

In doing so, he helped develop a model of military capitalism that strengthened the Skyhammer Fleet's budgetary autonomy and privileged access to resources by drawing on off-budget funds derived from military-owned enterprises, informal alliances with private entrepreneurs and corruption. Loyal officers could count on being rewarded with a profitable sinecure upon their retirement. Military economic entanglements fuelled rent-seeking behaviour, abuses of power, and sentient rights violations. Eisen's position as forestry commissioner enabled the Skyhammer Fleet seize vast swaths of land on which the livelihood of indigenous communities depended. Markou used the land to build bases, aircraft plants and other facilities or leased it to businessmen to develop. Since Eisen took little interest in day-to-day management, Markou de facto ran the ministry.

However, his career was endangered by rumours that his lineage was less than pure, for he was an illegitimate child with a 'suspect' father. His family background was investigated by the secret police to determine whether he might be a near-human hybrid. But Eisen stepped in, declaring with characteristic cynicism: "I am the one to determine who in the Skyhammer Fleet is a xenos and who is not!" An investigation 'proved' that his ancestry was pure and issued him with a government certificate that verified he was of 'pure' human ancestry. It remained something Eisen could hold over him. Thereafter, Markou became extremely verbally xenophobic, as if to make up for this flaw in his ancestry and thereby dispel any doubts about his allegiance. As head of technical development, Markou was responsible for experiments on prisoners carried out at the behest of the Skyhammer Fleet in Camp Progress. To test out fireproof clothing, prisoners were dressed in it and set on fire to simulate a crash. Using sentient beings was supposed to provide more 'accurate data'. The doctors were also charged with determining what altitudes were safe for pilots. To this end, prisoners were placed in vacuum chambers or taken up in planes to high altitudes with no oxygen and parachuted down.

When war began, production requirements for the Skyhammer Fleet exceeded the capacity of Imperial industry. However, fearful of losing Hyperion's favour, Eisen suppressed information that could make him look bad. After initial successes the Skyhammer Fleet struggled during the war with the Dominion. Eisen's cronyism and tendency to pit subordinates against each other played a part in this. As the setbacks mounted and Imperial cities were bombed, Eisen scapegoated minions. Following the suicide of one of Eisen's cronies, Markou was in was put in charge aircraft production, armament and supply. Under his direction, production of aircraft focused on mass production of tried and tested models. Hestood at the forefront of efforts to rationalise the aircraft industry, imposing greater control over the various companies and at the same time taking advantage of the increased productivity resulting from long series production. Manufacturers inevitably found ways to streamline the manufacture of a particular model of aircraft over time, what is commonly referred to as the learning curve. The downside of exploiting this experience was the necessity of freezing designs and keeping potentially obsolescent models in production to avoid the drop in output introducing new ones would engender.
To achieve an increase in production he worked closely with the KEC to utilise slave labour. Moreover, increase in quantity required sacrifices in quality.

Increased Dominion air raids on Dominion cities and the associated loss of air sovereignty damaged his standing in the regime. He lost influence to Skaer and later KEC generals. Markou has managed to doggedly claw his way back to power. Eisen knows how ambitious his minion is, but his unquestioned expertise makes him a counterweight to oligarchs like Skaer. The Skyhammer Fleet remains under Eisen's direct control, since he treats it as his private army. As such Markou does not have operational or strategic command, but he is tasked with keeping the machine well-oiled. That entitles him to a seat on the board directors of a major holding company for the military's businesses. His elevated position in the military-industrial complex grants him considerable power of patronage. Markou has a temper and is frequently given to choleric outbursts.

Andronikos Nikator (NPC) - Supreme Commander of the Humanist Protection Army, Marshal of the Imperium. Marshal Nikator is an honourable man. They are all honourable, these honourable men. So honourable that when a KEC death squad massacred forty thousand civilians, he sent a complaint to the commander. It was not a protest against the massacre, for it had been carried out with his knowledge and consent. Instead he demanded that the commander hand over the wristwatches of the murdered Twi'leks and Mon Calamari. Nikator was of the opinion that his men deserved the watches, since they had done so much to help the death squad with their work. It was the only time he ever complained about the activities of such units. In that regard, he was correct. The understaffed death squads would have been unable to murder innocents on the scale their masters demanded without the active assistance of the army. His troops have also used slave labour to further the war effort. Whether a thousand slaves die while digging anti-tank ditches or serving as sentient minesweepers does not matter, just that the task is complete.

His Eleventh Army worked very closely with KEC 'special task forces' in liquidating so-called 'enemies' both real and imagined. No level of authority stood against the murder, but in contrast frequently drove it forward. While the lower levels frequently carried out the shootings, the Eleventh Army leadership also acted as the driving force behind at least one episode of mass execution. In order to avoid starvation-driven revolts, Eleventh Army began directing the machinery of murder towards population groups whose annihilation was already foreseen because the Vaderites had condemned them to death on account of nothing more than their species. Thirteen thousand Twi'leks in a local town were the first pool of victims. Contacted by Eleventh Army's quartermaster to initiate the killing, the KEC task force had to decline due to lack of manpower and capacity. The quartermaster then offered troops to cordon off the area and guard the Twi'leks during transport, trucks for the transport itself, and munitions to the KEC unit, and so the action was carried out. He and those like him have actively participated in war crimes, genocide and crimes against sentience, or sat silent and acquiescent, witnessing the commission of atrocities.

But he is a man of honour and if the Leader were to follow his advice, the war would be won. Born into a family with a long history of service, he has the demeanour of an aristocrat. His father was a general. Military service runs in the family, and he has followed on the footsteps of his ancestors. Nikator is a gifted strategist and tactician, but egotistical and haughty. He is a believer in the 'The Protocols of the Masters of Tython', a piece of rubbish that purports to 'unmask' a conspiracy between Twi'lek Jedi, Muun bankers and Yuuzhan Vong. Nikator is not uncritical towards the Sith and the Party, but his criticism is solely based on disagreements on military strategy. He does not complains about the regime's racist policies or its totalitarian nature. He resents certain Sith for being military dilettantes and mystics who owe their position to their strength in the Force rather than their brains. However, he has never objected to their atrocities. His objections are limited to meddling in military affairs.

Nikator has maintained a distance from the upper echelon of the political leadership, which has at times provoked blatant hostility from certain power brokers. But this doesn't translate into opposing their evil ideology. His focus on military professionalism is paradoxically a major influence on his complicity in the 'racial war of annihilation'. Once when he had a disagreement with Leader Hyperion, he shut up after receiving a massive estate, which was tax-free for his entire lifetime. Naturally it used to belong to aliens, but he acquired it 'legally'. Since he is a man of honour, he has allowed the former owners to live and work on the land. He is a 'benevolent, firm but fair' master who treats his serfs 'well'. They better be grateful to him. Later he acquired even more land to expand his estate.

Eisen bought his allegiance by disposing of a vainglorious Sith Lord Nikator resented having to take orders from. Like many senior generals, he receives monthly, tax-free payments from a secret slush fund. This is in addition to his official salary, the dividends he receives from a military-owned business conglomerate and a lifetime exemption from paying income tax. When a group of officers tried to recruit him for a coup to overthrow the regime, he told them: 'Imperial marshals do not mutiny.' In public, Nikator behaves as if he is just an 'apolitical, honourable soldier doing his duty to the Imperium'. This is, of course, nonsense. When all is said and done, Nikator is a thoroughly morally reprehensible, evil man in a fancy uniform.

Nikator is married and has three children. His eldest son joined the army, and fell in battle while serving as a lieutenant. His daughter is married to a highly decorated tank commander.

Lord Euphemios Gnostis (NPC) - Minister for Correct Guidance and the Propagation of the Blessed Word and Thought of the Dark Father. In his own mind, Gnostis is a genius philosopher. An unparalleled theoretician and intellectual titan who towers over lesser men. A pillar of true Sithism. His ministry used to bear the humble name of Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, but he got it renamed after writing a long-winded memorandum about it doesn't reflect the full scope and complexity of his mission.

Sadly, almost all of his colleagues have not yet recognised his genius, and so he is stuck running a government department responsible for overseeing religious cults, aligning them with Humanist doctrine and ensuring they disseminate the gospel of the Vader. Even the department's pompous name cannot detract from the fact that this is not a powerful position. Indeed, its sphere of responsibility is poorly defined, so he is engaged in almost perpetual bickering with the Minister of Propaganda, the Minister of Public Instruction and the Keeper of the Dark Father's Legacy. Out of these three ministers, two are Non-Force-Users, which makes it even more vexing for him. Gnostis has advocated merging all four ministries into a super-ministry run by him. So far his colleagues have not been swayed by his arguments. He does a lot of self-important bluster to make up for it. He gives the impression of clinging to his theories in a dogmatic and uncompromising fashion, even when a more pragmatic approach would be desirable.

This expresses itself in his nigh-boundless energy for drafting long-winded, pretentious memoranda. Sadly, many ignore them. It goes without saying that his approach has the effect of alienating even people who share his beliefs. The lack of respect shown to him by many of his peers has left him with an inferiority, superiority complex. To put it plainly, he lacks the charisma and political skills of other Vaderite leaders, leaving him unable to assemble a cohesive faction. He is obsessed with what he considers to be honoured and ancient Sith traditions. His claim to the guardianship of Sith-Humanist traditions does feel a bit like he is overcompensating. He only really speaks in ideological cliches, without spontaneity or the slightest degree of familiarity. Nonetheless, he continues to sit on the cabinet, quoting 'Glorious Conflict' and obscure Sith texts, rambling about the good old days and bemoaning today's lack of ideological purity. All this has the effect that he is ignored even when he makes a suggestion that's actually useful.

According to him, the war between mankind and 'xenos' is not just fought in the material realm, but also a cosmic struggle. Primoridal man was god-like, but corrupted by a malevolent force called Ashla, which encouraged weakness, sloth and compassion for lesser beings. Only the humans of Tephrike remained true to the old faith of their ancestors. Thus Tephriki humans are genetically distinct from humans in the stars. He conceives this ancient faith as having revolved around worship of the sun. This is based mostly on him having come across a garbled passage in a book that refers to Anakin as the son of suns. He teaches that the human body is pure and that the divine force dwells in every pure human. But humans must purify themselves of xenos influence to bring about paradise on earth. He is the author of a piece of rubbish called the 'New Chronology', which posits that almost all of galactic history has been falsified to suit the interests of a malevolent conspiracy to hide the true history of mankind. Supposedly he discovered that manifold historical events do not correspond mathematically with the dates they are said to have occured on.

Gnostis is of the belief that he is the scion of a long lineage of wise human mystics who worshipped the sun, reaching back more than twenty thousand years ago. Moreover, he is convinced that he possesses spiritual powers that enable him to access the genetic memories of these ancient ancestors. Supposedly these memories have told him that his ancestors served the first god-king of mankind, who was reincarnated as none other than Anakin Skywalker to save humanity from xenos Jedi degeneracy. Surprisingly, he has sometimes spoken out in favour of more lenient treatment for certain types of near-humans and devised incomprehensible alchemical schemes to 'free them from the curse of xenos blood'. According to him, they possess two conjoined souls: a devilish alien one and a mutilated human one. But his intentions for Twi'leks, Mon Calamari and Yuuzhan Vong are genocidal.

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

No despot, no matter how powerful, rules alone. Sith Emperor Vitiate had his Dark Council, Palpatine had the Imperial Ruling Council and the Fel Emperors had the Moff Council. In many ways, the Council of Ministers fulfils their function for the human supremacist Imperium that seeks to subjugate Tephrike.

Tephrike has been isolated from the rest of the Galaxy since the outbreak of the Gulag Virus. Originally colonised during the twilight years of the Old Republic, it was subjugated by the Galactic Empire. The human supremacist regime established by the Empire was overthrown with the aid of the Rebel Alliance and the planet emerged as an unstable, multi-species federation.

Then the Gulag Virus sent the Galaxy spiralling into chaos. Warlords, Jedi, Sith and rebels vied for power. Prolonged warfare and the use of primitive weapons of mass destruction brought great devastation to the planet. Benign intentions turned to evil over time. Jedi who sought to restore order and reunite the planet fell to the darkness they claimed to oppose, while still believing that their intentions and actions were good. In so doing, they followed in the footsteps of Atris and Joruus C'boath. Believing that they alone could lead Tephrike out of the darkness, they created a theocratic dictatorship.

Renegade Jedi established a Sith cult called the Disciples of the Vader, for they idolised the long-dead Vader as a god and believed it was his will to enslave all those who could not wield the Force and were not human. The Republican Guard, a faction that glorified the Old Republic and staunchly opposed Force-users, was founded by disgruntled clone slave-soldiers and racial minorities that declared war on both Force cults. In between these three extremes, several smaller factions tried to carve out a niche for themselves. The planet was locked in stasis, divided by riven groups trying to recall a past they did not remember.

The Disciples of the Vader were founded by a fallen Jedi Knight called Cade Seward. Thrust into command at a young age, he fell to the dark side. A vision convinced him that Darth Vader had chosen him as his champion to eclipse the light. For Vader had experienced apotheois and was now a Dark God. Indeed, the Gulag Virus had been the doing of a conspiracy of alien Jedi and alien financial elites to wipe out mankind. However, the Vader had preserved the chosen few and it was their mission save Tephrike, the last bastion of mankind. Cade chose the name Darth Malitia and was able to assemble an army that became a serious threat to the Dominion. His dark crusade was halted at Palmyra, Tephrike's old capital. But victory came at a staggering cost for the Dominion, for the city was turned into a cursed, dark side nexus.

But the Vaderite threat did not vanish. The Sith managed to carve out their own state. It was built upon a foundation of slavery, human supremacism, and tyranny. Humans who professed faith into the Vaderite religion became the new middle class who were allowed to reap their share of the spoils. They were organised in the Humanist Party, a political machine responsible for the promotion of Vaderite ideology. Meanwhile, aliens were enslaved, confined to ghettos or exterminated. A select number were coopted as auxiliaries to help oppress the others. Rule of the strong was enshrined in the Vaderite's Sith ideology, for there could be no place in the New Order for those deemed weak, mentally or physically defective. The Sith remained at war with the Dominion and the Republican Guard, seeking to bring all of Tephrike under their jackboot.

Initially, the Vaderites had little in the way of formal government institutions. Malitia led what amounted to a coalition of far-right, humanist warlords. Conditions in their territories varied wildly, as local governors, police chiefs, Sith, cultists and military officers usurped control. Paramilitary militias vied for influence with those federal and state defence forces that had thrown in their lot with the Vaderite cause due to Humanist beliefs. But all but the most Social Darwinistic Vaderites recognised that they needed to build some institutions to govern their realm...as long as the Sith ultimately retained power. The Council of Ministers was created as the collective body of senior political appointees who headed various ministries and government organisations. While the Imperium was a one-party state, initially some ministers were not members of the Humanist People's Party. Indeed, it contained some conservative holdouts who presented a 'respectable' face. However, all were avowed human supremacists.

Pressure mounted from two sides: secularist ultra-nationalists, largely composed of Non-Force-Users, and Force supremacists, largely composed of Sith. One stood for a centralised state, secularisation and a streamlined hierarchy of command, dominated by the Party apparatus, the bureaucracy and the military; the other for a cult state that would be governed by an open dark side theocracy. General Secretary Gregorius Straso, an unimpressive Force-User who had done much to bring disparate far-right factions together into a unity party, made himself a spokesman of the first tendency. Under the second model, Force-User supremacy would be brought to its logical conclusion by making it the exclusive right of Sith to govern. Non-Force-Users could only be servitors. The Disciples would penetrate every part of the Imperial State and each government ministry would be run by a Sith. Both tendencies threatened the fragile alliance that held the Humanist cause together.

The Blood Purges disposed of both tendencies. The Imperium was the exact opposite of democracy, but to a large degree it based its rule on an ideological consensus. Many 'ordinary' human Imperial citizens didn't need to be forced to support it because they found its programme agreeable. Civil servants, policemen, lawyers and businessmen were all too eager to back it and reap the benefits. Moreover, to be frank, most Sith were and are inept at governance. The Force-blind could attain power in the Imperium if they possessed the right combination of ideological purity, networking abilities and lack of moral scruples. But only a Sith could be Supreme Leader. As part of a compromise, education and training of new Disciples was made the exclusive domain of a Sith minister. The cabinet promulgated the 'Law to Safeguard the Unity of the Order, Party and State'.

Moreover, the cabinet acted more as an administrative and advisory than a decision-making organ. For one, it did not take votes, and the Leader could hire and fire ministers, create or dissolve government departments as he saw fit. The Council of Ministers maintained the labyrinthian state bureaucracy that dictated life in the totalitarian Imperium. Senior civil servants who assumed the day-to-day task of managing a ministry's affairs were ranked as permanent secretaries. They stood at the peak of the Civil Service pyramid. In theory, the Civil Service was supposed to be composed of the 'best and brightest', chosen via academic proficiency tests. In practice, as in any dictatorship, political loyalty was paramount. As such candidates were also vetted by the Party and the Disciples of the Vader.

Senior Party officials called Moffs were appointed to organise Party affairs on a provincial or municipal level. Each was directly subordinate to the Leader, bearing overall responsibility to him for the sector that had been entrusted to him. The 'old guard' of Moffs consisted of Humanist warlords and old fighters who were being rewarded for their 'service'. Several were also made provincial governors, which simultaneously made them government officials responsible for ensuring compliance with policies of the Imperial government, supervising civil defence measures, racial policy and labour mobilisation. Theoretically, this put them under the Interior Ministry, but the attitude of many Moffs was that they were bound only by orders coming from the Leader. Not all governors were Moffs. Furthermore, a Party district's boundaries and state provincial boundaries did not necessarily correspond. This led to the situation that one Moff could be the state governor of a province that included various Party districts, each governed by its own Moff who was theoretically the subordinate of the Moff-Governor, but simultaneously his equal in the Party's hierarchy. And governors who were also Sith were responsible to their order. Attempts to streamline this messy administrative structure through an Imperial Reform foundered.

Not every major power broker was a government minister though. Imperial politics were often characterised by a combination of rivalry and cooperation between State, Party and Sith institutions. Overlapping and often poorly defined competences led to jurisdictional friction. Apart from Ministries there were also independent government agencies and bodies not subordinate to any ministry, but rather directly subordinate to the Leader, holding the status Supreme Imperial Authorities. Dozens of offices held this status, some of the most prominent included the Imperial Youth Corps of the Noble Vader, the Governorate of Chios, the offices of General and Imperial Plenipotentiaries and Commissioners, and the Representative of the Supreme Leader for the Four Year Plan.

The Grand Council of Humanism was created to unify the most important power players and, in theory, assure an orderly succession upon the death of a Supreme Leader. In truth, its influence varied heavily. Over time the Party apparatus managed to claw its way back into government and gain a Party ministry. The KEC began an active penetration of the civil service and the business community, granting honorary ranks to senior bureaucrats and businessmen to bind them to it. True to the Vaderites' patriarchal values, the government remained overwhelmingly male. Darth Autokrator took the Vaderites' misogyny to the logical extreme by banning women from tasks deemed inappropriate for the 'female of the species'. Most of his reforms were later reversed because they had triggered too much of a backlash, not the least from female Disciples. Moreover, too many men were tied up serving on the frontlines.

For all the rivalry between State, Party and Sith institutions, they were driven by an ideological consensus. Disputes between principals were first and foremost about methods and influence, not divergent ideologies. Government bureaucrats with law degrees worked hand in glove with Party ideologues to codify a system of persecution and disenfranchisement and create a legal framework for slavery and xenocide. On the frontlines and in the occupied territories, KEC death squads and police units collaborated with the regular Imperial armed forces to implement policies of mass murder against xenos deemed 'undesirable'. Though the human population chafed under high tax burdens, corruption and deprivations caused by the war, most Imperial citizens genuinely supported the regime, and were all too eager to benefit from its vile policies - or at least to look away when aliens in the neighbourhood were being rounded up and 'relocated'.

Somehow, few seemed to care that millions of people were being murdered. The fear that one day the alien slaves and ghetto survivors might revolt and unify with the Dominion or the Republican Guard to exact vengeance on their tormentors helped keep the nation together, even in the face of economic depression and military crises. However, those same self-defeating policies also created determined enemies. There would be no chance for peace with the Guard or the Dominion. The result was a totalitarian, corrupt garrison state. At the same time, the regime poured vast sums into grandiose vanity projects, such as an attempt to drain the Matagami Sea by building three enormous dams and thereby reclaim vast tracts of farmland. The result was an ecological disaster. Land was reclaimed, but it was mostly desert. Moreover, the water from the Matagami was so salty that the uncovered land was just salt flats and useless for agriculture. The arid waste harmed other communities by the former coastlines.

The present Council of Ministers serves at the pleasure of Supreme Leader Eisen, and is closely tied to his ascent to power. The son of a civil servant, he was originally known by the name Alec Dragoumis and made himself a name as an ace pilot. However, he was inducted into the Sith Order after the discovery of his Force-Sensitivity. Rising through the ranks of the Imperial intelligence apparatus, he became a spymaster and an accomplished illusionist. His career took off when he became the chief henchman of an influential governor. Nicolilis, Markou and Vlahas became close collaborators during this time period. After outmanoeuvring and defeating his mentor Lord Acholus, he joined the inner circle of power.

Darth Hyperion, Supreme Leader of the Imperium and Lord of the Sith, conferred the title of Darth Eisen upon him. Granted command of the Skyhammer Fleet, Eisen charged his ally Markou with managing his new ministry for him. Their first order of business was expropriating the largest aerospace manufacturer in the Imperium. The gluttonous Eisen soon gained considerable sway over the Imperium's economy. His greed and lack of scruples made him one of the richest men of the Imperium. He cultivated the image of an affable dandy, which made him popular among the Imperium's human citizens. However, his relationship with the Supreme Leader cooled. His forces suffered defeats at the frontlines and he was blamed for Dominion aerial bombings of Imperial cities. Eisen lost ground in the economy to the younger, more dynamic Lord Skaer, and in the security apparatus to Darth Furcht a rising star in the KEC. The cabinet was rarely convened. Hyperion trusted few after a cabal of disaffected army officers and civil servants tried to assassinate him.

The relatively young, dynamic and utterly amoral Lord Skaer amassed considerable power as armaments minister, having successfully convinced the Leader that he was an industrial miracle worker. Her presided over a massive expansion of the slave economy and a surge in armaments poduction, though the latter was heavily embellished. His self-congratulatory propaganda trumpeted the superior quality of Imperial armaments. He was peddling a vision of an Imperial industrial system where the flow of raw materials and the allocation of production would all be co-ordinated in a manner that would guarantee maximum production of the weapons that the Imperial armed forces needed to win the war, a plan that was every bit as overblown and baroque as his designs for grandiose monuments.

This system would ensure the efficient distribution of slave labour to the most vital industries as well as the food needed to squeeze as much labour out of them as possible, there would be nothing wasted on what were referred to as 'useless eaters' in this system. In practice, this meant that children, the elderly and those burnt out by hard physical labour would be left to starve to death. This system also embraced the concept of using food as a reward. High achievers would be rewarded with extra rations at the expense of those who fell behind. Sceptics argued that trying to create such an elaborate system would consume too much in terms of transport and raw materials, but they found no favour at the Supreme Leader's headquarters. As Eisen's influence dwindled, his resentment grew. Depressed and frustrated, Eisen failed to pass on intelligence about heretical movements in the Disciples. One of them had come across a tome that told the story of Vader's redemption. Eisen hoped he could use these 'Light Sith', but they slipped from his grasp.

The Netherworld Event sparked a civil war, out of which the rebels emerged victor. Hyperion was killed and Eisen went into exile. The new masters had gained support from aliens by promising them greater rights. But the rebel regime of the Bright Lord Salus was unstable and ultimately overthrown after becoming embroiled in an ill-advised war with the Dominion. However, it was the menacing Furcht who took the helm. Having discovered that Eisen had failed to warn the Supreme Leader about Light Sith cells, he blackmailed the 'Iron Marshal' into bending the knee, giving him a hollow title as a sop to his ego. Furcht and his allies staffed the Imperial cabinet with young radicals from the KEC and the Party - an uncompromising generation of fanatical, well-educated men. Darth Lachesis, butcher of Chios and victor of Chazowa, joined the cabinet as a kind of super-minister for racial affairs and settlement policy.

Furcht instigated a ruthless anti-corruption campaign that took down hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats to clamp down on graft, and consolidate power. Ideological purism was the order of the day - the camps were expanded, racial laws and party discipline applied with renewed vigour. Angered and resentful, Eisen began to subtly plot. His allies were a big tent coalition that resented Furcht's favouritism to the KEC and feared his purism. Their moment came when Firemane bombed Castle Maysaf shortly before withdrawing all its forces from Tephrike. Furcht and most of his inner circle perished in the bombardment. Eisen, however, had used his prowess as an illusionist to escape the moment it began.

With all haste, he travelled to Adlerberg and rallied his allies. But Furcht's son Achilles and Darth Erlösung denounced the emergency congress being convened in the 'capital of the movement' as illegitimate, and Eisen as a backstabber. Lachesis dithered for a few days, delaying a commitment of her power base while driving up the bargaining price, before throwing in her lot with Eisen as the 'least bad choice'. Ultimately, Eisen's faction prevailed in the brief but intense civil war against Achilles. The 'boy-king' perished during the battle of Skywalker City. Erlösung is still at large, commanding a faction of purists who reject the corrupt Marshal's claim, but this faction remains weak. However, the new Supreme Leader's grip on power rests on unstable foundations.

 

[Darth Strosius]

Kyriaki

Very detailed! Love all the work you've put into it.

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