A C EnderIn terms of who I would first oppose in a CG, the Empire come first. The simple reason for this is that I consider them the largest bunch of hypocrites out there. They try to portray themselves as a good alternative to the Federation, when the fact remains that they're just as bad. Their propaganda is just working better against people who don't think about it deeply. As I mentioned in my last post, there's no logical way that the Empire could compete with the Federation if they didn't abuse their system of having a slave cast for essentially free labour. By that I don't mean that individual slaves are abused (but I'm equally sure many are), but that there are systems in place to ensure that a large proportion of the population in the Empire systems are within the slave caste. A large part of that is likely from debt-trapping or tempting the lowest cast citizens into slavery. "They are indentured servants" and "They're not forced" are the retorts - if you are presented with a meal every day, or starving to death, most sane people would chose the former. That doesn't make it a respectable life.

I think much the same mechanisms are at play in the Federation (but they don't need as much cheap labour either due to heavy use of automation), but they're not as good as hiding it under the rug as the Empire supporters are.

My character is hardly a good person, being under the Kumo banner, but they're the most honest bunch in my eyes. You know what you're getting into, and so do those around you. Like the one I support said; "We all wear a crown of bones" - I just think some sides are bigger hypocrites than others, with the Empire as the biggest.

The Empire says that they treat their slaves well, and that it’s more like indentured service from days of old. Well, I don’t remember indentured service being so great. I also remember giving ship tours to escaped Imperial slaves and watching them weep when I showed them what a cargo canister looks like. Seems like they knew; all too well. And for my part, anyone who is bought and sold as a cargo item is no longer being treated with the respect that they deserve.

Torval suffered a political setback when several slave management planets, including Sorbago, launched a bloody uprising over their poor treatment. Torval emerged richer from the escapade, after deploying her fleet to crush the uprising and add to her slave stocks, but the revolution left a bad taste in the mouths of the more sensitive Imperial citizens.

Rebecca Hail

Torval suffered a political setback when several slave management planets, including Sorbago, launched a bloody uprising over their poor treatment. Torval emerged richer from the escapade, after deploying her fleet to crush the uprising and add to her slave stocks, but the revolution left a bad taste in the mouths of the more sensitive Imperial citizens.

Also the ED RPG Corebook.

Rebecca Hail

The Empire says that they treat their slaves well, and that it’s more like indentured service from days of old. Well, I don’t remember indentured service being so great. I also remember giving ship tours to escaped Imperial slaves and watching them weep when I showed them what a cargo canister looks like. Seems like they knew; all too well. And for my part, anyone who is bought and sold as a cargo item is no longer being treated with the respect that they deserve.

ED RPG Corebook

Amata Lirein

Rebecca Hail

Torval suffered a political setback when several slave management planets, including Sorbago, launched a bloody uprising over their poor treatment. Torval emerged richer from the escapade, after deploying her fleet to crush the uprising and add to her slave stocks, but the revolution left a bad taste in the mouths of the more sensitive Imperial citizens.

Also the ED RPG Corebook.

Looking at that quote of hers in her Powerplay profile I guess she found those claims of poor treatment to be valid, resulting with those who were tasked with handling them having become slaves themselves to compensate for the damages done.

A C Ender

Rebecca Hail

The Empire says that they treat their slaves well, and that it’s more like indentured service from days of old. Well, I don’t remember indentured service being so great. I also remember giving ship tours to escaped Imperial slaves and watching them weep when I showed them what a cargo canister looks like. Seems like they knew; all too well. And for my part, anyone who is bought and sold as a cargo item is no longer being treated with the respect that they deserve.

ED RPG Corebook

I'm already expecting the reply:

"The RPG books are not canon!"

That's true. But that just means that everything within them isn't canon. It doesn't mean that nothing is. And in this case I think there's plenty of supporting evidence that what's described in your quotes is required for the functioning of the Empire.

Rebecca Hail

Amata Lirein

Rebecca Hail



Also the ED RPG Corebook.

Looking at that quote of hers in her Powerplay profile I guess she found those claims of poor treatment to be valid, resulting with those who were tasked with handling them having become slaves themselves to compensate for the damages done.

Yet she's the owner of those slaves and they were mistreated under her jurisdiction.

You don't get into her position by simply believing what your subordinates tell you, so I don't believe the good old "I didn't know what they were doing, but I punished them for it."-tale for a single second and I don't doubt that a lot of scapegoats were sold into slavery as well over it.

Either Torval herself was maximising profit and minimizing cost or she willingly accepted that someone else did it in her place and it backfired. ^^

Senators can lose Patrons quickly if their actions are unpopular, but bear in mind a Senator sets tax rates and healthcare for all those that support them, so can effectively bribe Patrons to ally themselves with them.

Source

A C EnderI suppose you just skim over this "minor" part without thinking about the implications:

"The Empire relies less on mechanical technology such as robotics and artificial intelligence, and instead uses Imperial Slaves and clones to do the work which machines usually perform in other parts of the universe."

Putting aside arbitral capitalist costs, things still have an actual cost; that is resources required to produce them. That's both time and raw materials. A human will be slower and less exact then a machine. It will also consume more resources to perform the same task (otherwise machines wouldn't be used for that task). The direct consequence is that in the Empire, a very large part of the population (not counted as the actual population since they're not citizens) will be required to do tasks that none else want to do. I'm sure you've heard about all the factory workers in early industrial revolution. That's the Empire for you. And what "unions" do the workers have to turn to? Well, the state sponsored ISA! The same state that need them in droves!

Let's also just skim over the fact that clones are no less humans than a monozygotic twins...

Amata Lirein

Rebecca Hail

Amata Lirein



Looking at that quote of hers in her Powerplay profile I guess she found those claims of poor treatment to be valid, resulting with those who were tasked with handling them having become slaves themselves to compensate for the damages done.

Yet she's the owner of those slaves and they were mistreated under her jurisdiction.

You don't get into her position by simply believing what your subordinates tell you, so I don't believe the good old "I didn't know what they were doing, but I punished them for it."-tale for a single second and I don't doubt that a lot of scapegoats were sold into slavery as well over it.

Either Torval herself was maximising profit and minimizing cost or she willingly accepted that someone else did it in her place and it backfired. ^^

The following is OOC:

The thing here about Torval is that only big flaw I feel you can really bring up against the Empire: The Senators are ABOVE the law and are only accountable towards the Emperor. Getting on the Emperor's bad side is a bad idea though as you may be well aware of

On the other side though "corruption" within the Empire goes down the ladder, not upwards:

Senators can lose Patrons quickly if their actions are unpopular, but bear in mind a Senator sets tax rates and healthcare for all those that support them, so can effectively bribe Patrons to ally themselves with them.

Source

This system of bribes also continue from patrons towards clients and clients towards citizens.

Amata LireinAbout what? Why do you think ships by Gutamaya are so expensive and of much higher quality in comparisson to the mass-produced tin cans Core Dynamics is spitting out? Gutamaya is like Rolls-Royce in that regard.