Yohzhu Empire

Your former oppressors, Part 1.

Populated almost entirely by Anima, plus many slaves. Despite its name, the Empire has no monarch, and is in fact a kind of military democracy. The head-of-state, referred to as the “Commissar”, is elected by the general public, but only high-ranking generals and admirals are eligible to run for this office. These same generals and admirals form the non-elected “Executive Council”, which plays the role of a senate relative to the fully, freely elected “True Representative Body”.

By far the most technologically advanced nation in the Known Galaxy, the YE's technological dominance is perhaps best embodied by its starfleet. The Kirimashi-class battleship, by far the Empire's favourite kind of ship, is a staggering 2km from bow to stern, with each individual ship possessing enough firepower to defeat entire fleets of inferior ships. Despite their enormity and their heavy armour, Kirimashi-class vessels are not nearly as slow as they ought to be, and often maneuver like ships less than a quarter of their size and mass. Additionally, Kirimashi-class ships have been known to carry small- to medium-sized armies in their holds. Thus, a star system could be secured, and its major planet occupied, by only a single Kirimashi-class, a tactic frequently employed by the YE.

The Empire has a kind of love/hate relationship with “xeno fledglings” like yourselves. The Yohzhu believe you to be very much inferior to themselves in essentially every way, and yet they crave “trophies” from their conquered civilizations. Xeno art and artifacts are in constant demand in the Empire, and the more unique and historically/culturally significant something is, the more they value it. Slaves, too, are thought of in this way. The Empire does not actually have any need for organic labourers, as their robotics technology is more than advanced enough to outclass the work of servants and serfs. Thus, the enslaved are auctioned off to private citizens, who often come to treat them as “living decor”. Xeno slaves - and to a lesser extent, xeno art and artifacts - are seen as status symbols, with greater quantities or greater rarity conferring greater prestige.

A deeply individualistic culture, Yohzhu society is united in thought only with regards to the gloriousness of their nation and their superiority over the rest of the galaxy. Notions such as whether or not xenos have rights - if so, what kind, how many, how strong should they be; if not, why not - the morality of slavery, the sentience of advanced AI, the duties of the government, the rights of individuals and the allocation of funds to the military are vigorously and frequently debated in the True Representative Body.

Yohzhu society also struggles somewhat with the notion that it may be a matriarchal, as the men of the Empire frequently find themselves pressured into non-military careers, and thus find themselves with less opportunity for glory and prestige. A matter of significant controversy, citizens of the Empire often grapple with whether or not this is either relevant or true, and if it is, whether or not it is natural or accidental.