I'm not sure what version of hyper-capitalistic aristocratic monarchy there is that *isn't* dystopian from the point of view of the non-aristocrats. Nothing about megacorps or aristocrats particularly leads to thoughtful consideration of the well-being of people who outside those two groups.
Thoughts on the Dark Imperium
- Thread starter actionman
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actionman
Emperor Mongoose
There are simply no checks and balances on their behavior. They are rich and powerful, and the only thing that can check their worst impulses is an aristocrat more powerful than they are.
Enaknomolos
Banded Mongoose
Absolutely great post. This interpretation makes far more sense to me than any of the official material (in almost all versions of the game) that assumes the Imperium is largely benign. I never could see how that would actually work.
I’ve always seen it as largely benign - when compared to 40k’s Imperium of Man
”We won’t interfere with how you rule your system as long as you pay your tithe, I mean taxes, and don’t break the rules we’ve set.”
ottarrus
Emperor Mongoose
Responding to the OP:
ALL governments are amoral. They have to be in order to govern. They set certain standards for their citizenry, which are called 'laws', but those standards have absolutely nothing to do with any kind of moral right or wrong. Laws exist to keep society organized and stabilized, nothing more. Better than half of the Ten Commandments are simply the rules that allow people to live together in something larger than a farming village...
- Don't murder
- Don't steal
- Don't muck about with the mates of others
- Don't lie
- Respect your elders
- Jealousy ['covetousness'] is bad.
And, as Lord Palmerston said, 'Nations do not have allies, they have interests.' The full quote is a bit more nuanced, in the habit of 19th Century politicians,
As for a Dark Imperium, that's for referees at their own table to decide.
If you want to make every interaction between your players and a megacorp an exercise in skullduggery and greed, have at it. If the Imperial Navy's job is to pull over every merchant ship they come across in order to fine the ship and crew for the benefit of the naval ship's officers, do your thing.
But unless you have malignant genius in charge [Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao] most governments are naturally gray in morals, ethics, and nature. OTOH, I have called Strephon a 'Marcus Aurelius' philosopher king... maybe Lucan comes by his megalomania honestly....
ALL governments are amoral. They have to be in order to govern. They set certain standards for their citizenry, which are called 'laws', but those standards have absolutely nothing to do with any kind of moral right or wrong. Laws exist to keep society organized and stabilized, nothing more. Better than half of the Ten Commandments are simply the rules that allow people to live together in something larger than a farming village...
- Don't murder
- Don't steal
- Don't muck about with the mates of others
- Don't lie
- Respect your elders
- Jealousy ['covetousness'] is bad.
And, as Lord Palmerston said, 'Nations do not have allies, they have interests.' The full quote is a bit more nuanced, in the habit of 19th Century politicians,
“Therefore I say that it is a narrow policy to suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or the perpetual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”
[note: the bold type is from the cut-and-paste, not my emphasis]As for a Dark Imperium, that's for referees at their own table to decide.
If you want to make every interaction between your players and a megacorp an exercise in skullduggery and greed, have at it. If the Imperial Navy's job is to pull over every merchant ship they come across in order to fine the ship and crew for the benefit of the naval ship's officers, do your thing.
But unless you have malignant genius in charge [Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao] most governments are naturally gray in morals, ethics, and nature. OTOH, I have called Strephon a 'Marcus Aurelius' philosopher king... maybe Lucan comes by his megalomania honestly....
Condottiere
Emperor Mongoose
If we take the Russian analogy a step further, the Imperium believes it has to expand or die; or, at a minimum, control all the approaches to the empire, at their most defendable frontiers.
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
Thank you, I'm glad I could contribute.
Regarding the "benign" Imperium.
CT, MT, and GT superficially describe a somewhat benign live and let live Imperium. The Imperium only rules the space between the stars, and people can organize their own societies on the worlds they live on. But, when looking at the sources closely, the small comments start to reveal a different Imperium, an Imperium that cannot be construed as benign.
@Sigtrygg is a master at this. See this thread:
The first indicator is that the Imperium is an absolute monarchy. The only check on the absolute power of the Emperor is mutinous fleet admirals. The only check on the Emperor's dukes is the displeasure of the Emperor, as expressed by the Imperial Navy. And so it goes, down the feudal pyramid. The only check on the planetary fiefholders is a mutinous mob of planetary poors, which because of their numbers are a severe threat to a single noble, his immediate family, and his security troops. There will be Imperial retribution later, but that won't help the unfortunate noble. Human nature will assert itself sooner or later, emperors of bad character will take the throne sooner or later, and the dukes and fiefholders will have to make moral compromises to deal with the political, military, and economic realities of power politics sooner or later, if they even still have morals to compromise after climbing the hierarchy long enough to become a duke.
The next indicator is that the Imperium is a government of men not laws. This is a recipe for disaster, it just is. People are people, and they're going to seek their own advantage. And if there's no laws, if there's no one to say stop, people will keep taking and taking (like me at a buffet, for example). I know that nobles are supposed to be virtuous (the 'men' part), but what are their virtues? Is noblesse oblige part of their virtues? How can that be when the Imperium supposedly rules the space between the stars and doesn't involve itself with affairs at the planetary level? I suspect that the virtues of the Imperial nobility are qualities that are useful to the feudal pyramid (loyalty, courage, duty, stoicism, military prowess, skill at intrigue, business acumen) not qualities which promote the wellbeing of ordinary people (honesty, kindness, compassion, generosity, fairness, justice, altruism). Spending resources or wealth to improve the lives of ordinary people, or even not taking resources and wealth where one can, would put a noble at a severe disadvantage compared to nobles who take as much as they can and only spend resources on things which increase their wealth and power.
The next indicator is the Imperium's history of aggressive expansion and conquest, by economic and military means. The Imperium trampled thousands of worlds beneath its battledress armored feet, utterly disregarding the will of populations to live independently on their own worlds. The Imperial nobility used intricate strategies of long term deceit and manipulation to trap worlds economically, and when that didn't work, it launched invasions. This aspect of Imperial noble character showed itself early on, and deceit, manipulation, and violence have been acceptable means for achieving one's ends for centuries.
Then we come to the subtle references, the small comments, which when examined together form a composite picture.
@Sigtrygg 's comment about the skill definition for Bribery.
From LBB 1:
Bribery: The individual has experience in bribing petty and not-so-petty officials in order to circumvent regulations or ignore cumbersome laws... Petty officials can generally be bribed to ignore regulations or poor documentation... Note that the roll for accepting a bribe varies inversely with the law level of a world; the more stringent the laws, the greater the corruption.
People will of course draw various conclusions from this, but I draw the conclusion that bribery and corruption is fairly common. To me, this indicates that people and officials think the laws don't really matter, and/or they're more concerned with their own gain than doing what they're supposed to do and what they agreed to do when they took the job (betraying their duty, breaking their word, betraying their loyalty). It further suggests that people don't think laws and regulations are there to benefit people, but are rather there to help the planetary government or the Imperial feudal pyramid, and therefore are merely burdens for ordinary people. Imperial worlds can have any government they like, so it's probable that some planetary governments will look out for their populations and create good societies to live in. But, there's little these governments can do to relieve their populations of their Imperial obligations.
From CT Adventure 1 Kinunir:
The Imperium is holding one of its own nobles prisoner. "The subsector government has suppressed this information; but it has treacherously offered a reward ofCr1,000,000 for the senators location in order to conceal its involvement in his disappearance." This is pretty strong evidence that the subsector government, which is run by nobles, are not ethical people. If the imprisoned noble committed a crime - oh wait, there are only a few vague laws. If the imprisoned noble is was imprisoned as a fair punishment for his actions, the subsector government (the duke, his vassals, the lesser nobles that serve his government, and the bureaucrats that serve him) wouldn't have to lie about it. They're trying to conceal their involvement because they know they did something wrong.
Imperial nobles, even powerful nobles, could certainly be positive, generous, fair, and compassion people as individuals. For example, a commander who always takes care of his troops, or a duke who generously repays the loyalty of his vassals, or even a planetary fiefholder who loves the world he oversees, and works tirelessly to care for it. But, when it comes to their role in the Imperium, their duty to the Imperium, and their personal wealth and power, they probably have to be at least as ruthless as their noble rivals.
ottarrus
Emperor Mongoose
This is all very much an IMTU sort of thing. You can [and should] make the Third Imperium whatever shade of gray it needs to be to fit the narrative of the story you're trying to tell.
In the past I've discussed my TU Imperium:
- It is a generally benign government that attempts to NOT dictate to the lives of its citizens; those dictates happen at the planetary level by local government;
- It is concerned with a limited number of issues, but in the areas where it is concerned it tolerates very little interference;
- The Imperial theory of government is that it gives a lot of leeway for planetary self-determination, but it closely regulates trade, foreign relations, and defense;
- It intentionally makes limits of its toleration a fuzzy gray area. Muck about within that gray area and you risk an intervention, but there are few absolutes where an Imperial intervention occurs. Using WMDs is one trigger, a tradewar interfering with trade over a large and/or important region is another;
- The Imperium does not tax people. It taxes interstellar corporations, interstellar trade, and member planets;
- Better than 90% of Imperial citizens have virtually no direct contact with the Imperium. Because player characters are active in the areas of Imperial concern [trade, interstellar crime, foreign relations, etc.], they are far more likely to encounter Imperial government than most people;
- The Imperium relies on its nobles to be leaders and to take responsibility for actions taken in the name of the Imperium. Some nobles are honorable and some are corrupt. Most fall somewhere between the two extremes.
By and large, the Imperium IMTU runs automatically, powered by its own inertia and traditions.
But if your game table want the Imperium to be Warhammer style fascists, have at it. If you want them to run like an Elven kingdom in LOTR, have at it. What the Imperium is or is not is entirely for you and your players to decide. It's my opinion that Traveller authors have framed the Imperium the exact same way: it is as virtuous or corrupt as it has needed to be to tell the story the author was trying to tell. And I don't think there is a style guide that requires any author to present the Imperium or its government in any particular way. Each author is given just as much agency as any referee gets in their portrayal of the Imperium. This means there is as wide a latitude with each author. And all that goes back to 1980, if not earlier.
In the past I've discussed my TU Imperium:
- It is a generally benign government that attempts to NOT dictate to the lives of its citizens; those dictates happen at the planetary level by local government;
- It is concerned with a limited number of issues, but in the areas where it is concerned it tolerates very little interference;
- The Imperial theory of government is that it gives a lot of leeway for planetary self-determination, but it closely regulates trade, foreign relations, and defense;
- It intentionally makes limits of its toleration a fuzzy gray area. Muck about within that gray area and you risk an intervention, but there are few absolutes where an Imperial intervention occurs. Using WMDs is one trigger, a tradewar interfering with trade over a large and/or important region is another;
- The Imperium does not tax people. It taxes interstellar corporations, interstellar trade, and member planets;
- Better than 90% of Imperial citizens have virtually no direct contact with the Imperium. Because player characters are active in the areas of Imperial concern [trade, interstellar crime, foreign relations, etc.], they are far more likely to encounter Imperial government than most people;
- The Imperium relies on its nobles to be leaders and to take responsibility for actions taken in the name of the Imperium. Some nobles are honorable and some are corrupt. Most fall somewhere between the two extremes.
By and large, the Imperium IMTU runs automatically, powered by its own inertia and traditions.
But if your game table want the Imperium to be Warhammer style fascists, have at it. If you want them to run like an Elven kingdom in LOTR, have at it. What the Imperium is or is not is entirely for you and your players to decide. It's my opinion that Traveller authors have framed the Imperium the exact same way: it is as virtuous or corrupt as it has needed to be to tell the story the author was trying to tell. And I don't think there is a style guide that requires any author to present the Imperium or its government in any particular way. Each author is given just as much agency as any referee gets in their portrayal of the Imperium. This means there is as wide a latitude with each author. And all that goes back to 1980, if not earlier.
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Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
Try convincing the white hat Imperials that it is their hero, their knight in shining armour, their paragon of virtue, duke Norris of Regina who had the senator locked up and the fake story concocted 
I would recommend that anyone wanting to run a Third Imperium game, especially if set in the Spinward Marches, should buy and read CT Adventure:1 Kinunir.
Here are the general rumours, there are a couple of pages more of other rumours.
"GENERAL RUMORS
The following rumors appear multiple times in the table, Each time one appears, it should be embellished and restated slightly.
U. Interdicted worlds are interdicted because the lmperium is trying to conceal its mistakes in social and political planning.
V. The lmperium has been suppressing political dissent in order to keep peace in the Regina subsector.
W. Visas are unobtainable to Knorbes (0207).
X. The government of Roup (0407) has made a subsector-wide call for surplus starships to supplement its local forces. There has been no opposition from the subsector government.
Y. The Adda Dubsar, when scrapped by General at Regina (0310). was not actually broken up. The hull stands ready for outfitting on a supplementary building way in the General Yard.
Z. A recent uprising at Feri (0405) has cut the Imperial communication jump route from Regina (0310) to Efate (0105)."
There is another example of Imperial justice:
"throw 6+ per day (DM -1 if the travellers are in a vehicle) to avoid detection. If detected, the pinnace will appear overhead and disable the vehicle*. A squad (marine first squad) will then emerge and arrest the band**, transporting them directly back to the battle cruiser. Aboard the battle cruiser, all will be incarcerated in the brig, and interrogated individually concerning their intentions and actions***. After two days, the Luuru will be relieved on station by the Adamdun, and will proceed to Pixie (0303). There,the travellers will be transferred to the Gaesh for an indefinite period of imprisonment.****
The process of escape from this situation remains a problem for the travellers to solve.*****"
* no warning shot, no communication?
**marines have powers of arrest?
***no legal representation, no rights?
****no trial, indefinite imprisonment
*****forget about a legal appeal
We're not in Kansas anymore Toto...
I would recommend that anyone wanting to run a Third Imperium game, especially if set in the Spinward Marches, should buy and read CT Adventure:1 Kinunir.
Here are the general rumours, there are a couple of pages more of other rumours.
"GENERAL RUMORS
The following rumors appear multiple times in the table, Each time one appears, it should be embellished and restated slightly.
U. Interdicted worlds are interdicted because the lmperium is trying to conceal its mistakes in social and political planning.
V. The lmperium has been suppressing political dissent in order to keep peace in the Regina subsector.
W. Visas are unobtainable to Knorbes (0207).
X. The government of Roup (0407) has made a subsector-wide call for surplus starships to supplement its local forces. There has been no opposition from the subsector government.
Y. The Adda Dubsar, when scrapped by General at Regina (0310). was not actually broken up. The hull stands ready for outfitting on a supplementary building way in the General Yard.
Z. A recent uprising at Feri (0405) has cut the Imperial communication jump route from Regina (0310) to Efate (0105)."
There is another example of Imperial justice:
"throw 6+ per day (DM -1 if the travellers are in a vehicle) to avoid detection. If detected, the pinnace will appear overhead and disable the vehicle*. A squad (marine first squad) will then emerge and arrest the band**, transporting them directly back to the battle cruiser. Aboard the battle cruiser, all will be incarcerated in the brig, and interrogated individually concerning their intentions and actions***. After two days, the Luuru will be relieved on station by the Adamdun, and will proceed to Pixie (0303). There,the travellers will be transferred to the Gaesh for an indefinite period of imprisonment.****
The process of escape from this situation remains a problem for the travellers to solve.*****"
* no warning shot, no communication?
**marines have powers of arrest?
***no legal representation, no rights?
****no trial, indefinite imprisonment
*****forget about a legal appeal
We're not in Kansas anymore Toto...
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
The initial foundations for this thread came from this excellent thread:
And these posts, where many of us had excellent discussions in which we nailed down what the MgT 2e actually states about the 3rd Imperium, and discussed the ramifications of those statements in which we went down the path of "if this is true, what conditions must exist for it to be true, and what will it also cause to be true?"
And these posts, where many of us had excellent discussions in which we nailed down what the MgT 2e actually states about the 3rd Imperium, and discussed the ramifications of those statements in which we went down the path of "if this is true, what conditions must exist for it to be true, and what will it also cause to be true?"
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
I'm glad you mentioned this. This is a very salient point.
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
* no warning shot, no communication?
**marines have powers of arrest?
***no legal representation, no rights?
****no trial, indefinite imprisonment
*****forget about a legal appeal
I know! Not even a trial, or even a chance to go before a magistrate! And then indefinite imprisonment, and, it's plausible, prison labor. Now we know how all those colonists got recruited. But it's not slavery. The potential for abuse is staggering. This is not the behavior of a benign Imperium.
U. So, the Imperium does social and political planning, which blatantly interferes with the affairs of the affected worlds.
V. The Imperium has been suppressing political dissent in the entire Regina subsector, so again, it's interfering in the affairs of planetary populations.
Z. An uprising on Feri cut the communication jump route. On full kits and sound board ships, and soon Feri will have a new noble fiefholder backed up by an overstrength contingent of Imperial forces.
This is obviously dark. Uprisings, indefinite internment without trial, suppression of political dissent, throwing nobles in prison secretly and then lying about it, all of this indicates a Dark Imperium. What else can it be? Benign governments don't act like this, and this behavior is consistent with the author's analysis of Russian society in the first post.
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Bense
Cosmic Mongoose
Rumors are rumors because they are often completely untrue.
"The original Traveller was occasionally criticized (or lampooned) because many of the early adventures required or encouraged the characters to
engage in some form of illegal activity (smuggling, breaking and entering, piracy, etc.) or acts of questionable morality (mercenary actions, espionage, state-sanctioned assassination). There were several reasons for this, but the main one was that these were the kinds of adventures people seemed most interested in. They were the type most often submitted, and were the most commonly encountered at conventions...
...Traveller was not alone in encouraging rule-bending heroes, but perhaps we went a little overboard in the early days.
As gamers became more sophisticated, they began to see the entertainment value in activities other than the criminal ones, and later versions of Traveller became more sophisticated."
-Loren Wiseman, GURPS Traveller
The Kinunir and other adventures like Research Station Gamma are products of those times. They depict the Imperium in a bad light because the Imperium was the opposition in those adventures. As Traveller evolved it became clear that the truth wasn't so simple.
The Imperium is on the whole a positive force within Charted Space. Just look at its competition:
- The Zhodani Consulate, where everyone is made to be happy and even your thoughts are not private.
- The Vargr Extents, where no government outlasts its leader and corsairs are folk heroes.
- The Two Thousand Worlds, where everyone is essentially slaves of the K'Kree, and they all obey their steppe lord in their glorious crusade to exterminate all meat-eaters.
- The Hive Federation, where everyone is manipulated (for their own good, of course) by the paternalistic Hiver.
- The Solomani Confederation, which has a one-party "democracy" and where everyone who isn't pure-blood Solomani is a second-class citizen.
- The Aslan Heirate, a tribal civilization with rigid sex roles where everything is about how much land you own and which regularly purges those who don't behave "honorably".
The Third Imperium works well when its aristocracy is honorable and genuinely interested in the lives of their subjects. There is nothing inherently corrupt in having a feudal system, and there are in fact written laws that govern the Imperium.
It may be that rumors are not true, but most of those are shown to be true.
The senator is in the prison you get put into.
The Adda Dubsar is actually where the rumor says.
Knorbes is restricted. The Imperium says it's a hunting preserve, but no one can get permits. It's actually an ancients' site and that's where you get arrested and imprisoned without trial.
They lied constantly about the situation on Efate.
You can decide that the Imperium is the nice guys, but that's just because most things are written on the assumption you are Imperials. You can portray any of those cultures in a better or worse light.
The only flat out "bad" culture is the K'kree.
The senator is in the prison you get put into.
The Adda Dubsar is actually where the rumor says.
Knorbes is restricted. The Imperium says it's a hunting preserve, but no one can get permits. It's actually an ancients' site and that's where you get arrested and imprisoned without trial.
They lied constantly about the situation on Efate.
You can decide that the Imperium is the nice guys, but that's just because most things are written on the assumption you are Imperials. You can portray any of those cultures in a better or worse light.
The only flat out "bad" culture is the K'kree.
Sigtrygg
Emperor Mongoose
The adventure and subsequent TAS News items showed that these rumours all had truth behind them
I find this a very disingenuous statement by Loren, and it is noticeable that no other subsequent version of Traveller had the sales or the following or classic, perhaps they became too sophisticated?
The truth is in the adventures.
I disagree, and others are seeing it too
The Imperium got a political makeover, but when you look behind the facade you find the reality of men not laws...The Imperium is not a positive force within charted space. It is authoritarian, corrupt, and declining in power.
Every single item in your list is the Imperial propaganda view, I could list the truth for each one
Zhodani - no one is made to be happy, the Zhodani take mental illness such as anxiety and depression very seriously and have methods to treat them beyond just drugs and counseling
Vargr - the Julian Protectorate says hello, there have been many governments that have lasted centuries
K'kree - there is no crusade, and if they are going to exterminate all meat eaters why are they not attacking the Imperium rather than trading?
Hive - manipulations are a rumour, the psionic suppressions did happen
Solomani - most in the "Solomani Sphere" are actually from the confederation and have never had the racist movement started by the Syleans and certainly don't have the second class citizen trope
Aslan - way more complicated than that
Can you give an example of one that isn't?
I've known too many people to consider this to be true. One person's moral is another person's immoral, I could give examples but there are too many on this board who get upset at modern politics... I suppose I could use religion... nah, best not.
They aren't though, their only interest is that taxes be paid, they don't interfere with world governments do they... <sarcasm emoji>
Tell that to the serfs and peasants, the levied men at arms, the barons...
There are no laws governing the Imperium, it is fiction. The laws were invented much later by fans and fanon became canon as these ideas were adopted by GT and T4. They do not stand up to scrutiny though. I think the first sign of this was the Ministry of Justice presented in JTAS.
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actionman
Emperor Mongoose
Let's examine this.
I think that the Imperium being benign and the Imperium being on the whole a positive force within Charted Space are two different things.
I disagree that the Imperial government is benign, given its documented behavior, history, and systems of governance, but I agree that the Imperium is, on the whole, a positive force within Charted Space.
The Imperium provides prosperity, security, and order to many if not most of its worlds. It promotes interstellar and planetary commerce, from which many billions benefit. I think that billions of Imperial subjects probably have secure happy lives. The Imperial nobility isn't strutting about like King Joffrey from Game of Thrones on a bad hair day. It's not getting into everyone's business. They're not making planetary laws about how many goats you can have, where you're allowed to park your aircar, or how much child support you pay. Imperial nobles aren't plotting how to kick a widow's dog or crap on people. They leave all that to the planetary government. The overwhelming majority of Imperial subjects don't interact with the Imperial nobility, and they don't live at the level where they would have to deal with the nobility's ruthless machinations to gain wealth and power while serving the Emperor's will.
Except when their world is thrown into upheaval because of those machinations, or into an economic depression, or a revolt gets fomented to serve someone's agenda, or whatever. Even then, people wouldn't see the hidden hands of competing nobles and megacorporations in the events that destroyed their lives.
By Dark Imperium, I'm not suggesting a grimdark Imperium where everything's crapsack, everyone's miserable, Imperial nobles are all villains, and Imperial Marines roam the streets inflicting outrages upon the peasantry. I'm suggesting that the Imperial nobility and government, as described in MgT 2e and many Traveller sources, routinely do immoral things in pursuit of personal and Imperial goals. I follow this logic to draw the conclusion that many if not most Imperial nobles and other people who operate at their level are not particularly moral people, and are far more concerned with achieving personal goals, political goals, and Imperial goals than with behaving in a moral fashion, or concerning themselves with the wellbeing of planetary populations. This leads to various forms of exploitation, but the planetary governments handle that, and it's generally not particularly onerous.
I'm not sure I agree that the other empires are worse. I'd have to do a close reading of available information and then draw some conclusions.
I don't know that I'd say there were no laws, but it has certainly gotten more and more legalized and formalized as time goes on, with ever more imperial organizations of unknown funding provenance.
actionman
Emperor Mongoose
Additional comment: The oppression of non-Solomani by the Solomani Confederation authorities has a lot to do with its bitter war of secession, in which the main non-Solomani populations, Vilani and Vegans, were loyal to the Imperium and thus enemies. The Solomani authorities want non-Solomani, their enemies, to leave.
I'll have to read over the MgT 2e and other material to draw conclusions as to whether or not the Solomani Confederation is a Dark Confederation. Dark Solomani, that sounds a bit frightening.
Then again, the Solomani Confederation has never been considered benign. It is what it is, it works how it works, and it does what it does.
Compare this to the fate of psionic individuals in the Imperium. Psionic individuals, who were loyal Imperial subjects, were hunted down and rounded up. Again, the Imperial authorities intervened drastically in planetary affairs to deal with psionic individuals.
The core problem with the "Solomani are all racists" nonsense is that the Solomani who were racist were the ones in the Imperial Court. Who got mad that the Emperor married a Vilani. The Solomani around Earth didn't have any such history until all those whacknut Imperial Solomani got pissy and moved back to Earth and convinced the Imperium to give them an autonomous sphere.
So *maybe* the government is full of jackoffs, but they are the result of ex-Imperial jackoffs whining all day about how oppressed they are by the existence of other humans.
So *maybe* the government is full of jackoffs, but they are the result of ex-Imperial jackoffs whining all day about how oppressed they are by the existence of other humans.
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