> On May 20, 2016, at 2:52 PM, tmr0195@comcast.net wrote:
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> >An admiral who abuses their authority will rapidly find themselves making enemies that are of higher rank.
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> My only recollection of the Rule Of Man is associated with the period when Terran forces tried to run the defeated the Vilani Imperium (CT Supplement 11 p. 17).

“The Rule of Man” era is the post-Vilani period when Terran forces defeated the Empire, and tried to swallow it whole, and choked on it.

‘Rule of man’ refers to the manner of rule of the 3I <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_man> versus rule of law <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_law> and is made clear throughout the canon history of the 3I.

The Emperor has absolute authority, lower nobles owe him fealty personally. You do not swear an oath to obey the Third Imperium, but to the Emperor. All authority in the 3I flows from the Emperor him/herself.

The Imperium is ruled by him or her through his/her sworn vassals, since it is a feudal empire. The Imperial bureaucracy, of course, has rules, but they’re just that, rules for the Imperial bureaucracy.

The IN is a classic military structure subordinate to the Emperor. The IN is the Emperor’s sword which he can wield as he or she wishes.

There is no such thing as an ‘Imperial Constitution’ nor is there any legislative body that can override his or her commands.

The Moot is an advisory body only, not anything like a parliament or senate; it serves at the pleasure of the Emperor.

(The Moot may well, in a subtle fashion, serve as hostages for the emperor, since the Moot must reside at Capital, and is composed of representatives of the upper nobility, much like how the Shogun enforced loyalty in Tokugawa-era Japan by forcing the Daimyo to maintain a residence in Edo and leave family members there when they were not personally present.

This is unstated in any canon, but not UN-stated either, so much).

The CT LIbrary Data says : "Empire. Group of independent states, duchies, nations, tribes, worlds, or systems under the supreme rule of an emperor.” Then repeatedly refers to the Emperor as the ruler of the 3I.

It also has this entry, which appears to be the only mention of laws in the 3I in the CT Library Data:

"War, Imperial Rules of: The rules of war are an accumulation of unwritten concepts established on a case-by-case basis. They have not been officially codified to prevent formal precedent from preventing lmperial intervention. The main aim of the rules is to maintain the economic and military well-being of the realm…."

In fact it is in the T4 materials that makes clear the Moot’s only real power is to sanction the assassination of the Emperor, nd then only by a fellow member of the Moot, who will then assume the Throne. (Gee, almost as if it were a Game. 8-)

Much of this is made more explicit in the Mileu 0 T4 book, in the description of the founding of the 3I, specifically involving Cleon I dissolving the Sylean Senate, and assuming rule of the realm personally, but there is no such thing as universal rights, legislative bodies or a body of Imperial law (save for prohibitions of chattel slavery and use of nuclear weapons) mentioned in canon.

Therefore the 3I, on an Imperial level operates by rule of the Emperor, not a codified body of law.

Planets and other sub-Imperial political arrangements have their own systems, since the 3i “rules the space between the stars”, but the rules an IN Admiral has to follow are not, strictly speaking, ‘laws’, but directives from the Emperor.

This is precisely why an Imperial Warrant is so powerful: "It is by my order and for the good of the Imperium that the bearer of this has done what he has done”. Wise rulers make sure the warrant specifies just exactly what it is the bearer is supposed to have done, because otherwise it is an staggeringly powerful piece of paper.

So long as the Emperor rules in such a fashion as to keep everyone more or less happy, the 3I trundles along as a giant interconnected web of mutually beneficial relationships, Also, since the Emperor ‘wets his beak’ in all the Imperially chartered corporations, they have an incentive to keep things running smoothly.

There are times when it doesn’t: The Civil War era, the era of the Barracks Emperors, on to the Rebellion and the madness of Dulinor’s assassination of Strephon and the fallout of the widespread power struggle following that event, Hard Times, then the Virus smashing what little remained.

--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs