> On May 21, 2016, at 1:15 PM, tmr0195@comcast.net wrote:
>
> Hello Bruce,
>
> Wouldn't Cleon I also of had information on the First Imperium too?

He would have, after all, Sylea is vastly closer to Vland than it is to Terra, and Cleon was unusual for having  Terran ancestry. But the First Imperium model clearly did not suit his aims. I think his goal was to combine the decentralized control of the 2nd Imperium and the centralized hierarchy of the 1st. Then again, the 1st Imperium seems to be an empire in name only; it was actually more of a corporate oligarchy.

The Shadow Emperor was conveniently kept in the background as a god-like figure, akin to the Japanese Emperor during the Meiji restoration, or the Chinese emperor in the last days of the Ming dynasty, and the Empire is run by the big corporations divvying up the sectors.

The 1st Imperium seems particularly modeled on the early 20th century Japan with the rise of the Daibatsu as the main economic powers, before the military takeover of fascist Japan era.

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

Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs