Society and culture

In the end, all things in the Imperial society come down to one thing, money. There is no such thing as a free meal in the Empire. Thus the wealth of an individual largely decides his/her place in the Imperial society. It is only fitting that a society so secular as the Empire's has come to worship wealth, building its temples, banks and stock exchanges, to dwarf everything but the Golden City itself in size and grandeur. The people are divided into three classes. The highest, the Patricians, contains most renowed families, who have gethered huge amounts of wealth and who occupy prominent seats of power. Patricians are commonly found as Senators, planetary governors and other high govermnent officials or working in the leeadership of Imperial corporations. The middleclass, the Equesterians, contains families of prominent status, who have a significant fortune, yet not enough to climb to the status of Patricians. Members of the Equesterian class occupy senatorial positions and form the most of the Imperial Army's and Navy's officers. Lastly come the Plebeians, the common folk, a class which contains most of the Imperial citizens. Plebeians can possess significant fortunes and occupy seats of power, but their status is usually risen to Equesterian by that point.

The Alsatian people are not born equal. They can become equal tough as moving up the ranks in the class ladder is common. It is all up to the individual. The society is largely meritocratic, with individuals being largely judged based on their past deeds. The past history and current status of ones family adds to this as a base from which one must better ones ancestors. In Alsatian culture, the children strive to outclass their parents, thus the culture is filled with overachievers. The family background largely dictates what is expected of you. A plebeian has the liberty to pursue pretty much whatever career he desires, even a senator, tough that would require the gathering of considerable fortune. For an individual hailing from the Patricians for example, high end careers in business, government or medicine and etc. are really the only options.

Men and women are equal in the Empire. Both have similar career opportunities, but in the end, men generally receive better salary and high positions are male dominated. The society is largely patriarchal with only a small minority of the senators being women. Nevertheless, even the last bastion of Alsatian men, the Imperial Army has long since been opened to women and the Army has even seen female legates, even Strategoses. Female officers do better in the Navy and even now one sector commander is female.

While men and women are almost equal, different races are certainly not. The Empire, unlike many other factions, is dominated by humans. This is due to the pro-human policies in the past that saw outright extemination and exile of alien species. Even today, the attitude stays and alien population in the Empire is nonexistent. This is largely due to the fact that an alien would have large difficulties in its daily life in the Empire.

Edited 2 times by fintrooper Nov 28 10 11:03 AM.