Naplian Empire
Naplian Oyae Class Destroyer
The Naplians
The Naplian Empire was arguably the greatest political and military entity in the galaxy since the ancient Radnians. While the Rutak Empire encompasses more starsystems, Naplias military, and economic power were unrivaled until the appearance of cybernetics. The Naplian military campaigns of conquest lasted over seven hundred years, from the mid-27th century through the 34th, and engulfed nearly half of the galaxy.
Biology
Naplians were a bipedal, air-breathing, humanoid alien race averaging 3.5 meters in height. The Naplian had one eye in the upper center of the face with mouth and nostril slits in positions roughly equivalent to human physiology. Their sight had a light-dividing function allowing stereo vision. They had two arms similar to human appendages but with two finger digits and an opposable thumb. They were omnivores with an advanced, sophisticated culture.
Habitat
Naplian colony worlds were temperate to cold. They had a preference for ice worlds and tended to inhabit the higher, cooler elevations on temperate planets. However, their preference for cold habitats did not keep them from other worlds. Within their territories, Naplian colonies and military outposts could be found on every planet and moon that was useful to them.
Two Naplias
During the third millennium (TSD), there were two parts to the Naplian Empire. Naplia Prime was the northernmost region and boasted more than a billion inhabited starsystems. Lower Naplia was half the size of its northern neighbor and isolated from Naplia Prime by the loss of a third of its territory to ancient adversaries.
Onwey Colonial Trooper Ffawe Colonial Trooper
The Onwey
The Onwey (ON-way) Naplians were the majority race and held Naplia Prime. Their necks were proportional to humans in diameter but twice as long, and their skulls were oblong, with jaws tapering to a pointed chin.
Onwe considered themselves better educated and more sophisticated than their southern cousins. Aliens were viewed with distaste, if not outright contempt. Even their alien allies were seen as lesser beings.
Conquest of the known galaxy as the birthright of a superior race was the view of every Naplian. This was the philosophy of 'Expansion.'
The Divide
The Onwey and Ffawe cultures often clashed. Onwey Naplians ridiculed the Ffawe as backward and tribal. After thousands of years of discrimination and religious persecution, the Ffawe treated the Onwey with open disdain.
Ffawe Officer
The Ffawe
The Ffawe (FAH-way) were taller by an average of 0.3 meters and had long, thin necks. Ffawe occupied the southern or Ffawe Naplia. In past epochs, they had controlled the regions of Ganz and the Pressak Corridor, nearly a third of the original Ffawe Kingdom.
The Ffawe had the same attitude toward aliens as their Onwe cousins. Neither were the Ffawe fans of their northern relatives. The Ffawe openly resented how the Onwe treated them and were determined to prove them wrong.
NAPLIAN CIVIL STRUCTURE
The Naplian civil government was an elected kingship that evolved into an imperial system that was, in reality, an oligarchic republican regime based on an elective dual magistracy of Shoffets (Judges). These shoffets ruled as quasi-divine joint emperors. One was the Ander or “Northern” emperor, and the other was the Itan or “Southern” emperor. Shoffets were elected by a college of electors, fellow shoffets, at the eclipse of the Shoffa Moon, approximately every forty-three Terran years.
Expansion and colonization by military means were the cornerstone of the empire. The acquisition of land and trade were the means by which aristocracy was gained. The ruling shoffets were driven to add to the realm to maintain favor with the Grand Council and ensure reelection. They were also keenly aware of the legacy of past shoffet conquests and the acquisitions made by their co-regents. Civil wars between the two shoffets were rare but not unheard of. The co-regents kept a wary eye on each other to maintain and sometimes disrupt the balance of power within the empire. Expansion by conquest had been the policy of the realm for so long that it was simply assumed to be the proper order of things. Naplians were convinced of their right to rule the universe and pursued their goals with that right firmly in mind.
The Contract
After the loss of Ganz and Pressak, the Naplian political system operated under a framework laid out in the constitutional document known as the 'Contract.' By calling the text a Contract rather than Constitution, the authors showed their intention that a true constitution would replace the Contract once Onwe Naplia and Ffawe Naplia were reunited as one region. Amendments to the Contract generally required a majority of the ten chambers of the legislature; the fundamental principles of the constitution, as expressed in the articles guaranteeing the rule of law, were valid in perpetuity. The Contract remained in effect after the Naplian reunification with only minor amendments until the fall of the empire.
The Grand Council
An elected Grand Council of three thousand, also shoffets, with an inner circle of thirty permanent elders, served as the legislative body of the empire. They were housed in ten separate legislative houses on worlds across the empire. They each governed vast regions. The elders were housed in their own parliamentary complex on the homeworld.
Superior Court
A high court of one hundred superior judges was selected for life by the College of Pentarchs. They served in ten separate supreme court facilities on the same worlds that housed the Grand Council legislatures.
There was also a Popular Assembly with one representative from each habitable world and recognized colony. There were approximately 4.2 billion assemblymen in ten Assembly Halls across the empire. In the rare event of a political impasse between the ruling Shoffets and the Grand Council, the Assembly had the deciding vote.
All government offices were unpaid positions and reserved for the aristocracy. The aristocracy was determined solely by wealth and consisted of merchants and landed nobles.
The class of 'Duvalo' or 'Freemen' (best Terran translation) was made up of tradesmen, starship captains, and ship owners. They engaged in all manners of trade throughout the empire.
The lower class, the Enderii, were kept docile by distributions of imperial wealth. Each citizen was given just enough to maintain their place in society and thus help to support the status quo.
Central Rimward Reaches
The 21 Regions of Naplia
The Onwe North
The 'Onwe' North contained the provinces of Jehal, Bregia, Kallates, Portasz, Leval, Safomal, Deresh, Otral, Gerchira-Ateruan, Weissa, Draste, Kleeve, Darton, Upper Darton, Gstass, Ganz.
The Ffawe South
The provinces of Pressak, Berezh, Gamial, Lover Darton, and Savia made up the Ffawe South. Owing to the Onwe disdain for the southern provinces, Berezh, Gamial, Lower Darton, and Savia were effectively autonomous.
