How could a feudal empire with a hive-minded species use this to maximize its power?

Question

The empire is ruled by a single human-like emperor, with individual lords as vassals. The tech level is equivalent to medieval Europe. 40% of the population within the empire are humanoid individuals, and the remaining 60% form a hive mind

The hive mind have a single mind that extends over and can control every member of the hive, regardless of the number or distance of the bodies. It has the same intelligence as a group of humans with the same population, and views its bodies similarly to how humans view pieces of their individual bodies. The hive mind's bodies are physically equivalent to humans

What would be the best arrangement of a society including the hive mind to maximise the emperor's power? (i.e. their ability to alter their empire and to influence or apply force on other empires and kingdoms)

Answer 1

A hive mind isn't really compatible with feudalism unless there is some sort of checks and balances that prevents the hive from holding total power over the non-hive individuals. A hive mind would function on the full consolidation of power with the "Queen" entity. Feudalism functions on a delegation of power from the ruler monarch trickling down the chain of authority. So the only ways the two systems could overlap would be if either the ruling monarch had some way of controlling the hive queen, or the hive queen IS the ruler monarch, but needs to rely on individualists for some things they are incapably of achieving themselves.

Considering the numbers given, I would expect that hive members likely make up the lowest class of society, while the individualists make up the middle classes and nobility. This makes sense as hive members would be more likely to willingly sacrifice themselves for the good of the collective and work beyond personal interest. Meanwhile, individualists would try to consolidate power to support their own position in life.

If anything, its the medieval equivalent of a scifi society having robot workers covering all the menial tasks, while sentient beings handle decision making. A medieval hive mind is basically just organic robots. The "queen" of the hive would be the metaphorical equivalent to a control center; and for a sentient being, the ability to control the masses could in a way be exactly their claim to nobility. Meanwhile, the individualists make up the middle class as they are more driven to hold a higher station than simple workers, but unable to actually achieve authority themselves.

Feudal titles then become more of a matter of making deals with the hive Queen. The Queen for her part would likely need the individualists to provide some sort of service that benefits her survival more than trying to control them by oppression. Perhaps the hive minded workers are incapable of defending themselves from outside attacks, so the two societies form a symbiotic relationship of basically willing slaves trading labor for protection. Simultaneously though, the need to keep the hive happy would need to be very clear as perhaps the individualists are entirely dependent on them for all general labor. Also, a hive mind is less likely to be able to develop many new ideas, which gives the individualists an advantage in creativity, but they may need the hive to bring those ideas to fruition.

This could honestly easily go down a deep rabbit hole of how this would affect politics, economics, religion, and technology (or lack there of).

Answer 2

I can’t exactly tell how the hive mind works, but for the purposes of my answer I’ll assume that the hive is perfectly happy with whatever it does and the mind has the intelligence of a pretty smart human.

Organize the empire into two groups, the “In-Hive” and the “Out-Hive” (the “Ins” and the “Outs”). Each group will have its own role in the empire.

The Ins will be doing most of the stuff that matters. Anything to do with administration, warfare, and the running of the empire would fall to them. If looking at a chart of European feudalism, the Ins would be the King, Nobles, and Knights. Furthermore, I would suggest they also become Priests and religious leaders so your empire doesn’t have to deal with pesky religious schisms and wars.

The Outs would be controlled by the Hive indirectly through coercion. It would be suicidal to revolt when you are facing 2:3 odds against a foe who would fight to the last. They would mostly be peasants and farmers, doing the work that the Hive would prefer not to.

However, they might be two ways that the Outs could get a good job:

1. Diplomacy. Assuming all other nations don’t also run as hives, they would probably find the Hive an autocratic, tyrannical, and overall disgusting state that exploits its mindless inhabitants for its own gain. However, a non-hive diplomat could soften their hearts against the Hive by showing that “It isn’t really that bad!” (Although this would probably be said with the knowledge that they would be killed if they rebelled at all.)
2. Art. The Hive Mind won’t have time to make beautiful works of craftsmanship that would stand the test of time. So, it offloads that onto the Outs. This could work hand in hand with Diplomacy.

So, overall, you would want to centralize power within the Hive while using the non-Hive humanoids to be the PR team.

Answer 3

Have the hive mind act as an order of knights that only answers to the emperor

The emperor would work to organize the hive mind so it had territory in most areas and was supplied with food, weapons, useful supplies and whatever else they needed. In return, they could act as labourers and soldiers for whatever needs the emperor or local lords desired.

This means that the emperor can learn from the hive mind of any rebellion early and send an army of soldiers to crush it. Local lords get an obedient slave workforce which will do whatever tasks in return for reasonable supplies. The hive mind gets all the resources and protection it needs.

Formally, the hive mind would be a duke, and have authority similar to that, but in normal interactions their members would be like knights directly under the emperor.

Use the hive mind to detect weather and spread news

You would also want lots of merchants and pilgrims and travelers as the hive mind. Being able to detect good or bad weather and react to it quickly means your food sources are much more stable, and being able to detect any movement of armies means that you can position your own armies much more effectively.

Winning a war is all about force concentration. Suppose you have five empires facing this empire, each just as strong as the empire. Each empire has five major armies. If the hive mind empire can concentrate its forces to hit each army with its full force while avoiding engagement with the other armies, they can probably win because with five times the concentration of soldiers they can easily crush the enemy.

Having spies everywhere also lets you quickly react to weaknesses, such as a famine or a civil war or a plague.

Answer 4

World domination by providing wealth

Knowledge

The hive mind acts as a single mind spread over all it's individuals. Not only that, it is as smart as the group of individuals. This definition is a bit vague, but let's roll with it.

What should you do? Put the hive mind equally spread out over the society. The hive mind can learn whatever is required. Think of a smith, where a lot of techniques are used to forge many items. Any next smith would only require the knowledge, and then gain the body and neuroreceptors required for smithing. It is likely not a case of 'instant download' and done, but you can fast track learning this way.

Extrapolate this to all branches of society. Government, tactics, farming and anything else. This can be used to quickly get up to speed and stay there, if not advance. Let's assume for the moment the hive mind does not innovate that well and suddenly be technologically superior. The hive mind is already in a great position.

Altruism

Other answers tell of the ability to sacrifice parts of itself as a powerful tool. Although powerful, it is much better tobe altruistic. It knows better where food or resources are needed, able to route it there. Taking care of itself and people in the vicinity will do two things. First of all,there are more people working (effectively), allowing higher wealth to be attained. Second of all, it'll foster a positive attitude to the hive mind. If you can grow together, surviving in hard times because the hive mind noticed an area where food got scarce, you'll not quickly raise a finger to it.

Together you can prosper, allowing then to become strong on the world stage.

One people, one culture

Now world domination. You can secretly plant hive minds in other cities and villages, slowly getting people to know the benevolence of the hive mind. It can adapt to their culture and peculiarities, while starting a slow indoctrination.

The problem with large empires of old is that communication was slow. Together with the change in culture over distance, it was hard to feel like one people. The hive mind solves this. Even though people work and pay taxes for a monarch they have never seen, they can appreciate the hive mind from him. The stories and decrees can feel much closer when they arrive more quickly and frequently. Even if there's different cultures, one constant of the cultures is the hive mind. It can get a voice in government of towns and villages, allowing people to see more eye to eye and work together instead of striving. All to benefit anyone within the slowly growing empire.

Strife

Though the hive mind would undoubtedly be powerful in battle, it would be the best to never have to war. Not unless it can absolutely decimate the enemy without leaving witnesses. The moment it is an aggressor people can start to wonder about what it could do on the wrong side. A bit of fear for the hive mind can be good in policing or making sure people do not try to take advantage. But an organism that could potentially go rogue and basically murder everyone in perfectly orchestrated attacks should terrify anyone. If an area has heard about the hive mind and is aggressive, it is better to make the surrounding areas prosper and win them over then to burn the area and salt it down. Not only do you lose valuable workers, but you lose potential allies, resources and space for expansion, not to mention the negative view people could get.

Conclusion

The hive mind should spread evenly though society. The hive mind first takes care of itself, it's wealth spread so each member thrives. This can be spread to people in contact for positive vibes, eventually spriralling in a slowly expanding strong empire. It would be a banger at war, but generally it is only detrimental to the hive mind as well as the empire.