Questions tagged [empire-building]
For questions about the conglomerations of areas or nations under the rule of one person or entity.
11
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8answers
1k views
Could an empire control the whole planet with today's comunication methods?
I remember watching a documentary some time ago and at one point they were talking about how empires were limited to a certain size since there was no way to communicate across the empire quickly and ...
3
votes
2answers
407 views
Possibility of an alliance between Rome and China
For plot reasons, I need there to be global-ish peace by the 1700's. Obviously, the easiest and best way to do this, is union under the system of Pax Romana.
However, at this particular time (about ...
1
vote
5answers
283 views
how can I replace the center of power in Christendom from Rome to Constantinople?
I, Emperor Lucifer the 1st, am the undisputed ruler of the Byzantine Empire, better known as the True Roman Empire. To secure my dominance, I plan to cement myself as the ruler of all Christendom in ...
2
votes
4answers
132 views
Emperor that nominates a council: ensuring status quo among the members
Great questions bring great answers... and also more questions. This one is a follow-up on Emperor that nominates a council that nominates the next emperor by Timst.
I suggest, before answering, ...
7
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5answers
340 views
Emperor that nominates a council that nominates the next emperor?
As part of the political making of a country I'm working on, I was imagining the following structure:
The country is ruled by an emperor/king, who has near-absolute authority over the land.
The ...
19
votes
10answers
4k views
How can I prevent semi-independent royal families from rebelling against the empire?
This global-spanning empire is divided among five royal families, each headed by a prince. The emperor himself leads the empire, with the five princes serving under him. While they owe fealty to the ...
21
votes
13answers
6k views
Ways to keep a fantasy cold war between dragons and knight sorcerers cold?
So here's the scenario. I have two rather large and evenly matched empires: one led by human knight sorcerers with bloodline based magic and another by dragons, who are fairly similar to the dragons ...
5
votes
8answers
437 views
How likely is it that an interplanetary empire could exist in the future?
I'm building a world with an interplanetary empire (with an emperor as head-of-state), but I wonder how realistic it is for one to even exist.
An empire, according to Google, is defined as:
an ...
0
votes
3answers
203 views
A Theocratic Megacorporation? [closed]
Imagine if a televangelist somehow managed to amass a devoted global following and used the funds from the offerings he gained from them to turn his cult into an N.G.O. superpower. How exactly would ...
8
votes
7answers
2k views
Why does my island nation start building bridges? [closed]
I’ve got a fantasy world in which the landmass is essentially a large series of archipelagos and island chains. For a real world comparison, think the Hawaiian islands in range of size and distance ...
0
votes
1answer
71 views
Could a loose galactic alliance be dismantled in a quick coup? [closed]
In my book series (link here), the planets of Aurea, Ishgabangaloodoo, and most of the eastern half of the galaxy have entered an alliance against the Tatian Empire (Caput Tatiium and most of the ...
-1
votes
1answer
129 views
If modern civilization collapsed, what impact would a lack of trade and industrial base have on the next civilization centuries later? [closed]
Let's say that civilization ends due to non-globally destructive means. For instance, a rising tide that destroys ports and trade wouldn't scar the landscape of Denver the way nuclear war would. ...
1
vote
3answers
229 views
Mapping Stellar Empires? [duplicate]
Any nation needs to have a firm understanding of its borders and controlled territories. How might a empire with FTL technology spanning multiple planetary/stellar systems make a map of their ...
4
votes
1answer
239 views
What are the 'pacifist-spiritualist' galactic empire be like?
Sorry for my bad english.
I have been playing Stellaris for a while, and I found it very interesting to have a pacifist-spiritualist in my sci-fi story.
But I have difficulties in understanding what ...
5
votes
3answers
423 views
Imperial Kingdoms?
I am writing a fantasy story where a vast Empire has been weakened, and the previous (inept) emperor allowed the feudal lords to act nearly autonomously. Once he died, the lords that ruled their ...
5
votes
2answers
224 views
Rules of a puppeted nation/State
For a world I'm building I would like to have a nation that is a puppet of a larger empire. I know that a puppet state is a state that is supposedly independent but is in fact dependent upon an ...
2
votes
1answer
147 views
How to Construct Politics of Nations?
on a way to prepare to create the politics of the kingdoms and empires in my novel I want to begin. I want my novel to take place in a sort of 1700s-1800s timeline, what could I do to make these ...
3
votes
3answers
376 views
Could an empire like this survive?
I am wanting to know if an empire with a continental size, lots of biomes, and a lot of diversity could survive. Might be good for the start or the middle of a story.
Size
Basically what is in this ...
5
votes
5answers
331 views
Rebuilding an Empire
Scenario:
The world has suffered from near apocalyptic cataclysm from the new birth of a God. The nations of the world have teamed up and defeated the Evil God and have formed a new Alliance of ...
2
votes
8answers
464 views
How to integrate a tribe into a larger society?
After nuclear war destroys society, a new society emerged, called the Midwestern Empire. It shares many similarities with the Roman Empire.
Their society is geared toward expansion and conquest, ...
6
votes
1answer
182 views
Can a single empire rule the world if all the landmass is part of one supercontinent? [closed]
Let’s say that the tech level is that of antiquity to early medieval times and the entirety of the planet’s landmass exists as a single supercontinent. Could the local equivalent of the Roman/Persian/...
39
votes
15answers
13k views
Could a Roman Empire style civilization exist without slavery?
(Later Edit: Clarifying my question to could Rome, its empire, its complex urban civilization, grandeur, and vast public works be built without slavery in its era or the middle ages?)
Could a ...
1
vote
1answer
236 views
How advanced would a Roman themed empire be if there was no collapse and it advanced into the late medevil renisance era? [closed]
The Empire is a mix of the clasic Roman one, but mixed with influence's of greek, and general central European nations of the time. I understand that the Romans had a steam engine in the works, but ...
9
votes
13answers
1k views
How can a highly advanced sub-luminal galactic empire minimise the effects of speciation?
The Humern Empire (no relation) spans the galaxy, using a variety of methods to move from place to place and planet to planet.
One thing all of their modes of transport share is that they are not ...
4
votes
7answers
307 views
How long does it take a Space Opera setting to recover after losing more than 80% of its collective civilization
In a space opera soft sci-fi setting, the typical War in Heaven happens as two superpowers go to war and drag everyone into it. Over the course of about 30-ish years, planets were trashed, empires ...
2
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3answers
143 views
Destruction of a great Empire [closed]
Following conditions applied--
No good group of people overthrowing the dark ruler or anything like that.
No problems in the Empire related to finance or money.
The political conditions of the empire ...
8
votes
4answers
450 views
Fall of an empire
So the heroes banded together, roamed the world, found new allies, amassed an army and set out to free their lands from the evil empire. And they succeeded! But what happens now? A lot of stories like ...
3
votes
5answers
253 views
Dispersed Empire, Homogeneous Culture?
Note- Empires, in the traditional sense, are large tracts of land, connected by land. A good example of an empire this question is not based on is Russia. Russia is connected and fairly culturally ...
0
votes
2answers
109 views
False flag operations and how they would occur [closed]
What kind of false flag operations would be possible in a universe where advanced AI exists along with fairly reliable FTL travel and multiple alien species and human factions all vying to be top dog?
4
votes
3answers
517 views
The Camelry Has Arrived
This is a series of maps of Old World empires:
And now look at the pre-Columbian New World empires:
We're not 100% sure why Old World empires were so huge and New World empires so small, but a good ...
1
vote
3answers
383 views
Challenges in maintaining a thalassocracy
In my world , the entire planet is covered by highly salt oceans ( at the level of the dead sea ) save for patches of islands dispersed across the planet. Island states emerge and , eventually , so do ...
7
votes
2answers
2k views
From City-States to Kingdoms to Empires: Where are the lines
So in the process of creating my world, I came across a question that I could not find the answer to. When do you decide that a nation is a City-State, a Kingdom, or an Empire?
I am going to start by ...
20
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6answers
4k views
Could The Spartan Discipline Work on Larger Nations?
From the moment it was born, a Spartan was bred to service the state. If a baby passed inspection with a clean bill of health, he or she would be spared until age seven--agoge season. If a baby ...
4
votes
4answers
358 views
On the unsustainability of exponential growth [closed]
Greg Egan was the first I heard talking about how exponential growth is unsustainable. He talked about it from a hard sci-fi standpoint, noting that you are limited to cubic expansion once your ...
-1
votes
2answers
269 views
What are the “red flags” of an impending revolution?
Revolutions happen and quite often they have catastrophic results on the nation, from destroying and replacing the nation to splitting up the nation into parts. Usually the result of the revolution is ...
2
votes
3answers
394 views
How do I make the colonialism of my world believable? [closed]
A big of an empire is expansion and often that expansion requires colonizing other lands, usually with people already living on it. Famous examples include the New World and Australia, but the fantasy ...
25
votes
15answers
5k views
An empire to last a hundred centuries [closed]
Let's say that in the next few decades, a regional power arises that essentially resurrects your favourite historical empire's borders (in this case, let's say Roman) at their greatest extent. Whether ...
7
votes
4answers
950 views
Advantages & Disadvantages of Allowing Freedom in Local Law in an Empire
So I am looking to structure a country so that there are other areas that are "free" to make their own laws but pay a tribute to the main country. I know that there's historical precedent (Rome's a ...
19
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17answers
4k views
Why Would a Nation Choose to join A Foreign Empire?
In my story/universe, I have several Empires- some good and some bad. My protagonist Empires are good, however I realized I've hit a setting related snag:
One of my empires has established a colony ...
8
votes
9answers
858 views
How can a revolution occur if the leadership class is indestructible?
In the future, a globalized economy gradually stitches the various governments of the world together into a single federation. The richest and most powerful of each state and economy entrench their ...
9
votes
7answers
2k views
How large could an empire with WWII-era tech become on a very large world?
How big could an empire using World-War II equivalent technology become on a very large world?
Setting: Handwavium-based-artifact by a Kardashev III+ civilization, or perhaps a simworld created by ...
3
votes
5answers
286 views
SciFi multi stellar human empire post collapse [closed]
Does anyone know of a SciFi "Universe" where humans have expanded across hundreds/thousands of stellar systems, but the empire has collapsed? Furthermore, the human occupied worlds fall to various ...
11
votes
4answers
1k views
City state with a direct democracy turns into an empire?
I was thinking of a situation in which there is a city state with a direct democracy in which citizens not only vote directly on the issues but vote on which issues are to be voted on as well as ...
13
votes
6answers
797 views
What would a galactic Empire based off Plato's Utopia (from his “Republic” and “Laws”) be like?
What would a galactic Empire based off Plato's Utopia be like?
The government of Plato's Utopia was designed for a city-state at the time of the Bronze Age. But what if you upscale it to a galactic ...
7
votes
6answers
1k views
How might an inter-planetary confederation turn into a highly centralized empire?
Many scifi stories feature a vast interstellar empire that spans more worlds and races than a single being could hope to visit in a lifetime. These empires, in many cases, are highly centralized and ...
5
votes
3answers
437 views
The Empires of America BC (Before Columbus)
In this alternate scenario, man created the bow and arrow BEFORE leaving Africa. From what I had read, this can result in many technological revolutions while the Earth was still in the grip of an ...
4
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5answers
464 views
Would the need for control limit a superintelligent rational agent's expansion in the universe?
My thoughts go like this:
I postulate a superintelligent rational agent, that is given, or assumes, control over its mother civilization. I call this agent "the Ruler".
I postulate that in order to ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
How would the Anglo-French empire arise?
After I asked what language the Anglo-French Empire would use, I got a few comments that made me realise that I haven't really thought about how this would arise in the first place.
For starters, as ...
9
votes
6answers
661 views
How would political power shift without upheaveal?
I have a world where there are five guilds, each creating a semi-autonomous political entity over a region of the world. At one point, a single empire controlled the whole continent, but the empire's ...
4
votes
13answers
804 views
Are there alternate materials to build warships with?
I have an empire set in a medieval era tech level. It has to have a powerful navy to defend its shores from pirates (it controls the entire continent) and it has a problem: lack of wood. The wood is ...
