Imperial Bureaucracy

The Imperial Bureaucracy of the Third Imperium is the group of governing bodies that administers to the needs of the Imperium and is divided into three parts:

1. Civil Ministry of the Imperium
2. Defense Ministry of the Imperium
3. Offices of the Emperor

Description (Specifications)

The Imperial Bureaucracy is the bones and body of the Third Imperium. While the Emperor, Moot, and the Ministry of Justice form the eyes and mind of the corpus. While those high institutions and leaders legislate and adjudicate in important ways, the day to day running of the Imperium comes from local nobles and bureaucrats who have sworn loyalty and service to the Imperium through its figurehead of the Emperor. In a very practical way, the Imperial Bureaucracy is the most visible part of the culture of the Imperium.

• A. The largest part are the civil ministries which support the inner workings of the Imperium and are overseen by High nobles.
• B. The second part is the Ministry of Defense which oversees, and is run by, the Imperial armed forces through appointed nobles and officials.
• C.The third and smallest part are the various Imperial Offices, which report directly to the Emperor. They serve the Emperor's needs and function as a personal office, cabinet, and advisory.

Bureaucracy Organization

The three primary groupings of the Imperial Bureaucracy each perform specialized tasks:

1. Civil Ministries of the Imperium: (Ministries of State and Justice, Ministries of Commerce and Communication & Ministries of Science and Technology: Administrative needs such as justice, commerce, communication, science, etc.)
2. Defense Ministry of the Imperium: (Ministry of Defense: Military needs such as defense of the realm and maintenance of the starways)
3. Offices of the Emperor: (Ministry of the Emperor: Needs of the Emperor such as security, ceremonial functions, lodgings, travel, etc.)

Civil Ministries of the Imperium

The civil ministries are overseen by the Imperial Nobility, it is the duty of the high nobility to serve as the minister and director of each of the ministries within their demense. The civil ministries within the Imperium are:

A. State & Justice Ministries

• A1. Ministry of Colonization: Selects worlds for colonization and expansion of the Imperium.
  • Imperial Colonial Office (ICA)
  • Imperial Ministry of Assimilation
  • Imperial Terraforming Bureau AKA Imperial Terraformation Bureau
• A2. Ministry of Justice (MOJ): Exercises authority over violations of Imperial law.
  • Imperial Inquisitorial Branch
  • Imperial Penal System
  • Justice Special Branch (JSB)
  • Sector Court Branches
  • Supreme Court of the Third Imperium
• A3. Ministry of Legislation: Imperial Moot.
  • Capital Branch Authority
  • Core Sectors Branch Authority
  • Frontier Sectors Branch Authority
• A4. Ministry of State: Maintains diplomatic relations and executive functions.
  • Imperial Board of Policy
  • Imperial Diplomatic Corps (Foreign Branch)
    • Imperial Border Office
  • Imperial Diplomatic Corps (Domestic Branch)
    • Imperial Intersectorial Diplomatic Office
    • Imperial Quarantine Agency
      • Office of Appeals
      • Office of Personnel
      • Office of Research
      • Office of Training
  • Intelligence Division
    • Imperial Bureau of Investigations

B. Commerce & Communications Ministries

• B1. Ministry of Commerce: Responsible for maintaining trade and commerce.
  • Imperial Customs Authority
  • Imperial Shipping Commission (ISC)
  • Imperial Surplus Service (ISS)
  • Imperial Travel Assistance Bureau
  • Imperial Starport Authority (SPA)
  • Trading Standards Bureau (TSB)
    • Trade Station Commission
  • Imperial Treasury (ITY)
    • Imperial Bank
    • Office of the Mint (Imperial Currency)
    • Monetary Board
• B2. Ministry of Information and Communication: Responsible for communications, exploration, records, and education.
  • Imperial Archives: (Records & History)
  • Imperial Border Patrol
  • Imperial Interstellar Scout Service (IISS): (Exploration, Astrography, Intelligence, Express Boat Network, etc.)
    • Imperial Courier Service
      • Express Office
    • Strategic Planning Office
    • Imperial Xenosociology Department
  • Office of Education & Inculcation: Maintains Educational Institutes, the Imperial Interstellar Library ("The Encyclopedia"), and (Regulation & Prevention of Psionics).
  • Office of Information

C. Science & Technologies Ministries

• C1. Ministry of Conservation: Oversight and preservation of non-renewable resources.
  • Department of Endangered Creatures
  • Department of Proto-sophont Preservation
  • Department of Reserve Worlds
  • Department of Resource Management
  • Imperial Office of Interstellar Ecology
• C2. Ministry of Health
  • TBD
• C3. Ministry of Science: Oversight of scientific research and the establishment of measurement standards within the Third Imperium.
  • Department of Metempsychosis
  • Imperial Ship Builders Association (ISBA)
  • Ministry of Cloning
  • Ministry of Genetics
  • Imperial Weights & Measures Bureau
  • Travellers' Naval Architecture Society (TNAS)
• C4. Ministry of Technology: Oversight of technological advancement and research stations.
  • Imperial Commission on Technological Level Standardization
  • Ministry of Cybernetics
  • Ministry of Robotics

Defense Ministry of the Imperium

The Minister, also known as the High Imperial Marshal, is in charge of advising the Emperor on military affairs, evaluaing the general state of the Imperial military, and supervising long-term military planning, research and development. The Minister of Defense is appointed by the Emperor and reports directly to him.

• Imperial Ministry of Defense
  • A. Imperial High Command (Office of Military Command for the Unified Forces of the Imperium): The Imperial High Command, consisting of the First Lord of the Admiralty and the Lord Marshal of the Unified Armies, also report directly to the Emperor. The role of the High Command is to set military policy and perform strategic planning.
    • A1. Office of Military Administration
      • Admiralty Command (Interstellar Forces)
      • Generalship Command (Planetary Forces)
      • High Imperial Marshal (Marshal of Admiralty & Generalship)
    • A2. Office of the Commando (Special Forces)
      • Protected Forces (ProFors)
      • Rapid Interface Forces (RIF)
      • Sylean Rangers
    • A3. Office of Communications (News & Public Relations)
      • Imperial Pax Department
        • Imperial Communications Authority
      • Imperial War Department
        • High Imperial Censor
    • A4. Office of Logistics
      • Imperial Depot Stewardship
      • Imperial Procurement Service
      • Imperial Ready Reserve Fleet
      • Imperial Surplus Service
      • Office of Technology Standardization
  • B. Admiralty (Office of the Navy): The Naval office of the Ministry of Defense, also know as the Admiralty, is in charge of the Imperial Navy. The Naval office is run by the First Lord of the Admiralty, who heads the Board of the Admiralty.
    • B1. Imperial Navy
      • Imperial Marines: The Commandant of the Marines, who commands the Imperial Marines, is part of the Admiralty. The Commandant advises the Imperial High Command.
    • B2. Sector Navies
      • Forces of the Imperial Nobility under feudal obligation.
  • C. Unified Armies Command (Office of the Army): The Lord Marshal of the Unified Armies along with the General Staff of the Unified Armies manages the Imperial Army.
    • C1. Imperial Army
      • Ground Force Command (GFC)
      • Close Orbit and Airspace Control Command (COACC)
      • Nautical Force Command (NFC)
    • C2. Sector Armies
      • Forces of the Imperial Nobility under feudal obligation.

Offices of the Emperor

These offices are part of the Emperor's staff and oversee various aspects of the Third Imperium that do not belong to the other ministries.

Primary Service Offices

• A. Office of the Emperor: The personal staff to the Emperor and members of the Imperial family.
  • Office of News & Public Relations: The propaganda arm of the Imperial government.
  • Reservations Office: Manages the Emperor's holdings outside of the Imperial palace.
• B. Office of Security: Provides the security to the Emperor, the Imperial family, and the Palace.
  • Imperial Bureau of Internal Security (IBIS)
  • Imperial Guard: An elite military force assigned directly to service of the Emperor.
    • Imperial Household Armor
    • Imperial Household Artillery
    • Imperial Household Infantry
    • Imperial Household Cavalry
• C. Office of the Palace: The staff who run the Imperial Palace.
• D. Office of Personal Transportation (OPT): Manages the spacecraft and other transport systems available to the Emperor and High Nobility.

Secondary Service Offices

• E. Office of Chronology & Temporal Periodization
  • Office of Calendar Compliance: Maintains the uniform use and standards for time and other measurements.
  • Office of Interstellar Timekeeping: TBD
• F. Office of Heraldry
  • Imperial Division of Heraldry: Concerned with the propriety of the Imperial Nobility, Orders, Awards, and all matters related.
  • Imperial Registry of Nobility: This office tracks the families of all current Imperial nobles with Imperial sanction. That includes the Noble Houses.
  • Imperial Registry of Non-native Nobility: This office tracks all of the non-Imperial nobles, usually planetary nobility predating Imperial re-contact although Imperial Clans are also tracked.
• G. Office of Imperial Concerns
  • Ancients Foundation: Concerned with the Imperial knowledge of the Ancients. Regulates sales and purchase of Ancients artifacts. This office coordinates exoarcheaology of known sites.
  • Precursor Foundation: While the Ancients are the best known precursor race, evidence exists of contemporaries, other precursor races with access to advanced or exotic technologies. This office researches the exploration of sites not believed to involve the Ancients.

History & Background (Dossier)

When Cleon founded the Imperium, there were five primary bureaucratic agencies. Over the years these agencies have grown, split, intermingled, and rejoined. The bureaucracy at any one point in time can be wildly disparate. For instance, the Imperial Quarantine Agency was once a stand-alone branch of the government, but it was subsumed into other parts of the Imperial Bureaucracy when technology changed. The Quarantine's many roles were distributed to the Navy, Scouts, and others.

Bureaucratic Origin

The original bureaucracy of the Third Imperium was based upon the governmental institutions of the Sylean Federation and the corporate structure of Zhunastu Industries. Cleon I cleverly blended the two into a unified institution designed to handle rulership of a people and the direction of a mercantile empire.

• Later Emperors adapted these bureaucratic structures to the needs of their times. After the First Civil War, Empress Arbellatra decreed that the institutions be given further authority to continue running even when an Emperor might be inept or infirm... Or the Moot might be locked into indecision.
• In a very real way, the Imperial Bureaucracy is the Third Imperium.

Grand Dukes

Grand Dukes were a part of the prefoundational state of the Third Imperium, the Sylean Federation. They had vast stated power and fiefs in excess of the current ducal title. The title was later stricken from the Nobility Lists. The role that Grand Dukes once played has now been replaced by Archdukes.

Domain System & Archduchies

During the period of the Pacification Campaigns in 76, the Emperor Artemsus subsequently created a new form of Archduke when he initially established the original six nominal Domains of the Imperium, each of which having an Archduke exercising overall control of his/her respective Domain, and acting as an intermediary between the Emperor and the other levels of nobility (except for the Domain of Sylea, where the Emperor himself acted as the titular Archduke). The intended goal of these new Domains and their associated Archdukes was to give each Archduke the responsibility for the prosecution of the "pacification" and integration of new systems into the Third Imperium within the defined boundaries of the given Domain by whatever means were most expedient.

By the late 6th century, the feudal confederation of the Third Imperium had devolved into a state of Civil War under the Emperors of the Flag over what were largely instances of petty ducal and archducal infighting by squabbling dukes. Certain problems were direct antecedent causes of the Civil War of course, but the core issue of preventing the splintering and secession of worlds and regions from the Third Imperium had remained a problem of the Emperors since its founding.

Arbellatrian Reforms

In response to and as a result of the struggles of the Imperial Civil War, the power and authority of the Archdukes within their Domains was gradually diminished by the Empress Arbellatra after the conclusion of the Civil War, at which time the Domain level within the bureaucracy was restructured and became largely bypassed. The titles of Archdukes who had been either deposed for disloyalty or who had died without a clear heir were allowed to become extinct, resulting in a situation after the Civil War in which most of the Domains of the Imperium did not have an appointed Archduke.

Strephonian Reforms

In more recent times, and in order to stave off the perceived gradual fracturing of the Imperium into local regional loyalties, the Emperor Strephon has been once again expanding the role of Archdukes and the Domain level of the Imperial bureaucracy, appointing new Archdukes to previously vacant titles.

Imperial Governance & Long-term Stability

One of the far-reaching goals of several of the Emperors of the Third Imperium has been to explore and achieve aeonic stability, or the establishment of a perpetual system of stability and prosperity, a system that preserves and promotes a peaceful and vigorous civilization without inhibiting it. After studying the eventual failures of the First Imperium and the Second Imperium, it has become apparent that the current model of civilization has its limits and the social constructs of sophontdom rise and fall with frightening regularity. The very existence of the Imperial Bureaucracy is rumored to be part of this program to achieve aeonic stability.

Imperial Longevity Programs

A number of programs have been launched in the over a millennium of the Third Imperium's existence including the following:

1. Exploration of and experimention with Psychohistory
2. Deliberate programs of sophont species inclusion and diversity
3. A program to establish Imperial Cultural Regions and establish diversity and tolerance of thought
4. A program to establish Imperial Autonomous Regions and greater self rule
5. Gradual improvements to the Imperial Bureaucracy to create continuity, flexibility, and stability of governance
6. The rumored existence of a special agent program to expand the reach of the Emperor
7. A failsafe program to safeguard civilization in the case of an apocalyptic event or a second Long Night

References & Contributors (Sources)

This list of sources was used by the Traveller Wiki Editorial Team and individual contributors to compose this article. Copyrighted material is used under license from Far Future Enterprises or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Classic Traveller High Passage 1 in Article: Justice Special Branch by Craig Johnson
• Classic Traveller High Passage 2
• Dragon #35 in Article IBIS (Imperial Bureau of Internal Security) by Kenneth Burke
• GURPS Traveller: Nobles
• Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science