Third Imperium

Also called The Imperium. Founded in 0 by Cleon Zhunastu from the Sylean Federation in what is now Core Sector. The Imperium grew swiftly during the pacification campaigns and more slowly thereafter until stability was reached in the 600’s, by which time the Imperium had absorbed much of the territory of the First and Second Imperiums.

Government Structure: The Imperium can be best thought of as a form of feudal confederation. Member worlds of the Imperium agree to pay taxes and obey a few fundamental laws which the Imperium promulgates, known as the High Laws. In return, the Imperium agrees to patrol the space between the worlds, to protect interstellar trade, to encourage travel and commerce, and to arbitrate diplomatic relations between worlds. Beyond this, individual worlds are left to their own devices so long as they acknowledge the power of the Imperium to rule the space between the stars.

Imperial power is present on member worlds in the form of consulates, bureaucratic offices, and bases. Sometimes, larger enclaves of Imperial power are placed where they can enhance the emperor’s strength.

The Imperium’s territory is divided into sectors, which are in turn divided into subsectors and systems. Groups of sectors, called domains, have been created above the sector level.

During the Pacification Campaigns, Emperor Artemsus divided space into six regions, labeled them domains, and appointed an archduke over each of them. To each archduke, he assigned the continuing pacification of the domain’s many systems and their integration into the Imperium. The domains were: Sylea (Core, Fornast, Massilia, Delphi), Vland (Corridor, Vland, Gushemege, Dagudashag), Gateway (Ley, Glimmerdrift Reaches, Gateway, Crucis Margin), llelish (Ilelish, Zarushagar, Reaver’s Deep, Daibei), Antares (Lishun, Antares, Mendan, Amdukan), and Sol (Dispora, Old Expanses, Solomani Rim, Alpha Crucis). Most of the domains were never totally absorbed into the Imperium.

In 589, during the First Frontier War, a seventh domain was established- Deneb (Spinward Marches, Deneb, Trojan Reach, Reft) The intent was to appoint an archduke to be responsible for their supervision. However, the Civil War broke out before an archduke was appointed.

Following the civil war, the emperors expressed concern about individuals with powers equaling their own, so they moved to lessen the power of the archdukes in the Imperial government Because of this, no archduke of Deneb was ever appointed. As a result, the domains came to have little practical significance. Each archduke did retain the power to create knights and baronets.

In the years after the Fourth Frontier War, and after the problems it presented from lags in communication, Emperor Strephon felt a strengthened archduke position could enable the Imperium to more quickly respond in defending the realm. Against the protests and opposition of some prominent members of the Moot, Strephon reestablished the domain as a level in the bureaucracy of the Imperial Navy and returned to the Domain the ability to collect taxes Still later, Strephon gave the archdukes the ability to legislate and enforce the desires of the emperor on the local level.

Megatraveller

One of Strephon’s last acts before his murder was to finally appoint an archduke of the Domain of Deneb: Archduke Norris.

The Divided Imperium: With the assassination of emperor Strephon and all immediate heirs to the throne in 1116, the resulting turmoil has caused some confusion as to who will succeed Strephon to the throne. Thus, at the moment, factionalism in the Third Imperium is at an all-time high. Even with the uncertainty of the current moment, the Third Imperium still stands. The archdukes are instituting local stopgap measures until such time as a strong central government can be reestablished

Meta

The Imperium is a series of consecutive galactic empires.

• The First Imperium (or Ziru Sirka) was an empire of the Vilani.
  • GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars takes place during final centuries of the First Imperium.
• The Second Imperium (or Rule of Man) was formed by the Terrans after they had conquered the First. The Rule of Man collapsed due to the weight of stagnation that it had absorbed from the Ziru Sirka.
• The Third Imperium arose after a period known as The Long Night, when a small federation of planets known as the Sylean Federation re-absorbed the worlds of the previous empires.
  • The founding of the Third Imperium (Milieu 0) is the setting for Marc Miller's Traveller.
  • The early years of the fledgling Third Imperium (Milieu 200) is the setting for Traveller 5
  • A well established Third Imperium is the setting for Classic Traveller, Mongoose Traveller, and Traveller20.
  • MegaTraveller is set in a period called the Rebellion, where the collapse of the Third Imperium is detailed.
  • GURPS Traveller is set in Milieu 1120, an alternate timeline where the Third Imperium did not collapse.
• The Fourth Imperium arises from a group of surviving states that joined a Grand Fleet of All Humaniti to defeat the last remaining faction of the Rebellion.
  • Traveller: The New Era is set during a recovery period prior to the rise of Fourth Imperium.

Other References

• Emperors of the Third Imperium
• Domains - List of Domains of the Archdukes
• Sector - Shows all sectors in the Imperium
• Imperial Nobility

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 Mongoose Publishing or by permission of the author. The page history lists all of the contributions.

• Imperial Encyclopedia
• The Traveller Book
• Supplement 8 Library Data (A-M)
• GURPS Traveller