Two Empires, the Basileia Rhomaion and the Great Empire of Goryeo rule the world of 1615, exactly one thousand and fifteen years since events which shaped the world forever. The dual nations are ruled from Constantinople and Pyongyang and have long since shaped the world to their image with the kingdoms of India and the civil war-torn Novgorod Republic, the last areas independent of their rule, existing because both Constantinople and Pyongyang realize that direct annexation would anger the other and lead to a Final Conflict, even if how both India and Novgorod have rulers who have practiced shrewd diplomacy plays some role in their independence.
However, few people know the reality behind this two-way division of the world as while Empress Valeria I, reigning from Constantinople and ruler of the Core Empire, while her brothers and sisters help rule the Outer Empire, and Seo-Jun, reigning from Pyongyang, know the truth from their supposedly divine forerunners, especially as Valeria was the favorite granddaughter of the Emperor of the Rhomanian Empire. The reality was that the millennial reign of the Emperor of the Rhomanian Empire or said ruler’s counterpart from Pyongyang’s long reign had nothing to do with any abilities given by God to the ruler in Constantinople that the Imperial Church preaches or how the ruler in Pyongyang was a bodhisattva on Earth.
The truth is that the rulers of Rhomania and Korea who had steered their empires to new heights were time travellers who had gone to the year 600 CE and used their knowledge of the future to build massive empires upon which the sun never sets and would rule over most of the world.
Rhomania’s “Agent of God” in reality was a time traveller who came from the Philippines who was enamored by the Rhomanian Empire and the Korean “bodhisattva” was actually a Korean nationalist who had similarly travelled back in time to take over the state of Goguryeo during the Three Kingdoms Period. Both had planned out thoroughly how they would travel back in time and had travelled back in time with the best knowledge that the world of 2075 allowed the two men to store as much information on technology, history of the world, medicine, luxury goods, political science, and other such matters as possible. In addition, both would also have prepared their telomeres to be lengthened so they would rule their empires for centuries, creating a situation of centuries-long reign for the Emperors.
It would be a coincidence that both men had plans which would end up with them travelling to the same year and the same world. However, this coincidence would lead to a world divided in two between the Empire of Rhomania and the Great Empire of Goryeo a millenia later.
However, their paths to power would be very different, despite how they both arrived in Constantinople and Pyongyang by an accidental fluke on the same day, March 18, 600 CE.
In the Rhomanian Empire, the Emperor would, using his universal translator, present himself to the current ruler of the Empire at the time, Maurice, and present himself to Maurice, saying that he had been sent by God Himself to act as his agent in ensuring the Kingdom of God on Earth would be strengthened and that the righteous would need his help as the agent of god, sent to Earth to listen to the cries of the fateful. As such, he would promise Maurice that he could secure Italy from the Lombards currently invading the Italian Peninsula and secure the Peninsula for the Empire. All he would ask would be the hand of Emperor Maurice’s daughter Anastasia for a wife.
Maurice seemed unconvinced until the time-traveller demonstrated his advanced technological prowess, or as the time-traveller would put it, “divine powers” by showing holographic technology which the time-traveller presented as a vision from God himself. Convinced, Maurice would send the Time-Traveller to Ravenna to shore up the beleaguered Roman forces there. In there, the Time-Traveller, the Agent of God, would fulfill the promise that he made to Maurice, defeating the Lombards in less than a year through how he taught the Roman forces there his “wisdom from God” in terms of primitive gunpowder weaponry, plate armor, improved composite bows, repeating crossbows, pike squares, and high-quality steel-making techniques, which quickly defeated the Lombards, even if “divine judgement” in terms of an An-124 bombarding Pavia, capital of the Lombard Kingdom, certainly helped, for Pavia would never be repopulated after its bombardment.
After marrying Anastasia in an elaborate ceremony at the Hagia Sophia, it seemed like the time-traveller would have a gradual path to power, having been named Exarch of Ravenna. However, a mutiny at the Danube would proclaim Phocas as Emperor and march on Constantinople, overthrowing Emperor Maurice and having him executed, along with his entire family. Afterwards, the time-traveller would refuse to submit to the usurper and would proclaim himself to be the new Emperor, citing his marriage to the late Emperor’s daughter.
Despite all the military technology that the time-travelling “agent of god” had revealed when he subjugated the Lombards, it would be his naval technology that would gain the edge as he would introduce the sternpost rudder and fully-masted ships, which ensured that his ships could outmaneuver those of Phocas loyalists and in addition, he would have naval firepower advantage as well. However, it would take a fierce battle at the gates of Constantinople before Phocas would lie dead, having taken a crossbow bolt through the eye. With Phocas defeated, the time-traveller would proclaim himself to be Emperor Constantine III with his Empress, Anastasia, by his side.
After taking the throne in Constantinople, Emperor Constantine III would reveal the blessings that he said he had from God himself. These blessings would include the scientific method, windmills, improved water wheels, germ theory, how to make paper, and an improved knowledge of basic sanitation. However, it would be two of his “revelations from God” that would be shaping the Empire forever. The first would be how he would introduce the printing press, which, even in the form that the Emperor would initially introduce, would use movable type and help boost literacy throughout the Empire. The second would be new crops, both familiar ones like wheat and barley which he said were “blessed by God” and unknown crops like potatoes, corn, and rice he said were “gifts from God”. These new crops would help increase the population of the Empire in the coming years to come.
After revealing the “revelations from God” that he had introduced, the Emperor set to work on reforming the system of the Empire, reorganizing the military and political system of the Empire in a way which would ensure that the Empire would survive longer and ensure it would be a united entity.
The first of these reforms would be a reorganization of the administration of the Empire, introducing a more meritocratic system of government. As part of the First Neo-Augustan Reforms, the rank of Patrician would be a title open to anyone who passes a series of exams which would be open to any man willing to take the exams, which included Greek philosophy, history, rhetoric, theology, and practical fields. The position of Patrician would also be hereditary, passing on to the most qualified son of the office-holder, who would hold the position for life with Patricians being both military and civil bureaucrats.
The second of these set of reforms would be the reorganization of the army along a decimal system of 10-man squads, 100-man centuries, 1000-man cohorts, and 10,000 man legions This system granted great flexibility granted to the command structure, where commanders would report to the next-highest level and would execute orders the way they best saw fit as long as the orders were followed. In addition, a great degree of discipline would be enacted, even if not at the expense of flexibility of the army. This reorganization of the army would be coordinated with how the Empire would have the best weapons in the region as well.
Thirdly, there would be a distinction between the core Empire, a category which initially included the Anatolian core of the Empire and Egypt, too valuable to be left to an Exarch, and the Exarchates, areas where the local authorities, headed by an Exarch appointed by the Emperor, would be given a degree of autonomy as long as they respected the supreme authority of Constantinople. This system would preserve central authority, reduce administrative strain, and grant a degree of flexibility in terms of administration with new Exarchates set up in the Balkans (to deal with the Avars and the Bulgars) and Syria (to deal with the Persians).
With these reforms enacted, Emperor Constantine III would deal with the problems amongst the Slavs and the Bulgars before turning his full attention east to Persia, where he would face the Sassanians in battle, with how Khosrau II had used the murder of Maurice as a pretext for war. As such, he would conquer large parts of Mesopotamia, taking Cteshiphon by 610 while a secondary campaign would take Hedjaz during this period as well.
In 610 AD, an Arab merchant in Roman Arabia named Muhammad would have what he said was a revelation from God. Little did he know, but this revelation would change the religious scene of the Empire forever with the development of the Imperial Church, which would be developed by the Emperor as a means of uniting the Empire and reconciling the Chalcedonians and the Miaphysites together.
In 624 CE, after further successes in Mesopotamia, having reached the Persian Gulf, and an invasion of Hispania, Emperor Constantine III would call a Church Council of Constantinople, the Third Council of Constantinople of major religious leaders to discuss the development of a single Imperial Church to unite the various peoples of the Empire. However, with how the Emperor had successfully convinced many of his subjects that he was an agent of God sent to prepare the righteous, it would be his ideas that would shape the Council of Constantinople and even with how the Franks and the Celts would not send a delegation, it would still shape Christianity to this day.
In this Church Council, Emperor Constantine III would declare that the Monothelite position would be the one that would guide the Imperial Church, in which Jesus Christ had a single will, but two natures. Normally, this position would be one met with strong opposition, however, the cult the Emperor had built around himself silenced much criticism of said proposal. However, what would play a major impact in defining the Imperial Church would be how the Emperor would invite a charismatic preacher and former merchant named Muhammad to the Church Council. This would play an important role in the Imperial Church in how Muhammad’s ideas, especially in social matters like relatively fair treatment of slaves, encouraging giving alms, and other such matters, would be adopted by the Council.
By the time the Third Council of Constantinople had ended, the schism between Miaphysite and Chalcedonian, at least within the Empire, had nominally been ended and the Empire was in a far better state than it was before with Emperor Augustus II and Empress Anastasia on the throne.
A similar, though in many ways different, story would play out in the Korean Peninsula as Hwan Sun-Woo would similarly present himself as a divine figure, with Hwan declaring he was a living Bodhisattva who had come down to Earth. As such, Hwan Sun-Woo would quickly gain popularity and many followers among the commons of the kingdom, that had recently suffered numerous invasions by its neighbours, thanks to his future knowledge and spreading among them his militant nationalistic version of Buddhism. In addition, he would initially offer his services to King Yeongyang in conquering Baekje and Silla, which would be conquered, much like the Lombards, in a matter of months. However, he would bide his time until the time was ready for him to take over Korea
His opportunity to take power came when the Sui dynasty of China launched an invasion of 1,300,000 men against Korea in 612. When the forces of King Yeongyang fought the invading army, soldiers and militias led by Hwan Sun-Woo would appear and rout both groups thanks to their advanced weaponry, recruiting the few that remained.
Hwan’s army of fanatics would take no more than a month in pacifying his new kingdom, and by the end of the year the entirety of Korea was his. His coronation (and marriage to the daughter of a rich noble family) would occur the next year and would be the greatest ever seen in East Asia and like his counterpart in Eastern Europe he too would use it as an opportunity to show the technological and scientific marvels that he brought from 2075 as well. As such, he would introduce printing presses, the scientific method, new crops from the Americas, improved water wheels, windmills, basic sanitation, and other such innovations.
However, Hwan, unlike his counterpart in the other end of Eurasia, would reveal a new script as well. This script he claimed was a “perfect script” and called it “hangul”
However, the takeover of Korea, or as he called it, Goryeo, would just be the beginning for the ambitious Korean nationalist, for the defeat of the Sui Dynasty forces had begun a chain of events which would lead to Goryeo’s conquest of China, for Hwan Sun-Woo would next turn his attention to Manchuria, where he would quickly persuade the Khitan people through his wonders, peacefully subjugating Manchuria within a period of a few months in 614. He would be impressed by their fighting spirit and as such, would comprise his Imperial Guard entirely of Khitans.
Once the Sui Dynasty was in the middle of collapsing from peasant and military revolts, Hwan would strike at the Chinese in 616, quickly breaching their fortresses and defeating all those who opposed him, even as reports that he was a living bodhisattva preceded him. However, despite the advancements he had introduced and his reputation, it would take a decade for all of China to fall before Hwan Sun-Woo and there would be many obstacles, like when Li Yuan assembled an alliance of all remaining Chinese forces who even defeated an overconfident Korean army at the gates of Wuhan.
Despite setbacks like Li Yuan’s alliance against him, Hwan Sun-Woo would march on Guangzhou by 625, having conquered all of China. As such, he would set about doing the job of integrating China into his Empire of Goryeo, even as he set about conquering his final challenge of this period, Japan. As Hwan Sun-Woo had warned his subjects and advisors, the security of Goryeo meant that the “eastern islands” would need to be pacified to ensure the prosperity of the realm.
As such, Hwan Sun-Woo would carry out the invasion of the Yamato, which, despite the issue of having to build a fleet, would be something that Goryeo would carry out with ease with the Yamato, along with the Emishi of the north of Japan, being crushed easily by the Goryeo in a single year, with Goryeo, by 630, being an Empire which extended from Dunhuang in the West to Japan in the East and from Manchuria in the North to Annam in the South and unlike the monogamous Emperor in the West, Hwan had taken multiple wives including Pingyang, daughter of the prior-mentioned Li Yuan.
With Goryeo now an Empire spanning Korea, China, and Japan, Hwan Sun-Woo would set about developing a new system for his Empire of Goryeo to unite an Empire larger than any of his predecessors had forged. In this, he would take the basic system of the Chinese Empire and reform it in a manner which would strengthen and improve the system, as far as Hwan was concerned.
As such, Hwan Sun-Woo would enact a series of reforms from 630 to 635 CE which would see economic and political changes which would change Goryeo as an Empire forever. First, he would decree that the new “hangul” script would be the one used for day-to-day administration. Secondly, he would enact policies which would reshape the economy like paid as opposed to corvee labor, introducing paper currency, giving farmers loans, initiated price controls, and regulated wages. Thirdly, he would enact a baojia system which organized households to help ensure collective responsibility and ensure local defense was more effective. Finally, he would enact policies which would give people more access to the Imperial Civil Service through de-emphasizing the Confucian Classics and enacting a new curriculum which gave technical matters a higher level of importance in running the Empire.
With their empires secured, Constantine III and Hwan Sun-Woo would both rule over their empires as they gradually expanded with Persia, the Frankish realms, and Scandinavia all being annexed by Rhomania during this period while Goryeo would invade Indochina and the Malay Archipelago when the two Empires would make direct contact with one another for the first time in the steppes of Central Asia, just as the Emperors of the two great empires of Rhomania and Goryeo were about to reveal their latest secrets in the year 1000 CE.
This interaction between Rhomania and Goryeo only confirmed the rumors that both empires had heard about and so, the two Empires first realized that there was another Empire, similarly ruled by a “divine” figure who had gifted their people with great gifts, had reigned for centuries and had foreseen the future and acted accordingly. As such, Rhomania and Goryeo would develop into two powers who would be rivals of one another, especially as both rulers would reveal the steam-engine, the breech-loading rifle and cannon, hand-cranked machine-guns, the Bessemer Method, knowledge of a “new world”, how to develop factories and railroads, and other such technologies which would increase their empire’s power further and allow the dual empires of Rhomania and Goryeo to reach further heights.
In the race for a new land the Rhomanians would call the Hesperides and Goryeo would call Fusang, there would be a race for new resources, with the Rhomanians conquering much of North Hesperidia east of the Dashan Mountains and South Hesperidia outside of the Andes and Goryeo conquering much of Western Fusang, the Toltecs, and the Wari people while the Maya would fall to Rhomania. This scramble for a new world would, along with the race for influence in Central Asia and India, result in the first “global” conflict between Rhomania and Goryeo between 1034 and 1043 with the next six hundred years being marked by further conflicts between Rhomania and Goryeo combined with intermittent periods of peace. During this period, the two Empires would wage war with one another, compete for influence in India and Novgorod, and the rulers would reveal their last secrets. As such the 13th Century would see the revelation of the internal combustion engine, the airplane, and the tank and the 14th Century marked by how the computer, the microchip, the atomic bomb, the jet engine, and rockets powerful enough to launch into space were “revealed”. By 1450, the Emperors of Rhomania and Goryeo had revealed almost everything that would be revealed with 1492, a year of reverence to both travellers, being the year of the final revelations that they would make. This would be everything that was known to the human race in the year 2075, the year that they had travelled back in time from.
As such, both time travellers felt that their time was done and stopped with their telomere gene therapy, especially with how they had revealed everything that they could technologically. As such, the rulers would begin with formalizing their succession plans in order to ensure that their Empires would survive.
In the Empire of Rhomania, the Emperor would summon Princess Valeria, daughter of Prince Leo of Rhomania, who was the initial pick of the Emperor to succeed him until his sudden death in 1495. As such, Princess Valeria would be named the junior co-Empress of the Rhomanian Empire, a title which, in all but name, meant that she was the “Crown Princess” of the Rhomanian Empire.
As such, she would become Exarch of Ogygia, an area of the Empire which consisted of the southern half of the Empire’s holdings in the North Hesperides. Princess Irene would be ruler of the Exarchate of Ogygia, the wealthiest of the six “Western Exarchates” owing to the large-scale economic development in the region, until on March 6, 1574, the Princess was informed her father, the Emperor, had breathed his last from a heart attack in his sleep. As such, she was the new Empress and Autocrat of the Rhomanian Empire.
At the funeral of Emperor Constantine III were dignitaries from all over the world, who had come to pay their respects as the “agent of God”, his work done, “ascended into heaven”. The Emperor’s public funeral where he lay in state and millions would attend would be accompanied by a more private funeral where the Emperor’s family would lay the Emperor to rest with the new Empress, Valeria, having the Emperor’s remains, cremated after the public funeral had ended, laid to rest in a tomb next to his wife, the Empress Anastasia.
By the time that Valeria was coronated as Empress in a grand ceremony which was a ceremony marked by great celebrations culminating in a ceremony where Valeria would first wear the Imperial Crown, the crown the Emperor had prior to her, with a crown that she would wear with her first-born daughter Eudoxia proclaimed the co-Empress, her hold on the Empire was secure. Her brothers and sisters, along with her surviving uncles and aunts, knew this, ever since Valeria was named co-Empress in 1496. Thus, the grand ceremony of the coronation of Valeria as Empress would be little more than a formality, even if it certainly presented a strong image of the Empire after her grandfather’s death.
And thus began the reign of Empress Valeria, who had been “blessed with the divine gifts” of the Emperor in how she would continue to commune with God and the angels and had been blessed with an unnaturally long life, like her predecessor Constantine III. In reality, she would continue her grandfather’s practices of travelling to the future to find out what would happen without her interference and using telomere-based gene therapy to prolong her lifespan. Empress Valeria would, unlike her more autocratic grandfather, be a leader who would rule as a “first amongst equals”, appointing the senior ministers and exarchs from the ranks of a highly diverse nobility and generally cooperating with them in formulating policy in running the Empire.
In Goryeo, the road to succession was a far rockier one for Hwan Sun-Woo would die from a sudden aneurysm in 1516 before he could name a successor and unlike the strictly monogamous Emperor Constantine III in Rhomania, he would be a man with dozens of wives. As such, there would be a power struggle which would follow amongst the family of the Emperor which would consume the next few years as a council of senior nobles, bureaucrats, and generals would rule the Empire.
In this power struggle, the two main competitors would be Prince Hwan Dong-Hyeon, the head of the Imperial Bureau of the Maintainance of Harmony and Princess Hwan Seo-Yun, Viceroy of Megsiko, the most prominent of the Fusangese colonies of Goryeo, especially after many princelings and bureaucrats aligned with the two squabbling royals. While there was no danger of an Imperial Civil War, the power struggle would still prove to be a tense one full of assassinations until Prince Hwan Dong-Hyeon would be able to persuade the Council to name him as Emperor in 1518.
In the consolidation of Hwan Dong-Hyeon as Emperor, or as he would call himself Seo-Jun, the followers of Hwan Seo-Yun would often be purged, often by sending them to the Martian or Lunar bases. However, Hwan Seo-Yun would prove to be less lucky, for she would be executed by the new Emperor via being poisoned through a “sudden illness”. As such, the Empire would soon be reorganized.
Unlike his Rhomanian counterpart, Seo-Jun would very much be an autocratic figure who ruled the Empire with a strong hand. As such, he would make the Chancellor a glorified secretary and ensure that the Imperial Bureaucracy of Goryeo would answer to him.
By the year 1615, the two empires of Rhomania and Goryeo had expanded their reach throughout the world and the Solar System. Technological development is at an all-time high and so is economic prosperity with both Rhomania and Goryeo having colonies on the Moon which could be considered small cities, permanent bases on Mars, asteroid mining facilities, small bases on Jovian and Saturnian moons, building O’Neill Cylinders and other such technological advancements.
Space has been as militarized as Earth with militarized space stations being developed by both Goryeo and Rhomania in addition to civilian space stations. These space stations, if Augusta Valeria or Hwangje Seo-Jun say so, will begin firing their mass drivers, nuclear missiles and anti-missile lasers at their enemies at the start of a war. War has definitely changed with how soldiers of the militaries of the world have power armor and warships all have railguns.
Computer technology has progressed as well. As such, artificial intelligence can pass the Turing Test, even with learning AIs being unsuccessful. Virtual Reality has also progressed heavily with the average citizen in the two Empires spending lots of time in virtual reality servers.
In terms of energy tech, fusion power is very much the vogue for both Rhomania and Goryeo with how both Empires are seeking to use cold fusion to replace oil and other fuels to fuel their empires, especially as resources are decreasing quickly.
Both Empires are heavy into megaprojects as well. As such Rhomania would carry out herculean mega-projects to make the deserts of Arabia and the Sahara bloom like building a sea in the Qattara Depression and massive irrigation projects, bridge/tunnel systems to span the Red Sea, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean between Tunisia and Sicily, and other such giant projects. Goryeo, not to be undone, has gone about developing artificial islands to make getting oil more efficient and built tunnels to link Korea and Japan and cross the Bering Strait. However, both empires are also into building arcologies as resources on Earth are decreasing as well.
As such, both Empires have been racing to build the ultimate project of them all, the space elevator with Rhomania building theirs in the coast of East Africa while Goryeo builds their space elevator in Borneo.
However, the two Empires, despite being superficially static with how they have dominated the world for centuries, are quite dynamic internally.
In the 17th Century, the Rhomanian Empire is in many ways a firm meritocracy under the hand of Empress Valeria I, a woman of great intelligence and beauty who had secured the Empire that her grandfather had left her. A system of Patricians, creating a united system of the military and civil administrations is under her authority, with a meritocratic elite of Patricians ranked according to their merit in the Imperial Examinations.
This meritocratic elite of Patricians is a highly diverse elite with people of many different ethnicities, classes, and cultural backgrounds comprising said class (including women after the early 12th Century) with merit and loyalty to the Empire being what unites the Patricians. All Patricians are liable for service in the Empire, be it in a civil function with bureaucracy or law enforcement or a military function with the Imperial Roman Armed Forces, a united entity. This has created what could be called a benevolent police state in the integration between military and civil bureaucracies.
The Patrician-led system is a system which encourages the best and brightest, along with the most ambitious, to join the Imperial Examinations and work for the future of the Empire. Despite being an elite, the Patrician system is open to all citizens of the Empire and could be described as an oligarchic meritocracy, especially with how free education is provided by the government of Rhomania.
In the Empire, Empress Valeria I has ruled the Empire in a fair and just manner, having proven her detractors wrong in the Ninth Rhomanian-Goryeo War of 1576 to 1582. As such, she had secured her control of the Empire with the affable face of the Empress being a figure of much affection amongst her people, especially with how she had dealt with corruption within the Empire. How she had named her daughter Eudoxia as Co-Empress has also added to the sense of security amongst the people of the Empire for the line of succession is secure and Eudoxia has shown herself to be a worthy heir with her leadership of one of the Hesperidean Exarchates and her position in the Imperial Council.
As such, she has also taken care to secure the Exarchates, areas of the Empire outside of the Core Empire of the Meditteranean, Mesopotamia, and Hedjaz. The Exarchates are regions of the Empire run with some special care with the Exarchates of Francia, Germania, Normandy, Brittania, and Persia being central regions of the Empire which aren’t fully Romanized and have special treatment as a result. Despite their status as Imperial Exarchates, many prominent figures in the Empire have had backgrounds from Francia, Germania, Normandy, Britannia, or Persia and are largely Exarchates for how they have maintained their language and culture to some degree (especially the Persians and Normans, who love recounting their pre-Roman histories) as opposed to the Greco-Roman fusion which is Rhomanian Imperial Culture. The Persians even maintain Zoroastrianism to some degree.
The Colonial Exarchates of Africa are colonial administrations which are still being raised up to Rhomanian “heartland” standards and while there are some successes in South Africa, West Africa, Ethiopia, and the *Swahilis of East Africa with quite a few Patricians rising to prominence from those regions. On the other hand, the Colonial Exarchates of the Hesperides are highly integrated regions of the Empire, though the Yucatan, with its Mayan population and culture, is unique in how the natives and their culture are highly respected by Rhomanian authorities. The Hesperidean Colonial Exarchates increasingly are the center of the Rhomanian economy and population with 2/5ths of the Empire’s 4 billion people and almost half of the economy being in the Hesperides with the increasing influence of the Hesperides being something Empress Valeria has recognized with how she has named many Hesperidean-born officials to high posts in the Imperial Council.
Despite the Exarchate system, provincial administration in the Empire, be they under the Exarchates or direct rule, is relatively similar, except that provincial governors in Exarchates are appointed by the Exarchs and not the Empress under miniature versions of the Imperial Government.
Meanwhile, Goryeo is more of a centralized entity than the Rhomanian Empire. The Empire of Goryeo is ruled centrally from Pyongyang under Emperor Seo-Jun, ruthless, autocratic, and a pragmatist first and foremost. Under him is a system of bureaucrats and military officers which consist of a vast and byzantine system that the Emperor leverages to gain as much power over the Empire’s government, unlike the system in Rhomania where the Empress largely does political interventions when it comes to major crises in the Empire.
However, the bureaucracy of Goryeo is similar to Rhomania in how it is meritocratic and selected through civil service exams, even if Rhomanian bureaucrats have more leeway than Goryeo’s bureaucrats with a less autocratic Emperor on the helm. However, unlike in Rhomania where there is a great diversity in civil servants, most civil servants are from the Sino-Korean core of the Empire, from the Sino-Korean populations in the Outer Empire, or Koreanized natives, considering that Goryeo is more openly centered on its Sino-Korean cultural mix than say Rhomania and its more civic conception of Empire, which has caused some problems in the Indonesian portions of its empire or in Megsico, which is nothing a few deportations to Siberia or Antipodia cannot solve.
In addition, Goryeo has adopted a system with the core prefectures under the control of the Central Government in Pyongyang, hereditary prefectures, and Protectorate-Generals. The core prefectures consist of the Sino-Korean core of the Empire and the Japanese islands, Koreanized long ago.
Meanwhile, the hereditary prefectures consist of regions within Goryeo where the local elites got to keep some autonomy in exchange for submission like Medang, Tufan, Angkor, and Chimu. While these autonomies have been eroded away centuries ago, these areas are still viewed differently from other areas of Goryeo where the Sino-Korean culture isn’t the majority. Whereas vigorous Koreanization is pursued in those other regions, these people are allowed to retain their own cultures and Medang even preaches that Hwan Sun-Woo was an avatar of Vishnu and not a bodhisattva.
Finally, the Protectorate-Generals consist of areas where Koreanization is incomplete like Lavo, Megsico, Bagan, and Turpan, the prison colonies of Siberia and Australia, and the settler colonies of Eastern Antipodia, Beojin Laendeu, and the other Fusangese regions not mentioned before, especially with how the southernmost of the Fusangese settler colonies still has a Mapuche problem.
Now, we must discuss the two main areas of the world not controlled by Rhomania or Goryeo, the kingdoms of India and the warring states of what was once Novgorod.
India is divided between the Rajput-centered Kingdom of Bharat, the Pandya Kingdom in the South, and the Bengali-run Kingdom of Magadha along with some smaller kingdoms in with much of the Northwest of India being run by the Kingdom of Bharat, the Magadhans controlling much of the Gangetic plain and the Pandyas running much of the South. However, despite this three-way division, some smaller kingdoms exist in the Deccan, Assam, and the center of the subcontinent.
India is largely Hindu religiously except for the more traditional (as opposed to Goryeon Buddhist) Bengal as well. Despite not having the grand projects of the Rhomanians or Goryeo, the Indians are proud of their independence, especially as the powers of India have played the great Empires of Rhomania and Goryeo against each other for centuries to ensure their independence. As such, the powers of India maintain their independence and freedom. However, India is not entirely free from the empires for Bharat and the Pandya are allied with the Rhomanians while the Magadhans have allied with Goryeo.
The warring states of Novgorod are in the midst of a bloody civil war triggered by the assassination of the Prince and the inability of the Veche to elect a new Prince of the Novgorod Republic which was compounded by tensions between the dominant Novgorodians and the other peoples of Novgorod. As such, civil war has torn Novgorod apart for years now with the major factions at a stalemate after seven years of fighting with Lechicia, Central European Council, the Republic of Novgorod, the Perm Soviet, the Free Territory of Bashkortostan, the Kingdom of Rus, the Sibir Khanate, the Chernaya Liga, the Russian People's Union, and the Goverment of National Salvation being the main factions in the brutal civil war, which has turned into a proxy war between Rhomania and Goryeo with both empires backing different powers.
The civil war has led to millions of deaths as neither Marshal Tatiana Antonova, commander of the Government of National Salvation, nor Princess Stella of Rus, nor any of the other warlords and generals are willing to surrender their power. As such, the once-proud nation of Novgorod is in pieces as Marshal Tatiana Antonova in the GNS, Princess Stella Nabatova of Rus, General Pavel Volkov of the RPU, First Citizen Yuri Orlov of the Perm Soviet, Director Dmitri Smirnov of Novgorod, and Supreme Commander Souzana Ivanova of the Chernaya Liga fight and the minorities of Novgorod, the Lechs, the Ruthenes, the Bashkirs, and the Sibir, see their chance to rise up and gain independence.
Even as Novgorod burns, humanity pushes forward as humanity could now be considered a low-tier Type 1 Civilization on the Kardashev Scale as fusion power, asteroid mining, and giant projects reshape the world. Humanity seems to have no limits even as scientists in Rhomania and Goryeo push to develop what they call a “Warp Drive”, which they hope would allow humanity to push for the stars and become an interstellar species.
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