Empire and Legacy: June 2024

I’m continuing to write the content for Empire and Legacy. Here are some of the events I’ve written this month.

I decided I wanted the Empire to start losing territory early in the game, so I’ve added this event that always triggers in the first few years:

OUTER RIM: …The few inhabited systems in the Outer Rim were widely spaced and generally undeveloped, making the assertion of any central authority difficult. Many of these systems were only nominally part of the Empire…

— Galactopedia

The Vaion Star Empire unites the entire galaxy. That was what your father always told you, and that was the responsibility you inherited with his untimely death.

But now, as your civil servants return the audit of Imperial systems they began when you ascended to the throne, it begins to look like the Empire’s dominion over much of the galaxy exists only on paper. There are planets in the outer rim that have had no regular contact with the capital for generations. Do the people of these outlying regions even think of themselves as part of the Empire? Do they even still know the Empire exists?

“The tax those systems owe would not be worth the expense of collecting it,” your financial advisor says. “Your predecessors simply ignored them, and I suggest you do the same.”

• I have a duty to even my most distant subjects. Send envoys to the outer systems to re-establish an Imperial presence. (70%)
• Those systems are part of the Empire. Send the navy to enforce the Empire’s rule. (45%)
• Ignore the issue and move on.

The success chances of the first two options are based on your faction strengths. If you succeed one of those checks your empire will still lose some systems, just not as many as if you’d failed.

To add a feeling of progression as your empire loses territory, I’ve added a series of events that trigger when you drop below certain numbers of systems. Here’s the first one, which triggers when you control less than 75% of the galaxy:

VAION: …Although Vaion ceased to be the Imperial capital in 10014 IE, it retained immense symbolic value. When the Empire lost control of the planet in 11317 IE, it was seen as a serious blow to the legitimacy of Anascanar XXXVI’s rule…

— Galactopedia

The holographic map of the galaxy that flickers in your situation room is no longer the one that greeted you when you first walked into the room as emperor. More than a quarter of its stars have gone dark, indicating that the Empire no longer controls those systems. The Galactic Core still glows brightly, but large swathes of the outer rim have slipped from your control.

What stings more painfully than the number of systems lost, however, is the fact that the ancient Imperial capital of Vaion is now outside the Empire’s borders. As a child you visited that planet with your parents and saw the ruins of the palaces from which your ancestors built and then ruled the greatest empire the universe has ever seen. Now those palaces lie outside the Empire’s control, and their future is uncertain.

How can you call yourself the successor to the Vaion Emperors if their ancient homeworld is no longer part of your realm?

• Negotiate with the new rulers of the planet. The old Imperial Palace must remain part of the Empire, even if the planet itself is not. (46%)
• Ready the fleet. We must reclaim the ancient capital. (30%)
• Vaion is of no strategic importance and hasn’t been the capital for a thousand years. Let it go.

Finally, here’s the event I’ve written that kicks off the event chain that can eventually lead to the Empire being reformed into a republic:

PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY: …The power of the People’s Assembly waxed and waned over the long history of the Empire. In some centuries it was ignored or even outlawed, while in others it rose to the status of a formal Galactic Parliament…

— Galactopedia

One of your more pleasant regular duties is your weekly meeting with Jilvon Xvan, the speaker for the People’s Assembly. Over the course of your reign, these meetings have developed from formal briefings to friendly chats.

“Your Majesty, there’s an idea I wanted to run past you before it becomes a formal proposal,” she says one week as you share spiced tea in the Little Throne Room. “You’ve always championed the interests of the common people, and I sense that you are friendly to the ideals of democracy. With your support, the People’s Assembly could become a Galactic Parliament with formal powers…”

Jilvon explains the idea. The new Galactic Parliament would have the power to write laws, but you would remain head of state and have wide-ranging executive powers. It would not transform the Empire into a republic, but it would be a step in that direction.

• Create the Galactic Parliament.
• Absolutely not.

My thought is that you’ve probably not going to get this event if you’re not trying to, so I’ve written it with the idea that your character maybe believes in democracy and is trying to reform the Empire from the inside. At least, that’s what the Speaker for the People’s Assembly hopes–you get to decide if they’re right or not.

Also on display here is the name generator I’ve building into the game. Lots of characters are going to have random names and genders. I started building this system for the potential suitors in the romance/marriage events (whose gender depends on the player’s preferences), but since I had it I decided to use it for other characters too.

That’s all for this month. I’ll keep working on the game and should have some more events to show next month.

P.S. In the unlikely event you’re reading this and don’t already own Beyond the Chiron Gate, it’s currently in the Summer Sale on itch.io and Steam.