Invisible Fortress:Realm

The Realm is synonymous with the Scarlet Empire. It is the largest and most powerful country in Creation today.

Society

While a person's place in Realm society is, theoretically, a merit-based one where you can achieve any heights of wealth and power with hard work and dedication, in practice that is not exactly the case. The truth of the social structure is that humans are elevated above non-humans: in employment opportunities, in wages, even down to the treatment afforded by merchants and business owners. Dragonmarked humans similarly enjoy a superior position to other forms of human, often treated as nobility even for those who are not actually members of any Great House. Members of the Great Houses, of course, are actual nobility. Scions of Great Houses who do not express a Dragonmark by the time they reach the age of majority are the black sheep of their family, and are almost always either disowned or else hidden away from the public eye for their entire lives.

The head of each Great House holds a great deal of political power, and of course the Scarlet Empress stands alone above all others.

Government

The Realm's government is divided into six parts:

Imperial Legions

The legions form the Realm's military arm. The Scarlet Empress used to command all of the legions, each named for a color, but she disappeared. Since then, the Great Houses have fought each other for control over individual legions, in preparation for the anticipated civil war.

Notable among its siblings, the Vermillion Legion has gained a reputation, one which has earned it the nickname "Red-Piss Legion". Assignment to the Vermillion Legion has become known to be a punishment where soldiers are sent to see their careers die. As such, it was an incredible surprise when Tepet Ejava "The Roseblack", granddaughter of the legendary general Tepet Arada and an accomplished military strategist herself, chose to take command of the Red-Piss soldiers after her previous command was wiped out by barbarians while she was forced back to the Blessed Isle and was lobbying for reinforcements.

Thousand Scales

The Thousand Scales is the bureaucratic arm of the Realm, handling public works such as road building and civic necessities such as collecting taxes. Since the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, their budget has been repeatedly slashed, and they have been severely struggling to satisfy their mandates.

All-Seeing Imperial Eye

The Imperial Eye is the Realm's secret police. They are responsible for espionage, counter-espionage, and similar activities.

Potential recruits for the Imperial Eye have a cloth with an embroidered eye symbol secreted onto their person. If they do not tell anyone about the symbol they've received, they are met with a proper contact of the organization and are inducted as a new member. If they reveal the eye they've received to anyone, the Imperial Eye kills them. As a result, the eye symbol has become viewed as a mark for death.

Immaculate Order

The Immaculate Order is the official state religion of the Realm. They teach a philosophy of reincarnation which blurs the line between the meritocratic lie of the Realm and the classist reality. Striving for perfection in your life will be rewarded with reincarnation with a Dragonmark, while failings will be punished with reincarnation as another species. As a result, the stratification of the Realm society is easily explained away as people who were productive or a drain in their previous life.

Deliberative

While on paper it is the Realm's legislative body, the Scarlet Empress created the Deliberative as a place to dump the useless members of her government. It existed only to rubber stamp the Empress's proclamations.

Several times over the centuries, the Deliberative has attempted to assert power for itself. The Empress has never entertained their rebellion. She has had no compunctions dissolving the entire Deliberative and rebuilding it, often even executing former members. Since her disappearance, the Deliberative has been acting on its own, and its members have been enriching themselves by robbing the Imperial coffers.

Great Houses

The Great Houses are not technically a part of the government, but they do hold a great amount of sway, and the other branches have many high-ranking members who are themselves members of a Great House.

Economy

The Realm uses a jade-based currency system, which many traders around the world will accept. The Realm maintains an artificial shortage of jade in order to control prices.

Many smaller kingdoms, especially among those in the Scavenger Lands to the east of the Blessed Isle, are tributary states to the Realm. A significant weight of jade or equivalent amount of goods flows from the tributaries to the Imperial City annually, and this forms a significant portion of the Realm's wealth.