I find myself baffled on more than one occasion when trying to understand the Zarian Dominion. Part of that might just be the sources I have access to. After all, they’re almost all from the Empire of the Sky and very much slanted towards an Imperial perspective, which rarely does the nation’s old enemy any favors. But that’s not all of it. Perhaps I don’t have the context or experience to really get their culture. Especially not the nuances behind it.

Because, like in many things, what’s written in laws and books can be different from what the everyday citizen would experience, and there are many unwritten rules and customs. The Dominion has perhaps more than most, especially when it comes to their political structure.

The origins of this frustrating (if, admittedly, ‘great’) nation parallel those of the Empire and many other global powers or smaller countries. People started out living as hunter-gatherers, then began building villages and settlements and, eventually, cities. At that point, there was a large amount of communication between places far away, compared to Earth, but what records we have are lacking in details. In those cities, social class structures developed and were refined, with the strongest warriors on top of the social pyramid. Much like other places.

Of course, Aran is a big planet, even bigger than Earth. The Storm Continent is farther south of the equator than the Sky Continent, and the climate is colder. Like the Empire, the origins of the Dominion lie close to a mountain range, though in this case more in the foothills and low mountains leading up to the Whitecaps. Those lie to the South-East of the continent, and while the environment would have been more sheltered than in many other places of the Storm Continent, it still means long winters and cold temperatures. About the same as Central or Northern Europe on Earth, I think, depending on where in the region you go.

The cities springing up there communicated with each other quite a lot compared to other places, usually with the help of spirits. That may be due to the need to exchange information about the weather conditions or watch out for powerful spirit beasts coming down from the mountains, which were a real hotbed of monster activity. Perhaps that’s why they had a strong tendency toward collaboration, organization, and with it, social stratification. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that the region developed the makings of a real nation sooner than anywhere else on their continent, although I’m not sure if I can call that a good thing.

As the time of city-states drew to a close and the first larger countries started to crystallize, the region weathered the changes quite well. A population boom had led to them pushing back the spirit beasts and even gaining footholds in the mountains, where they got valuable ores and crafting materials. At the time, their cities were same of the most prosperous places on both continents.

Twelve cities’ leaders met in 450 of the Imperial calendar to officially found the Zarien (apparently an old version of their name) League. The predecessor of the Dominion. They could have united like this much sooner, but they certainly didn’t waste any time expanding after the new nation’s birth.

They were strong, not just in resources or numbers, but also in terms of social cohesion. At least on the surface. The seeds for their present ideology were already laid at that time, and the strong focus on someone’s cultivation strength paid off in a disproportionate number of higher-level cultivators. In the League, the easiest and most meaningful way to increase your social status was to break through to a new stage. Many people focused on trying to improve their cultivation if they possibly could.

The cities usually had kings, at some point, at least, but they were really ruled by a collective of the strongest warriors. In some cities, the monarchies were openly deposed in favor of a ruling council of these cultivators. Patricians, really. After all, wealth often runs in families. The Zarien League was dominated by these families, those that could afford to give their children the resources (and not to forget the time to cultivate) they needed to improve their cultivation quickly.

Their society had the food and other resources to spare to afford this focus. To be fair, many stronger cultivators helped improve their farming efforts, another reason for the population growth, and the qi-rich materials from the mountains helped both their economy and their alchemy and other crafting pursuits, which in turn fed their warriors’ strength.

In a way, I don’t think the Zarian have ever really gotten past that period. As a collective, or a cultural subconscious, or however you want to put it.

The Zarien expanded quickly, conquering half a dozen new cities in a decade. On the surface, that doesn’t sound like as much as it could have been, but after looking at the maps and statistics, it’s impressive. After all, some of those cities were dozens if not hundreds of kilometers away, and they kept the trend up for not just decades, but centuries.

At first, how they treated the captured cities varied wildly, perhaps depending on which of the Zarien cities was involved. But over time, this smoothed out to make a series of half-official traditions that regulated how the new conquests were plundered and integrated into their nation.

In time, the country spread out to cover a large part of the continent. Their rise reminds me a little of Rome’s early days, actually, although it wasn’t just a single city at the center, but a dozen. They brought their culture, language and the technological advances they made along with them, and their army was quite a bit better organized and stronger than their neighbors. They didn’t always treat conquered people well, but they usually paid attention to their economy.

After more than a millennium, the Zarien League faced its first major internal crisis. Their reach may have gotten too long, their territory too big and diverse. At this point, the great majority of people in their empire didn’t have citizenship. In any case, a rebellion rose among many of the conquered cities and territories. It was especially strong in those closer to the Zarian heartland, where people felt disadvantaged compared to the essentially not so different native Zarien citizens. A bit like the Social War for the Roman Republic, if I want to continue my analogy.

It almost broke the League. In fact, it did technically break the League, which was reformed in the aftermath to form the Zarian Dominion. Two years later, another rebellion rose, though this was crushed more quickly. It still led to a reform of the citizenship system, essentially granting the right to anyone from a territory that had been conquered longer than a few decades ago. This was when the new structure and government really established themselves, making the Zarian Dominion we know today.

After that, the Dominion expanded quickly. The following few centuries are a little murky in Imperial history, perhaps because of the events happening in the Empire at the same time, and there are contradicting reports. But somehow, the Zarieni, who seem to have been a group living in the northern plains of the Storm Continent (at the time, they clearly originated from closer to if not in the League), clashed with the Dominion and were eventually forced north to settle the Yellow Graves. Not long after that, when the Dominion pushed farther north, it encountered the Empire for the first time. Things did not go well, and after the dust settled, roughly the arrangement of today emerged; the Yellow Graves populated by the Zarieni nomads dividing the Dominion and Empire in their respective continents.

The Dominion turned their expansionism to other targets and acquired colonies, vassals and overseas territories on other continents, though not quite as many as the Empire. Not much really changed in the Dominion proper.

They have a very stratified society. At first, I thought that every nation would be similar in that aspect, that ‘rule of the strong’ was just a philosophy and way of life here on Aran. It definitely is, to some extent — I don’t think I’ve read or heard about a country here where someone’s cultivation strength doesn’t matter. But the Zarian Dominion is very upfront about it. It’s the basis for their whole ideology.

In the Dominion, your social status, prospects — your worth, really — is determined by your cultivation stage. It’s like a caste system with a bit more mobility. People don’t get full citizen’s rights below the third stage. Which might not sound so bad, but it’s still a comparatively small percentage of their population. There’s a whole codex of laws and regulations, or several, that deal with it. How much taxes you pay, whether you’re allowed to own land or marry someone else, or work in a certain trade, it’s all linked to your cultivation strength.

Small wonder this is also quite militaristic. Soldiers are strong cultivators, that’s just a natural consequence of the way this world works, and they’re highly regarded by the Dominion. While at the same time being bound far more firmly than other citizens. The propaganda machine is particularly strong here, too, of course.

The Dominion says all of this is the natural order of things. That the strong have the privilege and duty of ruling over the weak. That cultivation is the true test of your character, and how high you rise shows the strength of your mind and will, your measure as a person. Some of their materials claim that other countries have perverted this order, and more propaganda in that vein. The Dominion also sees it as their privilege and duty to conquer foreign lands, and impose their ‘better way’ of life. Sadly, I can only assume many people swallow their lines. That’s how it usually goes with ideology and propaganda, and the Dominion is quite practiced and effective at it. At least they don’t have any overtly racist or homophobic tones to their ideology. If you disregard a few of what are basically splinter groups.

You’d think this would be a good meritocratic system. On the surface, cultivation really is something everyone can do, and someone’s talent and dedication have a large influence on their success. And it’s true in some ways. In the first few stages, these are the most important factors, though of course background, education and others play an important role. But the real meritocratic value is limited. After all, at some point it’s almost impossible to break through further without outside help. Whether that’s in the form of resources, techniques, access to locations with denser qi, or, crucially, education. Or just time to devote to cultivation, if you work long hours of hard labor.

Especially when it comes to the higher stages, I suspect the Dominion actually has less social mobility than the Empire.

This isn’t helped by their political system. Although to be fair, like I said above, I haven’t grasped it completely. What I do understand is already a confused mess of different codes, ideological doctrine, unwritten rules, and entrenched nepotism.

The closest thing the Dominion has to an official parliament is an assembly of every eighth-stager in the country. There’s a similar assembly of the seventh-stagers, although that one rarely assembles in full, and instead there are representatives of it, usually belonging to one of the big families, that have some measure of influence in the government.

This assembly is what passes laws. Any changes to fundamental doctrine, basically their equivalent of the constitution, has to be passed by both chambers. This rarely happens.

Almost every cultivator in the eighth stage belongs to one of their great families. The ones who weren’t born to one of them and raised to the eighth stage get snapped up by one anyway, via contracts or sometimes adoption or marriage, depending on the circumstances. Over time, there have been anywhere from two to over a dozen great families, though today there are usually five most people apply that title to, and some more families with a bit less influence and power. They’re a little like political parties when it comes to wrangling for influence and hammering out compromises in the assembly, but there’s also a fair amount of cut-throat politics between them.

Then there’s what passes for their executive power, which is a real mess. There’s one person who technically has a first-among-equals status among the eighth stagers, whose title I would translate to Princeps. In practice, they’re pretty much the president of the Dominion. In all the time it’s been around, that has only been someone not from the great families three times, for a total of twenty years. Considering lifespans and the average time in office, that’s really bad.

Another important office is what amounts to the Director of internal security, which can be and often is someone not in the eighth stage. Currently, they’re from the same family as the Princeps, which means the Dominion is somewhat stable. This is basically the boss of all their intelligence services, including most of the stuff that goes on in terms of foreign intelligence, too. Military intelligence has their own branch, but it’s interconnected enough to work well.

While the Dominion is technically not a monarchy, in practice there isn’t that much difference. You usually see dynasties, where several people who rise to Princeps in a row are from the same family, often their predecessor’s child or grandchild. But these dynasties stand and fall on the support of the other great families. Needless to say, there’s usually a lot of economic and other benefits to supporting the current ruler. But the Princeps has less authority than the Emperor or Empress in the Empire. Especially if the security Director and a few other important positions are filled by someone from another political faction, things can get ugly. I haven’t been able to figure out how the Director is chosen, it’s some complicated semi-official process that involves some ritual challenges and a lot of bickering between the houses, it seems like.

Otherwise, the Dominion has a number of ministries and departments not much different from a modern state, or even the Empire. Their heads are usually from the great families, though most of the rank-and-file bureaucrats come from an unofficial caste, families with a tradition of public service. Some are military veterans.

The generals of the army are usually politically connected, too. The higher-ranking officers are either from the middle class and risen through the ranks, or from those families, as well. It’s reasonably easy to rise to an officer’s position for a normal soldier, so long as your cultivation is strong enough. The military is perhaps the one institution where there’s the least influence of nepotism and political alliances, but that’s not saying much. Still, the conquests and the need to keep control of their new territories means the military has to stay on the ball. The Dominion’s important players also aren’t stupid and recognize that they need a strong, professional army, I suppose.

On the topic of conquests, the Dominion follows a somewhat different strategy than the Empire. Not all people in their territories are automatically citizens, even if they’re in a high enough stage. Those who reach the really high stages are usually recruited into the Dominion proper and often the army. Their provinces’ economy is noticeably weaker than that of the Dominion’s heartlands. But they do build roads, facilitate trade, set up schools, and all of that stuff, so the general standard of living isn’t too bad. Still, there’s a reason most countries close enough to them are a little afraid of the Dominion’s imperialist tendencies. I’d say, all in all, that there’s less cohesion in their overseas territories than in the Empire.

This was only a brief overview, and there’s a lot more for me to learn about the Dominion. If I have the time and energy to dive into that nest of snakes. But as far as I’ve read right now, I’m a little glad I’m living in the Empire, not there. Maybe that’s biased, but they’re just not a nation I feel positively about.