The Galdovian Empire

The Galdovian Empire is the nation situated on the Western edge of the Rift. The Empire is a sprawling, modern metropolis, roughly 17 million square kilometres in size. The Empire is split into 32 states, including the central state of Galdovia, the Empire's seat of power. Each state is controlled by a Duke, who answers to the Emperor himself. The Empire is a totalitarian regime, with the Emperor's first child becoming the next Emperor at his death. The Dukes are then selected by the new Emperor. The current Emperor is in fact a direct descendant of the original Emperor, who was born several centuries ago. Over this time, the line has been healthy. However, the current Emperor, at the age of 71 does not yet have an heir, leaving the future of the Empire uncertain.

Society and Culture
Imperial society exists in two very stark contrasts. Since height above ground level is reflection of one's social and financial status, those living in the penthouses and highest levels of The Empire are among the most wealthy. The social elite generally spend their leisure time sipping exotic cocktails and partying into the night in The Empire's exclusive nightclubs, living a life of excess. However, day to day life is still hard for the elite. Imperial industry is ruthless and competetive, with most business people finding themselves burnt out by their early thirties. One slip up, and a few days later you can find yourself wandering the lower levels, just trying to find some work.

On the other hand, while life on the upper levels is fast-paced and exhausting, life on the lower levels is just exhausting. Most low-level citizens live hard lives, trying to scrape by in the hundreds of factories and sweatshops dotted around ground level, blotting out the sky with their polution. On top of this, beasts, murderers and thieves prowl the surface, preying on the weak. Just surviving at ground level can be a challenge

It doesn't matter how successful you are though, big brother is always watching. Imperial society is constantly monitored by the government, via roving military police units, CCTV, and datanet tracking. However, most citizens see this as positive, keeping them safe from harm. That said, some citizens, mainly from the lower levels, are less than pleased with this, as they feel that their current situation couldn't be any worse.

Magic is forbidden within Imperial society, with suspected mages being executed on the spot, and the entire populace living in fear of mages annihilating everything they hold dear. That said, this doesn't stop certain individuals learning the arts from time to time, generally in secret. Some anti-government activists even claim that the government employs mages to keep the public down...

With the urban nature of most of the Empire, many of its citizens have little to no knowledge of where the goods they consume come from. Chocobo is a delicacy within the Empire, but most citizens have no idea of what they are or even look like. There are several, large parks within the Empire, which is the closest most of its citizens will ever get to the great outdoors. However, the outskirts of the Empire are much less developed, featuring isolated rural farming communities. While a small amount of what the nation consumes comes from these farms (mainly for consumption by the very highest members of society), most of it is imported from neighboring nations. People on the lower end of the social hierachy survive off whatever they can get their hands on, including beast-meat.

Style and Fashion
Imperial fashion is very dependant on social standing. The social elite often wear expensive suits, designer dresses, and modern-day cutting edge fashion, often adorned with glowing magicite veins and other sections. Bright colours are very popular, and magicite effects are a status symbol. The brave even wear neon-coloured jumpsuits. The Imperial middle-class often wear toned down versions of high-status clothing, being either cheap copies or the closest they can afford. Their clothing is often utilitarian, some individuals opting for long, dark leather coats, combat trousers, and similar attire. Magicite adorned clothing is less common. Ground level society never features magicite, and clothing is either very utilitarion or very shabby. Clothing is often dirty, ripped and torn. Any accessorisation is merely for survival purposes, such as stab-vests, knife harnesses, gas-masks for the polluted air, etc.

Examples: Cyberpunk culture, sci-fi cosplay, Phantasy Star Universe series, Final Fantasy VII/VIII/XIII/Versus-XIII

Example Stores: Cyberdog, Flawless, Terratag

Technology
The Empire has pioneered a range of technologies, particularly during The Great War. One of which is the datanet, a network of interconnected terminals throughout the empire, that allow for near instantaneous exchange of information between any part of the Empire. This system was developed originally as a method of securely transferring military data, but it is now available to the public, although it is heavily monitored and restricted. In addition, the Empire has developed advanced cybernetic prosthetics, originally designed for war veterans. However, they do no provide any physical enhancements, but they are effective as straight up replacements. Dataports are cybernetic implants that allow the user to remotely and neurally access the datanet.

The Empire has also developed miniaturised magicite reactors, which allow them to be used in more compact machines other than airships and power plants. Magicite powered automobiles, personal jets and multipedal tanks are common occurences. Even compact, magicite powered telephones are used.

The Empire is now regarded as the world's foremost firearms manufacturer. By developing a mechanism that uses the energy generated by recoil as way to cock the weapon, they have created personal firearms with a much higher rate-of-fire than previously possible. However, this technology is expensive to produce, and training is lengthy, therefore few military units actually use it on a man-portable basis. However, the technology has been widely applied to their war machines, such as armoured personal carriers, multipedal tanks and even airships.

Military
The Imperial Army is a significantly large military force, able to strike any location across the world at a moment's notice. The bulk of the Army consists of its Airship Legion. This mobile strike force consists of literally hundreds of sleek, camouflaged, magicite powered, military-spec airships, each armed with enough firepower to destroy a large town, along with battle machines including APCs, multipedal tanks, personal battle frames, and a legion of ground troops. The empire often field compact, magicite powered interceptor jets, designed to protect their airships and damage the enemy's combat effectiveness with pinpoint strikes on key targets, such as engines, turrets and mages.

The Home Guard is a much smaller faction, dedicated to protecting the civillians within Imperial territory. They act as a sort of military police force, armed and armoured with the best the military has to offer, with the exclusion of airships, although smaller aerial APCs and gunships have been developed for this unit to allow for rapid responses.

The average Imperial soldier wears grey combat fatigues, overlayed with a black metal plate adorned tactical vest, plated half-pauldrons, plate gauntlets, and plate greaves. They also wear a plate helment, which is equipped with tinted balistic goggles and a gas mask. Most Imperial soldiers are armed with swords, although some designated units are equipped with rifles or in rare cases, machine guns. Home Guard units usually swap out their sword for a stun baton and combat knife combination.

Relationship with Other Nations
To the West of the Empire, are the border nations. These small countries are independant, but are still vaguely allied with the Empire. There is an unwritten agreement between these small nations and the Empire, they provide the Empire with raw materials such as magicite, and food, and they get to keep their independance. Although they feel safe in the knowledge that the Empire will not invade, there is a constant worry that they will not be able to produce the amount of raw materials the Empire needs, therefore giving the Empire no reason to not invade and subjugate the nation. That said, the traders are very happy with the current arrangement, which puts money in their pocket, and food on their dinner table. However the average citizen may not be so happy with their side of the deal, with the only work available being a hard life on the farms or down in the dark, dangerous depths of the magicite mines, with the constant threat of cave-ins, the release of deadly gasses, and even beasts and dangerous ancient relic sites with their guardian golems.