Intergalactic Summit

I, Letizzia Omanid, do swear fealty to the Empire and its divinely anointed Empress, Catiz I.

May her reign be long and blessed.

No. This ritual is sacred to the Amarr and they will very unlikely turn it into some kind of media spectacle.

I, Garion Avarr, swear fealty to the Empire and its legally anointed Empress, Catiz I.



Long may she live!

I, Loki Vaako, swear fealty to the Empire and its legally anointed Empress, Catiz I

May her reign be blessed and enlightened.

That's more of the historical hierarchical structure of fealty. Vassals of vassals of vassals of vassals of one of the Heir Families.

It is much more of a recent phenomenon, to swear fealty directly to the Emperor/Empress.

In the early days of mass capsule accessibility, it was the case that traditional aligned corporations which swore allegiance to a particular House, went to war against corporations which swore direct allegiance to the Emperor, or rather, to the Empire itself.

The Praetorians are notable, for being one of the first, if not the first, to declare allegiance to the Empire, rather than to a Heir Family.

Ah, okay, so intended to reflect the Imperial Guard/Navy tradition of direct personal submission to the Imperial Throne and carrying out Her Will.

I think Aldrith and Mitara just glare angrily at each other and flick their hair over their shoulders, until one of them backs down.

This is actually very enlightening. I know that I don’t fully understand the fealty system either, but I knew that as long as I obeyed my lady, things would turn out fine.

In the Marines, though, there was a slightly different priority system for which order to obey: the one given last.

For example, suppose one day as a company commander I am stuck in my office doing paperwork of some kind or another, and I decide that I want a salty, sweet snack. Furthermore, as the commander of about one hundred and fifty Marines with important paperwork to do, I decide that one of my Marines should go get them for me. There’s bound to be at least three or four around the company office that I can task for this who are not doing anything of import. So, I poke my head out of my office and see everyone is diligently working on something, and that the assistant duty NCO is off on an errand for someone else. (The assistant duty NCO is more or less the designated gofer.) With a sigh, I trot out of the company office and hang a left around the building to the designated smoke pit. Yes, there’s a reason we put it by the company office. Any Marine smoking has time to do other things.

Sure enough, there are two Marines at the smoke pit. One is recounting a story to another about something.

I call out, “Marines!” and give them the hand signal to rally to me when they look.

They come over, render a salute, and stand at the position of attention. I question them both on what they are taking a break from. I don’t begrudge them of this, it is every Marine’s ancient and sacred task to put in a little effort to avoid work. It keeps the NOCs and officers sharp. One of them was swabbing the second story rec room; the other was doing nothing. (Hint, if your NCO tells you that you’re done for the day and to go be out of sight, out of mind: don’t come to the smoke pit!) So, I order the Marine that was doing nothing to go down to the base exchange to get me some honey roasted peanuts. This is a perfectly legal order for me to give. I also give him some script to pay for it, because while it is legal for me to order him to get it, it is illegal for me to make him pay for it. More to the point, it is wrong.

Digression:
Upon taking command of my first company, I found out that when a certain senior NCO had wanted to smoke, he would wait until the smoke pit was full of junior Marines, and go over and ask them if anyone had an extra one to give him. Since they were junior Marines and he was a very senior NCO, they would. No script would change hands, it was just one Marine looking out for another. Which is okay in most cases, but not in this one. That senior NCO got paid almost three times what the junior Marines did, so for him to take advantage of them was wrong. There was also the power imbalance to consider. Junior Marines do not like to say no to NCOs of that rank. When I found out, I told him to go to the base exchange, buy a carton of smokes, and that if I ever found him taking a smoke from any other Marine ever, I would initiate disciplinary proceedings against him. This is also a perfectly legal order. Unit leaders take enough from our Marines. Sometimes we even take their lives in action. We should not be taking what little luxuries they have.

Back on subject:

I knew how much the honey roasted peanuts cost exactly. This is also an important bit for a leader to know. If the Marine comes back with incorrect change, then they are pulling one over on me. Of course, I would usually tell them to just keep the change, but only after the fact. That they get to keep the change is incidental to the exercise, not the point. I am not paying the Marine to get me peanuts. The Marine is getting me peanuts because I order it. If he gets to pocket some extra script (not a lot at all) it’s a bonus.

Actually back on subject this time:

So, I go back into my office and get back to work. The Marine—well call him Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli (clearly from Lonetrek)—heads off to the base exchange to get me my peanuts. Now, on the way to the exchange, he runs into his squad leader. His squad leader is almost his direct leader in the chain of command—one above the fire team leader, but they are more used in a tactical situation, not for work on base. The squad leader needs to get the Marines of his squad together for an important briefing before the company goes to the field tomorrow. The squad leader then tells Lance Corporal Schmuckatelli to go get four Marines from his squad who are down at the armory and to come to the second floor rec room (which should have already been swabbed, but the Marine who was supposed to do it took a smoke break.) Now, the order that LCPL Schmuckatelli is supposed to obey is clear: his squad leader’s. It was the last one given to him and the most up to date.

LCPL Schmuckatelli should (and had darn well better) tell his squad leader that he was tasked by me to go get me peanuts. At that point, the squad leader should consider my orders and if he should override the. The squad leader should determine that this briefing before the company goes to the field is more important than me getting peanuts, take the script from LCPL Schmuckatelli, and send him on to the armory. At the earliest possible time, the squad leader should return my script and explain why he chose to override my order. Since I am a reasonable officer, I will understand that this was the correct thing for my company’s mission readiness. (Note, in some cases this is not so clear cut. In any case, it is between me and the squad leader, not LCPL Schmuckatelli. He is doing the right thing by obeying whatever order he received last.)

CONT.

Thank you, Aldrith, that was quite enlightening, and makes a great deal of sense. So if, for some reason, Lord Sarum were to give an order contradicting the Empress, your immediate duty would remain to the Empress, yes? Wouldn't that remain the case even without the direct oath of fealty through PIE?

And Ali: Yes, that also makes sense, and it's far more in-line with what I'm used to, as well.

I, Vollhov Jr, do not swear fealty to the impure Udorian Empress, Catiz I