There is precious little to separate one frontier world of the Radiant Empire from another. The local government that was already in existence at the time of occupation, if it was not already a method for income transference from bottom to top, is rapidly transformed into one, without the Roanians themselves becoming involved in anything beyond skimming the income, whatever it might be, off the top. Those local elites, however, are rarely capable of viewing that wealth pass through their hands, and will often demand exorbitant taxes from their subjects in order to maintain themselves in great comfort and power, taking the Imperial Governor as their example.
These Governors, or "Ministers of the Imperial Diadem to the Allied Worlds and Subject Races", are administratively the equal of any governor of a so-called 'Imperial World' (The official term for those worlds, besides the four home worlds, where Roanians and felinoids form the outright majority of the population and the worlds have been technoformed to their preference), and thus put on airs far beyond their actual 'power'. In truth, many of these men and women hold mere sinecures, and their actual purpose is simply a figurehead for what is frequently far darker plans for many of these worlds than merely draining their economy away.
In truth, the original purpose on many of these worlds is to drain the life of the planet itself away, to harvest the pure energy of the biosphere and store it to power the archaeotechnology that the Roanians depend on; the vast, unfathomably complex shields that protect Rudan, the ancient planetary defense-grid of Altecrast (never mind that their homeworld has been dead itself for longer than humanity has possessed the wheel, the Roanians maintain their equipment long past use), and, most pressingly of all, the vast Waypoints that connect the Empire, technology the Roanians commandeered from one of their ancient enemies and then repurposed for their own needs. For the Roanian ships do not possess FTL as many other races do. Their worlds are linked by a complex of points, dots on a map, beacons in the ineffable void that they travel through; beacons that any Roanian Ship can, once activated, reach near-instantly, no matter where on the network they might be, if the proper code is possessed.
Every system the Roanians have ever controlled contains at least one such construct and it is a constant struggle to ensure that these vast, dark machines do not glut themselves on the life-force of the world; not for altruistic reasons (Most Roanians save their altruism purely for people who interest them, in whatever way that might be, as Naiya d'Acquisto can attest), but for the expense of transferring one of these beacons should it become necessary. As to what would happen if these machines are not constantly monitored... many of the worlds that were left dead from the collapse of the First Empire died not from bombardment, but because these alien devices twisted and devoured the environment until what was left could no longer exist in a sane galaxy. These void beacons, as they are known, still exist, snares to capture the unweary and incautious.
The actual purpose and power of these beacons is a heavily guarded secret. So heavily guarded, in fact, that it is entirely possible that many of the Roanians responsible for their maintenance are only dimly aware of the threat their charges represent. Their interest is, as always, static; it does not matter how something works so long as it does; and eighteen thousand years of control over this technology have led to a certain amount of stability; while the first generator on Altecrast (destroyed in the chaos; Altecrast's new beacon is now powered entirely by bioforce brought from offworld) was carefully calibrated by a million technicians whose lives were frequently expended by the Supreme Magister to 'top up' the energy-field, and the now-deactivated generator on Rudan Prime relied on a complex series of interlocking devices, machines and automated systems, the second generation and third generation were, in fact, designed, so far as the Roanians were able, to maintain a constant rate of whatever they do, normally calibrated at beneath replacement level (whatever that mechanism is). And that was the limit of most Roanian's notice, concern and attention.
As is normal on a Frontier World, the Bioforce Drainer and the Beacon shared facilities on Karlen's World, a Class 4 planet inhabited by a race of hexapodal lifeforms who have spent the past century trapped in a brutal civil war, a bloody stalemate that the Roanians have left be as both sides continually appeal to the Imperial Governor for assistance, meaning that the governor has so far not carried out his duty and summoned the colonial guard to subjugate and restore peace and tribute.
(While this is considered dereliction of duty under modern imperial law, and the governor in question has only survived his audits because there are so many more pressing concerns than the well-being of some pathetic lifeforms that happen to inhabit a world the Roanians choose to rule, under Aleazaner I's original plans the intention was to cause the native lifeforms to kill off all their competent members and become pliant, willing slaves in the Emperor's name -- or, preferably, go extinct and thus allow the Roanians to inhabit the world unimpeded and without the mess that their heavy weaponry would cause. These plans were adjusted after his death in battle on Rk under his son, Mariel I, who signed the Treaty of Conciliation with the salamandri of the Black Fang Clan; his grandson Mariel II, whose quick, easy, and frankly embarrassingly over-the-top invasion of Nmmmr -- population at the time roughly 10,000 -- led to more than enough pliant and willing slaves to last the empire forever; and his great-grandson, Mariel III, who suffered the first defeat of a Roanian force at the hands of a xenos army in over seven thousand years in the Battle of the Sands, where an alliance of Desertkin tribes, with the assistance of unknown forces, defeated the First Expeditionary Banner. And now you know, the rest of the story)
A third faction has recently arisen, though, in the waifs and strays of both sides, revolutionaries who hate both aristocratic orders, and the Roanian Governor who treats their world's suffering as amusement, and seek to strike a blow against all enemies, real and perceived...
It would be small comfort to them, in the weeks to come, to know that their blow would be heard, not just in the Governor's Chambers, but in the distant halls of the Empress herself.
