Chronicles of the People - Between Utopia and Dystopia

=Life in the Empire: What Awaits the Faithful=

During my visit as part of the Association of Imperial Scribes, I witnessed fully the aftermath of the Two-Week War: from the mass confusion, the complicated and very difficult time of transition to new laws and standards, as well as the criminal proceedings against undesirable elements of the former upper class - industrialists, nobles, archons, sufrits, and everything in between.

It was at one of these proceedings against Skeiron Goldfeather during a public trial in Weter that this industrialist, who exploited his workers in accordance with Nova Griffonian pre-war laws with 10-hour workdays, no representation, and none of the other rights working Sylanians have in the Empire that I perceived something that piqued my interest.

The old griffon seemed shocked, but moreover, it looked as though it was entirely incomprehensible to him that his workers had a right to only need to work two hours per day. He then pleaded that he was not aware of these new laws, which of course the court was able to disprove promptly, and ended up sentencing him to death.

Now, while I personally do not agree with the verdict that had been given - I much preferred for him to be re-educated - it was at that moment that I realized just how much the common griff was in disbelief that they indeed had a right to a two-hour workday.

With my position as a Scribe for the Imperial Navy, I have the privilege of knowing the ins and outs of living both as a citizen in the Empire and as one in the protectorates that were established in the aftermath of the invasion. Equipped with this knowledge, I have created this document that gives a small overview of what the inhabitants of Faust can expect to become normalized in the coming years. The Stellar Culture Shock shall not last forever, and eventually, generations will have grown and died without ever knowing the problems that plague their lives these days.

So, this is what the average citizen of the Empire will witness in their life.

You'll be born biologically by a mother and one or more fathers, with all of your genes being cleared of any possible defects, and purified from abnormalities, making you a genetically perfect child—one of trillions. Thanks to your superior genes, you will never know disease, handicaps, or unwanted mutations. Likewise, any ailments that may occur over the course of your life will simply be healed at the press of a button in your local Rejuvenation chamber, something Faustian natives call a bathtub.

You will already have the best possible start to have a long and happy life, but it doesn't end there. Ingested will be food which has been engineered to perfection over millennia to deliver the most nutritional benefit without any negative side effects, while simultaneously adapting to the consumer's tastes and desires. As such, you'll never know obesity. This food is either harvested on Garden Worlds with the optimal environmental conditions to grow food or is synthetically produced in factory complexes present on every world of the Empire. As such, food is, of course, abundantly available and free.

Once you reach age twenty and reach schooling age, as is mandatory throughout the entire Empire, you'll be taught privately by the best academic staff the Empire has ever had. These educators have dedicated their afterlives to teaching the next generation of imperial citizens a constantly updating repertoire of knowledge tailored specifically to the individual needs and skills of the citizen in question. Once complete, you'll have knowledge of the workings behind the state, universe, and everything beyond that utterly dwarfs what the best academic institutions in Equestria, the Griffonian Empire, or Aris can offer—all of that free of charge. Education is not a privilege of the few but a good right of the many.

If you end up being psychically gifted, then you may even be granted access to skills and knowledge relating to the Shroud by specific teachers selected by the Imperial Military. When completed, this education will enable you to join specific departments of the military or perhaps help with Shroud Research on the homeworld itself.

You'll end up with a robust and refined set of life skills too, including but not limited to first aid, personal expression and creativity. For example, something that I have noticed is sorely missing from every educational curriculum on Faust.

However, besides schooling, there also exist various Youth Leagues for children, most prominently the Young Devout, which organises communal activities with the goal of fostering a sense of collective team spirit and an appreciation for the Church and its offerings.

Blue-collar jobs don't exist in the Empire. They are entirely automated and optimized, so no citizen has to deal with a mountain of paperwork. In fact, all the documents one has to apply for in bureaucratic countries such as Equestria have already been filled out before birth. More pronounced in Imperial society is writing, painting, song and dance, white-collar work, trade, and military service. Each is enough to afford one a comparatively luxurious lifestyle. Citizens can spend their careers chasing their dreams and passions, doing what they love, rather than toiling away in dangerous work environments for a high society they will never encounter. As am I, having become a scribe for the Association of Imperial Scribes. My passion is not just when history is written but to write history.

Finances don't matter, for currency is only used for rare and occasional trade deals with other Empires, not as a burden for us citizens.

You can own a home of any type—from one on a Garden World if you enjoy a solitary and simple lifestyle, to a spacious apartment on the Homeworld itself, where you can bask in the radiating beauty emitted by the Empress' seat of power. Likewise, these homes can be tailored to your whims, either entirely subservient to yourself and your needs and able to adapt to them, or a completely static and simple house where pleasure is taken from improving it by yourself.

From that home, you can go into the city where the air is clean and fresh. Polluting industries, modes of transportation, and energy disappeared hundreds of millennia ago.

Crime rates are almost non-existent, with the few who commit illegal acts being either re-educated in a matter of minutes or, if the victims so choose, being able to put the perpetrator into a state of permanently indebted servitude, for however long it might be.

Personal transportation can be done via the standard P30, which can be configured to either fly or hover close to the ground on designated roads. These P30 are incredibly safer and faster than what currently ruins Equusian and Griffonian roads. Much preferred by the majority of citizens, however, is public transit, which exists in an intricate network on every single planet. I can guarantee every viewer that in the next months, a project will be announced that will likely create a high-speed rail line between every major city on this world. Indeed something to be excited about.

One of the more incomprehensible aspects of Imperial lives may be that anyone and everyone can reshape their bodies to whatever weight, height, looks, and to some extent, age, suits them the most. It's not uncommon for there to be a romantic and sexual bond between groups of up to ten Sylanians, something that is understandably truly alien for you to read about, dear viewer. However, no matter your views on it, the fact of the matter is that a Sylanian could be born millennia late and yet could look just as young as one born this one.

I myself would like to interject here for a moment and mention I personally prefer myself to look like I'm, what could be considered for ponies to be their thirties, however, personal preferences may vary.

Likewise, all the stringent social norms that dictate how females or males are supposed to act, look, or feel have been eradicated hundreds of millennia ago. Of course, I recognize, though, that especially in the more rural parts of Faust, this sentiment and the new freedoms given will be highly unwelcome. But I have full confidence that the Planetary Administration will eventually manage to get these griffs and zebras to look the other way.

I have not mentioned ponies in this because Equestria made a positive impression on our forces. It did not share many of our laid-back social values, but it was also willing to negotiate with the Holy Imperial Navy.

Religion, however, might be more sensitive. The Empress is worshipped almost universally as the direct descendant and mortal representative of Tamesa, the Goddess of Everything and All. Temples dedicated to the worship of both can be found everywhere and doubting their divine nature openly is a thing of folly and denial. While other faiths are respected for members of other races, Sylanians are expected to be devout followers of the Empress. The Empress' Church furthermore offers many career pathways ranging from everything from a Church Scribe to eventually a Matriarch.

Aside from the array of every debilitating condition known to us, imperial citizens also have much more control over one of the last frontiers of biology: death.

While it does eventually come to all of our bodies, the soul lives on if so chosen. In the preceding hours, family members will be notified of the signs of fading life by the system inside your home or perhaps by your relatives. As you lose consciousness and fall into your last sleep, you'll be surrounded by relatives who will forever cherish your memory...

...or you'll find yourself in a new world. Your consciousness, having been transferred to the Starbrain, will allow you to communicate with your family, and whatever you want to imagine will be realized for as long as the universe shall live.

This is what can be expected to become possible for the loyal pony, zebra, griffon, kirin, hippogriff, changeling or deer.

-Imperial Scribe Kirium