Emperor highest authority of the Empire: Highest Priest and Army Commander and Highest Judge from 410 onwards; direction of foreign politics

Imperial Councillors legates of the Emperor and administrators of the conquered territories ("Principle of Administration")

Friends of the Emperor at the beginning they were retired Imperial Councillors, which were provided with a life annuity; after 550 it became a formal honory title, but they often worked as spies

Imperial Council legislative body of the empire (by right of veto of the Emperor); composed of the 300 heads of the leading families and of 150 delegates of the people which are elected by the people

Magistrate civil servants of the empire. Authorities: financial system, control of morals, trade, supervision of police forces (until 658)

Imperial Court jurisdiction in the empire by the "Lex Ealdum" (since 250).

Army division into four commands with Army Commanders as leaders: the Army Commanders of the North, of the South, of the West and of the East

2.) The Constitution of the Ealdian Eastern Realm (since 720)

Preliminary Remark:

Functions:

Emperor highest authority of the Empire: Highest Judge and direction of foreign politics

Imperial Council legislative body of the empire, chaired by the emperor

Magistrate civil servants of the empire. Authorities: financial system, control of morals, supervision of police forces (until 658)

Provincial Councillors Division of the realm in five provinces: Sardum, Rygas, Norga, Lagdum and the Southern Province (Vassal Kingdoms); government of the five provinces by the laws of the Imperial Council

Imperial Court administration of justice in the Eastern Realm by the "Lex Imperatorum", laid down by Nublos Nardos (since 719); Emperor as Highest Judge

Army Commanders are nominated by the emperor; three commanders lead the twelve legions (new levies); high command over the army.

2.) The Administration of the Empire

In its heyday Eald consisted of eleven provinces plus the three Vassal Kingdoms as well as the Confederation of the Lychango-Mountaintribes.

Mainly administration of the provinces lay with the Imperial Councillors, which again were subordinate to the emperor. They had their seats in capitals of the provinces and the eightyfive larger cities of the empire. Their tasks included the collection of taxes, the jurisdiction in the administrative districts of the provinces and cities (in this they were supported by the resident magistrates) and the care for the keeping of the laws which were enacted by the Imperial Council. Every two years they had to appear before the emperor in a strictly imposed rota, so they could account for their work. For this purpose existed an area not far from the Temple of Gloriana where residences for the visit of the Imperial Councillors in the capital had been built.

The civil servants of the Magistrate also had adminitrative functions. They determined the taxes for the provinces and the territories of the Vassal Kingdoms and of the Confederation, they kept watch over morals, adminitered the taxes paid to the state for trading, distributed trade-concessions and had the supervision of police forces in the capital. The Magistrate was subordinate to the Imperial Council and had its own members in the Imperial Court. The Imperial Council on the other hand advised the emperor and enacted laws by its own authority which were valid for the empire (that was true for the kingdom as well as the empire). The emperors supervised the Imperial Council from 310 on by the right of veto, which was introduced under Lygamon the Lion.

With the first and second break with the Principle of Administration the Ealdian regentship in the Vasall Kingdoms as well as the concession of an own administration in exchange for a yearly tribute in the Confederation of Lychango-Mountaintribes were introduced. In the Vasall Kingdoms the emperor installed regents which drew from the old structures in these realms and which used these (structures) for the more or less strict establishment of imperial law. Their tasks included the collection of taxes, the high jurisdiction in the name of the emperor as well as the keeping order -- based on the help of the legions. The laws which were enacted by the Council were also binding for them even though they were only subject to the emperor in the end. For their administration (and from 410 onwards mainly for jurisdiction) they had to justify themselves every five years to the emperor.

Only in concern with commercial affairs did the Magistrate have a right to a say in the Vasall Kingdoms. The Vassal Kings themselves -- to whom the title "king" was granted during the whole period between 592 and 804 -- had pure symbolical functions. The real power lay solely with the regents and through them the Ealdian emperor. Relatives of the kings, by the way, were often able to gain the favour of the emperor and could thus uphold the power of the royal family in the respective territory quasi as representatives.

The Confederation of the Lychango-Mountaintribes was bound to the empire only by the yearly tributes and the legions stationed in Gordum, Aradum, Nasdum and Abdum-Ra. The paying of tributes took place in Abdum-Ra by a king chosen every year (more a kind of chieftain for negotiations with Eald) to the respective Army Commandeer of the North. Matters pertaining the whole confederation the Lychango-tribes decided in a conclave of the different chieftains. Only with Crystos I. (661 - 665) did a kind of king in the technical sense appear.

With the reign of Lyndon I., the founder of the Lyndian Dynasty, a number of changes began. Thus did Lyndon I. make the emperor the Highest Judge in 410.

In 659 Rylamon II. of the Legadian Dynasty curtailed the rights of the Magistrate and took over the supervision of police-forces and financial affairs. The Friends of the Emperor more and more took on secret commissions by the emepror. Under Fyramon the Great the centralization of the realm increased further. In 670 the Imperial Court was moved tothe Imperial Area which had been founded in 318 and in 679 Fyramon even dissolved the Imperial Council. A kind of absolutistic state developed which managed without magnificent ceremonials.

In 686 Fyramon's son Reblaron even dissolved the Imperial Court so that power lay almost exclusively in the hands of the emepror. But through it the Empire was also severely weakened. The emperor had to take care of too many tasks so that some problems could be solved but inadequately. Furthermore the missing reciprocal control which had kept in balance the different centres of power lead to the circumstance that mistakes in one area could no longer be compensated for by measures in other areas. Mistakes tended to accumulate until a final solution was nearly impossible.

In the middle of the second Many-Emperors'-Rule the expansion of the Lchango-Mountaintribes happened. The weak emperors whose Army Commanders often waged war on their own could no longer organize an adequate defense of the empire. This resulted in the foundation of the Kchunic Kingdom.

Only after the fights between Lanus II. and Nublos Nardos in 714, when the seperation into a western and an eastern realm took place, two functioning systems of government could again develop. Through the introduction of the Seperate Governments of 720 a.GF. two principles of government were established which were based on the constitution of the empire. In the Western Realm the Imperial Council was again constituted and the emperor became Highest Judge and had the supervision of police-forces through the Friends of the Empire. The Imperial Councillors whose number was reduced from 65 to 35 remained administrators of the provinces.

In the Eastern Realm the five provinces were governed by a Provincial Council each which consisted of several members. Here also an Imperial Council developed which met under the chairmanship of the emperor. From the earlier constitution the Magistrate and the Imperial Court were adapted. While the Imperial Councillors took over the tasks of the Magistrate in the Western Realm, in the East the Magistrate hat the full authorities of the constitution of 235.

In the end the Western Realm was built more stable. On one hand this was because the Eastern Realm had to receive the greater part of the Peoples Migration and on the other hand the emperors did not give up the bad habit of killing their predecessors. Maybe the reason was also that the governmental structures of the Western Realm were better proven resp. that this kind of government could look back on the longer tradition. Moreover the broken continuity of the capital of the realm -- and thus of the centre of government -- in the East due to the many territorial losses was made noticeable to the disadvantage of stability.

But at long last Eald as a whole had outlived itself since about the second half of the seventh century after the foundation of the kingdom and the ruin of the realm was but a question of time from this point onwards.

3.) The Ealdian Legion

Structure:

25	Legions
250	Centuries
500	Half-Centuries
2500	Groups of Ten (Decanes)

Theoretically each province mustered two legions. But this ideal was never reached (at least in the times of the greatest expanse of the empire).

Ranks:

Army Commander	Commander of five legions
Legionos	Commander of the Legion
Legatus	Second in command of a Legion; Commander of five Centuries
Centurio	Commander of a Century
Semicenturio	Commander of a Half-Century
Dekanos	Commander of a Group of Ten

There were four Army Commanders in the Ealdian Empire. The remaining five legions were mustered by the cavalry. These had only a commander serving in administration who did not count as an acting officer. The legions of the cavalry were shared among the four Army Commanders according to demand. Later also the auxiliary troops of the conquered tribes were added which could be mustered according to demand. Only in the late phase of the empire they were shared among the four Army Commanders. In the period of the seperate realms the two parts developed their own structures.

4.) Cavalry:

Since the third century Nyral provided the (heavy) cavalry of the Ealdian Empire. After the conquest of the Twenty Provincial Relams of Gurum the Gurians had already mustered the light cavalry.

A cohort of the cavalry (five centuries) consisted of heavy and light cavalry.

All in all the cavalry oftheempire was structured as follows:

10	Cohorts
50	Centuries
100	Half-Centuries
500	Decanes

Ranks:

Legionos	Commander of two Cohorts
Legatus	Commander of one Cohort
Centurio	Commander of a Century
Semicenturio	Commander of a Half-Century
Dekanos	Commander of a Group of Ten

Here the Legionos of the cavalry was at the beginning a pure administrative officer until he also assumed executive duties in the field since around the beginning of the Decadence.