Thread:DrodoEmpire/@comment-5080468-20170728193158/@comment-4991685-20170729224424

Well.

My main fiction, the, is a refutation of the trope outright. Essentially the Empire is the body which rules over the vast majority of the Drodo race, and within it almost all of its hundreds of cultures and ethnicities, all equally proud of their racial, cultural, and clan heritage and suspicious of federal overreach. This makes governance difficult, to say the least. The compromise that allows the Empire to exist comes in the form of a relatively-weak federal government tasked mainly with military and foreign affairs, and a devolution of power to the lowest, most direct possible levels-- provincial governors, clan elders, and the Drodo Empire's aristocracy (which is one of its major forces of social cohesion, as they are generally more culturally intermixed and federally-minded).

Despite the aforementioned difficulties, there are a couple of forces of cohesion in Drodo Imperial society-- the aforementioned aristocracy; the Drodo Emperor, Jilnaris I Kilar, who is immensely popular with the people; and the nature of Drodo religion. Drodo religion takes the form of paganistic folk-faiths which have much in common by ethnicity, and there exists a general principle in Drodo theology that all pantheons and faiths are in fact valid and coexist under the same cosmic umbrella, but simply have power over their faithful or in different lands. Therefore the Drodo people have a long history of religious tolerance and will often pay respects to local deities other than there own when abroad. This almost entirely avoids religious hatred, which is some of the most devastating.

However it still remains that the Drodo Empire is among the most ethnically diverse of any such states, and with it comes the associating difficulties and benefits. I've likened it to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the past and I believe such a comparison is apt, but not perfect, due to the Drodo Empire being the result of a political unification as opposed to military conquest, and the lack of a clearly-dominant ethnic group.