The Imperial Palace on Liang is the center of political power in the empire, based around the Emperors court and his chambers. Located in the Imperial City, the Palace is an enclosed compound made from a mixture of traditional and fantastical architecture. Everblossoming cherry trees and shimmering ponds mix with wooden pillars and tiled roofs. However, the behind the facade the palace is an exceptionally designed defensive structure.

The Emperor is the head of state and rules with absolute authority that he delegates out to his various functionaries. He takes audiences in the Throne Room, and can sit in at his leisure in the Imperial Chamber during its sessions.

He selects his council and kinnar, who is headed by the Empress. The Imperial chambers is for the Imperial Ministers to discuss and decide on routine matters generally not needing the Emperors personal intervention.

The Empress is the vice head of the empire, who is fully empowered to do all functional duties of the emperor should he be away or occupied. Traditionally the Empress has maintained the kinnar, and managed affairs while the Emperor is distracted by war or other emergency matters, making sure the Tai Pan peoples continue to receive a steady hand even in trying times.

The kinnar are traditionally subject matter experts or personalities of interest to the emperor himself. The kinnar are given mostly free reign of the palace, but are at the beck and call of the emperor.

The Ministers are the high level caste leaders of all three castes who are grant the priviledge to discuss affairs within and without the state and make petitions to the Emperor.

These noble positions are granted to ministers or kinnar of note.

Protector of the tablets inscribed with the first histories of the Taianese, laser etched onto diamond crystals, each of the one thousand and five crystals bears a different chapter of their history across its thumb sized surface. Imperceptible with human eyes. To lose even one would mean the death of the keeper, and a bleeding wound in the heart of the tree.

Cherry trees play an important part of taianese cultural and government functions and symbolism, the diamond sakura, a variety that flowers in perpetual bloom, are a creation of taianese science and a demonstration of their mastery over nature. The maintenance and wellbeing of these trees is a culturally important role for the minister tasked with such.

Justice is blind, so the Master of the Judiciary has their eyes ritually removed upon assuming office. Of course, they can always grow them back once they retire from the position for symbolic purposes it’s kept. The keeper of the hard copy of the Tai Pan Law, a ledger printed on artificial pearl slips and tied with red string into the folding book of Taianese laws. The laws do not maintain precise regulatory measures in the hardcopy, that being reserved for more easily modified texts, the Tai Pan Law is kept for the broad strokes of the Emperors laws that are seen as relatively timeless.

Any slips that are deemed necessary to replace are removed from the folding book and left in the Emperors possession, which are later given as gifts to servants of the emperor as diplomatic good will. The Master of Pearl also dabbles in international spycraft on a diplomatic level.

The head of the palace kitchen staff and the master of ceremonies and festivals, the Master of Spices is responsible for sourcing the emperor and his courts diets and insuring subline results in cooking and the culinary arts. Using their often front and centre celebratory position as a major internal relations instrument between the Emperor and his people.

Imperial Viceroys rule in the Emperors stead in the territories of the empire, managing and collecting tithes over the expanse of the Empire. Large, prosperous planets may have their own viceroy, while on the outer, less developed frontier entire star or planet systems may be under the sole custody of a single viceroy and may almost be a ceremonial title. Viceroyalty is granted to favoured servants of the Emperor for their service and given wide authority to keep their territories quiet and under control without any Imperial assistance except in times of crisis.

Peers are ascended ranks from each caste who are given access to the Imperial Chamber and are granted the privilege of requesting personal audiences with the Emperor or Empress.

In the interest of peace within the empire, and to allow the Taianese to focus on more important topics, many smaller minorities within the empire are allowed varying degrees of autonomy.

Protectorate status is a new concept created by the Emperor originally meant to shift undesirable elements of the empire into a confined, more manageable space after the Wangdaio Colonies collapsed and severed that particular exit. However, with the recent Taianese political troubles the protectorate system has been left largely unmanaged almost from the moment of its writ in law, and has become a looming issue in the Tai Pan court, particularly as certain elements gain concerning amounts of power.

Jimmy: Again, these are more of my rough notes that I haven't had time to trim up yet. Others are free to add to it. Eventually I was start passing through it and improving it incrementally. I would like to eventually add Yazata under the vassalage system, but that's a topic for another day. Eventually I would like to either make an article for the Imperial Palace as a location, or add it to the planet of Liang article, but again, for another time as I wish to make some other changes to Liang. Right now this needs to be fleshed out and the sharper edges rounded off.