The Register
Citizenship of the Empire
Of hundreds of millions, fewer than one hundred names stand upon the register. It was not closed through the barren cycles, it was not closed at the Purge, and it is not closed now.
First class
The Awakened
Persons in whom the Voltrumite deposit has come to consciousness. Entered upon recognition, not upon application. His Imperial Majesty is one of several.
Second class
Blood of the Deposit
Descendants of the seeded stock in whom the blood lies dormant. Entered upon the register and held against awakening.
Third class
Sworn of the Empire
Persons of no Voltrumite blood who petition the Crown and are received. Bound by the reckoning, not by the genome.
What is asked of a citizen
The Empire has never produced a document justifying its rule and does not intend to start with its citizens. It asks one thing, which is the thing it has always asked, and which is not a loyalty and not a creed.
Bear what you have undertaken to bear, for as long as it stands to be borne.
- Strength is endurance, not the capacity to defeat a person. The register counts a smith who has kept a forge, a parent of nine, and a soldier who held a pass, and does not care which would win a fight.
- Acts belong to the body. What is done in the Empire's name is entered without a name attached to it.
- No claim is entered that cannot be proved. This binds the Crown before it binds anybody else.
- The testing is the politics. Authority in the confederation is continuously earned and continuously reviewed, and has been taken away.
Instrument of petition
Petition for entry upon the register
Every petition is entered in full and laid before the Crown. No name is attached to any judgement. A reply is not guaranteed and the Empire does not explain refusals.