How to call this government system

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18 comments, last by LorenzoGatti 8 years, 2 months ago

4X in space here you are the Emperor. I want to avoid all the dynasty/family things also I wanted the Emperor to be almost immortal (so no replacement mid game, Emperor=the player). So, I have thought of a society which got disappointed by the other government forms and decided to engineer the Emperor. They selected the best genes of their race and they cloned an Emperor to rule them all.

How to call such government form? "Genetic monarchy"?

I'm also interested in a possible backstory for this society (why they decided to do it, how they do the cloning, who is responsible, is there some genetic board which do the cloning, what happens when the emperor dies, etc). Not necessarily to dump all this info on the player but so I know how it works.

Note, you can modify the above or stray from it, I'm interetsted more in the overall direction.

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Aren't all classic monarchies genetic?

You're born into royalty or you're not.

You could call it some name along these lines like "the birthright"?

If I'm not mistaken, a "Technocrat" can be considered someone who is in a political position due to their knowledge. Scanning through Wikipedia it mentions a "Meritocracy" where the most qualified are in charge. If an individual was genetically engineered from the best leaders society had to offer, it'd stand to reason that individual would be at least perceived as the most qualified possible so in effect would be Lead Technocrat for Life in the Great Meritocracy.

A single head of government who wields sovereignty and rules for life? That's pretty much the textbook definition of a monarchy. Even if that life is, for all intents and purposes, eternal.

If you wish to be more specific, you could always call it a "clonal monarchy" (since successive monarchs are clones of one another) or an "engineered monarchy" (since the society deliberately chose to structure themselves thus and engineered the monarch specifically to rule them).

Out of curiosity if a society did engineer someone to rule over them like this would they engineer someone selfless who serves only society or might that ruler have some necessary independent thought and maybe also serve themselves?

Interesting thought for game storyline...


Aren't all classic monarchies genetic?
The difference is there is a family. Also the genetic similarity is not the most important factor but the birthright. If there was another person that had more "royal genes" it would not mater ih he/she had no birthright and be descendant of a royalty, besides there is no such thing as genetic template in royalty. Genetics there is more like a side effect not the primary right to rule.


"Meritocracy" where the most qualified are in charge
What if there is a problem with cloning trechnology and the person is not the most fit to rule? Besides, who decides what qualifies as the most fit?

As I see it, they just combine the best genes, enchance brain activity at the early stage, pump nanobots to the immune system and then pray it will work.


"clonal monarchy" (since successive monarchs are clones of one another) or an "engineered monarchy"
Yeah, something along those lines...

Note that the game uses "Empire" as the overall name of the player's domain (but the specific governemnt type of the empire could be "clonal monarchy" I suppose). Also the player is reffered as the Emperor (not monarch or king). Also probably I will be using "royalty" word too (like "royal cloning chambers") since it fits.


Out of curiosity if a society did engineer someone to rule over them like this would they engineer someone selfless who serves only society or might that ruler have some necessary independent thought and maybe also serve themselves?
Too kind of a ruler would bring doom to the empire. A certain level of cruelty is required. I suppose they might want to adjust these based on situation (if there is a war coming a more cruel rule might be preffered to a kind one designed for peace time), but then, since the ruler lives soo long how can they predict which one would be needed?

Stellar Monarch (4X, turn based, released): GDN forum topic - Twitter - Facebook - YouTube

Too kind of a ruler would bring doom to the empire.


I think you might be confusing kindness and selflessness.

A selfless ruler would always put the country first. This might mean that given the chance of defending the country from a grave threat or settling a personal grudge with a lesser threat he would choose the obviously sensible decision.

A selfish ruler might be more likely to send half the troops to the lesser threat in the name of personal selfish battles and leave the country defenseless.

Similarly a selfless but fair ruler may tax everyone to death but the tax would be spent on growth of the state. A selfish ruler would squander that wealth on mansions and personal spacecraft etc.

This is more what I refer to and if it would be practical to "breed" that into the genetic ruler...

Why don't the population of said Empire thinks the Emperor is elected each time it dies but it is replaced by a clone that the population is oblivious of it. So you can keep the population thinking they are choosing/electing an Emperor but in reality a conclave or a council is just faking it by replacing their candidate with a clone of their choosing. This will create a good background story and a ton of possible plot twists.

I came here to kick ass and chew bubblegum.

It still sounds like an empire or dictatorship, regardless of how the emperor came to be.

If the population worship their created emperor, it'd be a mix between idolatry and theocracy. Or rather, "theocracy" means the priests giving the commands, so with a visible 'god' ruling, it's be some kind of 'deocracy', or whatever the word is for an 'imperial cult'.

If the genetic engineering is ongoing, you might call it a "biocracy" or a "genocracy" (to make up butchered latin words). Genocratic Empire or Imperial Genocracy could work.

hmm, maybe call it the monarch machine?

since for all intents and purposes this ruler (the player) is eternal, and being able to do all the things it does is more akin to an AI than an actual person, genetically perfected or not. Not to mention the irony of the name, since it's a game.

Also, @OP,

don't mean to bring this up again, but the way your critically critiquing some of our comments and discussion of ideas is more like using us as a sounding bord than an actual discussion of your topics.

Given the frequency of concerns and specificity of feedback you seem to be wanting from this community, wouldn't it be better for you to just recruit some qualified person to help you on your game?

This way they can potentially see the big picture with you, and come up with more tailored feedback and serve as more a discussion and collaboration specifically for the project, adding whatever qualified skill(s) they’d bring to the table.

You’ve been outsourcing to this forum community for some time now, and although we are all qualified in our own respective rights, we're not exactly your specific game community, which is what it seems like your treating us as.

I'd really advise you to find someone, this way they also get their due credit in feedback, and helping you generate ideas. You already told me how you think actually crediting anyone who comes up with a workable idea you select would not be feasible, given the volume of feedback you request. Finding a single, or a few specific people to join you would really benefit you in the long run. From sounding board, to speeding up development, to networking, to giving you leadership/ management experience, it would really help boost you and your game’s viability and credibility.

Trying to do everything yourself isn’t healthy or sustainable in most game development cases, I’ve seen it destroy my former project lead, and now I hold his position...

Transitions occurred, and each time the team roughly quadrupled in size, from 1 to 4 to 16...

He eventually got so burrned out that he wants nothing to do with the project he co founded. (nor will we ever let him on again)

It may feel like recruiting and on boarding would take too much time in the beginning, but think of it as an investment in saving you time in the future.

Unless of course, you want to try and have complete and total control of your vision and implementation, like the emperor your simulating....

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