Government
The Emperor's seat, and the heart of Imperial Administration, is the Imperial Palace, a massive construct that covers most of what used to be the continent of Asia; the "Inner Palace" is built on top, within, and under the Himalayan mountain range.
Though the Emperor is the nominal head of state, in practice the highest tier of command is the Council of the High Lords of Terra, based in the Inner Palace, that has ruled for over ten millennia in the Emperor's name. Under this top echelon is a multi-tiered hierarchy consisting of countless departments, agencies, and organisations, both military and civilian, charged with implementing the decisions of the High Lords, and with the day-to-day administration of the Imperium as a whole. However because of its vast territory and the great distances separating Imperial star systems, the Imperium is by necessity decentralised; the final, localised tier of Imperial Authority is usually the Office of Planetary Governor, whose responsibility is limited to a single world.
Outside and above the Imperial hierarchy is the Imperial Inquisition, the all-powerful and much feared secret police and main intelligence agency. The Inquisition may answer only to the Council of the High Lords; historically it has even had the power (and opportunity) to investigate and sanction individual members of the Council.
Read more about this topic: Imperium (Warhammer 40,000)
Famous quotes containing the word government:
“For the people in government, rather than the people who pester it, Washington is an early-rising, hard-working city. It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”
—P.J. (Patrick Jake)
“I thought it a pity that some poor student did not live there, to profit by all that light, since he would not rob the mariner.... Think of fifteen Argand lamps to read the newspaper by! Government oil!—light enough, perchance, to read the Constitution by! I thought that he should read nothing less than his Bible by that lamp.”
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“Every expansion of government in business means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors and wrongs is driven irresistibly without peace to greater and greater control of the nation’s press and platform. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)