University of Capitol

Founded in 658 AE as the Great Pangean Library, the University of Capitol has undergone a stark metamorphosis over the years of its existence. During the First Era, the University of Capitol can be seen as an amalgamation of all Imperial scientific institutions that act under the leadership of one centralized organization based on Limmea.

The Leadership Structure of the University

The University of Capitol is headed by a council of three people: The Honored Adhyaksh, The Overseer and The High Curator. All three of them are answering to the Science Committee which represents the political will and vision of the Imperial Monarch.

The Honored Adhyaksh is the official face of the University. Their job mostly includes presidential duties, like interactions with most important external stakeholders, establishment of the coherent vision for the whole organization and ceremonial duties.

The Honored Adhyaksh is usually recruited by the Science Committee from the pool of long serving scientists. The top candidate for this role has to be approved for their duties by the Imperial Monarch themselves. The Honored Adhyaksh possesses an indefinite mandate as the head of the University, their service can be ended only by the decision of the Science Committee, or by the Imperial Monarch.

The Overseer is either a member of the Science Committee or a representative elected by them. The Overseer’s job is to have a grip on all processes that take place under the University’s umbrella and report any research that may conflict with ethical norms or pose risks to the Imperial society at large. The Overseer’s mandate lasts only for five ISC and can not be prolonged nor renewed.

The High Curator is the head of operations for the University of Capitol. Formally, the High Curator is a direct subordinate of the University’s Honored Adhyaksh. In reality though, too many High Curators were running the University behind the back of their formal leadership, and were only praised for that by the Imperial Monarch and the Nobility.

The mandate for the High Curator is indefinite. Candidates for such position are formally recruited by the Honored Adhyaksh from their former colleagues. Sometimes though, the future High Curator is proposed by the Science Committee or even the Imperial Monarch themselves – in those cases, the Honored Adhyaksh has no power to refuse their will and has to accept the chosen candidate.

The Science Committee is assembled from prominent members of Nobility that are handpicked by the Imperial Monarch. Both the Head Secretary and all other six members of the committee have political or managerial careers in the Empire and do not necessarily have a scientific background. The sole purpose of the Science Committee is to maintain the governmental control over all scientific processes that take place in the Empire.

Each quarter of an ISC, the Science Committee assembles for a meeting where they receive a briefing about current affairs in the scientific community from the Overseer and execute managerial decisions. Most disagreements in the Science Committee are being resolved through voting on each issue, and when there is a draw, the Head Secretary takes upon themselves to pick the right option.

Mandates of Science Committee’s members are formally infinite, but each committee can be reshuffled without a notice by the Imperial Monarch. Such events can either boost the scientific progress, or hurt it by creating conflicts between new appointees add the “old guard” behind the University’s operations.

Areas of Influence and Operations

The University of Capitol controls hundreds of research and development facilities across the Imperial Space. These range from small outposts on desolate worlds, like the New Beginnings Project on Numa-5, to vast institutions, like the Imperial Aerospace College on Zirkon. In case of the former, the vast structure of the University helps it to effectively allocate resources for difficult projects. In case of the latter, external institutions under the University’s control experience a choking effect as they are being held back by an additional layer of the Imperial bureaucracy.

Since the eruption of Mirror Wars, the University of Capitol increasingly grew to become more focused on the hybrid research with strong perspectives in diverse military applications. This approach led to rapid advancements in the development of defensive and offensive technologies like the interstellar missiles and subspace inhibitors.

On the other hand, civilian research was heavily neglected. Smaller research centers, like the New Beginnings Project on Numa-5 are meant to compensate for this strategic failure. Genetical research of new floral species there is meant to combat the threat of famine that follows the rapid urbanization and industrialization of all 165 Imperial worlds.

Imperial Informatorium

Founded by Priscilla Khan in 908 AE, the Imperial Informatorium was supposed to become a unified datacenter for all knowledge in the Empire. First established on the infrastructure of the Great Pangean Library, the Imperial Informatorium became an integral part of the centralized scientific institution that became the University of Capitol.

Openness of information was the core part of the vision that Priscilla the Wise had for the future of her people. For this reason each library in the Empire has an access node to the public part of the Imperial Informatorium. When the Kingdom of Limmea became an interstellar Empire, each colony got its own copy of the whole public part of the Imperial Informatorium. In order to maintain consistent updates, the University of Capitol is employing a fleet of courier ships that deliver updated databases to all Imperial worlds.

Aside to the open public part of the Imperial Informatorium, there is also a secret section that is using the same informational infrastructure to house classified information. This data is stored safely on the Limmean servers and is not transported to the public libraries off-world. In case of emergency, it is still being backed up with copies transferred to multiple secret Imperial information storage facilities, like one in the Sudder system.

Sources

Imperial Informatorium