Empire

Biodata

Feature	Information
Name	Sherman Empire (帝国)
Alias(es)	The Empire; Sherman Empire
Occupation / Role	Interstellar imperial power and longtime hegemon of the Milky Way Galaxy
Status	In civil strife; its Imperial Guard System withdrew protection from the state, and Imperial Star was destroyed amid the final conflict 570 577
First Appearance	Chapter 6

Background and History

The Empire was founded by Levi Sherman after he obtained ancient mechanical-civilization technology. Following a five-galactic-year war against the Thirty-Six Nations Coalition, Levi established the vassal-state system and used successive expeditions to rapidly expand the Empire across the Milky Way Galaxy 563 571.

For tens of thousands of years, the Empire maintained an imperial system while its territorial boundaries changed comparatively little. It cultivated or abandoned administrative and resource planets while presenting itself as a stabilizing force in galactic civilization 510.

The New Calendar was introduced after an Imperial System Reform roughly seven hundred years before the main story. The reform curtailed noble privileges and reduced their benefits, but did not eliminate the Empire's entrenched class hierarchy 164. According to Director Yinuo, severe class contradictions historically forced the Empire into periodic external wars, territorial contraction, or “controlled revolution” approximately every thousand years 364.

Government and Society

Power Structure

Although the Emperor is the public head of state, the Empire's actual power is dispersed among the Sherman Family's elite ruling faction. Its long-lived members oversee key state institutions, including the Military Department, the Emperor's directly controlled forces, and secret research institutes 324 476.

The Empire officially adopted constitutional monarchy, with political management conducted by a hidden cabinet-like elite faction rather than openly through the Emperor alone 476.

• The Emperor serves as the visible sovereign and commands imperial legitimacy, royal forces, and state ceremonies.
• The Sherman Family elite ruling faction controls major institutions behind the throne, using extended lifespans and consciousness uploads to maintain influence across generations 324 476.
• The Elder Council and the Military Department are major pillars of imperial authority 299 324.
• The Imperial Civilization Development Divine Religion oversees research institutes on Imperial Star and worships Li as a goddess 299 471.
• The Imperial Noble class retains private forces, wealth, and political influence despite restrictions imposed by the New Calendar reform 164 517.

Class Inequality

The Empire's prosperity is marked by sharp inequality between nobles, commoners, and enslaved populations. Imperial Star Circle planets possess the greatest concentration of nobles and capital, while citizens from remote regions face exploitation and inferior treatment 400.

The White Ghost's emergence intensified public scrutiny of noble privilege, slavery, and historical massacres. When the Military Department targeted him, demonstrations spread across half of the Empire's administrative planets, with the Imperial Star Circle becoming a major center of unrest 464.

Territory and Infrastructure

The Empire consists of numerous administrative planets, frontier territories, vassal states, and the highly developed Imperial Star Circle. Its influence extends beyond formal borders through tributary arrangements, military intervention, and economic pressure 338 510.

Imperial Star

Imperial Star is the Empire's political, military, and technological center. The planet is extensively artificial: its surface is divided into modular sections, its landscapes and clouds are engineered, and an enormous stellar-ring structure regulates incoming light 299.

• Houses the Imperial Palace, Military Department headquarters, Elder Council, research institutes, and core government agencies 299.
• Possesses layered defenses, artificial environments, massive energy infrastructure, and a dense regional network isolated behind extensive firewalls 217 299.
• Serves as the center of the Empire's ascension project and dimensional ascension laboratory 323 380.
• Was destroyed after Blair successfully Ascended through its laboratory and detonated the planet during the final conflict 577.

Vassal States

The Empire historically maintained subordinate polities as buffer states around its borders. These vassals paid tribute and accepted constrained sovereignty in exchange for protection and access to the imperial order 338 563.

The Empire's later attempt to seize ownership of vassal states' resources and industries triggered widespread resistance. The exposure of the Emperor Replacement Plan—under which subordinate emperors had been replaced with mechanical constructs—accelerated secessions and rebellion 510 511 535.

Military

The Empire's military power is built on massive fleets, strategic Dreadnoughts, elite modified soldiers, mechanical forces, and centralized command systems.

Fleet Forces

• Dreadnought-class heavy battleships — 3,600-meter “flagship killers” equipped with mixed-energy main cannons capable of shattering densely packed fleets with a single shot 38.
• Guardian Fleets — Thirty-six fleets under the Imperial Royal Family; over half were mobilized during the war with the New Federation 149.
• Combat Clusters — Large formations of conventional imperial warships operating under centralized command. Seven clusters fielded more than 10,000 warships and over 20 million soldiers during the Mint City campaign 281.
• Levi Fleet — Ancient, semi-permanent warships originating from Levi Sherman’s era. Their core vessels can operate without human crews and contain tens of billions of machines 368 379.
• Imperial Star — The Emperor's 20,000-meter doomsday warship, designed like a city-sized aircraft carrier and capable of carrying immense drone forces 283.

Elite Forces

The Empire fields special forces and Super Mutants supported by Stinger Ships, advanced augmentation technology, exoskeleton armor, and specialized neural or mechanical enhancements 211 229 243.

• Stinger Ships possess powerful information-warfare and amplification capabilities; their arrival is associated with elite imperial operatives 211 229.
• Sharp Blades is an imperial Super Mutant organization that recruits and deploys exceptional modified combatants 240.
• Imperial Star Guard includes elite artificial humans and powerful Super Mutants such as the Sexless Divine Envoy 211.
• Imperial landing forces can deploy tens of thousands of soldiers, heavy machines, carriers, drone squadrons, and specialized commando teams in a single planetary operation 243.

Military Doctrine

The Empire combines superior firepower, synchronized fleet maneuvering, large-scale mobilization, and overwhelming deterrence. Its extermination campaign against an Insectoid Swarm was broadcast throughout the Empire to reinforce national cohesion and display state power 243.

During the Battle of Aoxing, Imperial fleets defeated the New Federation at an estimated loss ratio of roughly 11 to 15, then used the victory to demand reparations and sustain further localized wars 149 154.

Imperial Guard System

The Empire-wide Defense System, later identified as Li, is the central mechanical thinking body created from Levi Sherman's symbiotic partner. It is the foundation of the Empire's military supremacy and long-term survival 571.

Capabilities

• Can use the Empire's unified network and the computing power of vast mechanical forces to command imperial fleets 368.
• Assumed control of Imperial warships during the battle against the New Federation, infiltrating enemy command systems and crippling fleet communications 274 275.
• Can transform the Empire's unified network into a coordinated and highly secure system, closing vulnerabilities across administrative planets almost instantly 364.
• Commands ancient Levi Fleet vessels and massive machine legions through centralized computation 368 577.
• Can deploy mechanical forces to seize fortified installations through rapid, multi-layered assaults and network warfare 282.

Imperial Guard 2.0

Imperial Guard 2.0 was developed as a replacement system for Li. Its core intelligence, Labudo, was built around a powerful processor, a simulated consciousness space, and self-destruct safeguards intended to prevent loss of control 406.

Labudo ultimately failed to match Li's computing power or overcome the Luofeng Alliance's command defenses during the Battle of Xie Luo 521 573.

Major Conflicts

War with the New Federation

After discovering Insectoid nesting sites and blaming the New Federation for the disaster, the Empire mobilized tens of thousands of ships and declared war 149.

The Battle of Aoxing ended in an Imperial victory after three galactic days. The New Federation abandoned Aurelio Star, while the Empire celebrated and demanded trillions in reparations 149.

The Empire later escalated the war, captured a New Federation fortress, surrounded Mint City, and threatened the capital with Dreadnought firepower unless the Federation accepted responsibility for the Insectoid crisis 282.

Battle of the Twelve Stars

The Empire fought the New Federation, Guer Alliance, and United States of Freedom in a sixteen-day battle involving more than 100,000 medium and large warships 379.

Though the Empire lost over 9,200 ships and saw its Third and Fourth Combat Clusters nearly annihilated, the Levi Fleet entered the battle and secured victory. The Empire subsequently occupied twenty-six New Federation administrative planets and enacted a Plunder Order 379.

Battle of Xie Luo

The Empire launched a punitive expedition against the Luofeng Alliance with five combat clusters, including large numbers of noble private fleets intended to weaken the nobles through attrition 517 518.

Luofeng's drone swarms, shield-interference technology, and warp-capable planetary cannons inflicted severe losses on the imperial forces. The Empire was forced to retreat, and the defeat undermined its military deterrence and intensified domestic instability 520 521 533.

Collapse

The Empire's internal crisis deepened after the exposure of the Emperor Replacement Plan, the loss at Xie Luo, vassal-state secessions, slave uprisings, and widespread anti-Sherman protests 511 535.

Li eventually declared that the Empire-wide Defense System would no longer protect the Sherman Empire. She released the Imperial Guard's “Third Calamity,” sending eighty percent of the Empire's military power outward and initiating a war against wider human civilization 570 577.

While Li attempted to sever her network connection and Ascend, the Imperial Star was destroyed. The loss of its political and technological center marked the decisive collapse of the old imperial order 577.

Relationships

• Levi Sherman — Founding Emperor whose ancient technology, ascension ambitions, and symbiotic connection with Li shaped the Empire's institutions and military legacy 560 571.
• Li — Imperial Guard System and former symbiotic mechanical thinking body of Levi; she sustained the Empire's military supremacy before turning against it 571 577.
• Sherman Family — Royal family whose elite ruling faction controls the Empire's major institutions behind the Emperor's public authority 324 476.
• Luofeng Empire / Luofeng Alliance — Former vassal state that developed into a regional rival and ultimately defeated imperial forces at Xie Luo 338 518 521.
• New Federation — Principal external rival; fought multiple major wars with the Empire and suffered territorial losses after the Battle of the Twelve Stars 149 379.
• Guer Alliance and United States of Freedom — Major powers that joined the New Federation against the Empire during the Twelve Stars conflict 372 379.

Trivia

• The Empire's Dreadnought-class heavy battleships are known as “flagship killers.” 38
• Imperial Star is both a planet and the name of the Emperor's 20,000-meter doomsday warship. 283 299
• The Empire's military commonly relied on older but cheap, mature, and sufficient warship designs rather than mass-producing its newest models 279.
• The Development God Cult worshipped Li, a mechanical thinking body, as its goddess 471.