Imperial Cults

The Imperial Cults were created to fulfil a similar roles to the Noble Houses but to be less of a threat to imperial authority.

Cults are created by imperial charter, which costs a fixed sum each year. Each cult has a membership made up of imperial citizens and corporations and is founded on particular political values. Their internal organisation varies from cult to cult.

The cult leadership meet in the imperial palace on Luna and attempt to lobby the Emperor to act in their interest. If a proposal gets a majority of cult votes it is likely to be accepted. Votes are counted according to membership size, one vote per citizen and one vote for every 10 employees of a member corporation.

Since the clone corruption on Mercury has made repeated cloning unviable, one of the more important roles of the cults is to provide a new host for the Emperor. Each cult provides its own candidate and use instant runoff voting to select the new host.

After the emperor's exhaltation chip is implanted the old personality never fully fades giving the cult a way to subtly affect the future of the Empire.