Imperial Counts and Counties.

[GypsyComet]

There's no way one single man is going to be able to stay on top of all that. He's gonna have to delegate authority. In the Imperium, with it's feudal chain of command, the immediate delegates are the counts, with each count or viscount ruling over a county of 3-6 worlds.

It can be rather interesting to take a subsector or two (the usual campaign area) and map the Counties based on the Counts and Viscounts set out by Traveller Map, then do the same for the Marquisates (usually no more than a pair of worlds). In many cases, you'll find a "leftover" population of Barons who answer only to the Duke(s) since they fall outside of the Counties and Marquisates. The Imperial politics of the region practically write themselves at that point, particularly when a colony and its controller end up in different Counties...

 

[talos402000]

It can be rather interesting to take a subsector or two (the usual campaign area) and map the Counties based on the Counts and Viscounts set out by Traveller Map, then do the same for the Marquisates (usually no more than a pair of worlds). In many cases, you'll find a "leftover" population of Barons who answer only to the Duke(s) since they fall outside of the Counties and Marquisates. The Imperial politics of the region practically write themselves at that point, particularly when a colony and its controller end up in different Counties...

Somebody did do that awhile ago, but I cannot remember who or when...

 

[flykiller]

Somebody did do that awhile ago

anybody can do it. use this map, draw on it whatever you want.

 

[McPerth]

The High Nobility risk *everything* if they stoop to open warfare against each other. The Planetary nobility, only a small minority of whom also hold Imperial titles with any teeth, are another matter. The Duke of Regina does not run Regina, and the First Administrator of Regina has no Imperial authority beyond what he can talk Norris into during their weekly Zero Squash match.

Fully agreed

The two largest examples of Imperial Nobles at war with each other are the Rebellion and the Civil War. From a particular point of view the Solomani Rim War might also qualify. The next step down would be conflicts like the "trade" wars that kept Deneb tied in knots for decades, and included suborned planetary navies and capital class "yachts". I suspect there were some nasty trade wars, involving what were essentially nobles, during the First Imperium. It is why, IMO, the Vilani are both very talented in this arena, and very cautious about using those talents openly.

Partially agreed here. While I agree with you on Rebellion, I don't in Civil War, that was more a Navy matter than a noble one. It is specified that the Imperial Bureaucracy (and so, as I understand Third Imperum, most fo the Nobility, mainly the part of it not in the Navy) kept "neutral" and fuctioning without major problems.

OTOH, the "backstabing" I told about, and I guess an example of the petty wars occuring inside the imperium, would be the old rivalry among Sufren and Backman told about in MT Astrogator's Guide to Diaspora. While no war maong them occurs until well inside Rebellion, as I understood it, trade wars and other trouble were common among them since the Long Night.