Chapter 34 33:
"From 1500 after Argal onward, the empire's politics had changed under certain factors.
Despite the smart atoms, Argal experienced a gradual deterioration of his memory. Apparently nobody thought about that detail, taking into account that by the time he had optimized himself, he was already old. The great emperor, brilliant as he was, who was considered a great sage in the galaxy, had actually suffered from some mental illness that only took time to appear, but never disappeared.
The imperial expansion had also eliminated significant external enemies. Without an "otherness" against which to define itself, imperial ideology began to turn toward self-perfection as a substitute for conquest. Genetic classes are the greatest expression of it.
The empire had also been influenced by radical factions after unification, given that a new generation of militants conceived "Viltrumite purity" as an end in itself.
The idea that the Viltrumite population had to be perfected to the maximum theoretical extent, and that those who failed to reach the standards defined by Argal constituted a burden for the empire, had taken root in the hearts of the population.
Then, the emperor's madness, coincidentally aligned with the ideals of a purity-loving Viltrum, and later, his assassination at the hands of the unnamed traitor, whose name I do not know, but what I do know, was that he was the emperor's confidant, not to mention the sole knower of optimization technology.
Anyway, the point is that everything went to hell together with the emperor himself.
Argal died without designating a clear successor. In his final years, he had developed a paranoid distrust aggravated by his mental condition, toward any possible heir, he feared they would replace him before completing what he considered his work, universal domination.
The result was an unprecedented succession crisis, one of the worst in all Viltrumite civilization. The Great Purge.
At least seventeen factions claimed legitimacy, each one based on different interpretations of Argal's final declarations.
There were disputes over the definition of purity, the threshold of "optimization," or the method of selection. It was a complete massacre. Entire bloodlines were eliminated by decree, defective Viltrumites, or hybrids hidden within the colonies. A civil war fragmented the empire into multiple warlord domains, reducing the population by half, although it is estimated that it was by 60%.
Culturally, the purge systematically eliminated any manifestation that did not directly serve military ends. The arts, non-instrumental philosophy, critical history, everything was classified as "unproductive deviation" and suppressed.
These were the foundations upon which the current regime emerged, at the hand of the second emperor, although only in words, Tragg.
It is not known where Regent Tragg appeared from, at least, such information is not permitted.
Although I can swear on my life and assure that he is nothing more than a clandestine experimental product or something similar. I can also imagine that perhaps he is some kind of Viltrumite mutant, like Vexa-6, only much more powerful, vastly more. So much that it is believed, he could destroy a planet with a single blow. No Viltrumite is capable of such a thing through conventional means.
There is also an imperial version, the only and official one certified by the empire, that Tragg descended from a collateral line of Argal preserved in secret.
Honestly I do not know whether to agree with that, I prefer to opt for the experimentation matter.
Regardless of his origin, what is relevant is that Tragg possessed coercive power overwhelmingly superior to that of any other living Viltrumite.
This asymmetry of power allowed him to do what no faction had managed in four centuries: impose peace by force.
Tragg was incapable of restoring the empire envisioned by Argal. That ship had sunk long ago with its founder. But he was intelligent enough to establish his own policy of imperial government, with its own characteristics.
Through a martial clause he ceased the civil war in exchange for absolute loyalty to the regent. And those who violate the peace are publicly executed.
He also maintained the succession theology, where through the doctrine of the absent heir, he must assume his position as the next emperor. Although apparently, he himself must have a prior requirement. If one exists, he must be class 1 for the eventual claim. Until then, Tragg will continue ruling as regent until the end of his days or until he resigns on his own accord.
the point is that this legal fiction allows Tragg to exercise absolute power without claiming the title that would belong to Argal.
Also, and more importantly, the class system was codified for the first time as the official structure of the empire. Every Viltrumite knows his place and his possibilities of advancement according to his genetic potential by birth.
Tragg's regime legitimized itself through a selective reinterpretation of Argal's legacy, nothing more and nothing less, the simple result of the deformation of the ideals of a soldier scientist who wanted to unify his race under a single government, flag and honor, in addition to bringing his race to the stars.
Until now, Viltrum's current government has been managing itself through the ideal that only genetic purity becomes the sole criterion of value, imperial expansion as a "sacred duty" and the elimination of the weak under the justification of "honoring the founder's will."
Certainly, I refuse to agree with everything I know about my people. But I have to recognize, that unfortunately, this ideological construction, although historically questionable, proved functional for the maintenance of order.
In the absence of significant external enemies (most relevant species had been conquered or exterminated), the empire needed an internal organizing principle, and genetic purity fulfilled that function.
The Viltrumite empire, ironically, also presents a paradox.
It was founded by a scientist and soldier, who valued innovation and critical thinking, but it consolidated itself through a dogma that proscribed exactly those qualities as a product of his experiences.
The late ideology, the collapse of his mental sanity, the obsession with purity and optimization had contained the necessary elements for what came after.
Decay.
The current system, although stable in appearance, little by little seems to be presenting contradictions that could lead to future crises:
Inbreeding among a reduced number of elite bloodlines could produce an accumulation of deleterious traits in the long term. Not for nothing, after the birthing process of Viltrumite females, the newborn natos are taken directly to incubators. All with the objective of reducing possible defects that lately are appearing in the natos.
I myself am an example, they literally thought I was mute.
At the same time, the impossibility of questioning imperial doctrine prevents adaptation to new interstellar threats. I mean, the empire has spent 20 orbits fighting against the Lanther sector with their Lanther Force soldiers capable of creating light constructs and a bunch of crazy things. Or the sector of the Geldarians, they are literally like the Knights of the Zodiac mixed with the Power Rangers.
The empire is powerful and feared, but the universe is immense, it is only a matter of time before we encounter a superior force.
But the worst of all, is the race's own demography. The Viltrumite population continues to be insufficient to control conquered territory, which demands a reproduction rate that the current social structure hinders.
Tragg's regime has solved the immediate problems of the post-civil war, but it has not addressed the structural contradictions of the imperial project. It remains to be seen whether the "absent heir," whether real or fictitious, will someday be able to reconcile Argal's original vision".