The Provinces
by WingofCootThe Empire has seven full provinces (Aut, Cerberia, Deshret, Hippania, the Moonslight Coast, Pyrhia, and Syrtis) and three special cases (the Hephaeston Mountains, the Sandfolk Basin and the Thonian Republic of Zugzul).
The full provinces are organized societies where the provincial governor and his staff and garrison oversees the local government to ensure that no threat to the Empire develops and that the terms of the province's treaty of annexation are upheld; otherwise the area and its people are ruled by the local government.
The three "special case" provinces are those which lack a sufficiently organized local government to establish a capital where an Imperial provincial governor and garrison can be placed and oversee affairs. The Hephaestons are not numerous and have no real leaders above individual family groups; the sandfolk of the Basin are divided into many small bands; and the former Thonian Republic of Zugzul collapsed nearly 800 local years ago and remains only as a name on Imperial maps, the descendants of its population split into feuding clans. In these three provinces, a governor is still appointed, but the area's Imperial military is under central command and generally interested only in protecting the canals; the governorship is a nominal position, often given to an Imperial favorite who has never even been to "their" province. These three governors' "headquarters" are established in the capital city, not in the actual province.
While Deshret's military capability is strongly suppressed (due to the very destructive history of its wars), the other provinces often raid one another - this is allowed and even encouraged by the Empire, as long as central Imperial lands/infrastructure or canals are not attacked. The central Imperial military ensures that it maintains the ability to suppress or destroy any of these forces if needed, with Alphatian-style overwhelming magical might.