The Empire of Rokugan is sustained by an almost inconceivably vast administrative organization that is generally referred to as the Imperial bureaucracy. This organization is led and principally staffed by a half-dozen Imperial families, all of whom are blessed to serve the Emperor directly without need of a Clan Champion to stand as an intermediary. Millions strong, each of these families serves its own purpose within the bureaucracy, although crossover between them is common. The significant tithes supplied by the Great Clans and the Minor Clan Alliance ensure the bureaucracy never wants for funding, and indeed its employment of conscripts and volunteers from the ranks of the clans is entirely a matter of heredity rather than necessity; were it to prove necessary, the Imperial families could assemble a fleet capable of challenging even the largest Great Clan, although it would take time to accomplish such a thing and it has never been necessary to do so since Rokugan first took to the stars. 

 Emperor Iweko CXII has been upon the throne for eighty-four years, and despite his advanced years he yet appears claim this is a sign of a strong manifestation of divinity within him, for his blessed ancestor Iweko I ruled for nearly a century before abdicating the throne. Others are more realistic, and refrain from referring to the advanced state of preservative medicine and the ministrations of shugenja out of courtesy and duty. Iweko CXII is a distant ruler, but his judgment is generally regarded as both wise and fair, and there have been no significant uprisings against his reign. He has a minimalist policy with regards to intervention in clan affairs, and on many occasions has permitted hostilities between Great Clans to run their course unless they reach the point of impacting the overall stability and prosperity of the Empire as a whole.

The Emperor is represented most often by his trusted vassal, the Emerald Champion. The man called Nazo is something of an enigma in Rokugani society since his ascension to the position of Emerald Champion some twenty-one years ago. He attended the Emerald Tournament under a veil of secrecy, and his true identity and clan of origin (if any) are unknown to all save the Emperor himself. Most assume he is of Scorpion birth due to his tendency to wear an all-concealing mask, but his reign has certainly shown the Scorpion Clan no favoritism. Described at best as meddlesome and at worst as tyrannical, Nazo takes an extremely heavy-handed and interventionist approach to the execution of his duties, in contrast to his Emperor. His tactics might be less troublesome to the Great Clans were it not for the incredible power at his immediate disposal in the form of his personal flagship, the Emerald Blade. A prototype constructed in absolute secrecy, the Emerald Blade is unique. It is half again as large as a Katana-class cruiser, carrying enough firepower to rival no less than three of those most dangerous craft. The forces of the Jade Champion are housed aboard the ship as well, and their power and magical prowess lend the Emerald Blade protective shields that are vastly superior to anything  commanded by other contemporary craft.

Thus far, no intelligent life has been found within the  Empire that is not ultimately native to or descended from the various Spirit Realms. However, this is not to say there are not populated unaligned planets on the periphery of the Empire’s border. Some are filled with outcasts from  the Empire, those who wish to find their own fate and to escape the rule of a distant and unknowing Emperor. For the most part, these individuals flock to planets of little value to the Empire, and as such they are usually left alone; the effort of returning them to the Empire would exceed any possible benefit for doing so. The handful of profitable planets that are not claimed by the Empire are those ceded to the other cultures from the homeworld of Rokugan in exchange for their vacating that world. The remnants of many cultures can be found lingering in the  border worlds under the watchful eyes of the Unicorn Clan; they include what remains of the Senpet Empire and the culture of the ancient metropolis of Medinaat-al-Salaam, as well as a mere handful of surviving immortal Ashalan, among others.

    The Empire of the Emerald Stars is a vast region of space, but there is an even greater expanse beyond its borders that has proven more difficult to explore. The entire ‘eastern’ edge of the Empire is dominated by an incomprehensibly vast nebula that wreaks havoc on the systems of any spacecraft that draws too near to it, much less actually enters its boundaries. Conversely, the ‘western’ border of the Empire is a strangely empty expanse of space bereft of star systems. The master navigators of the Moshi family estimate it would take enormous resources to allow a ship of any size to cross this gulf of space and reach whatever systems might exist on the opposite side. None have yet attempted this nigh-impossible feat, though there is currently a race of sorts between the Unicorn and Mantis to be the first to find a means of doing so. 

    It is along the ‘northern’ side of the Empire that most exploration continues. Because of the highly competitive behavior of the Great Clans in this regard, recent Imperial edicts forbid exploration of any systems that have not first been examined and properly sanctified by the priests of the Imperial Exploration Corps. Once systems have been opened to exploration, there is usually a brief but intense period of conquest by various clans, often with quite a bit of skirmishing between their expeditionary forces, before planets are fully claimed. In centuries past it was the custom for clans to be permitted to lay claim to entire planets or even whole solar systems, but the current process of exploration generally does not allow a clan to claim more than a single continent on a planetary body at a time, although smaller lunar bodies are allowed to be taken as a whole if the clan has sufficient forces present to defend its claim.

    The systems beyond the Empire’s ‘southern’ border are both widely scattered and largely dead and valueless. Few have any sort of sustainable atmosphere, and other than some meager mineral resources, nothing of any significant value has been discovered along the ‘southern’ border in almost a century. Exploration in this region has slowed almost to a halt, as none of the clans wish to expend resources that could better be spent seeking holdings of value on the ‘northern’ border instead. This point has been driven home rather forcefully of late due to the disappearance and destruction of numerous small expeditionary forces in the southern regions. No one is sure as of yet exactly what is taking place there.