M is for Magentis

Magentis is the home planet of the Imperium. The one Shayla tries to annihilate in revenge for Eloon.

To the world outside, Magentis seems extraordinary.

It is the home of the Emperor, with majestic palaces and other landmarks familiar to every schoolchild throughout known space.

Magentis is the seat from which the eighty-three worlds directly under Imperial rule are closely governed, and to which hundreds of others owe allegiance by treaty. It houses the immense central bureaucracy which implements all that tiresome ruling.

The planet sits at the center of the most fiercely guarded volume of space known to humanity. No craft, other than Imperial warships, ever fly in and land directly on the planet. All cargo is opened off-planet. All visitors are processed through orbiting reception bases before landing. This is the ring of security that Shayla has to evade.

The public face of Magentis is imposing, intimidating, steeped in traditions of pomp and ceremony from eight thousand years of continuous rule.

But on the ground, Magentis is breathtakingly ordinary. That is the subject for another post.