Galactic Empire (Foundation)
The Galactic Empire is an empire that features in Foundation.
Contents |
History
The Galactic Empire
The vast, twelve-thousand-year-old Galactic Empire found itself in a state of terminal, though publicly unacknowledged, decline.
In this time, Hari Seldon a psychohistorian used mathematical sociology to predict the imminent fall of the Empire and a subsequent thirty-thousand-year dark age. The Empire, though outwardly powerful, was deep in a state of gradual, systemic decay that the ruling class refused to publicly acknowledge. Seldon, a psychohistorian on the capital planet of Trantor, had used his complex mathematical models to predict, with scientific certainty, the complete collapse of the existing civilization within five centuries, followed by a thirty-thousand-year dark age. Seldon was summoned before the Commission of Public Safety on Trantor, the Empire's bureaucratic heart, to present his controversial findings. These predictions were not seen as a scientific forecast but as seditious prophesying that could incite panic, undermine public confidence in the Emperor's rule, and destabilize an already fragile political environment. They feared that the very belief in the Empire's fall could become a self-fulfilling prophecy, making his ideas too dangerous to be allowed free dissemination, leading to his apprehension and subsequent trial for treasonous activities. The ruling elite, including figures like the Minister of Education, sought to suppress his predictions, viewing them as treasonous and destabilizing to the current order. During the trial, Seldon explained that the Empire's complexity and decay were irreversible, but the ensuing dark age could be reduced to a mere thousand years through the implementation of his Seldon Plan. The officials were sceptical and accused him of fear-mongering. The Emperor himself, though unseen, held sway over the proceedings. The Commission ultimately found a compromise: they exiled Seldon and his followers, whom he had gathered to compile a comprehensive Encyclopedia Galactica, to the remote, barren planet Terminus, located at the extreme periphery of the Milky Way. The Imperial authorities believed this isolation would render them politically harmless, effectively shelving their radical ideas far from the centers of power. Thus, the Foundation was established not as an independent endeavor, but as a direct result of an Imperial decision to manage a perceived political threat during a period of its own subtle, internal decay.
Overview
Members
- Frankenn the First :
- Cleon I :
- Cleon II :
- Eto Demerzel :
- Bel Riose :
- Hari Seldon :
Notes
- The Galactic Empire was created by Isaac Asimov where it featured in the setting of the Foundation universe.
In other media
Television
- In Foundation, the Galactic Empire appeared in the setting of the Apple live-action television series.
Appearances
- Foundation:
External Links
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