The Krylatin Empire Spans almost a whole galaxy, combined with the Lost Colonies, and the only other group of significance is the Peace Alliance. They are considered by the Empire to be a grouping of cowardly degenerates, who have stolen technology from another superior race now thought extinct. They are not deemed to be a threat, but a nuisance, and as such any trade or contact is strictly forbidden.
The Krylatin Empire is largely ruled on a planet-to-planet basis, with nobles ruling as a representative of the God-Emperor, and a tithe paid to the Empire for protection. While the nobles have own forces, it is nothing quite like the force of the Imperial Army. Recruitment to the Army is largely done on hiveworlds, but patriotism may strike anyone.
Certain worlds(Mining, Farming and Factory) are simply kept ignorant of the chance of a better life, and as such do not need much dominance. Some people disappear or have accidents, but such is life. Thus, dangerous ideas are kept at a minimum. Certain goods are shipped in to give the impression of a better life than what could be.
Other worlds(Colony, Military Strongholds, Hive and Monastery) are connected and as such ideas can not be stopped in the same way. However, they are not informed of the ignorance of the restricted worlds, and any attempt to inform about such a thing would be regarded as sedition. Punishments for crimes such as these tend to be disproportionate, depending on the perpetrator's social status.
At the bottom of the food chain, you find the non-citizens. They have no officially recognized identity, no real chance of advancement or indeed, any rights whatsoever. They can be used as cheap labour, slaves or target practice and there will be no significant backlash for either. On a hiveworld, non-citizens are kept in the undercity, partially for control and partially for their own protection.
There are two ways to escape this life legally: earn enough by working to purchase an application for Citizenship, and then wait for the application to be approved, or to enlist in the army. The first option will take you through Ordo Infintas, the nightmare that is imperial bureaucracy, and will take quite a while.
Sometimes, if you are lucky and long-lived, your grandchildren might become citizens if you apply while you are a child. Such expediency is rare however. The other one will grant immediate Citizenship to small parts of your family, and if you survive your tour, you will also be a citizen, however far from where you started this leaves you.
Once a citizen, all the laws apply to you, but at least you have rights. You now can be properly punished for any transgression you commit, but also have the right to work. Mining, farming and factory worlds now represents less of a hazard, as you can have a proper job with proper pay. Colony, military strongholds, hive and monastery worlds now allow you the privilege to leave the undercity to enter down below. From here, you might one day set foot on the surface if you are lucky.
The rights granted to you now also means you have the right to leave work, and to work only 5-6 standard cycles each day. But any transgression made by a citizen will most likely result in one of four judgements: A fine(size depending on the transgression), Exile(Citizenship revoked and you are thrown into the undercity), Public Service(You can enlist in the army, or a gameshow) and Death.
Gameshows here use punishment as entertainment. If the offender has no family/ close friends/ anyone to protest, they are recruited to for instance "Tonight's Judgments"(Execution of high-profile criminals), "Punishments"(Saw-style executions. Few, if any, survivors) or "Cleansing the World"(Killing prisoners en-masse). Some contestants do not have much of a choice to appear or not, but they never survive long enough to tell anyone.
For nobles, the situation is completely different. As planetary defence and policing is mostly done by the private guard of different families, nobility can get away quite a lot. This could, of course, be used against them by other members of the same family, or another family, if the noble in question was careless in the wrong area.
Assassinations, extortion, hostile takeovers and powerplays are everyday events to the nobility of any family with more than three members. This goes double if another family enters the equation and if the setting is a hiveworld, all bets are off. All of this plays neatly into the idea amongst the citizenship, that the nobility are not representing the empire they know is out there.
And that is the main purpose of the nobility, to act as a buffer between the common folk and the empire itself. If a noble family oversteps its boundaries, the population may rebel, and then the empire may step in on the side of the rebels, so as to make them the new nobility after all is said and done. This makes the military, and the empire as a whole, the heroes of the common folk.
The military, its other incarnations and orders of the empire, in itself does not usually concern itself with internal affairs on any given planet, but instead deal with the enemies of the empire. Considering how large numbers of enemies they have acquired during the years, constant war have been and will be the natural state of the empire.
