Order purchased at the expense of humanity: Astragon's Police Force Continues to be an enemy of the common man
By Omo Kokoye
Foreward: Authors Experience
I grew up in what you might call a less then respectable area, i called Kazingo metro my home until my family made the decision to pack up and seek a new life in Hessunland. Kazingo is an inner city sprawl, where much of Tyrooz benefitted from the shipping boom in the early 80's and the so called Iterian effect* that occured thereafter, Kazingo never quote shook off the roughness and industrial decline that it has since become synonymous with. When i was 10 my father was shot walking home from his shift at the Kosh factory, this was a common occurance in the "Zingo" and by my late teens almost everyone in my block had a similar story. We got by working the jobs they don't show in the economic reports, we did the jobs that richer Tyroozans would consider "Unbecoming" or "dirty" my mother washed clothes and sold home made remedies, my sister was working the bottle line at Kosh co from as early as 10 (illegal under the 82' Kaskarid reforms but continued anyway). I soon found myself wanting more, i made the wrong friends and was selling bloodweed and "Shaved" firearms for most of my teens.
Our labours afforded us a shoebox apartment in a multi-story firetrap, the Metro was essentially a gigantic slum for much of the 90's and the cops rarely showed save for the occasional platoon sized show of force. Most cops were corrupt, they took bribes for almost everything and occasionally threw someone out of a window for late payments, other then that the "Zingo" was a lawless mess, the sort of place people dissapeared without a word and where gunshots were background noise. in 2001 my sister was accosted by members of the civic obedience platoon (disbanded in 2017), they attempted to arrest her for walking home from her shift in the dark under a "loitering" charge, she refused to pay the bribe and they proceeded to beat her into a coma. She died two days later, my mother had enough and we moved to Franktorf on a refugee visa.
Hessunland was no paradise but compared with the Zingo it came pretty close, Franktorf was a fraction of Tyrooz both in size and population (pretty sure downtown Franktorf would fit inside Kazingo alone) and it was here that i would study and earn my journalism degree, intent on exposing the deep systemic issues affecting Astragon.
Order through the Ages
(A portrait of a Medjai dating to about 1689)
The exalted empire has, to put it mildly, an incredibly ancient history that stretches back over seven millenia, in this immense span of time many different attempts have been made to police Astragon. During the first emperors reign order was enforced by a city watch largely recruited from Tyrooz's abundant population of sailors,unsurprisingly at many instances in old Astragon the "corruption and perfidy" of the watch became a re-ocurring theme. subsequent dynasty would frequently impose their own variants on this dynamic, Baba Kango and his successors simply ordered their Bukandan regiments to enforce the peace and "hunt" the "criminal" and the Oragbade were fond of declaring martial law via their metropolitan armies if the people became unruly. During the reign of Razad I a semi-professional force of Medjai was raised and staffed exclusively by Bhadarian desert tribes, these men soon gained a reputation as fair but ruthless lawmen and Astragon's law was well enforced during the golden age. The first true police force was the "Imperial Prefect" system that was raised in 1800 by reformist emperor Ebrashan the great, highly trained and wielding great respect, the prefects of the 1800s were a force to be reckoned with.
The Prefect system began to stagnate during the years of decline (1913-1929) and corruption soon reared its head, Prefects during the reign of Kaskaran II were as likely to rob and murder as the citizens they claimed to police. By the time of Sakard I's rise to power in the years before the iterian fascist war, the police had essentially become a very large gang. Sakard, ever the paternal autocrat, purged the Prefects and reformed them into the imperial constabulary, essentially an armed outfit that tended to kill more suspects then they apprehended. Under Sakard's authoritarian rule the constable became a symbol of oppression and cruelty with famed activist Odu Ogboni declaring that they were "the fist that beats us" throughout the entirety of Sakard's reign the law was whatever the emperor said it was and asking questions was a good way to end up in a back alley with multiple bullet wounds.
(Violent arrests and crackdowns were commonplace during the Sakard Era)
Kaskaran III set about reforming his fathers dictatorial system upon his return from the Skanda-Iraelian war, from 1981 onwards the old systems of power were disbanded and the Prefesha were rebuilt with the Imperial council now being their chief authority. While the emperor certainly meant well, much like most things in Astragon the reforms only worked as long as an emperor was exerting direct authority, the 1980s are widely and justifiable regarded as a good time to be Astragonese, then the 1990's arrived and things went very bad very fast. in 1992 the emperors son died in a car accident, his wife would follow several years later from illness, these losses combined with his own failing health left Kaskaran III increasingly isolated and out of touch with day to day governance. The Prefesha quickly atrophied back into corruption as the imperial council took advantage of the emperors incapable state to begin looting and enrichment at nearly every level of state.
This brings us almost full circle, the Prefesha were armed robbers with uniforms during my youth, the force grew and became ever more bloated and by the time the civil war rolled around in 2019 it was essentially an armed militia. Sabhrain wasted no time in dispensing with the old force upon her rise to power, the national purges that followed during the weeks of anarchy were heavily directed against the hated police. By the time the imperial armies had restored order many cops were dead and others imprisoned.
Policing Today
(Today's policeman is more soldier then lawman)
Empress Sabhrain rose to power with multiple things going for her, she was immensely popular, a decorated military leader and perhaps most importantly was considered staunchly anti-corruption, the result was that the populace embraced her style of governance with fervent approval. One of the first acts Sabhrain made as empress was to disband the old Prefesha and replace it with martial law, for the first years of her reign Astragon was essentially a military state, over time a reformed force was raised with a large body of its recruits coming from demobilized soldiers. The new police force that emerged is praised for its integrity and discipline, you won't hear the people talk about how terrified they are or how brutal these new cops can be, only praise flows in this new Kevshah state. An anonymous poll conducted in Tyrooz in 2025 found that of those interviewed roughly 59% stated they "feared" or "were very frightened" of the new imperial police, unsurprisingly this information was suppressed In Astragon.
The new lawman is a militant soul who works in a platoon level unit and is organised at the divisional level, Sabhrains answer to corruption was to declare war upon it. Predictably the new officer on patrol is a blunt instrument, little initiative or independent thought is present, break the law and its defenders will break you.The inevitable result is a force that is very good at suppression but lacks any deeper nuance or subtlety, order has been purchased but at the price of freedom. When faced with more complex crimes, the new order struggles, marching through a district and beating or shooting anyone with a gang affiliation is one thing, dealing with the daily tasks of civil policing requires a level of comprehension many imperial officers now lack.
As if to further prove my point you need only consider the increasing privitization of policing, where the state is now adopting military ethos and discipline, corporations have taken a scalpel approach. B&K has long contracted out its security forces as have Kazingo and Mopofo, these corporate sec units have become ubiqitous in the capitals newer districts. When the civil war ended the government turned to corporations to help rebuild, the resulting increase in corporate property soon led to entire districts of Tyrooz that were policed by private units. Heres the rub, the state police will crush you for putting a foot wrong, the corpos will break your nose and send you a bill. Tyrooz is now fully in the grip of a state that demands compliance on threat of death and a corporate regime that will maul and then fine you to within an inch of life.
Sabhrains new era is getting praised as a period of renewal, a time in which national pride is again high and the country is returning to its glory days, they just left out the part where anyone who puts a foot wrong eats a bullet. Today the officers will not take a bribe or extort money from passerbys, they will however beat you mercilessly for minor infractions and god help you if you double park. Im not saying the old cops were better, not at all, but these new enforcers arent exactly serving the people either. The stats, obscured as they may be, do not lie, since Sabhrain I came to power killing of suspects has increased by 50% and use of violence to enforce the law has become commonplace. If i were to return home chances are i would last all of five minutes, dissent is not popular in a nation that worships its leaders.
*The Iterian effect concerns the economic boom time that occured following the end of the Skanda-Iraelian war and the creation of the Iterian league, the combination of peace and multiple large economies shifting to peacetime industry made the old continent rich once more.
