A cynic might say that the real 'unifying theme' of almost any given empire was Imperialism, and notional factors like religion, ideology, ueber-nationalism, the white man's burden, and what have you, were pretty much in the category of 'I won't tell you the real reason, but I'll give you another that's just as good'.
> I'm not a fan of the strong Soviet model myself for the Lunars -- I
> reserve my "evil communist empire" label for the Elves, as is proper ;)
Certainly an evil communist empire: but a rather too successful one (at least internally) to be a good Soviet Analogue(TM). I've doubtless said this here before, but IMO the best way to model elves is not to read lots of Marx and Engels to your proto-elvish raw recuits, but to take a 'leaf' out of Vacuum Flowers' book, and basically 'program' them that way. In Greggly Terminology, the elves (and per Swanwick, the Red Martians) have a degree of Group Consciousness, where the Lunars and we lot are doing well if we manage even Individual Consciousness. (i.e., how 'enlightened' our self-interest might be.)
Cheers,
Alex.
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