# Nom
**URL:** https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338
**Category:** General
**Created:** [November 24, 2024, 10:42pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338 "2024-11-24T22:42:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2024, 10:42pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338/1 "2024-11-24T22:42:21Z")
“Consider, gentle reader, that even as the flesh of an Emperor, or of any man, is constituted of what he eats, so then is an Empire, in bones and sinew, constituted of what it eats.
“Therefore, to maintain the health, and to avoid the manifestations of ill-nutrition, unseemly bloat, or the effects of poisons, great attention must be paid to the Imperial diet, and care taken to seek out the finest food both rich and healthy, and to eschew that which is neither.
_“As below, so above.”_
_- Against the Bellipotency, pamphlet, pub. 4020_
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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at [https://eldraeverse.com/2024/11/24/nom](https://eldraeverse.com/2024/11/24/nom)
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### Author:  [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2024, 10:43pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338/2 "2024-11-24T22:43:29Z")
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### Author:  [@ahd](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/ahd)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2024, 6:08am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338/3 "2024-11-25T06:08:25Z")
Are there _any_ circumstances where the Empire of the Star would involuntarily annexe a place or a people? Or would they just burn it instead, if walking away and leaving it alone was inadvisable?
And what of the other Presidium powers?
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### Author:  [@rhouben](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/rhouben)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2024, 8:58pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338/4 "2024-11-25T20:58:39Z")
Essentially, no. For one, they’ve [run the numbers](https://eldraeverse.com/2016/08/05/the-blood-brain-barrier/) and if they ever start going down the involuntary annexation route there’s a very high likelihood of interstellar civilization collapsing into approximately All Of The Wars All At Once.
For another, when they say “Freest of the Free” and “Society of Unanimous Consent” they _mean_ it.
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### Author:  [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2024, 11:08pm UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/nom/3338/5 "2024-11-25T23:08:16Z")
That’s true, but it applies strictly only to setting out with the intent to conquer some random polity. Ending up with one after they pick a fight with _you_, on the other hand, is not the same…
More details at [Imperialism Wow!](https://eldraeverse.com/2024/11/25/imperialism-wow/)