It's actually extremely improbable, unless a regional organisation is typical of Harchong as a whole.
For aristocrats and bureaucrats both, rank, prestige, influence and, err, remuneration are a direct function of how far down you are from the top. The bureacrats responsible for organising the new provinces of the south would not have tolerated having to report to somebody in, say, Yu Shai when their opposite numbers in the north report directly to the Imperial Court.
From the centre, there might have been some interest in having all the south report to the South Harchong Office, but the few who stood to gain from that notion would have found themselves vastly outnumbered by those faced with the prospect of having not just one, but 2 extra layers impinging on their control of their domains in the new provinces - with one of them, even worse, not even subordinate to them in the first place. The fighting, if any, may have been interesting, but I'm pretty sure that it wound up with the administrative organisation of South Harchong identical to that of the north.
n7axw wrote:PeterZ wrote:My only quibble with your analysis, Don, is the assumption of a lack of central authority. The Empire is ruled by bureaucrats. I would be shocked if there was not a regional headquarters for the bureaucracy. That could function effectively as a source of central authority or at least a method of exercising central authority.
It does require coopting the bureaucracy and that depends on how thoroughly Charis cuts Howard from Haven.
That could work and it would put SH a bit further ahead of the gane than I've been assuming. They could appoint an emperor to servr as a unifying symbol.
My presumption had the EOC in control of the Gulf of Dohlar after the Haarahlds and ironclads arrive and the land bridge betwwen Howard and the Havens under allied control.
Don