rmulae having been established through ancient usage "I, a Duke of a Great House, an Imperial kinsman, give my word of bond under the Convention " With few exceptions, members of the Imperial family did not attend the mynad social functions which gave the Court its reputation for glittering splendor NOT is it true (with the possible exception of the Court of Chahc I, 8216-8225) that behind-the-scenes life on Kaitan consisted of perpetual orgies, feasts, and drinking bouts The private diaries and lournals of the Royal Household, still undergoing translation, indicate that Imperial duties not privilege held sway on Kaitan These duties included not only the admiA istration of the Imperial planets and the man agement of feudal dues obligations and tithes, but also the day-to day workings of various departments and ministries There was the Imperial Census to be attended to every ten years (requiring quite a bureaucra cy of its own no one outside its offices claimed to know the exact number of worlds under Imperial sway, yet the Census con cerned itself with individuals), the Imperial Dictionary-ostensibly a record of Galach only, but in need of constant revision and expansion, the Ecological Botanical, and Zoological Research Centers (under strict con trol to limit technological advance), not to mention the Imperial Intelligence Agency, whose records though available have as of this writing still resisted translation The emperor's day, excluding audiences, was a round of reports and conferences requiring the services of a battery of mentat secretaries and aides Regional and planetary courts of the Houses Major tended to ape the customs and fashions of the Imperial House Dukes and Bar ons grandly held audiences, heard suits and granted petitions all over the galaxy in imita tion of their sublime overlord Most Great Houses, indeed, granted subfiefs to vassals of their own lords of the Houses Minor, m a double effort to (a) increase their own pres fcge by creating personal vassals and (b) reduce the personal work diid expenditure necessary to govern a planet This process of submfeudation could continue with Houses Minor granting subtiefs to other Houses Mi nor or even private individuals (or even, m extraordinary cases to impoverished Houses Major) until a huge bureaucracy became necessary just to sort out who owed what obligations to whom The fall of certain Great Houses to the status of House Minor (entailing loss of Landsraad representation Guild shipping privileges, and membership in CHOAM) can be traced directly to the House becoming entangled in a coil of conflicting loyalties and obligations (See E IMPERIUM FEUDAL PATTERNS IMPERIUM FEUDAL PATTERNS Alaynbat, The Fall of the House of Hurak [Grumman Lodm] for a detailed and interesting case history) An astute and not-too-scrupulous House Minor could, of course, use the submfeudation process to advance itself to the status of House Major, and many of the minor planetary intrig