The Red Emperor has a much easier time communicating with the rest of his empire than say the Roman Emperor did.
Distances
To begin with the distances involved are much shorter. Just look at the distances involved getting from Glamour to Filichet:
- Glamour to Raibanth – 30 km
- Raibanth to Jillaro – 160 km
- Jillaro to Filichet – 150 km
- Filichet to Furthest – 72 km
A mounted courier can do it in about eight or nine days, a caravan takes about three weeks. So King Pharandros can send a courier to Glamour and inform the Red Emperor of something about ten days after it happened. He can then order a courier to convey his response. Let’s assume it takes a week for that courier’s message to get to the attention of the Red Emperor, so we only have about four weeks (a half-season) to wait before we ask the question and might get a response.
Now that means that the provincial kings need to exercise independent judgment a lot but can still be managed by the Red Emperor and his court.
Fast Information
If the Red Emperor wants to see what is going on, he can go to Raibanth, sit in the All-Seeing Throne and try to peer into whatever is going on. No need to rely on third party communication – he can try and directly gauge the situation. Then he can send couriers out where he wants and get them to Furthest in only eight or nine days! If it is REALLY important, he can send a Moon Boat to get there in half that time.
Getting the Red Emperor’s Attention
Of course that all assumes the Red Emperor is paying attention. Remember, his attention is on a lot of things – eight satrapies, five provincial kingdoms, the West Reaches, scores of cities, hundreds of temples, and not to mention the various military commanders mean that many powerful and important people are constantly trying to get the Red Emperor’s limited attention.
It might take the Red Emperor a season or longer to reply to a request from a provincial king or a satrap. Longer if this is not something of interest to the Red Emperor. For city rulers, garrison commanders, or temple high priests, it can be longer still.
Now in many cases, the Red Emperor no doubt allows a scribe reply to routine requests. And in some cases, the Red Emperor has appointed proxies – Appius Luxius, Bellex Maximus, the Guide of the Lunar Way, Quinscion the Patient, etc. Of course after the Dragonrise, many of these are dead and the Red Emperor now has hundreds of reports coming in constantly!
Does the All Seeing Throne work at night? I’m not sure – from atop the Crater you look INTO the abyss, not away from it.