The Lunar Empire covers about 410,000 square km, plus or minus 50,000. That makes it is a little larger the state of California or about the size of the modern nation of Germany or Iraq. It is about a tenth the size of the Roman Empire at its height. It has an average of 21 people per square km, but includes very densely settled areas and many far less settled areas.
So when you think of scale, don’t think the later Roman Empire. Think the Roman Republic after the Second Punic War or the core satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire before the Greek Wars or the Byzantine Empire before Manzikert. Its big, it has pretensions of ruling everything, but it does not encompass the known world.
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And of course at this size the Lunar Empire expresses the same sort of behaviour of other empires that size:
Grandiose self-image
The court, the capital, and the educated elite are utterly convinced they represent the pinnacle of civilization. They write poetry and histories that treat their realm as “the world.”
Universal rhetoric, regional reality
Official ideology is always universal, but the tax collector and the recruiting officer know perfectly well where the border actually ends.
Everyone knows the names of the big rivals
Unlike a truly world-spanning empire (Rome in AD 100, Tang China, Umayyads, Mongols), there are still one or two (or five) other great powers that are acknowledged, even if officially dismissed as “barbarians.” So the Lunars know that there is Kralorela, the Holy Country, Loskalm, and Seshnela. They know that the Safelster city states are rich and not likely conquerable by them.
Permanent insecurity mixed with permanent ambition
The empire is big enough that losing a war would be catastrophic, but not so big that it can rest. Every generation has to decide: consolidate or keep pushing? And we see that with the Lunar Empire and its expansions since 1602.
And put at the top the “cyclical alignment” of the Red Emperor. We have ended the Full Moon phase and entered the Full Half phase. The empire is moving towards Crescent Going if we are not already there. This is not merely a crude statement of the empire against some narrative framework but also expresses the activity and direction set by the Red Emperor. These cycles are not as predictable as you might think – these exist but are chaotic. Like the red goddess.
Note that I didn’t say the Lunar Empire isn’t powerful. I said it isn’t nearly as big as the Roman Empire.