Not-empires was the literal translation of the term for most Tosevite political systems in the Race's language. Before coming to Tosev 3, the Race had never encountered a political entity which was not ruled by a hereditary monarch. The Race assumed this system was also the one used by the various independent states with which the Conquest Fleet was engaged in the invasion. They were disabused of this error when Vyacheslav Molotov recounted the impericide of Tsar Nicholas II and his family during the Russian Revolution to Fleetlord Atvar.