[@Tortoise] That's good. I can definitely respect wanting a certain aesthetic.

Regarding your point on a slippery slope - that's actually something I personally need to be more cognizant of. Unfortunately, I'm aware that I sometimes get frustrated when people don't have the same understanding of my niche interests that I do, and I'm not as cognizant of the general idea of impressions (especially first impressions). I'm aware of the concept, of course, but I suppose it's something more experienced GMs would understand better than I would, with my GMing history being in a closed environment.
Also, I realize that it's a bit selfish and entitled of me to expect other RPers to cultivate the same understanding of military history as I have. It would be like a player demanding I get an understanding of the physics of space travel before participating in a science fiction RP, when the details space travel haven't been a particular interest of mine. If I enjoyed science fiction, I wouldn't want to play a sci-fi RP, only to be told that I wouldn't actually be allowed to do what I thought I could based on my understanding of things. I wouldn't want to have to spend time researching a topic that doesn't interest me just to play in an RP for a genre which does interest me.

Besides that, I'm very pleased you find my draft satisfactory. I'm happy that you had a solid understanding of the ideals regarding Vivesper that I was trying to convey. I [i]definitely[/i] intend to expand on the culture later, when I'm not drunk as a skunk (and hopefully not hungover), as it's a topic I find to be of significant importance to a nation. I would've loved to go into more detail, but the more responsible me had to draw a line somewhere regarding my time, so I could get [i]some[/i] sleep before traveling.
As for a more precise population estimate - that's something I'm less sure of. I wanted something that was significantly large to show the Empire's ability to eventually thrive in its environment (especially in more recent times with its stability), but I didn't want something ludicrous, because deprivation and war claimed many, many lives before that point, and it would still be a far cry from the population before the Cataclysm. I also didn't want anything that would give the impression of one-upmanship or otherwise intending to dominate other players. I figured that the more vague range of "massive" would reflect the success and stability of the Empire [i]in spite[/i] of their environment, while not invoking something as huge as the Roman or Mongol Empire. Overall, I think something near the lower end of the "massive" scale would probably fit, but I'd need some help to make sure.