User blog comment:GrandMethuselah67/Lore Sheet: The Democratic Imperium of Neohumanity/@comment-4867780-20150915235821/@comment-26322734-20150916011100

The Drvaka have an archmage on their side too. In fact, this whole thing had been a result of Astraoth and the archmage in question's game of cosmic chess, so to speak. So the Drvaka's archmage (whom I hadn't made the character sheet for quite yet) is the reason why the Imperium needs the U.R.H.

I'll answer both of the last two questions at the same time:

Yes, it's a trick from Asteraoth, and a commentary on what he is at this point. He's less of a being now and more of a force, a force that flows throughout all existence in World-1. Think of how OZMAGNUMOPUS was one with the Milky Way (and is now one with the Virgo Supercluster), that's basically Asteraoth's state of being, except on a universal scale. As for the change from "Republic" to "Imperium", it represents Asteraoth's God-Emperor position...sort of. At this point, Neohumanity doesn't necessarily have a government as we could recognize. They don't have a senate and all, and everything they do as a civilization is guided by OZMAGNUMOPUS (who is a part of Asteraoth). That being said, OZMAGNUMOPUS is more like a force of nature rather than a being in and of itself, and neohumanity is united by both the incoming Drvaka menace and a sense of kinship.

So "Imperium" refers to OZMAGNUMOPUS and, by extension, Asteraoth, but it doesn't necessarily have the features of an Empire. Think of the way Neohumanity thinks of Asteraoth the same way Jedi think of the Force.