In fact after re-reading my post I did in fact point out that my point would stand whether or not those guards that roam eastern were tribunal guards or just connected to the cities...i.e....city-guards.

The main gist of the post is that they are (my assumption) directly connected to the political powers that run which ever city or cities lay claim to Eastern road.

Those guards aren't (from the perspective of an imperial) protecting the roads when they attack the centurions. They are directly interfering with the centurions ability to collect tithes to the Empire on 'their' road.

In any book I've read, every fantasy novel, every fantasy movie of an authoritarian government with vast military power and a penchant for conquest was repeatedly attacked on a territory (eastern road) that just happens to be a major hub of trade between two major cities there would be major repercussions for those militant acts. That major military power would use those acts as pretext for war.

I understand there has to be some 'looking the other way' when it comes to making fantasy work in an interactive game like this one though. But let the 'looking the other way' go in all directions if so.

We can stick to our guns on RP - which would require taking a hard look at the current relationship between empire and tribunals which this post has brought the brunt of scrutiny to...and just admit that it simply doesn't make sense...from an RP perspective....because saying that the Empire is simply promoting order is a weak band-aid to cover a gaping hole in RP logic....then come up with some ways to keep things as are but have a better explanation (like a treaty for example or instead of roaming guards attacking the centurions maybe roaming bands of outlanders?)

OR

We can admit that sometimes out of sheer convenience we allow things that don't really make much RP sense to slide for the sake of maintaining the status quo. Which is fine. Just look me in the eye and tell me that instead of trying to hand me a band-aid. Then we can have a more honest discourse knowing that we ALL stumble on RP....even the game itself.