Oh wow... so amazing story...
I enjoyed reading it very much.

I have to say that whole assimilation process is made very, very well. I wonder if I would also sign in to this... the offer is so tempting...

Finally finished... it's beautiful. So crisp, so rich, such a new umwelt...

I'm not sure where I read this, but I remember seeing somewhere that humans are forbidden from leaving Earth or making any extrasolar colonization attempts. With the only way offworld being to enlist in citizenship and get 'assimilated'/changed, is this true? Or am I misremembering?

That is correct. That's how the domes incentivize these operations

Huh, thought I was misremembering because that felt quite dystopian to think, but I see. Interesting to say the least, and only compels me more to learn about this Empire.

I can see how one could conclude that, and putting such a desire and visage behind a physical form can be limiting. The Tolesians would argue that requiring a change in physical form, it frees you as you can travel anywhere in the Commonwealth.

Well, I'm not looking at it from the idea that the "Human Form shouldn't be Altered", I just find myself unsettled by how limiting it feels to require being changed into the main species of this Empire. Sure, it is limiting to put so much emphasis on a singular form, but the same can be said of the Tolesians too, with their limiting of morphological freedom. It's like putting stuff from one locked box into a more durable and alternative one. It's definitely not the same, but its still a locked box that; whether through technological limits, an unwillingness to risk disrupting their homogenized Commonwealth, or just plain lack of imagination; can't have its contents transferred to another one (unless if you're lucky like SvarOS to upload your consciousness to a computer). No excessive cyberware, no fantastical genetic modifications (beyond the basic shift from other species to Teshkava), no explicitly robotic chassis, just plenty of differently colored but still baseline Teshkava.

There's also... Well, other reasons too. Such as how it is unfair to lock space travel from a species, due to a simple matter of species. Aliens coming in to 'save' humans from themselves, and while they might have worked together with human nations... Humanity is still a vassal for their Empire, one tat doesn't have much political power (or any power) beyond simply being another world for resources and people. And even if this Empire isn't too ethnocentric, and I am accounting for the other story mentioning how the Empire does use assimilation to also help expand their own culture, it's still made up of people who see humans (and probably countless other species) as people to be 'fixed'.

And since I forgot to add this in, despite what I'm saying... This is some interesting lore, and I do want to see where this goes. These are just a lot of thoughts I had on the now vassalized Earth's treatment. And I do admit, there's probably a bias here too, as despite how much I want to diverge from humanity, being human is probably a bit of influence here, alongside my general anti-authoritarian outlook leading me to have a skeptical view of Empires; especially after learning more about them in history. So... Yeah. I hope none of this comes across as rude either, I simply just wanted to bring up my feelings, but if they hurt your's, then that is valid and I apologize in advance.

I'm not saying for you to change your lore or anything to accompany me, since I bet a lot of other people genuinely do wholeheartedly enjoy this concept and do see that we need an outside context factor to help save the world (especially in recent times, IRL), not to mention how unforgivable it would be for me to have someone change their lore because of what I said, I'm just bringing up my own thoughts.