On second thought, let's not go to Guonto. 'Tis a silly place.
—Sir Irtis Zorgin of Yvaine
The Celestial Empire of Guonto, also known as the Imperial Realm of Guonto, was a government in the Ethereal Demesnes, a member of the Diet, which had its capital on the planet Guonto in the Zhorieng System. Thanks to the relatively large number of weaker star systems around Zhorieng, Guonto governed or protected an unusually large number of other Demesnes compared to its own economic power and military strength. While technically categorized as a Theocratic Demesne due to its religious nature and spiritually-related system of governance, technically the Guonta government was a constitutional monarchy, and had a strong tradition of voting for goverment representation.
Early in the days of the Ethereal Demesnes' history following the disappearance of the ancient Ethereal Empire, Guonto's Imperial Dynasty rose in importance. Their military was among those the Diet called upon to help fill in gaps in regional security, and, in time, took up a most unusual role; the Guonta armed forces were among those few entrusted with the role of Diet-sanctioned interventions in the Demesnes' own conflicts, usually to provide safety for civilians.
While initially Guonto did occasionally launch into conflicts of its own, attempting some small conquests and gains, its role as a neutral protector of refugees forced it to essentially choose one or the other; the Guonta state chose the latter within a short time. However, it also forced them into a position of being unable to maintain effective alliances with many other Demesnes, as most of the Demesnes would still launch into warfare and territorial or economic dispute at the notice of a year or less for much of the region's history.
By the time of the Clone Wars, Guonto had long since become established in the popular culture of the Demesnes' people as a neutral, relatively unbiased protector of the innocent in wars; a government and people which would stand up for those who could not do so for themselves. During the war, Guonto was among those Demesnes which not only supported the use of the Demesne Defense Forces against the Confederacy of Independent Systems, but provided their own military for the war effort directly. After the war, though, their position of internal Demesnes neutrality forced them into a politically and diplomatically difficult position; their public opinion was deeply anti-Imperial, but government policy meant that they could neither openly support nor oppose the Empire until after the Diet's official declaration of independence from all Imperial authority.