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diff --git a/src/apocrypha/region_theempire.md b/src/apocrypha/region_theempire.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc269f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/apocrypha/region_theempire.md @@ -0,0 +1,153 @@ +--- +title: "Regions of the Empire" +updated: "2017-12-24 Mon 00:14" +categories: AP LD +--- + +# A Brief Overview of the Empire +The Etracian Empire is the largest empire in the world, and the second +largest in history (only falling behind that of the dominion of the +giants during the Days of Thunder). + +Though in past ages, the empire grew through conquest, in the modern +days, the holdings and influence of the empire expand primarily +through colonization and diplomacy. + +#### Q & A +>How long has the Empire been around? + +The current count places the empire's history into 111 ages, but how +many is that? The current age has lasted 62 years, but some have been +less than a year, and some longer than a century. + +The best tax records in the oldest provinces say the empire is about +30 generations of elves (or 3000 years) old. The average length of an +'age' is therefore, about 100 years. + +>What is the General Edict? + +The General Edict is a system of laws and codes given by Josef IV. It +has been in place for a little over 60 years. + +As a legal system, the GE has done a better job of keeping the nation +running than the previous code did (the previous Emperor's reign was +rife with civil war, do in large part to the Emperor's power to easily +disenfranchise noble families that "showed disloyalty"). + +>Who is the current Emperor? + +Emperor Josef IV is the official name for Lady Lizbeth Yates, the +eldest daughter and only remaining survivor of the Yates line. Though +technically, only a man may claim the title of Emperor [what kind of +primogeniture is this?], few complain that the Lady Lizbeth legally +declared herself a man (or rather, few who complained about the matter +remain among the living). + +## Regions of the Empire +The Empire is a massive, powerful, and infinitely subdivided nation +with an exceptional record for stability matched only by its +inimitable bureaucracy. + +It contains three major geographic and political classifications for +its lands: states, provinces, and colonies. + +### The Continental States + +[I don't the upper bound on states, but there are at least three, +known collectively as the Midlands] + +#### The Midlands +North of the Marble Isle + +[I need to figure out the bodies of water to get more details.] + +Etra, Vala, Isla [transcribe from notebooks] + +### The Provinces + +There are several provinces which are much less wealthy than the +central states, but contain the majority of the empire's population. + +#### The North +There is a great difference between the area of the north claimed by +the Empire, and that controlled by the Empire. The only area of the +North from which the Empire has ever successfully collected taxes is +the southernmost border settlements in the Chill-Lands (of which there +are 12) and the narrow strip of land directly surrounding Fort North. + +It is often said that a single southern town could more than match the +value of the entire Northern province of the Empire, and that may be +true in terms of wealth or resources, but in reality few forts +anywhere in the Empire can brag the same quality of recruits brought +into the Imperial Legion as from the tiny northern province and +outlying regions. + +The occasional goliath barbarian or glacier dwarf fighter making their +way south and wanting to try their hands (and axes) at Legion life is +more than enough incentive to keep the Empire's northern holdings +fully staffed, supplied, and cared for. + +#### The Midwood +The Northwestern-most stretch of the Deepwood, this is the most +'civilized' area of that great forest, or at least that most citizens +of the Empire could ever hope to reach. + +Full of elves, gnomes, florans, faunus, halflings, and their kin, the +Midwood is one of the most ethically non-human locations in the +empire. Regiments of the Empire's military raised from the Midwood +are often called 'menageries' and use strange, but undoubtedly +effective, tactics in combat. + +[The ghostwise halflings come from an ancient ruin just outside the +midwood.] + +### The Colonies +Colonization is the empire's newest tool for expansion. + +#### Cover Islands +Oft beset by pirates and even more often by deadly storms, the Covers +are an expensive and dangerous colony to keep. That said, the islands +remain one of the few places for the empire to acquire rare volcanic +minerals and alchemical agents useful in the development of magical +weapons. + +After the Black Tongues were disbanded in the Empire, many fled to the +islands, where they find, fewer and more lax regulations on their +activities. + +### The Golden Road + +Running from the Citadel of Ice in the North to the Feet of the Last +King in the South and twisting, diverging, merging, and turning around +all sorts of places in between, the Gold Road is revered as sacred, +and it's tireless, invisible creator worshiped by those who would +seek safety traveling along its many gleaming golden cobblestones. + +The Golden Road belongs to the Golden God, though it is claimed by the +Empire where it overlaps land claimed by the Empire. That said, the +Golden Guides maintain control of the road regardless of the claims. + +You need a Golden Guide for the golden road, or you'll travel 100 +miles and never lose sight of where you started, or worse, you'll go +90 miles to see your destination right ahead of you, then 90 more +without it seeming to get any closer. + +The Golden Guides are either Travel Domain Clerics or (Fiend or +Celestial) Warlocks. Despite the ambiguity, the Golden God himself is +actually an Icon and a Fiend, a powerful one at that, and was involved +in the discovery of the spell which created the tiefling pact. Once a +gnome, the Golden God can be built as a [Gnome (Fine) Wizard 15 +(Transmutation)/Patron 5/Icon 5]. + +The Golden God always needs more gold for the road, and the standing +orders of the Golden Guides are to find and aid parties that can +supply large quantities of gold. The Golden God builds the road +daily, moving it slowly towards an unknown end. + +#### Lair + +The whole of the Golden Road is the Golden God's Lair. The gnome +himself is cloaked in a Perpetual Greater Invisibility spell (via +level 5 Icon power) and can cast *fabricate* at will. + + |