Radiant Empire

Aka, The Empyre

Borders
The Empyre claims all lands between Weald to the west and Vernalwood the the east, and Siimessalo to the south. While they also claim Vernalwood itself, they have a negligible presence there.

Capital
The Empyreal Spire

Ruling Body
Although theoretically The Magister is the absolute ruler of the Empyre, he rouses from his Pondering so rarely and briefly that the actual power lies with the Divine Court.

Political System
Theocratic monarchy with considerable authority granted to provincial rulers in their own domains. Provincial rulers and representatives of the Divine Court’s bureaucracy gather in the High Conclave to decide on policy, which is based on the interpretation of the Magister’s Utterances - brief and usually cryptic declarations that the Emperor makes when he stirs.

Demographics
Enkindlers make up the majority and maintain their position of power, although the numbers of non-Enkindler slaves are growing rapidly. Most non-humans are slaves, and those few who have their freedom lack the full rights of citizenship. This is consistent with the Empyreal practice of defining worth and rights based on one’s bloodline and family accomplishments.

History
The hard-working Enkindlers around Pearlglim Lake led a simple, pastoral existence in their tiny villages when The Wonderer visited them, and with inspiring words infused them with ambition. Their ambition led to them founding the city of Towerage, which remains a marvel of imposing architecture to this day. The Wonderer had wandered off again even before the project got properly underway, and now that the people had finished the core of the city, they started arguing over what to use the city for. The Magister was sent by Ylitimo himself to lead them onward.

The Magister took on the title of Radiant Emperor and taught the people to emulate Ylitimo: learned, strict, authoritarian and respectful of tradition. Soon the cities that sprang up in the region became hotbeds of innovation in their respective specialties. It became evident to The Magister and his hardcore acolytes that innovation needed to be regulated so that rapid change wouldn’t threaten societal norms, and so the city of Quillfork was made into a clearing house of ideas: they would review all inventions and judge at what schedule they would be brought to the public, if at all.

The industrious and active mindset of the typical Enkindler led the Empyre to spread beyond its original borders. While some regions remained loyal to the Empyre, like the Argent Coast, some were driven by their ambition to separate from traditional power structures. The most successful and best known of these were the groups that would become the Windborne and the Aureates.

Such splintering unnerved the Empyreal aristocracy, and they began interpreting The Magister’s Utterances in the most militant fashion possible. As the Windborne and Aureates increased in power, the Empyre responded first with wars of reconquest. The Windborne were safe on their islands and ships, and the Commonwealth of Aureum could deploy resources at a much greater pace than the Empyre’s lumbering bureaucracy. When these wars made only a few costly gains, the noble families settled for fortifying their borders.

Even in times of peace the warlike edifices of the Empyre remind its neighbors of just how flimsy that condition can be. The provincial lords are too weak to do more than pester the Commonwealth, but the Aureates - and the Windborne and the Elves to the south - are fully aware that all it takes to spark another furious war is for the Magister to mutter something that could be interpreted as bellicose.

A fairly recent example of this aggression is the conquest of Bracken Moors. The High Conclave had interpreted the Magister’s will to be the building of a grand new seat of government near the eastern border. To secure the Empyreal Spire from perceived aggression and to acquire slaves to build it, the Empyreal armies were sent to conquer the lands of the Orcs that had previously been left alone as a buffer zone against the Commonwealth. The campaign was long and brutal, and even now Orcish guerrilla groups disrupt Empyreal forces in the region.

Notable Settlements
Towerage Merriam Quillfork The Silver Court The Empyreal Spire