WIP
Empire name:
League of Free Maritime Cities(Empires flag)
Empire's Territory:
Empire Territory Demographics:
No overall capital. Important Cities:
- Igetia (I-gee-sha): De facto most powerful and influential city-state in the league. With a population of approximately 80’000, the city has the capability to project its power throughout the League and beyond, and works with other powerful cities to control the nation. Igetia’s population is primarily composed of native Igetians, but immigration from other city-states within the League have introduced significant minorities of Defterosians and Asimians into the mix, along with a number of ethnic and cultural groups from smaller, satellite cities. It is primarily a city of merchants, with food coming primarily from fishing and limited agriculture.
- Defteros (def-ter-oss): The second most powerful city of the League. Originally a colony of Asimi, it overtook its founder and was granted independence. It now maintains a population of approximately 65’000, primarily Defterosian Asimians and immigrant Asimians, as well as smaller numbers of Igetian merchants and others from smaller city-states within the League. The economy of the city is based on fishing and a rare form of blue dye, found in the shells of the Sapphire Mussel. It is this product that has made Defteros grow in wealth and power (similarly to how the power of Phoenicia came from their supplies of purple dye.
- Asimi (ass-im-ee): The oldest city of the League. Originally operating much like Phoenician cities in our world, its leaders recognised the benefits of having strong and willing allies as opposed to rebellious and unreliable subjects. For this reason, it granted its colonies (such as Defteros) equal status within the League, a concept created by the Asimians to maintain the influence of Asimi and benefit from strong alliances. Today it maintains a population of around 60’000 citizens, most of whom are employed in silver mining and semi-nomadic animal husbandry, particularly that of sheep, from which Asimi gains wool for exports.
- There a number of other cities in the League, but the above are the three most important. Others include: Chrysos, Marmaro, Lina (from which the League’s supplies of linen come, making it the fourth most important city), Derma, and Aposchi.
Empire Alignment: The central government of the League has a policy of neutrality on outside affairs, but does occasionally hold votes on direct intervention if the interests of the League are believed to be under threat. However, individual cities are not prohibited from going to war on their own, but are not permitted to seek or expect aid of either humanitarian or military form from the central government (see the governmental structure below).
Empire Anthem: Every city-state within the League has its own anthem, but a short poetic piece called ‘Upon a Moonlit Silver Sea’ is performed at the meeting of the central government every second month.
Empire's Historical Events:
•Founding: The origins of the League of Free Maritime Cities come from the ancient Asimian Empire. Asimi, one of the oldest cities in the region, established a number of colonies and fought several wars with the surrounding powers, eventually dominating the coastline of much of its home continent. However, because of Asimi’s extensive diplomatic and mercantile relationships with other ancient nations and tribes, several far sighted members of the government (there is no record of their ever having been an absolute monarch in ancient Asimian texts) were able to predict the unrest and rebellion caused by exerting direct control over a political entity’s possessions and were instead able to promote more autonomy for the colonies as an alternative. This culminated in the First Treaty of Asimi, in which important colonies such as Defteros and Chrysos (a gold-mining colony) were granted practical independence under a strong alliance and free-trading pact. All signatories of the Treaty, a total of 7 different cities, were given seats in the central government (the Maritime High Council) and the Asimian Empire was divided into zones of influence. Although the Treaty was viewed by some as a bed deal for the Asimians, the city was able to retain the highest level of control over its ‘equal’ counterparts, almost total monopoly over internal trade for around 150 years, and received the largest zone of direct control.
•Early Domestic Struggles: The earliest internal conflict came about when the southern portion of the direct zone of control of the city of Derma attempted to achieve recognition as a separate entity within the League, under the leadership of the city of Aposchi (app-oss-chee). This resulted in the League Civil War, with supporters of Aposchi (including Asimi, as the internal government of Asimi believe a more divided League would be easier to control) on one side, and cities which were attempting to exert more direct control over their respective zones on the other (including Derma and Marmaro). Eventually embargoes and blockades of Derma’s supporters forced them to withdraw support for the suppression of Aposchi, and a direct assault upon Derma by Asimian-led coalition forces caused the Derman government to capitulate. A new government was put in place and made to recognise Aposchi as an independent city, with its own zone lines being draw at an emergency Maritime High Council meeting in Defteros. To this day, this conflict remains the greatest dividing influence within the League.
•Early Foreign Struggles: Modern Igetian historians attribute the continued survival of the League to the unifying force imposed by the period of League history known as the Great Insurgency, when barbarian tribes from the surrounding lands migrated into League-held territory. Just 1 year after the establishment of Aposchi, these barbarian invaded both it and its northern neighbour Derma, besieging both cities and overrunning much of their zones. However, a decisive joint victory by Aposchian and Derman ships over the barbarian fleet off the small town of Symvivasei in the northern part of the Aposchi-governed zone secured time for a coalition of Asimian, Defterosian and Marmaron reinforcements to arrive. A year later, the Treaty of Symvivasei was signed with the barbarians, which, in a clever diplomatic move by the Asimian Supreme Doge, secured the withdrawal of the barbarian tribes from the League’s territories by covertly convoying them south towards the lands of another regional rival, the larger and more militaristic Hillic Empire (long since extinct by now).
•Cultural Trends: As the League at this point predominantly spoke Asimian, cultural development of language was slow and relatively unimportant. Some cities developed an accent, or different common phrases and nicknames for different things, but overall language was not an issue.
The religious aspects of the culture refined itself during this period, with the ancient scriptures of the Asimian faith being shared and produced in greater quantity. During the Civil War, an attempt was made by Derma to alienate Aposchi from the other cities by accusing their minor doctrinal differences of being heretic, but this did not result in any kind of schism or divide in the Asimian (religion) faith.
•Middle Domestic Struggles: During the middle period of League history, the accession of Ignetia in the Ignetian Accession Crisis caused a great deal of internal strife, almost culminating in a second civil war. The constitution of the League permitted the accession of other cities with their own zones, but Ignetia was already a rising power and it was thought by many that the inclusion of such an entity within the League would destabilise the balance of power. Asimi in particular opposed its accession. However, as Ignetia was strongly influence with Asimian culture and had long held strong trade agreements with individual cities in the League, the vote in the Maritime High Council resulted in a narrow ‘yes’ decision. Asimi was prepared to intervene with military force, but this only served to alienate the other cities as the threat was deemed unconstitutional. Defteros and the similarly rising Lina in particular supported Ignetian accession, hoping to challenge Asimian hegemony and achieve their own dominance.
This eventually culminated in the Treaty of Marmaron, where Asimi assented to the inclusion of Ignetia on the condition that a 50-year limit to 60 ships be imposed upon the new zone.
The Ignetian Accession Crisis is deemed to be the main reason for the decline of Asimi as the foremost power in the League – with population decline coupled with an overstretched naval force, Defteros, Lina and Ignetia rose to fill the power vacuum.
•Middle Foreign Struggles: At the crucial point during the power transfer from Asimi to Defteros and Ignetia when their militaries and trading fleet were approximately equal, the decision to acquire the iron-rich lands on the coast of the Hillic Empire by military force was made. However, despite the collapsing of the Hillic civilisation coupled with the force of the League’s fleet, internal division between Asimi and Ignetia and poor, inexperienced leadership resulted in a catastrophic failure and embarrassing withdrawal. The Hillics, suffering from their own internal division and foreign invasion unknown to the League, were unable to militarily respond, especially with the League-aligned tribes on their northern border breathing down their neck.
•Middle Cultural Trends: A cultural revolution occurred during the middle period of League history, with the decline in Asimian influence and the growth of Ignetia’s. Ignetian culture, though heavily influence by Asimi, nevertheless exhibited several differences. These included shoes turned-up at the toe and shorter tunics and robes, sharply different to the traditional long robes and mantles of Asimi.
Religion changed little during this time, though minor doctrinal differences increased in size and distribution. A small sect based in Chrysos did attempt to split off from the Asimian faith, but it was largely marginalised and became increasingly unpopular as time went on.
•Current Domestic Struggles
•Current Foreign Struggles
•Current Cultural trends
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