[hider=The Acra Aprellan Empire] [center] [h2][b][color=teal]The Acra Aprellan Empire[/color][/b][/h2] [img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0ea9dc31-e4b5-4904-8975-8a2eeed66c6b/d9rmab1-402e5043-e418-4fbb-9104-c0ff12fbe690.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMGVhOWRjMzEtZTRiNS00OTA0LTg5NzUtOGEyZWVlZDY2YzZiXC9kOXJtYWIxLTQwMmU1MDQzLWU0MTgtNGZiYi05MTA0LWMwZmYxMmZiZTY5MC5qcGcifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6ZmlsZS5kb3dubG9hZCJdfQ.EGsLPwu3mSkauAV5PoXTBbzdw1r-wUCMMzI8PnoTIwY[/img] [sub]Imperial Banner[/sub] [color=teal]Government Form[/color]: [sub][color=teal]Confederal Elective Monarchy[/color][/sub] [color=teal]Demographics[/color]: [hider=Estraphan Humans: 94%][sub]The humans who have made Estraphus their home have, over the centuries, been altered by it. They have obtained a resistance to mana that causes them to be unable to act as a channel for it, thus disabling their ability to utilize most forms of magic. This also means that most low and mid powered spells have little to no effect on them. Secondary effects from these spells, such as smoke or heat generated by a fireball would still affect an Estraphan human normally.[/sub][/hider] [hider=Satyr: 5%][img]https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0169f853-72d1-4989-9d83-50a4b8eae7e5/d8ik5ri-e3616615-cadf-4779-aed8-2f16f6bcdfe7.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_1877,q_75,strp/satyr_by_demonui_d8ik5ri-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTg3NyIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzAxNjlmODUzLTcyZDEtNDk4OS05ZDgzLTUwYTRiOGVhZTdlNVwvZDhpazVyaS1lMzYxNjYxNS1jYWRmLTQ3NzktYWVkOC0yZjE2ZjZiY2RmZTcuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEyODAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.Pb685jJUtrw0FC22jPFo9JEMn1--vwt0EewAcOtXAaE[/img] [sub]The Satyr race was created when humans who were undergoing changes due to the sheer amount of mana in Estraphus, was further changed through the use of naturalist magic. This resulted in a race of people who had the legs of a horse, goat, deer, or similar creature, horns, and retained the ability to act as a medium for mana. Satyr, while occasionally traveling to other regions, predominantly live in the Riftlands. They can live as long as a human, but Satyr over the age of sixty are fairly rare outside of the Riftlands’ few urban centers due to the inherent dangers of the region.[/sub][/hider] [hider=Dryad: 1%][img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a0/ff/0e/a0ff0efe3b42c8ae8549dcf0fcc3fa71.jpg[/img] [sub]Like the Satyr, the Dryad race was created through the use of naturalist magic. Unlike Estraphan humans, Dryad have no special resistance to mana, in fact they use mana as a form of sustenance. They are powerful spellcasters, possessing a large internal reservoir of mana. In terms of appearance Dryad are similar to a human, except they posses some plantlike features and usually have either horns or antlers. Dryad do not die of old age, instead as they age they gradually become plantlike until, sometime after two-hundred years of life, they take root. Once they take root the plantification rapidly increases until they become almost visually indistinct from a tree or other similar plant. Eventually one or two new dryad will be born from the plant’s fruit or flowers. For some time the plantified dryad will retain its intellect and ability to use magic, but its consciousness will gradually fade away.[/sub][/hider] [color=teal]Population[/color]: [sub]15 Million 14.1 Million Humans 750 Thousand Satyr 150 Thousand Dryad [/sub] --- [/center] [color=teal]Plane Description[/color]: [sub]Estraphus is a world filled to the brim with life and magical energy. On Estraphus, unlike other worlds, mana isn’t uniformly distributed. Instead it flows and pools, almost like water in a sense. Places that have comparably low amounts of mana one day can the next day be the center of a massive pool of mana, brought in by a storm. Life on Estraphus has adapted to make the most of its excessive mana, gaining sustenance from it like plants do sunlight. Forests are a common sight on Estraphus and are a visual indicator as to where mana rivers and pools are. Where mana is especially dense, jungles will appear. Massive creatures roam the forests and jungles of Estraphus, dwarfed by the titanic [i]primordials[/i] that follow and feed off of the mana storms of Estraphus. Even precious metals and gems aren’t left untouched by Estraphus’ abundant mana. Soaked in the mana of the plane, these precious items, called [i]mana crystals[/i], have come to store mana and, given the right techniques, can be made to release said mana so that it can be made use of. [color=teal]Regions of the Empire[/color] The lands occupied by the Empire and immediately surrounding it are divided into three regions: the Riftlands, the Imperial Core, and the Eastern Reaches. The Riftlands in the west are where the Rift and heartlands of the old Aprellan Empire can be found. It is a mixture of mana-saturated forests and jungles, occupied by massive and ferocious beasts. The Imperial Core is made up of a mixture of forests and plains; it is notable for having very pleasant weather year round. To the east of the Imperial Core lays the Eastern Reaches. The Eastern Reaches are plains broken up by the occasional marsh, with mountains to its north and further east and a coastline to its south.[/sub] [color=teal]History[/color]: [sub]The refugees who fled to Estraphus were three things: diverse, hardy, and pragmatic. When they arrived in Estraphus, they saw a world of abundant resources, but also one that could be hiding dangers as well. It was with this mindset that the people agreed to band together and form one country, thus the Aprellan Empire was born. Emperor Soren I was a beloved and forward thinking ruler. Under his leadership cities were built, new paths in the forests cleared, and the reach of the Empire expanded ever outwards. Emperor Soren I’s one flaw as a leader was that he left his empire with an heir unfit for the post. Fifty-one years after the formation of the Aprellan Empire, Emperor Soren II inherited the throne. Soren II was a well meaning, if not weak willed, man. Within a few years the old advisors of Soren I had been steadily displaced by greedy men who sought only their own gain. Within five years the people had begun to chafe under an ever increasingly corrupt imperial government. Within ten years the empire had disintegrated into numerous independent realms. It did not take even a year after the dissolution of the empire for these now rival realms to begin warring with each other. In the year 200 of the Estraphus Calender (200 years after the refugees arrived in Estraphus), what had come to be known as the Warring Era was coming to a close. The Republic of Lyncia, the now hegemonic power of Estraphus and the country that controlled the lands around the rift, was increasingly using its power to deter war instead of pursuing it. Wars still occurred, especially on the periphery of what had once been the Aprellan Empire, but most people agreed that they were at the cusp of an era of peace. They were wrong. The Republic of Lyncia and its immediate neighbors by a massive storm. Strong winds and rain pelted the land for over a month. And with the rain came mana in amounts unimaginable to the people. The mana pooled in the area, staying long after the storm had left. And then people began to get sick. The amount of mana in the region proved too much for many people, their bodies simply unable to deal with the sheer amount of magical energy in the air. Mana sickness, the Drowning, and Mystical Inebriation were just some of the names given to the mana caused illnesses that began to ail the people. Some people felt the excessive mana begin to change their bodies, those that didn’t died. And as if the Mana Sickness wasn’t bad enough, the excessive mana affected the flora and fauna of the area as well. Forests grew nearly overnight. Cities struggled to keep the trees and vines from tearing apart their walls and buildings. Animals became bigger, stronger, and faster as well. Leaving the city walls soon became a life endangering endeavor; when the plants, or an especially ornery animal, tore damaged a city wall the city itself would become a hunting ground. And then the [i]Primordials[/i] arrived. Truly massive creatures, even the smallest of the [i]Primordials[/i] towered over city walls. More than one city fell simply because a [i]Primordial[/i] couldn’t be bothered to go around it. The Republic of Lyncia and its neighboring states were abandoned; it proved too difficult simply to survive the area. Fearful that the forests and monstrous animals encroaching on their lands as well, the nearby countries formed the Aprellan League. The League quickly grew, soon coming to encompass almost every territory of the old Aprellan Empire, save for those near the rift and on the outskirts of colonized land. It was around this time that the mages of the Aprellan League noticed a decreased ability to utilize mana. They found, in fact, that all humans in Estraphus were either becoming resistant to mana, thus losing some ability to use magic, or were being altered by the excessive mana in the environment. Terrified at the thought of losing magic in an environment that could, almost overnight, turn hostile, the mages tried to halt these changes. Soon, however, it became clear that they could not change them. Every human in Estraphus would soon become resistant to mana; those who were not resistant would become something [i]else[/i]. So instead of halting these changes, the mages of the League instead chose to control them. Trial and error resulted in roughly a third the population of Estraphus changing into the Satyr and Dryad. These two races of demihumans would soon prove to be much better suited to living in the mana soaked areas around the rift than any normal human ever could hope. In the year 300 of the Estraphus Calender the countries of the Aprellan League jointly declared that it was past time to retake the [i]holy land[/i] of the Rift. By this time the League had, in terms of territory, doubled in size and was in the midst of an agricultural boom as slavery had been largely replaced with serfdom. Despite this the Aprellan League was weak, ununified and without clear leadership. The League was abolished and replaced by a new empire, a [i]greater[/i] empire. Thus the Acra Aprellan Empire was born. Unlike the old Aprellan Empire, the leader of the Acra Aprellan Empire would be voted onto the throne by the Empire’s strongest and most important countries so that there would be no second Soren II. Almost immediately the Acra Aprellan Empire set its gaze upon the old Aprellan territory lost to the forest and fauna. By this time the mana in the area, although still markedly denser than in other areas, had fallen to a level that made the recolonization of the area a possibility. An imperial army was mustered and sent into the forest and jungle around the rift. Only to be forced back by disease and fauna a few months later. Several years later a second attempt was made, only to end the same way. Then a third attempt. And then a forth. Each attempt failed, but the attempts weren’t made in vain. First, it became clear that the satyr and dryad had little issue living in the region, even when humans became ill due to the mana. With each attempt to recolonize the region, more satyr villages and towns formed. These villages and towns quickly discovered that metals and gems mined in the region were soaked in magical energy. Once these metals and gems started to make their way into the greater imperial economic, the economy boomed. As the Acra Aprellan Empire was benefiting from its economic boom, the new satyr villages and towns were unified into the March of Xoskea. This new country was tasked with being a type of buffer state between the Empire and the mana dense region as well as colonizing said region.[/sub] [color=teal]Culture and Society[/color]: [sub]The Acra Aprellan Empire is a political union of numerous countries that stretches over a wide area, thus it comes at no surprise that it is culturally diverse. Although still quite diverse, the three regions of the Empire do tend to have enough similarities to allow some generalities to be made. The Imperial Core is the most [i]established[/i] of the three regions; it is the most developed in terms of economy and technology. The people of the Imperial Core live in numerous walled cities. These cities are home to a growing middle class of merchants and craftsmen. Although they typically aren’t permanent residents of the Imperial Core’s numerous urban centers, mercenaries are also growing in number and are largely considered to be part of the middle class. Despite the grow of the meritorious middle class, the upper classes of society are still dominated by the aristocracy. The Eastern Reaches is most easily described as dominated by towns and villages; in contrast to the Imperial Core, where walled cities are the norm, the walled cities in the Eastern Reaches are sparsely sprinkled throughout the region and exist as independent city-states. The Eastern Reaches are the breadbasket of the Empire, the vast majority of its people are serfs, its tiny middle class consists mostly of merchants and mercenaries. The Riftlands is perhaps the most distinct of the three regions. For starters it is where the majority of Satyr and Dryad live. Most of the settlements in the region are towns and villages, with only a handful of walled cities and castles in the entirety of the region. Tribes are common in the region and the relationship between these various tribes and the [i]developed[/i] countries in the region are varied and fluid in nature. Women are viewed much more as equals in the region, although somewhat paradoxically poligamy is common amongst the middle and upper classes despite this. Riftland diets are also much more meat focused than the other regions. Many individuals view and worship the [i]Primordials[/i] as gods.[/sub] [center] --- [/center] [color=teal]Governance and Politics[/color]: [sub]The Acra Aprellan Empire is neither a true empire nor country, but instead a coalition of independent states that have united together in order to deal with the issues of defense, internal trade, and expansion of inhabited lands. The various countries that make up the Empire have near absolute power within their own borders, with a few key exceptions. Where the Imperial throne does possess power is in relations between its constituent states, external threats, and the expansion of its borders. The power of the Imperial throne can change drastically depending on politics in the Empire and the political strength of the Emperor, but it is important to note that as a general trend the Imperial throne has been steadily gaining in power. To become Emperor of the Acra Aprellan Empire, the ruler of one of its constituent states had to be elected. The five most powerful states in the Empire served as electors, these states being: the Kingdom of Acitha, the Kingdom of Siphonia, the Duchy of Kohnia, the Duchy of Musea, and the March of Xoskea.[/sub] [color=teal]Technology and Magic[/color]: [sub]The Empire has two generalized schools of magic: Naturalism (Naturalist magic) and Runism (Runic magic). In theory the difference between the two schools of magic is whether the mana used to power any given spell goes through the caster (naturalism) or a rune (runism). Because of their resistance to mana, Estraphan humans cannot cast naturalist mana. Naturalism is most commonly used to alter and control living beings. This doesn’t mean that naturalist magic can’t be used to throw a fireball at someone, just that doing so would generally be ineffective against anything a naturalist mage might encounter in Estraphus. Naturalist magic is what was used to control and guide the changes made to some of the human population when they first arrived in Estraphus, allowing for the creation of the Dryad and Satyr raises. It is also commonly used to speed up the domestication of wildlife or temporarily control wildlife. It can also be used to control and accelerate the growth of plants. Naturalist magic draws its mana from either the environment or the caster’s internal mana pool, because of this its commonly considered to be more powerful in regions that have a lot of mana in the environment. Runic magic is both an important school of magic as well as the basis for a lot of the technology used in the Empire. The way runic magic works is that a rune is used as a medium to channel mana so that it may be used to cast a spell. The mana can be drawn from the environment, but usually a mana crystal is used to provide the mana supply. These runes are very complicated; all but the most basic of runic magic requires runes that can take hours, if not days or months, to draw. Because of this professional artificers will etch the runes into a hard material that usually also serves as a housing for the mana crystal. Runic magic can, and often is, used to create clean water and lights. It is quite common for wands, staves, and even swords to be used as mediums for runic magic, with some of these devices even having multiple runes etched into them allowing for them to produce several different types of spells. Technology within the Empire can vary widely between the three regions and even between two different countries within a single region. As a general rule of thumb the Imperial Core is the most technologically advanced region. Aqueducts are largely unnecessary within the Imperial Core as runic magic is used to create water-producing wells and fountains. Many homes in the Imperial Core have a primitive form of air conditioning: built into the walls are pipes that can have water pumped into them, cold water to cool rooms and hot to heat them up. Runic powered furnaces and smelters are also common in this region. The Eastern Reaches tend to be somewhat similar to the Imperial Core, except it has less access to runic magic based technology. Water and windmills are a common sight in the Eastern Reaches. The Riftlands are the least technologically advanced region. About half the region could be considered to be approaching technological parity with the Eastern Reaches while the other half are closer to a primitive pre-iron age level of technology.[/sub] [color=teal]Military Overview[/color]: [sub]It should come as a surprise to no one that the Empire’s military is unified and highly varied in nature. When called to military action by the emperor, each of the Empire’s constituent countries are expected to raise their own forces and rally under the emperor’s banner. Rivalries, political schemes, and simple differences in quality of troops and tactics all diminish the Empire’s military capabilities. Even so the Empire has a lot of experience fighting wars; its constituent countries are seemingly always at war with each other. As a general rule of thumb Imperial troops tend to be hardy, disciplined soldiers. While there is some variation between every single country in the Empire, there are some observable regional trends. Countries in the Imperial Core tend to field a core of heavily armored infantry and cavalry, augmented by pike levies. Landsknecht troops (formations of soldiers equipped with two-handed swords, crossbows, and pikes) have become an increasingly core component of most Imperial Core armies. Aerial cavalry, such as pteranodon riders, serve as scouts, messengers, and increasingly as skirmishers. The countries of the Eastern Reaches in turn opted towards lighter armored, less expensive troops. Shield and axe or mace bearing troops act as the frontline, while ranged troops provide most of the offensive potential. Bow cavalry are common in the Eastern Reaches, with even the heavy cavalry of the region bringing ranged weapons into battle. The Riftlands have the least organized armies of the Empire and are geared for fighting in rough terrain such as forests and against the fauna of the plane. The Riftlands are the only region where the sword is used as a primary weapon. Even more unique is the swords themselves, the falcata, which acts like a hybrid between a sword and axe due to its forward curving blade. The Riftlands are also unique as they employ large numbers of domesticated Estraphan wildlife in combat. Riftland raptor cavalry are employed not as shock cavalry, but as scouts and sustained-melee cavalry. Mercenaries are a common sight throughout the Empire and will make up a significant portion of any fighting force in any given war. These are battle hardened troops who have the wealth necessary to pay for the highest quality arms and armor, even if they may not be entirely dedicated to the cause. ((Information about specific types of units, their armaments and armor, and tactics will be added at a later date))[/sub] [center] --- [/center] [color=teal]Additional Info[/color]: [sub](Anything else you want to include that there isn't a spot for up there. Little factoids about your nation are both amusing and welcome.)[/sub] [/hider]