Flagg — Roleplayer Guild

Realm name: The Drathan Union

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Motto:From Wisdom, Power. From Power, Right.

Capital: Zar Dratha
Government Type: Imperial Oligarchy/Mageocracy
Ruling Body: The Congress of Masters, a body of one hundred [master level] mage-lords [8 hero level]
Currency: Drathan Teeth
Population: ~14 millions
Realm Size: 77 blocks


Unique Trait 1: Wizard-Lords: The Union is governed by the (often fractious) Congress of Masters, a group of extremely powerful human and elvish mages who have allied in order to drive the Darthlukian from the world. Drathan sorcerers are famed for their skill and knowledge of hidden arts, as well as for their almost complete lack of scruples. Magical inquiry of (almost) all kinds thrives in the cities of the Union, which is home to the most celebrated libraries, arcanums and universities in the known world. All forms of magic, including necromancy, blood magic, and the other branches of dark arts are permitted and indeed actively studied in the Union. [practical effects= +1000 practical magic users and magic users are of higher quality than other nations]

Unique Trait 2: Fighting Fire with Fire: The Drathan Union has a policy of combating the darkness with increasingly creative ways to break basic rules of decency, tradition and experimentation ethics in their new methods and designs. The blamphemous innovation of the Drathan Union has made them a leading power in "Pseudo-Necromancy", the process of animating corpses as golem-like undead soldiers. While there is no actual necromancy involved, this action is considered sacrilege by many cultures and other religions. Even worse is the even more innovative "Transplant Pseudo-Necromancy", the act of first attaching sufficient ambient magic to an animated corpse and then transplanting a living individuals mind into the animated corpse. While there is insufficient ambient magic to keep the transplanted mind whole, it is enough to keep a feral and animalistic intelligence going from hours to even weeks before fading away. Insane transmutation practices creating entirely new species. new spells that have never even been thought of or considered inherently wrong. The Union has no fetters when it comes to defeating a foe such as the Darkness. (Practical Effect: Superior "Pseudo-Necromancy" than other users. Pseudo-Necromancy is accepted by the populace and legal by the state. Leading power in Transplant Pseudo-Necromancy. Highly increased innovation and efficiency when using controversial or unorthodox magic styles or methods) 

Unique Flaw 1:Subjects, Serfs and Slaves:Except for the relatively small members of the ruling caste, and for mercantile plutocrats, the denizens of the Union are deprived any political participation, and the vast majority of the population are impoverished serfs and slaves. The Congress of Masters lords over a vast, diverse empire encompassing a huge, racially and culturally diverse population. For the most part, they are forced to rule with the lash, and inspire little loyalty or love from their subjected populations. [practical effects = police state, heavy revolutionary activity and often mutinous armies]

Unique Flaw 2: Bureaucratic Nightmare The Union is a convoluted mess of governing departments and hierarchies, a number of which have conflicting or redundant purposes. Red tape constricts many area's of government, legislation and court. Even the ruling executive level of government cannot avoid this, the oligarchic Congress of Masters are prone to constant bickering, obfuscation and political filibusters. (Practical Effect: Every major decision made by the Union must have an opposing side. Every major decision must first go through a bureaucratic process of examinations. Obstructive bureaucracy causes information to slow down and field commanders must first gain permission to make actions they aren't absolutely permitted to do)


World-Realm Map:
Link

Internal-Realm Map: WIP

Major Cities:
Zar Dratha
Zar Pellos
Zar Thera
Zar Vo
Near Ryloth
St. Olm's Port
St. Gavos' Harbour
Zar Anthedalas
Zar Varyon
Onctes
Yuwanopolis (holy site)

Major Castles:
The Tower of the Sun and Moon (holy site)
Zar Velym
Tripantos
Zar Mythrad
Far Ryloth

Buildings of Interest:
Tower of the Sun and Moon (holy site)
The Grand University and Orrery of Zar Pellos
The Divine Arcanum at Yuwanopolis
The Tripantos Fighting Pits
The Seven Libraries of Dratha
The House of the Masters

Geographic Features of Interest:
Sea of Teeth
Varyon River
Drathan Delta
The Broken Coast
Southern Grazelands
The Troll March
Yuwani Oasis
Avanagashan Desert
The Bloodspring (holy site-red pantheon)


Majority Race: Humans

Race Characteristics: The humans of the Union come from a wide range of cultures. The three most prominent groups within the Union's large human population are:

1. Nuvidian desert tribesmen, who inhabit the vast interior expanses of the Union's deserts and are famed for their skill as light cavalry and foot skirmishers. They practice a shamanistic varient of Yuwanism and fight for the Union as mercenaries. 

Nuvidians at War

Nuvidian Encampment

2. Drathans. Farmers and city dwellers from the fertile river valleys in the Drathan Delta and around the [Yuwan holy city]. The cities in these areas are some of the most populous metropoli in the world, and are firmly devoted to the worship of Yuwan. While rich in culture and trade that grew under centuries of laissez-faire rule by mage-lords before the formation of the Union three and a half centuries ago, the desert cities lack much in the way of martial tradition, and historically relied on mercenary bands to do the hard fighting. The masses and upper classes alike are extremely resistant to conscription efforts and contribute little besides gold and food to Union arms, though some wealthy men fight in the Union army as sarissa hoplites.

Drathan City-State Bazaar

Drathans at War

3. Southrons. The human clans of the Southern Grazelands, they are a dour folk hardened by years of fighting off the beastkin and trolls that infest the forested foothills at the base of the Steel Mountains, as well as Ankhanaszkan slave raids and invasions. Southrons are among the world's formost slavers. Some clans are semi-nomadic, others rule minor city states and trade outposts scattered throughout the vast Southern Grazelands. In war, they are known for their cataphract formations.

Southron Warrior in typical Ankhanaszkan Chitin-Armor

Southron Slaver

Dismounted Southron Cataphract in typical Ankhanaszkan Chitin-Armor

Minority Race: Elves

Race Characteristics: With a natural affinity for the magical arts and Yuwanism, many elves are at home in the upper castes of Union society, and several Magisters are elves and half elves. Elves make up a tiny percentage of the Union population, and are rare outside the small ruling caste, but the Twenty Years war has seen an influx of high elven migrants to the Union, especially to Yuwanopolis. 

Minority Race: Dwarves

Race Characteristics: Always hungry for a profit, some dwarves are find life in the mines too confining, and set out to strike it rich as merchants or mercenaries. The Union is home to several influential dwarven mercantile families, and the Magisters hire dwarven mercenary companies en masse to make up for their deficit of gunpowder units. Dwarves make up a tiny percentage of the Union population, but their mercenaries well represented in the military.

Minority Race: Beastkin [custom]

Race Characteristics: Semi-human mutants infesting the foothills, caves and forests at the base of the Steel and Yowan's Crown mountain ranges, the Beastkin have been a scourge of civilized races for generations, particularly the human slaver-clans of the Southern Grazelands. Brutal, cunning carnivores organized into tribes and warbands, the Beastkin are vicious fighters that come in innumerable varients, and have often served other races as mercenaries and foot soldiers. They are rumored to have originated in the early attempts of the Drathan Masters to create a breed of obedient, hardy soldiery. Whatever the truth of those claims, the wizard-lords of the Drathan Union were quick to adopt the Beastkin tribes into their young imperium, arming them and conscripting them into their armies as they conquered the desert cities and petty kingdoms of the Southern Grazelands. What deals were struck between the chieftans of the beast folk and the refined wizards of the Dratha are unknown, but ever since the beastkin have served as the backbone of the Union armies. As soldiers, beastkin are fearless, strong and fierce, but are poorly disciplined, and prone to infighting and poor morale, especially since the Union tends to utilize them as cannon fodder. Many of the Beastkin are enthusiastic devotees of the Red Pantheon. Since the formation of the Union, the Congress of Masters has instituted forced breeding programs in vast Beastkin farms, and feeding beastkin younglings alchemical growth accelerants to speed up their rate of maturation. This has led to a quickly growing stock of beastkin troops in the Union, though also to the increased danger of rebellion by the kin.

Race Appearance: The beastkin come in countless variants, but are generally a mishmash of human and bestial physiologies- plenty of claws, horns, hooves and fangs sprouting from a humanoid frame.

Pic 1

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Minority Race: Trollkin [custom]

Race Characteristics: The result of centuries of bio-alchemical experimentation by the Drathan Masters to produce a race of obedient soldiers able to match the Darthlukian in ferocity and strength, the Trollkin are foul hybrids of human and troll. Strong, fast, vicious, and fearless they are outstanding shock troops and are the most feared soldiers in the Union's armies. Unfortunately, they are of limited intelligence, and their high metabolism and native ferocity often makes them dangerous to their own commanders and allies. Likewise, the magical means used to accelerate Trollkin growth results in high levels of mutancy and physiological degeneration. Despite these drawbacks, the Union is investing heavily in producing and arming ever greater numbers of the Trollkin, which are bred in vast, unspeakable "farms" in the slaver-cities that dot the Southern Grazelands.

Pic 1

Minority Race: Trolls
Monsters infesting the foothills of the Steel and Yulwan's Crown Mountain ranges, trolls have been used as slaves by Drathans and Southrons for centuries.

Pic 1

Minority Race: Trogons [custom]

Crossbreeds between giantkin and trolls, trogons were created by the fleshmages and bioalchemists of the Union to serve as heavy mounts, living seige engines and troop carriers.

Pic 1

Pic 2

Minority Race: Skinwalkers [custom]

Magical constructs of flesh and shadow designed by mages to serve as bodyguards, elite warriors, and assassins. They protect many of the Mage-Lords of the Union. They come in a number of forms, and all are potent shadow-mage assassins.

Skinwalker


State Religion: Yuwanism

Religious Information: Though Yuwanism is the official religion, the Congress of Masters tolerates the practice of many local religions within its borders, though the cults of the Cradle Pantheon and of Justin Magnus undergo intermittent persecution and are carefully scrutinized by the Order of the Sun. The worship of the Red Pantheon is widespread among the slave armies of the Union and, indeed, among a sizable minority of the bureaucracy.

Magic and religion in the Union are policed by two inquisitorial guilds answering directly to the Congress of Masters. The first and most prominent is the Order of the Sun, which is responsible for rooting out the taint of Darkness within the Union, for 'recruiting' magically talented children into the state Universities, and for monitoring political and religious groups for subversive tendencies. The Order of the Sun provides battle-mage Overseers to serve as commanders and commisars in Union formations. Though not all members of the Order of the Sun wield magic, many are potent mages.

The Order of the Moon for its part, is surrounded in mystery. Among its duties are studying the Darkness in order to seek out ways to defeat it, as well as plumbing the depths of forbidden magicks, such as the creation of warbreeds and experimental blood magic. Invigilators (as members of the order are called) are also tasked with internal and external espionage, kidnapping, assassinations and other black ops, and provide the Union military with powerful dark wizards and assassins.

The Order of the Sun is devoted to the Bright Lady, an aspect of Yuwain as Philosopher-Queen. The Order of the Moon worships the Goddess Unspoken, an aspect of Yuwain as the ruthless and cunning lord of shadows. 

Both Orders maintain fortresses throughout the Union, and are based out of the immense Tower of the Sun and Moon, on Gravemire Isle in the Sea of Teeth.

Religion Demographics: Devotees of Yuwan and followers of local religions (often variations of Yuwanism) are about equal in number, with the cult of the Red Pantheon coming in a close third. The two other major religions have small followings in the cities of the Union, and are often the targets of official persecution. The Masters of the Union are diverse in their religious preoccupations- most follow a philosophical form of Yuwanism, while many are more or less irreligious, pursuing magical mastery without concern for piety or ritual. A select few combine a reverence for Yuwan along with a devotion to the Dark Gods of the North.

Holy Relics In Possession:
The Liar's Sword
The Somnium Mechanism
The Precepts Unspoken
Staff of Unjolo
The Eye of the Moon

Holy Sites Under Control: 

Yuwanopolis

Tower of the Sun and Moon

The Bloodspring (Red Pantheon)

Magical Schools and Curriculum: See unique trait one. All schools of magic are permitted and studied in the Union, which is home to some of the worlds most famous arcane libraries and universities. Magical practice is monitered by the Order of the Sun, and inquisitorial fraternity of battlemages who root out the taint of Darkness in the lands of the Union.


The Union military reflects the diversity of the vast domains lorded over by the Congress of Masters. Battlemages from the Divine Arcanum of Yuwan, heavily armored Southron cataphracts, phalanxes from the wealthy Drathan city-states, and swift footed desert clansmen all make up the polyglot human forces commanded by the Union. In addition, the Masters command vast hordes of beastkin and trolls, as well as legions of the Trollkin- monstrous hybrids of man and troll bred via obscure and dark magics.

Total Military Size at start of the RP: ~164,000

Military Details

Human & Mercenary Soldiers
1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Noble Phalanx: 2000 elite heavy human sarissa pikes/formation
10,000 Southron Clansmen: Human heavy infantry- axes, polearms, bows
1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Southron Cataphractii: 1,000 Human Heavy Cavalry/formation
500 Battlemages
6,000 Nuvidian horse archers/light cavalry
5,000 "Radaghast's Raiders"- human mercenaries: swords, pikes and gunners
5,000 "Silver Companions"- human and dwarvish mercenaries: swords, pikes and gunners 
2,000 "Schigurd's Unlovelies" Dwarven mercenary gunners
2,000 "The Backbreakers" mercenary dwarven artillerymen
Total = ~42,000 units

Abhuman Legions

The Masters are expanding their beastkin and trollkin forces at breakneck speed in an attempt to ready a force capable of halting the Darthlukian and propping up the failing states that shield the Union's lands from invasion by the forces of Darkness. Abhuman formations are often commanded by their own chieftans, but are supervised by human battlemages known as Overseers, who maintain morale and discipline through fear and the lash.

500 trolls (Total: x100 for 50,000 troopcount)
200 Trogons (Total: x100 for 20,000 troopcount)
1,000 Trogon riders/drivers
Beastkin Legions: 30,000 swords, pikes and bows
350 Overseers (powerful human battlemages in charge of instilling discipline and morale in abhuman forces)
5,000 Beastkin Ungor-Riders
Trollkin Legions: 15,000 shock infantry swords, pikes and crossbows
Total: ~122,000


Head of State/Monarch: Kai daz Syfo, Archmagister of the Congress of Masters

Religious Head: Vaia the Dreamer, Heirophant of the Divine Arcanum, Prophet of Yuwan

Persons of interest:

Radaghast Unschulpenkinde (human mercenary captain)
Vasil Schigurd (dwarf mercenary captain)

HEROIC DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Heroes in the Congress of Masters:

Athalus daz Velym, Magister of Zar Velym, [secrectly] Lord of the Order of the Moon, widely known for his philosophical writings. Secretly an arch-lich, and perhaps the most politically gifted member of the Congress.

Kai daz Syfo, Archmagistra of the Congress of Masters, nominal head of the Drathan Union. She is a skilled military leader and blood mage, and is the primary creator of the Trollkin.

Urmine Pellos, Magister of Zar Vo, devotee of both Yuwan and the Red Pantheon. Accomplished skinchanger. (elf)

Vaia the Dreamer, Heirophant of the Divine Arcanum, Prophet of Yuwan

Therana daz Zule, "The Godless" Magistra of Zar Mythrad, famously contemptuous of all cults and gods. (half-elf)

Qux Many Eyed, Magister of [Holy City], arch-lich, eldest of the Congress.

Ulthaur Red Hand, Wizard-King of Tripantos, unapologetic devotee of the Red Pantheon, potent blood-mage. Oversees the beast and trollkin farms.

Gabul the Wanderer, nominal Magister of Near Ryloth, though he is almost constantly traveling. Has traveled through the Darklands several times, and composed a number of treatises on the Darthlukian menace. 

Other Heroes:

Karrack Goresword, Beastmaster, Dark Eater, Favored of the Red Gods (beastkin warlord)


CULTURAL

Short History:

The Drathan Union in its current incarnation was formed a mere 10 years prior to the Cataclysm that brought the Darthlukian menace into the world. It is now, in terms of population and land, one of the largest empires in the world, stretching over vast leagues of desert and semi-arid scrubland, as well as highly fertile river deltas.

The Union's origins lie in a league of human merchant cities in the Drathan Delta and the Yuwani Oasis, named after the largest of the metropoli, the immense city state of Zar Dratha. For centuries, the Drathan cities had been ruled by a loose affiliation of magi and Yuwanists, known as the Congress of Masters. Devoted to the accumulation of knowledge and arcane power, the magi of the Congress were little interested in the day to day politics of their fiefdoms, which they ruled mostly as a means of retaining sufficient personal wealth and leisure to pursue their wide ranging philosophical interests. Personal feuds and vendettas between mage-lords coupled with laissez-faire rule over the masses characterized much of Drathan politics in the long centuries before the rise of Justin Magnus and the Cataclysm. 

The Aesteromachy changed things. The fall of the old pantheon in and of itself concerned few of the Congress of Masters- the rise and fall of deities was in the nature of things, after all, and those most faithful to Yuwan believed she would conspire to survive... but the rise of Justin Magnus and major powers devoted to his worship across the world worried the Masters mightily. 

They were sent visions by their goddess of Justinian hordes sweeping all before them... and of a darker, nameless threat looming at the heart of the world.

Bound together by self-interest, the Congress of Masters determined to form a vast power base from which they could resist the encroaching threats. The diverse principalities occupying what would become the Drathan Union were completely caught off guard by the sudden moves of the once-complacent wizard-lords, who had in the space of a year united vast armies of ravening beastkin and hired legions of mercenaries to do their bidding. The Magisters' War, as it became known, was less a war than a triumphal march, as the Congress of Masters subjugated the clans of the Southern Grazelands, formed pacts with the Nuvidian desert tribes, and bent the innumerable beast folk inhabiting the wilds to their will. 

In the space of two years, the Masters had conquered the world's largest empire, a testament to their incredible power and genius... but their conquest was fragile and superficial, and the years leading up to the First Grand Alliance saw the Union totter and reel with internal confusion as the Congress of Masters attempted to mobilize the now vast resources at their disposal. An unwieldy bureaucratic police state was formed atop a polity of immense internal diversity and contradiction.

It took the looming threat of the Darkness to solidify the Masters' despotic hold on their varied domains.

WIP


-List of Historical Grievances
-Relations

Cultural Notes

Slaver Society- slavery is tolerated in most parts of the Union.

Culturally Diverse- the Union comprises many major cultures, with innumerable varieties of Yuwanism and worship of the Red Pantheon being the most common religious practices.

Intellectual- Desert cities of the Union, thanks to century of magi-rule, are home to incredible libraries, universities, orreries and arcanums.
Flagg Member

Strange. This outcome I did not foresee.

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