First Zeshem Empire

A basic breakdown of the first Empire's history is as follows:   The Founding Era from 1090 to 1225 was a century of dramatic reform and expansion. This began with the unification campaigns by Founder-Prophet Zorala the Blessed, when two of the strongest Zeshem clans mobilized to found a powerful state across the Zeshem riverlands. During this period, the imperial bureaucracy held absolute power and often focused its efforts on operating a truly massive standing army. During this period, the Empire held absolute authority over the Zeshem coast - expanding all the way down to the coast of the Mejika Isles. The Founding Period saw relatively little hostility with the selkies, as the empire compromised to allow some selkie clans access to favored ports and played these clans against others. The Pratasa of the Stolen Coast were a much more dangerous threat during this period, and they made significant gains pushing South into Zeshem territory. Regional rebellions were another major threat - perhaps the most significant. One of Zorala's great priorities was breaking the power of the clans, local cults, and petty kingdoms to push all Zeshem into a coherent religious and political identity. The Empire continued her work at great cost - and arguably succeeded, though they did alienate many Northerners who embraced Pratasa as an way to keep their local identities intact. This led to a religious peace agreement in 1213 that divided the North between the faiths for a time. The end of this period is associated with the de-facto fragmentation of the empire into powerful governor-generalships ruled by a weakened Emperor.    The Three-Directions Era, from 1225 to 1315, was a period of decentralization and religious expansion. During this period, the religious leadership (known as Triumvirate) accumulated more and more power, as did the clan that the Triumvirate recruited from (the Line of Norinar). This period began with the Plains War of 1225, during which Zelkezran nomads from the East captured the Zeshem emperor and led to a mad scramble for power. The nomads were ultimately repulsed, but royal power was dashed and the Eastern frontier suddenly a battleground. Over this period, the Zeshem generals divided the outer empire and expanded the faith among the nomads. The "Mandate of the Moonkeeper," or idea that the ancient King Nilen had been sent by the God Alima to mark all the plains as in need of conversion, became a popular theological idea at this time. By 1300, the Triumvirate had managed to bring the general-governors back in line and had forged lasting alliances with many converted plains tribes. The latter fifty years of this period also saw a return of selkie raids and privateering. This period ended with a new selkie invasion in 1305 - which ultimately resolved with the opening of several major port cities to selkie trade in 1310. This provoked an immediate rebellion, which was put down in 1315 and followed with a series of terrible purges. This began the Open Period, which would continue until 1600.    The Returned Era from 1315 to 1470, is often-idealized but is not remembered quite as mythically as the two prior Eras. It was a period of peace, controlled trade, and political consolidation. The central government re-established its unified authority over the central riverlands, while general-governors continued to control the peripheral territories. This period saw an increased focus on cultural unity, ritual formalization, legal reform, and interior infrastructure. Zeshema's water infrastructure, road systems, and taxation system all saw massive expansions, and a public bureaucracy for literacy and medicine was created as part of the project to "civilize and unify" the peasantry. These investments all led to a massive population and economic boom in the 1440s and 1450s. These wild returns began to dwindle back to normal in the late 1400s, which many blamed in excessive spiritual corruption from open trade and religious tolerance.   The Decline Era from 1470 to 1600, is contrasted with the Returned Era by many as the 'corruption' and 'decadence' of uncontrolled openness. It began with a slow economic cooling, as infrastructure projects brought decreased returns and growing populations found themselves with less and less social mobility. Class inequality skyrocketed, land ownership consolidated into a de-facto noble class linked to the royal family, and political disputes became more violent. Massive scandals and a dynastic change led to increased skeptecism in the "purity" of Norinar's bloodline. The government became paranoid of being seen as illegitimate, and focused the budget on truly staggering ceremonial processions and monuments. Religious radicals with ties to the subversive Hunters of Norinar launched their own invasion of the Stolen Coast, beginning a massive religious war that the empire was unprepared for. Religious riots began in the port cities, as foreign missionaries built growing congregations who wanted to flee the social stratification and inequality. This ultimately ended in the collapse of the empire in 1600 ME: a group of dissenting priests marched on the capital with military support and arrested the Triumvirate, which ended in a bloodbath. The Line of Norinar was extinguished and the empire split into a series of warring warlords who fought for control over a puppet emperor.    The civil war of 1610 to 1620 was bloody and terrible. A group of selkies, led by the ambitious Clan Naimaka, even launched their own invasion during this time as did a group of Zihari mercenary-merchants from the South.