The Rozani Imperium

Leader: Emperor Valafon Kyz'Axi Mon Feltzon, Master of Mankind, Wisdom of the Ages, Protector of the Civilised Races   Seat of Power: The Dragonbreaker's Seat, Rozan [additionally, Rozani Senate]   Foundation: Republic, est. 2040 SA, Empire, between 140 TA - 164 TA.   Government Structure: Appointed Dictatorship, Emperor appointed by over 1/2 majority by Rozani Senate, formality. Power devolved amongst wealthier, noble families or invested in Provincial Governors.   History: Much of the history of the Rozani can be divided in two, as Republic and as Empire. The division between the two is unclear, as the Republic demonstrated conquering tendencies long before it became the Empire, however, it clearly restructured as an Imperial authority between the years of 140 TA - 164 TA, under the reign of Emperor Lenarr, responsible for the Reclamation Wars that reclaimed much of the lost territory after the Orsinian Uprising, the War of Mer Succession and successive minor rebellions. For this, the Lost Emperor is remembered as the Bringer of Law and Champion of Order, before his mysterious disappearance some time between 171-TA and 173-TA.   The early Republic period can be described as one full of growth, learning and loss for the Rozani people. Claiming their start from the redwheat basin of Tarpea, from whence the Rock of Tarpea was their focal point at which the greatest villages gathered together, overlooking the great lake upon which's nutrients the lush farmland drew its bounty; she was destined to become a burgeoning realm. Indeed, she grew and expanded, led by the first elected consul of the Republic's senate, Rozen Sanctorus, discovering the equally curious kingdoms of the Vedalken Collective and the Sylvani, from which a prosperous and strong partnership grew. Trade, technological co-operation, free movement and cultural exchange occurred at an unprecedented rate, all was too good to be true, this mutual co-operation and brotherhood between the three nations being dubbed the "Rozani Compact". Little did the ever expanding realms know, a dark shadow loomed above all.   It is the agreement of all historians, regardless of creed, race, age or tenure, that the period known as the Tenebris Diebrus in Rozani history, roughly translating to "days long forgotten", is a loss to the academic world. Nearly 600 years of history remains undocumented, save scraps of wax tablets from Tacii, a somewhat unreliable source, claiming vast swathes of information thought impossible. Crops failing, insurrection, civil strife, failing weather, all seemed against the world in these supposed accounts. One word is drawn from each tablet however, its meaning unknown, yet unmistakable amongst any scholar "Gallacian". Many years of excavations, discoveries, loss of life, painstaking translations and hundreds of thousands of man hours poring over forgotten maps, charts and tomes led to the widely accepted conclusion that, during this period, the Republic and her allies waged a total war of attrition against a vastly superior civilisation, with evidence of battles occurring at the very gates of Rozan, then known as Rozenstand. The violence of the conflict was at an unparalleled scale, according to historical evidence, as much evidence of whatever civilisation waged such a terrible war against the mighty Republic has been ground into the dust and sunk into the sand, leaving little more than boogeyman Gallacian ruins to explore.   The middle Republican period was marked by prosperity and relative peace, with the creation of the city of Emerhall as part of the Republic's continued efforts to expand southwards, towards the Harranian Kingdom and nation state of Beograd. Emerians quickly became associated with hard work, grit and determination, raising themselves out of the dirt, doing battle on the frontier of the Republic with the great green tide of Orcs and Dusk Marches of Drow, spewing forth from their respective cities of Orsa and the Underweb. It was also at this time that the Republic formed its first Redemption Legions, in the form of the Dark Legion, who's sole purpose it was to purge Drow from the overworld as penance for their crimes against the Republic. In this task, they were eventually successful, forever cementing the names of the Dark Legion in the military annals of the Republic.   Peace and prosperity was not the only name of the game however, for political machinations were afoot. To the north, the Men of Winterward, famously the oldest city in Medolania before Rozan, grew restless and began to close themselves off to the Republic. For this, a great diplomat was charged with returning the Men of Winterward to the fold, her name marked down in the Senatus Recordii as Venati Paxvyll and, eventually, was successful. As a result of this, Winterward is permitted to practice the worship of the old primordial gods of the Republic, who were being phased out of every other major settlement in favour of new gods such as Melora, Pelor, Kord, Ilmater, Sehanine and many others. This agreement is still enforced by the Snowstorm Watch, a group of Frost Warriors and Clergy, in the modern day Imperium and Winterward often serves as a place of escape for apostate worshippers or those wishing to escape persecution for worship of legally sanctioned but unpopular deities.   Following on to this, the Solomite Dynasty was set to expand northwards, into the claimed territory of the Forests of Fir and the Halvonic Shires, as well as the independent collection of villages known as the Aramites bordering the growing Al'Akra desert. For this, the Halvonic Shires, led by the Little Lion Man known as Garkos Halvon, petitioned the Republic for aid and offered client stateship in return, with a ream of wealthy lands, crafts and burgeoning population. The Republic obliged and did battle with the Solomite Dynasty, eventually culminating in the defeat of the Solomites and total destruction of their political power structure, placing the Helveni in power as the ruling warrior class of the newly formed Dominion, now a protectorate of the Republic.   During the late Republic period, the city of Aramathia was finally conquered during the Sandrush Blitz, with the assistance of the capitulating Firbolg Kingdom, the Aramite Throne was destroyed by the 22nd Legion, henceforth affectionately known as the Sand Diggers for their unique method of felling the walls of Aramathia. Herein, the city of Aramathia would spawn three more rebellions before finally capitulating to the might of the Republic a mere sixty years after the 22nd Legion first entered her walls and ascended the seven-hundred steps to the Aramite Throne.   The turn of the Republic in to the Empire was marked by the War of Mer Succession, wherein the issue of voting rights, representative leadership and taxation were at play, with the belligerent Secessionist Powers including the Infernal Alliance, the Helveni, the Draconic Ascendancy and a conglomeration of Orcs, Lizardfolk, Drow and other races, whilst the belligerent Loyalists included the original Rozani Compact races, along with the Firbolg and Halfling races. This conflict saw magical violence on an unprecedented scale, culminating in the release of the first Warforged on the field of battle, a test for which the fumbling Rozani were unprepared. Much of the war is undocumented or inaccessible in classified military archives, though the fall of the Kingdom of Harramund, wherein modern day Beograd lies, is a tale known to all - the forces of King Denfor (Dominion) and Suzerain Qzaar (Alliance) met the combined arms of the Rozani Legion upon the Golden Dales of Elén, doing battle through conventional methods for a solid three days, an estimated 250,000 men, women, horses, beasts of war and constructs involved in the fray. It is said that the dust clouds kicked up from the battle were so great, that soldiers at the center were more likely to choke to death than to meet their death upon an enemy blade, with the Rozani seemingly having the better of the battle.   What occurred next is unclear, as each side's history books document and blame the other side to varying degrees, though they all agree that a most terrible creature was summoned and began to attack all sides, said to stand fifty feet tall and carry the breadth of a forest on its shoulders, little could stand against it - save for the Archmage Sekarin of the Harranian Kingdom, said to have done battle with the creature atop the hill of Holy Head, slaying it with the famed blade Sundrinker, but losing his own life in the process, casting Sundrinker into the abyss that formed in the wake of the battle, the death of such a powerful creature, the stress of such magical discharge as mage battles raged around them and the pressure such a terrible carnage exerted on the landscape, the Golden Dales beneath their feet began to crumble, crack and disappear; swallowing those unfortunate Legionnaires, Guardsmen and Hellish Marchers that were not able to retreat from the field of battle in time. Though both sides bayed for blood, after such a crushing blow to each of their armies and a staggering loss of life on a scale not seen since the Tenebris Diebrus, a hasty and shaky peace was made between the Rozani and the Secessionist Powers, allowing them to focus on their internal squabbles, drawing most of what today's modern borders are.   Following the uneasy peace of the Marking of the Joint, the Imperium, as it began to reform, fell into a series of petty internal disputes, allowing despots, warlords and all manner of beguiling creatures to seize power where the might of the Rozani once ensured peace. Indeed, this time is known as the Tempore Ignis or the Time of Fire, for the flames of war themselves burned brightly at the gates of Rozan, the city of Orsa reoccupied by the great Orc warchief Grukz, set on vengeance against the Empire for its many wars waged against the disunited Orcish peoples, to the east, the city of Aramathia went completely dark, no missive, no letters, no trade made its way through the Blackened City for many years, its walls, gates and population held by a violent demonic incursion. To the north, the Men of Winterward did great battle, not with blade or spell, but with body and soul, against the White Tempest, the largest snowstorm seen in a thousand years, bent on ripping a cold snap across the Empire were it not stopped, ensuring famine, crop death and temperature drops that would see the Empire irrevocably damaged. Indeed, these were some of the many challenges that the Empire faced, alongside Tallarin raids from the Al'Akra desert, an increase in the birth of magically attuned citizens, as well as the gradual return of a conclave of dragons known as the Moradon.   From the Time of Fire, a great leader of the United Races of the Empire was forged, they called him the Emperor, for he was unlike any leader before or since. Mariann Lenarr, the first Emperor, formerly a consul of the republic, half-elven and human by nature, champion of order and master of the Rozani, is famed for being the first leader of the unified Empire to begin the reincorporation of the Lost Territories during the Reclamation Wars, first starting with the reclaiming of the adamantine reserves of the Hellish Peaks against the forces of Warchief Grukz, driving him and his legendary band of Black Orcs, out of the Peaks with the assistance of the 13th and 19th Legions, henceforth known as the Emperor's Own and the Emperor's Children respectively. Once the Hellish Peaks were controlled by the two skeleton legions, they set about fortifying them against assault from the south once again, creating a network of underground tunnels, fortifications and overground castles, connecting bridges and guarded roads, a most impressive example of Imperial engineering known as the Half-Dozen Hells, labelled as such for the torturous heat that emanates from within the mount.   Six years of construction were required for the fortification of the Hellish Peaks, ensuring the path to Rozan through the treacherous caverns and winding paths was closed to all but friends of the Empire. With this in mind, the still consul Lenarr, titled by his men and the common folk as Imperator, set out for the beleaguered city of Emerhall, which had remained loyal to but cut off from the Imperium and was to be rescued by the 13th and 19th Legions at the back of the consul. This expedition was another resounding success for the consul and his now bolstered veteran 13th and 19th Legions, numbering 10,000 strong, swept aside the swelling host of Warchief Grukz, destroying an army of 35,000 over a two-week long battle known as the Battle of the Pickets, called so for the lengthy field fortifications constructed by the 13th and 19th Legions during the battle to hold back the superior numbers of the Orcish hordes. This was not the last the Empire would see of the Warchief, as he and his loyal forces would dog the Emperor's every step with seemingly endless numbers, until the Siege of Orsa, wherein the Emperor of the Rozani finally put an end to the years long Green Menace and Black Tide, after nearly 18 months of grueling siege.   Much of the modern day Imperium is founded based on the early days of Lenarr, who mysteriously disappeared shortly after the fall of Orsa, the last Orcish bastion north of Beograd. His fate is unknown to even the greatest scholars of the Empire, though many suspect that he met his fate through the machinations of the Higher Races, otherwise known as Vedalken, Humans and Elves, as his distaste for the racial caste of the former Republic was well known, and it seemed as though he was willing to come to co-operation with the Dominion and other seditionist kingdoms, rather than wage yet more wars of Reclamation. A Council of Regents ruled for approximately 21 years, until a replacement from his bloodline was elected by the Senate, the now modern day Emperor, Valafon Kyz'Axi Mon Feltzon, Half-Human, Half-Elven, who would quickly earn the name of Dragonbreaker for his resounding success in hunting the last members of the Moradon, a conclave of Dragons that lorded over the Rozani countryside during the Time of Fire, extracting taxation, adoration and other forms of entertainment from what the Imperium describes as an enslaved populace. Accounts differ of course, some welcomed the rule of dragons, whilst others resented it or simply did not care. Following his destruction of the Moradon, the Dragonbreaker set about establishing the Cult of the Emperor, dissolving the majority of the Order of Dwindal and empowering the Cult with powers of investigation of matters Imperial [fairly broad term of reference], arrest and interrogation, seen by many as a smart but ruthless political move, ensuring that those blades allowed within the city of Rozan were loyal to the Emperor and not the Senate. Indeed, the broader organisation which this would become a part of, the Imperial Administratum, serves as the mighty right hand of the Emperor in matters of state, taxation and politics, with the power to exert his will over all Imperial lands through entrenched members of the Cult in each of the major cities, as well as a populace fanatically loyal to him for the destruction of the Moradon, lands of plenty and security that had not been seen in nearly three generations, much was in great array for the Empire.   Culture: Devotion to Leader, Militant, Curious, Agrarian   Population: Unknown, Last Millo Administrata Census estimated approximately 35,000,000 souls, composed primarily of humans, elves, vedalken, firbolg, halflings, gnomes, orcs, as well all associated racial-mixes of the listed races.   Prime Deity: Dwindal, Prosecutor of War and Arbiter of Peace