Empire of Iyanus

In the first year of the third era, the Human Empire of Iyanus rose in the fertile riverlands of Krevna. Ruled by the strongly pious Emperor Vrathar II Merwynn the Grim, the empire’s fortunes were blessed by the Gravewarden, Nirvorn, the god of the cycle of life and death as well as the realms of safe-keeping and forethought. The empire was well-renown for the stoic countenance of their populace towards death and loss and the solemn and ceremonial nature in which they conducted business. Often the merchants and adventurers of Iyanus felt as rigid and eerie as gravestones to those not used to encountering them. And this seriousness quickly led them to push south into the lands of orcs, conquering the disparate peoples in the 12th year with minimal losses. Many orcs were pressed into a form of debt-bondage with others retreating into the forests and hills. These slaves were the backbone of the Iyanusi war machine. The elven city-state of Jathan along the western coast of Krevna was soon conquered in the 33rd year, and was quickly turned to a trade port and gateway to the southern lands. Many elves were also pressed into slavery but far less than the orcs before them and few felt the need to flee.            In the 35th year: the fortress of Kiphox, to the west of the Coldwind mountains, was conquered by the help of deception from the dwarves and the quarries stripped the mountains of stone to produce the grand stonework and roads of the Grand City of Iyanus itself. The dwarves were not enslaved as the elves and orcs before them due to a troublesome dwarf Daragon Lawkeeper, who found a legal caveat in Iyanusi law but that did not save them from their own form of hardship. To this day, the dwarves descended of those conquered at Kiphox refuse to acknowledge the name, deeds, ancestry, and all members of the family which betrayed the fortress to the invaders; the worst punishment Dwarvenkind can condemn their own to. And only handed down thrice in history.
       These great conquests were not met without resentment. During Iyanus’s rapid expansion, they made many enemies and mistakes and thus produced the seeds of their eventual ruin. While all slaves taken during the conquest eventually earned their way out of slavery (even if some earned freedom through death) many still felt the prejudice keenly. Many mixed unions produced ‘half-born’ children with humankind. With neither parent ancestry willing to look past so recent a line drawn, they were thus damned to scorn and impoverishment far more than most and to the present are colored as beings of low character. One of the most damning acts was the Great Expulsion of the Dwarves from Kiphox, some 10,000 or more, to the windswept hills across the river Kwell barely a decade after the capture of Kiphox. The grudge born with that single act would damn the whole empire in time…
  Age of Discovery
       Property continued under the son of Vrathar II, Emperor Zerris Merwynn, the Unheard Emperor, and the short-lived reign of his son Vrathar III the Brash before the Empire reached its pinnacle with Vrathar II’s nephew, Holward Merwynn. He sponsored deeper trade with distant lands and commissioned many libraries and temples within the empire. Explorers were sent down south and began to make inroads into the dense Orosi Jungle and began trading in flavorful spices and exotics. This focus on trade and culture allowed the strong military force which was built by the warrior emperor Vrathar II to wither and grow complacent.
       While the empire built and rested its laurels another occurrence was happening in tandem. The Dwarves of the Noble Daragon Republic, made of the exiled dwarven clans of Kiphox and named for the leader who saved them from debt-bondage, had firmly established their home to the south of the Ulark Fissure among the local halfling villages and nomadic human camps. Having established a new mining center, the dwarves struck gold immediately and soon set up the city of Lodewycke to organize extraction of the precious metal. To bypass the hated Iyanus, a new trade port was found in the gnomish city of Vandergeld along the mouth of the river Kwell and grew quickly with the help of guilds and mercenary companies which developed deep ties to some of the more prestigious and wealthier dwarven clans.
       It was at this point that the Dwarven-controlled merchant military, which rivaled the diminished Iyanusi army now, was to show its might. During the final stage of Holward’s reign as Emperor in the 90th year of the 3rd era, the city of Jathan had been during civil unrest between elves and the reigning humans. Outnumbered by raging citizens, the emperor, against the advice of many generals, retreated his forces to regroup near Kiphox. Declaring that Daragon mercantile interests were threatened by the abandonment of the city, the armies of the Republic moved to seize the city of Jathan. Informed too late and with poor weather the armies of the Empire arrived to find the city taken and defended by both well-armed and professional mercenaries and angered citizens of all stripes. The empire had lost it trade capital to a stroke of the worst luck and many blamed the Emperor Holward for the cowardly retreat of military forces from an Empire city. Within Jathan, the Republic offered autonomy and representation for sovereignty to which the city seemed mostly resistant. Dwarven guards were sent to occupy the city and many elves, dwarves, and others lost property, lives, and peace of mind before the city firmly came under the sway of Daragon.
       Emperor Holward died about a decade later. His tragedy inspired many plays and ballads which praised the man as being a man of good character but cursed to be in a position that he could never succeed within because of it. The illustrious bard, Kelvar Swanglaive, produced the now classic play “Saint and Sinner” which explored many of the personalities which drove the tragedy of the Empire’s greatest defeat and the struggles of its most controversial ruler. Regardless, the empire had suffered a massive blow to its economy, and it never recovered. The next Emperor, Zerris II, made efforts to rebuild the military that his father left waning. Rich ore deposits were found within Kiphox and large, industrial foundries were constructed to supply the military with new technological advancements such as steel and adamantine plate. It was around this time of expansion that orcish slaves and vagabonds were forming a settlement in the forests and glades along the route between Iyanus and Kiphox. They raided caravans and freed slaves whenever they could and soon carved out a region which a simple but vibrant community swelled into being. Zerris, pious like his ancestor, decided to build a grand cathedral to Nirvorn to garner the favor of the deity against their enemies. This was to be a misguided gesture as the god of rebirth was also a god forethought. For every push there was an equal pull and Zerris II did not demonstrate that he had planned for the consequences of his actions…
  Age of Empire:
       Iyanus had its population boom during this time and the northern ranges were settled with farming villages and towns the largest of which is Korgroff. There a large milling and brewing industry rose as well as a textile industry which supplied fine cloth to the entire continent. For the next several decades this industry grew and changed, and a new class of country baron rose with them as rich landholders and settlers claimed their nobility with profit. The blueblood nobility called these lords the ‘cabbage counts’ or ‘beer barons’ and to this day many of the oldest families consider them to be nothing more than peasants in gilded clothes. Many old prejudices died up in the northern ranges with half orcs and half elves gaining more respectability as labor needs and necessity forced many to see the foolishness of such barriers to success in the wilderness. With this success came a new failure, however. The Dwarves of Daragon issued a formal decree of a grudge war for their birthright: the Great Fortress of Kiphox.
       For the first time in the two nations history, dwarven and human arms met on the field of combat. So much blood was spilled that it was said the river Kwell turned ruddy all the way to the city of Jathan. At the end of it all though, the mercantile military of Daragon had won their pyrrhic victory and had claimed the fortress for themselves again. In vengeance, they expelled all humans young and old from the fortress which caused the once grand city of Iyanus to swell with impoverished refugees. These people would form the basis of the lower classes till the modern day with many staying to scrape by in the slums or setting out to brave the northern ranges for a chance at a peaceful life away from war and urban poverty. The dwarves immediately set about replacing the exiled with cheap labor from former slaves with orcish and elvish strains of smithing and metalworking competing for grandeur. The great foundries were rebuilt but those who knew many of the formulas were humans themselves. Those who fled to Iyanus were often never heard from again and word was they were being imprisoned or killed for their knowledge and so many fled to the four corners of the world and several traditions of metalworking directly stem from these metalworkers.
       This was not enough though for Daragon as many had felt the injury of spite keenly within their lifetimes and many elves from Jathan also felt the bitter taste of hatred. As such they sent an occupying force to the great cathedral of Nirvorn to solidify the northern border of the Republic and extort pilgrims with tolls where they could. Zerris II by this time was older and wiser and he saw the foolishness of his rash pleas to the god of forethought. To this end he took a page from his own father’s plans and invested in his nation. A new academy of magic and dedicated temple to the deities of magic were constructed with the aid of new stone-cutting guilds from the northern ranges which harvested from quarries on the edge of the Ulark Fissure and the northern run of the Kwell. These quarry towns boosted trade significantly in Korgroff which later allowed stone brick houses to become common in the older and more civilized areas of the northern ranges. The Azdara Academy was founded outside the city along the river Kwell to double as a watchtower for the possibility of dwarven invasion. Furthermore, the stone quarries were used to build a grand wall around the city of Iyanus to offer increased protection for a much-withered empire from a foe they were quite sure they hadn’t seen the last of...
  Rise & Fall
       The followers of Nirvorn are not good or evil nor lawful nor chaotic. This is by design as all things have their time in the eyes of the God of Rebirth and Forethought for all things must live and die for their opposite to occur. Such was the view of the Cult of Urgreth, a half-orc holy man who fled the temple of Nirvorn upon its occupation, young and filled with fire. He preached of the end of the republic and the fall of the empire and the fall of all such systems of power. He preached of the rise of Nirvorn as the pinnacle of forethought and thus the only fit ruler of the world and that all needed to be destroyed to allow for the grand plan to proceed. Alienated by his fanaticism and millenarian dogma, the church of Nirvorn condemned the cult of Urgreth and sought to dissolve the sect. Violence rose and the imperial state had to act. Urgreth was brought to the emperor’s audience in chains and rags and thus they banished him from imperial holdings on pain of death. Urgreth said nor displayed nothing of hatred or sadness. Instead, he accepted and while he walked his followers came with him with everything they could carry or pack on carts, mules, and on their backs. A brutal journey ensued across the southern lands to the Orosi Jungle where the cultists slowly built-up experience from the brutal surroundings. Urgreth continued to lead on and declared the need to go further despite the risks. As luck would have it a few shipwrights were among the exiles and so they set to work with building a grand fleet to sail across the ocean to an unknown destination only Urgreth seemed to see. Upon completion the fleet collected supplies and set out upon the open ocean. Miraculously, the cultists reached a tropical, volcanic island and immediately settled. With easy access to bountiful fishing stock the settlement of Lorga grew quickly into a haven for all sorts across the seas. Urgreth reigned as the patriarch of the city with an iron grip of control based in his faith in Nirvorn. He retired three decades from his original exile and reportedly died a decade after that, but many still whisper that the old half-orc had influence somehow even beyond his retirement and death and the cult still grows ever further into the powers of destruction, fire, and death.
       Back in Iyanus, the overpopulation problem created by the refugees forced some citizen to move south and found the farming village of Deroth. There they had cordial relations with most parties but suffered from the occasional raid by orcs or extortion by dwarven merchants. That was not to remain though. A mad gnome wizard let a new plague loose in the water supply which overnight destroyed the city and turned it into a pit of undeath and despair. He later fled to the spire of Izafeus and supposedly still promotes havoc of a kind within the surrounding area and even far abroad where his influence can reach such as the Weavebreak which ended up destroying the Azdara Academy in a blast which still reverberates in the weave to the present day.
       Frustrated by the cursed luck of the empire, a group of migrants began to flee to the east and settled on the northern edge of the desert there amongst some of the nomadic tribes of desert humans and halfling. There they built a new humble city which grew to be thriving port along the eastern coast of the continent. Unused to the ways of their new home, many began to adopt the culture and dress of the nomads surrounding them, but many didn’t which fueled conflicts between the settlers and the previous inhabitants of the Izaal Desert. The oasis city of Eresso was thus born of a unique collection of people with vastly different ways of life which only time will tell if that mixture turns volatile.
       The Republic of Daragon had gained in power, riches, and prestige in a relatively short amount of time and had expanded tremendously and violently. They had reached a zenith unfathomable by the estimation of their founders but that was when a messenger came from the temple of Nirvorn with a request for an audience with the High Quorum, the gathering of influential clans and families from across the empire which governed the Republic in the names of significant landholders, and with a stipulation that they had a message from the deity themself. Grave and uncertain the Grand Cleric of Nirvorn entered the hall and delivered the message. A cryptic incomplete musing: “Thus will come a time to pass…” Stricken by the ominous message the High Quorum debated for nearly a month before deciding they would attack Iyanus itself and end the reign of their hated foes. Armies marched and soon a siege was at the very gate of the capital of the empire but when the final conflict arrived, the walls of the city, blessed by priests of Nirvorn as a worthy use of forethought, were essential to turning back the invaders and saving the city from conquest. Broken by the defeat, Daragon now faces a crisis of leadership with the many families retreating to their homelands old and new and gathering forces for a grand civil conflict the world has yet to have seen before. As the cities grow more militant and paranoid, many flee to the countryside to live a pastoral life amongst halfling hamlets and gnomish traveler caravans. The greatest expansion was the small farming village of Oakweald which nearly quintupled in size to a thriving town with numerous artisans and a not insignificant boost to trade.
       The time of this writing is the year 250 of the 3rd era. Many wonder if the once great Empire of Iyanus can remain upon this Plane much longer. However, the current age is just beginning, and the tides of fortune are ever fickle. Long live Iyanus!