Dancya

Dancya is one of Berusia’s oldest settlements, its defensive position in the rolling hills of the north lending much to its endurance over the ages. However, despite its resilience to traditional siege and warfare, the city and surrounding territories would be the first to fall to the influence of the descending vampires from the north. Under Dimitry I, the state would proclaim its greatest victory in hegemony over all of Berusia, but it would cost the first emperor his life and arguably the soul of Dancya itself. The lingering influence of vampires has been a constant battle for the people of the region ever since that day and even with Elderia claiming victory in their purification, many dark influences still reign in the home of Berusian military imperialism.   The settlement of Dancya proper was founded in 682 of the Astral Divergence near what would become the border with the Myrow Imperium. The area had long supported nomadic peoples traveling through the north of Berusia and it was no surprise when one such group led by a man by the name of Danyik would establish the first permanent town in the area. They would claim dominion over the plains and hills of the region and struck at any who would pass through without making appropriate tribute. This behavior led into many conflicts with the increasing number of neighbors that began to settle the area, but did eventually pave the way for a northern state under Dancya’s leadership.   Over the following centuries until approximately 1100 of the Astral Divergence, Dancya would claim dominion over all territories north of the Karcel river. They razed many burgeoning settlements to the ground, enslaving their populaces for defying the rule of the lord of Dancya. When all these lands finally bore the standard of the city’s ruling house, the Grand Duchy of Lower Karcel would be proclaimed in victory of the state’s dominion in the north. Peace was not kept for long in the new duchy though as various lords would rebel against their duke, fighting against either his oppressive rule or out of a selfish desire to claim the dominion as their own. This civil unrest would accomplish little for the unruly lords but would further solidify the reputation of the Danyik line as one of tyrants and dictators, unforgiving of those who would betray or undermine them.   The 12th and 13th centuries would see little outward expansion on the part of Dancya as it worked to subdue the various forms of civil unrest and subjugation of power hungry lords. This time also allowed for societal and technological development within the duchy. Dancya would form its own military academy in response to the disloyalty rife within the lesser nobles of the region, offering knighthood and command positions to those traditionally not able to aspire to such positions. However, these promotions were rarely based on merit and instead primarily dedication and service to the Danyik house. Results were mixed during the years of conflict but the academy would remain and attempt to refine these new loyal knights into proper commanders for future campaigns.   Until the 18th century, Dancya would engage in a number of external conflicts between other Berusian lords and duchies as well as its foreign neighbors. Minor border conflicts against Elderian lords in the north would see little exchange of land, while decent territory would be claimed by the Berusians in the north against the Myrow. The crowning achievement of the duchy’s conquests came in 1739 when Vasily I Danyik would unite the duchies of Lower and Upper Karcel under one rule before following the next year and claiming Istavar as well. This left some of the most developed territories within Berusia under the sole control of Dancya, and Vasily would declare the Kingdom of Berusia in 1741. His eyes were set on the city-state of Karstein and its surrounding territories but he would never see their conquest through.   1744 would mark the end of Vasily I and the succession of his son, Dimitry I. His successor would do his best to keep his father’s dream of a united Berusia alive, though he had to struggle with a resurgence of unruly lords. The recently conquered territories, believing Vasily’s heir weak, rose up to claim independence once more, achieving a large amount of success in the first few years of their rebellion. However, when these setbacks started to arise for Dimitry, he looked for outside help to aid in his solidification of Dancyian territories. His call for aid was answered by a mysterious group that called themselves the Blood Watch. At first it was believed they were merely powerful sorcerers, able to conjure massive storms of death and blood but in time their true nature would be revealed. It was unknown when Dimity found out, and when he himself was embraced by the Blood Watch but their influence and power allowed him to crush the rebellions within his father’s kingdom.   Dimity would follow up the successful subjugation of the Berusian kingdom by continuing the conquest into the remaining territories to the West and South. The time the king spent uniting his territories had given the independent states of Berusia the opportunity to come together and form a coalition against the expansionist state. It had been nearly one hundred years since Vasily first tried to unite all of the region and it would be almost one hundred more before Dimity’s campaign would come to a close. Even the combined armies of numerous states and duchies were not able to match the numbers Dancya could bring to bear. Even lost battles would simply serve as breeding grounds for fresh undead troops provided by the Blood Watch. Karstein would lose its desire to continue the war after nearly fifty years of constant battle and the rest of the region would fold over the decades following that.   The Empire of Berusia would be proclaimed in 1935 but the Danyik family would have its leadership of the nation usurped in 1938. The Blood Watch publicly revealed themselves to be vampire lords and had spent the years campaigning to establish control over many of the dukes and lords within Berusia. They killed Dimity and the leader of the Blood Watch would take his place for the next four hundred years. Dancya’s power was restricted back to what amounted to its original territories in the north, the duchy of Lower Karcel. The Blood Watch would maintain control of the Danyik successors during the vampiric reign and only be unseated when the Elderian crusades arrived nearly 400 years later.   In the modern day, Dancya and its associated duchy are highly distrustful of mages and especially vampiric magics. The damage dealt to the bloodline by the Blood Watch has made the area one of the most adamantly anti-vampire in the region, though this has not stopped the new vampiric cabals from sneaking back in. Vasily V Danyik rules now in a fashion similar to his forefathers, violent and unforgiving of treason and disloyalty within his realm. Some claim the current state of affairs is worse than at the height of the overt vampire rule, the only difference being that those killed by Vasily are not risen from the dead as they had been in the past.