The Dredarian Empire

Early Empire

Dredaria was unified from a band of villages and hamlets into the mighty empire it is now by the Jovanovik family centuries ago. The first Empress took the throne and built their quiet village into the bustling capital it now is through patience and preparation. As she united the towns into an empire she looked to expand their reach fully believing that if the country was unified under her families name all could prosper. To defend against monsters she gathered a small army of conscripts though as they protected the villages from monsters and marauding bandits many chose to stay and become permanent fixtures in the Empire. Dredaria was quite small in the beginning and they required more resources and people to expand their influence which led to them eventually moving their eyes from an army built around defense from monsters to capturing cities to expand their borders. They have watched many Kingdoms rise and fall around them while their Empire stands strong against the ebb and flow of time, never wavering, never doubting. Dredaria became the first of the Kingdoms to build multiple grand cities, hubs of trading and training surrounded by verdant farmlands, fields, and orchards. The Empress laid down the Imperial Charter writing down the laws, traditions, and rulings that she expected the Empire to follow after her death. By far the most important ruling she created was that the line of succession would be determined by the first born daughter following the Maternal bloodline of the Jovanoviks.

During this early time Dredaria set its sights upon both Khotesh and Thrane, seeing them as rare gems for the taking filled with resources that their Kingdom did not have access to. The ancient magic ice in Thrane and the ancient ruins, steeds, monsters, and spices in Khotesh were highly coveted by the nobles of Dredaria and multiple Empresses took it upon themselves to try and be the first to conquer and bring the other kingdoms to heel. They first set their sights on Khotesh first thinking that the jungles and deserts would be easier to traverse than the vast mountain range that separated Thrane from the rest of the world. They had met Khoteshian traders with their odd steeds and wonderful spices and wanted more, coveting their bright hued clothing and handmade jewelry. Rather than taking the well worn but incredibly long trade routes they tried a direct approach as the crow flies through the jungles past the plains and steppes in the far south of Dredaria. Rather than send an entire army through unknown terrain the Kingdom had several bands of scouts sent into different parts of the jungle in an attempt to map the safest route through. The scouts never returned. Larger bands of warriors and highly skilled soldiers were sent in as recovery teams, yet after weeks of being in the jungles they had not returned either. Months after both parties had gone into the jungles of Khotesh a few stragglers wandered out of the wilds and into a nearby hamlet. Haggard, armor torn, the soldiers missing their weapons and appearing as babbling terrified messes. When officially questioned they repeated broken stories, time missing as they felt as if they had been inside the jungle for either far longer or far shorter than they actually were. Their sense of time inside the jungle had been warped and they simply repeated stories of horrifying near indescribable monsters that lurked in the jungles. They had been no match and the parties quickly scattered and became lost. After hearing these reports all attempts to invade through the jungles had been given up on, and all attempts to scout through the deserts resulted in the same things happening.

The next Empress set her sights on Thrane sending parties of scouts through the large mountain range that separated Thrane from the other Kingdoms. Much like the predecessors attempts to invade Khotesh all attempts on Thrane resulted in the parties getting lost or dying to monsters in any attempts they made to cross over the mountains. Many more returned alive but their advise was always the same, having an army slowly march through the frozen mountains was a horrible idea. If a fast band of seasoned rangers and scouts could not make it across, a slow moving army had no chance. Numerous passes were tried but all resulted in the same failures over and over again with Dredaria wasting its resources and supplies in their attempts to gain access. Eventually the young empire decided to hold the Royal City of Knotside as a settlement, capturing the newly expanded city as a trade hub. They held Knotside, with the city being tossed between ownership of Dredaria and a few other kingdoms in the area over the years. Their hold on the large city was strong and they placed a Grand Duchess in charge of its oversight, though this hold was shattered about a hundred years ago when the people rebelled in a calculated attack killing or capturing nearly their entire military force. The Grand Duchess was spared in a sign of good will and sent with the remaining Dredarians on their ship up the river back to their own Kingdom. At the return of the royal Duchess the empire begrudgingly signed a treaty with Knotside promising to discontinue all attempts at recapturing Knotside in exchange for a very lucrative trade deal.

Present Day

After the final invasions of The Red Empress Dowager Magdalena Jovanovik the countries expansion attempts ceased as they simply ran out of Kingdoms to conquer. Khotesh and Thrane were simply too difficult and dangerous to try and control, and their treaty with Knotside left them in a precarious position. They are the only Kingdom who could feasibly conquer and control the city as they have very few natural barriers and access via the river Fairknot, but Knotsides close alliances with Thrane and Khotesh make it nearly impossible for them to risk a confrontation with the other two kingdoms.

Dredaria is the most populous kingdom in the country of Waylia with it's high density populations in its many grand cities as well as the large areas of farmlands it holds. The vast majority of the population is comprised of 'common' races, such as humans, half-elves, and elves filling every city, town, village, and hamlet, with dwarves, halflings, and gnomes also having strong communities of their own often more isolated than their human or elven counterparts. 'Monstrous' races such as tabaxi, firbolg, orcs, goblinoids, dragonborn or other reptilian races, are extremely uncommon and when found are often the bulk of the extreme lower classes. These races are often found in urban city slums or lower class neighborhoods working in noble houses as servants or performing hard labor.

The Dredarian Empire very closely follows the Outer Pantheon of Gods with an obvious bias towards worship of Cademon, God of Crafts and War. Most temples are dedicated to him, with other popular temples to the Gods Valum, Goddess of Music, and Psari, Goddess of Fresh Water and Knowledge mirroring the Empires love of the fine arts as well as knowledge of all things.

Dredaria and its Empire currently have no standing alliances with any of the neighboring Kingdoms. The closest they have to any diplomatic relations is their treaty with the Royal City of Knotside. While they do typically get along with Thrane and Khotesh for the purposes of trading their bitter history from centuries past sometimes winds up coloring their current but rare interactions with Thrane and Khotesh.