Empire of Embriel

Like most sea kingdoms, Embriel's population includes sea elves, tritons, merfolk, kuo-toa, sahuagin, locathah and other intelligent aquatic races, including intelligent animals. Like most of the western sea kingdoms, there are also communities of storm giants. There are also a large number of hybrid creatures, dating from the time thousands of years ago when the kings of Embriel sheltered the druidic heretic Caishen from those who would stop his experiments. Aquatic lycanthropes are particularly common: weresharks, wereoctopuses, weredolphins, and even storm giant werewhales are found.
The Emperor of Embriel is a legendary for being wise, even if the reality is often at odds with that assessment. Embrielan emperors are elected by a council of nineteen princes, each the head of one of Embriel's Great Houses. The Houses are comprised of families of many of the empire's species.
Three famous philosophers have served as Emperor, feeding the myth of imperial wisdom. The first was Eonid the Wise, who sheltered the druid Caishen when he was on the run from elven supremacist assassins around 7,500 years B.C. The second and third were mother and daughter, the Empresses Tarshayn I and Exaina the Great. Tarshayn is known as a scholar. Her thirteen volume history of the west from the fall of the Five Emperors is still the standard text more than a millenium later.  
Exaina is famous for both her meditations on the nature of the Old Gods and for withdrawing Embriel from dealings with the surface world in the wake of the fall of Alousia. Since the time of Exain twelve hundred years ago, the Embrielan Empire has largely cut off the surface. The only ships they allow are Shanite trading vessels. This means that all trade between Shan and the southern nations travels on Shanite ships. Because of the difficulty of traveling there by sea, and the Whitespire Mountains preventing overland travel, Shan and Embriel collaborate to maintain a monopoly on trade with the nations of the Southern Covenant.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Neighboring Nations

• Arcanocracy of Mazrendaram