The Empire of Bryonsworth
The beginning of Bryonsworth starts with the early days of West Uros. When the continent was little more than a collection of small city states scattered far and wide. Feudal lands ruled by wealthy land-owners who hired knights to defend their borders and commoners to work their fields. For ages, this continent stayed in this lazy lull, content to exist in their small isolated bubbles.
However, as the rate of advancement progressed, and the population of the continent began to swell, the once prolific city-states that comprised the majority of the land began to amass into larger unified bodies. Prompted in part by their neighbors past the Zerathanian Deserts to the east, these proto-empires took to conquering feudal lands and assimilating them into their territories. A trend that would set the stage for what would come to be known as the Era of Conquest, the most violent period within the continent's history. And it was in this era, when faced with the realization that to stand alone was to perish alone, that the various smaller counties, city-states, and lands that inhabited the vast northern regions of West Uros banded together under the leadership of one house.
Alistair vus'Bryon of House Bryon was an exceptionally bold man. A man who was extremely cognizant of the threat his house, and the lands they owned, were under in such a violent era. And a man who refused to let such a grim fate come to pass.
Starting first with the families who already held preexistence relations with the House of Bryon, Alistair began to amass and grow his pool of resources. Resources and forces he would then use as a tool for expansion. Serving as both economical and political leverage for negotiation, and a powerful force against those who could not be convinced. It was with a silver tongue that Alistair curried favor with the largest houses and counties, and it was with a closed fist that he subjugated those who would not submit. Focusing all his attention on a single target for an intense yet short campaign to bring them under his growing empire, before quickly shifting aim as soon as the day was won. It was a method most would have difficulty sustaining, yet it seemed as if the gods had truly blessed Alistair twice, as he proved a brilliant and capable leader both on and off the battlefield.
Over seven years, Alistair seized control over most of the northern half of the main continent. Ceasing his conquest spanning from the western shore to the east and firmly establishing The Empire of Byronsworth. Appointing his family's land of Valencia the capital of the new nation, beginning construction on the Highhaven Palace and establishing the new Imperial Bryonsworth Calander year, before instituting a feudal monarchy that helped divide the Empire into six more manageable provinces. Provinces that would be governed on an individual level by the noble family which owned the greatest amount of land within it. Allowing for a substantial degree of sovereignty, even while obligated to both pay taxes to the Empire and to adopt some of the wider national policies. For despite his use of violent subjugation, Alistair's goal behind the construction of the Empire had never been solely for his own gain. He saw himself as a preemptive conquer, unifying the scattered lands before they were trampled. Thus, as soon as the Empire had been formed, Alistair did his best to ensure that the battered pride of the defeated would be unable to fracture it.
It was in accordance with these ideals that Alistair assembled the first Council of Bryonsworth. A republic of representatives taken from each of the provinces, that if unified would have the power requested to make direct requests of the monarch, as well as advocate for the needs of those they represented. While this in no way diminished the absolute power of the crown, and thus the absolute power of the Bryon family, it did go a long way to ensure that each province felt they were being heard.
Alistair would spend the rest of his life putting out the fires of rebellion and civil unrest within the Bryonsworth borders. Passing away in the year 47 IBC and appointing his eldest son Darius vus'Bryon as the nation's leader. He would never see his dreams of unity realized. Upon his death, he was buried within the Bryon family tombs and a vibrant star was dubbed in The Proginitor's honor. The Alistair constellation, informally referred to by sailors as the Ali-Star, circles a dim star often used for navigation. As such it is commonly used as a way to locate and identify it.
The years that followed Alistair's death would prove rough for Bryonsworth, as Darius lacked the years of experience needed to keep the peace in a nation fraught with civil discontent. A struggle only exacerbated by the Era of Conquest still raging on. As the seemingly unstoppable Duma drew closer and closer to the border of Bryonsworth with no signs of slowing. After claiming nearly the entirety of the south, Duma was poised to be crowned victor over the violent age. With only a young nation barely able to keep itself together standing before them. While there were some paltry attempts to keep the war from breaking out, the question was never if Duma was going to invade, it was merely a matter of when.
A day that would come far quicker than most expected, as the nation received word of Dumani troops crossing the border late in the 48th year. A vast legion marching through the southern provinces, claiming and razing whatever land they crossed.
Slowed by the rampant obstruction of Valencia's court and continually blocked by the disaffected nobility, the first few months of the war could barely be called a battle. As provincial lords refused to led troops or aid to the Royal Army, choosing instead to withdraw into their lands in an attempt to weather the storm. All while Duma surged through Bryonsworth, effortlessly smashing through what token resistance the undermanned army was able to raise. Before, finally, the divided nation was forced to face the sobering reality of what war with Duma meant, as those unable to fathom the difference between the might of a single province and the power of an empire were forced to watch the disparity first hand. While the war did nothing to erase what problems each individual had, and in most cases only heightened them, it was the existential threat that Duma posed that allowed them to set those grievances aside. As, at the first Vortagen Summit, the five provincial lords met and signed The Roer Agreement. Allowing the sitting Monarch of Bryonsworth complete authority to seize control over the Provincial Armies during times of national emergency. A day that would forever be remembered as both the day the trajectory of the war began to shift and the first time Bryonsworth could ever truly be called whole.
Despite this consolidated effort, the several months of negligible response to a threat already favored against them had placed the Empire firmly in a state of disadvantage. As Dumani forces had already secured a strong foothold in the southern provinces and looked poised to press deeper into the northern territories. Many came to fear that the unity of the aristocracy had come too late, yet slowly and surely the previously thought unstoppable tide of conquest began to slow. Not deterred, and not stopped, but as the Dumani troop matched closer to the capital city something began to change. As the Provincial Armies forces began to link up with the Royal Army, and finally gave King Darius vus'Bryon the tools he needed.
Darius was young when the war began, and much like his struggles with managing his court, the intricacies of managing the battlefield proved no less daunting. A matter made only worse by the severe disadvantage the Provincial Lords' initial refusal to cooperate had given him. Yet in learning how to fight a war with nothing, Darius learned how to survive. Never given the luxury to take extreme risks or let his pride drive him to foolish action, it was all Darius could do to ensure every single troop counted. Both inexperienced and young he wasn't perfect, yet with each battle lost, he would learn. With each tactic thwarted he would adapt. The fires of a fighting a brutal war on the verge of defeat served as the perfect forge to sharpen his mind and reveal the rough gem that lay underneath. For while lacking his father's political grace, he more than made up for in a tactical genius that would eventually become the basis of academia taught to future generations of both generals and commanders.
Yet genius alone could do little to overturn raw statistical dominance, and while Darius proved bold enough to constantly delay and confound the invading forces, he was finally forced into a corner on the southern border of the Valencian province. Where days before Dumani troops crossed, the last regiment of the Royal Army received reinforcement. Before finally, the war was turned at The Battle at Frowden's Hold.
With every victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, morale would spike within both the soldiers and people of Bryonsworth. As the distant memories of resentment towards the Empire began to fade away and were replaced by the sentiments of nationalist pride. As men raced to aid their country, eager to serve the crown and protect their homes. No longer was the Bearer of the Crown seen and reviled as "Lord Bryon, of House Bryon" a foreign devil stripping them of their lands, but as "King Bryon, Sovereign of Bryonsworth" a glorious commander leading their nation to victory.
Even with emboldened morale and a fresh supply of troops at his disposal, Darius could not hope to win every battle with the vast disparity of resources between the two sides. However, in the eyes of his people, and more importantly the Dumani populace, every victory counted for ten. When Duma steamed through a province, it was expected. As the undisputed favored to win anything but an effortless victory was seen as incompetence. Thus for every successful act of resistance, with every inch Duma lost, it was as if watching a giant be felled by a gnat. The truth, of course, was far more complicated than simply the story of a brilliant commander fighting against the odds. Proving a cautionary tale about the perils of constructing an imperialistic war machine fueled by conquest, as growing insurgent groups and civil uprisings forced the Dumani forces to divide their attention on both sustaining a war that had gone on far longer than they had expected, and managing internal strife. Yet this truth is inconsequential in the face of perception, and it was the heroic narrative woven from King Darius' victory that would propagate rather than the troubles of the Dumani war effort. This narrative and emboldened moral kicked the civilian sectors into a wartime frenzy of production and advancement hardly ever seen before. Accompanied by leaps and bounds in understanding within countless fields of technology. Including the use of Thermal Stones, an element that would later become one of Bryonsworth's signatures.
Poised to lose far more than they could have ever expected, and eager to both downsize their empire and hastily put an end to the war before citizen support hit a critical level, on the 5th month of 51 IBC Duma withdrew from Bryonsworth. Surrendering not only the territory they had claimed during the war, but giving up a large swath of land as wartime reparations. A deal that had been hashed to ensure Bryonsworth didn't attempt to swing the invasion around while Duma was focusing on its internal affairs.
This panicked settlement, while arguably unnecessary given Bryonsworth's clear disadvantage in military strength, served its purpose in preemptively warding off a counterattack. Yet the Empire hardly needed such an incentive. For after three years of fighting, it was hard to believe that the war was finally over. Yet more than that, against all odds, they had won. A victory that finally sealed the end to the Era of Conquest.
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Following the end of the war, Bryonsworth spent the rest of the 51st year recuperating from the damage their nation had received over the course of the invasion. Both rebuilding and restoring major towns and areas which had been sacked or razed during the Dumani Marches as well as finding a place in their Empire for the land they had received from Duma.
Much of this land had been freshly conquered by Duma before they used it to launch their invasion on Bryonsworth, and was both severely lacking in both resources and effective governance. Unlike the area's in which Alistair had handpicked to form the foundation of the Empire, the newly acquired lands proved to be little more than the refuses, dead weight that Duma could afford to cut loose. Thus these new lands were handed out to various noble houses who had assisted during the war efforts with the hopes that rather than being forced to allot an exuberant amount of the crown's treasury on elevating this land, the noble houses would take it upon themselves to improve the vast stretches of land they were given. Lands which would forevermore be dubbed, The Outer Provinces. Regions that would primarily serve as the farmlands, quarries, mines, and woodlands needed to sustain the Empire's booming economy.
After their success in the war, wealthy immigrants began to flock towards the Empire's major cities within the Inner Provinces in droves. Drawn in by the allure of a new nation, and the promise of a place in which they could truly leave their mark. A drive that pressed them to excel like no other, giving birth to something akin to an arms race within the nation's own borders. A competition in which brilliant minds would seek to find discoveries that would cement their names in history, while wealthy donors funded a slew of dangerous, experimental, and often ethically dubious research projects in order to reap the rewards.
Yet even immigrants devoid of wealth or status served their role in the bolstering of the Bryonsworth economy, as they moved towards the young nation with the promise of work, pay, and in some cases even land in the burgeoning regions of the Outer Provinces. In desperate need of cheap labor to terraform the often untamed and Horror-fraught lands they had been given, the noble lords of the Outer Provinces found began to hire such immigrants in mass. Giving birth to the first generation of Trailblazers. Uneducated and often untrained laborers given the extremely dangerous, yet often quite lucrative task of clearing out and settling the Outer Provinces. Due to this high demand, and an equally high turnover rate, the Trailblazers pulled in a far greater number of foreigners than the Inner Provinces ever could. Foreigners who would often come to live in the small towns and outposts they had settled and work as farmer, miner, or loggers once the era of Trailblazing was over. Resulting in the widespread of ethnic diversity still seen in the Outer Provinces to this day.
In this age of unrivaled progress, an unprecedented event took place within the Valencian court. As without warning, King Darius vus'Bryon stepped down from the throne. Voluntarily giving up what was rapidly becoming one of the most powerful positions in West Uros. For the simple reason that he believed he was ill-suited to rule during such peace times, and that the role of a passive king was one he found no joy in playing. Thus he not only surrendered the crown, but he removed his two children from the line of succession. Naming his younger brother Lucien vus'Bryon as the next in line, before departing on a ship with the rest of the royal family to the frigid island of Norland.
While the abrupt shift in leadership caused by Darius's leave took many by surprise, especially given the king's immense popularity and status as a venerated war-hero, the nation was swift to recover. A transition that was in no small part aided by the general likeably and quick wit of his successor. While Lucien was nowhere near as bold or well built as his older brother, he proved quite adept at navigating the crossroads of history Bryonsworth had arrived at. Ensuring that despite the ever-increasing flow of capital and labor, the Empire would never grow fat and complacent. It was Lucien who was primarily responsible for initiatives such as the creation of the Merchants Guild and introducing subsidies for export and commodities produced in the Inner Provinces. The latter proving extremely beneficial when it came to encouraging trade and building a healthy relationship with the Republic Isles.
Bryonsworth's long Golden Age would give way to a great number of advancements technologically, culturally, and economically. With highlights including further research on the Thermal Stones, the founding of The Church of Praeto, and the settlement of the Outer Provinces. However, while these all served to improve the Byronsworth quality of life, it wouldn't be for another hundred years that a breakthrough would jumpstart the fires of innovation to heights torn straight from legend. As in 203 IBC, The Shoffen Engine was perfected.
Following the turbulent reign of Augustus vus' Bryon and twenty-three years after The Council took power over the Valencian court the nation's rapid ascent seemed to be approaching a plateau. Approaching the apex of growth that a country their size could accommodate, many seemed poised to call it an end to the Empire's honeymoon period. Yet none could have ever predicted that the only thing following such an era of abundance would be another. However time and time again, Bryonworth has only proven its propensity to defy the odds. The Shoffen Engine, or rather what The Shoffen Engine enabled would become the catalyst for this new age, a technological revolution comparable only to the wheel. The Thermal Revolution.
As a growing Empire, far more often than a lack of resources or manpower, the largest constraints Bryonworth found bottle necking their advancement were distance, time and efficiency. The transportation of food, commodities, materials, and even knowledge through trade caravans or messengers was slow and clumsy. Prone to small errors or delays, bad weather, brigands, Horrors, or plain poor luck. Setbacks that could often represent weeks at best, or months at worst. However, even without obstruction, the time required often rendered long-distance collaboration functionally impractical. For almost the entirety of Bryonworth's history, this oxymoronic limitation created by growth was taken simply to be a truth, the unavoidable reality. Thus when word of the Shoffenway began to spread, and construction of the great lines crisscrossing the nation it was hard to imagine the idea of traveling the length of the Empire in but a day or two. Few believed it was possible, even fewer could believe they might have the chance to see it. Yet under the guidance of The Council of Bryonsworth, no time was wasted. Even using King Evric's name to claim what private property they would need to stretch the tracks through, much to the frustration of the nobles who owned them. Yet these complaints would fall upon deaf ears, as by the year's end, the people of Bryonsworth bore witness to the maiden voyage of The Darius. The first Shoffenway carriage to lap the entirety of the nation.
From that day on, the landscape of Bryonworth changed forever as the provinces became more connected than they ever had been before. Through almost every city in the Inner Provinces, both major and minor, there stretched a Shoffenway line leading to the capital. With predominantly affluent or skilled workers as residents, those who lived in the Inner Province were already prone to travel both recreationally and for business. Individuals who not only had the need for fast travel but the funds required to pay a premium for it. A combination that created a powerful monetary incentive to link together as much of the Inner Province as The Council's budget could allow. As those of aristocratic class regularly took trips back and forth from the capital as well as other prominent cities, and merchants would rent out large carriages in order to rapidly transport goods where the demand was highest.
While the initial cost of building the lines proved the most expensive gambit the Empire had ever made, the returns were far better then any could have ever dreamed. Producing not only a return on their investment into the lines, but a constant stream of income and a new booming industry. As while the government of Bryonworth owned the lines, the carriages themselves were primarily owned by private institutions. Private groups that paid the crown for access to operate on their tracks. An arrangement that ensured that the crown could continually profit off the tracks while avoiding absorbent maintenance or carriage production costs. With the largest reoccurring expense of the Shoffenway proving the newly established Shoffenway Military Police. A well-funded organization designated with both protecting the lines and the people.
Beyond just the Inner Provinces, the construction of the Shoffenway would similarly stretch out into the Outer Provinces. Yet, both in implementation and response there were key differences. For while in sheer number the population of the Outer Provinces exceeded that of the Inner Provinces there was a large and unavoidable disparity in wealth when the two were compared. Stretching back to both provinces' roots, the smaller scattered settlements of the Outer Provinces had always been home to the rougher, untamed parts of the Empire. With most residents lacking in any form of education beyond Amunsday School and in some cases apprenticeships. As such, with the most common jobs requiring little to no travel and without the residents possessing anywhere near enough extra income to afford frequent trips, combined with the extra cost needed to clear out the dense and dangerous forests of the Outer Provinces, the lines extending into the Outer Provinces didn't receive anywhere near the level of thoroughness they did within the Inner Provinces.
Instead simply charting out towards the biggest cities of in the provinces, allowing for the shipment of materials harvested in the Outer Provinces and little more. These cities would come to be known as hub cities and would become the home for the new wave of industrial sectors built with Shoffen powered machinery. Buying raw material produced in the Outer Province settlements before refining and shipping them off towards the capital. Yet for the rest of the provinces living beyond these hub cities, the implementation of the Shoffenway would do little to benefit them. In fact, while the rest of the nation began to progress at a rapid pace, the already trailing Outer Provinces only began to slip farther and farther behind. With the success of the already prosperous lands closest to the nation's capital city causing the space between classes to steadily grow wider. A depressing reality only made all the worse by the increasing severity and intensity of Horror attacks. Yet small and scattered, there was little that could be done about it. Forcing the people of the Outer Provinces to do little but simply watch, as the world left them behind.
Yet, their plight did not go unobserved and while the rest of the world seemed to have forgotten a single man did everything his limited power allowed him to do. The establishment of the Outrider Knights. The small order conscripted from the Outer Provinces, to beat back the daemons that lurk within the shadows. Yet this black sheep of the four armies can hardly be considered a suitable protector for the entirety of the Outer Provinces. Underfunded, and never honored the draft is statistically a death sentence, an execution dressed up in the facade of service. Yet even that bleak truth can be woven into a pipe dream for the young and desperate. For while they may never receive the treatment of the Royal Army or a hefty pension after their retirement, any who joined the Outrider Knights are granted a full belly, a place to sleep and pay so long as they excel. Luxuries most conscripts were far from guaranteed before their recruitment. Of course, none of this came for free, and for most, it would cost everything. Yet when the letter of the draft arrives at one door, even the illusion of hope is invaluable.
It is now, seven years after the creation of the Shoffenway that Bryonsworth stands at a crossroads. With the rapid expansion of its economy pushing the nation to expand its borders, and its recent annexation of several independent city-states placing a strain on foreign relations. Whispers of another war with Duma are in the air and the age of Bryonsworth fighting as an underdog has long since passed. However, one thing is clear, no matter what happens Uros will never be the same.
Through Blood and Iron
Founding Date
1 IBC
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Demonym
Bryonswortian / Wortish
Head of State
Head of Government
Government System
Monarchy, Constitutional
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Market economy
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Controlled Territories
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
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