Arboise—Capital of the Empire

Table of Contents

Arboise is an ancient city state that rose to conquer an empire and to rule over the world. Nowadays, everyone looks up to the capital, and its inhabitant have remained the leaders of technological development and a worldwide cultural model.

History

Ancient history: Arboise started its history as a city state built over a river to toll the trade going through it. However, its unique culture quickly gave it a technical edge over its neighbours, as well as the benevolence to want to spread their superior knowledge and technologies, and the arrogance to believe that they should impose this help on others.
The conquests: This led Arboise to rise up several times through history to conquer its neighbours so as to create a kingdom or empire. Each time, it ended up being eventually driven back by internal rebellions from unhappy conquered provinces or by foreign alliances jealous of its might. On the last such occasion, Arboise was almost completely razed up.
The renewal: Decades later, a legendary leader finally rebuilt Arboise and started a new wave of conquests. This time, a new culture of respect and acceptance of the cultures of conquered provinces gave a long-lasting stability to the new empire, allowing it to last centuries and to spread around 3/4 of the globe.

Export

Technology: Arboise has always been famous worldwide for its technological advancements. It is always at the forefront of research regardless of topics, and it is where scholars go when they have the ambition to invent the next breakthrough. Itse latest impactful innovation has been organic magitech—using the metal atoms inside the cells of plants and fungi to draw the runic diagrams that anchor enchantments.
Magitech: Arboise is a city with state-of-the-art or even experimental technology in every street and in every apartment. It is also a big exporter of artefacts and magitech, whether they are hand-crafted by expert mages or created inside its new mass manufacture plants. See The science of magic for more details.
Education: In addition to knowledge, Arboise has always valued collaborations and the sharing of that knowledge. This has made it the perfect place for studying magic and setting up universities and schools that gather the best students from the entire empire.
Culture: As the capital of such a successful empire, the culture of Arboise and its inhabitants has long been scrutinised, admired, and imitated. it's ancient tournament to select its political leader is still used nowadays to select the emperor, and events such as such as neighbourhood wall painting competition and duelling tournaments are now held in every imperial cities.

Geography and the city

Geography: The ancient heart of the empire is located in a temperate region, in a fluvial valley. The city was built over a huge river, and a constant challenge in its history has been to built bridges strong enough to resist the spring ice melts that make the river flood over its banks. After a period of constant expansion, the invention of organic magitech has led the city to contract back onto itself, and the surrounding areas have been rewilded. Thus, Arboise is now surrounded by a forest and some wild meadows.
Neighborhoods: Arboise is divided into several neighborhoods based on which banks of the river they are and on their proximity to the river and the palace. Traditionally, areas higher up in the valley have been more expensive since they are well protected from flooding. The palace, however, has always been built on an island in the middle of the river and has only been protected from flooding by the magical might of its emperor and of its wards.
Buildings of note: The imperial palace, residence of the emperor and of his soulmates, headquarters of the army, of other military ranches such as the imperial guards, and of the government.

"Come on, Malik," someone exclaimed. "Why do you insist on staying in this little town lost in the middle of nowhere?"
Malik gave them all an impatient looks. "Quanahr is the best city in all of the empire. Why do you keep insisting? You will never tire me enough with your complaints to manage to drag me to Arboise and will only offend all Quanahriens."
The offending guest in question turned towards Hélène. "And you, mademoiselle? With the enchanting skills you've displayed during the wall painting competition, you've more than proved your place among the best scholars in the empire."
Hélène mustered a thin smile. "While Arboise might be amazing, being lost in a crowd of incredible people makes it a lot harder to stand out and benefit from special attention and funding. In any case, I already have all the best collaborators here without bothering to move to the other end of the world."
The guest sighed dramatically. "But the distance makes it so much harder to get deliveries from here! Every time we order an artefacts from you Malik, it takes weeks to arrive! And yet, you keep introducing us to other amazing mages from here who also refuse to move, and so you force us to increase our suffering!"

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Related articles

The Empire of Arboise

Politics Politicians (The Emperor and his soulmates, The imperial guards) · Events (The Empire Renewal, The Twelfth Sannian War, The Sannian kidnapping announcement) · Institutions (The empire and its political system, The selection and coronation of a new emperor, Curses and the legal system, The imperial curse—the ultimate judgment on traitors) Culture Imperial citizens · Overview of the professions in the Empire · Soulmates · Courtship rituals · Languages of the empire and translation magic · Winners of the neighbourhood wall painting competition Locations Geography of the Empire of Arboise · Ilara—Hélène's home region · Quanahr—Hélène's town · Arboise—Capital of the Empire · The imperial palace · Regions outside of the empire