The borders
Unsurprisingly, the few places not yet conquered by
the empire do not look favourably on their ambitious neighbour. This means that relationship—and trade—between them are very limited, and that most borders are now highly-magically fortified no man's lands.
Most borders are delimited by rivers, as the flow of the magic in their water disrupts and weakens wards and thus makes a naturally transition area between them.
Since the batch of conquests organised by the last emperor, the new borders have been reinforced with special protections, which includes fun things like adding a chemical in the source of the rivers to render the water resistant to magic and like using
taboo magic to engineer a new species of carnivorous fish that can absorb the magic of living beings upon biting them.
![Sannian bioengineer fish](/uploads/images/4e3a00e6bca9001a9559f7d6cc30b726.jpg)
Sannian bioengineer fish by AmélieIS
The countries
A few clusters of countries and islands still stand separate from the empire. On the Western borders of the empire lies its main ennemies, a group of medium and small size countries all closely allied together to withstand the might of the empire.
The leading country is Sanne. Since the last series of imperial conquests, it stands directly at the border. This country is the most similar among all foreigners to the oldest regions of the empire—which includes
Ilara, the region ruled by
Hélène's
family. It has a temperate climate and a lot of wild lands spreading between a few big cities. The main difference between them is that in Sanne these wild lands are not the results of a voluntary rewilding and return to nature.
Indeed, in order to compete with the empire's prestige despite its more limited resources and isolation from the big imperial trade network, Sanne has had to rush to catch up to its technological development. This has required lax environmental regulations and a nonchalant approach to safety that have led it to suffer from a few big industrial disasters. The chemicals and magic that were released as a result have deeply transformed the environment. The only animals and plants surviving were those that were able to develop a high resistance to magic and those able to absorb an amount of metals in their body that make them too toxic for human consumption.
Today, Sanne's economy and society are still highly focused on manufactures and alchemy, although with better regulations to protect its citizens. As a results, it is one of the most modern of the foreign countries—though still not at the level of the empire—and the health of its inhabitants is slowly improving.
I'm really interested in the bioengineered creatures. They sound both scary and interesting. D:
Thanks :D I'm going to write about them next for Cato's challenge :p