Nalemonic Empire
The Nalemonic Empire is an elfish messianic empire dominated by the Naldi elfs of Nalislos. It is a nearly continental empire encompasing most of Elleswere that developed from a union of the colonial empire of the Court of Nalislos and many other Elfish Realms.
The Empire is led by a messianic figure, the Nalemon, from which the Empire's name derives. The Nalemon claimed the title—a traditional title for the sovereign of the mythical elfish homeland of Old Heaven—after the Outsider's Pact was broken and the elfs were severed from Old Heaven. At that time, the then-Prince of Nalislos, Valïs Tsurjaël, crowned heself Nalemon and committed to reforge the homeland of Old Heaven in the mortal world, Valan.
An Elfish Empire
The Nalemonic Empire is theoretically structured as an Argent Court of Old Heaven. The Imperial Court is the Empire's central legislative and executive authority, is suzerain over a number of subject Argent Courts, called Provincial Courts, whose princes are simultaneously "sovereign" in their own courts, but they are simultanously made courtiers in the Imperial Court, making them responsible to the Nalemon. Judicial affairs, on the rare occasions they cannot be managed by local authorities, a responsible courtier, or a subject Provincial Court, rest with the [Imperial Cult].
However, this style of governance is alien to traditional elfish practice; the Argent Courts of Old Heaven rarely controlled vast territories as the Nalemonic Empire does. In addition to the site of a Court marked by the Argent Line, courtiers were granted wards by their princes—specific sites or objects: forest groves, rivers, religious artefacts, significant tools or weapons, buildings, villages or towns. This form of control was personal, and the relationship between a courtier and a prince determined the significance of that courtier's ward to the court, rather than the ward determining the courtier's importance.
This highly personal and aloof style of old elfish courts proved ill-fitted to governing territory in the mortal realm. Even prior to becoming the seat of an empire, the Court of Nalislos recognized that the rapid expansion of its holdings as it established new colonies would result in far more courtiers than a Prince could reasonably manage. However, neither could it create new traditional Argent Courts; these would be independent from the Court of Nalislos as demanded from the Argent Line.
The Princes of Nalislos ultimately stumbled onto the solution still practiced by the Empire: new Argent Courts would be established whose princes were sovereign in their own courts, but were simultaneously made courtiers in the Court of Nalislos, and therefore responsible to its Prince. However, since the creation of such a court demanded a site or artefact chosen by Old Heaven and marked by the Argent Line, the process of creating new Argent Courts was slow until .
The Imperial Court
In accordance with traditional elfish practice, the Imperial Court is centred on a physical place believed to be chosen by the Argent Line that grants its Prince—in this case Nalemon Valïs—a divine right to rule. For the Nalemonic Empire, that site is the Blazoned Dais of the White-Rayed Tower, on Nalislos. While often similar to traditional Courts, the Imperial Court differs significantly in hosting, prince-courtiers that have their own Argent Courts and are treated like feudal subjects or governors. Critically, since the breaking of the Pact of the Outsider, the Imperial Court also wields the Argent Line, and so the ability to create new Argent Courts.
Provincial Courts
The provinces of the Empire are governed by Argent Courts that manage their affairs in myriad ways, but share in common that their Princes are members of the Imperial Court—prince-courtiers. Nalemonic provinces encompass vast territories which, prior to Nalemonic rule, encompassed many different realms, governments, and cultures. Consequently, such places are rarely given as wards to a courtier. Rather, the relationships between Provincial Courts and their non-Argent subjects are more akin to diplomatic relations between suzerain and tributary, than to a formal subordination of levels of government.
Non-Argent Subjects
The subjects of a Provincial Court are broadly left to their own devices. They are permitted their own legal systems, forms of government, and religious practices. Subjects often practice their own foreign affairs, wage wars with neighbours independently of the Empire, and have relatively fiscal or tax obligations to their sovereign Courts. However, this aloof style of governance is sharply contrasted by the Imperial response when its subjects act in ways the Courts believe constitute threats to the Empire. Imperial reprisals are swift, brutal, and often result in a reconstruction of the political and social worlds of "problem subjects". While a Court may take diplomatic steps to warn their subjects prior to military action, the courtly culture of elfish empire is often alien and seemingly arbitrary, and it is difficult for subjects to decipher the distinction between a red line and a polite request.
Maritime Origins
Catastrophic for most elfs, the breaking of the Outsider's Pact also represented an opportunity to expand the Court of Nalislos significantly. Without any connection to Old Heaven, the Nalemon would be its voice and wield the Argent Line in the mortal world.
History
Realm of Nalislos
Main Article: Nalislos
The Nalemonic Empire has its origins in the maritime elfish court on the island of Nalislos. Known elfish settlement of Nalislos began with the disappearance of the mannish Anboran people that originally inhabited the island. The return of the Naldi to Valan remained unknown until its ships began patrolling the coasts of Verïavodosï. Eventually, Nalislos began to settle the surrounding region using what became known as Vanisher Colonies: the overnight appearance of a strange elfish monument outside a mannish settlement, the ensuing disappearance of the local population, and their replacement with an elfish settlement.
Although Vanisher Colonies continued to appear, the Realm of Nalislos slowly opened communications with neighbouring polities, becoming a maritime trading nation as fear and suspicion diminished to a manageable level. Naldi colonies appeared across Elleswere and northern Soddam, mostly concentrated on the coasts of Verïavodosï with some further afield. This breadth allowed the Realm of Nalislos to secure trading relationships both with other elfish communities and—admittedly more tenuous—relations with mannish traders.
Empire of Old Heaven
Coronation of the Nalemon
In the late Mannish Age, the Northmannish Alagonid Empire began to clash increasingly with the elfish realms in the Heartlands and the Sunlands. Small skirmishes and raids launched by mannish war parties led to elfish retaliation: disappearances of people and villages, strange mists poisoning farmland, and elfish raids. However, by the early 1650s MA, it became clear that the Alagonids were moving against the library-city of Tsonkaveïm, the oldest continually inhabited elfish settlement in Elleswere and the only elfish settlement to remain on Valan after the Rending.
On Nalislos, the Tsurajeäl dynasty had already begun taking on the project of strengthening its ties with the other elfish realms. A number of its vanisher colonies had become closely enmeshished with nearby elfish princely realms that had also emerged during the Unveiling, and some of these princes had already sworn themselves to the Court at Nalislos. However, for Lady Valïs, the mannish attack on the Storied City represented an unprecedented opportunity. Calling on old elfish messianic mythology, she pronounced herself Nalemon, an historic title for the elfish "Lord of Heaven" who, by tradition, was believed to be chosen by the sun goddess Nal. Through this act, Valïs claimed leadership for the Realm of Nalislos in a quest to restore Old Heaven.
In ages past, the Sun breathed fire upon the world, our people thus delivered here as her hand on earth. For too long have we sat idle—no longer. Now, we rebuild Old Heaven on the foundations of the earth we have, not the one we dream will come.
Siege of Tsonkaveïm
There was little immediate reaction to the pronouncement. However, just over a year following the self-coronation of Nalemon Valïs Tsurajeäl, the Alagonid warhost, using powerful magics to disable critical binding wards, breached the Glyphened Walls of Tsonkaveïm. While the Prince of Stories managed to repel the ensuing attack, he realized the city-state's situation was untenable, and pledged himself to the Nalemon's Court. A Nalemonic force was quickly dispatched, breaking the siege late in 2 NE.
The Nalemonic victory at Tsonkaveïm greatly strengthened Valïs' claim to the title of Nalemon. It was bolstered by a series of additional victories over the Alagonid Empire over the ensuing decades. These victories also required a change in how the Naldi conquerers administered their realm. Direct conquests of significant lands led the Nalemon to create a relatively decentralized system of governance, allowing their new subjects to govern themselves as they saw fit, provided this created no threat to the new Nalemonic Empire. When threats did emerge, they saw harsh crackdowns and punitive action.
The War of Sun and Dragon
In 33 NE, a great delegation of princes and familites from many Elfish Realms in the Sunlands and the Younglands travelled to Nalislos. In recognition of her victories, the princes and their courtiers pledged themselves to the Nalemon and her court. This Nalemonic Union brought a vast swathe of territory under control of Nalislos, giving it the manpower and resources it needed to continue the fight against the northmen. The war, with intermittent phases of active conflict interspersed with truces, continued well over a century.
For both sides, the conflict led to military innovation and increasing centralization. The Nalemon developed over years the Nalemonic Legions, standing military forces with regular organizations and dispositions that maintained their own independent logistics networks, able to supplement each other and respond flexibly to attack. These legions developed in concert with the Nalemonic Empire's growing control over the elfish courts, securing concessions the brought the irregular fey warrior retinues of the courts into the legions. The effectiveness of the legions against the feudal military of the Alagonids, which consisted of levied banners and smaller retinues of trained soldiery secured additional concessions from reticent elfish courts by securing them against Alagonid attack.
While the war took many decades, the trend was fairly consistently in the Nalemon's favour. Its successes against the Alagonids allowed the Nalemon to seek other gains in the Younglands, the Coastlands, and elsewhere while still encroaching on the Alagonid Empire, its only near-peer competitor. By 110 NE, Nalemonic forces had reduced Alagonid control almost to the Worldspine. In 113 NE, the capital of the Alagonid Empire fell to the legions, and in 141 NE, Icewind Dale, the last vestige of the rump Northmannish empire, was occupied by the Naldi
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