The Empire of Moskiev

The lesser evil

If the Eternal Empire did not exist, the Empire Moskiev would have been considered the greatest threat to the human nations and the worst evil in the Dominion. Lucky for it that the Crimson Wight does exist and did create the Eternal Empire, for now the mortal nations are forced to work with the Moskievan menace against the greater evil.

Fight and Flight

Moskiev has often, and uncharitably if accurately, been called the Running Empire, because the lands it now occupies is not its own. In fact, the homelands of the Moskievans are deep within the Eternal Empire. A few centuries ago, when the Eternal Empire decided to extend a tendril and claim new land, it sent the Emerald Horde screaming into Moskievan territory. Tens of thousands of undead cavalry came to cleanse the land and there was nothing the Empire of Moskiev could do to stop it. To their credit, they gave it everything they had, and for a few decades they slowed the Emerald Horde's avance, but slowing is not stopping.
When nearly half the old empire had been taken, Emperor Ivan the Deserter had enough and commanded his people to move westward. Half the imperial army would be sacrificed to give the Moskievans time to escape, while the other half would forge ahead of the civilian population and conquer new territory for them to live on. And so began the slowest, most tortuous, most violent, and most maligned migration in history. For over a century, Moskiev crawled its way over the western nations, trampling any in its path, while fighting off the Crimson Wight's hounds at its back.
This was in the early days of the Dominion, and the grand alliance nearly broke under the strain Moskiev put on it. Hundreds of thousands of Moskievens had begun moving west seeking new lands, but the nations into which they fled and fought did not want a few hundred thousand angry and starving Moskievans, and so there as to be war. The Dominion had to battle the Moskievan migrants as well the Eternal Empire who saw weakness and was out for blood. All the while, some nations such as Alba tried to sue for peace between Moskiev and the nations in its path, but to no avail. The Dominion was divided and fractured, and both Moskiev and the Eternal Empire took it toll.
But eventually Moskiev found its rest and its new home. They had ran all the way to the western coast, and now they could run no more. It had conquered enough territory for its hundreds of thousands of citizens and here they would now live until either the Dominion won or the Crimson Wight culled them all. The people of the lands they had conquered now had to live with their conquerers. Some would abide with their new overlords, but many would flee to the western islands or wage countless wars of rebellions with their Imperial masters.

Strength and Unity

The Empire of Moskiev had barely begun to put down root in its new home when it started building up its military. The Moskievans are a hardy and aggressive people, and the Imperial government no less so. Over the century's migration, combat had become a way of life for the Moskievan people, and the Emperor did not want them growng soft. Military service became mandatory for men. They had to serve five years in the military from their sixteenth birthday, and only after they have returned home could they be called men.
After this, Moskiev never had a shortage of troops and became the strongest military power in the Dominion within a decade. The feudal powers around it, relying on levies raised by local lords, could not compete with the Moskievan peasant militias, and many of the Moskievan citizens could be a match for an Albian man-at-arms. Only the retinues of the Empire of Valkonia could stand a chance with the Moskievan troops, and only if they did not have to focus on the Eternal Empire.
Moskiev used this milatary superiority to bully its way into the Dominion. Moskiev joined Valkonia and Alba as the leaders of the Dominion, if only by sheer military strength alone. It has used that threat of force to try and bend the Dominion to its will, but its rivals Valkonia and Alba had always been there to stop it, and between both of them, Moskiev couldn't win. Now, however, that Valkonia had defected to the Eternal Empire, Moskiev is one step closer to claiming the Dominion as its own. Only Alba now stands in its way.

The Lesser Evil

It is not merely Moskiev's temperament and aggressive military policies that have led to it being called the lesser evil of the world. No, if it were merely that, the people of the Dominion would put up with their hostile neighbour, knowing that they must stand together.
The worst of what Moskiev does is allow the use of necromancy and blood magic within its borders.
The Moskievan Imperial Palace had long ago decreed that any individual that has been given authorisation by the imperial throne, may practice necromancy or blood magic in Moskiev. This was originally done during the migration period to give the fleeing Moskievans every chance of success against the Emerald Horde, but the Emperors of Moskiev had kept the decree in place in order to keep the empire strong. It has worked. The military of Moskiev is bolstered by undead infantry; its magical institution is led by immortal mages; and its blood mages infiltrate every part of society to find traitors to the empire.
But it comes at a cost, and one not merely measured in the opinions of its neighbouring nations. While the imperial throne does control who gets to be blood mages or necromancers in the country, this is in name only. It is easy to forge an imperial sanction, and one lich among hundreds is easy lost. The policy has led to an influx of agents from the Eternal Empire using Moskiev as a base of operations within the Dominion. Moskiev knows this, and its holy Chapters of Lantern-Bearers and Guardians fight not against all necromancy and blood magic, just those not authorised by the throne.
However, the greatest threat is temptation. Even if a mage gains authorisation from the throne, becomes a necromancer, and does all he can to better his nation... the Crimson Wight always has something better to offer. Moskiev is a constant fresh supply of necromancers and blood magic, and the Eternal Emperor does everything he can to make sure he turns as many of them as possible against their Moskievan masters.

Structure

The Imperial Throne is the absolute power in Moskiev, and the one who currently sits on that throne, Empress Esfir, has learned to wield that absolute power with a skill and grace that is second to none.
While the Empress does control the nation, she does not run it, nor is she involved in its day-to-day affairs. This she leaves to the twelve "principates" that compose the Moskievan government. Each of the twelve princes has been invested with nigh-absolute power by the imperial throne to act in its stead in a particular area. Thus, each prince is a small emperor in his own right, and in their own directorate their word is law. Each director has even been granted the imperial, if non-hereditary, title of Imperial Prince while he occupies his position.
The principates harkens back to the days of the great migration when the Emperor Piotr, grandson of Ivan the Deserter, placed his twelve sons in control of the vast horde of Moskievan refugees to ensure there is some sort of order to their century long flight. The emperor needs his sons to direct his people and their possessions, his army and their materiel, and what infrastructure they could bring with them. So in directing his nation, the imperial princes became the first "Princes" and established the first principates.
In the modern day Moskiev, the twelve principates share the entire empire between them. Everything that needs to be done in the empire is done by them. Laws are passed by the first principate, the army governed by the second, the mages of the empire controlled by the twelfth, and so on. The principates are not all equal in terms of size, power, or even influence. Some principates are preciously small (like the twelfth), but quite powerful; while others are massive (like the fourth, in charge of food production) but carry little to no influence.

The Twelve Principates:

I: Deliberates on and passes all laws in the empire.
II: Commands the vast imperial army.
III: Nominally in charge of all religions as well as the various holy orders.
IV: In charge of all food production in the empire.
V: The imperial tax collector and guardian of the treasury.
VI: The judicial arm of the empire and enforcers of the law.
VII: The face of the empire to the outside world, and where all foreign diplomacy is planned and executed.
VIII: The Empress's principate. This principate is responsible for everything to do with the imperial throne, the Empress, and the extended imperial family. This principate includes the Imperial Chancellor and the Household Guard.
IX: Responsible for designing, building and maintaining all infrastructure within the empire.
X: Governs the intelligence networks of the imperial throne. The Empress's spymasters.
XI: The record keepers of the empire and the census takers.
XII: Responsible for registration, training and policing of all magic users in the empire.

Military

Moskiev boasts the largest military within the Dominion, particularly now that Valkonia has joined the Eternal Empire. Yet even when Valkonia had been part of the Dominion, Moskiev still had the largest centrally controlled military. Valkonia's empire was split amongst its scores of dukes, princes, counts and margraves. Each controlled its own little army, while the emperor had to beg, bribe, blackmail and threaten his lords to part with their soldiers to give him aid.
Moskiev, on the other hand, has no such issues. There are no lords or dukes to worry about. There are only the twelve Princes and their twelve principates, and only one of these Princes controls the entirety of Moskiev's military might: Prince Vladimir of the Second Principate. By law, Vladimir can call upon every able bodied man in the empire to stand and fight for their motherland, and it has happene once or twice in the empire's history; but more often than not, Vladimir is content with his large retinue of professional soldiers, and the yearly influx of newly drafted boys.
Every year, thousands of raw recruits are drafted into Vladimir's army, and like swords in a workshop, he beats them on the anvil of war until they break or become like steel. Many boys never finish their five year tour, especially not those stationed on the eastern front, bordering the Eternal Empire. Those that make it home are hardened veterans, and this turns most of the Moskievan populace into an army waiting to spring into action.

Foreign Relations

To call its foreign relations "terse and conflicted" would be straining the definition of an understatement. With its powerful military, Moskiev is like the bully on the playground, doing whatever it wants to whomever it wantsm knowing that the threat of force is enough to cow others into submission. Only the Kingdom of Alba has the manpower (and the will to use it) to stand up to Moskiev, and the two have been bitter rivals ever since Moskiev entered into the Dominion.
The rest of the Dominion nations view Moskiev with suspicion, and rarely do their diplomatic relations go smoothly. It is only with the faraway independent nations (and some say with the undead nations of the Eternal Empire) that Moskiev has a semblence of a good relationship. With the Dominion nations each diplomatic event is a strained battle of attrition, and many say that with Moskiev in the Dominion, it is less an alliance and more an uneasy truce.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Demonym

Moskievan

Head of State

Esfir I

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Unitary state

Parent Organization

The Dominion of Man

Neighboring Nations

• The Fellowship of Vurinn
• The Kingdom of Alba

Notable Members

• Esfir I