Empire of Melistern
The Grand Empire of the Guided Man, also called the Melistern Empire, was the ruling power of the continent of West-Argo over the course of the First Era of the Man, and also the first organized superstate after the old nation of the elves, the Republic of Argothenge, fell after a disease struck them. It is widely considered to be the pinacle of human civilisation, even now more then 1500 years after it's collapse.
I, The founding of the Melistern Empire
II, The early years of the Empire
III, The Ceasterwyrhta and the Āngenġan
IV, Contact with the Gotkohli
V, The Golden Age of Melistern
VI, The First Civil War
VII, The Long Decline
Religion has over the lifespan of the Empire always been a prominent part of everyday society. Everyone from the lowest peasant to the highest noble was involved in it’s matters. It was not the same exact faith throughout though, as the Melisternian national religion of sorts, called Friþcandelcyrice (literally ‘Sun Church’) went through many iterations and changes over the years. It’s primary characteristic was the distinction between the realms of the Sky and the Heavens, of which the first was a source of evil over the world and the second a source of good. Later, after a mythological event called the Bursting of the Gate, or Wágþeorl, a second part of the religion, called Clústoþalhn , or Lockers Temple, emerged, whose church continued on way past the days of the Empire even into the present day, in the form of the Gatekeepers.
History of the Grand Empire of the Guided Man
The story of the founding of the Melistern Empire is shrouded in myth, as over the 500 years of it's existance most sources pointing towards it's origins point to the same, hard to prove myth. The myth, among humankind across the continent known as "The Coming of Man" is the story of the start of the First Age of the Man.
It tells, that when the elves of old died in the Abyssal plague with the coming of the 26th century AoC, the first humans of the Arterpjêker were brought on a journey eastward because of their king, Alessor VIII of Arter, had a vision of their deity Maraman. Maraman following the chronicle gave him a vision of a 16 pointed sun shining upon the lands in the west, this sun shone upon a wide open fertile land.
So the king mustered his people, with expetion of those who were against him, and left westward over the Eastwall . When he came over the mountains after a long, 6 year long journey he arrived in the valley of Melistern in the year 2567 AoC, a year we know now as the year 1AAA, After Alessor's Arrival. His people found the huge human like bones, most of them broken and splintered. These were the remains of the elves who had died of the Abyssal plague, since that disease killed by the hyper-acceration of bone growth to the point of flesh rupture.
A short while after entering the valley, they found cliff wherefrom a silver waterfall reflected 16 sunrays into the eyes of Alessor's people. At the bottom of this waterfall they planted their flag and proclaimed themselves masters over these new lands.
After it's founding the empire quickly expanded across the valley, founding new townships everywhere they went. It was here they first found other inteligent life other then themselves, as it was in those fragile first hours that imperial settlers found several nomadic tribes of large, wide humanoids with broad faces and brown skin. These, were ogres.
The newfound Kingdom of the Sun Valley, as the nation was called back then, in the first century After Alessors Arrival consisted mostly of smaller townships along the River Melis. In these days there was a large stream of immigrants from the east coming into the newborn empire, of which most of them settled quickly into these lands. A second town quickly settled at the high cliffsides overlooking the valley, where the river Melis fell 200ft down from the top. This town was called Tern, which means rock.
These first years were a period of exploration and fertility for humanity, as the green fields and lakes were a welcome change from the cold rough mountain range they hail from. But more and more of these strange ogre people were met every year. It was clear that these creatures, at least somewhat intelligent, were splitted up in all sorts of clans and kingdoms, forming leagues against one another. The young kingdom fought several conflicts with some of these creatures to gain rights to their lands. More and more ogres to the south, but also other creatures like orcs and uruque to the north came into the path of the quickly expanding kingdom. It was 34 years after the arrival of Alessor, when he had just passed away and his son Arelior I had taken power, that the human kingdom ruled not just over the valley it was named after, but also after the hills and plains surrounding it, including many people who were no humans at all. Even the last few of the long dead presumed elves came from hiding, mostly from across the mountains and from underneath them. It was from then on that they would call themselves the Elder Folk. In that year, 34 AAA Arelior I declared the Melistern Empire, a beacon that would shine across West-Argo for centuries to come.
It would not be untill 22 years later, in the year 56 AAA that the non-humans would gain equal citizenship within the Empire, before then being less more then a union of quasi-indipendent protectorate tribes.
The young empire grew quickly over the following centuries, but there came a point when it's expansion temporarily stopped. The reasons for this are unknown to this very day, but it is thought that it has something to do with the more urban nature of the humans. Humans, just like dwarves and any mountain folk, tended to lack much suited space for settlements and thus have lived for the now over a thousand years of their existance mostly in tightly knit towns, different then the ogres who tended to live a more nomadic livestyle.
Yet not all humans preferred to live in the now growing urban Melisternian society. Between the year 100 AAA and 220 AAA humanity grew into one of two archetypes: The so called Ceasterwyrhta (City Builders) ; those who stuck to their Argothengan roots and lived mainly in and around the cities, or the Āngenġan (Explorers) ; those who went out to explore the world and claim their own place within it, over time learning to herd livestock from the nomadic ogres. The Ceasterwyrhta mostly stayed in the east of the Empire, later also expaning north, while the Āngenġan expanded in all directions, but mainly the south and west. It it thought that these people are the ancestors of the modern day Prabaii and Ashari people, along with all the tribes and subethnicities in between, while the Ceasterwyrhta are considered the ancestors of the modern day Vexans, Corgeanots and Thenosians .
When the Empire expanded northward and reached the coasts of what we now call the Kingsgulf in the year 213 AAA, humans made first contact with the gnomes and they related, lesser form called gnoblins. These small, pale-greenish people had been living on the shores of the gulf for many centuries, but mostly live on an island called Gotkolh a few hours sailing northwards. Initial contact with these 'Gotkolhians' was very good, with the two people settling close to eachother and trading, untill the gnomes one day removed their settlements from the coast and sailed back to their homeland, presumably because their king or their lady-deity recalling them, warning them on the dangers of humanity, although they did both keep to an agreement on the trade of specific goods like wood and iron for many centuries afterwards.
After humanity settled on the coast, they almost instantly started to be called 'Northlanders' by the Melisternians in the south, quickly seeing them as a slightly different cultural group then their own, a feeling that was mirrored by themselves, the start of a cultural identity that later down the line would be more then once of great peril to imperial unity.
Yet the times of great troubles would not get in sight for the next century. Once firmly settled and expanding in numbers quickly, the Empire made it into it's true Golden Age. Technology, both the mudane and the arcane, advanced rapidly in these years, leading in the year 220AAA to the construction of a vast network of magically powered trains, heating and lighting and although it was not to last for more then 60 years, these years proved to be the most prosperous for at least the heartlands of the Empire.
It was in these years that the cities of Melis and Tern connected for the first time, and when Emperor Aefrith I, last of the House of Alessior, ordered the construction of the new wall around both cities it was formally renamed to Elreilor, named after the 1st ray of the 16 pointed sun.
Not all lands profitted from the wealth as the heartlands did, the outskirts of the region, particulary the north, a land that had gained the name Wexàn (nowadays Vexan), a word taken from the Weccon clan, an ancient clan of the City Builders that traveled north and reached the sea as the first Ceasterwyrhta clan to do so.
These people, the Weccon or Wexàns, lived in rouch enviorments compared to the heavily urbanized areas of the south. When in the year 265AAA a great storm destroyed many of the townships at the Wexàn coast, many tried to migrate southward but were stopped by Imperial forces, who urged them that abandoning the northlands would destroy the supply of several important trade resources, not the least of which Pearlgold, a powerfull conductor of magic power, a neccecary part in the programming of magical items.
What happeded next is lost to the mist of time, but most likely an incident took place between the migrants and the army, kicking off armed conflict between north and south, the First Melisternian Civil War. The war lasted for only 5 months, untill the Wexàns destroyed the Great Lamp, a great magical power plant of sorts. The attack killed a great portion of the inhabitants of the capital city Elreilor, after which the Empire would have settled for their independance, was it not for the quick and succesfull counteroffensive of the Melisternian 3rd Army, who forced a northern surrender before peace envoys from the south could reach the capital. The Empire was to last for longer, although only by the weight of a feather.
After the fall of the Lamp and the enourmous losses within the capital of Elreilor, the city was practically split up again between it's political centre of Tern and the tradingpost Melis at the old Marman Lake, a small lake that used to exist where the Melis river needed to get over a ridge to get further downhill. Later on in the years it got built over when in the coming centuries the Empire grew again. It was in these years that the city became knows as Melistern, as it was an agglomorate of Melis and Tern.
After the civil war the Empire had again several leaps toward splendour in the centuries to come, but they never regained their former glory. Especially after Emperor Modasar II in the year 408AAA had a major diplomatic fallout with the Kingdom of Gotkolh and their long standing agreement on open trade and hospitality was put to a stop things for the Empire worsened. Many of the inhabitants of the plains and steppes of Central West-Argo relied heavily on that trade and without it unrest grew inmensly. So much so that 2 years later, on the Feast of Arrival, the yearly national holiday, steppe rebels with Wèxan funding tried to coup the Imperial government, which failed. In the manhunt that followed tragedy would struck once more as civilians sheltered the rebels, on which the Imperial authorities reacted by executing those as well on the account of complicity to high treason. The precise number of killed civilians are unclear and highly clouded in historical bias, with Imperial (dated 570's AAA, 60 years after) and later Thenosian scripture (dated 3rd century AZ, 5 centuries after ) setting the estimaded number at around 20.000 and 60.000 casualties respectively, while Prabaiian sources (dated 1st to 2nd century AZ) lie anywhere from 700.000 to 1.200.000.
This led up to the three year long conflict known as the Second Melisternian Civil War after the central plains and deserts proclaimed disunited independance as the Anġan Alliance, Anġan being a linguistical corruption of Āngenġan. This war led to an Imperial defeat in the end, as in the catastrophical Battle of the Elrugh emperor Modasar II was killed alongside his three sons Aureliar, Ardawas and Inalir, leaving only his young daughter Aleyda as the sole remainant of the dynasty. The battle got many names afterwards, the Battle of Sorrow, the Battle of Broken Banners and as the Battle of the Crying Peak.
Aleyda Aedawior Modesara, last of her name, married the Duke of Raethraeg afterwards. The empire after the 2nd civil war, heavily depleted of resources and manpower, would have 4 more emperors under the Arthos dynasty before raiding from migrating Uruque and Gnoblin tribes from the north led to a mass exodus towards the south and the abolishment of the Empire in the year 433AAA.
Arcane Technology
If only one thing can be said about the Melistern Empire, it would be that their level of thaumathurgy, or technological science of the arcane, was of a level never before or after seen on West-Argo ever since the birth of the first gods. Arcane lighting for the night and fuel for the winter, even automatic travel by rail and sea, all propelled by the gift of what in the ancient tongue is called "Twispræegþgesceap". This, which in the modern tongue means "Thaumaturgy" (and no, not the cantrip), is the source of the arcane advances of the Empire. It was this loophole in the Gift of Corellon that allowed them to somehow transcend the rule set upon that gift and get acces to the powers that under all other circumstances only divine beings like fae and gods get acess to. It exact ways are lost to history after the fall of the Great Lamp, but what is known is that it used some method to make a bio-organic machine catch onto some sort of Soul made for a fae and using it's powers to cast magical abilities outside the normal laws set upon it, things like 'programming' mudane items to autonomously make decisions, making life itself in a way. Advanced magical items like these made the way clear for powerfull engines and infrastuctural options. Things like giant lifting platforms for mining and construction, a fully operational magical sewer filtration system, teleporting portals that only require the push of a button, radio communication devices and much more.
Religion
Main article: FriþcandelcyricePolitics
The Melistern Empire was, as the name implies, an empire. Meaning it was a country consisting of multiple constituent kingdoms whose crowns all belonged to one dynasty, whose head rules the empire. In this case 5 kingdoms under the Imperial Line of Succesion (as fully visible in the sidebar). Melistern had a male primogeniture succession order, meaning that the oldest son of the emperor always got the crown, with women never being able to inherit it. Throughout its 600 years of existance, Melistern has had three imperial dynasties, called Lines, starting off with the Line of Alessior, then the Line of Aedawior to finally switch hands again to the Line of Arthos. The Empire of Melistern was led both in name and in practice by the emperor, who served as supreme head of both the army and lawmaking organs of the nation, although to say that he ruled absolutely would be a grave underestimation of the other powers in his realm. The largest ones being the nobility and the clergy. The history of the Empire is a turbulent one, with many different factions and intranational allinces over the many years, although there always used to be some form of balance between the different benefactors, one that seldom was found completely, but most of the times was found enough so that national control could be held. Officially, Melistern never had a parliament of any sorts, just a board of advisors that assisted the emperor with his desicions. Although a few times, especially arround the civil wars, this board of advisors was temporarily given with emergency powers to be able to do matters without the emperors direct approval, simply because he was unavailable or because the matter would not be approved by him in the first place.
''Aberaþ Forþġesċeaft Mannum'' Carying the Future of the Man
2561 - 3002
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Alternative Names
The First Empire, The Old Empire
Successor Organizations
Demonym
Melisterni
Government System
Monarchy, Constitutional
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Market economy
Currency
Imperial Fæt (equal to modern Prabaiian Fi. See The Empire of Prabai )
Official State Religion
Subsidiary Organizations
Official Languages
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
Alessor's Exodus
The Crowns of Melistern
The Empire of Melistern had two imperial crowns over it's history, the earlier 'Iron Crown', worn by Arelior I at his coronation in 32 AAA, and the later 'Imperial Crown', most likely made around 325 AAA after the Iron Crown temporarily became lost after Emperor Aefrith I passed away as the last emperor from the House of Alessior. The Iron Crown of Melistern
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