On The History of the Empire of Azadora – A Treatise
By: Mary Elizabeth Browning
Translated by Lyriel Elhana
Across the expanse of the Empire the Order of the Magi watcher outposts, seeker groups and line level mages rose up against the Imperial forces. Battle was joined in nearly every town, city, village, and island across the Empire. The fighting was fiercest within Bastion itself. Street to street, home to home, the ISS and Imperial Guards battled the forces of the Order. The Legion quickly found itself enmeshed in combat against the forces of the Order as well as against those nations seeking to take advantage of a distracted Empire. (tn: While never expressly proven, the clear implication of the response by the Order was that the organization was very ready for combat and was simply looking for an opening to better position themselves as the innocent victims of Imperial aggression. Making demands of the Empress regarding Alexandra Webb and her inventions certainly were not those of a group seeking peace and cooperation. Again, however, this is simply a logical extrapolation of the known facts available regarding the beginnings of the Despair War.)
In the opening months of the war the Order was gradually pushed out of Bastion proper, the mages fighting a retreating action. Casualties were high on both sides, with the citizens of the city, as is generally the case, taking the brunt of battle. By the time the harsh winds of the time of the frost blew in from the Sundered Abyss in Undecembrius the Order had lost its last footholds within Bastion and the Grey Tower itself was besieged.
Across the Empire the Legion had quickly recovered from the sudden changes and were bearing down on the Magi positions. Not even the powerful Seekers could stand against the Legion once fully mobilized and the Order was on the retreat in every county, city, province, and island. It looked very much like the war would be brief and soon the Order would cease to exist.
It was at this moment the Order unveiled its last, best hope, the Soul Render. While it’s unknown when Phoebe Chatwyn came into the Order (tn: there is no evidence to support the notion the Soul Render was ever under the sway or even interested in the Order. Given the tales from those who knew her personally there is little to suggest she was after more than the thrill of combat and the promise of even more power and had little to no interest in the Order. She certainly never gave any indication she cared anything about whatever cause the Order claimed to champion) what is known is that during the battle of Castle Heights in late Undecembrius in 1680 she emerged onto the battlements of the Order’s watcher post in the city and destroyed the attacking ISS forces to a woman.
While the battle itself proved to be minor at the time, by Apirilius of 1681 The Soul Render was single-handedly turning the tide of battle across the entirety of the Greenlands, and the Imperial Forces had taken more than a passing notice. Under ISS guidance many Hunter Groups had set out to destroy the Soul Render once and for all. None returned.
While the Soul Render wreaked havoc in the Greenlands, elsewhere the Legion had decimated Order forces and the Grey Council was in disarray, unable to contact the disparate posts due to the ongoing siege of the Grey Tower. It appeared that very much, even with the help of the mercurial Soul Render, the Order was doomed to fall.
The fortunes of the Order changed abruptly in an unexpected way on Sextenarius 13, 1681 with the death of the Archon, Rosalee Burress. While there is no eyewitness account of how she died, there are many who espouse the idea the Archon was betrayed by a faction within the Grey Council who had conspired against the Archon for years. Others claim Rosalee, seeing her dreams vanish like smoke before her, took her own life. However the actual events leading up to her death played out, the body of the Archon falling from her chambers at the top of the tower to the frozen grounds changed the Order’s fortunes irrevocably.
Within hours the Imperial Forces were shocked when Alexandra Webb, who had been safely ensconced within the Imperial Castle on the Golden Hill across the valley from the Tower emerged as the new Archon. The Imperial Forces were even more shocked when The Soul Render appeared at her side. While the ISS scrambled to figure out the sequence of events which led to their recent guest’s perceived treachery, the forces within the Grey Tower, led by the new Archon and the Soul Render quickly tore apart the sieging forces.
By the end of the month the Imperial Forces were in retreat across the Empire as fresh reinforcements bolstered Order forces across the breadth of the Empire. Coupled with a new incursion in the province of Ruvia the Imperial Forces were in disarray and fighting to simply maintain their positions. Within the city of Bastion, fires from the renewed fighting raged through the city, destroying most of the buildings and leaving a black column of smoke pouring into the sky which could be seen for miles in every direction.
Homes, businesses, public buildings were all consumed by the flames and by the time the fires burned out in early Septilinius the Archon’s forces faced off with the ISS and Legion forces across a barren wasteland of a hollowed-out city. It was quickly becoming obvious the Imperial troops were fighting a losing war against a suddenly rejuvenated enemy. Though they fought valiantly by and large, they were no match for the combined forces of the Order with the Archon and Soul Render at the vanguard.
The war dragged on for 13 long, painful years until, finally, on 9 Mairelius 1693 in the city of Windshell on the mouth of the Shefsby River on the southern coast of Azora the Order and Imperial Court agreed to a peace settlement. The Order would maintain control of the Tower as well as exclusive rights to many of the ancient ruins dotting the empire. Their forces would handle any Discharges outside the city of Bastion while the ISS and Order would share jurisdiction within city limits.
The Empress would still be, nominally, the head of the Empire but her power was greatly constrained by the creation of a new Council after the Council of Equals was disbanded and replaced by the Imperial High Council. This group of 11 individuals would act as a buffer between the Order and the Imperial Court made up of a representative from the Order, one from the Imperial Court, one from the Merchants, one from the Legion, one from the ISS, one from the Seekers, one from the Nobles, one from the Peasantry, one from the Scholars, one from the Church and one from the provinces. These 11 would have the ultimate say in disagreements between the different factions with their verdicts being final.
A triad of lower councils called the Senate was also created to better hear the disparate views of their respective groups within the Empire. The Citizens’ Council was made up of representatives of the peasantry and could propose new laws and changes to existing laws while the Nobles’ Council could similarly propose laws and changes. Those laws would then be interpreted by the Council of Elders made up of scholars, Church members, and a select group of non-human advisors. The laws which made sense and had enough votes to pass were then forwarded to the High Council for consideration and, should they pass to the empress for her signature. The Order and Imperial Court could also propose laws which were taken up directly by the High Council for consideration without the need for the Council of Elders’ approval.
The city of Bastion was rebuilt through a joint venture between the Empire and the Order. The wooden buildings replaced with sturdy stone structures fortified by Allicereum and, with that, the Empire entered into a new golden age of cooperation and equality.
Throughout the Empire the Rapture Batteries spread quickly, the Archon quickly making good on her promises of a brave new world of luxury, comfort, security, and ease for all of the Empire’s citizens. Even after the disappearance of the Soul Render while investigating reports of supernatural activity near the ruins of Darktide, the Order continued its vital work and soon airships, crude at first but gradually growing faster and more luxurious appeared in the skies over the Empire, bringing the provinces closer to the capital than ever before. Magical lights flickered on across the Empire, heat blew from vents to hold back the chill of the Time of the Frost and cooling devices kept fish and meat and vegetables fresh for days.
Through the crucible of strife, uncertainty and fear the Empire emerged from its darkness, forged stronger by her trials. With the Imperial Court and the Order standing shoulder to shoulder the Empire is perched on the precipice of even grander things in the future.
(tn: The entire last portion of this history is little more than sycophantic propaganda. While the participants are all either dead or not talking about it, the generally accepted working theory is that the reason Alexandra Webb turned against the Empire is one of simple power. The Grey Council knew they had lost and cast about for anything they could find to turn their fortunes around, happening at last upon Alexandra Webb.
Promising her the Archon title and absolute power she accepted, turning on her former benefactors while the Grey Council, literally, threw away their current Archon. There is no clear link between herself and the Soul Render, though the general consensus is that following Alexandra’s ascension to Archon, they became lovers and remained that way until the disappearance of the Soul Render in 1696.
The question, obviously, in the minds of many scholars is how the Archon is able to age incrementally whereas every human around her has withered and died. She is, as far as has been ascertained, fully human with no tie to the longer-lived fae races, yet even after nearly 200 years she remains virtually unchanged in appearance.
With carte blanche to search and seize whatever they wanted in the lands of the Empire the Order moved quickly to bring an ancient Astrolabe from the sunken remains of the Phaedithian Empire in the Phaedithia Islands and installed it atop the Grey Tower. With this astrolabe they’ve been able to collect nearly all magic users within the empire into their ever-growing army. Each magic user they indoctrinate either becomes a slave to the cult of personality Alexandra Webb has created or is locked away in a Despair Battery somewhere.
Make no mistake: the only precipice the Empire stands upon is that of another war far more devastating than any it’s experienced before. There is little question about that fact. The only question is how fast the Order will prevail given the current and quickly growing imbalance in power.)
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