THE EMPIRE'S FIRST TWO CENTURIESBefore enough time elapsed for the newly formed empire to establish a working body of recruits from the populace into the ranks of the candidates, the council of generals was to serve in that capacity. By the way, in case it isn't clear, the council of generals already consisted of many sages, magic users, and clerics as well as the four principle generals from all four kingdoms. The four senior generals are historically known as our Four Fathers:-) The four generals determined that Thomas Aquinas would become the first emperor of the new empire. How they determined this is not known to history. There is open speculation that Aquinas was the winner of a drinking contest between the four generals. Whether this is true or not, who can say? And in case you were wondering, yes, it was Thomas Aquinas' lung capacity and heart rate, and therefore his idea, that was used to establish the names of the two time standards of the breath and the beat, though to this day many people still think it was a pretty stupid idea. THE MOVE TO ALODAREsitte was chosen as the capital city of the empire because of its central location (and the fact the final conflict occurred near there, along with the subsequent council of generals), but in the year 56 A.E. the capital was moved to Alodar since all principle shipping and commerce began to be handled through that port city. Ever since that time the empire has been known as the Alodarian Empire. In 57 A.E. the mighty and mysterious wizard, Tranu, struck a deal with His Imperial Majesty, Abel Forner, the second emperor of the empire. This brought Orlantia, through the Alodarian Empire, into the interplanetary teleportation network, or into the chain, sometimes simply called the NET. The access point of the teleportation network is in the capital city of Alodar itself. Orlantia became, at that time, the thirteenth planet in the chain (there are currently 20). Although people do travel from planet to planet using this system, its principle use is for commerce; the large-scale importation and exportation of foods, crafts, art objects, raw materials, and other goods is handle through this point. The first century of the Alodarian Empire was spent in the construction and improvements of its major cities and roads. To that end, and to make it possible, the hostile creatures in the area needed to be dealt with. No longer at war amongst themselves, the humans went to war with the orcs and kobolds. (Humans are such peaceful people). It was through the subjugation of these creatures that the empire was able to use a temporary slave labor force to aid in the vast improvements of the infrastructure of the empire. Besides, orcs are good tunnelers and miners while kobolds are nearly as good, even better at stone work, and live about 3 times longer than the 40-year life span of orcs. Subjugation and slavery was generally held to be a kinder solution when compared to the alternative - the whole sale slaughter of these violent creatures. And, with the aid of charm spells that are particularly effective on the "not too bright," whole populations of kobolds and orcs were used for nearly two centuries. On the whole, thanks to the magic of the charm monster spells, and also thanks to the fact they were well treated, these tribes were generally happy, hard working creatures. (At their relatively low intelligence level, such creatures get their very poor saving throw about once every few months, and the vast majority of the time they would fail this save). Even when the occasional creature broke free of their magical persuasions, their families were still magically ensnared. This had a tendency of keeping them around even when free of the magic. Any overtly hostile creatures were soon found and charmed again. The others, remembering the harder conditions of their lives before, grew used to, and even liked, the regular meals and warm places to sleep. They grew to like raising their families where they wouldn't be killed by hostile monsters or by starvation. They grew to appreciate that humans were doing right by them, even without the charm spells. Eventually, after two centuries of the enforced friendship of the charm monster spells, a sufficient amount of infrastructure and city defenses were built to enable the empire to free its slaves. Unfortunately, after two centuries of near domestication, entire tribes of orcs and kobolds were, for lack of a better term, quite tame. As a direct result of this, even after 5 to 6 more centuries, there are still relatively well behaved, almost neutral tribes of kobolds and orcs who still live within easy reach of the major cities of the empire. These tribes tend to keep to themselves, preferring their own company. They stay well away from the normal human routes of trade and commerce, and they live quiet, subsistent lives on their farms and in their fungus filled caverns. (They do a great deal of business with the Empire by selling a wide variety of edible fungi). The Alodarian Empire has made a peace treaty with these tribes and, if all goes well, both sides keep it. Occasionally, the Empire will still use these tribes for large-scale construction work, but they are now hired and paid for their services as opposed to enslaved and fed. Of course, there are the more hostile and violent kinds of orcs and kobolds, but these can usually be found well outside Imperial borders. THE CARDIGAN REBELLIONIn the year 108 A.E., rebellion reared its ugly head. General Jason Cardigan had for years been corrupt. He had carefully plotted and planned to overthrow the empire and claim the Imperial throne for himself. He almost succeeded too, for he was well above suspicion. After all, he was geased many times over against such actions, and it was common knowledge a full power wish was required to remove even one geas, let alone dozens. As it turned out, General Cardigan was a psionicist with an ability called aura alteration. In retrospect, it is the only known way, short of a full power wish, to remove a geas. But, since General Cardigan had it, he was able to circumvent his oaths of office. His plan was to strike quickly, killing the emperor and taking control of Alodar while most of the other generals were in the field. He had, for years, put the right sort of men around him. Men who, although geased to serve the empire and the emperor, were also geased to obey their general. Furthermore, if released from the right geas, they were the sort of men, Lawful Evil as it turns out, who would follow a strong general. Couple this with the fact their oath to the emperor was corrupted while their oath to their general was not and Cardigan would have a very large army, a well defended city, and complete access to the empire's powers. The generals in the field would have very little in comparison. And so it was that General Cardigan made his move. Luckily for the Empire, unbeknownst to General Cardigan, General Arak Styles, the hero of the rebellion, had returned to Alodar from his peace negotiations with the planet Ahlalandia earlier than anticipated via the interplanetary teleportation network. Thus, general Styles didn't pass through Cardigan's men at the normal checkpoints and gates and he was therefore on hand to see the unusual goings on. Upon investigating, he learned that Cardigan had not only sent the remaining contingent of generals into the field without recalling some of the other generals already in the field, which should never have been done, but he also replaced all the guards on the city walls with ranking men from his own troops. If that wasn't bad enough, general Styles discovered Emperor Claudius Dominic had sent word not to be disturbed while in the Hall of Truth, and that Cardigan was last seen heading in that direction. The Hall of Truth is where the emperor gains direct access to the matrix, which is the living embodiment of souls, spirits, and knowledge of all former emperors through the use of and within the Truestone Artifact. It is perhaps the most unique basis of power for the whole of the Alodarian Empire. If it were to fall into the wrong hands, the empire could, and probably would, fall. But it couldn't do that unless the emperor was killed within the matrix. With anxious determination to lose no time, general Styles rushed to the Hall of Truth where he found General Cardigan entering the matrix. Without violating at least one geas, a general could not do this. This meant that either Cardigan had managed to circumvent the geas, or he was willing to die soon. In either event, despite the geas against it, general Styles decided to enter the matrix. As he did, he violated at least one geas and began to sicken and die. But he knew it might take hours for death to finally take him. He hurried on into the realm of the Truestone Artifact and, taking the most direct route possible, he quickly located the emperor. Dominic was shocked to see him, but after Styles quickly explained, the Emperor understood the sacrifice Styles had made and the reason for his violation of geas. Quickly, Dominic and Styles started to make their way out of the matrix. However, before they got very far, general Cardigan, who had been approaching more slowly and by stealth, found them. A spirit battle ensued, for inside the Truestone Artifact things exist is a quasi-real, quasi-spiritual state. Cardigan, who was counting on surprise and a helpless meditating emperor, found instead a couple of prepared and determined men. True to his oaths, General Styles took the frontal assaults of general Cardigan. In his ever-weakening condition, Styles didn't last long before he fell. But he had done enough damage, and emperor Claudius Dominic was able to eventually prevail. After defeating Cardigan, Dominic was able to purge Cardigan's spiritual essence and body from the Truestone Artifact, but he left Styles within. Here, on a happy note, we take solace in the fact the only other entity within the matrix, other than former emperors of the Alodarian Empire and the essences of the other three original generals, is a lone general who selflessly gave his life for the Alodarian Empire. Upon leaving the matrix, Emperor Dominic was able to recall the generals in the field. Without a strong leader, the rebels, those citizens who shared Cardigan's dream of a more lawful evil empire, and Cardigan's men, those Imperial guards whose geases were corrupted, did fight for a time, but eventually surrendered to overwhelming forces and superior skill and leadership. It was thus that Claudius Dominic, 4th emperor of the Alodarian Empire, put down the Cardigan Rebellion of 108 A.E. History records the surviving rebels were given a choice between exile into hostile territories or imprisonment for the rest of their lives. Those who accepted exile took their families and headed east. For the most part, it was these people who founded the Nahechaian Dynasty. For those who chose prison, well, they were imprisoned, but only for a short while. They were all executed within a single Scepter as nobody ever promised them imprisonment for the rest of their NATURAL lives. There are those who say this gives history a clear insight into the sort of man Claudius Dominic really was, but others say it was necessary to set the correct sort of precedent against possible future rebellions. STEPS WERE TAKENThis also brings us to the Psionicist Registration Act of The Council of Triscale, 109 A.E. All psionic individuals must be registered and tested. If they possess aura alteration, the Alodarian Empire will contract the services of the Mentex Sisterhood of Psionic Disciplines to burn out and destroy the natural talent of aura alteration and enhance a weaker or buried talent to replace it. This Sisterhood is a cult of powerful female psionicist located outside of the empire on a southern continent to the southeast of the Imperial continent. It is a violation of Imperial law not to register any psionic talents within the confines of the empire. Even visitors must register. Failure to do so will results in one of three possible outcomes:
This crime is one of the few offenses still on the books that carry the death penalty. It is also an indication that, unlike in many other societies, within the Alodarian Empire ignorance of the law IS a valid excuse. Of course, this is primarily because it is a practical impossibility to claim ignorance, if in fact, you weren't ignorant. Detect lie spells and communes are an important part of the Imperial justice system. However, even though ignorance may be a valid excuse for some obscure points of law, it is still not accepted as an excuse if such a violation of law is also considered a violation of public common sense. Naturally, the current emperor or his or her local representative will determine what constitutes common sense. It may be of interest to learn that the gate to the interplanetary teleportation network is equipped with a device that will alert the empire to any psionic individuals coming onto Orlantia through The Net. Also, the other nineteen planets in the chain have agreed to inform potential travelers, amongst other things, that if they are psionic individuals they will be subject to Alodarian Law concerning aura alteration if they travel to Orlantia. Thus, anyone wishing to keep such a useful ability should avoid that planet. THE TRUESTONE ARTIFACTAt this time I would like to expand on some things I only mentioned in passing. Specifically, I'll elaborate upon the Truestone Artifact. It is a large, beautiful ruby like gem of purest TRUESTONE. This is a wonderful little item. The basis of the idea came from a friend of mine named Brady. In his Runequest campaign one may find a Truestone that was an unattuned spell storage device of incredible value as well as incredible power and potential. Where Brady got the idea, I don't know. I also lifted the names of The Alderami and The Mostoli from his Runequest campaign. The idea of the MATRIX came from Doctor Who, where apparently, the thoughts and knowledge of all former presidents of the Time Lords were held. So, in my universe, the Truestone Artifact is an open-ended massive information storage and retrieval system. It has a memory capacity that far surpasses even the highest state of the art computers in Star Trek's Federation of Planets. Since it is physically kept on the astral plane, the time differential of 400,000 to 1 makes it far quicker than any super computer since even on the PMP it's already thousands of times faster than a rather intelligent man. Finally, as a storage device for information as well as the souls and minds of all former emperors and the Empire's Four Fathers, asking it to solve a problem and waiting 1 minute would be like asking all of those men and women to solve that problem while they have access to all that stored information, and giving them 75 years (at a minimum) or more to work on it. Suffice it to say one rarely needs to wait even a single minute to get the information they requested. Especially mindless tasks since, in addition to the already mentioned powers of the Truestone Artifact, it is also capable of even quicker mindless, repetitive tasks such as those which might run on a normal computer found in our society. It only need similarly be "programmed" for the task by recording the necessary steps. Now only the emperor is allowed to commune directly with the Truestone Artifact. But, through the use of little I/O amulets ( Input / Output ), every Imperial guard within a major city, (for the I/O amulets aren't allowed outside of the major cities for security reasons), can access, and therefore store or retrieve, information. This is how talking to an Imperial guard will register a citizen's vote, the transfer of a deed, a marriage, or a will, as well as a great many other things. This is also how guards report what and whom they see, giving detailed descriptions of individuals and quickly getting back the information on who and what those individuals probably are. They also take every opportunity to update information on anybody, whether a citizen or not. Furthermore, an Imperial guard has a magic item built into the I/O amulet that can detect sufficient life force to disqualify an individual as a citizen (i.e. anyone who is more than 0th level, though how much more is not known). That way a guard can tell at a glance who is probably a citizen or definitely a non-citizen ( and probably, therefore, an adventurer who bears closer scrutiny since adventurers are frequently the source of trouble). Finally, through these amulets every Imperial guard is in constant contact and communication with any other guard of their choice, even the ones in the other major cites, for the I/O amulets have a range of about one light second (the distance light can travel in a second, so about 300,000 kilometers or about 186,411 miles which effectively covers the entire planet anyway). This makes for an incredibly efficient police force. THE IMPERIAL GUARDAnd so, since I'm dwelling on Imperial guards, I'll just say they are usually dedicated fighters, the vast majority being privates of 1st through 5th level. 6th through 8th level may hold the rank of sergeant, lieutenant, or even captain. A major must be 11th level or higher. A colonel 13th level or higher. Finally, a general must be 15th level or higher. Of course there are always exceptions. One may be very high in level but low in rank or vice versa. The majority of Imperial guards come from the ranks of the PLEBES after their compulsory two years of service. After their compulsory service, where they are mostly used for civil engineering projects, they may be promoted to more official duties. Many find it desirable to become professional guards and police officers, also known as constables when they are located outside of one of the five major cities. It's a great way to earn a living and increase one's general knowledge and education. Imperial guards are also highly honored in Alodarian society. In general, only clerics of one's own religion are more recognizable, respected, and honored without question. Even more desirable, there is an incredibly strong sense of family within the ranks of the guard. Many who enter the Imperial guard end up staying for many years. Usually, at least, until the rank of sergeant is achieved and a small pension, along with almost any part time job, would bring in sufficient income for a couple, with no children, to live well. Of course, since we are NOT talking about people who actively adventure, and therefore gain experience rather quickly, but instead are talking about people who only occasionally adventure in their off time, and therefore gain experience rather slowly, it may take perhaps the better part of two decades of service to attain the rank of sergeant. (Of course, the exceptional individuals progress far more rapidly). Naturally, being a fighter isn't the only way to make your way in the Imperial guard. Clerics and Magic users and a few others are also possible, as long as their devotion to their deity or studies does not conflict with their oaths of office. For example, a high level magic user, a woman named Michael Steel, is a colonel and the current governor of Esitte. It is a common practice to choose the governor of a major city from the ranks of the colonels. These governors are also typically females (It is speculated this may be because females are more nurturing and geared more for repetitive task than their male counterparts, making them more suited to look after the administrative needs of a city). Also, some of the more exceptional Imperial guards have come from the ranks of the candidates. Frequently, these people, who we already know to be exceptional, end up attaining the rank of general within a decade of leaving the candidates and working within the Plebeian forces. Clad in their sky blue capes or robes, Imperial guards are easily recognized. They are generally extremely friendly, though this may be just a way to help gather information from you by getting you to lower your guard. However, it is an accepted fact the Alodarian Empire is not out to screw anybody over. Therefore, unless you're planning to murder a citizen, or in general do some seriously antisocial things, you have nothing to fear from an Imperial guard. Besides, the Imperial guards tend to reflect the alignment of the current emperor, if not in fact, than in deed, and are therefore usually lawful good, sometimes lawful neutral, and seldom, but occasionally, lawful evil. But whether good, neutral, or evil, they still enforce primarily lawful neutral laws. It is believed the fitted (full) plate armor of the higher ranking Imperial guards contain many spell storage capabilities; each piece of armor essentially being a separate magic item. Such spells as sleep, e.s.p., magic missile, hold person, hold monster, fireball, cone of cold, ice storm, suffocate fire, dimension door, teleport no error, heal, major globe of invulnerability, and disintegrate (but only one of each spell) may be typical of any guard's armor over the rank of lieutenant. A general's armor may be even more awesome. As such, open conflict with a high ranking Imperial guard is usually a very bad idea. Even if you manage to win before help arrived, the rest of the Imperial guard will probably have your number. Finally, as a deterrent to harming any Imperial citizen, one should always keep in mind if they do harm a citizen of the empire that ALL Imperial guards will be looking for them! More than anything else, it is this threat protects Imperial citizens from the wrongful death by non-citizens. This policy in general is known as "The promise of Justice." Imperial guards patrol the streets of the major cities of the Alodarian Empire. They direct coach and buggy traffic, collect information, registers votes and deeds and the like, disseminate certain information, direct visitors to their requested destinations, keep an eye on potential law breakers, and inspire confidence in the populace. They may handle any crisis that may arise, put out any fires before they get out of hand, and perform non-magical first aid for any injured citizen. In short, they serve as police, firemen, paramedics, tour guides, ambassadors, and all around friends and good guys, or at least, all around authority figures and reliably safe guys. They may, if the situation requires it, and upon their own discretion, use some minor magic healing arts upon a citizen, mindful of the minimum 50 gp, or $5,000 cost of even the simplest cure light spell. If they were to use such a spell the situation must warrant its use. That is:
This usually happens when an accident injures a citizen in such a way that the citizen is likely to bleed to death; perhaps because of an open artery or a massive head wound. Since your typical citizen has only a handful of hit points, even a cure light wounds spell would be pretty effective in these cases; practically as effective as a heal spell for a high level adventurer. As such, the single cure light wounds spell carried in the belt of the chain armor of even the lowest private of the Imperial Guard may be used in these emergency situations when the normal healing and first aid skills may be insufficient. The five major Imperial cites are, by name and population, Alodar, at about 750,000, Handor, at about 580,000, Orlan, at about 82,000, Esitte, at about 80,000, and Crowl, at about 12,000. It is a general rule of thumb the lands, cities, and villages immediately surrounding any given major city have a total population of roughly 3 times the number of people in said major city. This makes the number of citizens within the Alodarian Empire approximately a maximum of 4,500,000. The number of non-citizens within this same area is approximately one tenth the population. This would come to about roughly half a million individuals that would include the more neutral orcs and kobolds, Elves, Dwarves, hobbits, etc. etc. Outside this realm, of course, there are many larger and nastier concentrations of hostile creatures. It is the large agrarian base, the use of druid supplied hybrid grains, the widespread worship of Demeter, and the occasional use of control weather spells that all help to supply much of the food for such a vast population in such a small area. Additionally, food from the sea and imported food through the teleportation net sustains the empire. The Imperial Guard is responsible for all citizens, but they are typically only found in the major cities. A citizen who wishes to register something official must travel to one of the five major cities to do so. The lesser guard, or constables, serve as a police force outside of the major cities. These are men and women chosen by the sheriff, who is in turn chosen by the mayor or the council of elders. For some cities and villages, a council of elders is used instead of a mayor, or sometimes, the council of elders appoints a mayor who is accountable to the elders. In these instances, the eldest council member is alone accountable to the governor. A lone Imperial guard would only be found outside a major city under special circumstances such as the investigation of the mysterious death of a citizen, or perhaps the tracking of a known criminal. A group of Imperial guards may be outside a major city for military reasons, or by the direct order of that cities' governor, a direct order of any general, or the direct order of the emperor. In all such instances, none of the Imperial guards outside of the walls of a major city would be carrying an I/O amulet, but they may or may not be wearing their Imperial issue armor. (They may still be carrying communication devices and/or similar magic, but the I/O amulets, that give access to the information storage and retrieval systems within the Truestone Artifact, will not be carried because of the "slight" security risk. It is slight, for it takes more than simple possession to use such an amulet). Usually, if an Imperial guard has better armor (than the typical +1 bonus afforded by standard issue Imperial chain armor) that he or she obtained on their own time, they will wear that instead of the Imperial issue armor. In such cases, they may be issued other magical spell storage devices to carry the minimum compliment of spells required by law. No matter what armor an Imperial guard wears, they will always wear the sky blue capes or robes or other sky blue outer garments to indicate their office. (Naturally, it is illegal to impersonate an Imperial guard, though not illegal to wear sky blue clothing). A TOUCH ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION WITHIN THE ALODARIAN EMPIRENow the governor is the representative of the emperor, and does the job of the emperor for that major city and its surrounding lands, towns, and villages. (This essentially makes a governor as powerful as the emperor while within his or her own city, and far more powerful than any general, politically speaking). A mayor is the representative of the governor and is usually not an official member of the Imperial guard (though they may have been at one time), but a businessman or businesswomen from that particular city or village. The mayors run their minor city or village for the governor and are directly accountable to the governor. Sometimes, because of tradition, a particular city or village may have a council of elders instead of a mayor. The eldest council member is then accountable to the governor. Alodar is the only major city that doesn't have a governor, that job being shared by the emperor and the emperor's prime council (who is a member of the candidates and usually a friend of the emperor and is usually close to the age of the emperor and therefore not always a good choice for the next emperor since youth is a factor in that selection). The company likes to have emperors with some staying power as well as fresh and young ideas so the prime council typically doesn't fit this bill. It also helps if the emperor's generation isn't too far removed from the current work force's generation. As a quick aside I would like to mention that emperors generally shun longevity potions. It is believed they should feel the age of office and therefore be more keenly aware of the life and the hardships of the people in order to govern more effectively. After old age takes its toll, they may step down before death and subsequently partake of a longevity potion or two to better enjoy their retirement, provided they can afford such potions, for civil service isn't a great paying job and such potions are rare and expensive. If they do this they still remain as a candidate, though retired, and remain close at hand so they may join with the matrix upon their death. The window of opportunity to join with the matrix after the emperor or ex-emperor's death is 20 days. If an emperor does retire, they will be issued a life amulet. This device simply monitors their heart rate. When the heart stops, the amulet sends out a signal indicating distance and direction to the recently deceased emperor's body. So far, no emperor has failed to join with the matrix upon their death because of inconvenient circumstances of time or place. THE IMPERIAL GEASNow I'll talk a bit about Imperial geases. In order to prevent corruption, an oath of office is taken. But if you can violate such an oath, what good is it? It would only carry weight with an honorable individual, and such a person would already not be the sort to become corrupt and need the oath. On Orlantia, within the Alodarian Empire, if a person is philosophically inclined to be an Imperial guard or a candidate, or even the emperor themselves or any other member of the company, they may willingly take the oath of office and the necessary geases to enforce it. As a property of the spell, it is important they do this willingly. The higher the office, the more geases they are likely to receive. Some say the emperors have over 100 geases placed on them. Of course many of those are redundant geases. Some of them are there by order of The council of Malichi, 115 A.E. where it was proposed that geases to refrain from attempting to remove geases, geases to actively avoid letting anybody try to remove geases, and redundant geases all were probably a pretty neat idea. These additional safeguards have so far proven to be effective. And even though the exact number, nature, and wording of these geases is a closely guarded secret of the empire, many who know they are there take comfort in that knowledge. This state of geas is generally known as "Imperial Conditioning." Furthermore, not that it matters, specially researched versions of the geas spells exist and are used by the empire. These special versions are really nothing more than geases that automatically lay several redundant geases on all at once, making the casting time somewhat easier. As a side note about geases I can tell you that in my universe, a geas is bonded both to body and soul, or body and spirit, and even death and centuries of decay will not remove a geas from the body or remove it from the soul or spirit. Of course the consequences of a soulless body or a bodiless soul violating a geas are nil. The important thing to remember is if such a person were brought back from the dead and body and soul/spirit were reunited, they would still be geased and the consequences of subsequently violating such a geas would be normal. TWENTY ONE EMPERORSAnd so, as we touch upon the Alodarian Empire you might get a feel for the governmental system that has so far endured for nearly 3/4 of a millennium. During this time there have been 21 emperors.
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