Celegian Overview
Return to Life in Celegia
The Celegian Empire - An Overview
The Celegian Empire is the largest and oldest civilization known to exist in Celestia. Of course, since it is also the only great civilization known, this could be wrong. The Empire has existed continuously, in one state or another, for over 60 millennia. Records exist in a relatively intact form for most of this time. The literal and figurative seat of the Empire is the Peacock Throne, sign of the Imperial right to govern and symbol of the Empire's power. The Peacock Throne has never fallen to an enemy and has remained in the same capital city for the entire history of the Empire. The Imperial Palace in the capital is a mammoth, sprawling, semi-ruined structure of unsurpassed grandeur and splendor. The ambience of the place is only enhanced by the aura of almost palpable decay which lingers in the abandoned areas of the palace.
The capital city is Celegia, located at the mouth of the Timbor and Pested rivers. The population of the capital is currently estimated to be over 50 million, although no census has been done for nearly a century. The population of the Empire is estimated to be well over 2.2 billion, and possibly approaching 4 billion, but only the Gods know for sure. The main industry of the capital city is the support of the Celegian Empire with a vast and thoroughly calcified bureaucracy. The most amazing thing about the government is that it functions at all, much less with any efficiency, but it does. Around this core industry is a huge economy much as you would expect in such a large and ancient city. In truth, the population of the capital has been much larger in the past than it is today, and there are large tracts of ruins within the city walls which are practically abandoned. This is especially true in the northern end of the city, furthest from the Imperial Quarter.
The Imperial Quarter is the exalted and mysterious area that lies on the sea in the southern end of the city, on the bluffs between the Timbor and Pested rivers. Any good or service which you can imagine can be found in Celegia, but the process of finding it could be very long, indeed. Due to the size of the Empire, one of the most profitable trades to take up in Celegia is that of Divination.
The current Emperor is Chronun the Fourth, who has ruled for 32 years as of the year 60,388 C.R. He is 48 years of age and in excellent health. He is a worshiper of Domana and Lurain, combining his love of war and conquest with his desire to further the empire and bring its wonders to everyone. He is fiercely religious in all the main aspects of both of his gods, and is widely acknowledged as the finest ruler since the Nightmare Wars.
The Celegian Empire is currently expanding beneath Chronun, having conquered the splinter states left over from the Nightmare Wars. The Empire now stretches some 6,000 miles north to south and some 4,000 miles east to west, occupying the entire southern end of the continent. Chronun the Fourth has recently reopened the Whispering Pass through the Iron Back Mountains in preparation for re-conquering the Northlands. The Celegian Empire was driven south of the Ferrospinae (Ironback) Mountains 3,000 years ago in a horrific set of conflicts known as the Nightmare Wars and is only now recovered well enough to attempt to regain its lost territories.
At the height of its power, the Empire controlled more territory north of the Ironbacks than it currently does in the south, being more than twice as large then as now. In those days magical means of rapid communications existed, but there was no way to move troops over the incredible distances involved. Human nature being the same then as now, the Northern lands grew to resent their dominance from the nigh mythical capital lying so far to the south. The northern territories rebelled under the leadership of the dread Sorceror Kings of Atomata, and the colossal might of the Empire was turned upon itself in a series of ferocious wars. These conflicts came to be known as the Nightmare Wars, the savagery of which goes beyond any description.
The Celegian Empire was severely shattered by the Nightmare Wars, and suffered a period of decline and degeneration following them that is now known as the Desolation. The Desolation lasted more than 600 years. The Empire disintegrated until it ruled only one third of the land south of the Ironbacks, with the remainder divided between four primary splinter states. During this period of time, the Empire lost over ninety percent of its former territory.
This situation remained stable for about a thousand years as the population recovered following the losses of the Nightmare Wars and the following Desolation. Some sages have estimated that the Wars and Desolation combined to kill nearly 80 percent of the population south of the Ironbacks. During this time period, all of the Unhuman races (Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes) living inside the Empire perished. Eventually, the recovery began in earnest and increasing population pressure led the Celegians into conflict with their neighboring states. This conflict led to a long, grinding war of attrition which is now known as the Ninth Age of Swords.
The first campaign of the Ninth Age of Swords lasted fifty years and led to the Celegian Empire conquering one of the splinter states known as the Stairsteps. This campaign was important as it was the first major military endeavor undertaken by the Empire after the Nightmare War. It also gave the Celegians a secure southern border and the largest territory south of the mountains. A measure of the weakness of the Empire at this point is that this war lasted as long as it did and left the Empire nearly bankrupt and prostrate from the effort required.
A 500 year period of growth followed, with highly profitable trade growing among the various splinters and the recovering Empire. During this time, the remaining splinter states gradually amassed powerful armies in preparation for further Celegian aggression, and to fend off the predatory attentions of their other neighbors. The Eastern Federation, the most powerful of the splinters, started warring with its neighbors by invading the Emirate of Faustus, driving them beyond the Broken Mountains. This aggression started a spiral of conflict which eventually embroiled the entire south. This series of wars lasted 900 years, until the present day, and resulted in the destruction of all the splinter states and the rebirth of the historical Celegian Empire South of the Ferrospinae Mountains.
The final campaigns of reunification against the Eastern Federation began in the year 2,988 after the Nightmare Wars, in the year 60,356 Celegian Reign, shortly after the teenaged Chronun ascended to the throne with the backing of a broad based religious and noble cabal. These campaigns were the most ferocious fighting since the Nightmare Wars, and saw both the Celegian Empire and the Eastern Federation field armies approaching 10 million men each. In particular, the Eastern Federation, desperate to hold off the Legions, resorted to vile and despicable tactics, among which was the mass creation of millions of Invincible warriors and the untold atrocities those human fiends committed.
In the wake of the Eastern Campaigns, the Celegian Empire was left with a tremendous standing army. Chronun the Fourth, a man of tremendous drive, ruthlessly ordered the passification and integration of the Eastern lands, then turned his attentions to the north. The Ironback Mountains have only three passes in their entire 7,500-mile length. Of these, historically the best is the Whispering Pass, so named for its constant winds as well as the powerful wards within it during the Nightmare Wars.
The peak of the Nightmare Wars was fought in the Ironback Mountains, and even 3,000 years later they are riddled with horrors left over from that conflict. All three main passes were massively fortified and tremendous magical barriers were erected by both sides. The mages of those times were some of the darkest figures in the 60,000 years of recorded history of a highly magical realm, their secrets and their power literally rivaling that of some gods. For 3 millennia the Iron Backs have brooded darkly down upon the south, a wall so effective that there has been no contact with the north. The reopening of Whispering Pass took 11 years of constant effort by the Celegian legions, each serving one year at a time. The current crop of Mages honed their skills against the ancient dark veils. Mighty heroes battled undead horrors, demons, things made or dragged from where no one knew. Magical treasure and temporal wealth often lay about, to be gathered up at will. Over a hundred thousand prisoners of war died in the Whispering Pass, along with over a million Legionnaires. Three of the pinnacle magicians of the Empire, the renowned Berynis Circle, fell together within their circle to destroy the black citadel of Hellsgate Fortress. Hellsgate Fortress was manned by the evil shade of an ancient magus, one of the mightiest and most evil entities ever encountered in the Empire. The grimmest battles of the Pass campaign came at the center of the Pass, at a series of mutually interlocking castles that came to be known as the Seven Gates. This is the location of the infamous Fuligin Field, haunted by the shades of every trooper killed there. Only after the last of the Seven Gates was cast down and razed did organized resistance stop. The Ironbacks are still hazardous and even today terrors descend from the surrounding peaks into the pass. The Legions regularly sweep the pass in regiment sized patrols, parties of 7,500 troops keeping the road clear and maintaining the Empire's tenuous toehold on the Northlands.
The Whispering Pass campaign, following hard on the brutal Eastern Federation campaign, has served to draw even the seemingly bottomless reserves of the Empire dangerously low. The one bright spot is the fact that volunteer rates for the Legions are at historic high levels due to the incredible wealth gained from looting at the Pass. The Legos Principia camps are operating at full capacity processing new recruits. Another encouraging trend is the fact that the number of Imperial Stalwarts is skyrocketing, as heavy conflict breeds these highly capable individuals as no amount of training can.
The current date is 60,388 C.R., in the month of Thermallus. The Empire declared the Whispering Pass to be officially open some eleven years before, although the journey through is fraught with peril. The Emperor has declared the conquest of the Northlands to be the Manifest Destiny of this generation of Celegians, and to prove it has made the following offer:
"Any intrepid and adventurous souls who journey into the North and return with an accurate map of it will be given a permanent grant of one thousand square miles of any land they choose. This estate will be theirs and their families for as long as the Empire Decrees."
Naturally, a huge rush of the young, landless nobility and many commoners is flowing into the Northlands. The previously mentioned Stalwarts are a major component of this land rush. In the meantime, the Empire is methodically preparing its plans for a Northern Campaign. The Fortress at Dell's Glade, in the southern end of the Whispering Pass, is being expanded and strengthened. At the northern end of the Pass the Empire is building a new Fortress in the howling wilderness at the northern end of the mountains. The Legions are attempting to re-fortify the Pass at the same time, as the Emperor absolutely does not wish to suffer another invasion from the North. The last time that happened it was called the Nightmare Wars, and no one wishes anything like that to happen again. Dell's Glade has been transformed from a grimly fortified frontier city into a boomtown of epic proportions and anything can happen there!