Hirethian Empire

Hirethian Empire
c. 37 BCE–388
Flag
Empire at its greatest extent c. 207 CE
Capital	Hirestil
Common languages	Template:Old Nostrian
Religion	Hirethianism
Government	Elective Absolute monarchy
Emperors
Historical era	Classical era
• Creation of Hirethian League	c. 37 BCE
• Hirethian Collapse	388
Today part of	List Vultesia Riamo Gavrilia Toendraland

Hireth (Hirædd in classical spelling), the first Emperor, as depicted in a Statue of Whitechapel, by sculptor Jonn Goldenspore, circa 1471

The Hiraethian (Proto-Vultic. Hiraddan/ Vultic.Hiraeddan) Empire, was multi-ethnic Empire that reigned between the first century BC to the third century AD, spanning the majority of the Northern Nostrian Coast, the Talsar Sea and much of the modern day nations of Vultesia, Riamo, Wellsenfaile and Zona Umida. The region’s first major -and longest standing- military and imperial institution, it is from the Empire which the continent of Hirethia takes its name.

Overview

Centred on the city of Hiraeth (Vultic.Hiradd), situated on the banks of Mangan River, South Western Vultesia, the Empire was borne from the city’s growing status as a centre of trade and learning. The city-state later built up a client-patron relationship providing military protection for nascent vassal states in return for market monopoly and political influence along the Mangan and into the Talsar basin under the so-called Hiraethian League. A century on, by the coup d'etat and centralisation of power under First Lord Fimrod I ‘the Great’ in 58 BC, the fledgling Empire had become the dominant military power across the Mangan and Talsarine regions and held defacto primacy and political hegemony over many semi-nomadic states and petty kingdoms beyond its recognised borders.

Following the so-called ‘Crisis of Five Firsts’ (54-57AD) under the Addmusite dynasty, the Empire had expanded greatly, gaining a strong military and colonial foothold in modern day Zona Umida, Riamo, Gavrilia and Wellsenfaile, reaching its cultural, territorial and economic height, and able to draw on a standing military unrivalled anywhere in the Eastern hemisphere of Anteria. During the so-called Addmusite era, the Empire cemented long standing conflicts with aggressors along its borders, such as Talsarine pirates, the nomadic Hama confederations of the Vultesian Plateau, the Huica Empire and the tribes of the Nostrian Interior, modern day Riamo.

Many historians clearly point to the twin disasters of the Great Schismatic War and the Yellow Death as the point in which the Hireathian Empire entered a state of terminal and total decline. Though no strangers to internecine warfare, nomad invasion or plague, the third century brought an overwhelming series of disasters, both natural and manmade, ultimately resulting in the Schism, and the splitting of the Hireathian empire into two, rival polities known anachronistically as the Upper and Lower Empires, divided primarily by the Delemere mountains, though both Empires would both claim dominion over the other for another near century until the final sackings of Hiraeth and the collapse of the Upper Empire. Following the violent final century of the Empire’s collapse, the historical stage was set, by the legacy of the vacuum left by the Empire, for successor and post-imperial states such as Talsarine kingdoms, the Riamese grand kingdom, the Empire of Vultesz and the Delemarite principalities.

History

With the creation of the Hirethian Republic in 54 BC, the country was quick to develop a unified professional army, which was used throughly to expand influence over nearby tribes, eventually integrating those that were willing to cooperate and subjugating those that were not. Within a century, the nation connected the Talsar and Nostrian seas to the Sunadic and Paisic, allowing long-distance and the transmission of knowledge throughout the empire.

The name Hirethian Empire comprises the countries under rule of Hirethia at any time during which they were administered by a government set in the city; in particular, this term is used in historiography to describe the period from 8 AC, where there were separate coequal courts dividing the governance of the empire in the Western and the Eastern provinces, with a distinct imperial succession in the separate courts. The terms Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire were coined in modern times to describe political entities that were de facto independent; contemporary Romans did not consider the Empire to have been split into two empires but viewed it as a single polity governed by two imperial courts as an administrative expediency. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, and the Western imperial court in Ravenna was formally dissolved by Justinian in 554. The Eastern imperial court survived until 1453.

Though the Empire had seen periods with more than one emperor ruling jointly before, the view that it was impossible for a single emperor to govern the entire Empire was institutionalised to reforms to Hirethian Law by emperor Amausz III following the disastrous civil wars and disintegrations of the Crisis of the Third Century. He introduced the system of the Hirethian Republic in 174, with two senior emperors titled Augustus, one in the East and one in the West, each with an appointed Caesar (junior emperor and designated successor). Though the tetrarchic system would collapse in a matter of years, the East–West administrative division would endure in one form or another over the coming centuries. As such, the Western Roman Empire would exist intermittently in several periods between the 3rd and 5th centuries. Some emperors, such as Felixesz, governed as the sole Emperor across the Empire.

In the 6th century, emperor Matteusz re-imposed direct Imperial rule on large parts of the Nostrian provinces of the Empire, including the prosperous regions of western Alphaeys, the ancient Hirathean heartland of Riamo and parts of the Claw Coast. Political instability in the Eastern heartlands, combined with foreign invasions and religious differences, made efforts to retain control of these territories difficult and they were gradually lost for good. Though the Eastern Empire retained territories in western Rallia until the eleventh century, the influence that the Empire had over the Nostrian had diminished significantly. The papal coronation of the Riamese King Michael the Great as Nostrian Emperor in 800 marked a new imperial line that would evolve into the Grandkingdom of Riamo, which presented a revival of the Imperial title in Western Europe but was in no meaningful sense an extension of Hirathean traditions or institutions. The Schism of 970 between the churches of Saltstil and Newstil further diminished any authority the eastern emperor could hope to exert in the west.

Timeline

• 120 BC: Hiræddan League legally recognised as a stratified network of client states by Hirædd
• 105-65 BC: Hiræddan League expands network or client patron agreements across much of the Mangan Valley, modern Western Vultesia and defeats the Talsarine kingdoms
• 58 BC: Fimrod I 'the Great' bestows the title First Lord upon himself at the Hanelman (lit.Sun Day/Day of the Sun) celebrations, creating the first dynasty of Hirædd.
• 33 BC: The First Lord is killed while on a hunting expedition. Nimrod I, eldest son of Fimrod I, succeeds his father to the station of First Lord, while nominally elected, the promotion is a foregone conclusion.
• 27 BC: Nimrod I pushes legislation to ensure a dynastic inheritance of his title. Naming his son, Nimrod II as his heir apparent without consultation of the governmental body or the city's mystic caste.
• 19-12 BC: Nimrod II consolidates the gains of three generations of conquest, codifying the Hiræddan claim to most of modern West Vultesia, the Talsar Islands, and into modern Wellsenfaile.
• 08 BC: Hiræddan settlers land on the southern Toendran coast for the first time in recorded history, making contact with local tribes.
• 07 BC: Nimrod II overthrown and executed by his general Maszdruval in a couple, following his attempt to assassinate the popular general, rumoured to be courting his favourite wife. Rumours are compounded when the wife in question, Tsaba, remarries to the new First Lord.
• 05 AD: Maszdrubal falls ill with what modern historians believe to be a series of strokes, childless, he passes his title to his son, Felidd. Astor, eldest son of Nimrod II & Tsaba is blinded and exiled to the Talsar Island of Inm, along with his mother and his younger brother the eleven year old Hal.
• 24 : Felidd passes away of bowel complications, leaving the throne to his younger brother, Fimrod II.
• 41 : Maszdrubaline First Lord, Fimrod II killed on an expedition into the Gavrilian exterior, his heirs, the twins Narcszisul & Tsabo advised by Hiræddan mystics to abandon their campaign of vengeance against the Huiac tribes.
• 46 : Narcszisul & Tsabo engage in a civil war which sees both brothers defeated by a third, and relatively unknown, usurper, the general Addmus.

Addmus lead the Hirethian navy through the battles of Laszuse and Callcay, depicted here by Riamese classical paintress Taylor White

• 52 : The Hiræddan Empire makes its first inroads into modern day Riamo under Addmus.
• 53 : The Empire faces its first major invasion by the Plains Peoples of the Vultesian Plateau. Nomadic riders that ravage the Eastern empire and even raid the suburbs of Hirædd, they retreat only with the death of their warlord, Oska.
• 54 : Construction of the Fortified town of Gæl begins on the Riamese Nostrian coast. It will become the largest Hiræddan ruin outside of Vultesia ever discovered.
• 54-57 : The Crisis of Five Firsts. Addmus assassinated by agents loyal to the aged First Dynasty scion, Hal, who himself dies nearly six days later with power anything but secure. Civil War rages for two years with a total of five claimants to First Lordship installed to varying degrees. Second son of Addmus, Rhom marches on and seizes Hirædd in Spring of 53AD

Battle of Filszene, commonly known as a decisive battle against the tribes in the eastern Riamese flatlands. The Hirethian cavalry, lead by Fimrod III, prove decisive against the undefended flanks of the poorly organized enemy

• 56-139: Age of the Addmusites. The Addmusite dynasty rules the empire for an unprecedented nine decades, with the Empire expanding to its greatest historical extent, stretching from the Toendran coast, to the Vultesian Plateau, to the Riamese Nostrian.
• 56-64: Fimrod III (Reginal name of Rhom)
• 64-79: Estadul
• 79-96: Addmus II
• 96-124: Fimrod IV
• 124: Addmus III
• 124-139: Alæhan
• 139-142: Tolen
• 139-146: The first recorded pandemic of the Yellow Wasting is recorded by Hiræddan and provincial chroniclers. By the time the disease has run its course, the empire is estimated to have lost around six to seven percent of its adult population, including the majority of the ruling dynasty. Raids from the Plains Peoples, now referred to by the records as the Hama, periodically put the Eastern and North Eastern flanks of the Empire to the torch.
• 147: The child First Lord, Addmus III is deposed by his custodian, the general Agrdrusz, with the backing of much of the aristocracy and the military. Agrdrusz allows the most rebellious, economically unreliable and distant of the Addmusite acquisitions to slip from the Empire, consolidating smaller but more defensible borders.
• 156-59: Facing much political backlash for his -in hindsight well foreseen- reduction in imperial territory, Agrdrusz is vindicated when Eastern Empire weathers the largest invasion ever recorded by a Hama confederation under the warlord Gokat. The First Lord himself is killed in battle, succeeded by his son, Mærsz.
• 159-176: Maersz
• 176-184: Maersz II
• 184-188: Fimrod V
• 188-196: Following the alleged poisoning and subsequent death of the heirless Fimrod V, the Empire once again is split by civil, following three years of factional violence and no fewer than six claimants. The surviving pretenders of the war's first three bloody years of clashes are Mizal, governor militant of the southern Nostrian provinces (making up modern Eastern and Southern Riamo) and Nimrod Akaiax, an ethnically Talsarine admiral turned politician. The Great Schismatic war lasts a further three years, with the Empire divided by the Delamere Mountains.
• 201: Nimrod Akaiax nominates his son, Afdal Akaiax as heir to the empire. In response, Mizal elects his younger half brother Matel, diplomatic efforts to end the war come to naught

Forums were a prominent building that usually served to mark the center of a Hirethian city

• 202-211: The Yellow Wasting returns, reaping an even greater human toll than its first outbreak during the reign of the Addmusites. Fully one in every nine citizens or subjects of both halves of the Empire. Nimrod Akaiax succumbs to the disease in 209, while Afdal Akaiax will survive an infection around 205-6. In the Southern Empire, both of the pretender brothers manage to remain untouched by the disease, though an outbreak ravages their massing armies, putting pause to any hope of an expedition across the Delamere.
• 211-227: The forces of the Upper & Lower Hiræddan empire periodically clash over strategic mountain passes. The various remaining Delamerite petty kingdoms and principalities slip from Hiræddan control.
• 227: An heirless First Lord Afdal Akaiax passes away, leaving the Upper First Lordship to his sister's eldest son, the 18 year old Gol Akaiax.
• 228: A spring raid by Talsarine pirates, operating with near impunity since the decay of Hiræddan naval power, sail up the Mangan, sacking the cities of Esskel and Manganstæl the Upper Empire's second city.
• 229: First Lord Gol Akaiax, along with his mother, harem and bodyguard, make to leave the capital with the lions share of the Imperial Treasury. While the heist initially works, the caravan is ambushed a day's ride into the Delamere. Incidentally, Bœadda a Huiac slave girl and Gol Akaix's Chief cortessan would, following the attack and her capture, go on to wed a Delamerite Prince.
• Nesztor Akaix, Gol's 8 year old bustard half brother is burnt to death, having intentionally left in the Capital 'holding the bag', the tragedy is expanded when the flames catch a nearby banner, and light an underground larder. Within hours over 30% of the city is in flames, with far more being rendered uninhabitable.
• 230: With its seat of power in ruins -ruins that are subsequently sacked by both Talsarine pirates and an alliance of Hama and Delemarite raiders within quick succession-, it's ruling dynasty erased and its legitimacy irreparably tarnished The death knell of the Upper Empire is signed.
• While several dozen members of the Imperial Council, the landed gentry and military command would attempt to claim the title, Gol Akaix remains known to history as the Last First Lord of the Empire.

Infraestructure & Public Works

Hirethian aqueducts served as efficient ways to transport water to large settlements, and were used throughout its land. Some still stand to our days

The Empire was characterised for its highly advanced infrastructural network throughout its client states and conquered and assimilated provinces; these notably included aqueducts, roads, bridges and public works such as Gvora (forums) and Iszphla (sporting arenas). The development of the imperial road network ensured the transmission of scientific discoveries, cultural trends and regional goods throughout Hireathian territory. The Gvora were a flagstone of Imperial urban planning, serving as key landmarks due to their size and cultural significance, serving as a centrepoint of any newly constructed Imperial metropolitan settlements, they would often be sited and built on the confluence of the state maintained North-South and East-West road systems.

Approaching the height of its cultural and economic relevance in the early first to mid second century AD, the Empire invested highly in public recreation and entertainment, the cause of the poet Felik Itt Aszper’s now famous lament ‘Give them maize, and give them opera and the throne will be yours’. Iszphlas, complexes of opera theatres and dance halls were ubiquitous across imperial territory, as were the Tagha sporting arenas where citizens’ choice sports of cattle wrestling, ritualised combat and more infamously, public duels and executions of prisoners of war were shown near nightly. Three instances of so-called Gigataghas have been uncovered by archeologists, capable of seating over 16,000 spectators.

Economy

The excessive mintage of Hirethian Agarcoe, known as "silver crowns", often lead to excessive inflation rates

The Empire operated on a pre-capitalist economy primarily based upon mining, agriculture and a sophisticated system of taxation, levies and internal trade. By the first century AD this economic model had become dependent on a constant territorial expansion and the production of currency from Imperial mints. Though imperial policy dictated several dozen different denominations and variations of currency, three of the most stable remained throughout the majority of the Empire’s existence, golden ‘wholes’ (Vultic.Sziler) and ‘halves’ (Vultic.Deiszler) and silver ‘silver crowns’ (Agarcoe), the latter of which, created in vast quantities from the Empire’s Talsarine silver mines, later contributing to the state’s crippling inflation issues. It is a legacy of the Hireathian Empire that the modern Riamese currency (also used across former colonial holdings such as Freice and Gassasina), the Hull, is derived from the golden Whole, as the Principate’s own currency, the Diedr, is a linguistic mutation of the Hiraethian Dieszler.

Both devaluation and inflation remained hallmarks of the Hireathian economy and plagued the fiscal policies of many First Lords, especially in the later Addmusite and the post-Schismatic eras. Purity and quantity of coinage under the reigns of many First Lords have been found under modern analysis to vary a great deal, aiding archeologists to accurately infer data on economic well being off the Empire during the reigns of more obscure monarchs.

Military

The military of the Hieathian Empire is identified by historians as going through three distinct eras. The Early Hireathian, the Addmusite and the Schismatic era armies.