The Imperial Sphere

Even a thousand years after his death, the iron grip of Seron the Red remains.

— Asoka Vara, Illigaran King

While the Known World is a sheer ocean in terms of cultures, languages and ethnicities, there are familiar currents to those who pay attention. Words, customs, practices and habits so familiar that a common origin is the only possible explanation. This is the invisible hand that still controls the world: the Imperial Sphere.

Shadow of Hegemony

Although invisible today, this Empire was very much real over a thousand years ago. From 1700 DA on, the Second Tarquinnian Hegemony ruled the known world with an iron fist. It built roads and cities, moved around entire populations, established provinces and created puppet regimes. There was scarecely an area where its influence could not be felt. But no Empire can last forever. Weakened by centuries of stagnation and corruption, mortally wounded in the most devastating war of the Dawn Age and finally broken by the death of its last ruler, the greatest of all realms finally collapsed in 2242 DA.

Invisible Empire

But while Tarquinnia would never again rule the far shores of the world, its influence remained. Half a millennia of rule does not vanish overnight, no matter how hard many of the formerly subdued peoples tried to make it so. A complex net of structures and practices, economic, political and cultural in nature, remained.
Language - Imperial Tongue

by Eddie Bennun

Arguably the most noticeable of these is the Imperial Tongue. Arriving in the shadow of the Hegemony's armies, the Vardanian language, more accurately the variant spoken by the Avitae, spread across the world. Originally only the tongue of administration, trade and upper class interaction, it slowly but surely seeped into the wider population.
When the Empire vanished, it remained in use, far too convinient a tool to give up no matter how hated Vardanian rule might have been. Over time, its importance as the language of trade, diplomacy, science and culture only grew. For many around the Divide it has become a secondary language. Some even call it the lingua omneia, the "all encompassing language", for its influence truly seems to stretch into all corners of the earth.
Currency - The Imperial Coin

by Erik Nykvist

Money is the lifeblood of Empire. Be it for purposes of propaganda, war or simple luxury, any ruler's success is dependent on the little metallic disks known as currency. For the Second Hegemony it was the Ameritus that served as the main monetary vehicle. Available in lead, copper, silver and gold, it was supposed to supplant the myriad of currencies present before the Hegemony's world conquest.
While it failed in that regard, it has remained an important part of the world economy, serving as a counterweight to the many national currencies in existence. It does help that it remains the main currency in Vardania, the economic heart of the known world.
Technology - The Imperial Standard

by Veikka Somerma

The third, and often overlooked, core aspect of the Imperial Sphere is known as the Imperial Standard. It is in essence a system of measurement, designed to express the fundamental dimensions of nature with one base unit of measure each. Subdivision and multiplication follows a decimal pattern, for example a kilometer would be the base unit of one meter multiplied by ten, which is then multiplied by ten again and a third time to reach the full 1000 meters.
Created in the 1690s DA, it was supposed to clear up the quagmire of different measurement systems present throughout Vardania at the time. Something it has no doubt achieved. Be it in trade or science, the Imperial Standard serves to make work easier for the people around the Divide. It is no wonder then that it has supplanted most other systems in the millennium since its introduction.

One Realm Under Heaven

While the big three are the most obvious signs, they are only part of a larger system. Postal services still operate across boundaries. Diplomatic procedings are governed by a set of rules and practices that was standardized under the Second Hegemony. Rules and regulations for tariffs and trade still echo those of a millenium past.
The Ordi, multinational conglomerates that range from medical relief services to scientific guilds and economic consortiums, operate as they did over a thousand years ago, now joined by newcomers from the former subject populations. At times, they even surpass entire realms in terms of wealth and influence.
While as a whole the Imperial Sphere has provided a number of benefits for the known world, its influence so strong that every group coming from the Outer Lands in the past thousand years has joined it, there is a darker side to it. An ideology that was born from the actions of the last Vardanian World Emperor: Seron the Red.
His rule of twenty years followed a simple principle: One Empire under Heaven. All the world is to be united under a single realm and ruler. Following his death, this creed gave birth to a new ideology that has since been used by many an ambitious nation, including the two succeeding Hegemonys, to justify attempts at world conquest and large-scale intervention. The spectre of Seron the Red still haunts the world over a thousand years after his death.

I would say it was inevitable. After all, a world brought closer together is one more easily swayed to your will.

— Khosrau VII. - The Philosopher King, Kidarite Shah

by 王 建喜

Unity vs Eternity

No realm in the Known World despises the Sphere more than ancient Rhomeia. The sole survivor of the Age of Wrath, she claims for herself the mantle of mater urbis, "Mother of the World", and derives from it the right to intervene wherever she wishes to. Her name alone is claim enough, for how can the Hegemony rule the world when its rightful owner, the Eternal Empire, was never gone?

Heart of the World

Vardania is without a doubt the beating heart of the Imperial Sphere. Its vast resources and population contribute decisively toward the world economy, with predictable results. Whenever the Northern Daughter is wraught with crisis, the rest of the world will feel it. But just as Vardania influences the wider world, so does the world influence Vardania. Economic crisis in a remote part of the world may cause a domino effect if it hits at just the wrong moment.

She is the great whore of the world. The monster bent on devouring all of our wealth.

— Mykonian Poet Keon-Yu on Tarquinia

Powerstruggle

The Imperial Sphere is marked by a constant struggle for power, as realms from all around the Divide attempt to manipulate its economic and political structures in their favour. From diplomatic and economic pressure to more suspect methods and outright military intervention, every tool available is utilized to gain even the slightest advantage.

New Arrivals

It is a sign of the Sphere's strength that every culture arriving on the shores of the Great Divide in the past thousand years has largely integrated into the system. Even the Hijin, who have created something akin to an alternate sphere of economic and political influence beyond the mountains of the Dusk Wall, have forged strong ties with the Known World and built their success largely on the benefits provided by the Imperial Sphere.
When the old continent of Inferra was rediscovered in 3292 DA, the Sphere quickly expanded to include the region's various powers. That the already present systems matched the Sphere in sophistication only accelerated the process. Within the span of just four decades, the people of the The Far South had become an integral part of the Known World.

by Baptiste Forey