Regime

The Elven Regime was founded in the dawn of The Mortal Age, with the goal of uniting the world of Aiaos under the singular rule of the elven kindreds, and of preserving and rebuilding the level of civilisation that birthed the mighty sky cities of Titanis. Bound together by ancient magic and technology, the Regime was founded across the dome, under the authority of the Archons, a council of nine elders of proven experience, wisdom and leadership ability, a number of regional exarchs, and the genarchs who formed a ruling body for each of the kindreds.
The Regime began its existence in Talahaea, and at first spread rapidy into central Caino and western Suto. The high elves were the driving force of the Regime, and responsible for providing leadership and civic planning, focusing almost all of their resources into the creation of great cities. The protection and preservation of the wild country between these cities was the task of the wood elves, who also supplied much of the Regime’s agricultural and hunting expertise. Transport, trade and communication belonged to the sea elves, while the drow looked to the good of the community. As the Regime clashed with other nascent powers, however – the Genasi and the truculent Minotaur herds in Caino, the Smoothfolk in Suto and the Orcs in Cathlaea – these roles shifted, and the drow in particular were called on to provide military force, while the wood elves mustered scouts.
Perhaps in response to these changes, and to demands that they convert their fleets to a martial end, or simply out of a desire not to be tied down, the sea elves quit the Regime altogether, taking a serious toll on the polity’s logistics. The Archons looked to the wood elves to pick up the slack, but it was not long before the wood elves also departed, leaving the cities badly divided and undersupplied. The Archons – now reduced to a council of five – responded by recruiting other races, finding Humans particularly apt to logistics and bureaucracy, and forging alliances with the Dwarfs.
The Legion-Regime Wars tested the remaining alliances to destruction, with the departure of the drow for the Underhollows leaving the Regime short of forces and at odds with their vassal states when they drew on more and more auxiliaries.
Eventually, the Legion turned on its masters and destroyed the Dark Lords. The Legion fractured and an independent orc culture began to emerge. The Regime attempted a push back, but vast numbers of their human auxiliaries defected to the Serpent Cults, and the First Ophionic Empire arose as a buffer between the Darklands and the dwindling power of the Regime, before pushing both powers back to their heartlands in the Darklands and Talahea.
Soon, nothing remained of the Regime outside Talahea, as races displaced by the fall of Eurosia and the gnolls of Rahgn formed their own kingdoms. The last attempt to reassert Regime control failed, when mercenaries hired to wage war against the goblins of the Auroran Wastes turned on their paymasters and seized control of Talahaea one piece at a time, becoming in time the Mage Sovereigns.
In modern times, the legacies of the Regime are scattered and few. A handful of ancient buildings, relicts and texts, the designs of traditional elven clothes and weapons - in particular the katakri, paired curved blades, either twinned or one long and one short; shorter versions may have both blades attached to a single handle - and the desire for order and civilisation in the hearts of the High Elves.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire