Ancient Amalorian Empire

History

The earliest history of Amalor is unclear. It appears that the city became wealthy and powerful as a trading port and from the fertile farm land surrounding it. Early innovation in the city gave it the edge over its neighbours. In particular, a great deal of progress in alloy smelting was made in the city which scholars generally see as a result of the intercultural exchange associated with being a major trading hub. Additionally, the city saw some very early magical innovations. The details are broadly lost to time but it appears that the Amalorian priesthood were able to draw magic from their gods by some mechanism.
The Amalorian priesthood became immensely powerful and it was from their order that the emperor was selected. The line of emperors is obscured to scholars however. The prevailing theory amongst scholars is that the Amalorian priest took the names of the god they favoured. For this reason, the list of Amalorian emperors is hard to interpret as the names are highly repetitive.
For most of the Empire's history, it was led by an Imperial Council rather than a single Emperor. The Empire adopted additional state deities as time went on and the Council grew with this change, with the high priest of each deity becoming a new member. It is not clear why the Imperial Pantheon grew in this way, although scholars have suggested that the Amalorians adopted new gods from the territories they conquered.
With its innovations in alloy smelting and magic, the Empire was poised to conquer vast swathes of land. Most of North-East M'dia was conquered over the first 200 years with the Empire reaching its largest size around the 1200BU.
The few areas that were unconquered were mostly left due to lack of resources. In the south-west, the Hinterlands were left unconquered where the soft ground and dense forest made construction impractical. The steppe to the south was inhospitable and dry (a particular problem for the Espirion who are particularly prone to dehydration). Furthermore, the Tamijhiin tribes posed an additional challenge as the Tamijhiin are resistant to enchantments.
There were military challenges for the Empire also though. To the south-east, the Haravi had considerable magical skill of their own and fought in a guerilla style, highly effective against the regimented Imperial forces. Furthermore, in the north-east, the Vordrian Espirion tribes proved sufficiently miltarily skilled that the thinly stretched Empire decided it was not worth the cost of fighting them and instead, in 1344BU, at the order of Governor Dalgarian of Tirania, a great wall was built isolating the Vordrian peninsula.
The Empire saw its greatest wealth and extent in the years around 1200BU. At this time, there were 19 gods of the Amalorian pantheon (there had been 20 in the year 1300BU but at some time the worship of Vastrid was phased out) and correspondingly 19 members of the Imperial Council (each titled Emperor). The Empire became increasingly unstable in its final 200 years however as resources were increasingly centralised on the capital, Amalor, alienating the people of the outer Governorates.
By the year 1010BU, there had been at least 100 uprisings throughout the Empire of which records remain and the borders of the Empire had tightened on all sides. At some point around this time, a great disaster occurred in the city of Vilsara Anaria (the location of which has been lost). The nature of the disaster is unclear but it is suggested that it may have been a large fire or an earthquake. Whatever the case, an important temple was destroyed in the disaster and a number of the Emperor-Priests were killed.
This event provided the spark for a number of rebellions and uprisings which ultimately led to the downfall of the Empire entirely. The most famous uprising was the Amalorian Slave Rising in which Saint Daralena is said to have played a large part.

Religion

The Amalorian Empire strictly enforced the following of the Imperial Pantheon. Religion and government were deeply intertwined with major temples operating as government centres and courts.
It is unclear whether there was one Emperor-Priest for each deity in the pantheon or whether the Emperor-Priests were considered to be divine themselves. The favoured theory amongst scholars is that the Emperors were high priests of the gods, the prevailing evidence being that the number of Emperor-Priests changed infrequently, suggesting that they were quickly replaced when they died.
The line of Emperor-Priests is hard to reconstruct because the Emperor-Priests appear to have taken the names of the gods they served on accession to the throne so the same names are recorded hundreds of years apart. No record of the Emperor-Priests former lives are recorded.
Details of the Amalorian religion are patchy. Amalorian temples were targeted by rioters during the fall of the Empire and religious texts and icons were destroyed. The information that remains suggests that a cult existed for each god with an Emperor at the head of each cult. The cults were quite distinct with their own rituals and hierarchy.
Their rituals involved hymns, sacrifices, sacred movements and prayers. The clergy was strictly hierarchical and powerful within their communities. Clergymen had considerable powerful to enforce temple law and commanded militias.
There were 19 deities at the fall of the Empire. There was a degree of hierarchy even amongst the deities with deities taking a strict order of precedence. There also existed at least 12 minor deities or demigods who were the either the children of gods and mortals or saint-like figures raised to divinity. These minor deities and demigods were worshipped in their own right in their own cults, many of which were secretive. The 12 existing Amalorian tomes of black magic were each written by the a different demigod cult.
Religion and magic were not considered distinct by the Amalorians. The highest ranking priests were able to draw magic from their gods by some lost mechanism. Some hint of how this ancient magic worked is preserved in the 12 tomes of black magic of which copies still exist. These tome are dedicated to demigods however, not the gods themselves.

Maps

• 

  Amalorian Empire 1200BU

1650BU - 1000BU

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Alternative Names

Greater Amaloria

Demonym

Amalorian

Government System

Theocracy

Power Structure

Federation

Economic System

Traditional

Currency

The Ancient Amalorian currency was based on a gold coin called an aster. A larger gold coin (the volenda) was worth 4 aster. There was a large silver coin (a sovia) which was a quarter of an aster and a small silver coin (a verium) which was a 16th of an aster. A mid-sized silver coin worth one 10th of an aster was used in the early Empire but fell out of use by 1200BU.
In the first 200 years of the Empire, a bronze coin (the olviam) worth one 16th of a verium was used and a steel coin (the tarian) worth one 24th of a verium was used. These coins feel out of use and were superseded by two steel coins, a larger worth (the asolviam) worth one 20th of a verium and a smaller one (astarian) worth one 36th of a verium.
The coins were marked with images of the gods and their major temples.

Subsidiary Organizations

• The Amalorian Cult of Shadows