Phisijic Empire
Unique Ability
Mother Surval
Extra territory upon founding cities. +1 Faith and +1 Production from Tundra. Units do not receive damage from Blizzards. Civilizations that are at war with the Empire receive +100% unit damage from Blizzards in Sijic territory.Special Units
MalwunSpecial Infrastructure
ArumwonoHistory
At the height of their empire, the Sijic wrath would be felt from East Surval to the Nyr-Dyv, a dynasty which would live on well into 3100 CE. A true chronicle of their history must reconcile the horrors of the conquest with their skill in uniting the disparate parts of the empire from technology to culture.
What we now consider the Sijic were a collection of tribes emerging from disparate tribes of the steppes of Northern Surval such as the Yatur (beginning in 209 BCE) and the Gutjja (making their presence known in the Fourth Century CE).
These nomadic, warlike tribes would develop a technique for shooting a target while riding on horseback which would make them formidable foes to settlements and kingdoms throughout the region.
These so-called barbarian hordes would occasionally consolidate into a more fearsome fighting force, only to be repelled (and in the case of the Yatur against the Palen Dynasty) nearly face extinction. And by the Second Century BCE, along with the Morn, the Sijic would prove to be such an irritant to the Penelese, the Palen emperor would both order their extermination as well as the construction of the Great Wall.
What we know as the 'true' Phisij Empire would begin with Alaric, born on the steppes in 2162. He was the son of a Bugrash chieftain, who would go to war with his regional rivals and quickly defeat them through spy craft and building an army based on merit and skill rather than blood ties. By 2206, his fighting force would subdue and absorb the western Nargol tribe, the Rogmeks in the north, and the Paleguts in the south, and that year, Alaric would declare himself 'Shazgob Khan,' (common "Universal Ruler") as one does.
The first thing that the universal leader of the Sijic would do is establish a unified code of laws, or the Borba. The Borba provided civil structure to the newly-built Empire, holding king and commoner to account and focusing on the dispensation of property, brides, and require civil or military services.
Under Alaric's Borba, all citizens were granted religious freedom, as long as they maintained strict loyalty to Shazgob above all. Religious leaders were free from both taxation and both civil and military service to the Empire.
Under Shazgob's third son, Gul, the Sijic would become patrons of houses of temples and houses of worship for Corellon, Chauntea, Deep Sashelas, and Pelor. Later, the Empire would fund Pelorian churches in east Palen, Chauntean temples in Tablerock, and Corellion schools in Surval. It was a handy method of respecting local tradition while making it subordinate to the law of the Empire. This would come to act as a wedge for the empire as the tribalistic religon underwent apotheosis as they transitioned to worhsiping a single deity known as Moloch or Gruumsh. While minor religios factions would remain who worhsiped other gods, the majority would worship Moloch by the tenth century.
By the time of Shazgob' grandson Sarfu's expansion into the Oloi Duin in the 1240s, the Empire would become known as the Khanate of the Golden Horde. Sarfu would establish its capital in the city of Raguk on the Charol River in northern Surval. By the 14th Century, theirs would be the largest contiguous land empire in history, covering between 11 and 12 million square miles.
In conquest mode, the Sijic rode light, moving rapidly and collecting what they needed on the way in order to build ladders, bridges, and siege engines. Each man would be responsible for securing or making his own bow for combat. Instead of settling in villages or cities, they would camp under hastily assembled stretched felt, wicker-reinforced shelters.
Then, they would lay siege to even the most fortified of cities using weapons collected from cultures across the empire, using both technology and the sheer force of their reputation.
And while not responsible for much in the way of art in culture, the way their empire was constructed allowed art, culture, and technology from disparate corners to spread from one end to another. For instance, when Gul Khan began his campaign against Darkshelf in the 2250s, he would bring 1,000 Bugrashian catapult engineers (and their entire households), utilizing these men's know-how against Darkshelf's walls.
The Sijic were formidable, they were feared, and the only enemy which could disrupt the Empire would be the Empire itself. The main body of the Empire would fracture with the death of Koffutto Khan in 1259. Koffutto had no chosen successor, so his sons and relatives each decided to fill the position—all at once.
By 2271, civil war would fracture the Empire, splitting into four Khanates: the Golden Horde, descended from Sarfu, would dominate Surval and the Western Steppes. In Western Duin, the Pelorian Carguk Khanate (descended from Genghis' third son, Gul) would flex its strength for five centuries across Central Surval, along with parts of what are now modern Cormanthyr. The Krothu would stretch from Tablerock to large swaths of Central Duin while Genghis' grandson, Gashna Khan, would destroy the Shel Dynasty in Surval and install the Ginug Dynasty.
The Empire would get a second wind under Ditgurat who, between 2380 and 2400, would conquer the area between Tablerock, Duin, Cormanthyr, and Surval, effectively reunifying the disparate Khanates (for a time).
Today, the Empire may be gone, but the Sijic still endure, with Genghis' last ruling descendant, Onog Khan, living well into the 20th Century and governing Braxem and Highport, and the remaining people surviving Goblinoid purges, living on with their own (disputed) independent country now in Kulala.
Foreign Relations
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Leader
Leader Title
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Neighboring Nations
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