The Aurelian Hegemony of Man
The Ancient Empire of High Humanity
Structure
The Aurelian Hegemony was divided into roughly five tiers. Though the tiers often determined how one was treated in society, they were unique in that when matters arose that pertained to a certain caste, members OF that caste had ultimate authority over members of other castes even if they would not normally(Such as the Warrior Caste superseding the Builder Caste in times of war), though this right did not include the Ruler Caste unless extreme emergencies arose, as the Ruler Caste ALWAYS was atop the caste system.
1st: Ruler Caste - Leaders of the Empire. Included Members of the Magister Council as well as several Magisters that oversaw critical aspects of the Hegemony such as the Magister of Homeland Security, Economics, Health, External Defense and Military, and any other key role of society. These Non-lord Magisters reported to the council.
2nd: Builder/Shaper Caste - The Scientists, Engineers, Mages and Scholars focused on building or research, or other intellectuals that were the backbone of the High Human technological genius. Foremost power beneath the Ruler Caste and enjoyed almost limitless rank and power.
3rd: Warrior Caste - Members of the army or any other martial or martial-adjacent groups within the empire, including any Mages who served in a martial aspect. With the High Human cultural emphasis on discipline, control, and martial might, warriors enjoyed a high rank and great authority.
4th: Civilian Caste - The average, everyday citizens of the High Human empire. They enjoyed many basic luxuries and wanted for several things, but did by no means live in poverty or poor conditions.
5th: Slave Caste - The bottom of the barrel of High Human society. Slaves, while they could be lucky enough to be owned by a kind master, had no rights themselves. However, there were many laws in place that mandated slaves be treated a certain way to ensure their lives were not wasted or put to misuse.
Public Agenda
Outwardly, the public agenda of the Hegemony remained relatively constant over the course of its nearly three thousand year reign: To "save", uplift, protect, and guide all other life into salvation. They believed they were the greatest force in the world, the only one which could unite the planet and the only one worthy of doing so, and believed that without their rule other life would fall to ruin and descend into wanton barbarism and slaughter. They strove to expand their empire to every corner of the world, forcibly united all races, cultures, and civilizations they encountered, and brought them all under their one singular banner in the name of security and stability. They were tyrannical and absolute overlords, but ones who ruled out of a belief that it was their rule, and their rule alone, which would allow life to prosper.
Over the course of the Hegemony's long lifespan, the means by which they accomplished this mission slowly changed from Imperialistic but good-intentioned to outright cruel and genocidal.
Assets
Having once controlled almost all of the known world, the assets of the Aurelian Hegemony were so manifold and extensive that it was with little exaggeration or hyperbole that many other races referred to them as "The Wardens of the World's Treasures". They controlled almost every landmass, the skies, and their mines ran deep, their pastures were green, and they dabbled in such wondrous arcane science that they were even said to be capable of reshaping the very world itself to suit their whims and desires. They have massive magical cannons, floating cities suspended by magic, legions untold of powerful and almost invincible wizard-soldiers, bioweaponry that could exterminate a population in weeks, and more...their assets were monstrously enormous, and bordered on the infinite, though their titanic Manufactorums consumed untold tonnes of supplies each day they operated...meaning that though they consumed uncounted tonnes of raw materials and valuable resources, they had so much land and property that their wealth even surpassed the ravenous consumption their Manufactorums, which belched out automatons, computers, and all manner of things, demanded each day.
History
Little is known of the history of the ancient Aurelian Hegemony, as during the Fall of High Humanity the races that rose up against them purposely erased and destroyed many records of their history, making it almost impossible for modern historians to piece together a cohesive tale of their history.
What is believed to be known, is that the Hegemony was so named for their first emperor and the inventor of the first floating city: Emperor Aurelius Augustus Capricus, the father of the Hegemony which invented the basic designs for dozens of prototypes that would eventually become trademarks of the Hegemony's technical and magical might...floating cities, magical reactors, fusion energy, orbital platforms...all were birthed from the mind of the Father of the Hegemony.
Disbandment
The Aurelian Hegemony was brought to ruin and destroyed during the events of the Fall of High Humanity, where almost all the races of the known world rallied against the growing cruelty of the Hegemony, led by the Ancient True Dragons and the Dragon Emperor that ruled them, and staged a worldwide rebellion which saw the Hegemony overthrown and the High Humans brought to extinction for the barbarity and unending cruelty they perpetrated towards the end of their rule.
Demography and Population
The population of the Hegemony was divided equally across their numerous floating magical cities and citadels, and though they were a predominantly Human civilization, they accepted all races into their fold so long as they could accept the boot-heel of Hegemony Rule and abandon the ways of barbarism and chaos. Their people lived incredibly long and fertile lives thanks to extensive genetic modifications that were popular amongst citizens of all Castes, so the birth rate was quite high while the death rate was kept high only due to the frequency with which The Hegemony warred against others...most notably the ancient Dragons, with whom they warred almost constantly.
Territories
Though it is now fallen to ruin and mostly forgotten, the Aurelian Hegemony of Man once held almost all land and sky in the known world. Their floating citadels held the sky while they ruled over the surface like Imperial Overlords...all their surface lands were assimilated and forcefully occupied, but the sky was their domain and theirs alone...only the Ancient Dragons dared dispute that.
Military
The Hegemony's military was the stuff of legend, and was said to be so legendarily numerous and mighty that they could blot out the sky with troops clad in mighty NEMEAN Metal plate armor. Their troops and military were deadly on the battlefield and were so well-organized and powerful that dozens of other nations and civilizations have striven to mimic this militaristic perfection, but none have come close to the level of power once possessed by the Hegemony. With an expertly maintained supply line, brutal armored divisions of tanks and futuristic vehicles, brutal siege cannons and artillery guns, and all manner of exotic weaponry, the Hegemony military was nigh unstoppable.
The general makeup of a single legion in the High Human Military is as follows. They possessed upwards of 12+ Legions at any given time, and often went higher. Each was specialized in a certain type of terrain or foe.
Contubernium (tent group): Consisted of 8 men. Centuria (century): Was made up of 10 Contubernium with a total of 80 men commanded by a centurion. Cohorts (cohort): Included 6 Centuria or a total of 480 fighting men, not including officers. In addition, the first cohort was double strength but with only 5 Centuria instead of the normal 6. Legio (legion): Consisted of 10 cohorts. Additionally: Each Legion had a 120 man Alae (cavalry unit) permanently attached to it possibly to be used as scouts and messengers.
Technological Level
The Hegemony had untold scientific wonders such as Genetic Augmentation, Orbital Platforms, Magical Cannons, Magitech, spaceflight, Genetics, Robotics, Circuitry, Artificial Intelligence, Faster Than Light travel (FTL), Laser/Plasma technology, Railgun Technology, Infrared/Radar/Sonar, Artificial Gravity, Nanotech, Bioweaponry, Nuclear Power, and countless other marvels developed by their scientists and scholars.
Religion
The Hegemony was publicly atheistic, and decried all religion and worship of deities. They actively stamped out faith where they found it and never stopped working on a way to kill or disable the gods, so great was their hatred for the divine.
Foreign Relations
For most of their rule, the Hegemony was an Imperialistic but Good-Intentioned force for good in the world, one that expanded and absorbed its neighbors but did so without cruelty. They absorbed their neighbors and allowed their cultures to remain intact, and simply governed and oversaw them as their new overlords, training them and uplifting them out of barbarity to enlighten them as a culture. They taught others to better themselves and become stronger to resist the evils of the world once they conquered them, and in the beginning all they did seemed to truly be for the good of all the world.
Towards the end of their rule, however, this Imperialistic Generosity had been entirely replaced by Cold, Unfeeling Superiority. They enslaved as they pleased and conquered without mercy, bring all others into their fold as cannon fodder and tools to be used as they saw fit...and as a result of this disgraceful slaughter, the races of the world soon rebelled and ended their reign in the Fall of High Humanity.
Agriculture & Industry
The Hegemony was an industrial powerhouse, and their Manufactorums were so titanic and overwhelmingly large that their massive smokestacks belched out pollutants by the ton while their factorum lines spit out tanks, steel, plate armor, plasma rifles, and all manner of items by the thousand. They had mastered industrial technology, and could process and refine ores and metals and smelt them into items faster than any other nation in the world could...after all, no human smith could beat an automated magical power hammer that could pound out building-sized armored titans faster than they could make a breastplate.
Their agriculture was also highly advanced, and due to their nature as living in floating cities they invented dozens of improvements to natural agriculture that allowed them to grow massive farms in orbital hydroponics fields encapsulated in time-accelerated magic fields, which sped up their crop production tenfold. This allowed them to utilized their small natural land available to them for other things and to survive with their massive population without threat of their food supply being cut off by an enemy.
Trade & Transport
As they were entirely self-reliant for their critical resources, the Hegemony did not often trade with other nations down below them on the surface. They only did so for the sake of diplomatic relations, or to acquire some exotic good they did not already have.
Items were transported across their massive empire mostly by means of flying aircraft, spacecraft, and flying vehicles in general, though they also utilized an extensive teleportation network that allowed for instantaneous travel across massive distances in a single instant.
Education
Each member of the Hegemony possessed remarkable education due to mandatory schooling from a young age up until maturity, where they were instructed in the key aspects of their civilization's knowledge such as Mathematics, History, Science, Language, Athletics, and more. After this period of mandatory schooling which on average lasted for 12-15 years of their lives, they were given the chance to pursue more specialized collegiate schooling in whichever fields they were interested in, such as Alchemy, Magic, Engineering, or otherwise...meaning that each individual of the Hegemony possessed more sum intelligence and education that of those of almost all other nations in the world. Notably, this education was entirely uniform across all Castes. There was no division of education by class or caste, and even the Slave Caste received some education on their duties and how to perform on an adequate level.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
We are the world's salvation.
-2870 BF - 0 AF
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Alternative Names
The Hegemony, The Aurelian Hegemony, The Hegemony of Man
Demonym
Aurelian
Government System
Technocracy
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Mixed economy
Currency
From what little records remain of the Hegemony, their main currency was believed to be a series of metallic coins of various metallurgic makeups(Copper, Silver, Gold, etc), broadly referred to as "Aureus". There were different denominations within this broad category, but the specifics have mostly been lost to time.
Major Exports
They mainly exported food, animals, steel, and iron.
Major Imports
They rarely imported anything, but when they did it was mostly exotic luxuries they could not procure in the sky, such as silk, rare materials such as Mithril and Adamantine, works of art, and more.
Legislative Body
The Aurelian Hegemony was ruled by a council called the "Magister Council", made up of 13 elite mages and technocrats that held the rank and title of "Magister Lord", the highest rank and honor afforded to a member of the Hegemony. They met and made all the ruling decisions of the Hegemony bi-monthly, though in the early days of the Hegemony they were believed to have been ruled by an Emperor. It is unknown why they abandoned this form of rule in favor of a council.
Judicial Body
The Magister Council not only made the laws of the Hegemony, they also held complete authority over the interpretation of the very same laws they laid down.
Neighboring Nations
Notable Members
Related Ethnicities
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