The Arcane Empire of Duras

The mighty Arcane Empire of Duras sprawls across Emeriss from the Western Shores to the Caraecol Mountains that divide it from the Siegenthal, covering more land and boasting a greater population than any other nation that the world has ever seen.
Originating from the city of Ensign, the great king Alexandros Duras began a military tradition that expanded his city's territory into a fledgling empire. Over the course of several generations, the throne of Duras gained dominion over the whole of the known world and the people prospered as each city-state that fell before the imperial armies poured greater and greater wealth into Ensign's coffers.

The Aether Wars

But, Alexandros' descendants reached too far. With no lands left to conquer, the treasury began to wane and the people grew restless as their pockets ceased to fill. Desperate to carry on his family's legacy of prosperity, Empress Catalain Duras rallied her wizards and together they set their eye on the realms beyond Emeriss itself.
Sending out her greatest champions, the empress bade them to collect dragons. The great wyrms of Emeriss were driven to the cusp of extinction as their bodies were drained of their magic, their breath imbued into great blocks of glass, and their bones ground into mortar. Empress Catalain was an old woman by the time the Great Gate was completed but as one of her final acts, she commanded the first army, led by General Aedis Ala, through it and out among the stars.
The world they found on the other side was rich, peaceful, and utterly unprepared for the horror about to be unleashed upon it. Naming this new land Catalainia in honor of his empress, General Aedis set his army forward to conquer with swords and spells and the greed of an empire at their back. The gentle inhabitants of Catalainia, who had never known want for anything let alone the ravages of war were driven before the soldiers and the song of their lamentations hung in the air wherever Durasian boots passed.
For nearly two hundred years, the pillaging of Catalainia sustained the empire - until the arrival of the Quinn.
A race of sorcerers and warriors, the Quinn were drawn to the simple abundance of Catalainia for the same reasons as Duras and for all the might of the empire the war sparked by their mutual greed was a terrible stalemate. For the next century, the Quinn and the empire fought for every scrap of Catalainian land, each side desperate for every inch they crept towards victory.
In the end, it was not the armies of Duras that broke, but the will of her people.

An Empire, Broken

Exhausted by endless war with no hope of victory in sight, the people revolted against their emperor, beginning with the sudden appearance of Darrius in Ruelle. Severing that land from the empire with magics greater than anyone had ever seen, he won the support of the people with his enlightened attitudes and charismatic disposition and in less than a year Ruelle was free of the Empire's yoke.
Then came the Siegenthal, whose queen, Dahlia von Shaastling, announced their independence with a challenge for the empire to reclaim it. When the emperor's army marched across the Caraecol Mountains it was met with a sea of the undead, raised in secret by the queen's own hand.
The final betrayal came from a guild of hitherto reclusive mages, the Vennican Order. Once content to remain in isolation among the alabaster towers of their namesake city, the Order began recruiting mages from the surrounding lands, spreading its influence into the noble families of Duras and uniting their armies under the banner of their newly formed Vennican Dominion.
Refusing to let this latest rebellion stand, the emperor commanded the last of his armies to withdraw from Catalainia and abandon the empire's colonies there. Protesting viciously, General Halen Ala eventually did as he was commanded and his forces returned to Emeriss, closing the Great Gate behind them.
But even with these reinforcements, the armies of the Vennican Dominion and the powerful magi at their disposal were too much for the empire to bear in its weakened state.
Seeing no other choice, General Halen turned his troops away from the southern border and marched on Ensign.
The emperor abandoned his throne and fled before they even arrived.

A New, More Stable Duras

Crowning himself Emperor Halen Ala the First, he set about restructuring the empire - withdrawing from hopeless wars against Darrius in the south and the Lich Queen Dahlia in the east to focus what remained of the armies on a defensive strategy to hold back the Vennican Dominion.
Next, in light of three magical rebellions simultaneously cleaving off large swathes of the empire, he decreed that no mages should remain within the bounds of the empire unless they belonged to the royal family itself. All others would be given a month to pass beyond Durasian territories or face summary execution - a policy that remains in place to this day.
The war with the Vennican Dominion still flares up from time to time, and neither nation has known real peace since the initial rebellion began nearly five centuries ago. The borderlands between the two nations are the most frequent victims, falling to one empire and then the other over and over again, but the bulk of the citizenry on either side can rest easily knowing that the war is far removed from their homes.

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Capital

Ensign

Head of State

Emperor Tidus Ala

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Transnational government

Economic System

Mixed economy

Currency

Durasian Crescents

Location

Duras

Official Languages

• Durasian

Controlled Territories

• Ensign

Neighboring Nations

• Ruelle
• The Vennican Dominion