Kingdom of Decia
Formerly one of the greatest powers in Bysia and, in fact, the entire world, the Kingdom of Decia is now naught but a blighted curse on the continent it once saved.
Public Agenda
Having saved Bysia in the year 0 AV, its infectious self-confidence and hopeful outlook seemed quite fitting for the peace and prosperity of the Third Age as Decia rose to dominance. Odacia established itself as the home of wise scholars, friendly mages, brave heroes, and a diligent, faithful people that believed fervently in the goodness of the world. Honest merchants plied trade routes, while scientists and magicians made breakthrough after breakthrough establishing fields of study that had not existed prior. For a century, the people of Decia proved themselves "better men," the heart of Bysia, and the pillar upon which the Third Age rested.
This reputation was emphasized by celebrations of a few things: several members of the Chosen One's party being of Decian origin, massive Decian military involvement in the War, and the Kingdom of Decia's responsibility for economically rebuilding its neighbors with generous loans and grand engineering projects like the East Hampshire Canal.
Unfortunately, the Kingdom of Decia would eventually prove itself capable of just as much cruelty and insanity as those it had once vanquished.
The years of prosperity did not last forever. Increasingly questionable decisions were made to curtail a worsening crisis, as the north grew frustrated with their leadership. Distrustful of the elves distancing themselves from the growing paranoia of the period, the Kingdom of Decia made attempts at reform too little, too late.
History
At its very beginning in the early Second Age, Odacia was merely a small town ruled by a detachment of royalty. Over time, it slowly expanded its influence in the manners typical of the era, but found continued success with the grace of the gods and kind yet just and strong leaders. Its main claim to fame would be its participation in the Great War, where prophecies spoke of many great heroes that would arise from the young, if growing kingdom. Their success was crucial to the survival of the remaining nations of Bysia, and left what was once a miniscule city-state in position to lead an entire continent into peace and prosperity for about a century.
Inevitably, the dream began to fade, imperceptibly at first. Harvests thinned, taxes were raised, and the smiles of those who sat in the royal court grew a little more guarded. The appropriate adjustments were made, yet not even the wisdom of the Elves could bring the kingdom back on course. Soon, the shortfalls were obvious, and it was no longer possible to deny the decline to the common people, willing to roll up their sleeves and work themselves even harder to preserve their king and country.
Hard work was not enough. For the first time since the Great War, Decia didn't have enough to go around, and it was those who needed the most aid in the post-War chaos that suffered the worst. The north, experiencing drought, and the industrializing colonies on the island of Vulkan, reliant on imports, struggled to feed themselves, yet had to export their wares during what could optimistically be called as a "downward trend." The kingdom scrambled to relocate food production to greener pastures while using strict measures to maintain its supply during the transition. In lieu of a real answer, Magic bore the brunt of the blame even as some of the brightest and most promising mages worked side by side with laborers to try and breath life back into the fields.
With an inexperienced, uncharismatic king at its head, Decia struggled. In response, soldiers uncomfortable with their own duties were made to patrol and enforce new curfews, aware that their own families weren't much better off than the people they were sworn to protect. Frustration came to a head in a series of events that would see the birth of the Vulkan Republic, one of the first of many losses in prestige that Decia would suffer. Engaging in an increasingly literal ideation of being "higher men," intensifying persecution sent some of Decia's wisest and strongest mages scurrying to the protection of the elves, in Nova Speranza.
Certain officials were drawn to increasingly extreme ways of thinking. A single generation later, this resulted in a bloody coup that nearly succeeded in killing a child king and his cadre, and was only driven south thanks to the aid of the Bysian Realms and a diminishing core of faithful servants. This failed military revolution would proclaim itself the Decian Remnant, perverting time-honored ideals to fit its own totalitarian regime.
Disbandment
Surrounded by enemies, the Kingdom of Decia militarized, trapped in half a dozen cold wars that further weakened its grip on Bysia. Research was quietly restarted on ancient magics that had been recovered from the laboratories of the Eclipse, ironically seeking to finalize the weapons of mass destruction that Matok had left unfinished. The reports that reached the ears of its neighbors were dismissed out of hand, as no one believed that the saviors of Sera had become so insane as to follow in the footsteps of the Enemy. Troops were moved to reinforce strategic locations regardless.
Tragically, Decia would prove how far it had fallen, as confirmation of an upcoming full-scale superweapon test reached the ears of spymasters across the continent. In an event that would be known as the Cataclysm, the details of which are unclear even for today's most devoted researchers, the weaponized rituals, at full power, had drastic effects going far beyond the most generous predictions of their creators. First to burn were a dozen towns and cities of the Republic and the Remnant. As containment wards failed, unstable portals opened, linking huge regions of Bysia to the influence of the test site. In a flash of blinding light, massive buildings were ripped from the ground like leaves in the wind, and vaporizing those fortunate enough to be in the immediate blast zone while the fallout of powerful magics warped those still alive in Decia's towns and villages.
While some outposts on the edges lasted a little longer than the Kingdom's population centers, all invariably collapsed. Deadly abominations far outnumber the sane in Decia, with death a merciful fate for these tortured souls. Heavily armed combat golems, the mission parameters in their soul gems invariably scrambled by the radiation, patrol the poisoned lands with repeating cannons and more esoteric arms. Unnatural weather patterns and phenomena defying all known laws of physics make navigation of the terrain a difficult, and in many cases, deadly affair. For the survivors of the Fourth Age, their memories of Decia are not pleasant ones.
Military
By the end of the Great War, the military forces of the Kingdom were a reflection of the strategies used to delay and cripple Eclipse forces - small groups of soldiers armed with crossbows and muskets, backed by mobile cannon and horse cavalry. With its rise to dominance in the years after victory, however, this state would not last for long. Drawing lessons from the War, the Royal Armed Forces made good use of Decia's industrialization and grew into a vast, heavily-armed expeditionary force.
Even in the disastrous years approaching the Cataclysm, the Royal Armed Forces still held onto its roots in heavily-armored line formations, and retained its place as the dominant military organization. With the ostracization of magic-users in these final years, the Kingdom of Decia began to rely on automation, capturing minds and memories in soul gems and using them to command and control increasingly advanced and inhuman combat golems on the battlefield. Some of these souls were even integrated into the first strategic command systems, allowing for limited degrees of self-sufficiency and self-improvement of the Kingdom's burgeoning golem units in the event that contact was lost with designated commanders.
The souls trapped in these Decian constructs have, at best, been operating autonomously without any human interaction for the past fifty years, and at worst, had their parameters thoroughly corrupted by the fallout, both magical and radioactive, of the superweapon detonated in the Cataclysm. Nearly all examples of such golems and strategic control systems display extreme hostility even to those identified as Decian humans, and in combination with the capability to haphazardly upgrade themselves have proven an enormous obstacle for reclaiming the Kingdom's lands.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Type
Geopolitical, Kingdom
Alternative Names
Old Decia, Decia
Demonym
Decian
Government System
Monarchy, Constitutional
Power Structure
Feudal state
Economic System
Mixed economy
Location
Neighboring Nations
