Empire of Andrig

The Empire of Andrig was one of the first great states of Stildane to rise after the continent was nearly destroyed by Ederstone in 100 DE. Andrig, descended from the Androlg tribe before it, was known for its curation of pre-apocalypse knowledge and vision of an "ordered" world that could somehow turn back time to the "Perfect Era" before the apocalypse.
Andrig was once incredibly prosperous and rich, and built elaborate cities and road systems in North Stildane. The modern-day region of Andrig has yet to fully expand into the interior to the extent that the Empire once did - quite astounding given the technological disparity of nearly two millenia. The Empire was also quite imperialistic back in its day and had some pretty intense social inequalities.
The Empire of Andrig is really more of a legend and symbol to modern-day Stildanians. The Empire was totally destroyed by the First Scouring all the way back in the 500s ME (1,500 years ago!). Nowadays, the ruins of Andrig and the romantic legends of old survivors have led to a rosy and romantic legend around old Andrig. Some people, like House Geinman in The Kingdom of Hain and the Elf identitarians of the Kingdom of Dovenar, promote themselves as the supposed inheritors of Ancient Andrig's knowledge, reason, and power. The reality behind the myth is that Andrig was really quite unstable at the best of times and didn't even last a full century. It accomplished great works in the eighty years of its existence, but even these may not have been sustainable. Its ancient secrets were likely neither magical arts nor great technologies, but simply the memory of a world that has been lost. Still, the mystery of it all and the magnificence of the ruins leave people dreaming. 
This Article is a history stub

History

In the earliest of days, Andrig was one of the first places in Stildane to bounce back from the radiation and chaos unleashed by The Chimera's Ederstone. The Androlg tribe grew a great confederation here in the 100s ME, to defend their scraps of farmland from invaders and monsters. It is said that the Androlgs were people from the Perfect Age, who retained ancient magic and technology from before the Ederstone rain - that they were ruled by ancient Dryad kings who kept alive memories and records of what came before. Their leaders laid claim to all of Stildane, and fought hard to keep the unpure and mutated masses out of their sanctuary. They were not successful - they were overthrown by their own people and plunged into civil war before history was effectively recorded. The only reason we even know of such things is because of the involvement of the Lunar Pantheon, who vaguely remember the Androlg lords.
The last vestiges of the Androlg order were destroyed with the Cursed Storms of the 200s: a supernatural winter that refused to ever truly leave, but would wander the continent with freak weather events (such as summer blizzards, sudden hurricanes, and rains of mutated hostile specters). Ustav, the ancient hero now deified, spent a great deal of time here fighting against the Storms and building resilient communities. Sheltered by the mountains and far from the most dangerous Ederstone nodes of the time, Andrig thrived during and after the days of Ustav. The ancient people of Andrig built four great sanctuary cities with Ustav's help, but none were larger or more prosperous than Geinsteinn: City of Victory. When the storms cleared, these four sanctuaries became city states competed for land and colonies, which they established up and down the coast. They feuded, competed, traded, and transformed - some would say that they re-urbanized the North Stildanian coast.
In 429, a war in Andrig divided the city-states into two ruling kingdoms, led by the cities of Geinstenn (in Dovenar) and Mockenstenn (in land now annexed by Hain ). The two kingdoms feuded, until finally a wily Starspawn sorcerer named Yeffra Musechosen was able to rise into a position of power in Mockenstenn (having won a tournament for the heir's hand in marriage). Yeffra's cleverness and determination allowed her to undermine the rulers of Geinstenn, plunging their rival into civil war - into which Mockenstenn intervened. Yeffra crowned herself Queen of Geinstenn while her husband remained King of Mockenstenn, and their united forces became the First Empire of Andrig in 444 ME. The united empire conquered along the coast, seizing much of the Hainish coast and clashing with the Empire of Trostev to the North. In 477, the Empire of Andrig collapsed and fragmented once again. Geinstenn's local elites slowly began reconquering the old empire, and managed to recapture the last vestiges in 493 - but the new Empire was newborn and fragile.
Alas, in 495, the first Kivish invasion arrived, and Andrig proved particularly unlucky against it. On the first battle against the Kivish , the Andrigan Emperor was struck with Ederstone and transformed; when his mutated form was taken back to the palace, he broke free and slaughtered his entire line of succession. The misguided generals of Andrig believed that the Kivish were only small warbands, and turned on each other for the crown instead of uniting. The Kivish easily divided and annihilated each group when the main body of the Kivish army arrived.
While most of Andrig fell easily, the city of Geinstenn resisted - and soon became a rallying point for all remaining Andrigan forces. Desperate people banded together there, too late to be truly salvage the empire. But the remaining imperial forces still delayed the Kivish - and even took back ground for several decades. The last stand of Geinstenn exhausted the Kivish vanguard and gave the Hainish tribes to the South time to prepare. The Kivish main army eventually arrived, though, and Andrig's densely populated compactness made any kind of "defense by attrition" impossible. At Geinstenn, the people of Andrig marched in a last desperate defense. They brought out the ancient Gods and rituals of the Androlgs - the Gods that had been alive before the Ederstone fell, that had once been a secret blessing for kings alone - to bless their people and to begin a new age of victory. The desolation of Geinstenn, and of Andrig itself, was the last military operation personally overseen by Kivish founder Verkohn the Truthful. The united forces of Andrig were overwhelmed and completely smashed by the combined forces and total focus of the Kivish horde. Verkohn ordered that Geinstenn, as a symbol of the illusory old world being cast aside, was to be completely broken. Ederstone was to be stored there, and a large group of captured prisoners were to be broken down physically amidst that radiation. In short, the Sanctuary of Order was to be turned into a new chaos waste, if only for a brief time. It was, perhaps, the most spiteful and pointlessly violent thing that the aging prophet ever did.

444 - 520

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Capital

Old Geinsteinn

Demonym

Andrigan

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Power Structure

Unitary state

Location

Stildane

Controlled Territories

• Mockensteinn
• Old Geinsteinn