Lycoran Empire
An empire based on the southern peninsula that once stretched as far north as the Egil Mountains and as far west as the coast of Cathosul. After the disaster known as the Drowning submerged most of the peninsula, destroying the capital city and killing the Imperial family, the surviving cities of Coranis, Ethaesis, Myrrinah, and Petras established themselves as separate city-states, and those outside their walls turned to raiding and counter-raiding to survive.
Culture
The Lycoran Empire at its height was home to the best schools of philosophy and oratory in the known world; their magicians made cutting edge developments in the fields of spellcraft and artificing, and their architecture, jewelry, art, and music are still widely imitated to this day.
From the surviving city-states and Cathosian records, we know Lycoran fashion tended toward bright colors and flowing cuts, heaps of jewelry and elaborate headdresses; we also know they had a tradition of complex and often magical tattoos, as well as illusion magic woven into cloth (such as the near-mythical "queen-fabric").
They encouraged an appreciation of beauty and innovative and unconventional practices in magic, art, and scholarship from the start, and as their power and wealth grew they also became known for a hedonistic bent that bordered on decadence; edible gemstones were a popular treat/status marker for the ultra wealthy.
Some modern scholars think this was at least part of the cause of the Drowning, that their own immorality and love of seeming opened their scholars and magicians up to the influence of dark, corruptive forces.
History
Founded roughly three thousand years ago by the survivors of some sort of cataclysm on the southern continent of Alameios. They quickly took control of the Lorlithian peninsula and spread north and west, rapidly outbreeding the native Elves and overwhelming the native human populations with their advanced magic and military might, though they never made much headway into what would become Escanthus and Zenyrar.
They built a network of roads, aqueducts, and Gate termini all across their territory that still sees use even in the modern day, founded great centers of learning, and became as renowned for their deep study of magic, art, philosophy, artificing as they were for their brutal conquests.
The last census taken before the Drowning showed a population of 1,500,000 in the imperial heartland alone.
Disbandment
The exact causes of the Drowning are still hotly debated by modern scholars; whatever the cause, roughly 1300 years ago the capital city of Lycoria, and much of the peninsula itself, was destroyed in a series of devastating earthquakes and the resulting tidal waves. Sources as far north as the Escanthan border report minor earthquakes and fierce storms both mundane and magical in the aftermath.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Founding Date
3000 BD (Before Drowning)
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Successor Organizations
Demonym
Lycoran
Location
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