Aggosian Empire

A mixed human/seilu nation (Gobik also exist, but they are not considered part of society), it is the oldest continuous nation, other than Dursos, and Aggosians tend to be haughty, considering themselves the true inheritors of the Ma’ur legacy and therefore above the newer civilizations. After millennia of isolation, the empire is eager to expand and has annexed several systems. They have recently signed a peace treaty with the Hegemony ending the Torazian War (the Sehuri Accords). Both sides continue to struggle covertly over the system, however, and the Aggosian organization known as Insurgent fights a guerilla war to overthrow the Rekat controlled puppet government.
The Aggosian flag is a black banner with a pair of white, feathered wings halfway unfolded.

Structure

Aggos is ruled by a two emperors, Raza (chained) and Rahaza (unchained). The emperors give up their birth names upon ascending the throne and from then on are referred to only by their title (the ordinal number describing their order in the emperors of their era and the name of the era is added to the beginning if they need to be distinguished from some other emperor: e.g. the Third Bone Raza Emperor is the third Raza emperor of the Time of Bones. Each one wears a symbolic mask of office (black for Raza (symbolizing lack of freedom), white for Rahaza (symbolizing freedom)). Rahaza, the White Emperor, practices Falas while Raza, the Black Emperor, practices Sefthar. A council of priests (the Dozhan) devoted to Erna officially serves in an advisory capacity but unofficially keeps the peace between the two emperors and makes sure they keep working together for the empire's well being. Like all Kuzri, the Dozhan wear grey veils, but they are identified as Dozhan by their bracers: black on the left arm, white on the right.
The emperors, being Zemna, are unable to make law. Only the Kuzri can do that. The emperors are merely to give orders and set policies which the other Zemna must mediate to the rest of the empire. If the Dozhan decide the emperors are in violation of the law, they can countermand an order or policy (although this is uncommon as the Dozhan heavily advise the emperors during policy meetings).
Below the Emperors, the Zemna carry out various executive functions and comprise a hierarchical network of administrators that oversee the day to day life of the empire including the Groundforce, Starforce, Ghost, Uzeiru, and the Insurgent.
Legal affairs are handled by the Kuzri who make rulings based on the law and concern for maintaining the stability and security of the empire and its citizens and they struggle towards transcendence.

History

Sometime after the Fall, archaeologists on the planet Arketor (Esora-Damros I) began experimenting with Ma'ur artifacts. While the technology was too old and damaged to be operational, the scientists did learn enough about their functionality to start developing their own biotech. Although their creations were rudimentary at first, they impressed Queen Urana of seilu kingdom of Erradan, who signed the charter for the Royal Artificer's Society of Erradan (later renamed the Grand Imperial Artificer's Society). The society, funded by the queen, was charged with developing this nascent technology further. In time, its inventions allowed the Queen to conquer the other nations of Arketor and declare herself Empress of the new Aggosian Empire (Aggos meaning "Glory" in Old Aggosian). This issued in the Age of Discovery.
AGE OF DISCOVERY (-3113 I.R.):
The period during which the Aggosians first began colonizing and exploring beyond Arketor.
FIRST ERA ARGENT (-3029 I.R.)
The period following the initial forays into space, once the empire had established stable, prosperous off world colonies and could begin decentralizing into a truly interplanetary civilization.
AGE OF WAR (-2977 I.R.)
During the First Era Argent, Aggosian explorers reached the Kolyos system, a star whose astrosphere overlaps with the Esora-Damros system. The distance between the systems made travel a months-long commute. To facilitate the imperial annexation of the system, the Aggosians built a massive Waygate connecting the systems with a warp tunnel that allowed ships to pass between the systems in hours rather than months. This allowed the Aggosians to field a full scale invasion of the system. The natives of Kolyos II rallied against the invasion and, after a decade of war, managed to repel the invaders.
TIME OF DRAGONS (-2966 I.R.)
After the failure of the Kolyos campaign, divisions began to form in the empire. Soon, the nation fractured into rival polities and fell into a two hundred-year period of intermittent civil war.
SECOND AGE OF WAR (-2762 I.R.)
During the Time of Dragons, the humans of Kolyos II (what they called Joru) developed quickly. The imperial invasion had unified them, and in the aftermath they quickly developed their own spacefaring technology. 205 years into the Time of Dragons they launched a counter invasion of the Esora-Damros system. The Joruri forces managed to capture Esora-Damros II and III, but their attempts to take Arketor failed as the warlord Errun united the other rulers against the common foe.
AGE OF THORNS (-2745 I.R.)
After Errun drove the Joruri from Arketor, a tentative peace was formed as both sides reinforced their holdings. Errun was crowned Emperor, and his banner, a thorny stem wound into a wreath, gave name to the new age, which saw frequent skirmishes between the two nations and high levels of covert action (Uzeiru and Mirage, the predecessor of Ghost, were both founded during this period), but few substantial clashes.
AGE OF RECONQUEST (-2709 I.R.)
After thirty-six years of tension, Emperor Jerrasar, Errun's son, launched a full scale war against the Joruri, eventually retaking Esora-Damros II and III after decades of fighting. The war ended with a treaty guaranteeing each side sovereignty over their respective systems.
SECOND ERA ARGENT (-2681 I.R.)
The hundred year pax imperio following the reconquest. This period was marked by trade between the two systems as well as scientific and artistic advancements.
FIRST ERA OBSCURE (-2574 I.R.)
After a century of progress, certain factions in the empire began worrying that their civilization had grown complacent and were allowing decay to take root from within. During the Era Obscure, a conservative mindset dominated, and there was much persecution of intellectuals, artists, and other free thinkers. It was during this time that the spy organization known as the Black Mask was created (originally with the purpose of rooting out “deviants”).
ERA RENAISSANT (-2452 I.R.)
This short-lived age began when the Seventh Obscure Emperor announced, upon his ascension, a series of drastic reforms. He planned to abolish the caste system, disband the Black Mask, and institute a democratic assembly. His plans met with considerable opposition and after two years he was assassinated (by the Black Mask, according to popular legend, although this was never confirmed).
TIME OF THE PHOENIX (-2450 I.R.)
A period during which the reforms of the previous era were repealed and the empire reverted to its traditional state.
AGE OF BLOOD (-2417 I.R.)
One of the most destructive periods in the empire's history which began when the Second Phoenix Emperor died unexpectedly in the seventh year of his reign. His only son, Nothai, was still a child, so his wife attempted to take the throne as Regent. Rival factions opposed this move, using Nothai as a rallying figurehead, they demanded the empress dowager abdicate. She refused and a civil war ensued. The ensuing conflict raged long after the contenders' deaths, whose demises muddied the issue of succession even further. The Joruri capitalized on the turmoil to invade, again annexing Esora-Damros II and III. The era of instability finally ended when Warleader Dolata consolidated control of the Empire's world and ascended as the First Regrowth Emperor.
AGE OF REGROWTH (-2335 I.R.)
During this period, the empire concerned itself with healing the divisions carved by the preceding decades of mayhem. Many Aggosian holidays and festivals date to this age as the Kuzri tried to reharmonize the populace.
TIME OF RETRIBUTION (-2306 I.R.)
A time of prolonged expansion when the empire turned its attention to reclaiming the territory lost during the Age of Blood. It waged various campaigns against the Joruri and eventually reconquered all of its former territory.
TIME OF RECONCILIATION (-2248 I.R.)
A period where the empire focused on acculturating the inhabitants of the reclaimed areas, many of whom had grown up knowing only Joruri civilization.
AGE OF CONQUEST (-2213 I.R.)
The Aggosians launch a full-scale invasion of Kolyos. After decades of fighting, they eventually conquer their neighbor. The conquered peoples are brought into the empire as Vaska, and Aggosians of other castes migrate to the conquered systems to fill the vacant roles left by the newly enslaved.
THIRD ERA ARGENT (-2165 I.R.)
As the conquered are assimilated into the empire, unity grows and Aggos experiences another pax imperio.
AGE OF SPIRITS (-1933 I.R.)
An age which began when the Eleventh Third Argent Emperor ordered the Kuzri to oversee regular sacrificial rituals to weaken the Obelus in hopes of resuming interstellar travel. The rituals did not soften the Obelus enough to allow people to pass through, but they were enough to allow spirits of the between to wriggle in. These spirits took various hosts as their anchors (sentient and inanimate alike) including the Emperor. Consequently, the spirits gained considerable power and influence, eventually becoming the dominant class in the empire with all others treated as subordinate.
The age ended in its 999th year when the then immortal emperor (the First Spirit Emperor, formerly the Eleventh Third Argent Emperor) was overthrown by a small group of rebels led by princess Earri and the spirit possessing him was imprisoned in the Pillar of Esertaiarra, a column of stone etched with seals to bind the spirit to it which was hidden in a cave on the icy dwarf planet of the same name.
TIME OF EXORCISM (-934 I.R.)
After the coup d'etat, Earri ascended the throne and began a process of exorcism and imprisonment, trapping the other corrupting spirits on Esertaiarra.
ERA VOLANT (-920 I.R.)
Earri, The Exorcism Empress, was one of the innumerable daughters born to the First Spirit Emperor during his millennium on the throne (he had so many progeny, that nearly all modern Aggosians of the Zemna caste can claim him as an ancestor). With so many children and no intention of ending his rule, the Spirit Emperor had never groomed any of his offspring in the art of governance. As such, Earri had spent her youth training with the warrior arm of the Zemna. After her coronation, she proved to be ill suited to ruling, resorting to martial solutions too regularly. This led to various rebellions and assassination attempts, and fourteen years into her reign, she was slain, dying without an heir. Various warlords arose, many being other children or descendants of the Spirit Emperorn, and vied for control of the throne. This era of turbulence and instability lasted for over a century, with no contender able to hold the throne for long, let alone unite the empire.
FOURTH ERA ARGENT (-755 I.R.)
Eventually emperor Amkaru reunited the empire and ushered in a long period of peace and prosperity.
TIME OF BLADES (-596 I.R.)
A period of internal conflict as the Wa'eri separatist group begins a guerrilla campaign for independence on Joru.
AGE OF VIGILANCE (-532 I.R.)
After the defeat and dissolution of the Wa'eri, the empire began a period of militarized watchfulness where the Black Mask was given considerable power to make sure no other separatist group arose.
AGE OF UPHEAVAL (-516 I.R.)
Rather than stamping out secessionist elements, the oppression caused by the Black Mask lead to the assassination of the Second Vigilance Emperor in the second year of his reign. This sparked a war of succession as various warlords vied for power. Rebels led by Rusarka, a master of the Xa'an discipline known as Falas, seized control of Joru and declared independence. They were challenged by Demerna, a master of the Xa'an discipline known as Sefthar, who had consolidated power in the remaining worlds of the empire. The war ended with the Treaty of Thrones, establishing the duumvirate under which the empire was divided between two rulers, the Rahaza emperor who practiced Falas and urged personal freedom and the Raza emperor who practiced Sefthar and urged restraint. This agreement ushered in the Age of Thrones.
AGE OF THRONES (-468 I.R.)
One of the longest uninterrupted periods of Aggosian history, the age of thrones was a time of stability and regrowth, broken only briefly by the First Denna Tayiri Uprising.
TIME OF SHADOWS (26 I.R.)
At the end of the Age of Thrones, the 49th Thrones Rahaza Emperor attempted to disband the Black Mask, feeling that they were no longer useful or trustworthy. The Black Mask refused, instead going underground and fighting a shadow campaign of assassination and blackmail against the state. Eventually, the last leader of the Black Mask was reported captured and the campaign of terror ended.
ERA JUBILANT (42 I.R.)
A period of optimism and extravagance as the nation emerged from the pall of the Time of Shadows.
ERA MYSTIC (75 I.R.)
Upon his coronation, the Third Jubilant Raza Emperor proclaimed that the hedonism of the Era Jubilant had exceeded standards of decency and decreed a new era of contemplation, meditation, asceticism, and spirituality, crowning himself the First Mystic Emperor. This period led to great improvements in the Aggosian understanding of the Between, Spirits, and An.
AGE OF SPLENDOR (119 I.R.)
After the contemplative Era Mystic, the empire entered a materialistic phase during which monumental architecture saw a huge upswing in popularity. This period of intense infrastructure construction saw the erection of great monuments and wonders.
TIME OF BONES (177 I.R.)
A period of intense conservatism that gripped the empire. The Time of Bones had been brewing for some time, but it officially began with the back-to-back ascensions of Raza and Rahaza emperors who both ascribed to the Prophecy of Bones, a prophecy made by Eunok, a particularly conservative Kuzri. The new emperors instituted many reforms designed to return the empire to an earlier, “purer and more traditional” state. These reforms, while popular and backed by Eunok's faction of the kuzri, still met considerable opposition. The conflict between the two reached a breaking point when the emperors repealed the Treaty of Rebirth, the treaty that institutionalized the Ritual of Rebirth. This, along with general dissatisfaction with the direction the empire was taking, led to the Second Denna Tayiri Uprising (although it did not begin at Denna Tayiri, it was named in honor of the original rebellion). Unlike the original Denna Tayiri Uprising, Aggosians of all castes joined in, and a true civil war broke out. After years of fighting, the conservative Royalists defeated the progressive Nationalists. In the aftermath of the war, the emperors carried out a vicious program of “cleansing” in which anyone suspected of having been a Nationalist was demoted, sent to a work camp, or executed. This lead to a dark age in the empire during which technological advancement halted (and in some cases regressed) and artistic and creative freedom was nonexistent. A great deal of knowledge was lost during this period. After a century, the Prophecy of Bones fell out of favor, and the empire slowly began to return towards its former glory. The Time of Bones officially ended in 283 I.R. when the Kuzri ruled that Orunen's film A Stillness of Violet, could be shown and that she would not be imprisoned for her work's “immoral” elements.
ERA VIOLET (283 I.R.)
Named after the film that ushered it in, this era was a time when the arts flourished as the empire emerged from the repression of the Time of Bones. It became a time of hedonism and revelry that eventually gave way to a more serious time of great technological and artistic advancement.
Erthai Rebellion: A reactionary rebellion launched in 289 I.R. in response to the “moral decay” of the Era Violet, the rebellion was quickly crushed by the First Violet Rahaza empress.
AGE OF DISCORD (322 I.R.)
The Era Violet came to a close with the ascension of the Third Violet Raza Emperor (who soon became known as the First Discord Raza Emperor), who was determined to bring the empire back to a more conservative state. A former general, he expected his orders to be carried out without question. But his conservative reforms met with considerable resistance from the more liberal members of society (who were supported by the Second Violet Rahaza Empress). The Raza Emperor turned to coercion and military force to ram his reforms through, which led to violent opposition. Civil war broke out as the two emperors vied for dominance. The chaos increased when the fractured Dozhan were unable to name successors for either emperor leading to long period of balkanized feudalism and short lived regencies by various warlords. Eventually, two warlords grew strong enough to ascend to the twin thrones and order was restored.
TIME OF CAUTION (560 I.R.)
After centuries of instability and war, Aggosians were slow to open back up. The reign of the first new emperors in almost 250 years were tentative as they slowly tried to soothe the wounds and animosities which had built up over the Age of Discord, but in effect, very little happened during this period other than some infrastructure projects and trade deals.
SECOND ERA VIOLET (611 I.R.)
As the younger generations who grew up untouched by the wars of the Age of Discord began to dominate society, the caution of the previous age was forgotten and an explosion of artistic and economic activity ensued.
TIME OF PRIVATION (639 I.R.)
The excesses of the Second Era Violet led to an economic collapse. Which saw mass migration and the widespread separation of the wealthy from the poor as the haves began protecting themselves from the starving masses by withdrawing to walled urban palaces and rural estates. Criminal gangs began openly controlling territory.
TIME OF DISCIPLINE (664 I.R.)
The Second Privation Raza and Rahaza Emperors took action to restore stability. They moved in the army, declared martial law, and put people to work on infrastructure projects. Any deviation from the Emperors' design was aggressively stamped out. The tight control stifled the already weak economy, and eventually the empire could not maintain its building projects, leaving hundreds of millions without work.
SECOND AGE OF BLOOD (679 I.R.)
Eventually the lower and middle echelons of the wealthy became sufficiently squeezed by the weak economy to be unable to continue to occupy their positions of status. This lead to civil war as impoverished nobles turned to banditry, raiding the estates of wealthier nobles. When the army was deployed to capture these outlaws, it saw high levels of desertion as the heavily underpaid soldiers decided they were better off turning bandit themselves. Many wealthy Zemna and Himnar took advantage of the chaos to annex properties becoming even richer.
TIME OF REST (788 I.R.)
Exhausted from a century of internecine violence and with the higher levels of society sufficiently thinned out to support a lavish lifestyle on its available revenue, the nation settled into an uneasy peace. Inequality remained high, however, as the civil war had increased the land holdings of the wealthiest citizens leaving less for the poor. Zemna whose families had owned lands before the Second Age of Blood were now renters. Jilad and Himnar whose families had owned their own businesses now worked for a boss. Noftha who had owned their own farms and workshops now worked another's land. The reduced population meant that the job market was strong enough for employers to have to pay decent wages, which, combined with war weariness, managed to stave off insurrection.
TIME OF MIGHT (813 I.R.)
As the population increased, more competition for jobs lead to lower pay. This depressed the economy, and lower level Zemna again began to feel their status slipping. Sensing a repeat of the Second Age of Blood, the emperors launched a redistributive plan in which they, backed by an army of impoverished Zemna, forcibly dispossessed and imprisoned the wealthiest members of society. They then redistributed the expropriated property to the poor, creating a wide base of support among the populace. Under this regime, the economy began to improve for the first time in centuries.
FOURTH ERA ARGENT (825 I.R.)
Fueled by a booming economy, a reasonable gap between the rich and poor, and a general hopefulness of the future, the empire entered another pax imperio during which innovation and art flourished.
SECOND ERA OBSCURE (990 I.R)
As with the First Era Obscure, the Second Era Obscure was a period during which conservative elements of the empire took over and, worried that the empire's prosperity was stifling its moral core, began a campaign of disenfranchisement for the artists and intellectuals of the empire and instituted policies with austere, religious asceticism in mind.

Technological Level

Aggos makes heavy use of biotech including biological spacecraft. These vessels were engineered by the Royal Artificers Society from local space creatures to maximize their manipulation of An and create livable interiors.

Foreign Relations

The Aggosians have a mission on Abyn Station but otherwise lack close ties with any nation.
They are generally mistrusted due to their heretical beliefs and their ongoing proxy war in Torazia.
Their martial might has so far deterred any further crusades against them.
They have a deep animosity for the Be'ali due to their practice of self mutilation.

Transcendence Through Order

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Alternative Names

Aggos

Demonym

Aggosian

Power Structure

Unitary state

Currency

Silver Tael

Controlled Territories

• Arketor (Esora-Damros I)

Neighboring Nations

• Rekati Hegemony