The Third Empire (475 AV to 136 AM)

Formation and Rise

Expansion and/or Reform

Hegemony and/or Stagnation

Collapse

Author's Notes

The Third Sunarian Empire: While Sunar may have been stable, it was none the less incredibly expensive to retain control over. The distances involveoften took weeks to months to travel and as Na'tal returned in strength so too did the risks by sea travel. Furthermore, the elite Valoni of Sunar had by the collapse of Valone, grown so wealthy that they rivaled the power of their counterparts in the capital. It would come as no surprise that as soon as the Valoni Empire began to collapse in 1010 SD, they were the first to support an independent Sunar. With contact with the north broken, and the local legions without pay or orders, it would be those same aristocrats who gave them employment, as personal armies. With these legions they ensured the obedience of the local people, and in 1018 proclaimed one of their own as Emperor of the Third Sunarian Empire. Ruled for the entirety of its history by Valoni, the Third Sunarian Empire, was hardly Sunarian. Basing itself almost entirely upon the idea of Valoni Imperi, the only aspect that bore any resemblance to the previous Sunarian system, was the idea of the ruler being given deity like status. This was of course limited to the locals. Valoni elite retained sizable power alongside the Emperor, serving as a sort of pseudo oligarchy in which they and the Emperor maintained equal, but largely unofficial power. This status was by an large supported by the privatization of the remaining Valoni legions. One surprising aspect of the Third Empire, would be the existence of female empresses. Traditionally there had never been a female Valoni or Sunarian empress of either empire, however, due to the unusual rise of Empress Lucrata I and the stability of her reign, the path was paved for future empresses. Taking the mantle of empress in 1108 SD, Lucrata, broke the patriarchal control over Sunar that had existed since time immemorial. She did this, by first outliving her husband, the Emperor Vestragian II, with which she had given him one son. Serving as regent for this young, infant emperor, Lucrata ruled in his name for a few years, before he too would die in childhood, leaving no clear successor. Having already managed the Empire in the young boy's name for a span of time, the numerous elite, reluctantly backed her rise to empress, and forever after, established the precedent that would allow numerous female rulers to rise in Sunar. There would be two empresses later in the Third Empire, Lucrata II (the first's daughter), and Iacora (of a separate dynasty during which time, women would inherit in cases in which no direct male heir existed. Alongside them would be Anipara I and II of the Fourth Empire, in which the system of succession would change yet more drastically, allowing women to inherit, regardless of younger male relatives.