Old Pale Empire
The Old Pale Empire is the only power structure to have ever attained full control over all the habitable lands and islands of Magicians' End. It lasted for an incredible four and a half thousand years and acted as the defacto world government for the last three thousand of them. It takes its name from the small provincial town of Pale on Pale Lake in eastern Myruthea. The town itself was never the capital and never strategically or economically important, but as the site where an earlier treaty had been signed in the age of the Unification Wars that preceded the formation of the Empire, it carried a certain neutral symbolic significance which all parties could unite around.
Structure
The Emperor or Empress held supreme authority in the Empire and was always able to take the final decision in any controversial matters. Immediately below them was the Lightstaff, the offical spokesperson for the Ecclesia, the debating and law making chamber which set much of the long and medium term policy for the Empire.
In military matters, the army, navy and combat mages, formed three services, led by the Field Marshal, the Fleet Admiral and the Prime Arcane, who all reported to the Emperor or Empress.
Civilian governors were given responsibility for large geographical territories and could call on the services of locally based armies and navies. There was one of these for each of the major continents of Myruthea, Punjuki and Tinturbean. Below the regional governors, city mayors were expected to handle the day to day business of individual cities and there was no one prescribed system to determine how the role was allocated. At different places and times, the mayors might be elected, they might be hereditory representitives of the local aristocracy or they might be external appointments. The methods they used to run their cities were officially of indifference to the Emperor, so long as they paid the required taxes and contributed to collective security.
History
Note : Because the Old Pale Empire plays such an important role in the history of Magicians' End and existed for such a long time, there is a dedicated timeline associated with this article, which you can find at the bottom of the page. It provides a more comprehensive list of events that were important within the Empire but perhaps not significant enough within the greater history of the world to be included on the higher level historical overview for Magicians' End and its overarching timeline.
The age of the Pale Empire officially began when Hanrith I declared himself Emperor on 14th Authon, 4542 BPC, following the surrender of the city of Tylisfort, to the combined forces of an alliance which by this time already consisted of all of the major cities in the north and east of Myruthea. In an astute and carefully prepared poltical move, Hanrith, a former general from Klaractazum, was able to announce the formation of the Empire through the medium of a document called "The Declaration of the Domains of Greater Pale", proclaimed on 14th Authon 4542 BPC, which had the overt and covert support of leaders of opinion and key military figures throughout the former alliance.
His capital was the central plains city of Zalgurim, a pragmatic choice in a location with good communications to all parts of the new Empire.
Hanrith offered powerful positions for his supporters within a new governing structure, headed by a body called the Ecclesia and his coup against the existing leaders within the member city states, was achieved with only some token resistance. Most were happy to be given roles inside the Ecclesia and those that did object were ruthlessly suppressed. When Emperor Malgern took power in 4518 BPC, however, some political tensions had re-emerged and he felt the time was right to use a traditional technique for uniting his people by cementing their loyalty against a common enemy. He made sure to make one very quickly and began a short war with the Jebbin League, the only other significant power block on the continent which had remained independent of the Empire. This culminated in the battle of Jebbin Bay on 19th Tivith 4514 BPC, after which the League surrendered and any remaining doubts about the Empire within the founding cities, vanished in the euphoria of a military victory.
In 4490 BPC, the Empire made an ambitious and naked power grab, when it sought to annex northern Punjuki, launching the Northern Punjuki Campaign in an ultimately successful effort to gain full control of the phryne trade and the other rich resources that could be found on the southern continent.
Thirty years after the end of the wars in Punjuki, Empress Galea initiated a fresh expansionist war, when she looked to the west, wishing to gain control over Tinturbean. Once again, the motive was profit for a rich mercantile class who resented the terms of trade which they were obliged to accept according to the rules of the New Western Allies and the Trinity Moon Resurrection, two of the more powerful political forces governing in Tinturbean at the time. The Tinburbean Wars would last for twenty eight years, before they concluded with the effective conquest of the contintent with the surrender of the city of West Anchor.
In 4414 BPC the Empress turned her attention towards the far north of Myruthea. The land here had been buried under deep ice for many years after the Sundering and the towns and cities that were once to be found here were, in many cases, little more than ruined foundations. Roads had been destroyed, farmland flattened, the course of rivers were altered and the countryside that had returned, though beautiful again was wild and would have been utterly unrecognisable to those who had lived here in ages past. It was time to think about building here again and work began in what was left of the once famous town of Peld on the northern coast. In truth, hardly anything remained of the original settlement and it was really the making of a new town which shared little other than a name and a location with the old one, but it was an important step in the ongoing reclamation of these lost lands.
During the reign of Emperor Dravidik I, which began in 4382 BPC, the Empire was still suffering from some of the problems of social cohesion produced by its relatively recent and rapid expansion. Dravidick I promoted the Imperial Faith as a partial solution and in the years that followed, it would come to act as a unifying cultural force, providing a sense of identity for the citizens and helping to hold the Empire together.
In 4332 BPC, Admiral Romein launched a famous expedition from the port of Peld to revisit Zisleth for the first time since the Sundering. Surprisingly, he found the old ruins of the Kingdom of Snowborne in a better state than the ravaged lands of northern Myruthea and Tinturbean had been. It was theorised that being at the very epicentre of the effects of the Sundering, it had oddly left less of an aftershock, as though the eye of the storm was protected from its worst effects. Nevertheless, Iceholt and the Axial Tower were undeniably very badly damaged, uninhabited and uninhabitable. After a survey of the coast and the remaking of maps, Zisleth was left alone. It was clear that the deep cold which had retreated elsewhere, still haunted the polar continent, and any ideas the Empire might have had about recolonising the ancient Kingdom of Snowborne were abandoned. The modern climate was simply too inhospitable.
Between 4281 BPC and 4274 BPC, the Empire pushed its frontiers south in the Southern Punjuki Campaign, completing the conquest of the continent. The southern settlements were smaller and less powerful than the northern cities and it was a relatively easy military success for the much stronger Empire.
In 3920 BPC there was an uprising on the continent of Tinturbean which had been fueled by resentment about taxation levels and a perceived lack of representation within the Ecclesia. "Tinturbean First", a popular movement with supporters in all the major cities, attempted to take control of the ports and began by burning ships in the harbour at Tarris.
After a number of targetted assasinations, there was an open rebellion which took eight years for the Empire to quell.
Between 3292 and 3286 BPC, the Old Pale Empire Road was constructed, providing a direct route over the Eroveth Mountains and better links between the western and eastern halves of Myruthea. Over time, this road altered the balance of power within the cities of the Empire, favouring the previously less well developed western regions which already had good access to Tinturbean and could now maintain good connections with the traditional centres of power in the east and with Punjuki. In 3120 BPC, the capital was moved from Zalgurim to the city of Honirham by Emperor Dravidik IV, an acknowlegement of its central location across all three continents now controlled by the Empire.
The War of the Three Sisters, which broke out in 2833 BPC, was a four year civil war for the succession of the Empire, which shocked commoners and aristocrats alike with its surprising ferocity. The linked article has a detailed history and timeline for this particularly noteworthy and bloody episode in the Empire's history.
The era between the end of the War of the Three Sisters and the Planar Conformation marks the longest period of sustained world peace which Magicians' End has ever known. For more than two and a half thousand years there was a steady increase in standards of living and the trappings of civilisation, uninterupted by the spasms of war or rebellion. This is known as the golden age of the Empire and many who lived through these years often thought fondly of the era, as if it characterised the whole glory and honour of the Empire, even to the point where they could forget its violent beginnings. In a brief history such as this one, which might seem to lurch from one war to another, it may seem that there is little to talk about here. It was a time of mainly civil actions when the Ecclesia took more and more power from the Emperors. It was a time when artistic and sporting achievements were celebrated over military ones and when improvements in transport, celebrity weddings and criminal trials made all the news. You may see these on the Empire timeline at the bottom of the page, but they are not momentous enough to trouble the main timeline of the world history of Magicians' End. Yet an event was coming that would shake the world to its core and bring a final end to the Old Pale Empire...
Magicians' End - Tarris - Ship Burning by DMFW with Midjourney
Disbandment
The Planar Conformation, an event of much wider significance in a range of proximate Geometries within the Discontinuum had specific and dramatic effects within Magicians' End.
Firstly and most obviously, it resulted in the incursion of a new unnatural continent, which arrived without warning in the middle of the Orothonian Ocean. This was initially given the name Novanoir, but it soon became more popularly known as the Dark Domains. Secondly and more subtly, but with profound implications in the long term, the Laws of Form were altered in a way that affected the operation of magic throughout the realm.
The seven years after the appearance of Novanoir were chaotic and frightening for everyone on Magicians' End. As the geography stablised, raiders from the Dark Domains, started to make tentative moves over the ocean, and they were not human.
Within a mere seven years, a political structure which had endured for more than four and half thousand years and unified the peoples and cultures of the entire world, was brought to utter ruin. The details of these last tumultous years are described in the article about the Fall of the Old Pale Empire.
DISBANDED/DISSOLVED
Peace through Strength
4542 BPC - 7 APC
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Ruling Organization
Leader Title
Founders
Government System
Monarchy, Absolute
Power Structure
Transnational government
Economic System
Traditional
Legislative Body
The Ecclesia acted as the legislative body of the Old Pale Empire for the majority of the time when it was the dominant power, although on occasion, the Emperor / Empress excercised direct authority, imposing legal changes unilaterally or with the aid of a much smaller council of advisors.
Subsidiary Organizations
Location
Related Ranks & Titles
Controlled Territories
Notable Members
- Admiral James Jenson
- Admiral Thomas Manning
- Captain Erin Quade
- Emperor Caebrin
- Emperor Dravidik I
- Emperor Hanrith I
- Emperor Leonard I
- Emperor Myrold II
- Empress Galea
- Empress Kathryne
- Fergus Lewis
- Field Marshall Gerald Cartwright
- Fleet Admiral Henry Hudson
- General Evan Peterson
- General Oakus Fielding
- Kyrald Stibb
- Lady Pelle
- Major Thomas Wildheart
- Princess Acetta
- Princess Beatrice
- Princess Cecilia
- Thomas Frandham
- Xandra Omuthe
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