Iyō
The Empire and eventually Queendom of Iyō was an ancient and influential civilization in Waking Materia's Early First Age. It reached its peak under the rulership of a powerful and brilliant Queen Regent who would eventually become the Material demigoddess of night, pride and assassins, Asphodel. At its height, it was likely the third most powerful nation on the plane after the Kelpeater and New Rozsan Empires, spanning much of Materia's lower Alpha Quadrant and upper Beta Quadrant. It was the first nation to break away from a colonial empire, several hundred years before the Great Fractionation, where most such societies originated.
Iyō's capital would have been found in the colossal jungles of the Emerald Expanse, possibly the modern city of Emeralda in Khayyam.
Substantial aspects of modern Maraian and Khayyamite society are likely rooted in Iyōan culture, with particularly direct influence found in the "living fossil" culture of the Chiyō clan. Less direct descendents include the Oronaga (though now heavily mixed with drow culture), the Izuka and the Dolaghan. Independent tribes of neo-Iyōans still exist scattered throughout the Endless Jungles, however to avoid the forced assimilation of the Oronaga, they are highly reclusive.Description
See also: The Iyō Image Gallery (External)
or: The Chiyō Image Gallery (External)Timeline
The Empire of Iyō was first established by the Lichlord and Colonial demigod Io'a, after abandoning his command in the Kelpeater Empire to avoid facing his God-Emperor's discipline for military failures against the Naru and Umeki peoples under the command of 'The Knight of Petals', Hanavira-no-Kishi. The exact date of Io'a's defection and Iyō's establishment is unknown, but likely occurred in the early 200's I.M..
Building his own ziggurats and garrisons in the Emerald Expanse, Io'a ruled for at least a few decades, until presumably one of Ina'ut's assassination attempts succeeded. Both Kelpeater and early Maraian texts confirm leadership of Iyō then fell to Io'a's long-time Number Two, Ka'arthon the Quester, however this regime changed marked the beginning of a steady decline for the Alanthian diaspora. After a string of weak leaders, the vibrant but feral Iyō would stagnate over the following decades.The Ap'shetran Dynasty
This decline would continue for multiple centuries, until rulership fell to a previously obscure but brilliant Queen Regent named Ap'shetra of Saulot at the beginning of the 5th Century I.M.. She appears to have achieved Lichdom, whereupon she would rule for nearly four centuries until her ascension to local demigodhood and later abandonment of her rule, around I.M. 766. Without the Assassin Queen's guidance, nation rapidly fell, as its predecessor did, to civil war. It does not appear to have recovered from the second decline.
Nonetheless, under Ap'shetra's rule, Iyō experienced an explosion of prosperity, modernization and territorial expansion, both into proto-Marai on one front and Alanthan'aravaut on the other. It became a symbol of freedom from the stern gaze of the Kelpeater Empire's God-Emperor and grew from a steady supply of emigrés and sympathizers, some even from the faraway holdings of the New Rozsans. Much of the surviving art, literature and architecture of Iyō comes from the Ap'shetran Period.Aftermath
Some of the Iyō would eventually be subsumed into the Maraian Clans of the Lowlands and Emerald Expanse, particularly the modern Chiyō, Izuka, Dolaghan and Oronaga. Scattered remnants of Io'a's kingdom, for example the Aiyō and Ukyō, have retreated further into the Expanse to maintain their freedom. The Ukyō peoples have a tense but peaceable relationship with the arborial Ong peoples to the far Voidwest of the Endless Jungles.
Banner: Ap'shetra of Saulot (who would eventually become the demigoddess of night, Asphodel), performs the Ritual of the Asp (Illus. Seb McKinnon).
Profile: Interpretation of Middle 14th Century western Iyōan armour, prior to the Ap'shetran Dynasty, also known as the Lagoon Iyōans. These people were the early ancestors of the modern Chiyō.
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