Difference between revisions of "The Warmaster"

Revision as of 21:31, 21 September 2007

The Warmaster

Flag of The Warmaster
Motto: "Blood Is, Blood Was, and Blood Shall Always Be"
[1]
Region	Gholgoth
Capital	Korronis
Official Language(s)	Kregaian, English, Latin
Leader	Sacred Emperor Lucifer I
Population	5.294 billion
Currency	Imperial denarius
NS Sunset XML

The Sacred Imperial Dominion of the Empire of the Warmaster, almost always abbreviated to 'the Kregaian Empire' or 'the Warmaster', is a large nation consisting of the island continent, Kregaia, and the Empire's overseas territories. The Empire is the term used for the territory and citizenry of Kregaia and its territories; the Kregaian Imperium is the massive, all-powerful government that rules it. The Imperium consists of, among many things, the College of Priests, the Inquisition, the Kregaian Imperial Armed Forces, the Council of Prefects, and the separate Ministries that govern the Empire; it is headed by a single absolute ruler whose edicts are backed up with divine authority: the Sacred Emperor. The Empire has a powerful, free-market economy, a disciplined and vast military, and a reputation abroad as being harsh, arrogant, and merciless. It is almost seventeen centuries old, and has been a world power for most of that period. In the past few decades, the Imperium was marginalized, but under the reign of Sacred Emperor Lucifer I, the Kregaian Imperium retook its place among the world's true mighty, as a member of the CAD and an ally of many of the world's most powerful nations. After his death in the Succession Wars, the new Sacred Emperor Ishamael took the Imperium on a very different path, becoming more moderate and joining Gholgoth. Time will reveal how these reforms develop.

History

Early History

The tradition of the Imperium stretches back thousands of years, to the ancient city of Troy. As classical legend relates, at the fall of that city the Trojan prince Aeneas fled, wandering for seven years until he landed in Italy and founded the race that would go on to become Roman. Centuries later, his descendant Romulus founded the city of Rome itself and became its first king. His family became extremely prominent during the year’s of Rome’s monarchy and thus had much to lose when the kings were deposed. They viewed the Republic that replaced it as a government of the common rabble, and the Romulii voluntarily left the city.

They wandered for many long years over the world, following omens and prophecies of a land of plenty. Finally they landed at the site later known as Korronis, then a tiny barbarian village, and declared a new Kregaian Empire. Romulus’s descendants had grown into a strong people in their exile, armed with steel weapons and horses. They drove the barbarians out of the southlands with relative ease, and the site of their landing became a thriving port city, strategically placed as it was at the narrow strait into the Gold Sea. The Empire set up their capital there, and waged war against the barbarians for centuries. However, the dark and brooding forests of the icy north held far more vicious inhabitants than the peoples of the south. With a bitter hatred of all things Kregaian, they fought savagely, several times coming within an inch of destroying the Empire. But the Kregaians held firm.

Over the years, the Empire fell into decadence and corruption. The barbarians receded, becoming less and less of a danger, and the Kregaians threatened to buckle under the weight of their own upper class’s godlessness and gluttony. In 287 CE the nephew of the king gave birth to a son, Typhon. Unfortunately for that branch of the family, however, the throne passed to the king’s son, a young man and a weak fool. Typhon was raised to hate his cousin, and yet his cunning, intelligence, and incredible power of command brought him the rank of Imperator, commander of all the king’s armies, at age twenty-four. For three years he endured his cousin’s worthlessness, but on April 8, 314 CE, he and his legions laid sudden siege to Korronis, and after thirteen days the city fell. Typhon killed the king and his inner circle himself, having many of the rest crucified, and declared himself king. The old, corrupt Empire had been destroyed.

That very day, Typhon proved he would be the leader the common people had been praying for. He declared the days of the “Old Empire” over, invoking what he claimed to be his own divine nature to declare himself the first Sacred Emperor of the second Kregaian Empire. He announced that the old Roman gods were lies, and he established the bloody and repressive worship of the Seven True Gods (then six; Typhon’s divine incarnation, the Dragon, is the seventh). He created the Imperium, assembling the administration that he used as a tool to increase his power. Ever since that day, the Imperium has largely provided advice and handled day-to-day matters in the field; the Sacred Emperor reigns supreme by divine right and by the awesome power of the Iron Throne. He formed the Inquisition, to repress heresy and ensure his new religion was universally accepted, and by the end of the first week his power over the Empire was absolute. Soon, His Divine Majesty, Sacred Emperor Typhon the Warmaster, reigned in power and splendor from a massive and sprawling palace as a living god. His destruction of the old ways, his new religion, his limitless power, and indeed all his deeds were cheered wildly by the people. His title, ‘the Warmaster’, has been transmitted to the empire he founded and will likely endure as long as it does.

For a time, a golden age in Imperial history, Typhon led his armies to victory after victory against the barbarian hordes in the north, never once losing a battle and bringing countless more tribes under the Imperial heel. But at age thirty-two, on the night his wife gave birth, he is said to have ascended to Paradise in a titanic storm; it is one fact that historians have never located any of his remains, and there is no reliable alternative story. Imperial religion now holds that Typhon was reborn as the seventh god. Personal effects such as his ceremonial armor, his sword, and his ring (among more) were kept for posterity, and indeed are now intact, property of the Sacred Emperor.

The Steel Emperors

Typhon was succeeded by his son, Vidanus, who continued his father’s expansion in the north. Under him the Council of Prefects, akin to the Roman Senate, took on new powers and relieved him of some of the burden of governing. However, at his death Vidanus left no heir, and the tradition of succession was born. Five High Lords were appointed by the Sacred Emperor during his reign, who upon his death would compete with another and with the Crown Prince to seize the Iron Throne. Mostly this succession is fairly smooth, with negotiation leading to one’s victory; however, at several points in Kregaian history, this tradition has led to devastating civil wars.

Over the next few centuries, until 548 CE, the Kregaian Empire expanded, the Imperium flush with victory after victory. However, the current Sacred Emperor’s death marked a great opportunity for the barbarians in the north. They joined together and surged south as the succession began, ravaging the southlands and even marching to the very walls of Korronis; this period is known as the War of the Northlands, and ended only in 567 CE, when the powerful lord-general Abaddon, later Sacred Emperor Abaddon I, slew the barbarian rulers at the Third Battle of Cadia. During this battle, the city of Cadia itself was razed and many of the Cadians were enslaved, forcing the barbarians another step back.

The next period of strife came in the eighth century; Sacred Emperor Tyran killed his son the Crown Prince in a fit of insanity and took his own life in 714 CE. The five High Lords engaged in a civil war that had never been equaled at the time. The six-year struggle led at last to the accession of Sacred Emperor Azrael, a legendary ruler who was famous for his excellence in all disciplines; where Abaddon had been, in the end, merely a general, Azrael had been a theologian and philosopher, an occupation that gave him an impenetrable calm. He designed temples and buildings, created sculptures, wrote music, and in general his long reign was a golden age for the arts in the Empire. Also, under him the great philosopher Ascanius wrote The Abstractions. However, the dark vein that runs through the history of the Sacred Emperors found him in the end, and he died a decrepit madman, still managing with his last strength to clutch the Iron Throne until the moment his life left him.

Azrael and Abaddon I, as well as many of the stronger rulers of the fourth through eighth centuries, are known as the Steel Emperors, because of the power of the Imperium during their time and their numerous triumphs over the resilient barbarians. The last Steel Emperor was Malustar, whose death at the Battle of Afhan in 832 CE marked the end of that dynasty.

The Seeming End

Malustar’s son, Crown Prince Decian, crushed the High Lords before they even reared their heads, securing the Iron Throne for himself. At the Second Battle of Afhan, he defeated the Dothraki barbarians without fighting, as they were decimated by plague. They fled into their heartlands, and swathes of Dothraki land were settled by Imperial citizens. He and the emperors after him had relatively peaceful reigns.

However, the wars with the barbarians, now easily the most important aspect of Imperial policy, were not over by a long shot, and it was still a fairly even fight. Despite the Legions’ many advantages, the barbarians were cunning, ruthless, and ferocious, every man. It would take the most massive military effort in Kregaian history at the time to finally conquer them. But these times were not for many years to come.

Decian’s successor was Uriel, a hard man but a capable and fair governor who had turned the portion of the northlands under his military command into a model of pacification. Sacred Emperor Uriel transmitted this efficiency to the throne, and re-organized the Imperium. With most of his attention focused on internal reordering, the barbarians assembled in the north. Three years into his reign, with most of his reforms incomplete, they surged south in what was to be their last great incursion in 942 CE. Sacred Emperor Uriel proved his mettle again and again, personally leading battles to try and turn them back, but even though the barbarians suffered horrific losses as countless outnumbered Kregaian armies fought to the last man, they drove south, their numbers seemingly inexhaustible. The barbarians laid siege to Korronis itself for two months. Uriel died in 964 CE with scores of victories to his name, but the great war continued, and for a time it seemed like every Kregaian triumph merely bought them a little more time.

Into this torn Empire strode the figure of Domitian, a pirate-turned-Legionary who had risen to command an entire Legion. The tattered Imperium ordered him to stand and fight at the Battle of Patavium, where he was outnumbered three to one, in a desperate attempt to halt another wave of barbarian forces. Exceeding all expectations, the Thirteenth Legion stood and fought in what is the most famous defensive battle in Imperial history, and when the battle was over, the barbarians had either been slaughtered or fled. Stunned, the weak Sacred Emperor Kaesan declared him Imperator, and a glimmer of hope poked through the darkness of despair. The Thirteenth Legion (Domitian refused to command any other) swelled from volunteers eager to share in the glory of that seemingly-invincible army. Again and again Domitian threw the barbarians back; honors were showered upon him and the veterans of the Thirteenth, but they never distracted the warriors from their grim work. Slowly the southlands were freed from barbarian occupation; though raids and incursions continued, Domitian finally had the resources he needed to launch the great campaign he had been planning for some time.

He took his armies north, grinding away at the barbarian hordes, marching in small, mobile armies that devastated the northern villages and strongholds and reforming them into a grand army only when it served his purpose to fight. The barbarians had no answer to his genius or leadership skills, and never regained the initiative. Domitian was, of course, named a High Lord, and upon Emperor Kaesan’s death, his rivals for the throne bowed before him, knowing it was futile to challenge a man who the masses loved so dearly, who had single-handedly brought the Imperium back to life. Sacred Emperor Domitian fought the barbarians till the end of his days, and finally in his old age the last and most vicious of the barbarian nations, the Sarmatians, yielded to him. The minute their chief signed the treaty that made them slaves, the old emperor drew his sword and threw himself on it, declaring that with the war over he had served his purpose. The barbarians were massacred, and very few of their descendants live today; finally the Kregaian continent was firmly in the grasp of the Imperial fist.

Centuries Pass By

With Kregaia itself secure, the eyes of the Imperium looked abroad for conquests. The tropical islands in the south were conquered with ease; however, the Empire did not reach far overseas. A few petty wars were fought with the natives of what would become Freudotopia, as well as the ancient Doomingslandi. Coastal colonies across the CAD were established; these would be abandoned many long years later.

In general, the Imperium turned introspective. There was little to do. Between around 1000 CE and 1450 CE, the Empire experienced an age of peace, something that had not been present on the Kregaian continent at any previous time. With few men desiring to join the Legions (knowing such a career would be mostly uneventful), there was a large labor pool available in the Empire, and since, unlike the outside world, the concept of feudalism was never developed under the strong centralized power of the Sacred Emperors, large, empire-spanning projects were quite feasible. Needless to say, the uninterrupted flow of wealth during these peaceful times made this financially possible as well. Many of the works of this time can still be seen today, provided they have not been rendered obsolete in some way.

However, when the age of exploration began in the outside world, the Imperium remembered its lust for conquest. Armies set out in the bellies of great ships; vast trading fleets left such ports as Korronis and Slivan for the rest of the world, coming back with holds stuffed with gold, fine cloths, spices, and exotic animals. Slavers and pirates, equipped with letters of marque, plundered nearby countries. The Imperium took slowly to firearms, preferring the more honorable weapons of swords and bows, but when musket-wielding foes started to impede the Imperial colonization effort, the Legions reluctantly began using gunpowder weapons.

In the mid-17th century, however, the Empire became split. A certain Caduceus, a respected leader of the College of Priests, began to preach doctrines increasingly contrary to the orthodox teachings that Typhon had devised so long ago. He became a hermit, condemning the pride of the Imperium and the arrogance of rulers; he declared that the gods had forsaken the Empire for these reasons.

The Caduceite Heresy or Heresies, as they are now called, consisted of a few basic ideas, repeated over and over again in Caduceus’s simple yet stirring oratory. He preached fellowship with foreigners, who had always been regarded as infidels, and acceptance of the rights of the invididual. Thus it is easy to see why the Imperium felt threatened by such a dangerous man.

Unfortunately, the Sacred Emperor of the time foolishly allowed Caduceus a last speech before the execution, and the prophet became a martyr as he walked calmly to his own death. Inquisitorial records at the time state that he never screamed once. Not only had the man died an honorable death, but he had gained a following in his lifetime...one that now turned violent. Heresy had begun to split the Empire, and for the first time (though not the last) the land was divided, into the Imperialists and the Caduceites; the supporters of Typhon’s doctrines and the teachings of Caduceus, respectively. The Imperialists, of course, struck first, and the Great Schism had begun.

For well over a hundred years, the massive civil war dragged on; however, above it all, two things remained seemingly unassailable: Korronis lay untouched by the conflict, and Caduceus’s followers declared again and again they would never surrender, even as the balance slowly tipped against them. The war would finally be ended, in its 126th year, by the efforts of two men: Sacred Emperor Ishamael II and Lord Regent Icarus Halcyon. The two had been friends since infancy, had worked together as youths growing up in the imperial court, and finally Ishamael had been declared Sacred Emperor. Both, of course, were firm Imperialists, and they recognized that the civil war was unwinnable by traditional means. And so they hatched a grand strategy to shatter the heretics and rebuild the Empire in glory. Here, hundreds of years after the musket was adopted, did the gunpowder weapon find its niche in Imperial warfighting. The Lord Regent forced all armies to use muskets and trained them relentlessly, leading them in victory until they had transformed from young men tired of the war into hardened, brutal, vicious professionals; a mold of the ideal Legionary that the Empire had lost during its age of peace. And soon the heretics were being driven back, still screaming their rejection of the Imperialists’ doctrines, until with massacre after massacre, the last of the Caduceites were finally rooted out.

Caducean heresy is basically the antithesis of orthodox Kregaian religion. As everyone in the Western world might use Hitler as the classic example of the embodiment of evil, and Nazism as the most evil of ideologies, so Kregaians learn from childhood that Caduceus is the most insidious of false prophets, and that Caducean heresy is perhaps the greatest of sins. It is the classic philosophy of those disillusioned by the Imperium, and many a prisoner has died shouting his belief in Caducean heresy. This period in history is interesting to those studying Kregaia, because it has lent the Kregaians some very important aspects of their beliefs. Perhaps most important of these is an even greater hatred of heretics than existed before Caduceus’s time. The Imperium has learned its lesson from this bit of history, reinforcing a few tenets of Typhon’s predictions about how to govern the Empire; firstly, they recognized that long peace blunts both the will and ability to fight, and is thus very dangerous indeed, especially to a state that exists, to a great degree, to wage war. Secondly, they saw that they absolutely could not permit conflicts in religious dogma. There would be no foreigners admitted into the country who were not converted to the worship of the Seven True Gods; trade would be done at a distance, by men whose faith was unquestioned, to prevent the insidious advance of foreign religion. The Inquisition was given awesome power over the lives and deaths of citizens everywhere, and it was around this time that High Inquisitor Mandragos wrote his great work, Teachings on the Unclean, which is now required reading for every Imperial citizen. Thirdly and finally, it became plain that the very traits which make the Imperium a savage and terrifying enemy to other states, its exceptional mastery of the arts of war, make civil war in the Empire a devastating and bitter thing, something which must be prevented if at all possible.

Into The Modern World

The Empire was a long time rebuilding after the Great Schism; however, historians mark its conclusion as the beginning of the modern Imperium, a throwback to the days where the only end of foreign policy was the seizure of power through conquest and manipulation, where war was the alpha and the omega of Imperial life. The Empire threw itself wholeheartedly into the Industrial Revolution, and began a program of stripping outlying provinces of their natural resources. The island of Kshar was discovered to be extraordinarily rich in coal and oil, and is still exploited for these today. Corporations and industrial groups gained more and more control over their employees, and unions were banned. The Imperium encouraged the exploitation of the lower class, as the cycle of profit that the megacorporations were extorting from these masses was an important pool of wealth to be taxed. Finally, in scientific terms the Empire was becoming an advanced place. In public schools, higher-level mathematics and sciences were not taught, being left instead to colleges and replaced in the curriculum with “Imperialized” history and philosophy, among others. This ensured that the people who knew these key disciplines like calculus, statistics, physics, and chemistry were those who were ambitious and capable enough to pursue these careers. Such men formed the Empire’s scientific community, and their discoveries were brought to life and distributed by industrial corporations. Their skill led to the Imperium’s first nuclear weapon being exploded in the northlands in 1941.

The twentieth century saw a resurgence in the power of the aristocracy; the clans and Domains, namely, those ancient families which could reliably claim descent from Romulus, became increasingly wealthy. The Council of Prefects, a legislative body of the Empire’s local governors, correspondingly became more powerful at the expense of the Sacred Emperor. This trend is perhaps the most important in modern Imperial history, because it has led to the Imperium as it exists today.

In 1951, Jamand of clan Hord ascended to the Iron Throne after his grandfather’s death. He promised agricultural reform, a new foreign policy, and military reforms. However, from the first year of his reign things went downhill. His reforms, which he had designed himself, made things worse for the average farmer, and it took years for him to admit his mistake and stop stubbornly pouring funds into his programs. Sacred Emperor Jamand’s foreign policy was one of openness and acceptance; admirable traits, perhaps, to a republican democracy, but the very antithesis of the goals of such a despotic regime as the Imperium’s. Openness gave foreigners a chance to understand the Imperium, a thing which makes the Imperium predictable, not to mention one that strips away the aura of mystery around it. Acceptance of others was a complete reversal of Imperial foreign policy, and it showed other governments that Jamand of clan Hord was hardly to be counted among the strong, cruel, and iron-hard tyrants of the Imperium’s past. Numerous groups within the Imperium, like the Armed Forces, the Inquisition, the College of Priests, the Council of Prefects, and the clans, lost all respect for the Iron Throne and began acting as they saw fit. By the 1990's, the dominant Domain Parios began plotting a vast coup. They assembled an army, building up for years, and in the year 2002 they launched their attack.

The Legions, grown soft under Jamand’s incompetence, were stunned. Within days the Parians were attacking the Palatine Peninsula, on their way to assaulting Korronis itself. The other Domains were divided about which side to support, as the Parian rebellion was considered blasphemy...and yet, their hatred for the Sacred Emperor was so great, they were just as ready to support the Parians as oppose them.

High Command called a meeting of the Empire’s best military leaders...and in attendance was one who Jamand had named as a High Lord: Supreme Commander Lucifer of Domain Halcyon. Though not even a general yet, Lucifer had impressed practically everyone he’d encountered as the son of the Patriarch of Domain Halcyon, and his connections and abilities had paid off. The entire nation knew and revered the name Lucifer of Domain Halcyon, and wondered which side he would join in the fighting for. Soon, however, the question was moot.

Lucifer arrived in Korronis surrounded by guards, and stayed one night in the Imperial Palace as the Sacred Emperor’s guest of honor. The next day, the Supreme Commander was granted an audience with his emperor, and at roughly 2200 hours, Lucifer entered the Hall of Confluence. An exchange between the two followed, in which Lucifer insulted and provoked the old ruler, who finally called for the Imperial Guardsmen in the antechamber to arrest this upstart commander. It should here be noted that Jamand himself replaced the Immortals with the Imperial Guardsmen to protect him, suspecting that the Immortals might try to assassinate him. Ironically, had they respected him as a true Sacred Emperor would have enjoyed, their loyalty would have saved Jamand’s life. The Guardsmen rushed in, but instead of arresting Lucifer, they gunned down Jamand’s attendants, and Lucifer himself killed the Sacred Emperor. Setting the Iron Crown on his own head, Lucifer sat down on the Iron Throne and declared himself Sacred Emperor. The most powerful and controversial figure in Imperial history was thus born: the Most Imperial Highness, His Divine Majesty Sacred Emperor Lucifer of Domain Halcyon.

The Age of Lucifer

Sacred Emperor Lucifer then turned on the Parians. He replaced the incompetent field commanders with men of his own choosing, and the Parian tide was stopped. To destroy the enemy, however, he enlisted the scientist Commodus Kwaad. Kwaad designed two things: the Colossus railgun, and the Shavan BioWar virus, and after their production, Lucifer unleashed them both. The entirety of Domain Parios, men, women, and children, both civilian and military, died horrible deaths, and the world got its first taste of the nature of Sacred Emperor Lucifer.

The Sacred Emperor began a vast program to increase the Imperium’s power, and as it developed at home, Lucifer entered into the spotlight abroad. The Feline Catfish Crisis, an affair of nuclear weaponry, was his first issue, and the Sacred Emperor finally demanded an end to Feline Catfish’s nuclear buildup. Next, Lucifer expressed interest in international alliances, joining the famous CAD alliance (an act that has shaped the Imperium’s existence since then) and founding the abortive alliance known as EANI, or the Executive Assembly for Nationalistic Imperialists. The Sacred Emperor, in another attempt to make connections with foreign leaders, met with Psovian and Generian delegates in the First Cigars & Brandy Conference.

Some years into Lucifer’s reign, during which time the Imperium had grown from a minnow on the world stage to an admittedly little-known world power of ever-increasing strength, the democratists who had always objected to the Empire’s religious despotism began to mutter against his rule. The average Imperial citizen rejoiced at the prosperity and security that Lucifer had brought, but some idealists were willing to reject that simply because of its origin in the edicts of a total ruler. Some of the politicians in the Council of Prefects shared this perspective, and finally Lucifer tired of it. He had planned for years to entice a foreign nation into war, a war that the Imperium would win and thus prove to the world that it was now a power to be reckoned with; now he had his chance. The Sacred Emperor arrested and sacrificed dozens of the democratist Prefects in a rite that was perfectly normal to a Kregaian, but the bloodiness and brutality of which would disgust any foreigner. Sure enough, condemnations poured in, and the nation of Czardas prepared to attack.

The Czardaian War, as Lucifer had hoped, was begun by the enemy. The Czardaians sent waves of aircraft over the Empire, but Doomani warriors, assisted by the defenses of the Empire, drove the foreigners back. The Armed Forces were mobilized, and the Imperium prepared to invade Czardas. However, the sinking of the missile submarine Murderer’s Heart off the Czardaian coast, as well as attacks on the allied fleets of Psov and The Parthians, proved that Czardas was protected by an extraordinarily powerful missile- and torpedo-based defense network. An Intelligence team was sent into the Czardaian coastal city of Aurdania to knock out a portion of the network (known as Project CAMERA) and fulfilled its mission by introducing a virus into the control center, although the entire team was killed in the effort.

Fleets from Czardas’s allies, Space Union and The Silver Sky, joined the Czardaian Navy in defending the nation, while Imperial, Parthian, Shenyangi, and Bandurian fleets assembled to break through the defenders and land their troops; Imperial forces alone numbered millions, and there was little doubt that they would easily break the Czardaian armies. Bandurian forces were soon forced to withdraw for political reasons, but to balance this, the same happened to the Unionist and Skyian fleets. The Parthian fleet began bombarding the southern coast before landing its troops, a Freudian fleet arrived and began bombarding the fortified island of Port Khufi, and the Imperial fleet engaged the Czardaian Navy. In a brief but brutal exchange, the defending fleet was forced to flee, and High Admiral Ludo Anor, commander of the fleet, moved to land the Imperial army at the base of the Aurdanian peninsula. This army, under the command of the military genius Lord Rahvin Ares, and following a battle plan devised jointly by him and the Sacred Emperor, moved south to the city of Palma, at the base of the peninsula, while Anor’s fleet sailed north and bombarded the city of Aurdania into ruin.

However, the Imperial fleet, in doing so, put itself within range of CAMERA, and abruptly the system went back online. A vicious barrage of missiles and torpedoes, taking the Kregaians completely by surprise, sunk over two hundred Imperial ships before the fleet could move out of its range. The only comfort came in the form of the Kregaian victories that began flooding in on land...

Lord Rahvin’s army engaged the Czardaian defenses of Palma, which were vastly outnumbered, and the enemy fled to the capital of Czarna, leaving Palma to the Kregaians. Rahvin now held the entire Aurdanian spit, a foothold from which he would launch the rest of his plan. Suspecting that the Czardaians might have mined the areas between Palma and the nearest city, Dera, Rahvin ordered a creeping barrage of artillery (with assistance from the fleet) to sweep the whole area, a tactic that would prematurely detonate any mines in the area. After the sweep was complete, Rahvin’s army marched south to find Dera evacuated, as Aurdania and Palma had been. However, Rahvin’s plan would ensure that no more of the Czardaians fled, very shortly, and he ordered High Admiral Anor to destroy the city of Auru. The city was occupied at the time, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed as the city’s entire population was wiped out by the Imperial bombardment.

The plan called at this point, with success after success in Rahvin’s pocket, for at least an ostensible effort for a peace conference. It would be impossible to deny that the Imperium would hold the upper hand at such a conference, and it was hoped that perhaps the Czardaians would crumble with merely some diplomatic pressure. To ensure cooperation, the 25,000 citizens of the nearby town of Senazkerkia were to be taken prisoner, and so Rahvin declared the town subject to Imperial law and moved to imprison the inhabitants...only to find they’d already fled to vast forests nearby. Angered by their cowardice, Rahvin made another announcement to them, this time declaring that if they didn’t surrender to him within ten minutes, he would kill them all. A spokesperson was quickly elected and sent out to talk to Rahvin; however, instead of the surrender which Rahvin anticipated, the Czardaian informed him that his fellow Senazkerkians had made no decision. In a rage, Lord Rahvin took him prisoner and ordered the fleet to bombard the forest in which the Senazkerkians were hiding. The Pandemonium II incendiary missiles of the fleet razed the forest to the ground in a vast area, killing the Senazkerkians...all but one. Rahvin’s captive was taken back to the Imperial camp, where a broadcasting team filmed his torture by Inquisitors. The footage was broadcast live on Czardaian television, and ended with the prisoner’s agonized death. In a wily move to gather support, the Czardaian government broadcast the video overseas. Neutral nations were shocked at the brutality of the Imperium, and condemnations poured in; however, it was clear at that point that the Legions were increasingly likely to conquer the entire country, and offers of help were dismissed as futile, for who had enough forces to save Czardas from the thousands of CAD warships and millions of ground troops that were destroying it? Allied nations, it must be noted, were either indifferent to or encouraged the torture. Shenyang, a democratic ally of the Imperium, had already withdrawn from the war on the grounds that it couldn’t fight alongside such a brutal ally, and so suffered no additional disgrace because of the Imperium’s actions.

The Czardaians, horrified and enraged, agreed to the peace conference, and Rahvin was literally minutes away from landing in the capital of Czarna when it was heard that the Imperium Doomanum had re-entered the war; immediately upon becoming aware of this, the Czardaian government surrendered. The Czardaian War was over, and the Imperium’s infamy, both for its conquests and its civilian massacres, spread far and wide. Negotiations for the partition of Czardas began, with the enemy's hitherto-absent allies appearing to demand Czardaian independence. The CAD staunchly refused, and the talks were inconclusive.

However, in the years following the Czardaian War, the Empire began to become increasingly dangerous. Terrorist attacks plagued the country, and the Imperium’s efforts to curb the violence proved difficult at best. People feared that the Sacred Emperor himself might be assassinated, and began wondering who would succeed him. The talk centered around several people who, it was felt, were certain to be named High Lords. Each had their merits, and all were famous men; the entire Empire became split over which of them was fit to rule, with various political regions aligning with one of these potential successors. Lucifer, deciding it was better to get the brewing civil war over with, named his five High Lords and let them do as they would. Four (all except for Rahvin) took their factions and seceded from the Imperium, plunging Kregaia into the Succession Wars.

Two fronts became quickly apparent: the border between High Lord Avaru’s and High Lord Ishamael’s lands, and the center of High Lord Asmodeus’s lands. Avaru and Ishamael were the two strongest of the separatist High Lords, and the two most capable. Avaru quickly invaded Ishamael’s territory, and at the Battle of Mazellian, the two clashed for the first time. Avaru lost, but rebuilt his forces, and sure enough, he invaded again soon. Taking a huge army south across the plain known as the Devil’s Dance Floor, he moved to capture Ishamael’s capital and take control of his lands; Ishamael led an army out to stop him, and the two forces battered each other into ruin, reaching a stalemate.

Meanwhile, High Lord Asmodeus plotted, and made his move a few weeks into the Succession Wars. Ishamael had kidnapped Crown Prince Antiochus (who, Imperial law declared, had priority of succession, but historically had almost always been killed by a High Lord) and then sold him to Asmodeus, who tortured him to death in an effort to humiliate Lucifer. Next, Asmodeus took the bulk of his army against the vast fortress complex called the Cadian Gate, a Loyalist bastion in the heart of his realm, augmented by the Jipleastani installation Fort Karik. After days of slaughter on both sides, Asmodeus withdrew, leaving two-thirds of the Loyalists dead and with his army in an utter shambles; not to mention the Mondothian fleets probing at his coastal defenses. Desperately he tried to re-arm, but a few weeks later, a huge army from the Borman Empire crossed into his territory from the south and crushed his defending armies. Days afterward, Mondothian troops invaded from the east; under the strain, Asmodeus went insane as armies converged on his capital.

Similarly, Sacred Emperor Lucifer was becoming more and more insane. Voices in his head had tormented him from the start of the war, particularly the appearance of a demon known as Dispater the Betrayer, laughing at Lucifer and presenting him with visions of his own death. Lucifer was unshaken, but was driven over the edge regardless. By the time he requested Generian armed intervention from their ambassador, Lord Varus Tiberius Alexei, Lucifer was possessed of his usual intellect, perception, charisma, and strength, but also suffered from schizophrenia, paranoia, and other forms of psychosis.

High Lord Jahvan had been an admiral, and was the only High Lord to possess a significant fleet; however, with help from a Jipleastani armada, the Loyalist fleets were able to destroy his, in preparation for a massive ground attack. High Lord Rahvin commanded this invasion, and in a masterful display of tactics, he slipped into Asmodeus’s territory, routed a much larger army, surrounded and slaughtered the army guarding Jahvan’s southern lands, supported an invasion by Boozian forces, rendezvoused with the Boozians and with them destroyed Jahvan’s last mobile forces at the Battle of Gnosis, and moved to capture Jahvan’s capital, Slivan. Meanwhile, a pair of Imperial assassins shot Jahvan to death in his manor.

Back in Korronis, a rogue Inquisitor, Vlad Tepes, organized an assassination attempt on Lucifer, assisted by the Generian ambassador. The attempt failed, and all involved save Varus were killed; his assistance was never proved, but Lucifer refused to see him for the rest of his life. The most important effect of the attempt was that while Lucifer personally chased Tepes, he hallucinated and imagined that Tepes was the Betrayer; when Lucifer killed the Inquisitor, he believed he had killed the Betrayer and was thus invulnerable to betrayal. From this point, his ego and savagery began to increase greatly.

Armageddon: The Siege of Korronis and Fall of Lucifer

In Valgoth, the Mondothian armies had gone home, but the Borman tide continued unabated. The foreigners were overwhelming the defenders of Darius when Asmodeus, determined not to be taken to Lucifer alive, hurled himself from his chamber window. His body was quickly found, and his forces surrendered promptly. To the south, Jahvan's remnant had surrendered as well, leaving the warring Avaru and Ishamael the last rebels standing. In a shocking reversal, the Borman army swept out of Valgoth into Avaru's lands, crushing all resistance; later, it was revealed that the Borman government had instructed them to align with Ishamael, the High Lord with the greatest chance of creating a stable Imperium. Avaru and Ishamael had spent the whole time slugging it out over the Devil's Dance Floor; however, the Borman intervention led to Avaru's capture, and he was executed before Ishamael.

The last phase of the invasion now began. Ishamael raised a huge army, numbering a grand total of almost 5 million men, and took it onto the Palatine Peninsula, marching for Korronis. In Generia, a horde far greater was being prepared, and set sail. Ishamael bombarded the formidable outer defenses of Korronis, opening several entry points for his army; however, he waited for an unknown signal.

In the Palace, Lucifer's sanity was wearing increasingly thin. He had become tired by the voices in his head, wanting only for them to go away; however, he did not achieve even a second's peace, despite the absence of the Betrayer in his visions. He had already seen a premonition of a ravaged Korronis at the outbreak of the war; now he received a prophecy in his dreams, ambiguous as to what the outcome of the battle would be.

Within days, the Generians had landed, and the Kregaians celebrated; there were millions upon millions of Generian troops, enough to sweep Ishamael away. This, they thought, was the end of the Succession Wars. They were wrong. Generia had betrayed the Imperium just as the Borman Empire had; as soon as the Generian vanguard was inside Korronis's formidable defenses (which had been shut down locally as a gesture of good faith), Lord Varus, aboard the Generian flagship, ordered the commencement of Operation Overture, and the Generian forces opened fire. A slaughter ensued, with the Loyalists in the area taken completely by surprise, and the survivors desperately falling back. In the north, at Varus's request, Ishamael renewed his attack, breaking into the city and overwhelming the defenders of the northern district of Asvadran. Finally, a tropical storm broke over the city, which, it turned out, had served to conceal a sizable KLM fleet from satellites. Ottoman forces landed near the district of Verreum, while Loyalists assembled to repel them.

The Generians pressed on, finally encountering organized resistance in the Industrial Quarter; using advanced tactics, better knowledge of the environment, and substantial air support, the Kregaians managed to stall the enemy all through the night, but by the afternoon of the next day, it was clear that the Generians were overrunning the district with their massive numbers. Falling back, the Loyalists wired the district with explosives, and once they were clear, detonated them all at once. The resultant flurry of explosions and collapsing buildings killed countless Generians, driving them onward in rage, though meeting stiffer and stiffer opposition as they moved closer to the Palace. Ishamael was making good progress; he captured the Korronis Defense Command, executing the Head of the Korronis Defense Force personally and overseeing the paradrop of a number of his troops onto the island Financial District. The Ottomans, meanwhile, were bogged down in Verreum, encountering skilled and determined resistance. The reason for the improvement in Loyalist performance was the presence of Lucifer; upon hearing of Varus's betrayal, he had sequestered himself in his chambers, despairing and alone, completely broken. However, in the morning, he decided to fight regardless of the hopeless situation, and assumed command of the battle.

However, as the body count mounted, Ishamael's and Varus's armies converged on the Sacred Precinct. Hundreds of thousands of their enemies fell, but the Loyalists could not hold them back forever, and at length, the Generians broke into the Great Forum and into the Palace itself. The fighting continued even more brutally in the Palace, with the Loyalists using traps, ambushes, and superior troops to kill thousands of Generian attackers. Again, though, there were simply too many, and Ishamael had cut off the remaining Loyalists from the Palace.

Lucifer retreated to the Hall of Confluence, and sat, sitting on the Iron Throne, thinking of the end. The voices nagged at him continually, and all he wanted was peace. Death was right there before him, and Lucifer found himself welcoming it, smiling at it. Suddenly, he saw Varus enter, holding a gun. The two talked, briefly, before Varus fired a single shot into the Sacred Emperor's forehead. Above him, bombardment was shattering the building, and Lucifer lay staring, smiling, as rubble tumbled down. A chunk of rock hurtled down on him, and he died laughing, tears of joy on his cheeks. At last, he had found peace.

Minutes later, Ishamael entered, retrieved the armor of Typhon and the Iron Crown, donning it and sitting reverently upon the Iron Throne, legally ending the Succession and thus the war: there was a new ruler, Sacred Emperor Ishamael IV. Silence fell over the shattered Imperial capital; High Lord Rahvin, whom Lucifer had summoned from Slivan at the beginning of the battle, arrived and willingly went into house imprisonment at Sacred Emperor Ishamael's order. Ishamael was formally crowned days later, followed by the massive ritual that was Lucifer's funeral; tyrant or not, he had been loved as well as feared, and the people mourned the passing of their great god-king, looking up to see Ishamael standing ramrod straight, already assuming an aura of divine command. The Succession Wars were over, and the Imperium rebuilt, awaiting the reign of its new master.

The New Age: The Reign of Ishamael

Culture

Psychology

The average Imperial citizen (excluding the nobility, who are responsible largely for controlling the citizens) is battered so completely into line by the Imperium that they will see any Imperial action as right; Kregaians have been known to willingly accept the destruction of their whole family as a punishment for heresy, trusting the Imperium to do what it must. The indoctrination begins at age four, when the child must attend school, being taught to value the Imperium above all. However, subconsciously, the citizen is tormented; the Imperium can overturn all that is right or should be right, but they are taught that the Imperium's deeds are the definition of right. That repressed inner struggle has to manifest itself somewhere; hence, every few centuries, a devastating civil war erupts, largely as a result of this trend. The Ministry of Pleasure has the task of guiding this subconscious, providing brothels, blood sports, and other entertainment; the priests work on it as well, by redirecting the torment into rage. It should be noted that the agents of the Imperium believe wholly in what they do.

Religion

The Empire is watched over by the Seven True Gods: the Creator, the Modeler, the Preserver, the Deceiver, the Destroyer, the Torturer, and the Dragon. The Creator made the world; the Modeler continues to add to it; the Preserver defends the universe from demons and other threats; the Deceiver manipulates mortals, particularly its worshippers; the Destroyer is the god of war, death, and murder, revered by Legionaries; the Torturer is the patron of the Inquisition, a god of agony; the Dragon is the deified essence of Typhon, loosely described as the god of glory. The last four all demand human sacrifice; prisoners and slaves are used for this task. The Modeler and Preserver require other sacrifices; animals or burnt offerings, usually. Each has countless aspects, with a temple for every aspect (ex: The Avenging Destroyer). The Imperium has one truly sacred book, Twilight of the Gods.

The religious doctrines were written by Typhon the Warmaster, for political reasons; firstly, they allow the execution of prisoners who are expensive to support. More importantly, they justify the Sacred Emperor's absolute power, as each ruler is a living god. But most importantly, it justifies the Imperial need for war. The Imperium requires war to survive; otherwise it must collapse. With the Kregaian doctrines, each soldier is not only professional but empowered by holy rage; more importantly, his enemies are infidels that must be destroyed, and so the Imperium has every reason to be always conquering. If the Imperium stops fighting, its people will lose their main outlet for their repressed anger, and rebel on a massive scale.

The Nobility

The Kregaian aristocracy is a collection of extremely wealthy young families, descended from one Sacred Emperor or another. Many of them have particularly pure Roman ancestry, a fact of which they are extremely proud. The aristocracy can afford to be raised on pure principle: to those who will always have enough money, honor is the most important matter in the world. Thus, aristocrats are popular choices for positions in the Imperium, as they are given an excellent education as well as informal training in economics, strategy, and politics at home. They are also infamously arrogant by foreign standards; to a Kregaian, it's just natural. These only apply to the men, of course: no Kregaian woman receives an equal education, as their mission in life is only to produce new men. Particularly strong women sometimes influence or assist their husbands, but in general women play a miniscule role in the Imperium.

Literature

The Imperium's literature is in limited supply; foreign books are not allowed into the Empire without being approved by the Inquisition first, which is a rare thing indeed. All citizens are required to own Twilight of the Gods and Teachings on the Unclean, and many choose to purchase a copy of the Imperial Codex of Laws, if only to avoid accidentally breaking any out of ignorance. Scholarly essays are commonly read by the educated, first among them The Abstractions of Ascanius the Wise; members of the Inner Court, in particular, are usually allowed to write or read whatever they like, provided none of it is actually published.

The Imperium

The Inquisition

The Inquisition is a vast and powerful institution charged with maintaining the faith of the Empire. It is headquartered in Korronis, in Inquisitorial Headquarters inside the Sacred Precinct. However, it has stations in all of Kregaia's major cities, and there are few places in the Empire where one is 'safe' from the Inquisitors. They have vast legal powers to combat the spread of heresy; they may try, sentence, and execute a suspected heretic, and such actions are practically never called into question. Failing to answer any question put by an Inquisitor is not in itself a crime, but so often results in torture that it can be considered one. Inquisitors may travel with practically any retinue they wish.

Thus, the Inquisitors are a powerful branch of the government, and one necessary for the Imperium's ideological purity; however, they are answerable to higher powers. The council of High Inquisitors, headed by Lord High Inquisitor Kreegan, oversees all the Inquisitors, and if a lord is powerful enough, he may have the influence to control them as well. However, in general the Inquisitors act as they like, within the loose bounds of higher authority.

The College of Priests

The College of Priests is an ancient and influential group, a synod of the high priests of the major temples in the Empire. It consists of several hundred members and is of fairly constant size; there are no term limits, and priests serve in the College for life. They work closely with the Inquisition to determine the extent of heresy, and which beliefs are orthodox; all the members of the College have extensive knowledge of Twilight of the Gods and work to a better understanding of the will of the gods; as they recognize the Sacred Emperor as both a god in his own right and an aspect of the Dragon, the members of the College are known for their fanatical loyalty to the Iron Throne. The College also has the authority to conduct the highest level of sacrifices, reserved for the launching of an army, a coronation, or an Imperial funeral, as well as officially declaring that the gods wish a Crusade. (So far four have been launched; Imperial prophecy holds that the Ninth Crusade will destroy the entire world)

High Command

The Imperial High Command is an assembly of the most influential and talented commanders in the KIAF. Headed by the Imperator (the Head of the Armed Forces), currently Jakran Vuell, the High Command executes the grand strategy that the Sacred Emperor gives them. It consists specifically of the Heads of the divisions of the KIAF (Legions, Navy, Airforce, Immortals, Strategic Command, Imperial Guard), their deputies, and several particularly talented commanders. For example, High Admiral Ludo Anor is no longer the Deputy Head of the Navy, but is on the High Command due to his string of victories in Czardas and in the Succession Wars. The High Command is headquartered in the Palace, in a secure sector referred to as CHARIOT.

Notable personages include: High Admiral Ludo Anor, Lord High General Yataghan, High Lord Rahvin, Imperator Vuell, and Supreme Admiral Admohar Quoreal.

The Council of Prefects

The Council of Prefects has historically served as a sort of Senate, moderating the Sacred Emperor's decree; however, it has never been very successful in this task. By one means or another, every effective Sacred Emperor has cowed the Council and ruled by edict, unhindered by any mortal objection. Furthermore, when the Council HAS achieved authority, they have only been of overall benefit to the Imperium perhaps half the time. The last straw came after Lucifer's accession to the Throne; when he identified the democratist sympathizers in the Council, he acted swiftly: he arrested them and personally oversaw their sacrifice to the gods. This event, as any Kregaian could tell you, began the Czardaian War and sparked the unnatural hatred of Czardaians that endures to this day. The rest of the Council was dissolved, and the Prefects now only meet by special order of the Iron Throne.

The Ministries

The Inner Court

The Sacred Emperor

Since the time of Typhon the Warmaster, the nature of the possession of the Iron Crown has varied greatly. The Sacred Emperor has generally ruled as a despot, aided by the endless mass of the Imperium in his governance of the Empire. He sets policy and determines grand strategy; when he has time, he can intervene more closely in the workings of the Imperium. However, some Sacred Emperors (always the most inept of them) prefer a more democratic style of government, inevitably leading to rebellion and chaos.

The process of becoming Sacred Emperor is complicated. Six men are eligible: the Crown Prince (the Sacred Emperor's oldest son) and the five High Lords (but only if they have been consecrated). The Crown Prince inherits the throne by default unless he is killed, meaning that generally the High Lords team up to kill him so that they have a chance. This sometimes degenerates into a civil war; more often, the High Lords negotiate a solution and one takes the Iron Throne. However, either is perfectly legal under the laws of the Succession. Whichever High Lord is first to sit on the Iron Throne, wearing the Iron Crown and the armor of Typhon (thus legally ending the Succession) will become the Sacred Emperor; or, if he is alive at the current ruler's death, the Crown Prince.

Law

Law in the Imperium can be very harsh at times. Order is kept by the Imperial Guard, a heavily armed police force, and while Imperial citizens are always watched, they have freedom to go about their business relatively unimpeded. However, the moment the law is broken, the Guard swoops in and either hauls the lawbreakers in or obtains a Iussus Exterminas, an order permitting the summary execution of any suspected of association with the crime. Iussi Exterminates have led to the devastation of entire towns. The courts are strict but fair, unless a higher official in the Imperium or a high-ranking lord decides to intervene. This always occurs in cases of heresy; those charged are always convicted. If one is sentenced to prison time, one runs the risk of being appropriated for sacrifice while in prison; any inmate may be taken away and used in a human sacrifice.

Korronis

Korronis is much, much more than the capital of the Empire. Its strategic location overseeing the straits into the Gold Sea guarantees it a place in history, and it has been the center of Kregaian government since the Romans came to the continent. When Typhon took the throne, Korronis was the natural location for the Imperial Palace, as well as the great temples of the Seven True Gods. Each successive Imperial institution housed in Korronis was another argument why the next should be located there as well. By 600 CE, Korronis was the absolute core of the Imperium and the nerve center of all of the Empire.

Logically, this made it an extremely tempting target. The Sacred Emperors realized this and constructed vast fortifications outside the city to guard it against foreign assault; only on a few occasions has an enemy army reached the outer fortifications, and only Ishamael and Typhon himself have led a hostile army into the city. As the city grew and new weapons were discovered, the defenses were pushed outwards and upgraded; today, they consist of several rings of minefields, fortresses, and massive gun emplacements. At the time of the Siege of Korronis, the Korronis Defense Force consisted of around 2.5 million Legionaries alone, along with particularly large numbers of Immortals, given the proximity of the Palace.

Korronis is also one of the largest 'traditional' (non-arcological) cities in the world, with a population estimated near 130 million. It occupies the entire tip of the Palatine Peninsula, as well as part of the Viminal. Massive ports along the strait house not only swarms of private and corporate vessels, but also thousands of warships (the First Fleet in particular is almost always docked there), and the sprawling Industrial Quarter is an endless field of factories and worker barracks. The Financial District is an island off the northern coast of the Peninsula, around the size of Manhattan and filled with the headquarters of banks, corporations, insurance agencies, and essentially any institution capable of affording the real estate; it is the second most expensive area in the Empire. The first, of course, is the Sacred Precinct, the city boundaries of Typhon's day. The streets there are paved with marble and sealed with a specially designed type of varnish to prevent damage; a workforce of thousands keeps the Precinct spotless at all times, and it is haunted by Immortals for security. Ancient temples and palaces adorn it, some dating from the founding of the Imperium. At the center of the Precinct is the Great Forum, a massive stone plaza at the intersection of the Via Sacra and the Via Victoria; at the western end is the Sanctum of the Hierarchs, a massive obsidian pyramid that houses the tombs of the greatest rulers and heroes. At the northern end and continuing along the Via Sacra is Embassy Row; Inquisitorial HQ is just south of the Forum, also on the Via Sacra. Finally, the Palace itself is located at the western end, its main gates facing east; the building itself is absolutely massive, essentially a self-contained city with endless chambers, conference rooms, kitchens, armories, storerooms, vaults, shrines, and all that it needs. The Hall of Confluence is the most important room; it is a massive, vaulted hall that contains the Iron Throne.

International Relations

CAD

Sacred Emperor Lucifer first took the Imperium into the CAD years ago, when it was one of the world's greatest powers. Containing such elite nations as Doomingsland, the Generic Empire, the Borman Empire, and the Parthians, it was easily one of the most powerful alliances in the world. The Imperium fit in with its equally militaristic brethren, and has been a loyal member of the CAD since. Its first test came when a massive Jarridian army attempted to invade Doomingsland; coordinating with other CAD forces, a Kregaian fleet under the command of Lord Regent Seth Jamaane cut the Jarridian supply line, and the enemy retreated. The CAD came out in force to support the Legions in the Czardaian War, a conflict rivaling the Inkanan Civil War in the magnitude of its victory.

The Imperium feels particularly loyal to Doomingsland; the only real difference between the two nations is that the Doomani are Christian and the Kregaians pagan. The Generic Empire is another important ally politically and militarily; however, the Generians look down on Kregaians as bloodthirsty, barbaric pagan rabble, and the Kregaians regard the Generians as either a mass of impoverished beggars and petty criminals, or a perfumed race of bloated, complacent aristocrats, depending on which socio-economic class one looks at. Ishamael's reforms included a distancing of the Imperium from Doomingsland, instead binding it closer to Gholgoth; this culminated in the invasion of Doomingsland.

Haven/The Sovereign League

Traditionally the Imperium has been a bitter enemy of any Havenite nation, especially a member of the Sovereign League. Kregaians have always hated 'democratists' and the constitutional monarchies of Haven are little better. Kregaians see Haven as a collection of cowards and meddling fools, in addition to the monikers 'heathen' and 'infidel' that apply to all non-allied foreigners. CAD and Haven had already clashed in the Inkanan Civil War; in the Czardaian War, it happened again, proving for the second time the superiority of the CAD's armies. However, the Imperium was soon forced to work with its enemy: first in ACTO, founded by the Questarian Crown Imperium, and then again in APOC, the superalliance consisting of the most powerful members of the CAD and the Sovereign League. Although the latter crumbled and the former is defunct, some traces remain; for example, the Crown Commonwealth of Praetonia is no longer considered hostile to the Imperium, on account of its close ties with Doomingsland.

Gholgoth

Historically the Imperium has had little real involvement with Gholgoth until recently, although Kregaians disliked it in general. The Imperium looks down somewhat upon Automagfreek for oppressing its people so blatantly; the Imperium believes its method of indocrinating the people so they choose to be oppressed is the best way of governance, and thinks little of all other methods. Further, Lucifer had a strong dislike of AMF's authoritative stance on matters, especially its arbitrary "declaration" of the end of slavery. Since the Imperium has regarded Gholgoth as merely obedient servants of Automagfreek (another point against them), that negative outlook applies to all of them, and hence the Imperium has never liked Gholgoth. However, Ishamael had no quarrel with the Gholgothans (and recognized that allying with them was the profitable thing to do), and thus joined the alliance.

Economy

Directive Capitalism

The Imperium operates a system known as directive capitalism in Kregaia. It is called 'directive capitalism' because of attempts through legislation and other means to direct the flow of the gross national product in profitable ways, while still maintaining a capitalist system. Laws are in place to keep the interest rate low, to discourage hoarding money as opposed to spending it. Combined with ad campaigns that reach across the nation (with little restriction on subliminal messages to boot), citizens are incredible consumers. Income tax, furthermore, is kept very low, allowing the people to afford spending more capital; however, trade is taxed highly. To summarize, citizens spend a great deal more than they normally could, sending amazing profits to the government while still feeding corporations. This would normally introduce a degree of frozen social stratification, but the poor can still become rich and vice versa by a number of means despite the inefficient banking system, through stocks or entrepreneurship.

Armaments

The Kregaian society has always been based around war, and thus arms-manufacturing companies have always done well. The Armed Forces have a practically bottomless budget and an interest in the latest technology; thus competition for contracts is fierce. Most contracts, of course, fall into the hands of a few megacorporations, but many men have made themselves rich by designing a single good product and then selling the production rights. For a brief time, Kregaian arms were sold overseas in large quantities; however, the Imperium now limits the privilege of buying local weapons to close allies.

Key corporations include Kregaian Fleet Works, Inc., Ilium Corporation (owning Ilium Motors, Ilium Military Designs, and the Ilium AirTech Company), and Megiddo Heavy Industries. Also, Doomingsland Defense Industries has provided a number of Imperial weapons; for example, the DR-87 carbine, used by grenadiers and snipers, and the TDX .40 standard Imperial sidearm. Their high standard of weaponry has inspired Imperial corporations; for example, the M146 Despoiler MBT drew inspiration from the MAD.V Imperator Doomani MBT, and used several of its systems in the Kregaian tank. Despite this, Kregaian arms are still fiercely independent of overseas domination, and as long as the Imperium is what it is, the Legions will never fail to be armed well and to the teeth.

Luxury Items

There will always be a sizable market for luxuries in Kregaia, given the mass of affluent and greedy nobles at the top of the social pyramid. A plethora of companies provide the necessary high-class wines, jewelry, precious metals, alcoholic beverages, fine clothing and furniture, etc. The geographical diversity of the Empire lends a great deal to the luxury market; tropical hardwoods for furniture are easily imported from territories, grapes from the rich valleys of Miradin sit at the very center of Kregaia, furs are still available in the northlands, and precious metals abound in the various mountain ranges of the continent. However, Kregaian luxury goods are not very well-known overseas, and some nobles actually prefer to import such items as Pwnage cigars or Generian vodka.

Raw Materials

The Kregaian Imperial Armed Forces

Kregaian Imperial Legions

Kregaian Imperial Airforce

Kregaian Imperial Navy

The Kregaian Imperial Navy has always been, strategically, an important (although often neglected) branch of the KIAF. Logically there are two possible types of wars the Imperium can engage in: invasions and defensive wars. In the latter case, a strong fleet is needed to ensure victory on the ground, and in the former case, and in the former case, naval superiority is essential to the success of any invasion. Therefore, after the Czardaian War, Lucifer began pouring funds into modernizing the Navy, sending officers and military attaches to other countries to gain a better grasp of tactics on the sea, ordering the design and production of new, modern warships, and increasing the size of the Navy. High Admiral Ludo Anor and his superior, Supreme Admiral Admohar Quoreal, were given authority just shy of carte blanche with regards to naval re-organization. At Slivan and Korronis, the Empire's two biggest ports, mock battles and endless trials were conducted to acclimatize new crew members to the ships; the world's naval powers often maintain that position by the use of more experienced crews, an advantage Lucifer was eager to offset, in case the Imperium went to war against Praetonia or Questers. When Ishamael took the throne, he continued the naval reforms, and it looks like they will be continued for some time.

Immortals

The Imperial Immortals are a cut above other soldiers. They are the elite warriors of the Imperium, equal to any challenge; they are the sworn guardians of the Sacred Emperor, and the ceremonial protectors of the city of Korronis, both of which being jobs that they take most seriously. Although they patrol the Sacred Precinct and guard the Imperial Palace, the Immortals are also found as elite infantry in the Imperium's armies.

They are set apart in many ways. Those in training to be Legionaries are carefully examined by their officers, and those that are highly pious, disciplined, loyal, talented, and intelligent are chosen for the special Immortals training. Few know exactly how the Immortals go about training new recruits, but they are given license to do whatever they wish to the trainees short of killing them. Most pass the trials and join the ranks. Immortals can be distinguished easily by their iron masks: where Legionaries wear their helmet with a faceplate, the Immortals wear iron deathmasks on their helmets, wrought into demonic skulls, that they wear over their faces; beneath these are sealed breathing apparati for NBC protection. Immortals also have priority of access to equipment; old material is rarely, if ever, seen in an Immortals Legion.

The commander of the Imperial Immortals is the Lord Regent of the Imperium, currently Melchior Valgoth.

War-Priests

War-Priests are a rare and vicious breed of warrior. They are raised from oblates, children given up by parents either for the forgiveness of sins or as a sacrifice to prove their piety. The priesthood takes them and trains them; when they are eleven the combat training begins. At nineteen they choose their order: the Order of Shavan is a society of poisoners and assassins, dedicated to stealth and secrecy; the Order of Calchexas is a group of warriors that emphasizes speed above all else; the Order of Asmodai seeks balance of all styles, seeking to create the perfect warrior; and the Order of Moloch is the most commonly used, a small army of minigun-toting, muscle-bound killing machines, easily capable of physically tearing a man apart, dedicated to strength as the only truth. War-Priests are rarely seen, and then only in great armies; those of the Order of Moloch are particularly prized by Imperial commanders, seen as being almost the equals of the Immortals and possibly better at shattering enemy defenses.