Elisia
Elisia is a world in which magic is law and the consepts of Democracy, Magocracy, and Rule By The Strong all meld together. High atop his lofty tower in the center of the grand city of Maquii, the current Archlord looks down upon his subjects and makes decisions with near-absolute power, checked only by a weak senate and even weaker peons who try to rebel. The threat of Maquii's blood enemies, Ogren'Talth's Loyal and the Warrior's Guild, bite at the borders of the kingdom all the while rebelion and distress tear away at Elisia from the inside. All the common-folk have to hang onto is the small hope that this Archlord is better than the last one.
[spoiler=I Political Structure]
[spoiler=A. Soicial Classes]
[spoiler=a. A brief overview of the Elisian Class system ] The Class system of Elisia is unique in that it is not based upon how much money one has or their political influence, though being part of a lower class does make it much harder to gain money or political influence. Class placement is also unique in that it is an official ruling as opposed to it being simply an unspoken social status. Your class is chosen by your ability to cast magic, though not on the power of your magic, merely the type of magic.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=b. Upper-Class ] The Elisian Upper-Class, called Kraz'Nath's Chosen, consits of all people with the ability to cast arcane spells and their children (until the age of accention at least). All members of the House of Maquias are elected from this class. Upper-Class citizenry are allowed a voice in Maquii peoples meetings. Members of the upper-class suffer the lightest taxes of all (10% of total coin/crop per month). [/spoiler]
[spoiler=c. Middle-Class ] The middle class of Elisia is called "Caid's Forsaken". This class consists of all divine spellcasters and their children, and all other spellcasters who fall into neither divine nor arcane catagories (eg. Psionics) All members of the House of Taquir are elected from this class. All middle-class citizenry are allowed a voice in Maquii People's Meetings. Members of the Middle-Class suffer the second lightest taxes (20% of total coin/crop per month)[/spoiler]
[spoiler=d. Lower-Class ] The lower-class of Elisia is known as "The Righteous Wretched". It is made up of all non-spellcasters who pledge their loyalty to the current Archlord, and has been officially recognized as a citizen of Elisia. All members of the House of Sparcus are elected from this class. Lower class citizenry are NOT allowed a voice in Maquii People's Meetings.
Lower-Class members suffer the second-greatest taxation in Elisia (30% of total coin/crop per month)[/spoiler]
[spoiler=e. Non-Citizens ] Though not technically a class, this group makes up a substantial percentage of the population and is therefore mentioned. This group is made up of anyone who does not fall into any of the other groups. This usually entails visitors from far away lands, non-spellcasters who have not yet pledged their allegiance to the Archlord, spellcasters who openly disrespect and protest against the Archlord, or any Orcs, Gobilns, Gnolls, or Mostrous Humanoids who pledge their allegiance to the Archlord and swear to abide by Elisian law. Non-Citizens may not be a part of any house of the Elisian senate. Non-Citizens are NOT allowed a voice in Maquii People's Meetings. Non-Citizens suffer the highest rate of taxation of all (45% of total coin/crop per month)[/spoiler]
[spoiler=f. Slaves ] The people of Elisia will sometimes come across camps of the mostrous humanoid tribes from the days of Kraz'Nath and Ogren'Talth, all who are not killed in the battles that immediately follow such discoveries are used as slaves. Slaves provide labor and entertainment for the Elisian people. Upper-Class citizens usually have at least a stable of 5 slaves at any given time. Middle- and Lower-class citizens usually have only 1 or 2 at any given time, and tend to treat theirs much better than their Upper-class counter-parts. Non-Citizens may not have Slaves in the city of Maquii (this law is subject to each individual town/city). Slaves have no rights and are treated as objects, not people. Therefore they may be collected as a part of taxation, beaten profusely for any reason, used as warriors in gladitorial combat, or anything else. Slaves have not representation in the senate or peoples meetings, and pay no taxes. [/spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler=B. Archlord]
[spoiler=a. Powers of the Archlord ] The Archlord holds total power in the land of Elisia, making all laws and comanding the military forces for the entire empire. The only way for people either cursed to live without spellcasting ability or those born outside the borders of the empire to become citizens is to pledgee unending allegience to the Archlord. Openly protesting the Archlord or his policies is grounds for treason and being removed from your class. Though he has almost total power, he is checked by the senate, which has the power to overturn any decision by the Archlord with a 75% vote.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=b. The Rules of Succession of Archlords ] The rules for succession of Archlords are very simple. Should an Archlord die in battle during a war, be assassinated, die of natural causes, or simply retire, his next of kin in the upper-class is made Archlord. At any given time a member of the Upper-Class may challenge the Archlord to a formal duel to the death, the winner of which will be the Archlord from then on. An Archlord must answer a challenge within a year of it being issued or be forcibly removed from power by the senate. Only one challenge may be issued every season.[/spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler=C. The Senate]
[spoiler=a. Perks of being a senator ] The Elisian Senate serves as more of an elite class than any real position of power. Though it can overturn Archlord decisons, most run for the office for the fringe benifits. Senators pay only minimum taxes (5% of total coin/crop per month), get large paychecks each month, and are allowed first dibs when a new shipment of slaves is brought in. Senators are also exempt from laws against protesting the Archlord. Once elected, a senator serves for a term of ten years.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=b. The House of Maquias ] The first established house of the senate, and still the most prestigious is the House of Maquias. The elite of the elite, members of the House of Maquias have connections in very high places, usually good friends of the Archlord himself. Almost always pretencious and self-absorbant, members of this House have a well deserved reputation for being more corrupt and evil than any savage race or ghastly demon could ever be. Corruption in this house is not a rule, just a strong probability. Votes from this house have a vote value of 5. Currently the House of Maquias may has a total of 100 members[/spoiler]
[spoiler=c. The House of Taquir ] The second established house of the senate, the House of Taquir, is known for its solemn and strong members. Those elected to this house are usually spiritual leaders such as clerics that attempt to strike down the archlord when his desicions go against the deities the cleric worships. Though corruption is possible and even likely in this house, the ratio of good people to evil in the House of Taquir is usually very high. Votes from this house have a vote value of 3. Currently the House of Taquir has a total of 170 members
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=d. The House of Marcus ] The lowest house of the Elisian Senate, the House of Marcus, is known for its outspoken members and optomistic outlook on the future. Constantly fighting against the injustices worked against the house's parent class, members of the house of Marcus carefully watch the Archlord's every move, ready to blow the whistle if he encroaches upon their rights in the slightest. Corruption is nigh non-existant in this House, the benefits are simply not strong enough for members to be bought out by an outside force. Votest from this house have a vote value of 2. Currently the House of Marcus currently has 250 members
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=f. Senate Generals ] In each house of the Elisian Senate, a single member is chosen from mong their ranks (almost always the mightiest from amonk the group) to be a sort of leader of the pack, to loosely define the basic plan of the house for that term. These elite senators are called Senate Generals. They pay no taxes and have a vote value of ten times the norm for their respective house. If Elisia goes to war, all three Senate Generals are required to go forth and lead the military alongside the Archlord.
Current Senate Generals
House of Maquias - Rhober Helhexoi (lvl 17 Sorrcerer)
House of Taquir - Moranos Moran (lvl 10 Cleric/ 8 Druid)
House of Marcus - Rhodark Rheban (lvl 18 Fighter)
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=g. The Vote Value System ] This system was put in place during the regin of Archlord Maquias VI to combat the growing middle and lower classes. The system works like this, each house is given a vote value, and each vote from that house is worth that number, to overturn a decision by the Archlord, the senate must come up with 75% of the total value possible. So for example, if all 250 members of the House of Marcus, 100 members of the House of Taquir, and 10 members of the House of Maquias, and none of the Senate Generals voted to overturn something, they would have a total of 850 vote value (250 X 2 = 500; 100 X 3 = 300; 10 X 5 = 50; 500 + 300 + 50 = 850) out of a possible 1510. 850/1510 equals about 56%, so the decision stays as the Archlord decided it. This system makes it impossible to overturn any decision by the Archlord without near-total coopreation between all three houses, because even if two full houses vote on something, without support from the third, the decision will still go through.
[/spoiler]
[spoiler=h. Election Procedures ] On the fifth day of Aciys every 10th year, every settlement large enough to warrant a Senator (large towns and larger) hold a general election. Members of each class vote for candidates for their house only ( a Middle-Class citizen will only vote for candidates for the House of Taquir, for example). There may be 1 senator for every 1000 people of a given class in a given town. If a town has more than 2,000 people, but no class makes up 1000 of that population, then the town may elect a single senator of the class that makes up the highest precentage of the population. Half-way through each senatorial term a census is taken of the entire kingdom, keeping the population numbers updated for the next election.
[/spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler=D. Peoples Meetings]
[spoiler=a. Maquii Peoples Meetings ] All settlements in the Elisian Empire hold some form of town meetings to discuss general town problems, and make desicions that are unacceptable to bring to the Archlord, such as how to deal with the sudden potato famine, or wether or not to allow the large merchants guild to move their operations into town. The rules for such meetings differ from town to town, but they all follow the basic pattern of the Maquii People's Meetings. Maquii meetings are held on the 10th of each month, or can be called into emergency sessions whenever nessaccary. Members of Kraz'Nath's Chosen (upper-class) and Caid's Forsaken (middle-class) may speak freely and vote during such meetings. Members of the House of Marcus may attend the meetings but may only speak if specifically called upon by whoever currently has the floor, and must stop when the floor holder tells them to. Non-Citizens and Slaves may not attend the meetings at all. In the city of Maquii, to reach a resolution on a desision, a simple majority (50.1%) of the people attending must agree. In People's Meetings, members of the middle- and upper-class have equal votes.
Peoples meetings are also the place where those without a class may join one appropriate to them or those who aquire new spellcasting power move to a new one, this is voted on in the same way as all other decisions. Non-Citizens attending meetings for this reason may attend as long as they are escorted by two members of the middle- or upper-classes and keep to themselves until such a time as they are called upon to either swear their allegience to the Archlord or to demonstrate their magical prowess.[/spoiler] [/spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler=II History ==WORK IN PROGRESS==]
In the Old Times, the times before the legendary accention of Archlord Maquias I, the lands now known as Elisia were a chaotic world ruled by strife, hatred and fear. Great barbaric tribes roamed across the land, attacking and killing one another when they came into contact. There were no kingdoms, no settlements, no learning, no magic, none of the things we today take for granted. That all changed when a young man by the name of Kraz'Nath came to power in his tribe in the Southern Wetlands. Kraz'Nath was the first of what we now call Adepts, which were the predecessors to our mondern-day Sorcerers and Wizards. Kraz'Nath's tribe, the Strongwhelp Humans, migrated north from their home region and either convinced the other tribes of Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, or Halflings to join them through Kraz'Nath's acts of prestidigitation or through violent conquest, though it is traditionally assumed that Kraz'Nath rarely used violence in his early conquests.
At the same time that Kraz'Nath was gathering power in the south, another, much more malevolent, power was coming into existance in the north, specifically in the Elista Forest. A crazed Gnoll by the name of Ogren'talth had also gained magical abilities, but his were much more diabolical, and much more potent. Ogren'Talth had tapped the dark and sinister powers of Necromancy, and used his ability to gain unprecedented power in the north, either through intimidating tribes of barbaric Orcs, Gnolls, and Goblinoids to join him, or through killing the same tribes of barbarians and raising their lifeless corpes to serve in his legions of undead.
Both leaders gained power for several years unbenowst to one another, they finally encountered one another. Kraz'Nath's group was migrating north when they encountered Orgren'Talth and his endless legions of Undead monsters and Monstrous Humanoids. The two leaders approached each other while their forces hung back, both sides weary of a conflict. Orgren'Talth was absolutely hell-bent on making Kraz'Nath's forces his own, while Kraz'Nath merely wanted to avoid a fight with any force that could pose a threat to him, like Ogren'Talth. After several minutes discussion, a fight did break out between the two. The battle was the single most gruesome and leathal battle of early history. Well over 200,000 living creatures arrived at Aran Hill that day, and only 10,000 living creatures left. 3,000 of those being Kraz'Nath's.
Kraz'Nath retreated that day, battered, broken, and beaten. His forces were lower than they had been since he began his conquests, but his drive was ever stronger. Another year passed before the two encountered each other again. Kraz'Nath had spent this time teaching all of his followers all he could about his magical talents, so that they would hopefully turn the tide in the inevitable next battle with Ogren'Talth.
When the inevitable battle did happen, Kraz'Nath was amazingly lucky. Ogren'Talth had recently split his massive army up in two, one went east and the other west. Kraz'Nath encountered the westward bound group, and fighting broke out immediately. Kraz'Nath's newly trained Adepts preformed better than Kraz'Nath could've ever hoped, tearing through the undead legions like a hot knife through butter.
Ogren'Talth was felled that day, by a fireball spell hurled by a particularly talented adept by the name of Maquis. His undead troops all disentigrated before his lifeless body hit the ground. The small ammount of soldiers who were still living routed seeing the main brunt of their army eliminated in one moment.
Even with the great victory that had been achived, there was very little joviality that day, Kraz'Nath had been slain, an Orcish greatclub smashing his ribs back into his chest. Maquias was quickly chosen as leader of the group for his felling of Ogren'Talth.
Maquias led his people to a large, open plain in almost the direct center of the lands. The place was peaceful, beautiful, and brimming with resources. Maquias ordered his people to build a permanent settlement there, which was an idea that was totally unheard of in those times, but his rule was complete and the people obeyed. They built the city we now call Maquii, thus laying the foundations of the Elisian Empire.
Maquias titled himself "Archlord of Elisia" and led his people to great prosperity, settling villages all over the land, beating back the remaining shadows of Ogren'Talth's power in the form of his old Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, and other Monstrous Humanoids that were still loyal to their long-since fallen necromantic leader.
During one barbaric attack on an Elisian thorp, one man, by the name of Caid escaped the slaughter and carnage. Delirious with rage, the man looked for someone to blame, his delusioned mind told him that Archlord Maquias had to be directly responsible for the destruction of his town and the killing of his family and freinds. He traveled to the city of Maquii and approached Archlord Maquias, who was overseeing the construction of a massive tower in the center of town (what we now call the Archlord's Lair). Caid challeneged Maquias to a duel to the death. Maquias, who loathed being thought of as a coward infront of his subjects, accepted the challenge. There is no question that Maquias was the stronger of the two spellcasters, and Maquias new that. He became cocky and merely taunted Caid as Caid's spells seemed to bounce off Maquias. At one moment, while Maquias was trying to come up with a particularly stinging insult, his concentration was so far away from Caid that his sheild spell went down for just a fraction of a second, in that one second, Caid hurled a bolt of pure arcane energy at Maquias, shuffling the Archlord from his mortal coil. Caid, realizing what he had done, became giddy with power. He proclaimed himself the new Archlord of Elisian Magic, thus setting the precedent for succession that has survived to this day.
Caid's first five years of rule were spent securing himself in his power. He put up as many laws as he could to suppress the rights of all those without arcane spellcasting powers, which was a kind of symbol of almost god-like status to the demented ruler. During his reign, a large sub-group of magically adept people emerged, weaving spells in ways never seen before. The Archlord, terrified by any possible threat to his power demanded that the casters come to his tower and demonstrate their powers to him. After a small show, Caid realized that something was indeed different about these people, their spells, while not all more powerful than anything he had seen, were significantly different enough to scare Caid. He had the Druids and Clerics cast out of his city and out of his kingdom, forced to live in exile forever.
A Dwarven Senator from Maquii by the name of Taquir was absolutely disgusted by this turn of events. After several failed attempts to overturn the decision in the Senate, he challenged the weak Caid to a duel. Caid waited almost a full year before answering the challenge. The battle took place outside of the tower just like the the battle between Maquias and Caid almost a decade before. The battle ended much less dramatically than the Maquias battle of legend. A single well-timed Dimension Door spell and a sharp kick from the stout dwarf sent Caid hurtling into a terrifying-looking dimension of darkness and ghouls.
After he was offically seated as the new Archlord, Taquir's first order of buisness was to have all of the Divine spellcasters that had been driven out of Elisia tracked down and invited back to the kingdom with promise of full rights.
And Taquir delivered on his promise, too. Taquir established the House of Taquir in the senate as an equal counterpart to the already established House of Maquias.
Taquir is also known to have been somewhat self-centered, slaping his name on everything he could. Streets, towns, even newborn infants were emblazoned with the Taquir brand. The capitol of Maquii was even for a short time called Taquii, but the senate quickly overturned that decision with a unanimous vote.
Taquir, though self-centered and eccentric as he may have been, was very well liked by his constituents and served for another 53 years before succumbing to the rigors of age and the stress of rule and retireing. His son took the throne and gave himself the name Maquias the second. The new Maquias II was a decent ruler for the short time that he did rule. He is given a place in history for making all historical precedents, such as succession and the time alloted to answer challenges, into written law.
After two and a half years of rule, Maquias II was challenged to a duel for rule. He accepted solemnly, knowing his magical prowess was anything but spectacular and that he would not survive the fight. He was challenged by a lanky elf female named Gwenen Tailswind. Her reasons for the challenge are unknown, but it is assumed she was merely hungry for power. When the battle started the Dwarf did not strike but rather reasoned with the woman to not strike him down. He argued that she had no experience leading and the consequences of having a weak ruler may be disatrous. She struck while the Archlord was blabering on, sending a bolt of lighting straight through his chest in an instant.
The day Gwenen took the crown became known as The Worst Day among the Lower-Class citizenry. Archlord Tailswind took up a staunchly anti-lower-class policy, she was quoted as saying "If it would not cause a revolt, I'd have the lot of them killed off and their bodies dumped into the river. ... The greatest curse upon this or any other world is those without power, we should have culled such an infection from our numbers long before they became the malignant cancer they are now."
Instead of simply going through with her plans and exterminating the lot of them, Gwenen instead went about subjugating the lower class in a somewhat subtler way. In the mostly lower class Southern District of Maquii, an elite sub-branch of the Maquii police was created. Dubbed "The Keepers of Peace" by their evil founder, the force patrolled the Southern District every hour of every day, pulling people off the street and beating them senseless (sometimes even killing them) for the smallest of infractions. Gwenen also increased the taxes of all Lower-Class citizens to 55% of their weekly profit.
The Middle-Class, and even many of the Upper-Class were appalled by her actions, and overturned several of her decisions. In response, Gwenen introduced the Senate General position, these two people, one for each house, were to act as advisors and leaders to all the other senators, and voted as if they were ten individual members of the senate. Since Gwenen chose the first two Generals, she had enough sway in the senate to re-institute all her revoked actions and continue subjugating the lower-class.
Gwenen ruled for a decade, making the lower-classes as miserable as possible while keeping the senate either wrapped around her finger or knee-deep in her coin purse. During the month of Saant in her tenth year of rule, Gwenen was ambushed and assassinated during a morning stroll in the mostly Upper-Class Arcane District in Maquii. Only one of the group was an Upper-Class citizen, and he claimed the title of Archlord.[/spoiler]
[spoiler= III. Current Enemies of the Empire]
[spoiler=OgrenTalths Loyal]
In the dark times before the rise of the dispicable grand city of Maquii and the Elisian Empire, two great forces clashed in the middle of an otherwise pristine and picturesque valley. The battle was great and long, but in the end a victor was chosen by the fates. Ogren'Talth, dictator of the brutal humanoids to the north and necromantic overlord of the undead was slain. He was surrounded by enemies on all sides, at least three hudred of them all focusing their assault on he who would not die. After a seeming eternity of fireball volleys and conjured bolts of skyfire, Ogren'Talth seemed to be indestructable. Finally the barbaric heathens trying to undue him began to fight dirty like the beasts they were. A tall, hulking warrior from their ranks rushed toward Ogren'Talth, his steps shaking the earth. He grappled the physically weaker Gnoll overlord in the exact instant he was to open a portal beneath the horrible beings attacking him. His spell mis-fired due to the brute breaking his consentration and the portal opened beneath his feet, sending him and his would-be captor into an unknown world of gloom. His last words before dissappearing into the void were "DESTROY THE HUMANS! AT ALL COSTS!"
- Exerpt from Talgransh'Nebrack'Orslav (translated to Common from Gnoll by David Clansth)[/b]
This is the one passage from Talgransh'Nebrack'Orslav (roughly translated to The Journal of Nebrack) that all members of Ogren'Talth's Loyal are required to know. And they know it well.
Ogren'Talth's loyal is a large collective of sentient beings centralized in the western forests of on the border of Elisia. They are made up of a large core group of Orcs, Gnolls, and Goblinoids, though they also include numerous other brutal and monstrous humanoids, along with any non-Human who is scorned from Elisian society and chooses to enter the collective.
They are a pseudo-religious people revering a single holy text, Talgransh'Nebrack'Orslav. This is a crudely structured and poorly written document that details the rise and fall of the "Glorious empire of the good king Ogren'Talth". It deviates from standard accounts of most early conflicts drastically, though it was written by a Gnoll living in the time period, so it may have some merit. Aside from documenting the history of early Elisia, it also lists objectives for those still loyal to their fallen commander.
The two principal objectives that are to take precedence over all others are as follows.
1. DESTROY THE HUMANS! AT ALL COSTS!
This decree is quite clear in its meaning, and the main reason that Elisia considers Ogren'Talth's Loyal to be a threat at all. All devoted members of Ogren'Talth's Loyal will go out of their way to kill any human they see, hear, smell, or even dream of.
2. Return the lord to his realm.
Though a tad more cryptic than the one above, it is almost universally accepted that this decree means that the Loyal believe their master to be alive in the otherworldly cage of his own imprisonment, and it is the responsibility of his men to bring him back. Though powerful wizards and sorcerers do exist within the collective, the social and religious leaders have strictly interpreted the texts and have ruled that the above decree must be completed first. Therefore this seemingly simple task has not yet been completed.
The Archlord has ruled that Ogren'Talth's Loyal are a magnitude 2 threat. Meaning they are being suppressed from the borders, but full-scale war is not yet required.[/spoiler][/spoiler]
This is a Homebrew Campaign I just started writing up two days ago. I will add much more info as I write it down. Please leave any comments or critiques you have for me. Thank you.
Interesting. So basically this is sort of like Imperial Rome with magic replacing wealth and military power. Are there any rival empires at all? What do you imagine it will be like to roleplay in such a setting? Is everyone basically human?
1.As far as the Rome comparison goes, I had not intended that parrallel at all when writing it. Though in hindsight... the resemblance is quite uncanny.
2. Yes, I will soon post info on the Ogren'Talth Loyal, the Warriors Guild, and a few other opposing forces. Though none of these are true empires, they do pose significant threats to the saftey of Elisia
3. I imagine that roleplaying in the world of Elisia will vary greatly dependant upon background and therefore your social class. Playing as a member of the Middle- to Upper- classes will be very diffrent than playing as a Lower-class member, and Non-citizens will be a diffrent animal altogether.
4.Well, if you read the history I have so far put up, you will see that no, not everyone is human, though they do hold the majority percentage.(though only by a relatively small margin)
Wow. I love the amount of corruption here, and it's all so well-thought-out! Please, keep it coming.
Thanks for the support Kindling.
UPDATE: added a section on Ogren'Talth's Loyal to the top post
Just to let everyone know, my computer is now gone (long story) and with it went all my campaign files, so it will be a very long time before I get an update, as I will need to re-type all I had written.