- Saturday, May 19, 2012
- Sunday, May 20, 2012
- Monday, May 21, 2012
- Thursday, May 24, 2012
- Friday, May 25, 2012
- Saturday, May 26, 2012
- Sunday, May 27, 2012
- Tuesday, May 29, 2012
- Thursday, May 31, 2012
Early Timeline
The easiest way to gain a quick understanding of the history of the Empire and the key events of that history is with a brief overview. To that aim I present this time line. There are several dating systems that have been used in this overview which may need explaining for your understanding of when events happened.
- TC refers to the old Tawdonian Calendar used by the Kingdom of Tawdic before the formation of the Empire.
- BE means Before the Empire.
- BP means Before the Seven Year’s Plague which was delivered unto our people when Ney and Olt joined forces to take power from Sim, the Aspect of War.
- MC refers to the Medakan Calendar instituted by the first Emperor Medaka I.
Timeline
492TC /25BE / 375BP- Emperor Medaka I born as Prince Tobias Medaka III of Tawdic.
- Tobias III assumes the throne of the Kingdom of Tawdic - age 14.
- Tobias III proclaims himself Medaka I of the Tawdonian Empire with resistance from the Pentaverate nations.
- Medaka I has a son by his favorite concubine, Ascinda.
- The Tawdonian Empire reigns undisputed with Medaka I at its head - age 50.
- The Empire begins its policy of expansionism and grows past the Boundaries of the original Pentavarate States.
- Explorers discover a huge desert to the west of the Empire. Three large expeditions are mounted to cross it. All three disappear.
- Teams of explorers are sent north. Some disappear but most return with tales of a wild savage land sparsely populated with barbaric tribes. The land was too harsh to bother colonizing but the people made good workers.
- Medaka I dies under mysterious circumstances and his son Medaka II ascends the throne. Medaka I, aged 57; Medaka II, aged 21.
- Under Medaka II the Empire begins importing slaves from the Northern Wilds. Expansionism continues but is slowed due to cutbacks from the Capital.
- The tribes of the Northern Wilds seemed to have been slaved into extinction. Settlers to the east discover villages similar to the northern tribes. Any settlements found are annexed and the inhabitants sent to the Capital.
- Explorers from a Tawdonian outpost on the southern shore of the Minor Ocean discover a civilization known as the Quidam. Their land is claimed in the name of Medaka II and they enter the Empire.
- The Aspected One and His worshipers make their first appearance in the Empire. Medaka II foolishly tries to crush the worship of the Three Faced God. The religion only grows in numbers as an underground cult. Followers begin using the initials of Ney, Olt and Sim to refer to their god. The Quidam begin disappearing from society.
- The cult of NOS grows stronger. More and more citizens have visions of the Aspected One, the Three Faced God. By 56MC most of society’s highest figures have converted to Nosianism. Medaka II refuses to convert. By 48MC the Quidam have all but vanished from the Empire.
- Emperor Medaka II is assassinated by members of his Inner Council. With no heirs to ascend the throne, Council Leader Teffan Dal Sidram claims the throne and becomes Emperor Sidram I. His first act as Emperor is to name Nosianism as the official religion of the Tawdonian Empire.
- Emperor Medaka I born as Prince Tobias Medaka III of Tawdic.
- Sidram I is determined to conquer the Great Waste. Villages are set up 20km side its eastern edge. They are to be outposts for exploratory expeditions.
- All three of Sidram I’s Great Waste outposts have been lost to the desert sands. None of the expeditions lasted more than a week and most never returned. Those that did brought tales of strange sand beasts and a ruined city half buried in the dunes.
- Obsessed with finding a route through the Great Waste Sidram I sends his forces north along the edge of the Great Waste. By the end of their mission, Sidram’s men had found no way across the desert. They did however discover tremendous natural resources in the Northern Wilds.
- Due to serious illness and his failure in the Great Waste, Sidram I dies after 12 ears on the throne.
- The Empire is ruled by the members of the Inner Council as efforts are made to sort out Sidram’s legacy of illegitimate children and settle the matter of the heir to the throne. In 76 MC the Nosian head, Primus Vadoulli Sildor, creates the Order of the Talon; an order of religious knights who uphold the doctrines of Nos and the wishes of the Primus.
- The council decides that the child who has the most legitimate claim to the empire is a twelve year old girl borne by Sidram’s third wife Talieia. Empress Allanaya is crowned in Tawdic City.
- The Council rules the Empire in regency until Allanaya’s sixteenth birthday. The Empress is the victim of several assassination attempts during this time but all are thwarted by members of the Order of the Talon.
- The Empire begins its serious exploitation of the resources in the Northern Wilds. This puts them back into conflict with the tribes who have returned to the area. The Primus sends missionaries into the Wilds in an attempt to convert the savages to the True Religion. While a few tribes become followers, the priests work is conidered to be a failure when they are held prisoner in the Wilds by a tribe called the Skae. The Order of the Talon is sent to rescue them. The Order slaughters the offending tribe and it was thought that none of the Skae survived the attack from the Order of the Talon. Even still the Empress is against enslaving the tribes.
- Empress Allanaya dies in childbirth. The child survives the delivery. The Empress’ Inner Council once again rules the Empire in regency until the boy, Medaka III is old enough to rule.
- After an attempt on the young Emperor’s life, Primus Vadoulli orders that the Council give the Emperor to him. The Council refuses the Primus’ request, so the Order of the Talon storms the Imperial Palace and takes the child to the Temple of Nos. This is the start of the War of the Regents. The Council accuses the Primus of acting against the good of the Empire by kidnapping the Emperor. The Church declares the Inner Council corrupt with nothing but their own power in mind. he Council declares war on the Church of Nos. The population is torn between its rulers and its religion.
- Four years of civil war ends with the members of the Imperial Inner Council dead and Primus Vadoulli Sildor acting as Regent for the six year old Emperor Medaka III.
- At the age of twelve Emperor Medaka III ascends the Imperial throne. The youngest head the Empire has ever had.
- Primus Vadoulli Sildor, the man responsible for Medaka III’s training as a states man and Emperor dies. He appoints the Emperor as his successor to the position of Primus of Nos. At the tender age of sixteen, Medaka III holds more power than any other man that has ever existed. He is the leader of his people in every way. Emperor-Primus Medaka III ruled the Tawdonian Empire for the next 70 years or so. By the time of his death in 174MC the Empire had slaved the tribes out of the Wilds again and seriously exploited that area’s resources. Even if the tribes still lived, there was nothing left for them to live on. Early on in his rule the Empire expanded to the east, down the far shore of the Hurn Sea. Here they discovered a beautiful natural wilderness: rolling hills, dense old growth forests, lakes of incred ible clarity, and rich fertile plains. Here was a land that would rejuvenate the spirit of the Empire. Since the War of the Regents, the Empire had been suffering from a sort of malaise. Unrest was every where. The fringes of the Empire were always breaking off, needing to be reconquered. But this new territory would bring pros perity and well being back to the Empire and its citizens. However, it also brought the Confederacy.
- The Empire builds settlements along the eastern shore of the Hurn Sea. These frontier towns are soon attacked by people similar to those found on the northern coast of the Minor Ocean 75 years before. Some of the settlements survive, others are slaughtered. Medaka III is furious! Members of the Order of the Talon are sent to the Frontier to investigate. They discover Skae.
- Construction of the first fortified town, Battlekeep, on the north-east tip of the Hurn Sea commences. Larger bands of Skae and other savages target the town.
- The Order of the Talon and one thousand of the Emperor’s Army go the the frontier to confront the Skae and their allies. Casualties are high on both sides. The savages are pushed back but none of the frontier towns but Battlekeep survive.
- The Empire tries repeatedly to expand beyond its hold at Battlekeep but any settlements that reach too deep into the Frontier are lost. 132MC Medaka III’s wife, Empress LoTana gives birth to twin boys Dailan and Tannok.
- The Empire and the leaders of the Confederacy agree to meet and work on a peaceful settlement to the dispute. It was agreed that the Empire would build no outposts farther south or east than Battlekeep and the Confederacy would stop attacking Tawdonian people. This became known as the Two Years Treaty for that’s how long it lasted.
- The Two Years Treaty comes to an end when Tawdonian forces move into the Neutral Zone under the pretense of starting a mission to spread the True Religion. The Confederacy, especially the Skae, object to this. The ‘missionary’ force is massacred by Skae warriors.
- Tawdonian soldiers and Confederate warriors repeatedly fight along the Frontier. Skirmishes at first, the outbreaks gradually escalated into outright warfare.
- The disaster of the Longhouse Convention. Medaka III himself negotiates a peace treaty with the Confederacy of the Great Woods. He and 30 members of the Order of the Talon journeyed to the Frontier to meet with the Tribal leaders. After a few months of work, things looked to be going well with a treaty almost complete when an assassination attempt was made on the Emperor. He was nearly poisoned and blamed the Confederacy. The attempt was faked by the Emperor to get the Confederacy to make concessions on the treaty. It worked to some extent, but then Medaka III’s instincts as a follower of Nos and Primus took over. He insisted on converting the Confederacy to Nosianism but they refused his offer. He declared them all heretics and executed the leader of the Confederacy’s delegation right there at the peace table. Only one member of the Emperor’s guard survived the task of getting Medaka III back to Battlekeep alive. The rest died at the hands of enraged Skae warriors who chased them to the gates of the city. When the Imperial Inner Council heard of the Emperor’s behavior, it was decided that the positions of Primus and Emperor must not be held by the same man. The Emperor agreed that, much as the separate aspects of Nos must be kept separate, so should the posts of political ruler and spiritual leader. He declared that when he died his son Dailan would sit on the throne as Emperor, and his son Tannok would become the new Primus of Nos. The next two centuries were a time of perpetual warfare between the Tawdonian Empire and the Confederacy of the Great Woods, interrupted, occasionally, by out breaks of peace. Some of these outbreaks were actual attempts at ending the hostil ities, but most were just periods of downtime for the armies to regroup and reequip. Most of these ‘Skae Peaces’ lasted only weeks or months, but a few stretched into years. These were uneasy truces filled with minor skirmishes during which both sides constantly expected a sudden and massive onslaught from the enemy. Usually neither side had long to wait. The longest and bloodiest period of fighting began in 278MC and lasted until 351 MC. It surely would have lasted longer had 351MC not been the year Ney and Olt visited their Great Plague upon mankind. The war ended, but hostilities between the two sides, I fear, won’t end until one or the other has been exterminated. The plague lasted seven long years and killed more people than the previous sev enty-three years of war had done. Ninety percent of the population was lost due to Ney and Olt’s gambit to depose Sim as the Supreme Aspect and return the Divine Cycle to its proper turn. This meant that While Tawdic City and the large towns near the centre of the Empire still held thousands, or at least, hundreds of people, the outlying settlements were lucky to have five people left. It has been over fifty years since the first signs of the plague in 351 and the Empire is in turmoil. There have been eleven Emperors officially recognized by the citizens of Tawdic City in those fifty years, and Nos knows how many unsuccessful claims to the throne. Many of the survivors of the plague on the fringes of the Empire have formed new societies and claimed their independence. With the troubles in the Imperial City, most were allowed to break away; but for how long? Some of the renegade towns have already been brought back under the fist of Imperial rule, willingly or otherwise. It is said that there is a new, stronger Emperor on the throne in Tawdic City. The Empire is beginning to recover.
