When Lord Enlu sealed his marriage to the queen of the demons, he gained the power to destroy the grip of the Dark Many over humanity, but at a terrible price. Though he was a just ruler during the golden age when humanity rebuilt the world, a string of tyrannical empresses descended from his demonic union.
The empire slowly became corrupted by the black magic upon which it had been founded. When it was overthrown by the Church, many of its nobility switched sides or were forced into hiding. Those who still serve the Fallen Empire bear the mark of Anathema, a corruption that wears away at the flesh. Though the dark empress's bloodline and her servants remain, the empire is a shadow on its former glory.
Ages of the Empire
- Rise - 976 through 1298 - Martial empresses consolidated power and grew the borders of the empire by defeating powerful monsters and building strongholds throughout the world. The class of nobility was established.
- Golden - 1298 through 1522 - The power of the empire grew rapidly, and genius empresses built great monuments to the power and research of sorcery. The empire flourished, while the nobility grew wealthy and became given to excess.
- Declension - 1522 through 1928 - In this period, the empire’s power waned. The untimely deaths of several strong empresses were followed by weaker successors. This instability weakened the nobility. The declension empresses were eventually beaten in the crusades of 1620-1631 and broken with the fall of the House of Night and Day in 1928.
- Exile - 1928 through Present - The remnants of the imperial family are no longer supported by nobility, and actively hunted by the church. They retain a few remote strongholds, while searching for ways to restore the waning power of their ancestral line.
Imperial Family
The Imperial family are the direct descendants of Carmine the Eternal. This supernatural bloodline passes on to the first daughter of each empress, who will eventually ascend the throne.
Each of the empresses is said to be the reincarnation of Carmine, and many have attested to hearing her voice and meeting her in dreams.
As bearers of Carmine’s unique bloodline, each empress is effectively an elect of Sheligath, a status which confers nearly limitless access to the world’s sorcery and immunity to many forms of weapons and magic.
1572–1603
Shanoa the Explorer
Lost at Sea, presumed dead
A well-liked and fondly remembered empress, Shanoa ultimately failed in her imperial duties by spending most of the empire’s wealth on the colonization of the new world and the subjugation of faraway peoples to the empire.
Unable to capitalize upon the discoveries of her colonies, Shanoa’s empire eventually came to rely more and more upon the church to enforce imperial will and laws.
When the empire seemed that it would reach a breaking point, Shanoa set sail on a voyage to the new world and abdicated the throne to her daughter, Loretta. She was never heard from again, and no record exists of her reaching the new world.
1603–1631
Loretta the Fallen
Killed by Immortal Sethi in the Crusades
The last empress to reign during the golden age of the empire. Left destitute by the profligate spending of her mother, Loretta’s empire was effectively being run by the church and its arbiters.
When Loretta tried to consolidate power back to her dissatisfied nobility in 1620, the church responded by breaking from the empire in a bloody 11-year conflict known as the Crusades. This war ended when Grand Arbiter Sethi killed Loretta and declared the church its own independent force with a new creed.
1631–1731
Yareli the Alchemist
Abdicated, Insanity
After the death of her mother, the young princess Yareli became empress. Paranoid of the nobility and fearful for her life, Yareli delved deep into the study of alchemy. She built her private laboratory, Vivikadavera Villa, deep in the frozen hills of Romania, where she lived for nearly a century as a recluse.
Yareli did little work of governance, and instead devoted herself to her studies of immortality and resurrection. The empire was mostly run by her imperial consort, and later by her daughter and granddaughter.
Yareli’s dream was to resurrect the First Empress Carmine and revive the strength of the empire. This work had limited success, as Yareli was able to access Carmine’s memories and will, but not restore her body.
The results of her work drove Yareli insane. On the eve of her hundred-year jubilee, her great-granddaughter, Meredith the Revered was declared empress, after already acting as empress regent for nearly two decades.
Yareli’s exact fate is unknown. She merely faded from public consciousness and was never heard from again.
1731–1756
Meredith the Revered
Poisoned
1756–1784
Wilhelmina the Moon-Queen
Abdicated, Self-imposed Exile
1784–1800
Isolde the Bloody
Overthrown by Nobility
1800–1845
Carlotta the Grave
Abdicated, Old Age
1845–1868
Evangeline the White
Assassinated
Remembered as one of the cruelest and most hated empresses of history, Evangeline was an immensely powerful sorceress with the ability to raze cities and obliterate armies through sheer force of will. Ruling through strength and fear, Evangeline consolidated power across the territories of the empire and gathered her strength to begin another war with the Church. She was largely seen as the empire’s best hope for a revival.
Early on in Evangeline’s reign, Neils Jekkler, her royal consort and father of the heir apparent Teodora, was suspected of an affair with one of her courtiers. Evangeline built the Alchemtist’s Lighthouse and bound Neils there as a prisoner for nearly two decades. The courtier fled, but was later hunted down and executed.
Together with the assistance of his illegitimate daughter Feng, Neils Jekkler successfully poisoned Evangeline and escaped imprisonment. This left the empire absent its most powerful leader in two centuries and dashed the hopes of an escape from decline.
1868–1869
Teodora the Heretic
Exiled
A young empress ascended to the throne in the wake of her mother’s assassination. Teodora lacked outstanding talents and had no real governing ability. She largely left the work of imperial management to her grandmother, Carlotta and her retainers in order to go adventuring around the world.
Teodora became entangled in Meron’s plot to reactivate the Tower of Ascension and retrieve Marjoli the Astronomer from a faraway Otherworld. During this time, Teodora awakened to become a Midian, and was forced to abdicate her imperial claim.
In the following centuries, she has roamed the earth as the Weaver of Fates, a constant foil to the machinations of the empire and the soul catcher alike.
1869–1892
Valentina the Scholar
Killed in Battle
1892–1915
Hester the Beloved
Killed in Battle
1915–1928
D'Janette the Wicked
Killed in Battle
1928–1951
Rosalia the Wise
Lost in Otherworld, presumed dead
1951–1978
Cosette the Black
Abdicated, Old Age
1978–1984
Camilla the Elder
Abdicated, Scandal
1984–1992
Ivelyn the Younger
Obliterated
1992–2015
Philomena the Ambitious
Exiled by nobility
2015–
Arlyne the Quick
Conservatory
The Conservatory is one Order of the Empire.
The Conservatory is the imperial school of sorcery, located in Italy, near the House of Night and Day.
Students at the Conservatory are able to study alchemy, confinement, evocation, and invocation. Other classical arts such as military tactics, the arts, civil leadership, and history are also taught as part of the curriculum.
Conservatory professors are usually visiting nobles from across the world, or the extended family of nobles who have not yet been assigned dominions by the empress. Serving in the Conservatory is one way to get an invitation to the empress’s court, as well as to become well-connected with the current and future nobility of the empire.
Dreadguard
The Dreadguard is one Order of the Empire.
The Dreadguard are the elite knights of the empire. They serve the empress as bodyguards, and also fight as shock troops on the front lines of battle in times of war.
Blessed by the Empress herself, they are able to call and consume Sheligath’s Fire to transform their bodies temporarily. When using this power, they are permanently damaged. Thus, the lifespan of an active dreadguard is fairly short.
The ability gives them supernatural strength and speed for the span of a breath, which is often all the time it takes to sweep across the battlefield in this state. Overuse causes monstrification. This also means that they are able to reliably transform into monsters during battle. All of these feats make the Dreadguard particularly fearsome foes.
Nobility
The nobles of the empire are assigned dominions—areas of the world where they are responsible for civil and military leadership. These dominions may often overlaps, with Kings and Queens presiding over whole nations, Dukes and Duchesses over regions, Counts and Countesses over smaller areas, and Barons or Baronesses over local areas like towns.
All nobles are incentivized to increase the strategic and economic value of their holdings as a means of proving their worth to the empress. As most dominion assignments are for life, this is also the only way to grow their personal wealth and power.
The most prestigious of these posts will come with one of the great Castles of the empire, which can be moved to new strategic locations at the pleasure of the empress.
Each noble is also responsible for protecting the people of their region from monsters and rival factions. They must correspond quarterly with the headquarters of the empire to report their progress and pay tribute.
Before the fall of the empire, the church served as local supporters and enforcers of the nobility. After the fracturing of the empire, the nobility continue to carry out these duties in a tense truce with Sethi’s Church. Some have even left the nobility of the empire and been declared as Patricians within the church.