Evyni Empire

The Evyni Empire was among the largest and most important states to exist in the north -- it dominated the region for centuries, uniting the Ming, Avaimi, Prokym, Taudo, and occasionally even the Accans under its rule. Originating among the Avaimi, the Empire adopted the cause of Ytauzi, and launched multiple campaigns against its neighbors, nearly uniting the north -- only slowing in the face of heavy Gallatene opposition. The fall of Gallat seemed to open the way for Evyni dominance, until the War of the Three Gods ended with their destruction at the hands of the Karapeshai Exatai.
= History =
The Evyni were founded by the Thorsrdyn (or Lawgiver) Vtaityn, who, with the aid of his highly competent adviser Boyrn, launched a series of reforms that fashioned the old country of Avaimi into a hyper-efficient, militarized empire, crushing their neighbors in Prokym, and only running into a roadblock when the faced a rival upstart empire in Ritti. Ritti was a far more colonial nation, and could not stand against the Evyni in the open field, but resisted them for some time with stout walls and a navy protecting their island home.
In the end, a new government among the Ritti concluded the war peacefully, and the Evyni converted to the new faith of Ytauzi. Almost immediately, however, the Evyni resumed their attacks, conquering Ritti outright.
Their eastern flank secured, the Evyni marched eastward, against the Ming states that lay there -- most notably the northern Duchy of Shu, and the southern Liang. A brutal war was fought where first one state, then the other was overwhelmed; the conquest of the Ming incorporated a massive new population that chafed under foreign rule. The Empire only added to this when it attacked the small Taudo states in the east.
Despite that, the Evyni survived for a remarkable span of nearly three centuries after this, a period marked largely by a series of confrontations with Gallat across the Kern Sea. The two empires were the largest and most powerful in the north, and had a fierce religious undertone to their problems as well: the stridently iconoclastic Ytauzi priests of the Evyni hated the Maninist beliefs of their rivals, and the two would fight a long battle for the hearts of the Taudo.
On the other side, a boundary with the Xieni nomads to the south would be a surprisingly profitable mercantile frontier, though it would also be marked by numerous raids in either direction, one ending in the sacking of the major city of Naiji by the southerners.
The long rivalry with Gallat petered out when that country fell to a civil war. Though their rule of the north seemed completely secure, it would not last.
Much of the stress was internal; the Empire under the Quem (Imperial adviser) Essril converted to the new faith of Enguntith, but many still held to the old Ytauzi faith; moreover, some viewed the royal marriage to a Xieni princess Ashar as a dilution of the pure bloodline of the Lawgiver. In the end, however, it was external forces which would prove the end of the Empire.
After success against the northern flank of the Ardavai Exatai in the War of the Three Gods, the Empire would meet with failure against its successor, the Karapeshai Exatai. Under their Redeemer Jahan, the Satar defeated the last Thorsrdyn, Isathmaeyr at Anyais and Allusille, and annexed the fractured remnants of the empire over the next few decades.
Category:Historical Countries
Category:Avaimi