Novayan Empire

The Novayan Empire, originally known as the New Empire is the post-Unification period of Ancient Novaya, the ancient period of Novaya IV. As a large polity it holds vast territorial areas around the Novayan continent, Sarassa, Minerva, parts of Amaterasu, and several parts of Erastien, ruled by emperors. From the accession of Konstantinos Aautokrati (otherwise known as Marcus Julius Constantinus) to the anarchy of the 3th century it is a principate with Novaya as a metropole of the provinces and Morales as its sole capital. After the anarchy the principate is replaced with the dominate where the emperors share rule over the Western and Eastern Novayan Empires. Morales remain the national capital until the Chaos of the 5th Century, which saw the near collapse of the Western Empire. Corruption among the senatorial aristocracy, political intrigue, and secession among the various provinces until a coup d'etat led by the Nord-Sud-Alianz families and supported by loyalist legions, reformist senatorial families, cultists and allied barbarian kings led to the reconquest of the secessionist states; the reconquest saw the rise of the pelagus (the descendants of the Principalia), an aristocratic military class formed from military, senatorial, cultist and barbarian king families who helped recover the empire as well as expand its borders.
Before the expansion war even begun, reforms were implemented to make the bureaucracy much more efficient, corruption has been rooted out by the sword (with corrupt bureaucrats replaced by competent and honest ones), military officers studied conflicts of the ancient past and reimplemented the sarissas, bows and arrows, lorica segmentata and siege weapons. The military is retrained to be more mobile and more flexible (with the phalanxes refined in its training and tactics); the economy is funded by donations from the Cult of the Loop (which replaced the Imperial Cult of the Worm) and the pro-Nordsudalianz families who donated their treasuries, artifacts, bells, and other expensive items; smiths began making military equipment not just for the legions but also for the citizenry to protect their homes; cities were built to be more defensible and fortified and families have their houses renovated to have a small patch of ground (5 meters x 3 meters wide) so they can grow their own food; the coloni, who are proto-serfs, were no longer restricted to their land and allowed to travel to and from different Novayan provinces and even allowed to join the military, receive education, et cetera; civilian governors were replaced by military governors; and barbarian clans were allowed to settle in their lands and granted citizenship. These measures were made to ensure that the empire will have a fighting chance at expanding and securing territories beyond it.
The wars the Nordsudalianz magistrix militum (even few became emperors) waged helped expand the New Empire beyond its current borders, and numerous military colonies were propped up in occupied enemy territories to allow the citizens (both plebs and aristocrats) to move and help develop them. Under the Nordsudalianz magistrix militum lessons from different battles helped in the development of tactics and strategies which would allow the Novayan legions to adapt to any situation as well as copy unit compositions from allied and enemy forces. By the end of the chaos the Novayan Empire have full control over the Novayan continent and most of Minerva, and the end of the war also meant the Nord-Sud-Alianz families will retire from rulership to military service; their legacy, however, saw the end of the Classical era New Empire and the start of the new Novayan Empire, which would then launch a series of reforms that placed the military, which backed the emperor, as the supreme authority of the state itself. Development in the Novayan continent began after ten years of peace and after two years of constant begging by the principalia, cultists and a majority of the military to the Nord-Sud-Alianz families to become involved in politics once again (albeit on non-emperor roles).
The Novayan Empire refers to the post-Wars of the Three Centuries continuation of the New Empire at the end of Late Antiquity and during the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Age of Expansion, and Industrial Revolution. It survived the Chaos of the 5th Century and the Wars of the Three Centuries and continued to exist for an additional thousand of years until the Novayan Unification Wars, which pits it and its thirteen loyalist colonies, protectorates and subject states against the 20 rebellious colonies, protectorates and subject states, afterwhich saw its transformation into the Greater Novayan Empire or Greater Novayan Empire of the Novayan Nation; the post-Industrial Revolution wars of unification, also known as the Novayan War of Planetary Unification, saw rapid technological advancements by both sides to outdo each other which only leads to millions of lives being lost in the wars that followed.
Before the war of planetary unification, the Novayan Empire has progressively expanded its territories during the Age of Expansion and, after the Wars of the Three Centuries, had abandoned the military life which so plagued the minds of the Imperials; however, during the war the dormant martial spirit of the Novayans have awakened but it was only after the war that the Novayan military spirit did not fade away but has instead remained in the hearts of the Novayans. The military spirit shone so brightly that it served as the catalyst for the transformation of the Novayan Empire into the Greater Novayan Empire and the thirteen loyalist colonies, protectorates and subject states transformed into the thirteen Reichskommissariats.
==Government and military ==
The three instruments of the Novayan Empire is the Novayan government, the Imperial military, and the provincial governments.
===Central government===
The Imperial Cult of the Worm identified emperors and some of their family members with the divinely sanctioned authority of the Novayan State. The emperor's instruments of authority and power were the military, whose legionaries swear an oath of loyalty to the state and the emperor. The death of an emperor will result in their adopted heir made emperor or in the legionaries acclaiming their great leaders as such. After the military anarchy of the 3rd century the principate is replaced by the dominate, which involves multiple emperors sharing rule over the Western and Eastern Empires. After the coup of 403 IS, Heinrich I, the leader of the Nord-Sud-Alianz coup became the magister militum and his daughter Constantina as his heir, starting a system that lasts until 711 IS.
After the Wars of the Three Centuries the Imperial government recalled select retired magistri militum back to active service, this time as members of the Tribune of the Magistri Militum or Tribune of Magistri Utriusque Militae, an executive body intended to help the Emperor in decision-making and policy-making processes. These magistri militum were those from the Nord-Sud-Alianz families and their allies or who were appointed by the Nordsudalianz magistri militum during the wars. Each magister militum serve for a term of 30-60 years, and selection of new magistri militum is handled by the Cult of the Loop; while the terms can not be renewed, some did renew their terms due to their interests in learning new things and few were asked to renew their terms, which they agree but for only a few terms. Rarely, some of the retired magistri militum were recalled after seeing some or no military action for more than a century. The magistri militum were either military officers, high priests, archmages and senators.
===Military===
====New Empire====
After the Unification of the Novayan city-states the Imperial Novayan army is composed of professional soldiers who serve for ten or twenty years, with an additional five years of service in the reserves. Since its founding it has made use of the phalanx, an inflexible formation composed of soldiers wielding ten-foot spears, but after the sack of Morales the phalanx is replaced with the maniples, which were composed of recruits, veterans, and elite soldiers. They were involved in the Novayan expansion into Sarassa, where they fought for/alongside allied Sarassan states and against hostile Sarassan states opposing Novaya. The Novayan maniples were later reformed into the famed legions which were composed initially of heavy infantry called legionaries or legionnaires; after the allied/pro-Novayan Sarassan city-states, kingdoms and empires willingly joined the Novayan State the legions now consist of archers, cavalry, heavy infantry and light infantry, supported by siege equipment that were rare until they became common during the Chaos of the 5th Century (also known as the Chaos of the Three Centuries and the Wars of the Three Centuries).
Novayan legions were armed with an assortment of equipment, and the most notable were the Novayan legionaries' use of the scutum and gladius. After the Crisis of the 3rd Century the legions were replaced with the comitatenses, which use oval-shaped shields instead of the rectangular-shaped shields; the comitatenses' chainmail (dubbed the lorica hamata) replaced the lorica segmentata, while the gladius were retained by all comitatenses, replacing the sarissas, bows and arrows (which are reserved for infantry manning the walls). The Chaos of the 5th Century, however, saw the return of the legions and the phalanxes as well as the reintroduction of bows and arrows and widespread usage of siege weapons. Missile and pike infantry and cavalry were also introduced after the reforms long before the conquest of the Novayan continent. As a result, the legions use a mixture of armor and weapons that would allow them to fight their enemies. But the legions were reinforced by magicians and thaumaturges trained by the Cult of the Loop, which did so to repay its debts to the Nord-Sud-Alianz families; few in numbers, the cultists prove themselves in aiding the legionaries win battles.
In times of war, especially during the Wars of the Three Centuries, the Nordsudalianz magistri utriusque militae, the ruling military leaders of the New Empire, have experience in different environments, cultures and locations that allow them to reform the legions. The legionaries and phalangites serve as the main frontline troops with archers as support units and cavalry as flankers. For reconnaissance and hit-and-run attacks horse archers and light cavalry were used for such purposes, and light infantry (armed with swords, shields and chainmail) will also be used only if the missions require absolute stealth. For sieges the use of trebuchets, battering rams, catapults and siege towers allow for the conquest of fortified cities. After every siege each city will be rebuilt, fields and infrastructure repaired and placed under the direction of a Nordsudalianz-appointed military governor. Tribal and nomadic clans who sided with the Nordsudalianz-led Imperial forces were given land, autonomy and citizenship in exchange for loyalty, a small number of troops and insights on further refining the Imperial military training standards and combat strategies. Outposts were built at strategically-important and -placed areas that were then populated with colonists (both military and civilian). Thaumaturges and magicians, despite being small in numbers, were stronger and powerful and have allowed the Imperials to win each and every battle.
However, what defined the Imperial military is the floating castles, which served as floating headquarters and castle-fortresses for the most influential and powerful Imperial leaders. The first floating castle, anachronistic for its time, was built by magi-engineers (shortened to magineers) and workers under the employ of the proto-Aagiokratians (then under the Akirashima-Sakimita families) and supervision of the Nord-Sud-Alianz families, who intended to surprise their emperor as a gift; the early battles of the Chaos of the 5th Century, corruption among the senatorial aristocracy, political intrigue, and secession among the various provinces that would have caused the Western Empire to collapse forced the postponement and post-coup resumption of their first floating castle. Despite its originally-intended purpose is to give the emperor and his family or families a mobile aerial home to reside on, it was then turned into a mobile military headquarters as well as a platform from which thaumaturges and magicians can use spells against their enemies and magi-engineers can maintain and repair. This purpose also grew to boost the morale of the attacking or defending Imperial troops and demoralize the enemy. Construction of new floating castles by the recently-created Cult of the Loop commenced, with 48 already in commission and only 12 destroyed by infiltrators or siege/magical weapons and less than five were sacrificed; improvements to the floating castles' defenses, such as the first thaumaturgical reinforcement symbols etched on the walls, allow them to survive even longer and even allow for ratting out infiltrators.
====Novayan Empire====
=====Dark Ages and Medieval Ages=====
The military of the newly-christened Novayan Empire has seen reforms since the Wars of the Three Centuries. It was composed of legionaries, phalangites, comitatenses and different kinds of infantry, cavalry, marines and even magi during the early days of the Novayan Empire; this military is bolstered by the differing cultures of nomadic tribes, migrating clans and colonies throughout the empire itself. However, the wars had decisively quenched the Imperials' martial spirit to the point the military is reduced significantly, leaving 5% of the total Imperial population to be in active service and 10% in the reserves, and has switched from a military policy of aggressive conquest to those of defense and order and peaceful annexation; the policy of establishing colonies by the legions still remain. The policy of exploration, which is considered new, has been implemented to allow Imperial legionnaires to explore in groups of 150 or 300, leading to them uncovering ruins of ancient civilizations - tribal and post-tribal times - through out the world; several magi also developed methods of imbuing underwater exploratory boats with thaumaturgic reinforcement symbols so that they can survive the crushing water depths, allowing for the discovery of an ancient Atlantis-esque civilization which was then annexed into the Empire.
The Imperial Novayan army during the Middle Ages saw it further adapting and improving its equipment. The gladius was came to be recognized as the short sword and the longer variant of the gladius serves as the longsword. The chainmail has evolved to encompass the body as well as protection for the head, and a new helmet created for the head's protection as well. New armor, polearms, blunt weapons and battleaxes were developed, and shields were made to be more easily carried and resemble the heater shields of pre-Celestial Sundering medieval times. The siege weapons and ranged weapons still remain but were also improved, and there came the addition of the surcoats, worn by Imperial knights and later high-ranking leaders. Below are the list of men-at-arms involved in the Middle Ages, listed in accordance to their culture:
*All Novayan: Novayan Legionaries, Magi, Noble Legions, Imperial Knights and Arcane Auxiliaries
*Southern Novayan: Home Legions, descendants of the Legiones Armatae (Armored Legions) and Legiones Caesarae (Imperial Legions)
*Novayan Islander and Southern Novayan Islander: Legion Marines, descendants of the Navis Legionum (Naval Legions)
*Western Novayan: Legion Riders, descendants of the Legiones Equities (Cavalry Legions)
*Central Novayan: Mountain Legions, descendants of the Mons Sagitarriorum (Mountain Archers)
*Eastern Novayan: Legion Outriders, descendants of the nomadic horsearchers
*Sarassan: Sarassan Companions, descendants of the Sarasan Oplitis (Sarassan Hoplites)
*Minervan: Fortress Legions, descendants of the Legiones Arce (Fortress Legions) and Legiones Castellum (Castle Legions)
*Colonials: Colonial Legions, descendants of the Third Centuries-era legions and Legiones Coloniae
*Adornisian: Adornisian Arcane Auxiliaries and Magi, elemental-based variants of the Arcane Auxiliaries and Magi
*Southwestern Amaterasian: Amaterasian Legions, descendants of the Legiones Coloniae in southwestern Amaterasu
*Amaterasian: Ronin, landless samurai willing to serve for another leader
The Imperial Novayan army has fought against the western kingdoms of regional Erastien and Venestia and the eastern kingdoms of Miliristia and Gerasmito. After suffering disastrous defeats and signing a humiliating treaty the Imperials updated their equipment and waged war after a 40-year peace, allowing them to not just retake its lost territories overtake various kingdoms and even opposing empires that have full influence over the remnants of the Imperial Cult of the Worm. Five crusades against the Novayan Empire took place but failed, with the last one being nearly successful in sacking Morales and conquering Olaistol before bogged by harassing legionnaires. The sacking of Morales and the conquest of Olaistol, however, galvanized the resolve of the Imperial government and military who trained harder than before. The creation of a new Novayan plate, based on Erastian and Gerasmitan plates, has allowed the formation of the Imperial Knights, armored and armed cavalrymen.
The Imperial Novayan army made heavy usage of siege weapons and has also copied the Imperial Cult's crusade and used it to liberate Olaistol. It has also adopted and raised its own military orders, sanctioned by the Cult of the Loop, to help wage war against the imperial cultists. The Imperial Novayan army brought back the policy of aggressive expansionary conquest, which saw it establishing control over conquered areas and replacing anti-Novayan houses with those supportive of the Novayan Empire; few kingdoms, having adopted the Cult of the Loop as their official religions, aligned themselves with the resurgent empire and, as a result, became despotates.
=====Novayan Unification Wars=====
The Novayan Empire during the Novayan Unification Wars saw the adoption of what would become the military-industrial complex, produced by the Industrial Revolution, which allows for the modernization of the Novayan military for the various unification wars. Infantry who wield flintlock muskets now used rifled muskets and revolvers, and artillery guns were used only to hammer away at enemy positions and formations. Soldiers, led by officers, stood in parade formations while fighting or advancing. The cavalry focus switched from offensive towards defensive as the development of the rifled musket made cavalry movements impractical and detrimental. The most significant change in the military, however, is forgoing armor (medieval, classical and early modern) due to them being susceptible to artillery and rifle fire, and instead sees the adoption of blue or gray uniforms. Other weapons used by the Novayan military included a multi-barreled gun called the Gatling gun, which is capable of mowing down enemy troops.
The Novayan navy has also seen modernization on its warships. No longer using galleys and other sailships it has instead used steam-powered warships that comes with the first torpedoes (in that time period, it is actually a naval mine) and function as gunboats. The uniforms of the naval sailors and officers, however, were respectively white and black; the sailors' uniforms were white with the flap collars blue-and-white while the officers' uniforms were black with gold lines.
The Fourth Novayan Unification War, however, saw the rise of a new form of warfare where artillery, machine guns, shotguns, submachine guns, biplanes and even the first armored vehicles (armored cars and tanks) were revolutionized. Infantry no longer fight in individual blocks of 100 men and instead squads of 10 men, led by a junior non-commissioned officer, became the norm. Wireless communication and telephone were commonplace throughout the war. Indirect fire with guns (artillery, mortars and machine guns) and counter-battery fire missions have also seen widespread use. Railways have evolved not just for civilian purposes but also for transporting hundreds of thousands of troops, supplies, equipment and food. Cavalry no longer saw any use in the front lines and only for guarding the rear lines. Novayan soldiers no longer wear blue uniforms but have kept the gray uniforms, which would then become the progenitor for the commonly-recognized Novayan military uniforms; officers also wear gray uniforms but the jacket they wore is single or double breasted, and they have also worn gray neckties. The steel helmet, or stahlhelm, is later adopted for frontline use.
In naval warfare the ships no longer resemble the wooden steamships of the previous wars and have instead resemble hulking masses of steel with large big turrets that have powerful cannons which lobbed hellish firepower, and submarines were equipped with torpedoes to sink enemy vessels; submarine warfare, both restricted and unrestricted, have since led to the use of hydrophones, hydrophones, blimps, depth charges, hunter-killer submarines, forward-throwing anti-submarine weapons and dipping hydrophones. Formations of diesel-powered warships fought against each other even when the range is over 10,000 km. The first aircraft carriers has also seen action despite being few in numbers.
In aerial warfare the hot-air balloons were used as stationary reconnaissance posts high above the trenches, with two men manning it and equipped with parachutes. Antiaircraft guns and then fighter aircraft were used to defend them. However, the most influential is the creation of the fighter, bomber and fighter-bomber. The fighters help defend the balloons and bombers while fighting enemy fighters and taking down enemy bombers; the bombers' role is to drop bombs on the enemy to weaken their defenses; and finally the fighter-bomber, though seeing less action, helped take down enemy aircraft and bombard enemy positions using mortar rounds.
It wasn't until the Fifth Novayan Unification War did the Novayan military revised its strategies to win battles. Forgoing the attritional war strategy seen in the Fourth Unification War through the use of trenches, barbed wires and heavy defenses, the Novayan army has opted instead for overwhelming firepower and mobile warfare which will evolve into combined arms warfare: artillery and aircraft bombarded enemy positions to weaken them, while fast-moving armored tanks, accompanied by mechanized infantry, serve as the armored spearhead that would breach the focal point or schwerpunkt; foot infantry, which later became motorized infantry, will mop up whatever remain of the encircled enemy units. Because of the nature of the war, mechanization have led to the creation of armored half-tracked vehicles which transport infantry. All soldiers now wear camouflaged uniforms and were armed with a variety of weapons, few of which were the machine guns, submachine guns, semi-automatic rifles, carbines and later the standard-issue assault rifles, evolved from selective-fire automatic rifles adopted during the Fourth Unification War.
Also because of this war, the Novayan army has also made perfect use of paratroopers who dropped from transport planes and land behind enemy lines and damage logistics and supply routes, eliminate officers and capturing communications and supply outposts, and gather intelligence. In naval warfare, the Novayan navy has begun replacing battleships with aircraft carriers which serve as the flagships of carrier task forces, though the battleships were retained for the duration of the war. It was this war that the Novayan Imperial Admiralty Staff, recently renamed the Imperial Novayan Naval Admiralty Staff, integrated the weakly-inefficient Tribune of the Magistri Militum into its form, transforming into the Novayan Naval Admiralty Staff, the politico-military administrative body of the Novayan Empire and Greater Novayan Empire and the inspiration for the future Novayan Stellar Commonwealth's Naval Admiralty.
New war methods such as espionage and radar have become involved in this war. Control centers in ships helped establish networked computing that became essential to civilian life. Cryptography, communications and intelligence and even electronics have also been part of the war. Bombers now fly up to higher altitudes and were heavily protected but rocketry have seen the creation of new guided missiles, ballistic missiles and jet-powered aircraft. The war also saw the adaptation of the fighter aircraft into fighter-bombers which will carry unguided rockets. The atomic weapon were few yet enough to stop the war. Advancements in medicine in the war also saw mass-production and widespread use of penicillin, treatment of burns and other afflictions, and surgical innovations. Magic and thaumaturgy, however, have also evolved: initially used for combat it has since given multiple roles such as healing the wounded (limbs can be reattached but detached or destroyed heads cannot be healed or reattached), create mirror images to mislead enemy formations, cast invisibility to allow for stealing intelligence and documents, and finally the creation of powerful thaumaturgical weapons, known today as eigenweapons.
The Sixth Novayan Unification War, which lasts for nearly a half-century would later be the last major conflict the Imperial Novayan military ever fought. The Novayan army used airborne infantry, transported by helicopters, to respond to enemy attacks while mechanized ground forces break through enemy lines; infantry trained for special operations have also been involved. The Novayan military has also developed anti-ballistic missiles, guided by satellites and reconnaissance satellites, and anti-satellite weapons to take out enemy satellites and ballistic missiles.
The Imperial Novayan military in the last war now fully comprise of core militaries or component militaries, with the Continental Army being the most prominent; these core militaries hail from the Novayan Empire and its thirteen loyal colonial holdings, protectorates and subject states. This military is divided into the Imperial Army, Imperial Air Force and Imperial Navy, the latter of which became fully influential among Novayan circles. Previously the Imperial Novayan military is the largest military force in Novaya IV but has since struggled with a centralized military command structure, heavy military spending and overstretched military presence; reforms allowed for the transformation of the Imperial Novayan military into an all-volunteer military force composed of the aforementioned core militaries. The rigid military command structure is decentralized that allows for flexibility, mobility and individual initiative.
At the end of the Sixth Unification War, which saw the destructive unification of Novaya IV after decades of conflict, the Imperial Novayan military has since transformed into the Novayan Armed Forces after the Novayan Empire transformed into the Greater Novayan Empire (full name Greater Novayan Empire of the Novayan Nation).