Old Empire

The Old Empire is a historiographical term for a political federation that existed from 1 to 411 IA, centered on northwestern Ovaicaea, whose name for itself varied over time. It was dominated by elves and gnomes, emerging from a military and economic alliance between the Kingdom of Balendor and a patchwork of elven city-states along the western coast and Eldun River, pioneered by an independent monastic military order of dragon-riders. The nascent empire rapidly expanded to include elven principalities and dwarven duchies in the Eldun Plateau, and formed several key central institutions.
The most important institutions of imperial society were the Imperial Senate, the Imperial Courts, and the Order of the Dragon. The Senate was constituted as a deliberative assembly of the empire's magnates, giving binding advice to the member states and electing the judicial officers of the Empire. The Courts interpreted the law, and established precedent through decision-making that impacted how federates applied the empire-wide laws. The Order of the Dragon was an enforcement arm for imperial law and hegemony, an autonomous, monastic order of knights with the unique ability to connect with and ride the West's remaining dragons.
The Empire came into intractable conflict with the Bergaz Empire over the fertile Dorath highlands and Dorei river valley during its first century of existence. By the end of the century, the Bergaz were defeated and abandoned the Dorath highlands, retreating into its imperial core in what were rapidly becoming the Great Wastes. The Bergaz Empire's western frontier lands were incorporated into the Old Empire, along with a diverse array of dwarven duchies and lordships; the Empire also began expansion into the northeastern regions of what is now Vilyafaana. Over time, human migrants formed a series of vassal states on the Empire's periphery. By the 300s, the Empire extended its suzerainty over much of southwestern Ovaicaea through the threat of military force.
In 400 IA, a series of crisis struck the Empire at the same time. The Dragons and their riders vanished mysteriously, the Orc Khaganate began an invasion of the eastern frontier, and bubonic plague began to spread from the east into the interior. Within twelve years, the Empire was completely destroyed. It splintered into a land of a hundred warlords, which coalesced over the next century into a couple dozen successor kingdoms and republics, often split along ethnic and cultural lines. However, it has presented an enduring influence on the states that formerly composed it, and long-reaching influence of its neighbors. The Empire's influence includes the preponderance of the Old Soltran language in law and literature, the spread of elven republicanism, and widely imitated patterns of art, religion, material culture, coinage, and military tactics. In 843, a New Empire was founded as a conscious continuation of the Old.
In retrospect, many historians have criticized it as a corrupt military dictatorship, an oppressive colonial empire, and a vehicle for elven hegemony. Its supporters, predominantly sun elves, have lauded it for its influence and achievements, including many wondrous pieces of magical technology that have yet to be replicated by modern techniques.
== Name ==
The Empire's name changed over the course of its history. The Treaty of Accession signed in late 1 BE named itself as the Imperium Unitum, or Unified Empire. This use of the Old Soltran term imperium is specific in its meaning of "military command", denoting the federated states as unified under a singular military authority, that of the Order of the Dragon. In the second century, after the Empire absorbed dwarven principalities in the western Dorei plains and Eldun Plateau, it shifted to referring to itself as the Imperium universum, or Universal Empire. Elven poets during this period began to spread the idea that the Empire can and should include theoretically all peoples and lands, often with a subtext of sun elven supremacy. Pursuant to this, some elven documents referred to the Empire as the Imperium alfum (Elven Empire), Sacrum Imperium (Holy Empire), and Imperium occidentalis (Empire of the West), though it's unclear to what extent this was colloquial phrasing.
== History ==
=== Origins ===
In the century before the Empire's foundation, the gnomish Kingdom of Balendor had rose to become very powerful in northern Ovaicaea. As it expanded south into the lake country and northeast into the Karkuz Plateau and the Dorei plains, they came into conflict with dragons. For the preceding several thousand years, dragons had largely coexisted peacefully with dwarven and gnomish tribes. However, competition over resources made low-intensity conflict increasingly frequent. War bands would hunt and slay dragons, and dragons would burn villages or eat livestock in retaliation.
Meanwhile, to the south, sea elves, moon elves, and sun elves had diversified into numerous city-states, principalities, and republics. The elven predilection for magic enabled their polities to display incredible advancement in science, technology, art, and philosophy, and constant conflict between these entities led to a revolution in military strategy and tactics. As Balendor came under increasing incursion from dragons, it formed alliances with several elven states ranging across the western coast and the mouth of the Eldun river. The conflict never really rose above low-level frontier clashes, but the antagonism between dragons, elves, and gnomes served as a point of tension that never really resolved itself.
In the years immediately prior to the Empire, a clandestine, initiatory order of elven wizards and gnomish druids sought a plan to establish peace between the vying races. They combined their knowledge to translate the dragons' language and develop a magical ritual that could commune with dragons' souls, enabling them to communicate and potentially negotiate. It is unclear what exactly this ritual entailed, whether it was an incantation, or an enchantment, or some other magical process. The Order of the Dragon tightly controlled access to, and knowledge of, their secretive rite. What is known is that the alliance of wizard-warriors that first used this magic formed a monastic military order, declaring themselves the Learned Order of Knight-Riders of the Dragon, or the Dragon-Riders for short. This order negotiated with Dragon clans, one by one, forging an alliance.
=== First Settlement ===
The Order called a conference of the allied states, meeting on the Winter Solstice at a fortress on an island in the middle of Lake Karkuz, at the northern frontier of the conflict. Having subjugated most dragons, and slain all those who defied them, the Order was in a position to dictate terms of the peace, though they desired to have the input of all who fought the "good fight" against draconic extermination. After two weeks of debate, a treaty was signed by all parties on the 5th day of Holy Week, the last day of the year, to take effect the sunrise of the following day and year. The treaty explicitly declared the preceding years to be an Era Before the Empire, and the years following its effect to be the Years of the Empire or the Imperial Age.
The Treaty of Accession established the unity of the Empire under the military authority of the Dragon-Riders, effectively a military junta and magocracy, though its critics derided it as a military dictatorship. As the years went on, however, the nascent Empire seemed at the brink of falling apart. Frontier states that had acceded to the junta's authority began to reject it, making laws and adopting economic policies that disadvantaged the other core "loyal" states of Balendor, Argento, and Rivoli, mostly through high internal tariffs and export bans, but also through revoking right of passage. The internal order of the Empire began to break down, and its member states were close to going to war with one another. The Dragon-Riders were torn by internal debate among the knights; most wanted the Order to be a neutral arbiter of justice and stability, a guarantor of peace after the victory, and desired a peaceful resolution to the coming conflict. Others, however, wanted to punish the states that defied them, effectively supporting the interests of the northwestern core. Still others took up for the "underdog" periphery states. Not only was the Empire on the brink of civil war, the Dragon-Riders were at risk of mutiny and factionalism. The superior airpower of the Dragon-Riders made them the decisive factor in the balance of power, and it was unclear where they stood.
In 10 IA, the Order called a second conference at Fort Karkuz, to negotiate a second peace settlement, and create institutions that could mediate the interests of the Empire's constituents without resorting to mass destruction.
=== Second Settlement ===
The conference of 10 IA led to a second foundational document, the Instrument of Government. This officially created the institutions of the Imperial Senate and the Imperial Courts, which could make and adjudicate laws that applied across the whole of the empire.