Khenomeric Empire

The Khenomeric Empire was one of the most powerful nations in the history of Giantstep, located in the eastern portion of the continent. 
== History ==
The Khenomeric Empire has its origins in the prairies, jungles, and badlands of the southeast. After ages of fighting, an alliance of coastal cities and inland horse nomads formed an alliance and began expanding northwards, conquering people as they went.
This alliance would have likely collapsed in due time if it weren’t for the fact that the scholars of this newly formed empire managed to wrestle away some of the secrets of magic from the innately magical fey they encountered in the forests and plains of the northern half of the eastern segment of the continent. They thus became the first human nation to develop magic as a set of academic theories that could be taught in mass to those with some innate magical potential (though this has been disputed, as some now lost isolationist human nations potentially had magic of this kind for longer). 
Four schools of magic developed, each informed by traditions taken from the fey. Green Plant magic worked by bolstering and guiding the life energies of plants. It had a number of interesting uses including boasting crop yields, creating magical defences, and summoning plant based guardians. Black Necromancy worked by harnessing the negative energies of the world to wither or boaster the living, or animate the dead or inanimate objects. Light Astromancy involved understanding the metaphysical nature of the universe and occasionally manipulating it. Gold Divimancy was the rarest and quickly became exclusive to the Royal Family itself.
The different schools of magic quickly became rivals and secretive of each other. As they learned each others techniques and new techniques from other magical traditions, the schools of magic became more about ideology than hard distinctions between types of magic. The Order of Harmony (aka Green Order) became more interested in communing with nature and protecting the “Natural Order”. The Order of Necromancer (aka Black Order) became more interested in power at all costs, and quickly became feared for their immortality. The Order of Astromancers (aka Light Order) became more interested in obscure theories than practical uses for their magic. And the Royal Family used their magic to hold the factions of the Empire together. 
Despite the growing schisms, the Empire continued to expand. It followed a simple philosophy. Join us and get access to magic, trade routes, and a future share of battlefield spoils, defy us and get raided and sacked. This worked for a time, but the diverse nature of Khermeric culture made assimilation difficult. Aside from the growing rivalries between the schools of magic, the Empire also lacked a central religion (the many fingers of one hand philosophy), and attempts at making a shared culture only resulted in an odd fusion of south coast and horse nomad traditions that only those closest to the Pharahkhan bought into. After a while, only the well organized military, the ambitious rivalry between the Orders of Necromancers and Astromancers, and the divination powers of the Pharahkhan held the empire together.
Despite this, at its peak, the Empire controlled much of the eastern half of the continent, though some were more willing than others.
The core of the Empire were the “South Coast Khenomerics” who lived along the coast of the Carsibi Sea, the “Interior Horse Nomads”, a collection of several cultures in the plains and badlands of the central continent, and the “Pyramid-Builders” who were a fusion of the two peoples who lived in the capital, in the regions of overlap, or holy cities and tomb complexes dedicated to a present or past Pharahkhan’s personal faith. A few smaller regions also saw themselves as founding members.
Among the many vassals, conquests, and reluctant members were the Northmen nations along the northeast coast, and the fey fiefdoms scattered across the much of the continent.
Other regions remained separate, like the Merfolk Empire, protected at the time by powerful divine magic.
The Khenomeric went into decline for a number of reasons. The Royal Family lost its Divimancy magic for unknown reasons, thus costing them much of their strategic ability. The lack of new conquests and war spoils, and the increasing reluctance of the mages to share their magic meant that the Pharahkhan’s had little to offer their most ambitious subjects other than fear to keep them in line, and the ejection of many of the more moral members from the Magic Orders caused those that were left to launch a de facto coup and later start their own religion.
The so called Magoclergy brought some stability and strength back to the Empire, but only through sheer brutality. The Magoclergy consisted mostly of the Black Order, plus some of the remaining members of the Green Order who also dabbled in types of necromancy, some members of the Light Order (who defied ancient edicts to combine Arcanium with stellar energies to create many potent magic devices, including massive armies of magic constructs) and certain ambitious priests of existing faiths. Their sheer power was almost unparalleled in history, but devastating losses at the Battle of Empires greatly weakened them.
The actions of the Magoclergy during the Battle of Empires causes Pharahkhan Kleo II Pater to led a revolt against the Magoclergy, with the help of some of the more ethical mages previously expelled from their Orders during the creation of the Magoclergy. However, his son decides to purge all mages from the Empire completely. The losses from the civil war between Kleo II and the Magoclergy, combined with the losses from the Battle of Empires, and the complete ban of magic from the remaining loyal areas of the Empire are more than enough to cripple it. Most of the vassals, and even some of the longest standing members of the Empire revolt following these events, and some of the nomadic horse tribes suffer such high losses their territories are simply abandoned to primitive races like gnolls and ogres. Other areas remained loyal to the Pharahkhan in name only, and openly defied their edicts, particularly the ban on magic.
By the time the gnolls finally destroyed the remnants of the Khermeric Empire, it had long been reduced to a weak rump state, considered minor even by some of its former vassals.
Category:Nations
Category:Giantstep
Category:Disappeared Nation
Category:Khenomeri