Rannar

The **Empire of Rannar** was a militaristic dictatorship that existed during the Sixteenth Age.

## History

Like several other dictatorships, Rannar was founded by an opportunistic baron who wanted to turn his people into an empire to replace Tukshara. After seizing power, that baron -- Bergand I -- unified the land by conquering the other Nordic states, such as the kingdoms of Thermir and Var.

Later emperors then sent their armies to conquer other lands, from raiding Marnoxai and the unaligned states all the way to Redjetesh, to sending fleets to subjugate and bomb the western shores of Randros. This led to war between Rannar and Directorist Ardesch: the Directors viewed Rannar as vulgar and crude warmongers, while the Emperor of Rannar viewed Ardesch as a decadent empire that needs to be invaded and forcibly "corrected" into submission.

Three centuries after its founding, Rannar was split into two due to a succession crisis. It was revived several millennia after the Grey Kings' invasion, but it was challenged by three other kings. The eastern territories splintered into independent states, known as the Vaulontirs.

The Third Empire of Rannar, a later incarnation, readopted the fascist and militarist views of its predecessor in its attempts to conquer the rebellious states of Thermir and the Vaulontirs of the east. Knowing that they would be outnumbered by their enemies and the Corporations, they summoned the most brutal and savage armies of the Fifty-Six Tyrants to slaughter the world. They even enslaved and slaughtered thousands of sympathetic Terrans, as sacrifices to Odin or as test subjects for its dreadful projects, using whatever Terrans within its territories as nothing more than expendable, disposable living weapons. As a result, the Rannarisk people, their Terran armies and slaves, and their whole nation were reviled - especially by other Norse peoples and almost all worshippers of Odin - as traitors to humanity and the Lord of Knowledge for causing so much destruction to the world.

The Rannarisk Empire was a member of the Lords of Power, seeking a second chance to slaughter the World Alliance and the rest of the world. It managed to get its chance when the 3900 Pandemic destroyed many countries, but its attempts to weaponise the plague instead decimated most of Rannar, reducing it into several isolated fortresses in the west.

In the latter years of Rannarisk civilisation, the Rannarisk emperors shifted away from fascism into a sort of technocracy: while they continued to suppress the people and direct them into being warriors, they shifted their policies from personality cults into using technology and mutation to make themselves powerful. The transformation of the western Rannariskar into a more crazed, unstable breed of superhuman warriors led to the eastern provinces to rebel against the emperors, and the ensuing division brought the empire to an end.

## Government

Rannar is an absolute monarchy ruled by an Emperor. Some of these Emperors declared themselves as Over-jarls of the Nordic race, demanding the other Nordic states to obey and worship them as their masters.

## Emperors of Rannar

### Eldantarid Dynasty

* Haukor II - the emperor during the rise of Red Ardesch
* Lyosring - the emperor during the Cyber Youth Era
* Hammodins - the emperor during the Utopianist War

### Tharmarid Dynasty

* Lariostir - the emperor who waged war on the free Thermirisk and Vaulontirar Norse, and who summoned the most brutal of the Fifty-Six Tyrants as slaughterers, slaves, subjects in experiments, and sacrifices to Odin. Killed on the final week of the Third World War when his palace was firebombed. To this day, his name became a synonym for a planet-wide genocide.

### Glassamyntid Dynasty

* Glassamynd I - obsessed with genetic manipulation, he attempted to turn every citizen into a blonde like himself
* Glassamynd II - overthrew his insane father to restore order. In turn, he was overthrown by the Black Knights of Odin, and hanged on a mast.

### Odin Templars

Led by the jarl Rukland, he imposed a theocracy instead of the monarchy. Under his reign, scientific projects were accelerated as his offering to Odin, reaching terrible and horrific levels. It lasted for only three years before Rukland was slain in a raid against the Prime Nexus, a grand laboratory.

* Rukland the Faithful/Obsessed

### Santrotjenid Dynasty

* Baleygra the Irate - a supersoldier who burned Rukland and his army, and took over the government as emperor. Under his reign, all mutants became the aristocracy of the empire. He was very notorious for sending his warriors to burn anyone who opposed him on stakes, and many highways were lined with burning poles.
* Hjaldofrey - he initiated a campaign to transform his people into superhumans, but it caused the empire to split into three.

## Society

Rannarisk society is militaristic and fanatical, bent on seeking the subjugation of all peoples under the rule of its Emperor.

It is also racialist and fascist, abiding to the teachings and rantings of the disgraced philosopher Nolaar of Ardesch. According to Rannarisk propaganda, every outsider is worth nothing but to become slaves, and in order for Rannar to avoid being conquered it must become an empire that dominates the world.

Eugenics was commonly-practiced in Rannar, as its rulers wanted to make the Rannarisk race into an army of superhumans in their desire to surpass Tukshara and conquer the world. To implement it, very talented and strong people were separated from everyone else and ordered to breed, while people with disorders were killed off.

### Latter Rannar

In the many attempts in eugenics, the Rannarisk authorities also practiced genetic mutation: for every successful superhuman, a thousand more were killed or disfigured. In their attempts to create a single, unified nation of demigods, the Rannarisk rulers instead created two new peoples that divided the empire into three, which splintered into warring kingdoms.

As more and more people were alarmed by the decay of the superhuman warriors, more people turned towards religious devotion, creating various practices bent on the veneration of Odin. These included a nationwide campaign dedicated to science and the humble practice of empty thrones as his shrines.

## Trivia

* The Empire of Rannar was influenced by Neo-Nazi and White nationalist users on Internet sections, as the author intended the Sixteenth Age setting to be a caricature on Internet extremists. Its society was based on Nazi Germany.
* Latter Rannar was influenced by mad scientists in pop culture, in which various attempts to create a race of superhumans instead backfired into instability: social, mental, and physical.

## See also

* Baesorja, its modern-day descendant
* Jauparturnid Dynasty, another empire that seeks absolute perfection
* Wannaenid Empire, another supposed descendant because of their similar militarism
* Nordic State, its Rinnarverse counterpart
* Freyrgard, its enemy in the west, in spite of sharing a similar culture
* Zarijana, Red Ardesch, its enemies
* The Hrelvist Era, the successors of the Rannarisk Empire.