Alchbyre

The Greater Empire

The **Greater Empire of Alchbyre** is a large nation spanning more than half of Europe, reaching as far as Newfoundland on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

## History

Although modern Alchbyre has only existed for 600 years, the story of the Scandinavian lands is a far longer one.

### Early History

The land now known as Alchbyre emerged from the last Ice Age thanks to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream. The glacial land became habitable around two million years later.
The long coastline and excellent conditions for sealing, fishing, and hunting attracted people in numbers.
As people in the north began to travel on primitive wooden skis and use slate tools, the fjord region became suitable for farming thanks to tools and techniques from farther south. Farming spread quickly northwards across the country, and oats, barley, pigs, cattle, sheep, and goats became commonplace. Fertile areas around the fjords began to create wealth for these emerging farming communities.

### The Iron Age

The Iron Age led to better tools and easier cultivation. The population grew with increased harvest as new areas became clear. An entirely new social structure evolved.
When sons married, they would remain in the same house, creating an extended family known as a clan. This social system offered protection for family members from other clans.
If and when conflicts arose, a thing would resolve the issue, a sacred place where all freemen from the surrounding areas would assemble and could determine punishments for crimes. Collective punishments for more minor offences included fines, payable in food.
The word 'thing' is still used today to refer to council chambers. The Alchbyrean translation of the Parliament translates as 'The Big Thing'.
The expanding Roman Empire began to exert significant cultural influence. Alchbyreans created a runic alphabet and began trading furs and skins for luxury items from other lands.
Some of the most dominant farmers became chieftains, and their power increased during the Migration Period as other tribes migrated northwards and local farmers wanted protection.

### The Viking Era

Perhaps the most famous period in Alchbyrean history, the Viking Age was a period of expansion not just for Alchbyre, but the outlying Nordic regions.
Far from just barbaric, axe-wielding invaders, the Vikings created complex social institutions and left a significant impact on history through trade, colonization and far-flung exploration.
The first record of the Vikings was the invasion of an island off the northeast coast of England.
It was quite the way to announce themselves, as, at the time, the island's monastery was considered one of the great sanctuaries of religion in Western Europe.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle stated: "In this year terrible, foreboding omens came over the land, and the wretched people shook; there were excessive whirlwinds, lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the sky.
Great famine followed the signs, and a little after those, that same year on the sixth ides of January, the ravaging of wretched heathen people destroyed God's church."
Vikings proceeded to raid another monastery on the English mainland with southern Wales and Ireland falling victim to invasions soon after.
Over a thousand Alchbyrean words influenced modern English along with more than 1,000 place names in northeast England and the Scottish islands.
Vikings with good weapons and chain-mail armour were well-trained, and their belief that being killed in battle resulted in them going to Valhalla gave them a psychological advantage in wars for many years.
Misconceptions about the Vikings remain today. For example, the myth that Vikings wore horned helmets was an invention of Romanticism.
Many women stayed to look after the household during Viking raids, some women, and even children travelled with the men. One of the most fearsome Viking commanders was a woman, known as the Red Maiden.
The raids produced riches and slaves, which the Vikings brought back to Scandinavia to work the farms. As farmland grew scarce and resistance against the invasions grew in England, the Vikings began to look at targets further afield, such as Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.
The largest chieftains began a long period of civil war until King Horgul Snowhunter was able to unite the country and create the first Alchbyrean state.

### The Middle Ages

After almost a century of peace, civil war broke out because of ambiguous rules of succession.
The newly formed sorcerer enclaves attempted to control the appointment of kings, which led to the people taking sides in the various battles. Dustin Egilsson later introduced a strict law of succession.
Through the following centuries, the population increased drastically, and farms began to be subdivided, with many landowners turning over parts of their land to the king in challenging times.
Throughout the next century, a tithe of around twenty per cent of a farmer's yield went to the landowners.
Alchbyre's Golden Age is widely accepted to be the century as mentioned earlier, a time of peace and growing international trade with England and Germany.

### The Great Wars

Erevis Kanir would inherit the thrones of both Norway and Denmark and create a union, the start of a long period of political alliances and wars between the Scandinavian countries.
The Alchbyreans later expanded their territory under the leadership of King Erevis Kanir the Conqueror who led the Alchbyreans in seizing the lands in the south and the east. He brought many of the Eastern Orcish Tribes under his control, subjugating the Orcs who had previously attempted to join his Empire.
Alchbyre swept through the lands of the Khazars and Pechenegs to the south subjugating large parts; they also took the area along the Baltic coastline.
With their new Naval forces, they made seven voyages across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and once across the Black Sea, subjugating the northern and southern coastlines of Europe and the new world, bringing us to the present day. This period was marked by high power, stability, and wealth for the lands that fell under his reign.

### The Age of Wisdom

Following the Great Wars, Alchbyre focused on knowledge of distant countries, meeting with other nations across the globe, although the Governors of the various Alchbyrean states would continue to wage war to gather the Empire.