Kalaidian Empire/Fallen Empires

The **Kalaidian Empire**—also known as the **Empire of Kalaidis**, **Kalaidian Military Governorate** or **Kalaidinas Aautokrata** after the Fall of Avarasia, and previously known as the **Governorate of Kalaidis** or **Kyvernis dis Kalaidis** prior to that event—is a theostratocratic empire and a military governorial empire and previously a military governorate located in the Kalaidian peninsula. Once formed by the Avarasian Empire, it became independent after the Fall of Avarasia, and has since then reorganized from a bureaucratic military governorate to a stratocratic empire with a theocratic institution helmed by its current empress, Borealis Norsoutha, said to be the descendant of the four goddesses Amaterasu, Sagittarius, Persephone and Ishtar.

## Organization and society

### Administration

The empire is formed and administered upon Eastern Aizegeran feudal principles, incorporating some of the Imperial Avarasian bureaucracy. The Emperor or Empress, who also holds the title of Governor-Militant, is the *de facto* leader and is assisted by a council, composed of the various military commanders and the Imperial Knights. This council had a major voice in the governance of the realm, especially in periods of regency, when the Regent (*moderator imperii*) was dependent on their consent to rule. The emperor/empress is the reigning sovereign, being practically independent of the council. They exercise authority over the empire by imperial and divine mandate. They also hold the title of High Priest/High Priestess of the Kalaidiam Imperial Cult and Pontifex Maximus/Maxima of the Pormasyneidic Temple, making them an extremely influential ruler.

### Economy

The Kalaidians had adopted the professional Avarasian bureaucracy, and in the aftermath of the fall of the Western Avarasian Empire reformed the Avarasian economic administration of the areas they now control.

As part of the organization reforms, the Kalaidian Empire's administrative personnel consisted of the following:

* **Emperor/Empress:** *De facto* leader of the Kalaidian Empire, also known as the **Emperor/Empress of Kalaidis**, **Emperor/Empress of the Kalaidians**, **Divine Emperor/Empress of Kalaidis** and **Divine Emperor/Empress of the Kalaidians**. They also hold the titles of:
	+ **Governor-Militant of Kalaidis:** An archaic title, it is used to denote the reigning sovereign-monarch holding full control over the Kalaidian mainland.
	+ **Pontifex Maximus/Maxima of the Kalaidic Temple:** *De facto* leader of the Pormasyneidic Temple
	+ **High Priest/High Priestess of the Kalaidian Imperial Cult:** Denotes the leader of the Kalaidian Imperial Cult, which helms Kalaidian Imperial Pormasyneidism
	+ **Pharaoh-Paragon of Greater Ctis:** Leader of the Paragon Cult of Isis, the Isiac Order, and Greater Ctis
	+ **Queen/Empress of the Babylonians:** Denotes her role as the queen of the Babylonian Empire
	+ **Philosopher/Sage-King/Queen of Yavana:** Leader of the Indo-Kalaidic kingdom of Yavana and the Indolatreian Temple
	+ **King/Queen-Priestess of Indus:** Leader of the Kingdom of Indus and the Conclave of Indus
	+ **Celestial/Dragon Empress of T'ien Ch'i:** Leader of the Celestial Empire of T'ien Ch'i
	+ **Empress of the Rising Sun and of Jomon:** Denotes her role as the divine monarch of Jomon
	+ **High Shinkoku of the Ise Grand Shrine:** Denotes her role as the chief high priestess of the Kalaido-Jomonese Kaludiaisthic faith
	+ **Fylkyr-Empress of the Northern Lands:** Denotes her roles as empress of the Northern Lands and high priestess of the Kalaido-Norse faith
	+ **Huetlatoani of the Empire of Mictlan:** Leader of the Empire of Mictlan
* **Imperial Knights:**

## Kalaidis, Mandate of the Four Goddesses

### Lore

Kalaidis is actually inspired by *Dominions 5: Warriors of the Faith* (especially the Emerald Empire of Pythium and the Reformed Empire of Sceleria), Crusader Kings 2, and the Dominions 5 mod *The Gathering Sturm*. Its religion, Pormasyneidism - meaning *"The Formation of Consciousness"*, is a hodgepodge of Greco-Roman Hellenism, Shintoism, Babylonian religion, Aztec paganism and Eastern religions (especially Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Hinduism); its name came from the Filipino word "porma" (from *pormasyon*, meaning *formation*) and Greek word "syneidos" (meaning *conscious*), the result a friend of Scarlet did upon being asked for a proper name. Pormasyneidism is also inspired by the various Hellenic religions from the CK2 mod *Lux Invicta*.

Kalaidis is also inspired by the Crusader Kings 3 mod *Godherja: The Dying World*, especially the Aversarinas Aautokrata and its Apokiakas. The Aversarinas Aagiokratia is another influence for the Pormasyneidic religion in that any Aversarians consider themselves The Purest, resulting a majestic hodgepodge of faiths where they claim to be the Purest.

The Kalaidian Empire, previously the Governorate of Kalaidis, is one of several splinter empires of the Avarasian Empire. As dark arts were practiced in the heart of the great Empire of old, the resulting cataclysm brought about the disastrous end of the Avarasian nation and its subsequent collapse into multiple kingdoms, rump states and remnants, among them the Ashen Empire of its namesake, the Emerald Empire of Sazarlia, and the Reformed Empire of Sceledaria. The Governorates of Novaya, Babylonia, Kalaidis and Yavana were far away when the fall of Avarasia occurred, thereby avoiding the fall. When news of its fall reached them, all four governorates went different paths, with the Kalaidian governorate reforming itself under a distant branch of the Norsoutha-Tomoshima family.

Reborn from the ashes of the fallen empire and the ancient Kalaidian kingdom, the Kalaidians worked to restore their old kingdom, which had been adapted into modern times. The title of king was replaced with the title of Emperor but attempts at reverting to the armies of old were half-successful, culminating in a hybrid army system where professional soldiers fused both legion tactics and organization with strategies, equipment and other innovations from the barbarian cultures that made up most of their numbers. Such is the case of the Shieldsmen, the Kalaidians' answer-representation of the more professional legions they produced (as opposed to the much more numerous by magnitudes horribly mismanaged, hardly Avarasian by definition, legions).

Now, however, the old pagan (including old Kalaidian, northern and far western foreign pagan ones) and Imperial religions would be reformed into something new, a religion called "Pormasyneidism" that means *"The Formation of Consciousness"*, which would be centered around worship of the four goddesses Amaterasu, Sagittarius, Persephone and Ishtar in response to the four calling out to their descendant, a 15-year-old girl by the name of Borealis Norsoutha, whose divine heritage and ancestry brought about change in the empire. Upon becoming Empress of the Kalaidians, Borealis would espouse Pormasyneidism and launch a series of conquests going a bit north and then to the west, spreading the new faith through acolytes and words by mouth and establishing variants; the Kalaidian Imperial Cult and the Pormasyneidic Temple were both helmed by the empress herself.

Kalaidis use a reformed legionnaire army. Frontier armies slow enemy advances and the imperial reserves of professional elite troops are tasked with fighting off invaders who make it past this first line of defense; tribal warriors integrated into the Kalaidian legions helped transform it to be more flexible and adaptive. In times of expansion the Kalaidian legions would always be at the forefront, backed by several tribal warriors and even some frontier armies, and due to their experience in the rugged forested and mountainous terrain of Kalaidis they are invaluable exceptional expert in traversing such rugged terrain.