Imperyea

*"Oh, here's one. Before there was a unified Imperyea, the islands were divided by four chiefdoms. Kushyrin, Imper, Cheypri, and, uh… I forget the fourth one. The chiefdoms eventually united as a Puritonist theocracy familiarly known as Imperyea. Religion is what brought us together under one banner; a united loyalty to the gods!" ―Daigon, EngelReise - Chapter 9*

Imperyea is a major nation featured in EngelReise, is the setting for Season 1 (Chapters 1-10), and is the home of story protagonist, Tomako Angel. Geographically, Imperyea is located in the Shimuan continent to the far east, and consists of five autonomous island masses. For most of history, Imperyea stands as a sovereign nation led by an emperor and their five great lords, renowned for their many wars against Krucifix. By Season 1 of EngelReise, the Imperyean Empire has fallen to the far western Swatslandic Empire, and has been replaced by the Viceroyalty of Imperyea—a Swatslandic colony. Aside from its wars with Krucifix, Imperyea is known for its samurai culture, fine art, and united faith in Puritonism.

## History

### Ancient Imperyean Chiefdoms

The 'Pre-Imperial' or 'Pre-Samurai' era of Imperyea saw the islands independent of each other but culturally and spiritually identical, naturally leading to an early warlord period. In these ancient times, Imperyea was divided into four chiefdoms: Imper, Kushyrin, Cheypri, and Hi-Kin. In these centuries of separation, it was Imper and Kushyrin who stood the test of time, with Cheypri and Hi-Kin eventually falling to Imper; even with Imper besting two of its three rivals, Kushyrin would prove unconquerable due to its high population and superior coastal defenses.

Each chiefdom during this time were followers of early Puritonism, which was at the time less so a nationalized religion and more so a loose collection of commonly believed mythos. This uniting faith in early Puritonism would be the one thing keeping the chiefdoms from performing genocide against one another, as well as giving them a common enemy in the emergent Krucifixan kingdom that had taken the peninsula Puritonists claimed theirs. Puritonism is, ultimately, what would end the centuries of infighting, as the remaining two chiefdoms of Kushyrin and Imper would at long last lay down their arms and agree to unite under a new theocratic government loyal to Puritonist values.

To ensure that the new centralized government of Imperyea held the interests of Imper and Kushyrin with equal weight, a Kushyrian mother and Imperan father were nominated from both chiefdoms and made to wed. From this marriage came the birth of a son who would be granted the name Chonan and subsequently be raised as the first Emperor of Imperyea. The birth of Emperor Chonan marked the end of the chiefdom age and the rise of the Imperyean Empire as a political entity, though the only other empire in the world—the Superium Empire—would never recognize Imperyea as a real empire due to its small size and lack of relevance on the world stage.

### The First Dynasty

During the regency of Emperor Chonan, Imperyean politics were consumed by a need for a structure of government that the five islands of Imperyea could all rally behind as legitimate. Many during these early years simply believed that the powers of Emperor should be defined by the respective High Chiefs of Imper and Kushyrin, however, the chiefdoms had been dismantled following Imperyean unification, and most in the new empire remained suspicious of Kushyrin. A second, more popular suggestion was that a national, professional military be quickly developed and given responsibility over government, effectively paving the way for a Military Government. Similar distrust over Kushyrin would lead to a weakening of support for the rise of a military government, namely because of the most prestigious Imperyean commander coming from Kushyrin. The continued obstacle of distrust towards the former Chiefdom of Kushyrin would lead to a natural conclusion that an Imperyean government would need to be led by ideals all islands were passionate about and where no island had a greater advantage over the other. The eventual answer to this long debate was to empower the clergy, ensuring that government always held Puritonism as its highest focus.

With all islands agreeing to expand the powers given to the religious class, the new capital city of Korion would quickly also develop into the spiritual center of the Puritonist faith. There in Kori Castle, the best clergymen in the empire gathered with the mission of educating the imperial dynasty in Puritonism, with the Emperor eventually taking over as Head of Faith and holding ultimate religious authority in the land. Emperor Chonan, once reaching adulthood, revealed himself to the Imperyean people as a dispeller of historical tensions and a spiritual healer, wanting to devote his life to erasing any identities unique to the era of chiefdoms. While Chonan would somewhat succeed in his mission, what he unintentionally ended up credited for was raising the importance of religious education throughout the country; by the end of his lifetime, most knew the fundamentals of Puritonism, and many workplaces required a proven proficiency in the faith.

The reign of Emperor Chonan proved to be a monumental one but largely uninteresting; His son and successor, Emperor Jinan, would prove to be more controversial. Jinan even before ascending to the throne identified a problem in Puritonism, namely that a lack of official scripture meant that the exact retelling or interpretations of Puritonist canon varied depending on island. Calling upon his council of clergymen, a long, complicated process led to these men agreeing to organize all known Puritonist stories into an official body of papers. For the first time in Imperyea's short history, Emperor Jinan utilized his religious authority to declare that these pages of writings were the official canon, and that any straying interpretations were heresy. This declaration proved controversial around the empire, especially due to the government's inability to reproduce the pages enough times to effectively spread the canon. While the country accepted that an official text now existed, few in Imperyea would ever know what the text said due to limited access. Emperor Jinan's most significant change on Puritonism and Imperyean society came when he looked outward to the mostly ignored peninsula that the Krucifixans had colonized. For centuries, the Imperyean people laid claim to the peninsula due to mentions of it belonging to an Imperyean god, but few ever cared to act on the issue. Jinan declared in yet another act of religious authority that the greatest responsibility of the Imperyean people should be to colonize the peninsula, despite the Krucifixans already doing so. By emphasizing the religious duty of Imperyea to take the peninsula, Jinan had unknowingly initiated a conflict between Imperyea and Krucifix that would persist for hundreds of years onwards. One of Chodan's major albeit controversial accomplishments was his passing of a universal tax reform, which established that rates of taxation were weighted the same regardless of the island. With some islands benefiting from this idea more than others, there was great resistance to what would normally be instituted politically; henceforth, to end the debate, Chodan used his religious authority to declare his universal tax rate as the canonical will of the Puritonist gods. Emperor Chonan escaped any consequences from his constant use of religious authority as he would die rather young, but he established a precedent that would come to his successor as a heavy burden.

The third Emperor of Imperyea—Sonnan—succeeded Chonan with considerable skepticism and tension aimed toward him by the public. Many Imperyeans grew tired of Emperor Chonan's usage of religious authority as a means of achieving political victories, with many questioning whether any man or woman could truly add, remove, or adjust religious canon as he had. Emperor Sonnan was immediate in demonstrating his eagerness to continue this trend when he declared that the maintaining of dental hygiene was considered a moral issue since many Puritonists held idols of the gods close to their face when praying. Similar minor religious declarations would be made throughout his reign, but the most significant moment would come when he recalled Chonan's declaration that owning the peninsula controlled by the Krucifixans was the top priority for Imperyeans. Unlike Chonan, Sonnan went the final step on this issue by declaring to the Imperyean nation that the gods of Imperyea commanded them to strip the peninsula away from Krucifix by force. A period of seven months saw fishermen surrendering their boats and equipment to the military, a mass gathering of food supply from farmers, and a massive conscription of Imperyean men and even women. Later, these thousands of Imperyean soldiers would embark north in what would become known as the First Krucif-Imperyean War—the first of many to come.

Up to this point, Krucif-Imperyean relations had been neutral, with the two most often meeting only for the purpose of exotic trade; for this reason, the Krucifixans trusted the Imperyeans were content within their own natural borders. With little complexity to their plan, the Imperyean invasion fleet landed a phenomenal number of soldiers at the most southern point of Krucifix, at first occupying villages with little resistance, and little harm to the inhabitants. The Imperyean invasion of Krucifix saw the southern side of the peninsula swiftly occupied from east to west coast, granting them great control over their objective but at the consequence of spreading their military thin. The Krucifixans spent three months gathering hardened soldiers from the northern region of Greater Krucifix, but once in the peninsula, approached the Imperyean line with great enthusiasm. While the Imperyeans outnumbered the Krucifixan responders, their forces were of lesser quality, no familiarity with the region, led by the clergy, and on the offensive. Banking on the prediction that Imperyea did not understand the peninsula's terrain, the Krucifixan defenders rushed into the most elevated positions along the center of the peninsula, even permitting the Imperyeans to seize more villages if it meant luring them into a more vulnerable position. This gamble paid off, as every major battle to occur along the frontline led to the same conclusion of Imperyean forces being destroyed by Krucifixan missile fire. Once the Imperyean numbers thinned down, they decided to yield most of their current occupation to band back together, believing they would do better as a merged unit. This change in strategy did not work out for Imperyea, as their enemies took this as an opportunity to try and circle around the Imperyeans and attack them from multiple directions. Doom approached the thousands of Imperyean soldiers quickly approaching an encirclement; fortunately for them, once Emperor Sonnan learned of the tragic situation in Krucifix, he declared that the military operation was a failure and recalled the surviving army home: the First Krucif-Imperyean War was lost.