Kalaidis, Empire of the Eight

Kalaidis is a militaristic human empire.

### Lore

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.
Also, the name Kalaidis was originally from the Kalaidis system, where the Sorrowing of Kalaidis had been perpetrated by the Novayan Stellar Commonwealth in order to stop the spread of the Quenir coronavirus that had unfortunately been spreading. Only one world, the glacial world of Kalaidis X, was spared after its government realize the pandemic had already took hold in the system and locked down; the other worlds were ruined after Novayan armadas, fleets, flotillas, squadrons and battlegroups commenced a cataclysmic orbital armageddon intended to stop the spread after the Kalaidians refused to lock down and quarantine themselves, foolishly, stubbornly, arrogantly and overconfidentially unwilling to surrender their civil right of personal freedom. The resulting cataclysm saw the Kalaidian civilization almost brought to the brink of ruin; what few Kalaidians who survived the sorrowing were left in the thousands, tens or hundreds of thousands, or even on-five million.
Soon, the name Kalaidis was reused for the name of a nation and again for a governorate-turned-empire. Finally, Pormasyneidism breathed new life into it. Pormasyneidism is about the eight goddesses: Amaterasu, Sagittarius, Persephone, Ishtar, Surasthana (also known as Prometheus), Baldr, Quetzalcoatl and Chang'e. Below are the links to the pics of those four goddesses:
* **Amaterasu Omikami:** https://cdn.karth.top/api/assets/dlc/res/dress/cg/1020005/image.png
* **Sagittarius/Chiron:** https://cdn.karth.top/api/assets/dlc/res/dress/cg/1060025/image.png
* **Persephone:** https://cdn.karth.top/api/assets/dlc/res/dress/cg/2010018/image.png
* **Ishtar:** https://cdn.karth.top/api/assets/dlc/res/dress/cg/1030022/image.png
* **Prometheus/Surasthana:** https://cdn.donmai.us/original/d7/4f/\_\_rukkhadevata\_genshin\_impact\_drawn\_by\_swkl\_d\_\_d74fdaf6b74ef5c8b7fdfd3ff17a7292.jpg
* **Baldr:** https://cdn.karth.top/api/assets/dlc/res/dress/cg/1060022/image.png
* **Quetzalcoatl:** https://cdn.donmai.us/original/1e/0c/\_\_quetzalcoatl\_moeru\_jiten\_and\_2\_more\_drawn\_by\_nakaichi\_ridil\_\_1e0c862976bae5123e79a4be8a69e2f1.jpg
* **Chang'e:** **I'm not posting the link here, even if you ask me to put it here. Do you want me and you guys to get in trouble if any of you are underaged (below age 16)? Then save yourselves the trouble of getting me to put the link, because that is against the PG-13 guidelines.**

Also, I had the idea where the Kalaidians go on a civilizing mission a la Alexander the Great and his Macedonian Empire. The Kalaidian Empire would re/establish Outremer (unrelated to Outremer, Empire of the Holy Land), not!Egypt, the Babylonian Empire, Kingdom of Yavana, Kingdom of Indus (based on MA Ind but with some Kalaidian troops), T'ien Ch'i (or not!China), and Jomon (or not!Japan) as well as a few others. Below are the national and religious titles held by Empress Borealis herself:
* **Kalaidis:** Empress of the Kalaidians
* **Outremer:** Empress of the Outremers
* **C'tis:** Pharaoh-Paragon of C'tis
* **Babylonia:** Queen of the Babylonians and Shinarians
* **Yavana:** Philosopher-King/Queen of Yavana
* **Indus:** King/Queen-Priestess of Indus
* **T'ien Ch'i:** Celestial Empress of T'ien Ch'i
* **Jomon and Heijou:** Empress of the Rising Sun, Jomon and Heijou
* **Norse Lands/whatever:** Fylkyr-Empress of the Northern Lands
* **Mictlan:** Huetlatoani of the Mictlani Empire
* **Maya:** Halachuinic of the Mayan Empire
* **Inca:** Sapa Inca of the Incan Empire
* **Pormasyneidism:** Pontifex Maxima of the Pormasyneidic Temple
* **Kalaidian Imperial Pormasyneidism:** Pontifex Maxima of the Imperial Cult
* **Indolatreanism (Indo-Pormasyneidism):** Philosopher-King/Queen of the Indolatreian Temple
* **Tulaasikhaanism (Indo-Pormasyneidic Indusism):** King/Queen-Priestess of the Temple of Indus
* **Mavroputism (Indo-Pormasyneidic Taoism):** Celestial Empress of T'ien Ch'i
* **Kaludiaisthism (Asiano-Pormasyneidic Shintoism):** High Saishu of the Temple of Amaterasu

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. Surasthana/Prometheus, Baldr, Quetzalcoatl and Chang'e would be included into the Kalaidian pantheon.

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.

### General Overview

Kalaidis is a young but rising empire, an empire born from the martial culture of Eretezea and the unification of Kalaidis. A nation of humans whose armies consisted of legions resulted from the Borealian reforms, where the legions and phalanx were used to help do battle. The cavalry saw use, with light and heavy cavalry charging through and horse archers harassing enemy lines.

### National Features

* Centaurs
* Some Undead
	+ Late Phalanx (Heavy Infantry)
	+ Late Legionary (Heavy Infantry)
* Tower Shields
* Kite/Round Shields
* Combined Arms Infantry
	+ Cataphracts (Heavy Cavalry)
* Humanoid auxiliaries
* Non-human/non-humanoid auxiliaries
* Nature 3 (Rare 3)
* Air 3 (Rare 3)
* Death 3 (Rare 3)
* Fire 2
* Water 2
* Earth 2
* 2 in Foreign Recruitment
* Mystical off-fort commanders

#### Special Capital Sites

* Produces 3 Astra Pearls
* Enables Recruitment of Priest, Priestess

### Unit Overview

#### Pretenders

Amaterasu Omikami
* 3 Dominion
* 270 Pretender
* 60 MAR
* Immortality
* Heat Aura
* Female
Sagittarius
* 3 Dominion
* 250 Pretender
* 50 MAR
* Immortality
* Divine Insights
* Armor Piercing
* Healer
* Quickness
* Female
Persephone
* 3 Dominion
* 200 Pretender
* 60 MAR
* Immortality
* Female
Ishtar
* 3 Dominion
* 250 PRetender
* 60 MAR
* Immortal
* Summon Allies
* Female

#### Heroes

* Sacred
* Reduces Unrest (5)
* Disease Immunity (75)
* Inspirational (5)
* Levy