Edict of Unification

**Emperor Walter II** - the first emperor of the **Grienzen Empire** - was assassinated in 1882 while giving a speech about the importance of Humanity leading the **Non-Human Races** to build a homeland for all Grienzen citizens. His son, **Emperor Friedrich III**, codified the intent of his speech into law upon being crowned Emperor, and called it the Edict of Unification.

## Influence from the Ascendancy of Man

Immediately after the start of the **United Imperial Era**, it became clear that there was a significant problem within the newly-founded Grienzen Empire. Not only had the matter of Non-Human Races yet to be addressed in any official, uniform manner, but the addition of Alraine after the **Gallo-Preusvian War** brought a number of very loud representatives from the **Ascendancy of Man** into the Empire. They worked to convince other representatives to their position as well as to stir up distrust against Non-Human Races, attempting to turn the Grienzen-exclusivity of the Empire's populace into Human-exclusivity as well. This, while promoting more open immigration policies regarding other nationalities of Humans, claiming they would need others to be able to stay competitive in the sciences and technological advances.

This increased cultural exchange lead to the height of Ascendancy of Man's influence in Grienzland in 1882, when a dedicated core of demagogues in the Imperial Representative Assembly passed the "Protection of Human Citizens'' Act. This carefully-worded decree granted greater power to Emperor Walter II to raise a defensive army that he needed to defend the nation from increasing **Gallian** aggressive posturing. At the same time, the Act bound him to the requirement that he enforce the ethnic cleansing of all Non-Human Races living within the Empire's borders. Although framed as forcing Non-Humans to evacuate rather than mandating slaughter, the fact that most would not leave what had been their family homes for a millennia would necessitate violence. And so Ascendancy of Man-aligned representatives demanded that the army be dispatched to oversee the operation, and shed Non-Human blood.

## Meier's Rebuke

A pressing fear of seeing his nation descend once more into factional conflict lead Emperor Walter II to order his top military commander, Field Marshal Andreas Meier, to take his army into the mountains of **Bayernia** and the forests of **Luthairingia** with the intentions of dealing with the Non-Human population. Meier gathered his troops and departed on the road to Bayernia first, prepared for a dangerous conflict with the **Daughters of the Dragon** there, but he was waylaid on the road by a blinding light. His entire entourage witness the brilliant beam of illumination piercing the clouds from above, and Field Marshal Meier heard a voice speak to him clear as thoughts in his own mind:

> **"If you set out to destroy those which I have called my own, you mark yourself as an enemy of your Heavenly Father as well."**
>
>

Meier received a vision of a cloud of darkness rolling across the continent, one which he himself would ensure through the violence he had set out to inflict, ending in the total destruction of his people. When he rose to his feet at last, the Field Marshal commanded his army to resume its march, but this time with an entirely different goal.

One by one, Field Marshal Andreas Meier went to each of the enclaves of Non-Humans he had been tasked with slaughtering, and spoke to them in a voice that commanded cooperation: "Come with me, out of your remote peaks and dense forests. Accompany me back to the capital, and I shall see you given the place in our nation that you rightly deserve." Single-handedly disarming the hesitations of the Dragon Daughters, **Wolfen**, and **Night Ravens** alike, they sent emissaries back with him to the Imperial Palace in **Preusvia** where Field Marshal Andreas and all of his soldiers presented them to the Emperor. In a rebuke that echoed with righteous condemnation, he laid out the convicting argument for abandoning their prideful stubbornness that had lead them to give in to the demands of foreign silver tongues.

## Assassination of the Emperor

Upon hearing Field Marshal Meier's address, Emperor Walter II felt convicted for what he had agreed to be inflicted on his own people. Although not Human, the other Races who came to the capital were undeniably Grienzen in every fathomable manner. But the refusal of the army and the emperor to enforce the ratified law began a constitutional crisis lead by the rabid Ascendancy of Man representatives. Convincing the rest that the emperor's disregard for the "Protection of Human Citizens'' Act proved that he intended to dismiss the Imperial Representative Assembly and become a tyrannical despot. As such, they moved to depose the Emperor as permitted within the Grienzen Empire's founding legal framework, declaring Emperor Walter II to be working against the good of the Grienzen people.

Instead of proving them correct, Emperor Walter II went out into the town square at the Imperial Capital of Buchou and began to speak in front of the public while the Assembly was deliberating. He presented to them the intended affect of the law they had passed, explained to them alongside Field Marshal Meier the outcome that the Ascendancy of Man wanted: the murderous culling of Grienzen Non-Humans under the guise of pre-emptive defense. Speaking to an entirely urban crowd, Emperor Walter II explained that he wished to bring about an era of true unification for all Grienzens. He detailed what the Ascendancy of Man had already enacted in Paree and the Gallian Republic, drawing their attention to the brutal persecution of the Church and dehumanization of all classes of society as a result of their foolish ideology.

During that speech, several Ascendancy of Man agents stormed the podium and one named Lucien Hatfutsot, a **Cassumite** from Alraine, fired several shots from a pistol into the Emperor before being subdued. Although cut short, Walter II spoke for five minutes with a bullet wound in the leg and one in the shoulder. Despite insistence that he needed to be treated, the emperor continued to insist that the Ascendancy of Man would tear their nation apart in the pursuit of their goals as all gathered had just seen. He urged them that Humanity needed to return to humility before the Living God and be the leaders of all Grienzen Races that they were meant to be.

After several minutes it became clear that something was deeply wrong, and an insistent attendant examined Emperor Walter II when he began to cough up blood. His trousers were cut away on the spot and the crowd witnessed the lattice of dark purple streaks radiating out from the bullet wound. It had not been a simple gunshot; the affected area was already rotting due to the insidious poison that had coated the bullet.

So incensed with this revelation, the citizenry gathered to hear the emperor speak rushed to the Imperial Representative Assembly while the Emperor was carried off for emergency surgery. The furious mob stormed into the Assembly building and dragged the core of Ascendancy of Man representatives into the street, where they executed many of them before order could be restored.

## First Emperor's Final Decree

After Emperor Walter II died from the poison's affects, his son Albert III took over as Emperor and insisted on carrying on his father's work. The speech that his father had been giving before and after being shot was written down and labeled as the Edict of Unification, or alternatively the First Emperor's Final Decree. Made into a legal declaration, the Edict of Unification was swiftly ratified as official national law, mandating the cooperation with other Grienzen Races if they were willing to participate in society. The Edict also declared that **Ortueism** would remain the official religion of Grienzland for all time, and that organized efforts to overthrow Ortueism were accordingly acts of treason. As such, the Ascendancy of Man was declared an illegal organization, with several roundups and mass exiles of active subversive agents.

In the years that followed, additional policies were set regarding the other Races that eventually came to see the respect with which the initial three were treated, and came forward to interact more earnestly with Humanity as well. First and foremost among these were the **Fey Cats**, who gave up the pretense and illusions they had maintained in order to fit in with Human society. After that, one by one the **Burrowers** - a naturally skittish Race of spirits that had been by Humanity's side since time immemorial - decided to formally introduce themselves. Following this, a number of less populous entities joined as well, such as nature spirits, forest guardians, elemental spirits, and more.