The Divine Empire

The Divine Empire was a large empire, that claimed rulership over the whole of Gilgander, and at one time even Enkidu. It was formed by nine leaders from the different nations of the Golden Circle. The Divine Empire functioned as a empire ruled by a council for roughly 500 years, but fell apart slowly when different parts seceded. It was such an influential power that many of systems used today were put in place by the Divine Empire. The Empire consisted of the nations of Sumeria, Levitica, Rhovanion, Malthzanamondr, Yaath Tel'Nodel, Suor Crithrûn, Pety Rogyt, Vruldragin and Hloth.

### The Creation of the Divine Empire

The Divine Empire was created by the Nine Heroes. The Nine Heroes were the leaders of their societies at the time, and would meet once every two months. They found that many issues they faced would be solved by their conjoining and ruling the entire world. Previously there had been considerable cooperation between the states, but this would mean a new era. They decided to form a band of nine, who would vote on their decisions together. The Nine Heroes that formed the first Divine Nine were the Halfling Teorin Goldblossom of Hloth, the Hobgoblin Glaldrak the Sword of Vruldragin, the Kalashtar Vosvakri of Pety Rogyt, the Sun Elf Loraphyra Estraloreth of Suor Crithrûn, the Moon Elf Mordithas Shadowmantle of Yaath Tel'Nodel, the Dwarf Myrsael Stonebuster of Malthzanamondr, the half-elf Zinona Traveltongue of Rhovanion, the human Tom Lionforce of Levitica, and the human Fiora Laurent of Sumeria. The moment was chosen to be the first day of a new year, which has since then become known as 1 DC, meaning for Divine Creation. The time-period before the Divine Empire would hereafter be known as Ere Creation, or EC.

### The Conquest of Gilgander

The first goal of the Divine Empire was to rule all of Gilgander. Since the nine states already ruled just over two-thirds of the continent, the hope was that this would not take long. Levitica, Rhovanion, Malthzanamondr and Suor Crithrûn would ensure rule over the Treading Peaks, the island of Oghmun and the Pridelands. With the combined power of these four states, there was no real chance they would fail. The Treading Peaks was the hardest to fully subdue, more because of the many hidden caves than any military opposition. At the same time, Pety Rogyt, Vruldragin and Hloth would invade the Lands of Reform, the Woods of Yuan-Ti, and the Hilt of Gilg. They would be supported by the navies of Sumeria and Yaath Tel'Nodel. The southern invasion came across a lot more trouble than the northern one. The Lands of Reform fell without issue, but the Woods of Yuan-Ti did not come as easily. The Yuan-Ti had been driven from the lands of the Golden Circle with great force only 250 years ago, leading to a great dislike towards the aggressors. Despite valiant efforts, the Yuan-Ti surrendered their woods under the promise of retention of their culture. The conquest of the Hilt of Gilg met the same difficulties as the Treading Peaks. The different clans that inhabited it used methods of avoidance and small skirmishes to hold out for a long time, but in turn each of them was subdued. The histories say that the conquest of Gilgander was completed within 5 years, placing the official end of the war at the Fourth day of the Eleventh month of 4 DC. The last clan to holdout were the Eagles of Manwë, a clan of aaracokra in the Hilt of Gilg, they bend their knees on the Sixth day of the Sixth month in 6 DC to when they were trapped in their nests by the armies of Glaldrak the Sword and Teorin Goldblossom.

### Rule and expansion

After the conquest of Gilgander had been completed, the Divine Nine made their plans on what their world would look like. They decided that they would leave all cultures and races to their own traditions, under a few conditions. All lands under the control of the Divine Empire would pay taxes to them, all cities, towns and villages were obliged to have places of worship in for each of the religions in the Divine Empire, and a citizen of the Divine Empire could never be denied service. These low demands made rebellions unlikely, and resistance less fierce. The next question was whether to expand. There was an entire continent that was right next to them that had not sworn fealty, as well as several independent island. Levitica, Sumeria and Hloth were the biggest voices in favour of expansion, likely due to their expected trade benefits. Malthzanamondr and Vruldragin were easily convinced by the prospect of valuable materials from the Broken Arch. Rhovanion, Yaath Tel'Nodel, Suor Crithrûn and Pety Rogyt were not convinced, but were outvoted. They did manage to convince the others to focus on a takeover that would require minimal military power. 5 years were given to negotiate the surrender of Enkidu peacefully. This succeeded on the last day given, Zinona Traveltongue is largely credited for this. The details of the deal are listed elsewhere, but it was accepted 6 to 3. The nations Hloth, Levitica and Sumeria were against the deal, since they had projected much larger incomes in the situation of an invasion. Vruldragin and Malthzanamondr saw their needs being met, and the other nations were already against war. The deal resulted in the cities of Civilized Enkidu accepting the rule of the Divine Empire. The Divine Empire claimed dominion over the entirety of Enkidu, but this was never practically the case.