Heitec

Overview and History Ecology Cryptids and Urban Legends

> "*It is not a question of do or die, it is the certainty of do or die, all that matters henceforth is if you shall comply to the dying aspect. Once we resurface from the underground, from the crude cities and encampments we were forced to fabricate in an urgent struggle for survival, you may rejoice. Your children may rejoice. Heitec may rejoice. No longer will we bend a knee to the false occupants of our lands. The world above burns. Let it burn, for when our time is nigh we shall return and reclaim our rightful place as men among monstrosities . Those who oppose the Hymn of Union are with the tyrants that burnt your cities to rubble. Let them burn. Those who refuse to join us in the underground, deciding to formulate their own systems stand with the tyrants who too want our reformation, being that of our extermination. Let them burn. Those who murder their brethren in spite belong not down here, but rather up there with the non-native, for those who claim to be one of us but murder their fellows cannot truly be one of our own. Let them burn. Let our Hymn of union rise from every vent and from every crevice, from every fissure and from every ditch, from every town and every city. From all peoples! May this Hymn last longer than the voices that sing its verses, a Hymn sung not based on race or creed, class or ability, but for the home we fight for, for I proclaim a new Hymn!*
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> Hail Heitec!*"*
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> **- The S.A.R.D**
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## Physical information

### Climate

Mostly Temperate and varying to minor extents thanks to its unique geographic features

## Societal information

### Inhabitants

* Sards (40%)
* Eearnts (20%)
* Humans (15%)
* Aoshtani (10%)
* Agatrops (10%)
* Uiori (4%)
* Croants (1%)

### Major cities

* Londikyo
* Sub-Londikyo
* Shirensheki
* Sub-Shirensheki
* Berlivert
* Sub-Berlivert
* Hireata
* Sub-Hireata

## Strategic information

### Production value

* Financial Services
* IT Services
* Government Services
* Knowledge Services
* Electronics

### Valuable to

* Unified Realms of Selten
* Rotalat Allied Powers

Heitec is a habitable planet consisting of multiple **eperopolis** cities all interconnected by a plethora of subterranean cities all upon its one continent which happens to be spread out across the world. Its title, while originally varying between cultures, in ancient Aridaalian (the previous dominant language of the denizens of said world) meant "**Coast of Fertility**" (the term 'tec', meaning coast, originating from the similarly shared ancient native belief that their world was in-fact a straight line). It is the acting capital of the Unified Realms of Selten (originally the Unified Realms of Heitec) and is recognised to be one of Selten's most significant heritage sites, especially in the East. The world is the origin of a multitude of cultures and customs in East-Selten, especially Prudent related, and has had major implications upon Seltian history. Swasiasm, a strongly Prudent-related religion, especially to the Sards, originated from Heitec along with the modern ideals of Cyberocracy.

## Etymology

The modern word, Heitec (pronounced "hey-tec"), can be split into two parts: "Hei" (meaning "fertility") and "tec" (meaning "coast"); when these two words are combined they roughly mean "Coast of Fertility" or "Fertile Coast", at least at the time when old Aridaalian was the dominant language in the continent of South-Terona during the Middle-Ages. It is believed that the term "tec" originated from the even more ancient Hinatarian word "Tenc", which roughly translated to "sands" in the now extinct dialect. The earliest attestation of "Heitec" was, "Eitehceth" being the Hinatarian word for the planet. Notice how "tehc" is placed between the word. The beginning of the word, "eiteh", means "unending" while the ending of "eth" is a suffix; as a whole the word quite openly means "unending sands" or some variation along those lines. Heitec became the set-in-stone title for the planet by all its denizens after the United Affirmations of South-Terona (UAST), a cybercratic hybrid-government regime, recolonised the remnants of the planet after fending off against the Tighuramno and their attempted invasion of Heitec during The Culmination of Conflicts, after which the UAST enforced Aridaalian as the official planetary language of the surviving Sards. The UAST would later on become the Unified Realms of Heitec (URH) before finally reforming into the Unified Realms of Selten (URS).

## History

Heitec was first conceived from a typical protoplanetary disc almost seven billion years prior to 0 NAC. From that point onward the planet would develop into the major power it is today, going from its earliest stages of geological development into a mature capital world. The planet went through its typical explosions of life, starting at its **Hadean** and progressing far into its **Phanerozoic eon**, ice ages and greenhouse periods arriving and leaving as they please, life coming and going in-between all of this. It went through its **Paleozoic** **era**, it went through its **Mesozoic** **era**, and so on and so forth. An impact event did take place, wiping out most of the dinosaurs and many other large land-based animals, although this wasn't enough to kill all of them as several species continued to exist in the far north of Heitec, most prominently variations of Ornithopoda and Sauropoda. Large Theropoda continued to exist in the far north although smaller variations continued to exist in the southern parts of Heitec, which would later become the first birds and eventually the first Tecans. The history of Heitec is an extensive story of the development and gradual growth of life and so only its most major parts shall be mentioned.

**NOTE:** While reading the history of Heitec it's recommended that you have the world Zone and ocean Sector maps open on two separate tabs for the sake of simplicity when looking back upon it while reading. This will make things far more manageable when referring to history.

### Prehistoric

Sapient life first emerged in the south-eastern region of Origanelis (Zone 47), when a group of semi-intelligent avians began utilising stone tools, now known as Phasianidae Heitecaan Stultus (AKA the Proto-Tecan) emerged from the mountain ranges. This species had originated from an earlier form of large predatory phasianidae that is still around to this day; they were quite secluded to that side of the continent while also being extremely territorial yet, as ironic as it may seem, non-expansive.

#### Paleolithic and the First Significant Glacial Period

The first set of tools that were recorded on Heitec can be dated back to around three million years ago (**-3,000,000 NAC**). Tools were often made of stone, the bones of the native fauna and/or wood. Excavation of these areas makes it appear that these Stultuians had discovered and henceforth intentionally selected the types of rocks that'd suit their needs. Evidence points to the use of irregular jagged stones being used to open hard fruit and as melee weapons against individuals at close range; all of this was being done by the use of hands, as opposed to their ancestor's managing of stones and cracking of hard fruit via the use of their own beaks. The Stultuians, though secluded to their location, did expand somewhat but ceased to move beyond the equator, constantly remaining in the southern-hemisphere until later events would force them to perform this act otherwise. The Stultians were extremely strong compared to their future counterparts, perhaps even being capable of flight for short periods of time and gliding, though this ability would be lost in the future.

By the middle of the paleolithic era, the use of spears and fire became commonplace among families and small tribes that formed among rivers in the vicinity, especially in the lower parts of the mountains or even in plains that Stultuians now began to move into. Homes were often taken up in caves in these mountains while on the plains homes were formed in crevices in the ground which were often expanded upon or dug from scratch; these underground nests were often accommodated by families of up to fifteen members while the typical Stultuian lived up to around forty years old. Tribes were not a thing per se with the Stultuians but, on rare occasions, family units may have united to hunt and gather together for short periods of time. At the time families were often in a state of semi-polygamy: often a male may have lived with two or even three spouses though there were also occasions where monogamy were also common. "Flocks", a characteristic that modern Sards still hold to this day, was far more apparent and even more so sexual in nature, with males often (though not always) starting with several females before cutting down its flock to one female of its preference over time and therefore becoming monogamous; the rejected females would go on to either find another accepting partner or become single-parents which often led to them perishing, especially if they took their offspring with them which they often did, though this does not mean that permanent polygamous families that retained some, or even all women and kin did not exist, but as society advanced these relationships dropped with the ever changing status quo. This impacted the species as a whole greatly, as families would tend not to travel due to their territorial need to care for their newly birthed in a set location for long periods of time.

Much later on, after the manifestation of several new subspecies, a specific new subspecies would be birthed from these original peoples: **Phasianidea Heitecaan Prudent**. This was the birth of the original Sard, or as they are officially known as at this point in time, the Tecans, a far more socially specialised species that would be capable of enhancing the future of the planet beyond its current state. During this time, around **-1,000,000 NAC**, a glacial period from the current ice-age that commenced several million years preceding the arrival of the Stultians (beginning around about **-30,000,000 NAC**) had begun to take place, this specific glacial period being far more severe than the previous ones that had taken place with the Stultian's presence.

The Tecans, which originated from the grass plain regions of Pockino (Zone 53) in the far east migrated towards the equator to counteract this newfound impact upon them while the Stultuians mostly perished in their fight for survival due to the Tecan's superior social and communication skills, allowing them to build communities and cooperate far more efficiently than their previous ancestors could ever accomplish. The glacial period lasted about ten-thousand (10,000) years before the beginning of the following interglacial period which reintroduced the enhanced desertification and reformation of jungles towards the equator which gave rise to a multitude of unique cultures around those newly found regions, from Zone 30 to Zone 59. By the end of this era all other intelligent variants of the Prudent would become extinct due to cross-breeding with the Tecans or dying out due to a lack of evolutionary traits that the Tecans themselves possessed.

The Tecans were extremely superior in forms of communication, now having vocal cords capable of producing a wide variety of sounds. The Tecans, while being slightly weaker than the Stultuians, even having had lost the ability of temporary flight, were still efficient fighters due to their natural tendency to band together. Some Tecans can glide, though it takes a sufficient amount of practice to perfect gliding, especially without injury.

#### Mesolithic

The Mesolithic period, while varying in start-date between regions, began around **-700,000 NAC** (around 300,000 years after the Tecans had first manifested). This period brought with it the start of agriculture and a growth in culture. Ironically, though attaining advance communications skills far superior to their predecessors, the Tecans were quite a secluded species, even to one another; tribes of people often refused to cooperate and most confrontations led to a constant state of warring tribes. Mostly secluded tribes that lived in the new jungles and deserts of the east, where cooperation was far more of a greater virtue than war, advanced during this time while far southern tribes plundered one another, at least to greater extents than their equatorial counterparts. Life in the south, especially the tundra, became exceedingly difficult with a multitude of tribes continuing to war against one another. Zone 30 saw a mass increase in populous as more migrated there for its fertile lands.

#### Neolithic

**-680,000 NAC**. Zone 30 became a prosperous region that took in many peoples, eventually becoming what would be later known as the Heits, many of which originated from the far south Hinatarian tribes. Around this period of time, many settlements were established across the South-Eastern sectors. Soon enough, migration to Zone 01 all the way to Zone 10 became occupied by Tecans, some even reaching islands such as Zone 05 and Zone 22 during glacial periods, though even during these times the Tecans remained quite territorial and non-expansive, preferring to remain in closely established communities. The far northern Zones weren't occupied to great extents, most communities forming there becoming secluded to one another.

During this time period, the first proper permanent forms of housing were constructed in communities. Jungle tribes constructed houses out of mud and wood in the trees, often also furniture such as shelves and beds, the same often applying to other forest-based societies during this time, though on the odd occasion some communities, especially those in grass plains, deserts, or just general areas that lacked flora coverage, constructed homes on the ground in a similar fashion, or sometimes even under the ground or in mountain crevices. Tribal culture became far more distinct during this time as the sculpting of deities and figures in general became common place. Figures of fertility were quite commonly sculpted as eggs or females attaining odd and/or excessive bodily proportions that connoted fertility and figures of warriors and people of the such became far more detailed as society progressed.

Around this time, agriculture began to spring up across almost all communities. Farming tools, such as early sickle blades and grinding stones, were made and the skilled manufacturing of these stone tools became far more common place, the same applying to ornaments such as beads and sculptures. Societies also began to enhance their general understanding of the world as people began using salt as preservatives and the first canoes and tombs were constructed.

### Ancient History

#### Bronze-Age

**-600,000 NAC**. Societies in Zone 30 and its perimeter begin smelting copper and forming alloys with tin and other metals. Bronze becomes a major foundation to the expansion of communities and is traded across the world, reaching down to the south and to the far West. The far North wouldn't attain bronze for some time but eventually they would trade it too in the near future. With the Bronze-Age came the formation of proto-writing which paved the way for the foundations of nations to come. Several nations emerged in Zone 30 and its surrounding Zones, with different cities being led by kings as a part of larger nations. The names of these nations matter not anymore but their ways of life do.

Tecans during this time, specifically the Heit desert people who lived off of the fertile land and river in that area, established some of the first ever laws and the first currency systems in the world, the oldest consisting of inscribed silver disks with triangular punctures down the middle of the object. The introduction of currency marked the end of the era of bartering as the trade of goods for goods slowly began to decline over time, beginning to be replaced with the use of varying forms of currencies that emerged from new coming nation states, though bare in mind that this was a subtle change; bartering would continue to be a somewhat popular form of exchange for several millennia to come.

The Heit people also established the first laws and, although most of which were arbitrary and based on superstitious belief, marked the start of civil society. The most notable laws set were child laws for the adoption of children. Tecans, being avians, were birthed from eggs and therefore they had a natural tendency to imprint within the first few hours of birth on the primary person they first saw after birthing. Adoption became a common practice across Heit society, as eggs without any parents would be taken to religious buildings to be assigned a willing mother for once they hatched. Infertile women would often assign themselves in their communities to cater for oncoming children, being assigned to wait for their designated egg to hatch, having to wait for about three days with the child after birth for them to be sure that the child imprinted onto the correct person (although it's now known that Prudent imprinting only took about ten hours to occur).

This era also marked the beginning of major religious movements. Ancient religions paved way for newer ones that would later manifest and eventually several popular monotheistic religions came into existence. The trading of bronze and other materials led to the development of wealth and a gap forming between the rich and poor in society, leading to kings, nobles, priests being at the top of newly forming feudal societies while peasants remained at the bottom. Civilisation would go on to advance from there with time, with kingdoms and and the such gaining power and falling in time. Shortly before the following glacial period the largest kingdom owned Zone 30 to Zone 47 to its full extent.

#### Iron-Age

**-590,000 NAC**. The glacial period saw the death of countless Tecans, being one of the most extreme glacial periods ever recorded in Tecan history, pushing many people from the north and south towards the equator, though mainly from the south due to fact that water in the northern hemisphere, being far more abundant than in the southern hemisphere, stored heat far more efficiently. The equator itself became far more dry in some areas, while other areas became more habitable, depending on the wind cells and ocean currents that were present in those areas. Due to Heitec's physical characteristics, being that of a one-continent world, people found less difficulty in travelling towards the equator as opposed to if Heitec was a multiple-continent world. Cultures found themselves conglomerating which, while originally leading to newer innovation and peace between some people, even leading to the growth of several monotheistic religions, which were often niche at the time, but this quickly ascended to full out bloodshed for the limited resource of living space; this, combined with the fact that there was a glacial period occurring along with several plagues that struck across the 100,000 years that this glacial period was present, killed over eighty-percent of all Tecans.

The glacial period also brought about land bridges that connected to islands and other land-masses, leading to some groups of Tecans to migrate back up north and south as they would go on to adopt nomadic life styles to survive in the freezing temperatures. Many Tecans regressed into a state similar to that of the late-Neolithic period in terms of technology. By -2,800,000 NAC the glacial period came to an end, allowing Tecans to travel to the far north and south once more and finally the Tecans got back on track and began the Iron-Age. People who had already returned north and south began to adopt non-nomadic lifestyles in their new regions while some went even further up north in order to avoid competition, continuing their nomadic life styles just as before. All of this led to to the formation of several races on Heitec.

The Iron-Age began with the formation of many new city-states, kingdoms and empires. Due to Heitec's one-continent and the previous close interaction with people during the glacial period, hunter-gatherer societies were practically extinct, with the least advance people utilising Late-Neolithic agriculture technology while the most advance tampered in Iron-Age technology. The Iron-Age marked the beginning of the stable production and use of iron and steel along with its use, especially in tools and weapons. There were now several races of Sards on Heitec,

One Empire, the **Xotorima Empire**, based in the city of **Xoto** in Zone-07 (in proximity to the lake in that area), went on to become one of the largest nations to date. Zone-07 was occupied by Hinatarians moving to the far west via the east after the glacial period, therefore making the original Xotorians living in Zone-07 primarily Hinatarians. Due to the newly found lack of inhabitants in the far northern regions of Zone-10 to Zone-15, and even in just the surrounding western lands, the Empire grew at a rapid pace. By around **-2,799,500** **NAC** it had territory as far as Zone-39 and Zone-56 and Zone-10 to Zone-15, travelling westwards to get to the east. They even attained Zone-05, a chain of islands which acted as a major naval base against their northern enemies, the Intokoran clans in Zone-09, which performed heavy raids against the Empire. The Empire, having an extremely centralised system, didn't allow representation from different people inside the empire; the Emperor would later be overthrown by nobles and become the Xotorima Republic, which was ran as a proto-democracy. Xotorima would retain their own pagan polytheistic religions for sometime until later on when Emperor **Augostaro Piolotak** would go on to live in the western territories of the Empire for a decade in order to come to an understanding with the natives. He became enlightened under Swasiasm and returned home to make it the official religion of the Empire, although at first he had the issue of how this form of Swasiasm should function as he didn't want his Empire to give itself to Orthodox Swasiasm. Xotoro Swasiasm was born from this.

The **Intokorans** are clans of seafaring Tecans from Zone-09, acting in mostly a feudal thalassocratic fashion. Their cultures were warrior-like in attitude and mostly consisted of plundering and often colonisation. The Intokorans raided as far south as Sea Sector 02.5 and as far east as Sea Sector 02.10, though they often raided their southern neighbours when they weren't raiding one another. The Intokorans also had a strong cultural tie to polygamy, often partaking in sex-trafficking in areas that they raided and colonised. The Intokorans, while originally owning Zone-05, being a chain of islands, later lost it to the rapid expansion and invasions of the Xotorima Empire. The Intokoran clans later pushed southwards and took much land up to Zone-19, although Zone-20 was left mostly unoccupied. This all led to a constant state of warring between the Xotorima Empire and the Intokoran clans, with the Intokorans often raiding Empire cities and settlements upon the Grand Channel that split the two apart from each other, while the Empire would simply hold them off due to their disorganised nature. While the Empire did hold discussions and plans for the future invasion and integration of the Intokorans, the Empire ultimately let them be after two failed invasion attempts.

**-2,799,800 NAC**. The first invasion attempt across the channel was made at Zone-10 in order to get to Zone-09 to strike the Intokoran lands directly with a fleet of forty-thousand Xotorima soldiers, ordered by the command of Emperor **Augostaro** **Piolotak**, though this failed with almost all of these men dying at sea due to an unforeseen storm that suddenly struck the ships, killing about twenty-thousand of them, with ten-thousand proceeding to attack nonetheless just to get captured and slaughtered by the Intokorans and for another ten-thousand to return directly home. The Intokorans were now aware that the Xotorima were prepared to invade their lands and so they took to preparing their coastal towns and even their child warriors. The Intokorans showed the first proper mass enlistment of child-soldiers on Heitec as children as young as ten could be recruited to fight for their clans as long as they passed the tests they were given. The clans and their chieftains all came together in Zone-09 at this time to discuss the formation of an alliance. It was agreed that the clans would send all their men to fight if the Xotorima ever threatened them again. Due to this agreement all the clans stopped fighting, at least for the time being; some clans, especially with leaders who were already in their old age and held the issue of finding an heir to the chiefdom, even agreed to unite themselves with other clans to form even larger clans. Trained women and child soldiers were to stay in their towns to act as a reservist force if things turned for the worst.

The second invasion was held almost a year later with another fleet of ten-thousand Xotorima soldiers, leading to a landing on the eastern-side of the Channel from Zone-14 to the arid and mostly untouched lands of Zone-20. The Intokorans were unaware of their landing and so the Xotorima used their time to quickly establish several settlements in the south within a week. Intokoran cavalry belonging to several clans spotted these settlements and quickly spread word of them to clans all the way back to Zone-09 through the use of carrier birds, most of which made it back within a span of five days. The cavalry themselves made their way up north too as to verify these claims though their travel was interrupted by the mountains between Zone-09 and Zone-18. The Xotorima had about two weeks to prepare before all of the Intokoran clans would be made sure of their presence. They took in another fleet of ten-thousand men, leading to an army of twenty-thousand in total. The Xotorima would have continued to send men but it didn't want to risk another storm taking them out in one go like before, so it sent its fleets in smaller amounts at a time and only when the weather was truly clear. The Xotorima also needed its primary army to handle rebellions in its western territories (or, in reference to the map, its far eastern territories) as settlements and their nobles began to rise up due to a lack of acknowledgement in the Empire, leading the proclamation of kings seen as illegitimate leaders to illegitimate states in the Empire, therefore the invasion across the Channel couldn't occur with the manpower wanted, though it would have to suffice.

The Intokorans sent a total army of about thirty-thousand soldiers down south to Zone-19, practically consisting of their entire conglomeration of warriors. Ten thousand warriors stayed in the mountains between Zone-09 and Zone-18 to act as a further safety net in the event that the Empire made its way north. The remaining Intokoran warrior force of twenty-thousand split in-half, one staying in Zone-19 while the other went to Zone-24. Zone-24 wasn't part of any major northern Intokoran clans though it did hold Intokoran inhabitants who colonised the empty lands long ago when they crossed Sea Sector 02.8 before forming their own Kingdom of Porieka. The Intokorans and the Kingdom fared fine for countless years, with the Kingdom acting as the Intokorans most major trade partner. The Kingdom allowed the Intokoran forces into their territory with no issue. While Xotorima expected an attack from Zone-19, they had no clue that the Intokorans even had forces in Zone-24; though knowing about the fact that there were some people who lived in Zone-24, these people were thought to not even know of the Intokorans as most of the clans lived up in northern forests rather than in jungle regions like Zone-24 and so the Xotorima held little to no diplomatic relations with the Porieka.

The Zone-19 and Zone-24 Intokorans left their posts and made a move into Zone-20. The Xotorima Empire had most of its army assembled on the coast that they landed upon from Zone-14 to Zone-20, being the easiest part of the Channel to cross thanks to its proximity of land. Both separate warrior forces stopped several miles of the Xotoriman encampment. The Zone-19 force stopped to the north while the Zone-24 force stopped to the east of the encampment, which by this time was more like a small town of several huts and thousands of tents. The two forces were practically split from one another, with no way to communicate without stalling time. Rather than sending messengers on horseback to find where the other force was at, it was decided that, for the sake of the limited time that the clans held, that they would both attack within two weeks, with the northern force attacking first at night with the eastern force following suit by attacking the next morning. Both forces arrived in their positions about two-to-three days with minimal casualties before the operation was to begin. Unfortunately for the Intokorans, the Xotorima had just brought another shipment of ten-thousand men, bringing their forces to thirty-thousand strong.

The night the operation to rid the southern lands of the Xotorima arrived, ten-thousand northern warriors charged into the the entrenched troops of the Empire, scorching the tents and huts of sleeping soldiers. Soldiers who were on duty during this hour awakened the remaining soldiers who weren't already aware from the smell and sound of burning. one-thousand soldiers were killed in the burning alone, leaving twenty-nine-thousand to fight the ten-thousand Intokorans. The Xotoriman soldiers, with their far more advanced weapons and armour, utilised their spears and pre-planned defensive strategies thanks to the time they were given to entrench. The Intokorans who used swords and archers due those two weapons being best compatible with horses, along with the fact that their numbers were fewer than the Xotorima, were defeated greatly, with all ten-thousand men being killed in battle. The Xotorima had lost eight-thousand men in total that night, dropping their forces to twenty-two-thousand men. Though the first wave of Intokorans had failed, this was to be expected. Within the first hours of sunrise, as the soldiers began to regroup and assess the situation, thinking that the primitive Intokorans had thrown all that they had at them, the second wave of ten-thousand Intokorans flanked from the east, overwhelming them with a surprise barrage of arrows and swords men on horses. This surprise attack harmed the Xotorima Empire's conquests in the north greatly, as over fifteen-thousand men died, though the Intokorans were crushed once more. The Xotorima Empire's forces in Zone-20 were now reduced to seven-thousand men. Luckily for the Xotorima another shipment of ten-thousand men were to arrive within the following days. It was then planned that the Xotorima would rebuild the encampment for the next week to support this new income of men and prepare for an assault to the Zone-24, presuming that some Intokoran warriors were hiding among the populous there.

The Xotorima thought at this point that the clans must have run out of manpower by now, and so by the time their forces returned to around seventeen-thousand men they sent a brigade of seven-thousand men to investigate the east. What they found was the Kingdom of Porieka by Sea Sector-02.8's coastline. The Kingdom held an army of less than two-thousand. The Kingdom was quickly subdued for its role in the attack and was integrated as a province in the Empire. The brigade remained in the Kingdom to put down rebellions, leaving the ten-thousand soldiers in Zone-20 to await for another shipment which took about a week. Xotorima had now sent a total of around seventy-thousand men to fight and die in this campaign and it already wasn't looking great for them. Rebellion became far more common in the western parts of the Empire (far east on the map) and without all these soldiers to put them down Xotorima began to fall into disarray, slowly but surely. The twenty-thousand soldiers made their travels north in-order to to attack, what they thought to be, the disorganised clans before they could get word of what had happened down south. Little did they know that by now many of the northern clans had united into several major clans and that messenger birds and word of mouth had already spread of what happened down south, allowing the clans to prepare even further now that they new that their safety-net would have to come into use.

The soldiers pushed up north in their own cavalry, armed with lances bowmen. They wiped out any clans and northern-clan territories in Zone-19 and Zone-18 with few issues along the way and aimed to destroy the Intokorans before winter. Problems only began to arise once they reached the mountains between Zone-09 and Zone-18. The previously placed ten-thousand warriors, who were far more familiar with the mountains than the soldiers, held them back using their own cavalry armed with lances, foot soldiers armed with spears and both alike armed with bows, which greatly aided as they held the high ground. The army insisted on pushing through the winter months which ultimately led to their downfall, with over seventeen-thousand of them dying. The Intokorans only lost one-thousand of their men. The Intokorans not only now held the environmental advantage but also the manpower advantage, with the battle now being nine-thousand Intokoran warriors against three-thousand Xotoriman soldiers by the early Spring months. Although these losses were great the Empire had actually gained some land and were about a quarter of the way through the mountains for getting into Zone-09.

The Xotorima, hearing of their failures in the mountain-ranges, went for a final push, sending ten-thousand men across the Channel directly from Zone-10 to Zone-09. The Intokorans, who were prepared for a coastal invasion, hadn't anticipated the Xotorima to strike with such a number of men like down south and therefore, although their towns were prepared for smaller invasions, fell at a rapid pace to the Empire. the Xotorima force pushed northwards at first before suddenly making a move eastwards in order to trap the Intokoran warriors in the mountains. The warriors in the mountains had little contact with their home communities while in combat due to their isolation and so were taken by surprise. The mountains were taken by the Empire within a month after that, with the remaining Intokorans being killed in battle. The new Xotorima force had lost three-thousand men in combat and so, once they joined up with their southern force, they formed a a unit of nine-thousand men. From there they would go on to push into the far north of Zone-09. The end plan was to push the Intokorans to the coast of Sea Sector-01.6 where some Intokoran clans naturally resided anyhow, though these clans now held large amounts of refugees that had to be captured and killed in order to prevent future uprisings (along with the fact that the far-northern clans would still be capable of raiding southern colonies, though the Empire itself was relatively unraidable by them now that they owned Zone-05).

Meanwhile in the homeland of the Empire, uprisings became ever more frequent. The death of the previous Emperor, Emperor **Augostaro Piolotak**, and his replacement by his son, now Emperor **Prestoka** **Piolotak**, led to even further friction in the Empire. Prestoka was only twelve when he took the throne and therefore his advisory cabinet, which consisted of government and military officials, took the most control. Many senate officials insisted on the continuing the campaign against the Intokorans so that the issue of coastal raids would never arise again, therefore bringing peace to the Empire, while most military officials insisted on ending the campaign and bringing the soldiers home to restore peace in the now revolting Empire. This friction between how peace should be restored ironically caused even more friction, as officials from all sides began to establish their own militias and motives in their towns and cities, dividing the Empire down to its very core. Rural communities began setting up minutemen; they went on to prepare encampments in nearby forests as they awaited for the breakdown of order that they expected to come very soon.

Child Emperor Prestoka decided to move to to the rebelling parts of his Empire soon after his coronation as to calm the masses. He had gone to live in Zone-39 where a large influx of Swasi holy men were living, having had come from the city of Swasi at the coast of Sea-Sector 02.10 in Zone-30. Meanwhile in the north nearly all invading soldiers had returned home. The far northern Intokoran clans with their encamped towns, cold weather and new found manpower through refugees had fought off the Xotorima to such an extent that the military leaders thought it would be far more beneficial that they returned home. The Xotorima kept Zone-20 as a part of the Empire and left the Kingdom of Porieka. Although it was largely uninhabited for its size, only being inhabited around the coast by about two-thousand people, this was fine enough.

By the time he was fourteen, Prestoka had proclaimed his belief in Pitsochi Swasiasm and saw its power to unify people. He met with the Krittoran of the city of Swasi before returning to the capital where he called for Swasiasm to become the official state religion. While many rejected it at first, through mass support from the City of Swasi and the formation of Swasi buildings of worship and/or discussion (often called Vitrets), many distinctions of Swasiasm came to be in the Xotorima Empire. This unification of religion to some extent kept the Empire alive for a bit longer. By the time he was fifteen he discussed with the Senate on further representation for the states of the Empire, which mostly a strong passing except from his advisory cabinet. By this time the Xotorima had expanded into Zone-30 and had landlocked the Swasi, although by now it owned much of the coastline. In order to compensate for the land locking,Prestoka, who had been proclaiming himself to be the Krittoran of Pitsochi Swasiasm in the Xotorima Empire, gave his title to the original Kritorran of Swasi, This pleased the people of Swasi and the original Kritorran as it was believed strongly that there could only be one Kritorran anyway. Using his now verified title of Kritorran once more, Kritorran Pekroot promoted Orthodox Swasiasm even further in the Empire, causing most of the denominations to die out and convert to either Orthodox Swasiasm, Metaphysical Swasiasm or whatever smaller denominations still existed within twenty years.

Swasiasm had united the people of the Empire, but now a new dilemma prevailed. Due to the Kritorran having so much power, the Emperor was seen as the illegitimate ruler of the Xotorima Empire, especially in the far-east (west of the Empire) where resentment for recent colonisation still prevailed among the populace. Meanwhile in the homelands of the Empire, loyalty to the Emperor prevailed for the most part, although some were sick of the Emperor having had given more autonomy to the states. Within a decade, by the time the Emperor was about in his mid-thirties, the Pitsochi Council requested that most of Zone-30 and Zone-38 should be ceded to the Swasi for the sake of religious appeal and greater support of Swasiasm. Emperor Prestoka rejected this request, but agreed to give the Swasi the entire Sea Sector-02.10 coastline, which the Swasi accepted and the Swasi promptly renamed itself to the Affirmation of Swasi. This was still enough to anger many of the Emperor's advisory cabinet while eastern (western Empire territory) people still called for further ceding. Once more the Empire began to fall into a state of civil unrest.