Vinitica

The **Vinitican Empire** or just **Vinitica** is a fallen empire of late antiquity from which multiple nations in Ef'thar can trace lineage and history. Fragmentary manuscripts, archaeological evidence, and oral tradition record the city of Vinitica to have once been settled on land connecting shattered islands, which has now since sunk beneath the sea. The Viniticans are widely known for the breadth of their conquests encompassing the coasts of their entire sea, and reaching far even to the jungles of distant continents, which were held through the powerful yet costly standing military which epitomized many of the cultural values and mores of Vinitican society. It succeeded a period marked by economical, intellectual, and cultural decline in the preceding Vinitican League, and ended in abrupt chaos and subsequent dissolution amidst its various tenuous holdings held together by militarist oppression. The capital is dated by historians to have been lost 600 years before the server launch.

## Legacy

Multiple nations today trace their history to the fall of Vinitica. **Tritici**, Kistello Patria, Amaca, Knassaint, Kalisow, and Dof Near all started to take form following the collapse of the Vinitican Empire.

## Vinitican League

The Vinitican League comprises the loose coalition of city states that formed an early economic union for regional hegemony, founded between few Kyntheiran city states, Vinitica and its insular neighbors, and the fortress shipyards of Kistelti. Rulership of the Hypatos was signified by possession of a holy wine chalice, which had peacefully been transferred between hands of various elected nobility agreed by council among the league city-states. The representatives of each constituent state would ceremoniously pledge trust and fealty through accepting a taste of wine served by the reigning hypatos with the chalice. Tradition tells that never once in the time of the league had poison been served with the chalice. The league would begin to decay due to growing mistrust after the sacrilegious loss of the holy chalice, and fully collapse during the reign of Hypatos Homer "the Humble" who is faulted by some historians, and victimized by others.

The Vinitican League is subject to myth and conjecture, as rare records hint that its existence extends much further than the lifetime of the Vinitican Empire.

## Early Vinitican History

### Vinitican Re-emergence

Vinitica would re-emerge after these preceding dark ages and proceed to form an empire after the recovery of the lost holy chalice by a man of high military standing and bellicose ambition, claiming that his discovery of the lost chalice was due to fate and the mantle of spreading vinitican imperium was his by citing now lost prophecies. Support for his claim legitimized by the chalice and by religion spread through the Vinitican island and through Kistelti, the former Kyntheiran allies who had left the league during the dark ages and had since coalesced into an independent kingdom swore fealty as a client state to the new Hypatos. The title of Hypatos had henceforth become hereditary, as the reigning ruler refused to return the chalice. Leveraging his popular support, the Hypatos would continue to campaign under the guise of divine providence, citing the long held sentiments of the Vinitican people that if their way was wrong, then the gods would punish them. This Hypatos would successfully conquer the Aorvonee people, the Anroyan Empire, and begin the Vinitican Empire.

### Subjugation of the Aorvonee Tribes

Following the centralization of the Vinitican league, the precedent of martial coercion formed the groundwork of a militarist culture, with the accompanying expansionist rhetoric and popular support the Viniticans began to look outwards with a new outlook. To the south stood the wealthy and well armed city-states built by the Kyntheiran peoples, and in the farther north was the tumultous Anroyan empire, wrought with civil strife although yet still an empire. The near northeast however lay a land of tribal committees and small kingdoms disunified, and from there the legacy of Vinitican conquest would begin.

The Aorvonee peoples comprised foremost the Palmeeeree, then the Airiee, Sorconee, Morgonee, Sarcanians and Livitoniee. By both strategic and geographic necessity, the Viniticans struck first on the peninsular Palmeeree and thereby defeated the most formidable of the Aorvonee, leaving the remaining five tribes in shock. A committee was convened to form a War Council, but too fell soon after. Stories are known today of the final resistance of the mighty and virtuous Archotelus, the champion coronated for such bravery, then killed for such virtue by the war-weary people wanting to surrender. Traditions and martial cultures were allowed to be maintained, as they would soon benefit the Viniticans as Aorvonee auxiliaries would supplement the landing on Anroya. The Airiee especially maintained their identity, and their later descendents would attain rule over the region, independent.

### Conquest of the Anroyan Empire

The Anroyan Empire is a nation divided by the aftermath of civil conflict, an event which would ironically grow their inter-dependence, and tragically their vulnerability. The theocratic empire, founded by Lanezenist settlers seeking land to practice their new sect, would become the next victim in Vinitican regional domination, and start a thirty-five year campaign. Landing upon the southern shores with levies from the Aorvonee and specialized ships from the Kistelleti, the Viniticans achieved a remarkable unprecedented naval invasion from which land forces could exploit the weakness in the co-dependent halves of the empire. Few valleys gave passage between the Anroyan peaks through which the west provided sustenance to the east, and with these entrances swifty seized and fortified the eastern Anroyan Empire began to starve.

For seven years, neither side could dislodge the Vinitican impass, and with raids from the Morgonee and Sarcanians sanctioned by Vinitica, the starving eastern armies of Anroya soon found themselves unable to prosecute the war. Utilizing this advantage, a Vinitican offensive westward advanced at prodigious pace against the inenervated Anroyans and rapidly claimed the capital. The march was promptly continued, and the shattered army was routed several times over through (in modern times) Lumin point and then the Aurber Slopes. The Viniticans would soon capture the fleeing leadership across the water at the Battle of Cotag, issuing an official capitulation of the Anroyan Empire. The east however, did not readily accept defeat and could not accept their sacrifices in vain. The eastward campaign following the Battle of Cotag would be protracted, both by the hardiness of the people and their terrain.

Several attempts to subjugate these remainders would be conducted over the following three decades. After which, the Viniticans would establish a garrison at the citadel of Septapol (Feroris in modern day) to ensure future compliance. The soil itself continued to fail to ever bear crops, and the region's dietary issue resurfaced at the collapse of Vinitica.

## Vinitican Hegemony

### Halamoric War

In the decades following, The city of Septapol would extend a sturdy bridge across the river Sned, through which the mighty and hostile northern tribes accepted little trade. While unfortunate in its initial trade prospects, it would later form the platform for invasion conquering Vinitica's northernmost holdings, and acting as its lifeline with the south. However not all Sned tribes met the Viniticans with contempt, the Kalisow tribes welcomed trade by sea, offering furs, regional timber, and metals. The trade city of Kalitin was established to facilitate greater exchange, as well as information that would prove instrumental to the northern campaigns. Vinitica would also begin to establish colonies upon the island of Mascai both by settlers and local allegiance, an act which gained the ire of the native Halamorics and would later foment Vinitica's greatest conflict.

The Halamoric city-state existed in similar times to the Vinitican city-states, whereas the Viniticans united under a single ruler, the Halamorics expanded a network of trade allies, forming a trade league that stretched from Edumoria to Kyntheira, and grew exorbitantly rich. Vinitica's conquests troubled the Halamorics and the settlers encroaching on their island stoked unrest, eventually the call for conflict arose and their allies were called to arms. Mercenaries from all across the region were brought to the fold: mercenaries from Kyntheiran trade allies who had grown strong under the trade league, warrior elves from Ascium who had migrated from the southeastern deserts braving the dunes, captive beastmen of the woods of Lak'Gu captured by slavers and made to fight, and kindred halamoric colonists settled in modern day Edumoria. The Viniticans would rally manpower from the Aorvonee, and levies from the Anroyans, as well as hire bands of Sned warriors from Kalisow. The resulting victory of the Viniticans saw them arise to a heavily militarized state, a fact utilized in a proceeding era of expansion. The Halamoric Trade League however, their leading city-state sacked and destroyed, began to decay. With the center of their economy being destroyed, and the capture Varlona by a Vinitican aligned general, the southern Kyntheiran city-states waned, and gradually over time Vinitican influence grew to dominate the rest as remaining states would inter-marry with Vinitican-backed leaders to maintain relevancy, expanding the client kingdom loyal to Vinitica. More of southern Kyntheira would migrate north into the modern day borders of Kyntheira, leaving cities to abandonment.

### Northern Vinitican Campaigns

Following the Halamoric War, Vinitica's industries of arms and shipwright, as well as the promised pensions instituted to incentivize voluntary service, propelled the country to new military heights. The northern Sned tribes which before were too formidable to permit expansion, were defeated after some years of campaigning, and the city of Feroris grew dramatically due to the importance of its wide bridge across the Sned and pre-existing fortifications intended for warding off old cannibal bands. The Kalisow tribes also assisted in this campaign, and Vinitican trade routes were brought closer to Kalitin, enriching both. Centuries later, this region would declare independence during the Vinitican Civil War, and assume the name of the Tiemolar Empire, which has later fallen and been supplanted by the Valvurs and Kaosarians after the strife that expelled them from their homes followed to Tiemolar. After the annexation of the north, expeditionary armies marched along the coast towards the east to distant lands, where they found little resistance from the local Ypili and mountain tribes. Displacing the majority of the local natives along the eastern shores, Vinitican settlers plowed lines of grapevines in the soil found suitable for excellent wine, accompanied by conducive climate. Firmly established in new frontiers, the settlements invited new and exotic traders which brought unique goods to the empire as well as unique culture, and with each influx of new merchants discovering the mercantile wealth connected to the western reaches of the empire, and not at all opposed to the traditional Vinitican wines, more influence would shape the cultural outset of the eastern coast. Later after the civil war, the region would attain independence with a culture distinct from its other Vinitican descended siblings.

[Val Peqin]

## Vinitican Decline

### Colonist Merchants

It is theorized that later in its history, preceding the destruction of the capital, that Vinitica already struggled with an existing economic depression. While the Viniticans did not have a concept of economy as we do today, the merchants had a concept of business, and both funded and founded colonies in exotic lands seeking to discover and extract wealth. One particularly successful cooperation of merchants purchased the land rights to the island known as Amaca, where existed island savages known as the landse. The natives were originally deemed too barbaric to parlay by the military expeditionaries who simply marked the island as Vinitican owned, but these merchants would succeed not just in civilizing the local tribe, but also tribes on continental land including the Junga and Fargasta tribes. Their success inspired numerous other aspiring colonists, including the ill-fortuned settlers sponsored by the Amaca merchants who delved deep into the jungles of the south eastern continent. These settlers, abandoned from support when the Amaca merchants no longer found distant investments profitable with the collapse of the Vinitican trade network upon civil war, were later descended upon by natives who, intrigued by their culture, assumed many aspects of theirs for themselves. Most colonies were lost in time, yet in the future, many more people will re-establish themselves upon the diplomatic stage claiming Vinitican heritage in unlikely locations.