Luman Empire

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Luman Empire in AT 117, at its greatest extent

The **Luman Empire** was a human and later half-elf dominated state that existed within the region surrounding the Dirrenean Sea from the collapse of the Luman Republic in AT 3 to its final conquest by the Sanomid Empire during the Late Middle Ages. Initially a hegemonic power spanning Southwest Eylonia, West Atlaxia, and North Almeria; over the course of the first millennium the Luman Empire experienced various intermittent periods of disunity and civil war, and slowly shrank to encompass only the regions of Lyria and Laurenea by the beginning of the 13th century as a result of both internal and external conflicts.

The Luman Empire was a direct continuation of the Luman Republic, which met its demise over the course of the first century BT in various civil wars and political conflicts. Though the republic was itself an empire in the sense that it had conquered a vast territory surrounding the Dirrenean Sea and ruled it through provinces and client states that answered to a senate in Luma - located on the human-dominated Elatian peninsula which effectively served as the Luman metropole - the Luman Empire proper is traditionally considered to have began in AT 3, when Claudia Licinia Hibera, who already had near-monarchical powers by virtue of being dictator for life, was awarded the title of "Princeps" after crushing a rebellion in Cyraelia, making her the first Luman Empress. For nearly two centuries thereafter, Luma enjoyed an unprecedented period of internal peace and stability interrupted only by the transition from the rule by the Licinian to Proclusian dynasties between AT 66 and 82, during which the empire was ruled by a Triumvirate of co-empresses. In 117 the Empire would reach its greatest extent under Empress Velonia, but the reign of the mad Empress Bartelia from 225 along with her assassination in 242 would severely destabilize the Empire. The ensuing Bartelian Crisis would threaten the very existence of the Luman Empire with various rebellions and breakaway states as well as dozens of short-lived empresses.

The Bartelian Crisis ended in 273 when the Empress Marcea I eliminated her last rival. In an effort to stabilize the Empire, she would cede power over the Velian-speaking West to a co-empress while maintaining personal rule in the Sarinic-seaking East. The 341 Proclamation of Nelonium made the Thurionan faith legal, and in 397 Empress Emerice I made it the state religion of the Luman Empire. Upon her death in 404, the Empire permanently split into an Eastern Empire ruled from Emericea (formerly Ludealum) and a Western Empire ruled from Luma. Invasions by Seusonic tribes and the Kidaruns during the following century would cause the rapid decline of the Western Empire, and in 469 the Berimundian King Canus Arctus caused its final collapse by forcing the abdication of Empress Vibonia Hiberana.

With the collapse of the Western Luman Empire, Emericea became the sole capital, and the Luman Empire continued to exist for nearly another millennium as a Sarinic-speaking state ruled by dynasties with varying amounts of human and elvish blood, the administrative structure of the empire being significantly reorganized by Empresses Atalanta I and Emerice III during the late 6th century. The Luman Empire would reach its greatest extent after the fall of the West during the reign of Theodora I "the Great" in 515, who oversaw the reconquest of North Almeria and Elatia, including the city of Luma itself. However, a series of wars against Narvonid Empire beginning in 516 would, though ultimately ending in Luman victory, severely exhaust the Empire, draining its resources and causing instability that allowed the rise of a new faith in Imidia, Akar. The Akarites would go into rebellion against the Lumans in 582 under the Andiriyundirate of Veludiyan, conquer Dusia under the Musalid Andiriyundirate by 600, and drive the Lumans from the rest of Almeria by 660. These defeats, combined with attacks by the Meski from the North and succession crises contributed to the Thirty Year Anarchy, during which the Luman Empire experienced several civil wars and short-lived empresses and nearly collapsed.

Beginning with the reign of Empress Gorgo II, who took the throne in 700, the Luman Empire entered the Helwyrian Renaissance; a period of cultural, economic, and urban renewal. During the reign of the "Twin-faced Empress" - the co-rule of twin sisters Brihena II and Emerice V from 976 to 1025 - the Meski Empire would be defeated, the Luman treasury stabilized, and Emericea made once more a center of culture. The Helwyrian Renaissance would end with the accession of Almithara Komarios to the throne in 1070. During her reign, the Empire experienced rapid decline. Southern Elatia, Southern Maellas, and Eastern Atlaxia Minor were lost in disastrous wars against the Lahifad Andiriyundirate, the Sanomid Empire, the Capenese Republic, and the Raeli Kingdom - which briefly ruled the Luman Empire as a client state following the overthrow of Almithara by Theodosia II in 1106. Though the Luman Empire would regain its independence forty years later, by the beginning of the Early Modern Era it would finally be conquered by the Sanomids. Sanomid, Raeli, Equadinian, and Elatian monarchs would go on to style themselves as Luman monarchs, but such titles would not be widely recognized.

As a predecessor state to many of those in modern Eylonia, the Luman Empire had an immense influence on the Western World. Its native language, Velian remained the language of the main Thurionan Church and evolved into various modern languages, including Equadinian, Elatian, and Lumanian; while in the East, Sarinic was preserved, evolving into the modern form of it spoken in Maellas. The Empire's adoption of Thurionism allowed the religion to become the dominant faith of Eylonia. Luman art, architecture, and philosophy contributed greatly to those disciplines in both the Thurionan and Akarite world, leading eventually to the development of modern science. Luman law formed the basis of most legal systems in the Thurionan and Thurionan-influenced world, and its calendar became standard in many parts the world.

## List of Empresses

*Note that not every Luman empress has been documented in RP posts, so this list may never constitute completeness*

### Licinian Period (AT 3 - 273)

#### Licinian dynasty (3 - 66)

*Claudia Licinia Hibera*
(20 years)
 **Tarsea**
*Tarsea Licinia Hibera*
(7 years)
 **Sestia**
*Sestia Licinia Hibera*
(10 years)
 **Tyhrrania**
*Tyhrrania Licinia Hibera*
(16 years)
 **Faustia**
*Servia Licinia Hibera Faustia*
(10 years)
Committed suicide after being betrayed by the senate

#### Triumvirate (66 - 82)

*Vesuvia Lucilia Sempronia Licinia Hibera*
(16 years)
 **Placia**
*Septima Bauria Placia Licinia Hibera*
(11 years)

#### Proclusian dynasty (66 - 131)

*Proclusia Statia Manea Licinia Hibera*
(29 years)
 **Velonia**
*Proclusia Statia Velonia Licinia Hibera*
(22 years)
 **Marcella**
*Proclusia Statia Marcella Licinia Hibera*
(14 years)
 **Medea**
*Proclusia Statia Medea Licinia Hibera*
(7 months)

### Marcean Period (270 - 548)

#### Last empresses of the West (270 - 469)

 **Septima** | fl. 341
 **Vibonia Hiberana** | ? - 469

#### Julian dynasty (500 - 548)

(3 years)
 **Theodora I** "the Great"
(30 years)
 **Julia II** | 530 - 540
(10 years)
(8 years)
Deposed by Atalanta I

### Luman Dark Ages (548 - 700)

#### Atalantid dynasty (548 - 686)

(39 years)
 **Emerice III** | 587 - 615
(28 years)
 **Atalanta II** | After 607 - 655
(48 years at most)
 **Theodora II** (first reign)
(19 years)
Overthrown by Aelia, governor of Maellas - would return to the throne in 680

### Helwyrian Renaissance and Late Luma (700 - ?)

#### Gorgonic dynasty (700 - 868)

 **Saria II** | 802 - 852
(50 years)
 **Gorgo III** "the Drunkard"
(8 years at most)
Accused of assassinating Gorgo III and deposed by Brihena I

#### Helwyrian dynasty (868 - 1070)

(18 years)
 **Emerice IV** | 886 - 963
(77 years)
 **Brihena II** "the Meski-Slayer"
(62 years)
 **Emerice V** | 963 - 1049
(86 years)
 **Emerice VI** | 1049 - 1070
(21 years)
Per an arrangement by her mother, abdicated to her daughter-in-law Almithara

#### Late Luma (1070 - ?)

(36 years)
 **Theodosia II** | 1106 - After 1170
(At least 64 years)