The Maharatna Empire

Temujin's empire, and the most powerful rat colony ever to exist in Chicago's history

## History

### Before Temujin

Before Temujin, the original colony (known as the Southern Campus colony) was fairly non-descript; a loose conglomeration of rats who followed a winding chain of simple minded monarchs.

Four years before Temujin's arrival (about 5 years before the start of the story), the colony had gone to war with the colony across the river (known as the Roosevelters) but was utterly routed. The fallout was immense: the loss of at least half the Campus warriors, the forced conscription of the other half and the enslavement of the rest; the loss of the Whole Foods and Manny's Cafeteria to the Roosevelters, two out of three main sources of food for the colony; but most important was the death of the popular king, King Butterscotch, who was replaced with a Roosevelter puppet-king, King Mondo. Soon after a dark age settles in for the Southern Campus rats.

It was during this time that Temujin arrived on the scene as a lowly prophet preaching the word of what he calls the *Maharatna Doctrine*. Quickly enrapturing the desperate and starving rats with his sermons of rat liberation and their heavenly potential, a political movement formed behind him. This does not go unnoticed by King Mondo and his Roosevelter masters, who jail Temujin and attempt to have him publicly executed. Enraged by this and put over the top during Temujin's last words, Temujin's followers, including many of Mondo's rats, rose up and freed Temujin and enact their first jihad. By the end, they overthrew King Mondo and anointed Temujin as their God-King, the first emperor of the newly rechristened Maharatna Colony.

### The early days of Temujin's reign

After his coronation (about 18 months before the start of the story), Temujin directed the jihad against the Roosevelters. Riding the wave of religious fervor and the rage at their treatment and aided through his tactical genius, Temujin and his forces managed to completely wipe out the Roosevelter leadership, and absorb and convert the rest. On top of retaking their original territory with the Whole Foods and Manny's Foodcourt, the Campus colony expanded their border of to the Red Line, the outer edge of the Roosevelter colony.

After this, the Maharatnas settled into a year of peace. During this renaissance year, the colony subsided into internal growth while spreading their influence through the use of soft power.

Temujin's first acts once the violence subsided was to establish human-like infrastructure in the colony, including:

-Transportation hubs, including a harbor on the river and a trading post at the Roosevelt Red Line Stop. Using these two ports of access, Temujin was able to create a thriving transportation and trade network through the city.

-Science hubs, including a research lab complex, a hospital, and school underneath the U of I library. This research complex worked out ways to re-engineer discarded and scavenged human technology and created rat-centric medications, both for the citizens and for trade. The school was then used to educate the rats both in the ways of science and technology, writing and culture, and the religion.

-Government hubs, including a temple and a diplomatic quarter. Since the government was a theocracy, it was here the missionaries and diplomats were trained.

-Cultural hubs, including a museum, an arena, and a newspaper and radio station.

-Military hubs, including barracks, a training camp, an intelligence agency, and a detention center. While the rats themselves weren't at war, they trained a terrifyingly efficient fighting force for the goal of protection from stray cats that continued to try and hunt down the rats. With the intelligence agency, they were able to not only evade the human exterminators, but successfully fight back for the first time.

Through this, the influence of the Maharatnas spread throughout the city:

-By salvaging and retrofitting human technology for rats, on top of creating an actual trade network, the Maharatnas created a monopoly on technology and medicine only they knew how to create and use.

-As the trade went out, so too did word of the Doctrine and the socio-cultural success of their believers. This passively converted scores of rats to the point the ranks of believers throughout the city outnumbered the actual Maharatna citizens. Thanks to the transportation hubs, pilgrims to Temujin's temple were constant and numerous.

Within a few months, through the fruits of their retrofitted technological comfort, their immense wealth, their ironclad protection from cats and human exterminators, and growing adoration of the faithful, the Maharatna colony had become a trade empire that ruled southern Chicago in all but name, rivaling even human society in complexity and sophistication.

As for Temujin himself, he began siring children. Out of the immense numbers he created, he began grooming the most promising rats (including Ogedai) into assuming leadership positions in all aspects of the society.

### Growth into the first Rat Empire

While the Maharatna Colony flourished and their adulation by the common rat grew, it wasn't long before the leadership other colonies became aggressively agitated by their presence. For many of the Southern Chicago colonies, they felt like they were slowly being consumed by believers of the Doctrine, and resented both becoming dependent on the Maharatna tech and the Maharatna's reticence to share their secrets.

Outright hostilities started about 3 months before Ulysses' capture, when the leadership of the Soldier Field Colony captured and publicly executed Chagatai, a Maharatna missionary and one of Temujin's favorite children, before declaring war. Sensing their opportunity, every other hostile colony in the vacinity also declared war (around 40 colonies), essentially surrounding the Maharatna colony.

In response, Temujin declared a new jihad in the name of Chagatai, and led his followers to war. Using his tactical knowledge and their superior fighting forces and resources, the Maharatnas quickly crushed all the nearby colonies who declared war either through outright military might or through internal revolutions brought on by the faithful; each deposed leader was replaced or forced into a political marriage with one of Temujin's children. The few colonies that had remained neutral were also swallowed up and made into protectorate states, though they were allowed to maintain their existing leadership.

But the jihad didn't end there. As the borders of the Maharatna Empire grew, more and more colonies throughout the Chicago area also declared war, fearing for their own sovereignty, but they all either fell like the others or voluntarily joined.

### The first cracks

While the collapse of Temujin's empire would commence in full with the destruction of the Xanadu Fleet and Ogedai's death by the Cats At Work, the foundations for the collapse started to appear as early as the onset of Chagatai's Jihad.

The causes were numerous:

-After the outbreak of war, internal schisms within the priesthood began to form. While the priesthood was still largely behind Temujin, there was also a growing minority of priest who were against Temujin, including Ogedai himself. This minority believed that with Chagatai's death, Temujin had betrayed the non-aggression principles of the Maharatna Doctrine and had become consumed with pure vengeance and conquest, which only increased when the conquest continued even after the principle aggressor colonies had been wiped out and converted. Rather than try to appease this growing minority, Temujin instead launched numerous inquisitions to root out the dissidents, but never fully succeeded due to his (willful) blindness towards Ogedai's role.

-As the conquest continued throughout the city Temujin came across further resistance from the populace. While there were plenty of Maharatna converts throughout the city, outside of southern Chicago the religion was still practiced by only a minority of the rat population. This meant that as the conquest continued, Temujin's non-Maharatna subjects felt like they were being conquered not by liberators, but by a hostile dictator. This was further exacerbated by the social stratification that emerged, wherein only members of the priesthood held positions of power.

-Due to the the rapid expansion of the empire, the infrastructure lagged behind. While the Maharatnas were famous for their technical prowess and their standards of living, due to the secrecy around their technological knowledge there were only a limited number of rats who could work towards improving the conquered colonies. This meant that many rats who had welcomed Temujin and the Maharatnas originally were quickly disillusioned when their home colonies remained largely the same quality-of-life-wise and remained just as vulnerable to cats and exterminators while they in turn lost the capacity to make their own governing decisions. This was further exacerbated by the efforts of the Cats At Work, who trained themselves into fighting form by attacking exposed supply lines and liberating previously captured cats.

But none of this hindered Temujin's progress too badly. By the time of the peace summit (see episode 3), Temujin personally controlled over 60% of the rat colonies within the city, while vassal colonies under his banner comprised another 30%, and after the summit the last 10% surrendered to him.

By the end of the summit, Temujin's empire stretched all the way to Wilmette in the North, Rosemont to the West, and Calumet to the South.

### The collapse of the empire

Temujin's empire, now straining to keep itself together, was struck two blows in quick succession that caused it to fall.

The first was the destruction of the Xanadu Fleet and Ogedai's death, and the fact this it was revealed to his subjects.

The second was during the crisis around the Pet Council and the kidnapping of the Mayor's pet doodle. With this, Temujin has realized how far he has fallen from his original ideals, and left his empire behind.

Almost immediately, his empire fragmented.

## Key Locations

### The original colony

The seat of Temujin's empire, the original colony he took over, is based in the South Loop.

After an initial bought of conquest immediately after Temujin took the throne, the boundaries of the colony are: The Chicago River to the East, Harrison to the North, Roosevelt to the South, and Racine to the West. Immediately after coming into power, Temujin led his forces against neighboring colonies across the river to the East, which quickly fell. With this expansion, the colony spread eastward to the Red Line.

As the first of Temujin's empire, it is the most developed and advanced of the rat kingdoms. By the events of the story, it has become a thriving center of trade and technological development.

### The Xanadu Colony

The Xanadu colony was a proposed site chosen by Ogedai and the other disillusioned members of the Maharatna priesthood. It was located in an uninhabited stretch of the Des Plaines River.

Growing convinced that Temujin had lost his way as Chagatai's Jihad descended into a violent war of conquest, Ogedai conceived Xanadu as the true culmination of the Maharatna Doctrine; a society built by rats to equal humanity, one where they can shed the need to scavenge and become their own masters. Fearing persecution or being co-opted, this plan was put into motion, with a grand fleet being constructed while Temujin was near the front.

Unfortunately, the plan never got off the ground. Due to the channels of information that had opened between the Shelter and the disillusioned priests, Whipple sent the Cats At Work squad to destroy the fleet despite knowing their altruistic notions while leaking to Temujin the existence of the fleet (see episode 4). Temujin only arrived in time to see the Cats At Work destroy the fleet and kill Ogedai in battle. It was with the destruction of this fleet and the death of Ogedai that Temujin's reign entered its last days.

## Societal and Political Make-up

### Temujin and the Royal Family

At the top of the hierarchy is Temujin himself and immediately below are his direct progeny.

His current designated successor is Ogedai, who occupies the role of high priest.

As the conquest proceeds, Temujin installs his other children as leaders of conquered colonies, usually marrying them off to surviving members of the existing royal families in order to gain control of their lines-of-succession.

### The Priesthood

The most important members of Temujin's empire. The priesthood, following the directives of Temujin directly, are the managers of all aspects of imperial operations.

### The Warrior Monks

The most feared of Temujin's foot soldiers. Viewing themselves as the Blades of the Emperor, they are suicidally devoted, and unlike other aspects of the priesthood never got caught up in the schism. They grew their skills by hunting down all the cats that plagued the Maharatna colony, and once the Chagadai jihad commenced served as the frontline soldiers.