Zantian

## Overview

The Zantian Empire, centred on the city of Zantios and ruled by Emperor Leo, is full of contradictions. With a proud history of being the part of the Namorian empire that did not fall when Namor did, the citizens identify themselves as both Namorian and Zantian. Namor fell five hundred years ago, though, and since Zantios became the sole rather than the supplementary capital of the Empire there have been many changes.

The splendour of Zantios cannot be denied – it is one of the few cities in the world to rival the Anhian cities in size. Situated in what the Namorians considered to be the centre of the world, it sits on the convergence of many trade routes, and controls the strait between the Arraenan Sea and the Lakisea. Over the centuries, the taxes gathered from traders passing through have enriched the city and the Empire. The temples and civic buildings are second to none, and the city is famed as a centre of learning. The most notable thing about the city, however, is the uniformity of worship. Every temple is to Thebe, and most to only Thebe.

Throughout the Empire, there are many cultures. Most of them are Ellinic, but over the years many tribes from the steppes to the northeast of the Empire have migrated, invaded, or been conquered, and settled within the borders. The vast majority now worship gods in the Thebian congregation. The further away from Zantios they are, the less likely it is that temples are to Thebe and Thebe alone. There are quite a few cities, though none are as impressive as Zantios. In every city, the rival sporting factions of the Greens and Blues have a presence, and they form a network of contacts around the Empire.

In spite of its splendour, the Zantian Empire is decreasing in size and in influence. The Elemental Empire has taken the most fertile of its lands (those south of the Arraenan Sea), and many of the larger, more productive islands of the Arraenan. In recent times, they have sieged Zantios several times but never taken it. The Elemental Empire is not the only threat to Zantian, either – the Norsvik raid even this far from their core territory, and powers to the east and north must be kept on side with payment and alliance.

# Government and Law

The head of state is Leo, son of the previous Emperor Badile and brought up to be Emperor, unlike many of his predecessors. He has seen varied success in battle, losing ground to the Gulars and the Elemental Empire, but persuading the Corvyars to attack the Gulars and thus regain some of what he had lost. He is 40, has had three spouses, and is still without living children – as the third marriage was strictly against the rules that the High Priest had set and a fourth would be forbidden, this is causing some worry about his successor.

The government is an import from Namor, as Zantios became the supplementary capital of the Namorian Empire after it was taken by Namor. As such, it has a Senate and is nominally a republic. In practice, the Emperor is the one who wields the power, though their advisors (appointed by the emperor from a group of elected representatives) have a lot of influence. Generals in the field have military power, and if they gain too much loyalty from their troops, they have had a habit of trying to incite a military coup. The Emperor’s second wife’s father still holds a lot of power, and has contributed to Zantian’s recent losses by replacing competent generals and admirals with his favourites, none of whom had more than theoretical experience of war.

The law code in Zantian is very liberal and fair in many respects, with a few exceptions. Drawn up three hundred years ago, they provide the model for many lands within the Thebian congregation. Emperor Justinia, with significant input from her wife Thora, collected laws and customs from all over the Empire and beyond. Taking what she felt was good from them all, she appointed and oversaw a group of scholars synthesizing them all into a unified code. There have been few changes to the code since then.

Principles of the code include the punishment being proportional to the crime, and a valid form of punishment for an initial offence being a fine. Except in the case of deliberate murder, where the punishment is death even for the first offence. The priesthood is open to anybody, and all those who join a temple should have an equal opportunity to lead it at some point.

Education is a universal right, with even the poorest citizens (including slaves) entitled to primary schooling at the state’s expense (in the country, the schoolmaster is usually the priest, but in towns and cities there are secular teachers). Anyone who can afford it will educate their children beyond this, with most finishing in their late teens. Bureaucrats, alchemists, healers, and philosophers will study for much longer.

As well as free education, basic healthcare is provided by the state in the cities. In the city of Zantios, there are several general hospitals, one dedicated to childbirth, and one for infectious diseases. Other cities are not as well-provided, but all have at least one hospital.

Hospitality is also enshrined in law. Each foreigner arriving is noted, and if they have no place to stay they are directed to hostels set up for the purpose. Foreigners are protected unless they commit a crime.

Worshipping a god who is not part of the Thebian congregation is a crime. Though this is only really enforced in the cities (particularly Zantios), it applies throughout the Empire. Like other crimes, the first offence is punishable by a fine, but punishment becomes harsher with repeat offences.

# People

Ellinic in appearance rather than Namorian, a well-off, cultured inhabitant of Zantian dresses in richly embroidered silk. Layers of robes over a long tunic are usual for urban wear. Poorer people wear only the tunic, which is often kilted up to allow freer movement or cut off short at just above the knee. Those who cannot afford silk will wear linen or cotton.

Shorter tunics are worn for riding and as part of a soldier’s uniform. The standard armour is a breastplate, leather on the upper legs and upper arms, and boots. A cloth hat or turban is often worn by soldiers to protect from the sun.

Living in a city full of visitors where hospitality is provided for by law has made many citizens of Zantios open-minded and welcoming. Living in a city where religious persecution is official policy has made many citizens of Zantios suspicious and standoffish. Both of these statements are true. Outside the city, both attitudes are less extreme.

People in the Zantian Empire are not strictly divided into classes, except for slaves. There are always elites, but the membership of those is not purely down to ancestry or even money.

# Religion

The Thebian faith originated nine hundred years ago, when a magician of great power and compassion was killed by the Namorians. Her ghost haunted the place where she had died, and her followers began to revere and then to worship her. Eventually, some of those who worshipped her found themselves filled with divine power. Ever since, she has been venerated as a god. Her ghost has not been seen since the first divine acts done in her name.

Though all those of the Thebian faith acknowledge Thebe as the First, most of them follow their own gods. Many of these gods are very specific, tied to a place or a profession, and have existed since long before Thebe lived, but joined the Thebian congregation either defensively because of Namorian persecution, or strategically to gain the support and cooperation. There are some few more powerful gods in the pantheon, depending largely on how many faithful they have. This faith is found from Kewes to Atturia, and West to Zantian.

The Zantian Empire is, in its own opinion, emphatically Thebian – but there are significant differences in the faith here. The Imperial position, and that of the High Priests, is that Thebe is foremost among the gods, leading the congregation. At the moment, worship of other gods in the congregation is allowed, as long as Thebe is acknowledged as ruler. In the recent past, worship of any god but Thebe has been banned, and some within Zantios feel it still should be. Emperor Leo worships only Thebe.

There are temples or shrines to Thebe in every settlement. Many started out dedicated to other gods, then as these gods joined the congregation their temples gained shrines to Thebe. And when worship of other gods was officially banned, the original occupants were supplanted. Now that worship is again allowed, the other gods are back in their temples (indeed, everywhere except Zantios the ban was merely paid lip-service by most of the population). Temples to gods that did not join the congregation have long been destroyed and their followings diminished to nothing.

The High Priests of Thebe in Zantios consider themselves the leaders of the faith. Though the High Priests in Namor claim primacy, the fact that they allow those faithful to other gods in the congregation to claim that Thebe is merely the first chronologically rather than the leader means that the Zantians consider them almost apostates.

Thebe’s principles of toleration and compassion are preached within the Empire. Many of the faithful feel they keep them absolutely, and yet persecution of those who worship gods outwith the congregation is prevalent and encouraged by the priesthood.

Divine Communion is a very popular prayer. People seek guidance on many things, from the significant to the mundane. In many cases they receive this guidance - it is a firm, if underground, belief that Thebe cares more about the powerless than the powerful. Oracles are also very popular, working in many different ways, though none match the accuracy and precision of the old Oracle at Aleph.

# Diplomatic Relations and Trade

           Zantian lives by trade. Controlling the only passage between the Arraenan Sea and the Lakisea, the city of Zantios gathers a toll from every boat that passes through. As well as merchants on the water, those following the land trade routes between Anhia in the east and Namor in the west must pass through the city and pay the taxes due. Though worship of non-Thebian gods is forbidden, foreign traders bringing money to the Empire are granted leeway as long as they keep it private.

Along the roads throughout the Empire, there are other tolls. The Namorian Empire built and maintained excellent roads, and the Zantians keep up those within their territory as well as a few strategic roads outside their borders. It is well worth the tolls to travel on protected roads with excellent surfaces, and the merchants know it. The road to Namor is particularly well-travelled, though there have been episodes where invaders have overwhelmed the patrols.

Although silk production originated in Anhia, it is widely recognised the best silks come from Zantios. The finest of all are reserved for the Emperor and given as diplomatic gifts, but any of the remaining eleven grades are valuable. Good silk is produced in the rest of Zantian too, and the most valuable dye is the purple made from sea snails all along the coast.

The cities of Zantian, particularly Zantios, are known for their luxury items. Scrolls written in gold and silver on vellum dyed blue, ivory carvings for book covers, and exquisite embroidered clothing as well as silk are just a few of the things their Artificers can produce. Religious jewellery, valuable in its own right and sometimes with spiritual powers, is also a characteristic export. Alchemical potions and alchemical ingredients are also commonly traded, as there is a thriving community of Alchemists in Zantios. The one alchemical creation that is of most value to the city, Seafire, is never sold.

At this moment, Zantian has a truce with most of her recent enemies, though this is tenuous. The Elemental Empire to the south is not on the attack but there is no official communication. The Gulars to the north do not attack as long as Zantian pays tribute and grants them trade advantages.

Although the Norsvik sometimes attack, that is more raiding parties than war and there are Norsvik merchants who trade with the Empire. Besides, the Norsvik are most feared as sea warriors – and they cannot counter Zantian’s Seafire.

The Nevicians, as they have elsewhere, have a section of the city for their own, where Nevician laws apply. Granted this as a reward for their leading role in policing the Arraenan Sea, they worship their own Thebian gods in their own way. Recently, for their defeat of the Corvyar, they also enjoy much reduced taxes and tolls. Although non-Nevicians do not enjoy the same tax breaks, they are often more comfortable staying in the Nevician quarter. Herri are not terribly welcome outside the Nevician area, as it is thought they never acknowledge Thebe’s superiority.

Namor is officially an ally, but religious controversy has soured the relationship hugely. However, the two nations do back each other (and most Thebian countries) up when it comes to the Elemental Empire.

# Magic

              Spirit magic is the dominant form seen throughout the Empire, especially in the cities. Divine Communion is the most frequently cast spell by a long way, used for everything from where to send one’s child to school to whether or not to attempt a winter crossing of the Arraenan. Water and wood magics are popular in the countryside, and air and water amongst the merchants. Necromancers usually confine their activities to making sure the dead are safe – raising undead minions is not accepted. Totemic magic is severely frowned upon as godless, and almost never publicly used. Other than that, there are mages of all flavours present in the Empire.

              There is a portal in Zantios. Access is controlled by the Emperor and the High Priests, and the mages that work it are anonymous figures. They cast their spells dressed in plain grey robes, with veils over their faces. Nobody ever sees them enter or leave the building, and they seem to be unscryable.

# Greens and Blues

           Factions nearly as old as the Namorian Empire, these originated as sporting teams, and this is still the core of their existence. There also used to be reds and whites, but those faded out long ago and never made it to Zantian.

              At first chariot racers, in early Namor they quickly became involved in blood sports, including gladiatorial fights to the death. They used slaves for this purpose, against each other and against imported exotic animals. They even managed to build hippodromes that could be flooded for staged sea battles. With time, they grew until they managed most of Namor’s entertainment. Almost everyone followed a team, and they gained political power.

              Though they no longer exist in Namor, by the time it fell they had factions in most cities of the Empire. Those cities still within the Zantian Empire still have their powerful presence. Although they have a fierce rivalry, at times they join together into a formidable political power. They have been a driving force in every popular rebellion in the Zantian Empire.

              Fights to the death are no longer permitted, but gladiatorial combat is still very popular, as are chariot races. Given everybody in the cities seems to support one faction or another, there are competitive events of all kinds. Flower arranging is surprisingly popular, as is illusion magic, speed carpentry, and all kinds of crafting. Betting is allowed on every event organised by the Blues and Greens, though it is otherwise forbidden.

# Cities

## Zantios

           The premier city in the Zantian Empire, possibly the premier city outside Anhia. Zantios has been overrun and burned in riots many times, and every time has been rebuilt bigger and better, as far as the ruler of the time saw. The outer walls enclose a huge area, almost three square miles, and the city has spilled over two sets of inner walls, which were partially destroyed by either earthquake or enemies. A third set of inner walls contains most of the city, with imperial farmland and mulberry silk plantations between them and the outer walls. The seawalls are fortified and the three deep-water harbours well defended.

Toll-boats regularly patrol the strait, and in times of danger are a small part of the fleet that protects the city. The huge army training ground stands adjacent to the most protected of those harbours, which is largely reserved for naval vessels.

The other two harbours are used for trade. The Nevician quarter encompasses several piers in one of them, with the rest reserved for Zantian merchants. Other traders and travellers use the third harbour.

Walking through the streets from the harbours to the central square, the first thing that strikes the eye is the profusion of marble buildings – white for temples, other colours for other municipal buildings. Statues stand at every corner, and despite the veto on worshipping non-Thebian gods, many of them represent gods that are not part of the congregation. Some of them are even to gods nobody remembers. Thebe is by far the most popular though.

There is a vast hippodrome, hung with banners of green and blue. The bathhouses and the hospital are edged in red marble, the schools in green. The pride of the city is the Temple of Thebian Peace, faced in white marble painted in silver, gold and purple. It dazzles in the sunshine, and walking in reveals a light and airy dome. In spite of the ban, holy objects of many, many Thebian gods line the walls, though some are more prominently displayed than others. Many Emperors through the centuries have tried to turn Zantios into a place of pilgrimage, and they have largely succeeded.

The market square is big enough to be divided into areas with lines of stalls, and areas for performance or relaxation. These are permanent, as most festivals take place largely within the hippodrome.

There are poor areas in the city as well, but the right of every inhabitant to free daily bread does have an effect. Even so, some inhabitants struggle to live. Some are hunted and cannot claim rations, some have managed to run into terrible debt.

Off the main thoroughfares stand many less imposing temples and religious houses. Shops of many kinds line some streets, often standing with others of the same sort. At a superficial glance, it is everything a capital city ought to be.

## Lexandra

              The most notable of the cities in the south of the remaining Zantian Empire, Lexandra has a reputation as a centre of forbidden Ellinic learning. There are still some remnants of the pre-Thebian schools there, but a lot of knowledge was destroyed in the purges. Other than that, Lexandra is full of the standard improvements the Namorians brought to cities they occupied. The Blues and the Greens have a significant presence, although not as much as in the capital.

              Temples to Thebe are frequent, but not nearly as universal as in Zantios. Although there are not the same variety of statues on the streets, there are more shrines to different gods.

## Smaller cities

              There are many, most of which have been occasionally taken by the Elemental Empire or the steppe raiders. Their walls are in various states of repair, they have some Namorian civic improvements, they have Thebian temples. Most of them also have many shrines to other gods. They have individual characteristics, but there are so many that there is not time to go into that here.

# Outside the Cities

              The network of roads built by Namor has been kept up to the best of the Empire’s ability. The army patrols the bigger roads and is responsible for their upkeep. The Via Natia remains as it did in the first few centuries of its existence, but less-travelled routes have fared poorly, especially in the areas that have been lost and won again. Hostels stand at fixed intervals (a day’s march for a Namorian army), and small towns have sprung up around many of them.

              With the loss of the Knile territories, the remaining more fertile land in Zantian is valuable. This is both a good and a bad thing for those that farm it. Good, because there is a guaranteed market for grain and staples. Bad, because the Emperor might dictate you grow grain and staples rather than the grapes or other luxuries that gave you more of a profit.

The silk industry is huge, and many people are employed in chopping mulberry leaves into precisely the right size to feed the silkworms. It is a profession that is mostly very, very dull but also involves some skill, so those involved are proud to be part of Zantian’s most prestigious export industry. In some areas they are very secretive, in others not so much.

Priests are important in the smaller towns as educators and healers as well as spiritual leaders. Bureaucrats make the rounds regularly if infrequently to make sure the teaching is up to standard, and promising students can be given the opportunity to travel to the cities to study when they reach the limits of what is available locally. Otherwise, tax collectors may be the only government officials seen in villages not on the regular trade routes.

# Notable People

## Abidentine

              The Namorian Emperor who refounded the city of Zantios and began its dedication to Thebe. His image is everywhere, and every citizen of the Empire knows his name.

## Justinia

              The Emperor who made her mark on the Empire by reforming the laws, making them fairer in many ways.

## Emperor Leo

              The current Emperor. Officially the son of the previous Emperor (definitely the son of his wife), it is widely thought that his true father was the last Emperor but one. His marital problems are approaching legendary (three spouses and no children), and he currently spends much of his time dressed in a simple white garment as a penance for the circumstances of his third marriage.

              His military campaigns are very mediocre, but Zantian is not losing territory at the moment and the armies seem to respect him well enough.

## Arisios

              Leo’s closest advisor, and the father of his second wife. Good at politics, said to be the power behind the throne, his reputation is at present somewhat tarnished due to his appointing inexperienced military commanders.

## High Priest Stefania

              The High Priest of the Temples of Thebe in the Empire. Strong enough to refuse Leo permission to marry, and authoritative enough that the Emperor is carrying out his penance even though his third marriage ended without an heir. She officially holds authority over every priest in the Empire.

# History

              There have been people on the site of Zantios since before there were truly people. The protohumans lived by gathering and hunting small prey, hundreds of thousands of years ago when the world was colder and the site of the city was surrounded by a fertile plain. Full humans displaced the protohumans, eventually leading to their complete vanishment. With time, the people learnt to farm, and made use of the plain for growing crops.

And then, thousands of years ago, the world warmed and ice melted. The Arraenan Sea rose and flooded most of the plain, bursting between the shallow hills and forming a strait between them to Lakisea, turning it tidal and salty. It took only a year for the plain to be drowned, rising at an average of a metre every three days. But an average conceals the full terror of the waters as they rushed between the rises in the land, pooling in the low parts and suddenly pouring over an obstacle to flood the next lower part within hours. Many, many people drowned. There was little magic to help them, and no kindly god took pity on them. The Drowned still wander the underwater plain mindlessly.

Those floods created the geography as it is today. The site of Zantios, inhabited sparsely by the remaining early farmers, is surrounded by salt water but served by sweet water springs leading down to natural harbours. Sitting at the Arraenan end of the channel leading to the Lakisea, it is in a significant strategic position.

The famed oracle at Aleph, in a vision from Orros, saw that a mighty city could be founded on the site of Zantios. A party of settlers, supported by troops, departed the Ellinian city of Egara to found a settlement there. The settlement grew to a town, pushing out (or enslaving) the early farmers, and then to a city, with all the accoutrements considered necessary by cultured Ellinians. By fifteen hundred years ago, the city numbered some 20000 people, growing rich from the tolls it could charge.

And so it became a fat prize, could it be taken. Over the next few centuries, Zantios was fought over but retained its identity and its economic importance.

Then Namoria came into her own, a hugely successful military power which had, before coming to Zantios, conquered much of the Porean continent. One thing the Namorians excelled at was building roads. A thousand years ago, they built a road stretching from Dyrrium to the city of Zantios. This road (the Via Natia) was initially used to allow armies to march to a newly conquered province, but rapidly progressed, via being a route for the transport of taxes, to an important trade route. At first a city-state at peace with Namor, the relationship became closer until, eight and a half centuries ago, Zantios and its dependant areas became a province in the Namorian empire.

Namorian engineers gave Zantios many improvements. An aqueduct secured the city a municipal water supply and a Namorian mint increased her economic power. The walls were repaired and strengthened.

Zantios became embroiled in the politics of Namor quite quickly. Within a hundred years of joining the empire, a high-ranking general who had been much favoured by the previous emperors chose Zantios as the place to launch his coup. He declared himself Emperor.

The official Emperor Parrius in Namor gathered up his armies and marched to Zantios. Despite the fact that the false emperor had left the city, Parrius besieged Zantios for three terrible years.

At first, Parrus planned to make an end to the city. However, the site was so pleasant and lucrative he changed his mind. Zantios was to be rebuilt. The space within the walls was enlarged, and Namorian buildings constructed everywhere. Zantios gained two new ports, a Namorian bath house, a military training ground with direct access to the port, and an improved state prison. On a lighter note, he also ordered the building of a Hippodrome and a theatre. And, perhaps most significantly, the First Milestone from which all distances in the Namorian Empire were henceforth measured.

News of Thebe’s first miracles had reached Zantios with one of her pupils, about eight hundred and fifty years ago, and a few people had been worshipping Thebe herself there ever since. Those first followers still called on the older gods as well, of course, as nothing about the worship of Thebe forbade it.

In the Namorian Empire, however, the worship of Thebe (and several others) was banned eight hundred years ago. A message that suggested the old gods should give equal status to one who had been human within living memory was met with scorn, and then alarm as some of the less-worshipped gods covertly joined the congregation and found their number of followers increasing. Many of these followers were executed, sometimes terribly, but each death made the message of tolerance have more meaning to those who remained. When worship of all gods who had not been present in Namoria at its outset was banned, the number of gods whose followers appreciated Thebe’s tolerance grew, and often these gods chose to join with Thebe in the Thebian congregation.

Emperor Abidentius died six hundred and eighty years ago in what would become Jansvik, but which was at that time part of the Namorian Empire. His illegitimate but acknowledged son, Abidentine, was proclaimed Emperor by the soldiers present there. Of course, in an empire where Emperors are supposedly elected by a group of citizens in the capital, this was not accepted. Abidentine was popular, though, especially amongst the soldiers, and was made one of the five sub-rulers under another capable soldier promoted from the ranks. Over the next twenty years, Abidentine worked his way up to sole Emperor, just as his dying father had prophesied.

Abidentine was a cultured man, despite his mother’s low birth. Perhaps some of his favoured gods had become part of the congregation, perhaps he had sympathy with the beliefs of the soldiers who had initially acclaimed him Emperor. However it came about, whilst he was still a sub-ruler, he issued (together with one other) a law which said that no religions should be persecuted.

In Namor, proclaimed Emperor, Abidentine built temple after temple dedicated to Thebe, though he continued to worship at other shrines, most notably Orros the Sun-God. Bringing his mother, Helena, to Namor to live in a newly-built palace, Abidentine left. Ostensibly pursuing the barbarians, he approached Zantios where the last sub-emperor (Marcus) had his base. Abidentine destroyed him and the gates of Zantios were open to him.

Abidentine never went back to Namor, but brought his family to Zantios. Catching his wife in bed with his illegitimate son, he killed them both. The regret for this action never left him, and drove him to do more and more for the worship of Thebe. He built huge, flamboyant temples to her, and decreed that every temple of another god should have a shrine to her as well. His plan for the city included municipal developments as well as monuments to himself, doubling the size of the city inside the walls, and it is his walls that still stand. He dedicated the city anew, to himself, to Thebe, and to the other gods in her congregation.

Marrying the principle of tolerance with the Namorian idea of keeping the populace content, Abidentine issued a daily ration of bread to everyone in the city. Taking it further, he founded religious hospitals and funded burials and laying to rest for anyone who could not afford it.

Abidentine became a militant supporter of the Thebian faith. He outlawed temples to gods not in the congregation within the city of Zantios, and slowly spread this throughout the Namorian empire. This was the first incidence in three hundred years of the Thebian faith being the persecutors rather than the persecuted - a sign of their growing power. The biggest temple in the city, dedicated to Thebe herself, had myriad shrines within its walls and courtyards, dedicated to each and every god who had joined the congregation. Even those from outwith the Namorian empire were represented there, though initially they were few in number.

When yet another god in the region joined the Thebian congregation, Pashur II, ruler of the area to the south-east, decided that too much camaraderie between his rivals had to be discouraged. As he made threatening moves, Abidentine saw a chance to bring Thebian worship by fire to Namor’s enemies. But before he could come to battle, he died. Perhaps Abidentine had become too focused on increasing Thebe’s power, and had stopped considering her precepts. Or perhaps it was just ill-luck.

Whatever led to his death, Abidentine left Zantios a Thebian city, and in the Namorian empire almost half of the gods worshipped were in the congregation.

Abidentine’s three living children initially shared the rule of the Empire after his death. After the death of the oldest and youngest, Abidentus became sole Emperor. Looking for reliable subordinates, he granted his half-cousin Julin the governorship of the West. Brought up a follower of Thebe, Julin had a deep love of learning and had never shown interest in ruling, though he had received military training with his brothers. However, he proved himself an able military commander and was much respected by his troops.

The Thebian congregation in Zantios was falling apart. Rifts appeared over how to worship - how much was owed to Thebe by the gods of the congregation, and thus how much should their followers give to Thebe? Abidentus ordered his troops to attack those who felt that Thebe was a first among equals rather than an overlord, and several thousand Zantians who worshipped gods in the congregation were killed. His popularity dropped like a stone. Julin, on the other side of the Empire, sacrificing to the battle-goddess Bellonai who would have nothing to do with Thebe, seemed immune to this madness.

When Abidentus attempted to order Julin’s troops East, they revolted and proclaimed Julin Emperor. As he marched towards Zantian, Abidentus marched West to meet him. Before they reached each other, Abidentus was dead, of a sudden fever. The instant he was laid to rest, his troops declared their allegiance to Julin.

Julin’s brief reign was marked by his outlawing of the worship of Thebe, and by his attempt to take the Empire back to its republican roots. He died in battle less than a year after his coronation. The Oracle of Aleph made their final pronouncement on his death, a prophecy of doom and gloom. For the Ellinic gods holding out against the congregation, this was the beginning of the end. All rulers since have followed Thebe or one of her congregation.

His immediate successor reinstated the worship of Thebe as official state policy, though again he did not rule for long. The next few years saw turmoil amongst the leaders, with attempted coups and short reigns. But despite this and the instability it caused in the Empire, the city of Zantios was flourishing, with construction of an incredibly ambitious aqueduct running well over a hundred miles, which still supplies the city today.

520 years ago, the troubles with what the Namorians saw as the barbarians began. A new group from the steppes to the northeast began to grow in power. These Hunes did not trouble the Namorians directly, dispossessed the original inhabitants of the steppes. Eventually, the Hunes reached the Danur river bordering the Namorian empire, and slaughtered many of the refugees. After this atrocity, the Namorian Emperor of the day allowed the Geths to cross the river.

The Geths had been part of a settled country with a rich culture, advanced Artificers, and unique magics. Many of them followed gods of the Thebian congregation. But the Namorians saw them as a disorganised rabble of uncivilised barbarians, and treated them with such contempt that they united all their fighters into an army and marched against the Namorian forces.

The Emperor moved out of Zantian to meet the Gethic forces. The Geths destroyed the Namorian forces and killed the Emperor. The Gethic forces then moved towards Zantian, and were only repelled by a force of mercenaries.

The new Emperor was a soldier who did not even come from Namoria but who had an outstanding track record commanding troops on the borders of the empire. She followed the Geths, and after a battle where the Namorian forces had a slender victory, she treated with them.

Emperor Theodisia continued to improve the city of Zantios architecturally, and continued to make Zantios a more and more impressively Thebian city. She also attempted to make sure that all people who worshipped gods in the Thebian congregation were treated as civilised people, to try and prevent a repeat of the Gethic incident. In Namor, the old gods who had not joined the congregation were banned entirely, and throughout the Empire temples were dismantled.

As part of the treaty with the Geths, they were settled in cities and towns throughout the Empire. For a time this worked. Then, the High Priest of Thebe in Namor began to try and standardise worship within the Empire. Which might have been only a mild disturbance but for one tenet he held as sacred: Thebe was not merely the first among equals, but ruled all the gods in her congregation. Not surprisingly, this led to a great deal of unrest within the Empire, which Theodisia dealt with ruthlessly.

But Theodisia died. Her son Parascus inherited the throne, and tried to continue her drive to make the only gods in the empire those who were part of the Thebian congregation, and preferably those whose followers acknowledged Thebe as their primary god. He condoned atrocities in the name of unifying the people of the Empire in one faith, up to and including burning temples with their priests and faithful inside. Thebe’s principles of toleration and mercy were entirely ignored in their quest for her glorification.

Atrocities spread. Half a millennium ago, cities on the fringe of the Empire where Thebe had basically remained as one god amongst many were singled out as bastions of heresy. And yet, some survived. Within the city of Zantios, though lip-service was paid to the eradication of what the Thebians described as barbaric gods, their followers were tolerated. Perhaps Parascus did not want to risk his city burning. In the countryside beyond the cities, too, persecution was minimal. Living in rural communities, as the vast majority of the population did and indeed still do, people knew each other. So despite the Empire’s official policy, gods outwith the congregation and gods who acknowledged Thebe as a first among equals survived and even flourished.

Statues built in the city, and imported artefacts, could have great power. As well as Thebe and the gods of her congregation, statues of significant priests, and of martyrs from the time the Thebian congregation was the persecuted rather than the persecutors, could grant favours.

Five hundred years ago, in the midst of the religious upheaval, the Geths (very much holding to the first-among-equals ideal of Thebe) began causing trouble again. The Namorians, still dismissive of the Geths, continued to treat them as second-class citizens, and they resented it. It was the beginning of the end for the western part of the Namorian empire. A huge army of Geths sieged, took, and sacked Namor.

The parts of the Namorian empire south of the Arraenan sea were taken by another group from the steppes. These Vandals harried Namor and the Namorian Empire, drawing the fleet and the armies south to protect the fertile lands that fed the Empire.

The Hunes had been taking protection money from Zantios for a few decades, but four hundred and fifty years ago their demands grew to a level Zantios refused. The Hunes took their chance to begin aggressive military action towards the Namorian Empire. They took huge swathes of territory, coming ever closer to the city of Zantian.

One of the greatest feats of community spirit ever to occur in Zantios dates from this time. The Hunes were only a week’s march from the city, when an earthquake struck and took down three miles of the city walls. It was whispered that the older gods were punishing Zantian for her persecution, and Thebe was silent because the rulers had abandoned her principles. But Thebe was not silent. Over three weeks (as dry weather remained over Zantios but torrential rain poured over the Hunes), every inhabitant of Zantian did their part in rebuilding the walls. Magi found reserves of power they had never seen before, crafters found every stone they cut was perfect on the first try, and those carrying the stones found they could work long past the point at which they would normally have collapsed with exhaustion. Even the Emperor and his household took part. And when the weather let up and the Hunes could march again, they turned away from Zantios and headed west.

As the Namorian forces abandoned the south Arraenan, heading north to cut off the Hunes, the Vandals destroyed Namor’s water supply and took the remains of the already ravaged city. A few years later, the last Namorian Emperor in the west was driven out, and Namor was no longer part of the Namorian Empire. The trappings of the position were brought out of the city and taken to Zantios, now no longer capital of the East Namorian Empire, but the sole capital of a much reduced Nemorian Empire.

About this time, also, the mother-goddess Mitaera began to grow in popularity as other gods with the same remit withered away. Soon she was second only to Thebe in terms of followers within the city, and was known as the protector of the city. One of the main temples in the heart of the city is hers, and her statues and shrines are very prominent.

From the time Namor fell and the Western Empire was lost, there was a period where it looked like the Eastern Empire was also going to crumble, as their enemies advanced. But, fortunately for the city, the rule of Namoria was not purely heritable. In an echo of Abidentine, another peasant-born soldier became Emperor.

Justin did not rule for long, but his niece Justinia, another very capable soldier, was officially named his successor. Together with her companion in arms Sarios, she regained much of the territory that had been lost.

As well as increasing the Zantian Empire (at some point after the fall of Namor, the name began to change) to its largest extent ever, Justinia oversaw many changes within the city. And ably and enthusiastically helping her in this was her Empress, Thora.

As a reformed fallen woman, the Thebians saw Thora as a symbol of redemption. Those who believed in Thebe’s ascendancy found a ferocious champion in her. Justinia believed Thebe first among equals, but the theological difference between the partners did not seem to cause problems between them - merely competition.

A decade into their reign, the military campaigns were going poorly, taxes had been raised to pay for things, and not all the legal reforms were popular. On the anniversary of Abidentine’s refounding of Zantios, the populace rioted. They proclaimed a nephew of the last high-born Emperor as rightful ruler, and torched much of the city. In response, Justinia’s Huneish and Gethic mercenaries attacked and killed the rioters, decimating (literally) the population of the city.

Over the next few years, the most dramatic temple to Thebe and Mitaera was built where the city had burned. Faced in marble and silver, it outshone the temples built by Abidentine. Justinia also enlarged the palace, making it almost self-sufficient, as an insurance against further riots. And she began a programme of building monuments to consciously increase Zantios’s resemblance to Namor before the repeated sackings. Of course, these monuments also served to glorify the Imperial couple.

Almost as soon as she had assumed the office, Justinia began what she considered to be her greatest project - an official, consistent set of laws.

Justinia’s rule was darkened by natural disasters even more than by war or riots. It was during her reign that the greatest of all diseases first darkened the earth, one which seemed to have no cure and which even magical healing could only alleviate. The Plague killed one in five of the population. The dead were laid out on ships and sent out to sea. It is said that some of those ships still sail, their empty masts seeming to hold a shadow of a sail that moves them against both the tides and the current winds. Justinia herself developed the black swellings in groin and armpit, but she was one of the one-in-three who recovered.

Famine and earthquakes also struck, leading to tsunamis that buried the harbour in layers of silt and sank all the boats within. It is rumoured that vast treasures from that time still lie untouched beneath the rebuilt harbour.

Thora died only a few years after the Plague’s first wave. Without her, for twenty years Justinia ruled firmly and continued the city improvements, but no new projects were begun. Military matters began to go well, and by the time Justinia died three hundred and twenty years ago, the Zantian Empire had regained the land it had lost to the Vandals south of the Arraenan Sea. She left the city, and the Empire, well on the way to becoming the envy of the world.

Thora’s son, taking the name of Justin II, succeeded Justinia without opposition, and did not prove to have the raw talent she possessed. As another tribe from the steppes began to make their presence felt, Justin’s military ability was found wanting. These Lutrak suggested they ally against an old enemy of Zantian, the Siar. But the alliance was a disaster, as the Zantian forces crumbled and left the Lutrak fighting alone. Justin also stopped paying off some of the other tribes (notably the Varah), which led to further unrest at the northern borders of the kingdom.

After Justin II’s death, there was a period of instability. Three hundred years ago, another soldier took the throne and ruled for eight years before he was murdered. During his reign, yet another tribe emerged, this time from the forests to the north rather than the steppes to the northeast. The Vlaks did not bother with offering alliance, or perhaps they were given no chance. The Zantians spent much time and effort on trying to push them back from the borders of the empire.

The Siar, too, were having a resurgence. They took territory from Zantian relentlessly over the next twenty years, capturing many cities in the south of the empire, Eventually, they captured all the land to the south of the Arraenan Sea. The fertile land, that fed the city and the Empire.

The Emperor at that time was named Heraleios. He sent envoys to treat with the Siar, but they were killed. Many in the city panicked, but with enemies to north and south there was nowhere for them to go. Heraleios drained the treasury, raised taxes, cut bureaucrats’ pay, and stopped the distribution of free bread, in order to pay the armies the city needed. Still the Siar approached closer and closer to the city of Zantios. It looked like the Eastern Namorian Empire, hanging on for two hundred years after the collapse of the West, was about to follow it into oblivion.

But the Zantian people were not finished yet. Elemental magi worked together with alchemists to dessicate the plains where the Varah marauded, poisoning the grass they needed to feed their horses. Some sneaked into the Varah camps, starting fights between factions and distrust between the leaders. And, serendipitously, the Lutrak began raiding the eastern reaches of the Siar empire, taking advantage of the absence of the Siar troops approaching Zantian. The combined forces fell apart before reaching the city - the Siar moving to defend their eastern border and the Varah collapsing in on themselves.

Heraleios, taking note of the way the Siar had reacted to the Lutrak menace, reached out to them once more. Twenty years after the first, disastrous alliance, the daughter of the Zantian emperor married the ruler of the Lutrak. Zantian treasure flowed to the Lutrak, and another alliance was formed.

This was much more successful. Heraleios pushed out and destroyed the Siar forces in the territories they had taken from Zantian. The Siar then negotiated and Zantian regained much of her territory and her most important religious items.

But this didn’t last. With astonishing swiftness, the Elemental Empire grew. From the first discovery of the techniques which allowed the Elementalists of the Empire to combine and amplify their powers, it took only eighteen years for them to begin taking land from the Zantian Empire. Over the next thirty years, they took all the territory that Zantian had regained from the Sian, as well as most of the islands in the Arraenan Sea and large swathes of territory that had been Namorian for almost a millennium.

Elementalist attacks on Zantios, made by sea, were repulsed only by the city’s alchemists and artificers. The compound known as Seafire, one of the greatest secrets still kept by the alchemists of Zantios, burned ferociously and could not be put out by any magics the Elementalists had mastery of. Together with the power of the god Mitaera, protector of the city (as she was of many places), they repulsed seven naval attacks.

Perhaps because of the perils of the times, further religious controversy erupted in Zantian. Already well known as the place where Thebe was exalted above the other gods in the congregation, in Zantios this was taken to new extremes. Soon after a festival celebrating Mitaera, giving thanks for the deliverance of the city from the Elementalists, a cataclysmic explosion was heard and the skies darkened for weeks. The sea filled with floating rocks which damaged the very boats with which the Zantians had repulsed the Elementalists. Lightning storms flickered across the darkened skies, and all the bright colours in the city streets became greyed and dull.

The High Priest of Thebe and the Emperor conferred for days on the cause of this disaster. Clearly Thebe, the god who favoured Zantian above all others, was displeased, but why? After many prayers and rituals, they found their answer. In a city dedicated to Thebe, other gods (particularly Mitaera) were being given too much prominence. Worship of other gods, even those whose followers acknowledged Thebe as their leader, was forbidden in the city.

Outrage followed. Emblems of gods were torn down from temples and replaced with Thebian symbols. Many priests who refused to obey this imperial dictate were killed, and still more were exiled. The worship did not stop, of course, but it became hidden. Even those who worshipped Thebe usually also prayed to others in the congregation. But the sky lightened again, and the floating rocks disappeared. And the Elementalists did not return. Some of the populace felt that they were perhaps moving in the right direction.

Since then, worship of other gods has been allowed on and off. Sixty years ago, though, the ban was rescinded for the last time. However, there are many who still feel that Thebe is jealous, and the city is safest when she alone is worshipped.

Forty years ago, the Norsvik arrived in Zantian. Raiders rather than invaders, they found a way into the city where they killed and plundered, then left. Since then, they have returned many times (as they have to most rich places), looting and enslaving.

## Bibliography

Hughes, Bettany. *Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities,* Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 2017

Herrin, Judith. *Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Mediaeval Empire,* Penguin, 2008

Brownworth, Lars. *Leo the Wise* (kindle book with no publisher or publication date listed)

Norwich, John Julius *Byzantium: The Early Centuries.* Penguin, 1988