Seprum Republic

The Seprum Republic is one of the spiral empires, the first to throw its support behind the spiral guard when victory was not yet assured. Since its founding by Emperor Manius, Seprum's people and leaders have been dedicated first to uniting the island under a single banner and now, to uniting the world under the Spiral Emperor.

The Seprum spiral tower, the second ever built, stands tall in the capital city of Meditas, guarded by a cohort day and night so only the silver hand and their most trusted advisors may enter. Seprum's army is large and proud, able to traverse the Forest by waterways and canopy networks when others are too scared to risk leaving their islands.

## History

### Unification of the Island

The Seprum Republic did not always rule over the entire island. At the beginning of Emperor Manius's reign, the Lykos people occupied northeast, with access to the most fertile land and precious minerals, and a collection of city-states, united by a single Henesian identity but no single ruler, occupied the southeast. Though he possessed only a small amount of land, Emperor Manius had the loyalty of his people and his army, and the strategic advice of Dex, his black hand. He trounced the city-state of Delphyn early in his reign with skillful use of catapults and flaming arrows. Rather than slaughter the able-bodied men, he recruited them into his army, allowing them to move up the ranks and become officers if they could prove themselves in battle. Continuing this practice allowed him to strengthen his army, even after defeats, though defeats were rare. He also allowed his conquered people to continue to worship and pray as they pleased, earning yet more loyalty. In some places, his army was greeted as a liberating, not invading, force.

#### The First Census

Sadly, Emperor Manius died before finishing his attack on the Henesian city-states. His son and heir, Aelius, took up his mantle and continued the attack, but his daughter, Augusta, played perhaps a more important role by shoring up his administrative state. While her brother launched his army at cities, Augusta realized they would soon be out of funds and taxes could not be collected from people if no one knew where they were. Rather than raise taxes, as her father had often done, she organized the first Seprum-wide census, hiring mostly women or children to travel the lands and keep precise records of where people lived, how much land they worked, and how many people were in each household.

Not only did her census bolster the treasury, it also led to increased female literacy, which allowed her to recruit an educated network of spies and send them into the remaining Henesian city-states; brought her attention to the dilapidated state of Seprum roads, which she began to restore; and gave the government a good count of the total population. When Aelius took Dryos, Augusta was startled to discover many of the fighting-age men preferred execution or suicide to joining the Seprum army and she set her spies to discovering why. The answer: a unified Henesian identity. While cities nearer Seprum had adopted some Seprum customs, those closer to Hellen in the east considered Seprums heathens, just as Seprums considered them barbarians. Augusta realized she needed to break apart opposing identities and replace them with a nationalistic, Seprum identity.

#### Seprum Identity

With her brother's permission, Augusta instituted the first work requirements. Under this law, it wasn't only able-bodied men who could earn citizenship by joining the armies—women and wifere could work their way to citizenship in a household, as medics, or as crafters. Many did so eagerly, showing up at newly-constructed post offices to ask for work assignments. Wisely, Augusta did not put them to work in their own cities or towns. Instead, using the redone road network, she scattered people all across Seprum. Suddenly, people from Antioch were working alongside native Genoans, learning to speak each other's languages, sharing their holidays, and spreading their culture.

Simultaneously, Augusta used increased tax revenue to fund the arts, especially arts that could travel, like drama, ceramics, and songs. At her request, composer Cassius travelled the length of the empire, transcribing folk tunes, setting them to words in Lingua and orchestrating them with Seprum instruments. Because people already recognized the melodies, they spread quickly, creating a shared musical language across Seprum. Suddenly, soldiers shipped to the front lines from as far west as Esther could sing and dance respectably in every tavern and inn on the way there.

#### Fall of Hellen

Despite Aelius's best efforts, he could not breech the walls of Hellen, or the will of its citizens, and he died in battle. At his request, his sister did not succeed him, which set a precedent that lasts to this day of preventing women, and often wifere as well, from serving as emperor. Instead, his black hand Felix rose to his throne and laid siege to Hellen. Knowing Augusta coveted his position and held him in low regard, Felix made her grey hand, a role he had just invented. This solidified her spy network, but removed her from much of her work in infrastructure. As a result, Felix's army and empire suffered, and he was assassinated before making any progress on the eastern front.

The next emperor, Caeso, had a single advantage Felix did not: he was Augusta's son. He re-empowered Augusta and her chosen replacement, a younger woman named Aspasia, to control his infrastructure and taxation. At Aspasia's suggestion, and using Augusta's spy network, the Seprum army turned Hellen against Lykos by sending false messages from the Lykan pharaoh to the Hellen diarchs. Suddenly at war on two fronts, the Seprum army sacked Hellen, sent its senators back to the Seprum capital, then in Antioch, and graciously granted the land to Lykos, satiating them while the Seprums regrouped.

#### War in Lykos

Only three years later, Caeso launched a surprise attack on Lykos, which was still considerably bigger, though less well-prepared and lacking in a standing army. Seprum strategy and tactics had improved during its fifty years of conflict, and its soldiers were battle hardened. They swept through the northern, outer Lykan cities and might've taken the second-largest city, Teban, when Augusta died suddenly.

Inconsolable, Caeso retreated back to Paxia for ten days of mourning, allowing the Lykans time to prepare for another attack. The subsequent war was long and bloody, with the Seprum's paying dearly for every acre of land they gained. Eventually, though, superior training won out and the Seprums sacked the capital city of Lykos, burning most of it to the ground, as they had Hellen.

At long last, the island was united under a single banner and, wise from years of watching Augusta, Aspasia instituted a series of policies to ensure it remained that way.

### First Spiral War

The First Spiral War, also known as the Kuan-Seprum War, was inevitable. The Kuan army conquered the triple kingdoms soon after Seprum united its island. Both looked to the Mauzji islands, filled with trade routes and spices and wealth beyond measure, and both realized an attack there would leave them vulnerable. Whoever intended to take Mauzji and its pitifully weak army first needed to handle the other superpower in the area.

To that end, Kuan and Seprum once again mobilized for war. Their chosen battlefield was the central island between their lands. The natives there fled, generally to Dhi or Mauzji, leaving the area ripe for conflict. The Kuan army fought on horseback, relying on arrows and fear to force enemy infantry to scatter, but the Seprum army had experience and knew that anyone who broke the line would be tortured and killed. For nearly thirty years, the armies ground into one another; sometimes Kuan gained an advantage, sometimes Seprum. A sneak attack through the Forest, which the Seprums were most comfortable navigating, allowed them to set a Dhi village ablaze and start a rebellion in Ju, forcing the Kuan to retreat. Then, a guerrilla-style attack against Teban killed thousands of innocents and nearly destroyed all census records for the north. The collapsed aqueduct led to famine in almost a quarter of Seprum.

Both Emperor Tacitus and Jamlyn Saj knew continued conflict would only lead to ruin—rebellions had flared up on both island—yet they also knew the first to call off the war would be obliterated during a retreat. It seemed the only option was to mobilize fully until neither empire had a single soldier more.

The appearance of Solas, the being that would one day become the Spiral Emperor, changed that. The exact nature of Solas is unclear, though most scholars agree he emerged from the Forest, not an island. He and his companions in the Spiral Guard had no bodies of their own but could hop from human mind to human mind, bending that body to their will for as long as they so chose. In a human host, they could master the spiral and with an understanding, perhaps born of their time in the Forest, Solas created the first spiral tower on the central island. As soon as it activated, both Kuan and Seprum spiromancers found themselves unable to access the spiral. Solas approached them as both sides retreated and suggested a compromise: why fight and die in a meaningless war against one another when they could join together, become emissaries for a new empire, and earn wealth, glory, land, and horses uniting the rest of the world?

Seprum was near bankrupt and its people were starving. Dhi and Ju and mostly declared independence, and Diao aristocrats hired assassins to kill Kuan leaders in the night without fear of retaliation. Both empires needed time to retreat and lick their wounds, and constructing spiral towers across the world gave them a direction for the future. Solas declared the central island neutral ground and the center of his Spiral Empire. As one of the only beings able to access the spiral in that area, he was uniquely situated to ensure peace between Seprum and Kuan was sustained. A unified Kuan-Seprum army trained on the central island and, after five years, Solas gave their spiromancers the first tattoos, granting them access to the spiral everywhere in the empire. It was time to bring the other empires under control of the spiral.

### Second Spiral War

A united Kuan-Seprum army was all but unstoppable. During the Second Spiral War, they swept first across Diao, reinstating Kuan rule and obliterating local hierarchies. Ju fell next, after only a year of resistance. The mountains around Dhi made it difficult to access but its people were not natural fighters—after the spiral tower on the triple island went up and Dhi spiros lost access to the spiral, they agreed to surrender in exchange for tattoos for select citizens.

The army turned its attention to Mauzji, which was nearing unification. The Seprum emperor and Kuan stag deposed their chosen leader and placed Bari edj-Makkar, an ally, on the throne, thereby starting the Makkada Sultanate. Sultan Bari's first responsibility was to disband the army and construct a spiral tower on the largest of the three island. In less than a decade, the Second Spiral War had ended.

### Golden Age

Seprum's army suffered during both wars, most especially the first. Much of its experienced talent had retired or died and they needed a system to train new soldiers. With permission from the Spiral Emperor, they retreated to their own island and focused inward, on bolstering their army and maintaining their empire. Thus began a golden age of art and economy. To this day, trade flourishes, Seprum alliances remain strong, and its people enjoy long, happy lives. Though they originally intended to continue uniting islands beneath the spiral banner, a new, unexpected threat emerged: ciphromancers, mages who could bypass the spiral wall and cast magic without permission.

## Administration and Government

### Census

The tradition of census every four years began under the rule of Emperor Aelius, when his sister, Augusta, realized how important knowing who lived and worked where was to running a functioning government. In present-day Seprum, the census determines the number of people in each household, their ages, their ars, and any unique skills they may possess. It also counts immigrants, visitors, and indentured servants.

Data from the census allows the Seprum government to forecast harvest yields, spare labor, and army size well into the future. They also use them to draw district boundaries based on population, which are each ruled by two consuls. Tax collectors and census officials work together closely, as do postal workers. All three have a strong relationship with local legions, who are responsible for building and repairing roads, all of which are paved with concrete and kept in excellent condition.

Taxes are generally paid in kind, not in currency, from low-born families, and in currency from high-born families. Wealthier families face a steeper tax rate in exchange for increased influence in government.

### Infrastructure

Seprum military success is due as much to its extensive infrastructure as its impressive army. Every road in Seprum is paved and wide enough for two carts to travel abreast. This allows the army to move from place to place quickly, even on foot, and crush rebellions or guerrilla attacks wherever they may emerge. By requiring members of the military to upkeep infrastructure, units remain cohesive and indentured servants may continue working towards citizenship even during times of peace.

A dense network of aqueducts spans Seprum, carrying freshwater from the edges to the center and keeping the lands fertile throughout. They generally follow alongside established roads so they are simple to repair. Aquariuses support their creation and upkeep. All Seprum citizens have access to public baths and fresh water in fountains throughout the cities.

## Military

### Organization

The Seprum army is organized into cohorts of ten, led by a decanus, centuries of 100, led by a centurion, and legions of 1000, led by a general. When ten or more legions merge, they are led by a general prior. The black hand, also called the dex, leads all general priors, under the command of the emperor. Every member of a cohort is a legionnaire, an infantry soldier. Cavalry and archers are called auxes, for auxiliary, and form cohorts called auxilia, led by separate decanuses, but the same centurions.

Additionally, each century has a standard bearer, essential for maintaining organization during battle, and a grey, responsible for setting up passcodes and security each day. The grey works closely with the silver, who has a similar role in the spiromancer cohort, and acts as a main liaison between magical and physical cohorts.

Mage cohorts have a mirrored but separate structure, led by a mage decanus and grouped into centuries, led by a centurion. In each cohort, six spiros are responsible for planting runes and four are responsible for casting. Within centuries, cohorts are broken into specializations: pre-war planting, casting and planting during a battle, and post-war healing. The precise composition of a century depends on the needs of the upcoming battle. Auxus in spiro cohorts tend to be medics or dodos, though the latter are falling out of style. Spiros and legionnaires train together only infrequently. In general, during a battle, spiros remain behind the lines of infantry, protected from flanking by cavalry, and out of range of most archers.

Engineers and logistics coordinators travel with the centuries nearer the back, alongside the mule trains on land, or in the storage boats in rivers or at sea. The engineers take care of the ballistae and handle building siege equipment. In recent years logistics coordinators are often recruited from Makkadi merchants, who have experience navigating the Forest, which future campaigns must traverse.

### Equipment

Legionnaires generally fight with daggers, swords, and long swords, though all but the poorest, newest members also train with spear and javelin. The throwing dart, a uniquely Seprum weapon, has a longer range than javelin and is effective against unarmored enemies, especially enemy mages. Light infantry wear leather armor or no armor at all. Their ranks are usually formed of low-born, poor Seprums or indentured servants serving out their eight-year terms in the hope of citizenship. Heavy infantry and cavalry wear chain link armor and may also be protected by magic.

Each legionnaire and aux, except the exempt, also carry a pickaxe as an entrenchment tool. Centuries build their camps from scratch wherever they settle, including defensive moats, slaughter areas, and latrines.

### Tactics

Seprum tacticians distinguish themselves in many ways. First, in part due to the Seprum emphasis on infrastructure, Seprum armies always travel with logistical experts who can ensure supply chain integrity. Seprum make use of elevated wooden paths through the canopies of the Forest to take enemies by surprise, pontoon bridges to cross rivers and lakes quickly, and swift-moving but small boats to keep armies supplied far from home.

Second, their medical practices in battle, though now widely adopted, allow them to reduce casualties during and after a fight. They introduced dedicated spiro units for healing alone to their standard centuries; they begin planting healing spells hours before the battle is set to end and far from the front so they can begin to heal people as soon as the battle is over. Additionally, they invest heavily in non-magical healing, including ensuring that each new camp has an area for surgery and is kept clean and hygienic. A single exempt spiro with less battle experience joins surgical teams to keep patients alive long enough for healing spells to grow, and spiros recruited from the ranks of experienced soldiers aid strike teams, who rush the battlefield and pull wounded soldiers to safety during battle.

Third, they have perfected organized formations that do not break under pressure. The two most famous are the v, designed to thrust a wedge through the lines of the enemy, effective against Henesian hoplites, and the turtle formation, which defends a legion against arrows from all sides, effective against the Kuan. This discipline, along with punishments for those who desert, allowed the worse equipped Seprums to hold their own against the Kuan for as long as they did.

Fourth, their psychological warfare, including networks of spies that played enemies off against one another and a promise that all noncombatants would be spared if a city surrendered before the first battering ram touched the wall and all would be slaughtered the second after, broke enemy morale. Combined with their attempts at building a national identity, many of their enemies decided it would be easier to become a Seprum than fight against them.

## Arts and Culture

### Religion

Seprums worship a variety of deities or concepts. As they unified the continent, they adopted new deities into their pantheon. Most families, ars, and cities have a patron deity, who is often venerated with a shrine or temple, but other temples and religious iconography abound. Religious debates are infrequent because most Seprums take it as a given that stories of gods are difficult to interpret, different deities may ask for different forms of worship in confusing ways, and there are far more important things to fight about.

The patron of Meditas is the goddess of war, Mar. The patron of the emperor is Alexi, deity of wisdom, who is also the patron for the black hand. The grey hand's patron is Aila, goddess of pain. As a commoner, the silver hand Bakkus did not bring their patron deity to their position upon promotion. Members of the senate and aristocracy generally adopt Mar, Alexi, or Aila as their own patrons out of respect for the emperor and the republic.

### Clothing

Seprum clothing is colorful and stratified by class and role in society. Though laws prevent the wealthiest Seprums from the wildest displays of opulence, they are often flouted, especially far from the capital. Weaving is considered an excellent use of time for wiferes of all ages and classes, whereas only commoner women engage in weaving or spinning for their own families.

#### Indentured Servants

Indentured servants cannot begin to accrue wealth until they have finished their eight years of service and earned citizenship. They are often clothed by their sponsors, the military, household, or crafter they serve. In hotter climates, this means a loin cloth and strophium. In colder climates, it may include a tunic but rarely a belt and rarely one that falls past the knees. Indentured servants are granted a metal arm brace—black, white, or copper—engraved with their name, the name of their sponsor, and the date they began their service. It indicates their status and is ceremonially cut off when they become citizens and receive their tattoos.

#### Farmers, Traders, and Crafters

Commoner Seprums of all three genders wear tunics, which stretch to the knees for men, ankles for wifere, and mid-calf for women. Women and wifere generally belt them at the waist. Wealthier farmers and those working in wetter climates wears shoes like sandals, slippers, or even clogs. Underclothes are optional beneath the tunic.

#### Military

When out of uniform, most members of the military wear pants to indicate their service and a tunic. Some continue to wear leather armor in colder climates and may travel armed with short sword and dagger. In contrast to other social classes, their clothes are generally undyed or dyed in drab colors, especially blacks and dark blues.

#### Aristocracy

Wealthy women and wifere wear stola, which are loose fitting shirts, and long-sleeved shawls. Only women are permitted to wear long sleeves, so if wifere wear shawls, their sleeves will not fall past the elbows. They always wear shoes outdoors, either sandals or slippers. Men accessorized shorter tunics with vests. All genders are permitted and sometimes expected to wear limited jewelry, including earrings and necklaces. Bracelets are frowned upon, as they can be mistaken for braces.

In recent years, it has become fashionable for wealthy Seprums to dress wearing traditional styles and colors from other empires, especially Ju and Makkada.

#### Formal or Governmental Functions

At important events, members of the aristocracy are expected to wear togas, often brightly dyed. Low-born Seprums may wear togas, though it may be seen as presumptuous. Non-citizens are forbidden from wearing them.

At all formal functions, the hands are expected to dress in color appropriate togas: black, silver, and grey, respectively.

### Food

Seprums have two meals a day unless they are serving in the military, in which case, they enjoy four. Which two, however, is stratified by class. Commoners eat when they wake up and in the evening after work. The Alleata eat a few hours after waking and an afternoon meal can last four or five hours if important guests attend.

A traditional Seprum breakfast is bread dipped in wine. Dinner is generally soup or some meat alongside steamed or fried vegetables and more bread. Wealthier Seprums add fruit such as grapes, pears, apples, or even imported peaches to breakfast. They have servants to break apart the bread for them because it is often tough or stale, though the stalest bread is saved for the servants themselves. They also enjoy a wide variety of foods during their afternoon meal, including sea food from the central sea, peacock, quail, venison, bell peppers, mangos, papaya, bananas, tomatoes, and pastries, all covered in imported spices, like cumin, pepper, salt, honey, paprika, and sesame seeds.

### Drama and Entertainment

Consuls are responsible for encouraging playwriting in their districts and organizing traveling plays. Acting is seen as unsuitable for men, though they may write if they choose to. Women and wifere gain prestige and fame on the stage for their emotional performances and improvisational abilities. Though there is a strong Henesian tradition of tragedies, most audiences prefer comedies and especially the trope of the fool.

During special holidays, the grey hand organizes prisoners to take the stage during more dramatic death scenes so they can be killed, often painfully, in front of a live audience. Other blood sports include combat tournaments, especially hand-to-hand sport fighting, and public executions. Magical methods of execution are preferred for their flashy nature. Seprums may also enjoy acrobatic performances and trained animals at free circuses, hosted once a decan.

The Kuan tradition of hunting has taken hold in Seprum, and even poor Seprums have the right to larger game once a month, smaller game thrice a decan. During celebrations or festivals, Seprums flood the shallow Forest in search of more exotic, and dangerous, prey. Military involvement keeps citizens safe and gives the military practice working as a cohort in times of peace.

### Sculpture and Paintings

Each emperor is expected to commission numerous sculptures and portraits of himself, his staff, his senate, and his army. Most of the remaining art depicts historical or mythological scenes and figures, including deities and important figures in the military. Sculptures especially can be given as gifts to curry favor, and Emperor Fenix began his reign by commissioning a full-body statue of Gaius Staia, one of the most powerful members of the senate.