Solurian Empire

Overview

The Solarian Empire is the Shire's newest superpower, coming onto the stage after a long period of civil war and instability in the far west. After the war, the Solarian Empire is considered to have a very high level of technology, easily rivaling the other powerful empires and nations. From the capital city of Sol, the Solarian Empire protects its' holdings and ensures peace and stability in the region through economic and military dominance. the Solarian Empire's founding precept is: From Dusk to Dawn, We watch over.

History

The history of the Solar Empire begins with the founding of the original capital city, Puesta del Sol. Puesta del Sol was founded in the early days of the Shire, so far to the north-west that it never even came into contact with the large majority of other budding nations and empires. This beginning period is now known as the Age of Night, and is the harshest and most violent period in the Solarian Empire's history.

Age of Night

The Age of Night was the period in which the Solarian Empire expanded to its' Pre-First Age size. According to historians, the Age of Night began with the short war between Puesta del Sol and the neighboring city of Malk, across the large bay. Under command of the military general Pelagin Mistus, the Solarian Empire saw its' first conquest and expansion. After this, the empire went on to conquer and claim seven other major cities in the region, vastly expanding its' area of influence. During this time, the northern territories of the empire saw a rise in plague and disease victims.

At this point, the assassination of the Solarian hero and general, Pelagin Mistus (now in his old age) sparked a war with the nearby city-state of Hardfaste. To combat this, the leading general forcibly appointed the First Emperor of the Solarian Empire, Titus Cematin. Under his rule and command of the military, the empire managed to fight the Hardfaste armies and navies to the outskirts of their capital city. The city of Hardfaste was where the assault stalled, as it was located high upon cliffs overlooking the only entry to the plateau that lead up to the city's walls. This deadly command of the assault's position led to the long Siege of Hardfaste, which was said to have lasted nearly two hundred days. Historians have determined that during the Siege of Hardfaste the first outposts and forts in the deep north went silent. At this point, the Solarian Empire's holdings included over forty-three minor towns and nine major cities, with almost one hundred thirty-seven forts and outposts. This age has been seen as the point were the Solarian Empire's holdings were the largest. Small wars and conflicts occurred with neighboring cities and holdings of other western empires, but the Solarian Empire's holdings generally held even. Puesta del Sol went through sixteen more emperors during this age, culminating with the last emperor of the Age of Night, Celtan Puest IV.

During the rule of Celtan Puest IV, a patrol in the northern territories stumbled upon a gruesome sacrificial cult which had been abducting civilians and sacrificing them to some unknown horror. Following this disturbing revelation, and the resulting reports, armed forces among the northern towns, villages, outposts, and forts discovered members of the same cult who had been spiriting unassuming citizens of the empire past the northern borders for sacrifice. After the interrogation of one of the few cult members that had no taken their life during capture, Celtan Puest IV and his council discovered that these abductions had been occurring over the time of the past twelve emperors, or nearly two-hundred cumulative years. During the investigation by a squad of knights from the capital city itself, the result of these sacrifices was dragged into the light.

Over the past years, the dark entity that had been accepting sacrifices had been gathering a vast army of undead humans and creatures of the north. Numbering in the millions, the following invasion was the reason for this age's name. The mass exodus from the north, coupled with the mass movement of military forces to combat the new threat, resulted in a level of chaos previously unseen by any other nation. Refugees from the north and injured soldiers strained the Solarian Empire's capacity for food collection and distribution, sparking riots and small conflicts all throughout the north. Nearby empires and nations began chipping away at the edges of the empire's holdings, and with the threat in the north, the empire could not respond. Due to their focus on revenge, the other nations quickly fell to the hordes of demonic undead from the north. Shortly after the loss of its' fifth major city, Emperor Celtan Puest IV began mandatory evacuations from the Solarian Empire's territory.

A surviving text from a historian at the time details the terror as Puesta del Sol was evacuated:

Upon the hills surround the city, fires rage as armies meet one with the intention to destroy and one with the intention to die. Each soldier that fell gave us a second of time but gave the dead another weapon. ... As the evacuation ships cast off, the great navy of our empire fought off the horrific atrocities the dead called boats. Even now, as we cast off, I see burning husks of great naval vessels and terrified peoples of our city swimming for safety. I fear [the empire] might not make it from this calamity.

As the surviving ships fled the empire, it was said that the great capital could be seen burning far on the horizon for many days. An estimated 73 million of the 77 million citizens of the Solarian Empire died during the invasion of the demonic undead. Every other empire and nation known to the Solarian Empire fell. This came to be known as The Long Dark.

First Age

After fleeing for nearly a year, scrounging supplies and food from the land they could find, the survivors of the Solarian Empire's Age of Night landed on the peninsula where Sol currently exists. After almost four years of building and farming, the main foundations for what would become Sol were laid. To commemorate the grandeur which was once the Solarian Empire and to remember the horrific invasion during the Age of Night, the city was named Sol and the first emperor, Pelagin Symbel, formerly the last surviving admiral of the Solarian Empire's navy, was appointed.

Near the end of Pelagin Symbel's reign as emperor, shortly before his death, expansion of the new Solarian Empire began in earnest. With a new naval fleet and an army led by the veterans of the Age of Night, multiple forts and small towns were set up. Expansion continued well into the lifetime of the seventh emperor, Markous Symbel II. At this point, due to the sickness the seventh emperor had caught during a campaign in the north, near current day Rigel, the system of advisers was set up to help govern during the emperor's time in bed. Thus, the positions of the General of the Army, the Admiral of the Navy, the Currency Adviser, the Civil Adviser, the Governance Adviser, and the Economic Adviser came into being.

Quite quickly, the heads of the advisers and their respective followings clashed, and a small rift formed between the two military advisers and the remaining advisers. It became obvious quite quickly that the other advisers were using their high ranks to collect wealth and power without regard for the citizens of the empire. After the condition of Emperor Markous Symbel II worsened, the civil advisers hired mercenary groups for security, and then attempted to drive the military advisers out of power. After considerable intervention by the Solarian Army and Navy, the civil advisers were arrested, and on order of the outraged emperor, executed for treason. This became known as the Routhearst Incident. It also marked the first time mercenary groups were used to further an agenda in the Solarian Empire.

Shortly after the appointment of the new advisers, Emperor Markous Symbel II died, and rule of the throne went to his oldest son, Titus Symbel, a wealthy merchant. It became quickly apparent that the new emperor did not share the views as his father and his brothers, Markous Symbel III and Siberius Symbel. Only three years into his rule, Emperor Titus used his contact with the Economic Adviser, Eenith Jurst and the Currency Adviser, Sooth Ment to accumulate wealth and riches. A growing wealth gap between these three powerful men and, largely, the rest of the empire became a point of heavy contention between the citizens and authority figures. Small religious cults began springing up during this time, preaching about violence and the punishment those in positions of power had coming to them. Despite efforts by civil leaders, who were very much in the same position as the rest of the citizens, people flocked to these small cults in an effort to escape the difficulties of their daily lives. The Civil and Governance Advisers set up an aid group based on the original aspects of Solarian Culture in response, and it quickly grew into what is currently known as the Solarian Sect.

This new Sect accumulated the historic and philosophical data and beliefs of the empire and organized this information into a succinct religious form, based heavily off of the old folk tales and legends. In effect, the Solarian Sect gathered what accurate and small religions were out there and put these religious teachings into a central form. As this Sect represented what the majority of the citizens grew up hearing and believing, it quickly gained a following. By the end of Emperor Titus's lifetime, the Solarian Sect was the largest religion in the Solarian Empire.

For three more emperor's lifetimes, tension rose between the Solarian Sect and the smaller religious cults which had sprung up earlier on. This, compounded to the tension rising between Markous Symbel III's and Siberius Symbel's descendants and Titus Symbel's descendants led to a period of high tension in the empire. Since Markous and Siberius were leaders in the military, and their descendants very much the same, the current emperor, Titus Symbel IV, focused on funding and supporting mercenary and trading groups with large navies, such as the Solarian Trading Company and the West Merchant Guild. The West Merchant Guild was a collective of mercenary groups that focused on escorting trading vessels and caravans, while the Solarian Trading Company was a collective of trading groups that focused on moving trading vessels and caravans from city to city.

Obviously, these two groups, under the control of Emperor Titus IV, complimented each other greatly, and made up the two largest trading conglomerates during the time period. After being cleared to select where they traded by the Currency and Economic Advisers, these two trading groups began shutting down operations in towns and cities that could not afford to pay extra fees for trade route access. When the West Merchant Guild began patrolling routes and forcing travelers to pay for use of these routes, cities and towns affected began calling on the military forces of the Solarian Empire for aid. Thus, the Solarian Civil War of 1717 began when military forces moved to halt the actions of these two trading groups. For more information, click the link to the civil war article.

After the civil war ended and the Unity Movement finalized the new changes to the empire, the First Age came to a close, and what is known as the Second Age began.

Second Age

The Second Age of the Solarian Empire is the age most known for the Industrial and Technological advances, leading up to the modern Solarian Empire we know today.

The Second Age is, so far, the only time period in the Empire's history where war or fighting did not occur within the empire, such as the previous civil war, due mostly to the fact that the empire had settled internal conflict with the Unity Movement. Instead, conflict has only occurred during brief interactions with other nearby empires and governments. Despite these small conflicts, no major wars have occurred during this time period. The Solarian Empire became known as a large economic and trade power during this time period due to the extensive size and safety of its holdings.

The Second Age is what is considered to be the current Age the Solarian Empire is in.

Government System

The Solarian Empire's governmental center is at the capital city of Sol. Prior to the Second Age of the Solarian Empire, the holdings of the Empire were governed by the Emperor and his council of select few advisers, consisting of the General of the Army, the Admiral of the Navy, the Currency Adviser, the Civil Adviser, the Governance Adviser, and the Economic Adviser. Before the Unity Movement, the civil portions of what was then the Advisory Council and the military portions of the Advisory Council were often at odds with each other. There were two major times where the non-military portions of the Advisory Council attempted to remove by law or oust the military portions council, but these efforts have either been proved futile or have led to drastic mistakes. For more information on this, see the articles on the Routhearst Incident and the Solarian Civil War of 1717. Following the Unity Movement at the end of the First Age, the emperor was removed from power and the Advisory Council was turned into the current two-part Governing Council. The governing system of the capital city of Sol, as well as the other cities, towns, and villages in the Solarian Empire, all follow this method of governance.

The Governing Council that is comprised of the military council and the civil council makes and revises laws and practices that prevent crime and allow the Empire to prosper. From Sol, the council has met in emergency sessions 137 times and has had over 1000 general session meetings. The members of the two councils can change drastically over time, which means that council-passed laws often are changed or reformatted.

As such, most cities, towns, and villages under the govern of the Solarian Empire have their own set of additional laws that prevent conflict between their own citizens. Each civil council member represents a selection of villages and towns (that is made known to them after their appointment to the council) who they can speak for or raise the concerns of. The military council's members advise on issues dealing with bandits, raiders, enemy empire forays, or war, and are often too busy coordinating military war and supply efforts to attend general council meetings. As such, in day-to-day governance of the Solarian Empire, the civil council holds most authority.

Council Ranks

The Governing Council has multiple ranked groups whose votes and propositions have various amounts of authority behind them. Depending on the number of people each council member represents, their votes count for more or less than the usual amount. For instance, if one council member represents thirteen towns and their districts within each town, then they would hold more sway in the council compared to another member who represented six towns and their respective districts. As such, the well-being of each town, village, city, and their districts is very important to the council members, as the state of each district (in the end of things) determines how much authority the council member possesses.

The majority of members in the Council represent roughly 340 population centers each, with each population center having representatives who convey major issues or worries higher up the food chain. As such, there are multiple "ranks" in the overall council system, following in descending order:

Governing Council Member
Governance Confidant
Territory Representative
City Council Member
District Council Member

In the case of the City Council Member, the city adjective could be replaced with town or village, depending on the population size.

However, for the military sections of each area's governing councils, placement on the council depends on two factors: rank and performance. The higher the rank of the military member in question, the higher the chance they are seated on the council is. However, each council "rank" has a cutoff point, where the member in question cannot be in the council. This system is somewhat similar to school systems, where the military member could be considered a freshman in, say, high school. Thus, with each promotion, they move up a year, going from freshman to sophomore to junior to senior. After senior, to stick with the high school metaphor, the member "graduates" into the next bracket of council "rank" and thus begins the process all over again. It is in this way officers in the military gain experience with governance and coordination for larger and larger amounts of territory. Thus, by the time the officer reaches the highest rank for their branch, 5-Sun General for the Army and 5-Sun Admiral, and are placed in the Governing Council of the Solarian Empire, they have massive amounts of experience and connections necessary to properly coordinate military movements of the entire empire.

Data Overview

People of the Empire

The Solarian Empire consists of a large amount of nationalities, all of whom are required to pass the citizenry exam upon immigration or upon reaching the age of 18. Failure of this test can have a variety of results, the majority of which are confidential, but usually results in a re-test at a later appointed date. The nationalities of the Solarian Empire are as follows:

Native Solarian: 67%
Ancestral Solarian: 17%
Misc/Immigrated: 16%

(Note: census data is rough on the exact amounts of Solarian citizens who stem from other nations or empires, but there is an estimated 16% of the total population that comes from outside the 'original' Solarian Empire)

The total population of the Solarian Empire, according to census data from 2014, is currently at 373,546,170 citizens, 60,932 awaiting citizenry testing or re-testing.

Culture

The Solarian Empire's culture has bits and pieces from nearly all of its' immigrated populace and claimed territory, due to the freedom each area has to practice its' religion and ancestral beliefs. However, due to the nature of the Empire's population, the main culture lies in the cultural background of the Age of Night, the First Age, and the Second Age.

The main underlying idea in Solarian Culture is that one needs to be prepared. This is seen in both its' military structure and the state of its' borders. this comes mainly from the fear of the Age of Night and a possible repeat of the flee from the undead. With this in mind, all Solarian funerals include two things: the burning of the deceased and the sending of the deceased into the ocean.

In a typical Solarian funeral, the recently passed is placed onto a small boat and pushed into the sea, where the boat is set on fire and those at the funeral watch it burn. This is followed by celebration for their passing into the life after this one and their eternal rest (they will never be brought back as one of the legion of undead).

More on this can be read in the article on the Solarian Sect.

Solarians often pride themselves on physical fitness and mental sharpness, two aspects which are seen in the wise decisions of the governing bodies and the citizens who put them there. The Solarian Military branches train rigorously and continue this training until retirement or discharge. If one cannot reach the ideal in one aspect of this, they are not cast aside or looked down upon, as Solarians view themselves only as strong as their weakest link. Often, you will see a citizen helping someone on the streets of the cities if the person is struggling to complete a task.

In regards to city planning, each town, village, or city has some aspect of a wall for defense, and some way of getting to the sea or the air in case of evacuation or retreat. Solarian ships have small boats for escape and Solarian airships have parachutes and small aircraft in the event the airship is going down.

Violence is seen as a necessary evil, but it is not avoided if other action proves fruitless or impossible. However, massive loss of life, as seen in the Unity Movement during the end of the First Age, is seen as a waste of life and a possible danger to the Empire's survival.

Above all else, personal honor is valued the most. In the Empire, if you hold no honor in your dealings or actions, you cannot progress in society. Historians believe this is due to the deep roots of the Empire, and its foundation way back in the beginning of the Age of Night, where honor itself was the only thing keeping war at bay. This can also be seen in the First Age, where honorable towns or villages managed to survive through alliances or peace treaties while dishonorable groups were quickly dispatched. Oddly enough, leaving an enemy to die painfully is seen as incredibly dishonest, and as such the majority of Solarian military weapons are geared towards quickly killing an enemy with little to no warning or pain.

These values have led to conflict with certain nations and empires in the recent years.

Religions

Following the Unity Movement at the end of the First Age, most violent or radical religious groups were defeated with military action or jailed under the authority of the Solarian Unity Collective. As such, religious violence and uprisings have drastically decreased in number and frequency since the beginning of the Second Age.

The main religion in the Solarian Empire is the Solarian Sect, which makes up an estimated 97% of the Empire's religious citizens. However, the Solarian Empire's other religious groups hold the same rights and freedoms as the Solarian Sect, despite the massive dis-balance in religious views. Overall, the Solarian Empire is comprised of 72% religous members and 28% non-religious members.

The main spot of worship is at the Temple of the Stars in the capital city of Sol. This temple is said to draw in thousands of pilgrims each year, often near the summer and winter solstices where connection to the gods is thought to be at its' peak.

Military

The Solarian Empire's military forces are divided into two main branches: The Army and the Navy. The Army branch handles ground wars, domestic support, fort and outpost manning, and enforcement of the Empire's ground borders. The Naval branch handles the air-space and water-space of the Empire, the transport of military forces, the escort of vital mercantile vessels, the shipment of support supplies around the empire, and the transport of relief groups in case of natural disaster. The efforts of these two branches are mainly coordinated by the military council portion of the Governing Council.

The Solarian Military is often held as one of, if not the largest, military force in the Shire, mainly due to the large amount of citizens and territory the Solarian Empire has to protect. However, in most cases the military is avoided in events of hostile action or encroachment, as going to war would certainly mean a heavy escalation. As such, the military council has become renown for their shifty and dirty tactics, ranging from harassment of enemy forces by small, mercenary raiding groups (untraceable back to the council, of course) to economic sanctions so heavy they have been known to cripple entire cities.

While the actual and precise numbers are kept confidential by military forces, the Solarian Military is estimated to number nearly 2.8 million. This number has been unconfirmed by high-ranking officials, who have often stated Blatantly stating the amount of your military personnel is asking for some sort of trouble.

The large military of the Solarian empire, however, is not just for show. Often, military hospital and rescue ships arrive swiftly to sites of natural disasters, seen in examples such as the Hoch Landslide and the eruption of Peak's End, both of which were massive natural disasters. Airships with crews trained for search and rescue often are found evacuating people of all nationalities from flooding areas and areas in the path of hurricanes and heavy inclement weather. Speculation among the media has pointed towards a possible search-and-rescue fleet in the works; dedicated to 24/7 humanitarian aid; but this too has been unconfirmed by military officials.

Naval Vessel Classes

Aerial Vessel Classes

Research and Technology

The Solarian Empire's technology and research capabilities and facilities have long been held as trend-setters in the breaking edge of, well, technology and research. Throughout multiple different research bases, the Empire's leading minds and researchers develop advanced cures, weaponry, transportation systems, and technology aimed towards aiding the Solarian Empire's citizens and military.

Many technological advances in medicine, weapons technology, and clean energy have stemmed from the various state-funded research bases, as well as the privatized research facilities. Some of these facilities have created vaccines for largepox, pig flu, ADS, flying-animal flu, and polly-o. While not created in Solarian research bases, advances in solar and wind powered technology have been made, as well as creation of an industrial thaumo-nuclear engine capable of energy creation previously thought impossible. More on the engine is explained below.

Currently, the Solarian Empire is most well-known for developing its' widely used thaumo-nuclear reactors, which harness the energy of a nuclear reaction within a magically-enhanced container of a synthesized crystalline form. Characterized by its release of odd colored light-blue light, the thaumo-nuclear engine runs at an efficiency of 93%, nearly triple that of the typical car engine. However, spread of this technology has been greatly slowed by a series of terrorist attacks by an extremist group, which has since been arrested and tried for multiple accounts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder, among other charges. In these attacks, known as the Rigel bombings of 2007, terrorists used high energy photon lasers, previously stolen from a military escort, to crack the containment units of three thaumo-nuclear engines on city transports. The resulting stress from use broke the containment crystals and caused three large scale detonations, resulting in nearly sixty-three deaths total, as well as hundreds of injuries. Since then, critics of the thaumo-nuclear engine have pointed towards the fragility of these engines as a massive weak point. Since then, the energy containment crystals have been reinforced by steel and lead lining, and have been pushed into production once again. While the terror attacks were a mere setback to the development and improvement of the thaumo-nuclear engine, they did their damage on worldwide view of the safety of the engines, and the engines remain widely unpopular, unused, and avoided outside the Solarian Empire and its' nearby territories.

Despite the impressive efficiency and power supply, only around 77% of all vehicles in the Solarian Empire utilize a thaumo-nuclear engine, and about 3% of all other shire-wide vehicles use a thaumo-nuclear engine.

Sol has three disclosed, state-funded research bases, all of which have an unknown location:

Besides this, the state-supported corporation Cabolt Industries conducts its' own research in the three modified research bases it has been given by the Solarian Empire. Numerous other bases are also used by various Solarian-based companies, for uses such as aerodynamic testing, mechanical testing, and crash testing.

Economic Status

The Solarian Empire has long been seen as a valued trade partner, even before the Unity Movement. Due to the large amount of port and coastal villages and cities, the Solarian Empire has a vast and capable network of trading posts and re-supply points for any allied or neutral with it. In fact, nearly every city or village in the Solarian Empire is on the coast or on a river with access to the coast, making the Navy capable of easily reinforcing or protecting each and every of these points. The Solarian Navy also patrols friendly waters and air, which massively reduces the possibility that a vessel is attacked by bandit raiders or pirates.

The central trade point of the Solarian Empire is, without a doubt, the capital, Sol. From here, an estimated 79% of all trade goes to or comes from. As such, the main capital is well known for both its' ports and the goods available due to this. The Solarian Empire also provides a vast amount of trade via the unofficial fleet of merchant sailors that use airships to move overland.

Due to these trading capabilities, the Solarian Empire is, without a doubt, one of the major economic superpowers in the Shire.

Territories

The holdings of the Solarian Empire are as follows:

Cities

Puesta del Sol Note: Military action on retaking this city has long been in the works, with slow progress into the undead-infested territory each passing year.

Villages and Towns

Only major towns or villages are listed under this heading, overall the Solarian Empire has roughly 17,000 established towns, villages, and trading posts in its' territory.

Research Bases

Division of Solarian Territory

The Solarian Empire's holdings are divided into major regions called "Territories" that encompass landmasses and certain amounts of ocean and air space. Within each territory, military forces stationed in that territory are responsible for the defense and patrol of the airspace and ocean. As previously stated in the Council Rank section, officers are put in charge of coordinating between their subordinates for larger and larger amounts of territory according to how high their rank goes.

Currently, the Solarian Empire has 20 major territories, with major population centers (mostly those listed previously under cities or villages and towns) acting as governing seats, where coordination of military forces is centered. Obviously, for convenience, civil council members reside in these listed areas so that meetings of the regional councils is easier and can occur quickly in the event of an emergency meeting.