Anternia

The Anternia Empire (Anternian: IMPRASA ANTERNI [ĩj̃ˈpɾaˈza:ãˈteˈɾˈni]) was one of the largest empires of Ancient East Alaxia, responsible for holding the Northern Coast with a large amount of stability in its vast systems of infrastructure and standardization in both culture and war. Its rise and endurance along the ancient years, showed Anternia as one of the greatest early nations of Alaxia, and due to this, the progenitors of it still live on to this day, in the form of Ahitereira, Koresa and Empherias.

The Anternian Republic, the predecessor for the Anternian Empire, was vastly influential for the constitutionalist movements of East Alaxia, with the Anternian Code. Due to this the legacy of the Anternian empire was undeniable for the formation of Alaxia. Be it in the widely used Fazarian Alphabet, which had its origins in Anternia, or the Military Organization that was rivaled by no one in the region.

= History =

Legendary Origins
The origin of Anternia, is said to come from the great founder of the first Anternian city, Lucero, the legendary Lucas, descendant of the great goddess of Love, Sabrina. Lucas is said to have fleed from the heavens, away from the goddess Sabrina, as he was interested in the lives of the mortals, he then blessed the people with their godly looks and red-ish eyes, characteristic of the Anternian bloodlings. Lucas came and saw the sad state of the mortals, unorganized and poor. He declared as his mission to create a new City, that would feed the mortals and their kind, this city would be named Lucero, in honor of the founder who bringed prosperity to everyone.

Then tragedy struck the lands of Lucero, when his sister Madalena, came from the heavens, but not to aid her brother, but rather to fulfill the mission of the god of Death and Infidelity, Treste, to kill Lucas and to bring the mortals back to their lowly place. Lucas and his mortal allies fought a battle that ruined the great city of Lucero, and transformed it back into mere tribes in the middle of nowhere, causing ruin to everyone.

Establishment of Lucero
The region's residents were in a constant change, as the rivers that existed there had vast fertility. As the people's from the eastern lands (Modern Ahitereira) came west, Lucero and its surrounding cities were known for being occupied by a group of people by the name of Anter, known for their white skin in comparison with the natives.

Lucero grew from some pastoral settlements in the river of Madalena, being surrounded by other rivers that helped the navigation in the region. With this Lucero grew as the capital and center of a Anternic Republic. The Anter language was said to be derived from the southern empire of Durbinia as the most civilized nation at the time, but still had various differences such as the script and many of the pronunciations.

Despite this connection with the nation of Durbinia, they were still seen as rivals by the Anter's who claimed words of glory and arrogance in comparison to the southern neighbours, and as Lucero quickly became a cultural centre of the region, and started to rival the Durbinian Cities, in both technology and trade, the rivalry was now recognized by both sides.

Anternian Code and Army
As the nation continued to grew, a Central Assembly was created and began to rule the various lands occupied by the Lucerans. With that, a code was created by the assembly and established the first foundations of the republic. The main institutions of the central assembly were the Arms Assembly, ruled by the military; the Plebian Assembly, ruled by the people; the Senate and the Great Assembly, ruled by various selected people, usually of noble descent.

This finally led to a sort of organization in the nation, and the clear establishment of the Republic.

With the consolidation also came various problems, as the neighbouring city-states of Lorenta and Manora began to deny the establishment of the Anternian Republic. This led to the creation of the Anternian army as a way to not only defend but also conquer these city-states. The Anternian army was divided in divisions, which were divided by class and wealth, with few exceptions existing, this army was based on annual levy. Usually the infantry ranks were filled by the lower classes, while the others such as cavalry were left out to the nobles and higher classes, because they could afford to maintain their higher equipment expenses. The commanding position in the army, was given to the Armers, which controlled and strictly regulated the army in order to make the republic survive. At the moment Anternia only had 4 divisions, each being numbered from 1 to 4. The first division is composed by the elite of the elite, only the most prestigious men in the army and the republic could achieve this, while in the fourth division most would be plebeians. Any man from 16-45, could be selected to join the army and assigned to this division

Anter Wars
As sudden as rivalry was sparked between the Anter Nations, as sudden the invasion of Manora and Lorenta was, in a bloody war, it made evident the various problems, internal or external that the republic had, and with it suffering high losses, despite the annexation of the city-states. As expansion had continued, the Republic continued to suffer of such problems, and so many solutions were devised and applied, such as the vast and complicated system of Roads.

The Senate had ordered for the continuation of the various roads into their empires, this way facilitating the maintenance and development of the republic by providing efficient means for the overland movement of armies, produce, civilians and much more. Usually military stations would be also connected, facilitating transport of the troops in case of a extreme emergency. The roads were paved with stone and flanked with footpaths and conducted over rivers and ravines with bridges also being able to support themselves in marsh and swamp.

As soon as the war ended, the Central Assembly also began to take into account the possible attacks from the rival nation of Durbinia, which at the time had a larger and superior navy. Due to this, many policies were taken into account to make sure that Durbinia was kept in check, such as the renovation of the naval forces.

Pirates and the City of Pireta
Anternia was onto a stage of Naval force, and with the sudden increase in Pirate ships roaming and attacking our trade-lines, Anternia took action. Anternia took upon themselves the objective of protecting the sea's trade, and to make sure that our trading partners weren't affected. As such, the Great Pirate War had started, and many of the new naval forces began to burn and destroy the various pirate ships. In many cases the Anternian senate would even pay the pirates, through negotiation to make sure they wouldn't intervene in the trade of the region.

With the pirate crisis in the works, it was seen as necessary for the Anternian Republic to set up a colony in the south, by the name of Pireta. Such would be the land were many of the anti-pirate naval forces would settle, in order to properly exterminate them.

This new province wouldn't have the same laws as the mainland, still having some say in the Plebian council, the province would not have as many laws as the rest of the mainland, as the enforcement of such would be hard. Due to this they would be recognized as a free port, and wouldn't have as much trading regulations, falling more in line with the Durbinian way of governing. The previous pirates wouldn't be imprisoned but rather contracted as navy men, with their own salary.

Durbinia, was not happy with this new province. As the once fully Durbinian peninsula now had the Anternians occupying a city. Which led to the continuous souring of their relations, and the Embargo of the region. With the embargo, the Viceroys decided to try and survive the situation. This meant they would invest their last resorts in the agriculture of Pireta, and try and survive out of agriculture alone. Much later the mainland senate got knowledge of the blockade, deciding to ignore it.

The First Durbo-Anternian War
"'The barbaric Durbinians defeated our people, spreading their filth over this land.' - Ruiu César"

With the Senate ignoring the demands of the Durbinians, relations had reached a boiling point. Durbinia declared war against Anternia, and in a quick turn of events, won. The might of the durbinian navy was simply greater and more experienced than anything the Anternians could devise, being the master merchants of the sea, Anternia never really had the chance.

Anternia's arrogance had gotten the better of them, and now they suffered for it. The Republic had now faced failure in one of the most important campaigns in their history. The senate goes into chaos, and many factions begin appearing in the senate with the purpose of using their radical ideas to fix the nation and others simply playing for their own interests.

Despite this, in the middle of such chaos, a man appeared, Ruiu César. Ruiu quickly came into the senate, with his dominative, charismatic persona, and a quick and concise speech, known as the Speech of Regeneration, and with a quick vote, became the leader of Anternia, declaring the Anternian Empire.

In this time, a vast amount of immigrants would embark into the lands of Kloresa, creating a new kingdom and Empire, following the same pantheon and having the same cultural features as the Anternians. Founding here a close alliance from early.

Rise of Ruiu César
The charismatic persona of Ruiu took the nation by storm, as he transformed the nation from a Republic into a Empire, but unlike many prophecised, the Speech of Regeneration wasn't the only thing that took Ruiu into the status of Emperor. In fact, Ruiu had a vast level of influence upon the institutions of the Republic, be it merchant guilds that he promised to appease, or the vast estate that he owned.

Ruiu was a grand military leader, that also held upon himself the management of the Third Division. The Third Division despite having a vast number of low class was one of the most successful, and this could be attributed to the grand leadership of Ruiu.

As a military leader, he had grand disdain over the Naval Leaders, which failed to successfully defend the lands of Anternia. He claimed they were too conservative on their naval strategy, had did few to innovate, and in a famous quote: "'Fire won't defeat Fire, rather use Water.'" With this war, the relations with nearby powers was extremely negative, with this new envoys were ordered to be sent by Ruiu. This movement of envoys sent, was rather influential to the growth of Anternia as a nation, as it successfully managed to make nearby powers more wary of Durbinia as a power.

The negative relations had until now were simply a result of overconfidence by the senate, and Ruiu knew this perfectly well, resorting to not act confident but rather act like they're equal to every state, calling it a "necessary lie". Many of the members were disgusted at this, and saw it as "Cooperating with Barbarians". Ruiu in a way to consolidate power, also began to consolidate the Anter Pantheon, by assimilating other culture's gods under the same pantheon, claiming them as all being in the same divine existence.

As a way to appease the various nobles after the defeat with Durbinia, Ruiu prepared various divisions and declared that the end of Cidoasia was near. Soon after, a declaration of war was at their doorstep.

Cidoasian War
A war was declared against Cidoasia, and the Emperor showed himself as a competent leader once again, not only in his leadership of the nation but also in the conquering of others. His military might was soon understood and respected by most of the Senate. Even so the Emperor declared: "'My objective is yet to be completed, peace is not assured. Even winning, our strategic might and ability can only do so much. We cannot control the harsh terrains, their vast numbers, and their barbaric mindsets, so we prepare. No matter the struggle, the nation of Cidoasia will conform to the Anternian way of life.'"

"The War Basket"
With the death of the Ruiu César, the Senate goes into a bit of distress, has no succession was ever set-up, but a quick solution was achieved by a member of the Plebian Council, National elections by the Senate and its Constituents to vote on a new emperor.

The man chosen for this job was Fernando Maior, one who appealed against the ideas of "The War Basket", saying that we shouldn't put all our eggs into war, and rather invest in the other factors of our state, in this case, the merchants and trade. Fernando was seen as a more liberal governor unlike Ruiu, which was seen as a tyrant and an absolutist.

Despite all of the talks, Fernando didn't much for Anternia, but rather sat quietly and invested in various road projects, despite this, he's still seen as formidable with the defence from the Azderyian Raids, a vast amount of raids made by the desert northerners who threatened to finish the Anternian way of life, and the conquering of the Northern Port, a series of Durbinian land in the Anternian coast.

Stability doesn't last forever however. So when the eastern Azdernyians and western Devniks attacked, the problems began again, when Fernando couldn't prepare an actual army to fight them off, and the war was lost. Fernando instead of fixing the problems of the nation, acted greedily and conquered the northern nation, this caused a economic crisis in the nation, and rapidly the Senate went against the emperor. This caused the Senate to create it's own Faction which sided for "Liberty and Freedom", and the Emperor, created it's own faction siding for "Centralization and Authority".

This Civil War ended in 8 months, as the Emperor faction completely decimated the Senate faction, as they had most of the population centres, and therefore the armies in their hand.

End of the Senate
The emperor faction won the civil war, against the Senate Faction due to this the military factions and the Emperor had gained more power. Fernando decides that removing the senate would cause total disruption of the government and therefore, all he will do is create a new senate, but one that is more powerless and subservient to the emperor. One year after the civil war, the Emperor Fernando dies, giving place to a new one, this time selected by not only the senate, but by the Senate, the Arms Assembly and the Plebian Council, making the power not focused on a single class of people when it comes to selecting a new emperor. The new emperor had the name of Pietrone Enax.

Pietrone successfully warded off various Azdernyian Raiders, and amassed influence, allowing him to choose the next emperor.

Despite that, Pietrone is still known for not doing much besides stabilizing the empire's structures. Merely maintaining the new Empire in constant unity and integration.

Era of Júlio
Pietrone, had quickly decided on his successor, the great Júlio, a young general which had fought in the war against the Azderyian raiders. Júlio begins studying the arts of rule with Pietrone in his last days, to successfully rule the Empire of Anternia. This was in contrast to the other emperors, who simply had the rank willed upon them.

When Pietrone dies, in a tragic event, a temple is built in his honor, the Great Temple of Piernalia, the Great God of the Sun. This temple would be placed right in the capital, as one of the great monuments to the Emperor, this temple would end up surviving until the modern years, being a great tourist attraction in Fazar.

Júlio, in the next election for emperor, wins. He becomes the new great emperor, and being the spiritual "Son" of Pietrone, he was seen highly by the people. Júlio was the youngest emperor to ever be elected. Even young Júlio was one of the most knowledgeable leaders, being taught by the Pietrone himself.

In a weird turn of events, Júlio begins his ventures into the desert, descibring it as "a majestic place of complete brightness, where the sun never stops shining". Júlio had a belief that the desert held various mystic secrets, and that it was Anternia's objective to uncover such.

Delvik War
The Delvik Kingdoms and Durbinia, had formed a coalition against Anternia. The senator Martina, advised against such, and said that we should fight through, and declare war against them. Martina managed to unify the Plebian Council and with this declare war on the coalition.

The various military moves and strategic interventions of Júlio proved successful again and again, and with this managed to win the war, achieving peace with the Kingdom of Kelvik, and a treaty that would turn them to the Anternian side, successfully conquering the Kingdom of Mishalik and the Durbinian Ports in the North, banishing the Durbinian influence to the southern peninsula. The once enemies of Anternia, the Azderyians fought together with Júlio, and helped extremely in the effort of the Delvik War.

This was was the single most important event in the maintenance of Anternia as the power of the East Alaxian Sea, and showed their true military and strategic might, managing to overpower a coalition of the biggest nearby powers.

Júlio was seen as the greatest emperor since.

Empress Martina
The death of the Emperor Júlio had happened, elections by the Arms Assembly, the Senate and the Plebian Council took place, and with this selection of a new emperor. With various discussions, due to the lack of selection by Júlio, or anyone in power, this election was one of the most controversial, but finally the chosen new Emperor, was in fact, not an Emperor, but an Empress.

Martina, was her name, and known as the famous senator that defied the ideals of the Plebeian Council and converted them to one single cause, to declare war on the Delvik Coalition. She was a legendary figure among the Anternian people.

Martina being the first empress, would also be the last, because as soon as her death came the empire collapsed.

End of the Anternian Empire
From the north, a collapse had happened, something that seemed to not be important, but in fact changed Anternian History forever, from the north people came with their religion and their culture, and what seemed to be the impenetrable structure of Anternia, collapsed in a instant. With the various senators not being able to cooperate and new kingdoms to appear. With this many of the people from the other empires nearby had immigrated towards the collapsing empire with hopes of gaining their own land and power in it.