Kregaia

Sacred Empire of the Kregaian Imperium
Sacred Empire of the Kregaian Imperium
	Flag
	Motto: "Sanguis Est, Sanguis Erat, Sanguis Semper Eritque"
	Anthem: Sons of Typhon;
Capital; (and largest city)	Korronis
Official languages	Kregaian, English, Latin
Demonym	Kregaian
Government	Theocracy
Establishment
Area
Population
GDP (nominal)	2027 estimate
Gini	53.3
HDI	0.784 (high) (?th)
Currency	Denarius (£sd) (KD)
Calling code	+314

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Kregaia, officially the Kregaian Empire, is a country with its roots stretching back over three thousand years, to the great myths of the Classical Age. The Kregaian Imperium is perhaps best known for its unique culture, dominated by one of the world's last remaining pagan religions and maintained by strict authoritarian policies. In international relations, this culture and the resultant attitudes manifest as extreme xenophobia, unpredictable behavior not necessarily conforming to national interest, and violent militarism. In short, Kregaia is a highly conservative, authoritarian place, dominated by an omnipresent government, with a foreign policy based on opposition to liberal nations such as the major Havenite powers and militant expansion of the power of Gholgoth.

History

Main article: History of Kregaia

Antiquity

The continent of Kregaia was originally settled by Roman exiles, descended from Romulus, in approximately 400 BCE. They flourished in their new environment; they quickly conquered much of the southern half of Kregaia, and generally maintained an unsteady peace with the most violent and powerful local kingdoms, far to the north. However, upon taking control of the Gold Sea, the nascent empire found some of its thirst for conquest quenched; the wealth brought by this possession was a powerful lure, and slowly but surely, the Old Kingdom slipped into decadence and weakness. This trend was violently reversed in 314 CE; the commander of the king's armies, Typhon, tired of the Kingdom's degeneration, led a revolution, conquering Korronis after a week of siege and executing the King.

Typhon took up the title of Emperor, assuming absolute power, and embarked on a vast reform campaign. To insure that he and his successors would rule as absolutely as possible over as powerful a nation as possible, he designed the structure of a new government that would facilitate the waging of war and the dominance of a single ruler. He instituted Septatheism, the worship of a new pantheon of gods, and claimed divine right as Emperor, thereby linking the throne to the unassailable power of a deity. He formed the Inquisition to repress heresy and ensure his religious doctrines remained accepted, and in general transformed the inefficient, bloated bureaucracy he had inherited into a vibrant, powerful new government. After winning a string of remarkable victories against the northern barbarians, who were to be the greatest threat to Typhon's Imperium for centuries to come, he vanished on the night his wife gave birth to a son, aged thirty-two. Kregaian doctrine holds that Typhon was a god incarnate, and ascended to heaven to assume his divine role as the Dragon, the seventh of the True Gods.

The Early Imperium

The next few centuries are a story of the slow, difficult expansion of the Imperium's power. The Kregaians sought to expand further and further north, ruthlessly assimilating barbarian tribes and nations along the way; the barbarians, on the other hand, fought viciously to prevent this. In 548 CE, upon the death of Emperor Hanno, an alliance of barbarians seized its chance and invaded the Empire, reaching the walls of Korronis itself. However, the Kregaians managed to rally their forces, and the future Emperor Abaddon I defeated the barbarians at the Battle of Cadia in 567, after a long, bloody war. After enslaving the Cadians, one of the most powerful barbarian kingdoms, the Imperium was soon poised to expand northwards once more. It is worth noting that the Imperium was not without internal upheavals: in 720 CE, Emperor Azrael took the throne after a six-year civil war, the previous Emperor having killed his son and himself in a fit of insanity. On the other hand, Azrael's reign was a long golden age of peace and culture, culminating in the philosopher Ascanius's famous Abstractions, illustrating the ability of the Kregaian Imperium to restore itself after almost any calamity. The years from Typhon's death in 319 CE to the death of Emperor Sicarius I in 886 CE are known as the years of the Steel Emperors, a testament to the character and power of the Emperors of the time.

After several generations of stagnation, Emperor Uriel I took the throne. His might have been the most prosperous reign in Kregaian history, but the barbarians, their territory slowly shrinking, launched their last and greatest bid for dominance in 942 CE. Known as the Great Infestation, it was a desperate time, for although Uriel personally fought them to a standstill wherever they could, he could not be everywhere. For two months, the barbarians even laid siege to Korronis itself. When Uriel died in 964 CE, he had never lost a battle, but it seemed inevitable that the Imperium would lose the war. His successor, Emperor Kaesan, was gripped by despair at the looming certainty of defeat, when the tide turned. A general named Domitian, formerly a pirate and now commander of the Thirteenth Legion, was given a suicide mission to hold back an advancing barbarian army, but he succeeded despite the odds. He was quickly made Imperator, and under his leadership the Kregaians rallied as they had under Abaddon centuries earlier, turning the tide of barbarians back to the north. The massive loss of manpower this caused greatly weakened the barbarians, and after Domitian gained the throne he began to conquer the remaining tribes. The last great barbarian kingdom, Sarmatia, surrendered at Naogoth in 1017 CE, upon which Domitian committed suicide, saying his purpose had been fulfilled. The Imperium was now the sole ruler of Kregaia.

Into the Modern World

However, after Naogoth, there was little else to conquer. Between 1017 CE and 1657 CE, the Imperium existed in relative peace. This was broken by an age of exploration in the mid-fifteenth century, during which the Kregaians first conquered lands outside Kregaia, such as Kshar. However, these were not dramatic conflicts, and the peace was not broken for centuries. The mid-seventeenth century saw the rise of a man named Caduceus, a respected and charismatic High Priest who broke with orthodoxy, preaching doctrines known as the Caduceite Heresies and evading the efforts of the Inquisition to silence him, much to its lasting shame. When he was finally caught, he was tortured, tried and executed, predictably becoming a martyr to his many followers, who took up arms against the Imperium, beginning the Great Schism. After over a century of misery and slaughter, Emperor Ishamael I and his Lord Regent, Icarus Halcyon, managed to crush the heretics, an event which marks the beginning of the modern Imperium. The nineteenth century saw recovery from the violence of the Great Schism and rapid industrialization, making the Imperium a potential world power (restrained only by its rabid isolationism).

The twentieth century, however, saw the beginning of a great decline in Kregaian power, which accelerated greatly in 1951, at the accession of Emperor Jamand. Although fiery in his youth, he was foolish and had no idea how to run the unique Imperial system. When he finally recognized the extent of his own failures, he protested that the Empire was too big for one man to govern, and gave unprecedented administrative powers to the nine most powerful aristocratic families. This proved to be his undoing: as his reign stretched on and on, the strongest of the noble dynasties plotted to overthrow him. In 2002 they finally began their insurrection, and might well have seized power had it not been for the machinations of Supreme Commander Lucifer Halcyon, who had himself been preparing to take the throne for many years. Assassinating Jamand and proclaiming himself Emperor, Lucifer oversaw the quick and brutal crushing of the noble uprising, ruthlessly restoring the absolute authority of the Iron Throne.

Lucifer's reign saw a boom in Kregaian power and wealth like nothing ever seen before. Although ruthless and (initially mildly) mentally unstable, Lucifer proved a brilliant administrator and leader, reversing Jamand's pro-republican measures and rooting out his enemies. His brutal methods led to a war with the nation of Czardas, which a task force led by Lord Rahvin, executing a plan he and Lucifer had concocted, quickly and efficiently won. Other wars followed, all successful, and the Imperium became a power on the international stage, as its economy thrived and its military became a truly deadly force. However, after about twenty years, the Empire was plagued by terrorist bombings, secretly orchestrated by a disgruntled noble. For reasons best known to himself, instead of executing the troublemaker, Lucifer named him and four other nobles, notably Rahvin and Ishamael as High Lords (potential successors). This led to the brutal Succession Wars, and after months of bloody fighting and betrayal, the field was reduced to Lucifer and Rahvin's Loyalists against Ishamael's Secessionists. Ishamael led an army against Korronis, took the city when a huge Generian relief force suddenly betrayed Lucifer and supported Ishamael, and after Lucifer was killed, took the throne.

Emperor Ishamael has proven a worthy successor to Lucifer, and under him the Empire has continued to thrive and grow. His most notable deviation from Lucifer's policies is his rejection of the CAD and Doomingsland in favor of Gholgoth, going so far as to launch an abortive attack on the Imperium Doomanum. Since then, the Imperium has prospered peacefully, although given Ishamael's unpredictability, there is no knowing when the Kregaian war machine will awaken once again.

Geography and Climate

The continent of Kregaia is a large island located in the CAD, southwest of Doomanum. It is roughly square, over 4,500 kilometers to a side, and incorporates many different climates and geographical areas, from the Illian Marses in the east to the looming Wall of Kregaia in the southeast to the endless glaciers of the far north. The varied nature of the continent provides Kregaians with much of what they need at hand on their own landmass, isolated from the conflicts of the world.

The southern coast is almost completely unbroken, stretching from the Dispater Mountains in the west to the Wall of Kregaia in the east. The only major deviation from the coastline is the Straits, running between the Palatine and Almoth Peninsulas in more or less the exact center of the southern coast. The Straits lead past Korronis, which commands the entrance and exit from the Palatine Peninsula, into the Gold Sea, the massive inland sea that is the center of the continent. The Almoth Peninsula is mostly choked off from the mainland by the Almoth Mountains near the base of the peninsula, while the Palatine opens onto a vast plain, only occasionally disturbed by hilly regions. This great plain, the Halcyon region, occupies the entire southeastern quarter of the continent, bordered in the north by the River Arcan. The northern leg of the river separates the plains from the cold hinterland of Valgoth, which is in turn boxed off from the rest of the continent by the looming Sanctus Crags that run down the center of Kregaia; Valgoth also leads north into the frozen Gothic Peninsula, and faces the miners' island of Kshar across the sea in the east. The southern leg of the River Arcan divides Halcyon from Miradin. The latter, an isolated land of rivers and mountain valleys, is sandwiched between the northern coast of the Gold Sea and the southern edge of the Sanctus Crags. It is widely regarded as the most beautiful region in Kregaia and is flooded with tourists in the spring and summer. West of Miradin lies the sprawling plain known as the Devil's Dance Floor, named such because of the countless battles that occurred here in the days of the barbarians and their mercurial, unpredictable nature. The Dance Floor gives way in the south to the lush, semi-tropical forests of the Jamaane region, in the southwest to the Dispater Mountains, in the west to the dreary, rocky region of Kesh, with the Asculum River dividing them, and in the north to the taiga of the Kun-Dra region. North of Kun-Dra lie the Northern Wastes, an inhospitable land of glaciers and ice that few can inhabit for long.

In terms of climate, Kregaia is rather simple. The southeast is an arid plain, except for the Illian Marshes in the northeast of Halcyon: they are, of course, swamps. The Palatine and Almoth Peninsulas are both a little warmer and wetter, but still temperate. The Jamaane region borders on tropical, being the warmest and humidest area on the continent. Like Halcyon, the Devil's Dance Floor is an arid plain. Miradin is a temperate, relatively humid, warm area, much more lush than the rest of the southlands. North of the River Arcan and the Devil's Dance Floor it rapidly turns to taiga, giving way in a line roughly parallel to the city of Batorine and the northern tip of the Sanctus Crags to completely frozen tundra. Notably, Kesh is subjected to near-constant rains.

The territories are temperate almost entirely; Nicomedia has considerable marshes in the southeast, between the mountains and the ocean, and the islands of Recedentia are considerably wetter than most other areas, but otherwise climate is exactly what one would expect from the large temperate zones and occasional mountain ranges, such as those found in the east and southeast of Nicomedia and Novum Illyricum, and the range in the south of Tiraeum.

Economy

The Kregaian economy, although hardly immune to the ups and downs of capitalism, has, over the long term, done very well. Since the economist Titus Kavar published Economy and the Wealth of Empire in 1743, the Empire has benefited from a free-market system. Of course, there cannot be unlimited independence: official regulations are practically nonexistent, but the Imperium occasionally interferes by means of covert action or using proxies. On the other hand, there is no denying that the Kregaian economy is remarkably free. It has suffered its hardships, such as the market fluctuations of the 1890s and the Great Panic of 1915, but overall, the economy has remained robust.

The Kregaian economy has historically been based on labor: most Imperial citizens are lower class (although the middle class is bigger than ever, and still growing), and a great number of these are employed by companies. Hence, the system is built on a base of willing workers; in Kregaia, it must be noted, there are far fewer ideas of personal entitlements or rights than there are in Western-style democracies and constitutional monarchies, and hence, without medical plans and such, labor is cheap. Lately, however, the service economy has been growing, as the Empire's overseas involvements grow.

Many Kregaian markets are dominated by a small group of supercorporations, such as the massive industrial conglomerate, the Ilium Corporation, or Megiddo Heavy Industries, which fosters competitions as well as ensuring stability: such sizable companies have a very low turnover rate. Blue chip stocks, therefore, are easy to find.

The biggest industry in Kregaia is weapons manufacturing, dominated by Megiddo Heavy Industries, the Ilium Corporation, and Kregaian Fleet Works, Inc. Smaller corporations such as Sherinian Arms, Inc. occasionally win contracts from the Armed Forces, but by and large, megacorporations control this market. The second largest industry is the resource extraction industry: the Empire is vast and controls huge underwater oil fields, as well as several areas rich in minerals such as platinum, gold, and diamonds. Other industries include luxury item production (the Empire is particularly known for its whiskey, fine wines, and high-end clothing, the designs and motifs of which are particularly novel to foreigners), logging, automobile and airplane manufacturing, banking, and information technology. Notably, small-scale private farming is practically nonexistent: food processing corporations control production of foodstuffs, and almost all farmers in the Empire are in the employ of one of them.

Foreign Relations

The Imperium is generally disliked, even hated, among the other governments of the world, for a number of reasons. It is extremely aggressive, militant, unpredictable, and difficult for foreigners to understand. It does not recognize the concept of human rights as most other nations do, and in particular is known for its venomous theology (Septatheism) and virulent xenophobia. In short, its disregard for human life and well-being, its repressive culture, its xenophobic, bloodthirsty, and slavish religion, its tyranny-based government structure, and its unpredictable, violent nature make it all but impossible for Western-model nations, such as the Havenite powers, to associate with, understand, or work amicably with. This dislike is more than reciprocated; Kregaians despise democracy or anything resembling it, condemning all republics in the world, and all constitutional monarchies as well. This encompasses most of the Havenite nations, and the rest are damned by association. This separates them from other foreigners.

In general, it must be noted, to Kregaians there are three types of foreigners, two of which receive the label 'infidel'. The worst are the Havenite powers, and any government which includes republican decision-making and which shows an undue concern for the welfare of its people can also be classified with them. These are despised, and any association with them requires a solid, believable justification in order that the people might accept it, not to mention a great need for such an association that would justify it to the Imperium itself. The middle class are all those nations that are neither allies nor enemies of the Imperium; these are disliked by default on account of Kregaian xenophobia, and also receive the label 'infidel'. The last group are allies of the Imperium, and are often referred to by the government as 'brothers'. It should be noted that these categories are all arranged by principle, but in fact political necessity always takes precedence in decision-making. For example, the Imperium has almost nothing in common with the Gothic nation of Yafor 2, and were it not a Gholgoth member the Imperium would actively encourage hatred of it, but since the two are allied, the Imperium uses propaganda to smooth over their differences. By contrast, when Ishamael left the CAD, joined Gholgoth, and eventually went to war with Doomingsland, a matter of political necessity, he used the propaganda machine of the Imperium to turn public opinion against the Doomani, who mere months before had been regarded as sacred brothers and who still have more in common with the Imperium than any other people. In short, these categories are flexible, and propaganda as directed by the Emperor makes all the difference in controlling public opinion: any nation may be regarded as pure if it is an ally for political reasons, and conversely, any nation may be regarded as damned if it is a political enemy.

In the last thirty years or so, Kregaian foreign policy has followed two models. The first, known as the Luciferian Doctrine, advocated close alliance with Doomingsland (the nation with whom the Imperium had, and has, most in common) and further partnerships with the imperialist powers of the CAD, the Empire's closest neighbors. During Lucifer's reign, the Imperium mistrusted and hated the Havenite powers, but felt equally strongly against the alliance of Gholgoth, which Lucifer viewed as power-hungry and arrogant. Only this "enemy of my enemy" principle allowed the Imperium to justify its membership in the abortive first incarnation of APOC. This policy was made possible by the strength of the CAD, which on several occasions bested the forces of the Sovereign League (then the dominant Havenite alliance). However, by the time of Lucifer's death, the CAD had weakened greatly; the Borman Empire, Freudotopia, and Generia had all left for Gholgoth, leaving the Imperium and Doomingsland the last active CAD powers. Ishamael saw that the CAD's star had fallen, and only Gholgoth offered a comparably strong alliance that could be reconciled with Kregaian principles. Hence, he brought the Imperium into that sphere, where it has become an influential and active power. This represents the Ishamaelite Doctrine;:the policy of constantly opposing the Havenites was maintained, simply under the aegis of Gothic, not CAD, power; indeed, little has changed, as the Imperium still hunts out and destroys its democratic enemies, and acts in exactly the same manner, simply having replaced Doomingsland with the Gothic powers as the Imperium's closest ally.

Government

Emperor

Main article: Emperor of Kregaia

Inner Court

While it is an informal group not defined or established in law, the Inner Court is the most powerful body in the Imperium. It is composed of the Emperor's favorites, those who spend a considerable amount of time in the Palace and who have demonstrated exceptional skill and charisma. It has been argued by some historians that the Inner Court is what prevents the Imperium from falling apart: Kregaia relies on having a strong, capable Emperor who knows how to run its unique system, and it would seem impossible to find such men as are up to the task. The Inner Court allows the Emperor himself to pick out potential successors from the pool of hangers-on around Korronis, and by putting them in the Court, they can be observed, tested, challenged, and understood much better. In short, the Inner Court allows talent to come from all over the Empire so that the Emperor himself can pick out worthy heirs. It is not unusual to find exceptionally young people there: amongst the nobility and the courtesans, ceremonial titles are often given to young men in their late teens or early twenties, and if the Emperor decides that individual deserves a true chance to prove themselves, that title may become a real post. For example, Lucifer, born in 1978, was only 24 when he became Emperor, and he had already been in the military for five years and a High Lord for two. The current Emperor Ishamael was 38 upon taking the throne, and fought the Ichkeriyan War at age 27. Finally, the famous Lord Rahvin orchestrated the conquest of Czardas at age 23, and had been Lucifer's favorite since age 20.

The Inner Court is by no means permanent: it is always shifting. But those offices which are almost always part of the Court include:

Imperator (Head of the Armed Forces)
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Lord Treasurer (ceremonially only; the Lord Treasurer is too busy managing finances to partake in court intrigues)
Supreme Inquisitor
Head of the Intelligence Division
Pontifex Maximus
Supreme General of the Army
Supreme Admiral of the Navy
Supreme General of the Airforce
Supreme General of the Immortals
Lord Regent
Several varied lords, generals, and other men

College of Priests

Just as the Inquisition is responsible for enforcing religious orthodoxy, the College of Priests is responsible for creating it. The College is composed of the High Priests of the Empire, headed by the seven Metropolitans and the Pontifex Maximus, and totals roughly 70 members all told. It votes, under the supervision and guidance of the eight superior priests, on definitions of religious terms, recommended penalties for various heresies, and in general it creates religious law. The source of the principles and base rules of the Kregaian religion (Septatheism) is the holy book originally written by Typhon and added to through the centuries, Twilight of the Gods.

The Metropolitans each are appointed by the Pontifex; there are eight total Cathedrals in the Empire, all in Kregaia, and the Metropolitans are the high priests of each. One is for each of the Seven True Gods, and the last, the Cathedral of Ascension, is in Korronis, is the temple of the Pontifex Maximus, and is dedicated to all the gods.

There are countless examples of the College's decisions. It was the College, for example, who proposed that the highest forms of meditation be forbidden to all but the Emperor, and that developed the theological idea of the Nine Hells. The College has been divided for centuries on the issue of demons; while demons are a recognized element of Septatheism, purists insist that there can be no counterpart to the gods (which would suggest equality), while a faction of priests believes that there are certain powerful demons which balance the power of the gods.

Council of Prefects

The day-to-day administration of the Empire is carried out by prefects. These administrators each govern a prefecture, akin to a county in other nations, overseeing functions such as utilities, maintenance of highways, and judicial appeals (only available to nobles). Groups of three to six prefectures are overseen by praetors, each of whom governs a region, and finally, multiple praetors are grouped together under a High Prefect, who administrates a province. All of these are technically prefects of varying degrees of seniority, and all are members of the Council of Prefects, an organization similar in structure and in appearance to the Roman Senate.

The Council currently consists of 584 prefects: 19 High Prefects, 128 praetors, and 437 prefects. In the Old Empire, and in the reigns of more republican Emperors, the Council has had legislative power and even veto power over the Emperor's edicts. It took two-thirds of the High Prefects to propose a veto, and two-thirds of the entire Council to enact it. All prefects technically had the right to speak, but those of praetorian rank or higher could interrupt a low-ranking prefect any time they wished, and High Prefects could speak for as long as they wished (praetors had a time limit of a few hours). The Council would have a single consul, who was the chair and would preside over assemblies, determining procedure and who took precedence over whom in the event multiple praetorians wished to speak.

However, historically, there has been an inverse relationship between the influence of the Council and the strength of the Imperium. It is not, of course, the Council's doing, but those Emperors with more republican tendencies, those more likely to strengthen the power of the Council of Prefects, are inevitably less popular rulers (often for that very reason: Kregaia was founded on principles of one-man leadership, and the people are comfortable with that alone) and poorer administrators. For the first reason, it is unwise for Emperors to be seen to support the Council; and for the second, it is unlikely that any will do so even in secret, as doing so carries associations with disgraced Emperors. Finally, most Emperors have always been contemptuous of democracy in general and the Council in particular. For all these reasons, most of the time the Council exists only to introduce measures for the Emperor's approval. In recent years, its power has been reduced yet further. Upon taking the throne, Emperor Lucifer immediately made it known to the prefects that they were not to so much as cough whenever he passed an edict (unofficially, of course), and after a few years, he stripped its power away completely and had over a hundred of its members sacrificed to the gods. Ishamael has not restored their powers, nor does he show any inclination to do so.

Imperial Inquisition

The Inquisition is one of the most powerful institutions in the Empire. Based in Korronis, it has local headquarters all over the Empire. It is rather loosely structured: the High Court is its governing body, consisting of the twelve High Inquisitors and the Supreme Inquisitor, Chair of the Court, which oversees the actions of the Inquisitors beneath it. Aside from that, there is no difference in rank among Inquisitors, each having considerable power and legal authority. The Inquisition is tasked with enforcing the religious doctrines of Kregaia, and investigating and punishing heresy.

Inquisitors generally operate alone, save for a select entourage, which may include an Imperial Guard or Legionary detachment: the Inquisition has the authority, if necessary, to commandeer any forces not engaged in battle to apprehend a heretic. It has proven necessary on occasions to liquidate everyone with whom a given heretic has come into contact, a task for which firepower is essential. The Inquisitor has the legal right to interrogate, try, convict, and execute even a suspected heretic on the spot; however, nobles must be tried (usually a fair trial) and convicted normally before being executed. In short, the Inquisition is rightly feared as a sort of secret police, with eyes and ears throughout the Empire and with virtually unlimited power to enforce orthodoxy.

Legislation

The Imperium has no form of republican decision-making at any level. At all levels, leaders appointed by their superiors (who in turn have been appointed by theirs, all the way up to the Emperor) make executive decisions, usually after consultation with staff or advisers. The Ministers that run most of the major sections of the Imperium make such decisions, again after consultation with their peers and advisers, which are referred to as measures. These pertain to the realm of their own Ministry and must be within its legal authority, although within that authority they are followed absolutely. Generally, these measures are policy decisions or decisions that affect their Ministry's work throughout the Empire; day-to-day measures are left to the prefects and lower-level administrators.

There is a form of legislation that supersedes measures, this being the edict. Edicts can be pronounced by the Emperor alone, and trump all other laws and policies. They may pertain to anything, but while occasionally the Emperor's notice is drawn to a particular area that needs correcting, generally edicts are sweeping declarations that affect multiple Ministries or much of the Empire. An edict can be requested, of course, theoretically by anyone, but only the requests of the highest-ranking officials have weight with the Emperor.

For example. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abram Vidann, may request an edict from the Emperor demanding greater production of grains for export to other Gothic nations. This involves Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, and Trade, and hence an edict is required. After whatever consideration he considers necessary, the Emperor will arrive at a decision (we will assume he grants the request). His clerks will write up the edict and he will sign it and seal it with his ring. He may, if the edict is short, read it from the Rostrum in the Great Forum, from the Iron Throne, or from a conference room, simply for appearances' sake. Copies will be distributed to the various officials that require them, and it will become law.

Culture

The Perfect Empire

The Kregaian Imperium, uniquely among all the nations of the world, was founded by Typhon not only to secure his own power, but to realize his own vision of a state perfectly designed for war. An avid student of history, the Warmaster had his own ideas as to what facilitated the waging of war, and he built the Imperium around these traits. For example, a republican model, he believed, would allow too much independence and waste time in decision-making; hence, the Imperium was an absolute monarchy. In order to justify the ruler's absolute power and any oppressive actions, Typhon invented Septatheism and its attendant theology, thus keeping the people in their place. However, dissent and heresy could not be permitted, so Typhon created the Inquisition to enforce Septatheism on the people; secular muscle backing it up came in the form of the Imperial Guard. Septatheism served not only to repress the people, but to promote violence against foreigners as well. For a long time such justification was not required; until 1017, the barbarians were the only true enemies of Kregaia, and there was no need for it. These days, however, wars against practically anyone can be justified to the people, who are fundamentally xenophobic and accept the validity of wars to destroy the infidels. Finally, no expense is spared on the Armed Forces themselves, the mainstay of Kregaian power.

Idea of Ascension

The fundamental, basic idea that is implanted deep within the subconscious of Imperial citizens is what has been dubbed the Idea of Ascension. Scraps of this ideology can be found in laws, in the media, and in religion; it originally developed from Typhon the Warmaster's personal weltanschuung (worldview), but was first recognized and named by the philosopher Ascanius the Wise. After that, it became actively encouraged and advertised throughout the Empire, and it is now at the heart of all aspects of Kregaian culture.

In essence, the theory is Nietzschean: power is created, refined, and tested through constant struggle. This is the heart of all Kregaian thought. There are two ways in which this is applied: struggle with others, and struggle with oneself. Struggle with others can be on the national scale (war) or a personal scale (a fight), but either is moral in and of itself, because it leads to power. It should be noted that even, for example, if one loses a war, one has improved oneself by virtue of the struggle itself; however, the disgrace earned by the loss outweighs that gain.

Struggle with oneself is the deeper and far more common application, however. The theory is that each individual is caught in a struggle between two or more natures: good and evil, sanity and insanity; whatever these are, they are yin and yang, utterly irreconcilable and opposite. True strength, strength of will, mind, and character, is built not by the triumph of one or the other, or by a harmonious balance of the two, but by a constant, raging contest. It is the knife-edge between the two that gives strength. This is mirrored, interestingly, by the method of meditation reserved to the Emperor himself: he simultaneously focuses his entire perception inward, comprehending himself utterly, and expands his being to encompass the entirety of existence.

Propaganda Machine

It is absolutely essential to the workings of the Imperium that liberal ideas cannot creep into the system. The process could take centuries, but extended contact with liberalized cultures would cast doubt on the authoritarian methods of the Imperium, the powers of the Inquisition, and the lifestyle of the nobility, ultimately leading to rejection of religious doctrine and the collapse of the entire system. Until the modern era, Kregaians conducted extremely little trade with the outside world, and those traders who ventured overseas were often priests themselves, immune to the pernicious teachings of infidels. Of course, industrialization forced the Kregaians to trade with other nations more and more, and therefore their contact with other civilizations grew extremely difficult to regulate. Modern propaganda, however, provided the answer.

The Imperium, at great expense, controls information, and this is vital to its existence. Liberal cultures depend on the free flow of opinions and ideas, and are by definition open-minded and fluid. The ideal Kregaian, however, is extremely close-minded: he hates foreigners, believes firmly in the existence and authority of the Seven True Gods, trusts the Imperium to be correct in all things, and values honorable service above all else. The control of information makes the process of molding billions of individuals to this template possible: until at least 16 (the age of majority) no Kregaian may go overseas or have any contact with a foreigner. State influence over the media ensures that the aforementioned Kregaian values, and no others, are the only ones a growing child will hear, and thus the child will cling to them almost invariably. Even after 16, the vast majority of Kregaians will never encounter a foreigner, and many will not even encounter someone born in a foreign country; after all, the Kregaian Empire is hardly attractive to tourists or immigrants. Rebellion or resistance to the will of the Imperium entails not merely political defiance, but the will and ability to radically re-align one's fundamental values.

Military

The Kregaian Imperial Armed Forces employs no fewer than 110,000,000 citizens, making it the single largest employer in the Imperium, and receives the largest portion of the Imperial budget of any institution. Directed from the Imperial Palace in Korronis, by CHARIOT High Command under the supervision of the Emperor, the Armed Forces are dispersed around the globe, connected by the next-generation BattleNet, and are positioned to deal with any threat.

The Imperator commands the Armed Forces, although he is subject to the oversight and the approval of the Emperor, and heads High Command. The High Command, in turn, manages conflicts, logistics, and positioning on the global strategic scale: considerable leeway is given on the limited strategic scale, such as a single theater of a conflict. Tactically, the response times demanded of officers and the necessary nature of flexible, individual thinking make it impossible for mid- to low-level officers to consult with officers on the limited strategic scale. Hence, broad aims and plans flow down from High Command to the theater commander, who decides how such plans are to be executed, at which point he turns the Legions loose, mid- and low-level commanders armed with a solid knowledge of the goals and conditions of any given operation who will do the actual executing.

Kregaian Imperial Legions

The Legions are the oldest and largest branch of the Armed Forces. Its heritage stretches back to the Old Empire, when it first became an institution of professional soldiers. It now employs over 15.4 million peacetime combat troops; they are organized into 26 Armies, which are further subdivided into Corps, Legions (sometimes referred to formally in Latin: for example, the Seventh Legion would be Legio VII), divisions, cohorts, etc. Headed by the Supreme General of the Legions, it is the workhorse of the Armed Forces.

The basis of the strength of the Legions is the strength of the Legionary. The Legionary, the trained soldier who fights for the Imperium, is well-equipped with the finest equipment and materiel. At age 16, all fit Kregaian males must enter a two-year basic training program, and must undergo a month of "refresher training" every two years. They may then be called up at any time until age 55, or, again, they become unfit for service. This provides the Imperium with not only an elite, well-trained and thoroughly disciplined force, but one that is supported by literally billions of potential reservists. They are integrated by the BattleNet into a well-nigh flawlessly coordinated force, and, raised as they are in the militant, zealous culture of the Empire, are both fearless and savage. They will march unhesitatingly into enemy fire if their commander orders them to, and they will fight with fanatical fury. Indeed, the Kregaians turn their lack of fear of death into a potent weapon: perhaps the most important theory of Kregaian strategy is that if one makes a suicidal attack with sufficient speed and ferocity, suicide becomes the path to victory. They are also unspeakably cruel; they are apathetic about the fate of enemy civilians, drawing no distinction between civilians and soldiers, and are without any understanding of human rights: hence, terror tactics are common. For all of these reasons, the Kregaian Legions are a fearsome force, easily a match for less rigorously-trained, brutal armies.

The Legions' history reaches back far. In the days of the Old Empire, the Roman tradition of raising troops whenever necessary still applied; generals would raise formations, even then called legions, to patrol the marches, to expand the Empire, and to defend against the occasional barbarian raiding force that crossed the border. Similar to the Romans, the focus was on heavy infantry, with heavy cavalry practically unheard of and archers a secondary force at best. By the time Typhon became Imperator, the legions were of mixed strength; those on the border were called up often to defend the Empire against raids, but potential soldiers elsewhere were completely untrained. It was the border soldiers that Typhon spent his time with, in preparation for his uprising, and it was they that followed him to Korronis and laid siege. They were literally unstoppable: they were the only trained fighting force in the Empire; moreover, only the King had authority to raise armies, and since it took the siege to convince him Typhon was really rebelling, no word could get out in time. Rather than wonder how Typhon penetrated the already-intimidating defenses of Korronis in merely seven days, it is worth wondering how a completely untrained garrison held him out for that long.

Under Typhon, the Legions became a professional force, and for years he led them to victory after victory against the barbarians. For centuries afterwards, the Legions proved to be phenomenal warriors: they were hard men to begin with, but years of warfare against the vicious hordes made them nigh unstoppable. Rank after rank of cold, disciplined warriors cut down the unarmored tribesmen, faith and discipline making them the perfect weapon against the screaming, massed barbarian hosts. Even during the great invasions, when the Imperium teetered on the brink of oblivion, the Legions proved themselves again and again. The advent of gunpowder changed little but the tools by which the Legions fought: the Legionaries themselves were trained as rigorously and fought as viciously as ever before. In the modern age, the Legionary remains a specter of fear to the enemies of the Imperium, and a source of pride for the Kregaians, who have yet to lose a war.

Kregaian Imperial Navy

Although the Legions receive slightly more funding, are larger in terms of personnel, and occupy more of the spotlight, the Navy is almost as important to the preservation and expansion of the Imperium. Just as land doctrine once focused almost exclusively on the heavy infantryman, the Navy was once seen merely as an extension of the Legions that enabled them to fight on and move across the seas. However, in the modern age, it became much more. During the fifteenth-century Age of Exploration, the Empire began to obtain overseas possessions, which needed to be patrolled by warships, not to mention the treasure fleets that sailed from the colonies to Korronis. The advent of the age of battleships revitalized the Navy completely: the increasing ranges of guns meant that the Navy could not only simply assist in raids, but support full-fledged amphibious invasions. The invention of the aircraft carrier provided a similar boost. The Navy was now not merely a sea-based arm of the Legions, but a powerful independent branch in its own right, vital for further expansion: most of the Havenite powers were already well-known as naval powerhouses, and so expansion into their arena would require a comparable Navy, not to mention the obvious fact that navies are necessary to escort and protect ground troops on their way to an amphibious invasion.

Under Emperor Jamand the Navy, like all else military, stagnated. Crews became inexperienced and lazy, the budget was cut again and again, and by the mid-nineties it was barely capable of protecting the Imperial sea lanes. However, once Lucifer took the throne, he recognized the importance of the Navy (and the need to compete with the Havenite sea powers) and began a massive ship-building program, pouring vast funds into the rejuvenation of this neglected branch of the Armed Forces. Training was rigorous: the Imperium had to have crews capable of going toe-to-toe with naval powers within a few years. Wargames were practically constant. State of the art information technology, most notably the BattleNet, was put in place aboard all ships; nowadays, warships are cornerstones of the Imperial battle information network. New, advanced ship designs were designed, and Kregaian Fleet Works, Inc., which monopolized these contracts, became obscenely rich from the government's money. By the time of the Czardaian War, the Imperium could boast of incredible growth in not only merchant shipping tonnage, but naval quality in every sense: more, bigger, stronger, faster, and better-armed ships, crewed by better sailors, and coordinated by better systems than anything the Imperium had ever possessed. This program has continued all the way through the reign of Ishamael, and the Kregaian Imperial Navy is now one of the strongest and best-trained navies on earth.

Kregaian Imperial Airforce

Kregaian Imperial Immortals

The Immortals are the most fearsome and mysterious regular branch of the Armed Forces. Similar in many ways to the Praetorian Guard of ancient Rome, they were established by Typhon as his personal bodyguard, selected from the best of his Legionaries, and marked out as his own. In addition to the quinquales tattoo worn by all Legionaries, and their campaign tattoos, they wear a talon-shaped tattoo known as the Dragon's Fang, and wear stainless steel masks whenever on duty, which are worked into a fearsome, angular death's-head. They are the sworn guards of the Emperor's person, of the Palace, and of the city of Korronis, and are the best troops in the Empire. Thousands of them are garrisoned in the capital, but many more serve with armies overseas or are stationed in other installations, such as the Cadian Gate or Fort Dharus. They are even more tenacious, brutal, implacable, and disciplined than normal Legionaries, and are far better-trained; more unnervingly, like the Spartans of old, they almost always keep silent in combat whenever possible, whereas Legionaries often roar battle cries or prayers.

At age 16, as the males enter training programs to become Legionaries, the best and brightest are marked out. At the end of their two-year training, the cream of the crop are approached to join the Immortals training program. This is a highly prestigious offer, and almost all accept. The Immortals training lasts a further four years, and only a third of applicants graduate to become Immortals. At graduation, they swear an oath to protect the Emperor, his subjects and possessions, his Palace and his capital, and are marked with the Dragon's Fang, after which they are given their steel deathmask and assume their place in the faceless, undefeated ranks of the Immortals.

Kregaian Imperial Special Forces

The Special Forces is the least common branch of the military, with the least funding and the fewest employees, yet is every bit as important as the others. Special Forces comprises, among other things, the Information Warfare Division, Strategic Command, and the War-Priest Orders. A note must be made on the last: there are four Orders of priests specially trained for combat, known as War-Priests. Raised almost exclusively from oblates, the War-Priests are trained by one of the Orders: Calchexas teaches its students to fight in a way that requires speed above all else; Shavan teaches students the poisoner's craft and the ways of the assassin; Ultor teaches a ferocious, almost insane style of warfare that stresses brute force above all else, and the War-Priests of this order are usually found on the battlefield toting flamethrowers or heavy machine guns; and finally, Sonitus, which stresses resilience and defensive toughness. The other branches are fairly self-explanitory: Information Warfare covers DOS attacks and defenses, small-scale hacking, and other such information uses, and Strategic Command controls the Imperium's satellite warfare and strategic nuclear force.