The Rise and Fall of Tholain
Introduction
King Dominus Tholain was born in 873, the only son of the then King of Tholain, Sevrus Tholain. Growing up in the court of Sevrus meant he'd been exposed to the political organisation and decision-making processes used by his father. Through his childhood he heard stories of how the neighbouring kingdoms made life more and more difficult for those who had chosen to work with Magic. The rumours of his father, the King, being a wizard of some kind were probably true, and this made his opinion of magic different to many of the post-disaster peasants. Magic, he believed, was becoming a dying art.
King Sevrus had none of the animosity to wizardry that the rulers of other nations displayed. There were often whispering around his court about how dreadful magic use was, and there were significant numbers of Tholain's subjects that shared that view. Yet there were also quieter but more insistent whispers telling the opposite view. Dominus was intrigued by such political games; in his early teens he asked his father if he could begin learning magic use to understand it more fully. Sevrus knew his son would never be a capable wizard, but he arranged some training. Dominus worked hard, but had little natural talent. He gave up his studies into magic in his late teens.
Instead he concentrated on learning and understanding how the political machines across his father's kingdom worked. What he saw and learned would stand him well many years later when he formed the structures that perpetuated his empire. His father's court was ruled by his own edicts, but he was supported by the senior dukes of his realm. They formed an advisory committee, who together oversaw much of the minor detail and day-to-day business of the realm. This committee operated as both organisers of the kingdom and implementers of the law. Unlike other kingdoms of the south, Tholain had developed a system of legal precedents that were established through a common law framework and adapted from time to time by royal edict. The committee helped frame many of the laws, and Sevrus even allowed this committee to discuss and formulate taxation which applied to all from the highest dukes down to lowly artisans and freemen. The only people that seemed to be excluded from the taxation structure were the peasantry, yet even these were subject to taxation in kind, through occasional levies against their food harvest and livestock.
The overall application of the political, legal and taxation structures of Tholain were highly successful. They were not an invention of Sevrus, but had grown out of the expansion of the kingdom. Sevrus made small changes, of course, but these were tweaks to improve the workability of the system, and to enhance its fairness - Dukes were not exempt from taxation, yet they were setting the tax levels. Dominus was instructed in both the way that the system worked in his own day and in abandoned ways that had functioned poorly. He learned what had historically worked and what had not. He came to understand the system deeply.
Persecution of Magic Users
The formal persecution of magic users began in 892 when King Farrath of Limia issued the first decree outlawing the use of magic. This was in response to a rise in its popularity and the formation of several new magic user organisations, and the subsequent outcry from dozens of his barons. It seems that this had been building for many years, with some levels of hysteria rising in the masses as magic use slowly became more open. The decree started an exodus of wizardry from that state, and began something of a panic in Limia's neighbours where similar outcries had been heard. It was followed in 896 with a similar decree from King Lomas of Jorlinum, in 897 by King Dorus of Antaurus and and 902 by King Folcus of Cerlain.
Hebria took a similar stance to Tholain, and despite pressures from within the country to rid the land of magic, their respective kings refused to do so. In 898 King Sevrus boldly stepped in the opposite direction, and made a positive acceptance of magic users. He decreed that his land would give shelter and protection to any wizards that desired it. King Ofarwain of Hebria could not go as far as his southern neighbour, he was tied by a polarised court. He dared go no further than make a statement to his court about taking a sensible approach to the use of magic. Unlike Sevrus, he could not guarantee the safety of wizards in his lands, and found that his people would often engage in random acts of persecution against those who used wizardry. It was here in Hebria, in the face of these conflicting political drives, that the Anti-Magic League was formed.
With this division in political support for Wizardry across the southern nations, King Sevrus saw nothing but advantages for his land if it gathered the most powerful wizards to it. To help organise them for the benefit of his kingdom, Sevrus began direct sponsorship of a magic user guild network in 899. Money for this was levied through a small increase of tax upon the freemen and artisans of his land. This was enormously helpful to Tholain and it gave a clear distinction between Tholain and her neighbouring Kingdoms. With this step, even those magic users that had been bold enough to stay in Hebria now found the lure of Tholain irresistible.
The Anti-Magic League tried to organise activities inside Tholain, but did not achieve much success. Their enemy was well organised and now well funded. In the most notable of defeats in 909, Pastor Baymus Hedgwar, the group's senior clergyman (he was a cleric of Anbartae) set up a base of operations in Cargius, right in the heart of Tholain. Magic was used to track him and his small group of outlaws after just two operations which has resulted in the deaths of three senior wizards and eighteen apprentices. When the wizards traced him, they found his main hideout, and he was trapped inside when they burned the building. Once the fire was well alight, Hedgwar surrendered, and he and the survivors from his unit were released from the building before it burned to the ground and they were taken into captivity.
Hedgwar was an Hebrian, and the incidents had caused some embarrassment to Ofarwain, and his request to Sevrus to return the outlaw for Hebrian punishment went unheeded. Tholain decided to make an example of the preacher. He was burned at the stake with his assistants. Sevrus thought it fitting to use this punishment which had been widely used in other kingdoms for those who had been found guilty of using magic. The authorities and the magic users continued to hunt down and dispose of opposition like this throughout the kingdom, and such hunts helped the wizards to become powerful as they advanced their craft.
Diplomacy
In 902 King Sevrus began a series of diplomatic discussions with the other Kingdoms. He pulled Hebria onto his side using their common ground on the use of wizardry. With their support he tried to convince the other kings that their stance over magic users was divisive and was weakening their countries. There were few successes; Sevrus managed to keep the diplomatic process alive, but didn't manage to convince any of the other countries that a change would be beneficial to them. He tried to convince them at first that it was cruel and inhumane that people should be killed for their profession. He tried to convince them that magic users were powerful yet noble and trustworthy, that they sought to capture and collate knowledge of all kinds, not just of the arcane arts, and that while the individuals were not physically strong, that they brought useful powers that could be used to strengthen and develop their kingdoms. It would seem that the courts of the other four kingdoms did not like the ideas. It was widely thought that Tholain advocated the acceleration of a magical arms race, and that the representatives arriving in their courts argued that what they did in their own lands was wrong.
Sevrus persisted with this approach until his death in 912. Dominus then acceded to the throne, and his approach was somewhat different to his fathers. He re-engaged the diplomatic efforts more forcefully, employing coercion and veiled threats; he warned that wizards were powerful and that while his kingdom gave them protection as individuals he could not exercise unlimited power over them. While he had a personal liking for wizardry and a new enthusiastic approach, it made no difference diplomatically. His threats that the wizards could grow into the worst enemy the kingdoms had known grew more and more forceful. Yet he held back direct threats; he refused, quite sensibly, to threaten his neighbours with force of his own.
The futility of this situation was confirmed when Hebria withdrew from the diplomacy in 914, they'd had enough and King Ofarwain was now an old and tired man. While the diplomatic process was maintained, King Dominus also began a process of recruiting and training an army. This was initially a conventional force made up of peasants, and it was trained quietly off to the east of Tholain near the coast, away from Nareth, and out of sight of any of spies of the other kingdoms. This was intended to be a covert muster and training, but it turned into a professional army. The force was added to by wizards and sorcerers in 915, and from that time it began to look formidable.
Dominus persisted with the diplomatic process for several years, even making personal visits to each of his neighbouring kingdoms in 915 to try and persuade them, but by 917 the tactics had moved from imploring and cajoling to more of a confrontational and intimidating style. Also by this time wizards had moved into advanced advisory and political positions near to Dominus' throne. He began to rely more and more on their counsel, and the point was reached where a demonstration of military force became inevitable. A new chief adviser appointed in 916 was a senior wizard, Francis Braggus, and his impact was to accelerate further the growth of the country's military strength.
Military Plans
Tholain began using magic to spy upon its neighbours as soon as Braggus arrived in his new job, and he began petitioning his king to take more direct action to relieve the suffering of his fellow wizards. Towards the end of 917, Dominus had lost faith in any diplomatic solution to the problem of this persecution, and began seriously considering Braggus' plans to use their military force to impose their will upon the neighbouring kingdoms. During that winter he and his advisers picked up and refined Braggus' invasion plans. The wizards began using their magic to hide Tholain's true intentions.
Tholain's spies had shown how poorly defended the other nations were. It seemed that the kings were comfortable in their realms, there were no outward threats and the nations had mostly behaved with respect towards each other. Trade between the kingdoms was good and they were even convinced that Tholain was only being intimidating where magic user persecution was discussed. Tholain gathered information over several months through it's spy network, and Dominus was surprised by the folly of the other Kings.
Invasion
King Dominus decided that no declaration of war was needed; he wanted to act with surprise and the arrival of his armies would be enough of a declaration of his intentions. During late winter 918, and with the aid of magic to hide them, he moved his army up from the the east and south coast to his borders on the west of the Kingdom. He'd spent the last month of winter buying up food supplies from his neighbours; he'd taken in large shipments of grain, dried meats, cooking oils and dried fruits. The other kingdoms barely noticed; their traders thought their fortunes had changed, until the beginning of Juem when the border was closed and new 'trading posts' established along the borders. This was the planned pre-stage of the invasion - foreigners in the land would have observed the army massing and there was no way that Dominus wanted to warn the other kings of what would be happening. For two weeks nobody was allowed into or out of Tholain.
In a very quick and well planned military operation, the army divided into two, ten thousand men camped in the hills east of Los, while another ten thousand were billeted south west of Cargius, still obscured by illusion spells and other magic. The northern army moved into the mountains, slowly moving across the mountain passes towards Jorlinum. The southern army moved across the border into Cerlain at the same time as the northern army came out of the mountain passes into Jorlinum.
In the south Eclomus was the first city to fall - and it went without a fight. An army the size of Tholains had not been seen before, and its presence in the field caught the city unaware. A small group of mounted knights were sent ahead to block the roads to Tamish and Beck, and the main army moved quickly to surround the city. Little resistance could be mustered, and the messengers sent at haste to the capital and to Beck never arrived. Travelling just behind the bulk of his army, Dominus arrived in Eclomus to accept the surrender of the city late in the afternoon on the same day that his troops had turned up. A small tactical force was sent to Beck to try and capture this city too, but seven thousand men were sent to besiege Tamish. Despite delays caused by the systematic burning of the villages they passed through, progress was so swift that within two days the southern army was camped outside Tamish.
The northern army found the conditions much tougher. The march through the mountain passes in early spring was a draining experience, but the run down from the mountains on the other side was pretty easy. In those days Reginum and Evonen were little more than mining settlements, and watched in awe as the army passed them by. The first town they encountered was Agolest, and in those days it was a series of small communities or villages rather than a single town, and had no military defence whatsoever, it is thought that the King of Jorlinum never considered an assault from over the mountains to be possible. By blocking off the roads and attacking with surprise, no messages left the town about the arrival of the army. The town was a rich capture - it had reserves of food and other supplies that were very welcome to the invaders.
To keep the momentum going a thousand men were sent to the city of Tirochel to assault it, their orders were only to capture the city if it became easy, their main objective was to stop messengers reaching Malberina about presence of the army headed their way. Leaving just two hundred men to garrison Agolest, the rest of the army, about eight thousand strong, headed south on the road to Wolsnium. This was considered the point upon which the invasion would be measured - Dominus wanted his forces to be assaulting Wolsnium before Malberina heard that the army was invading. Upon reaching Wolsnium, the bulk of the army did not stop, a thousand men were left to besiege the city and the rest marched on. Within four days of leaving the mountains Dominus' troops were at Malberina. They immediately began an assault on the capital city.
Dominus had not expected progress to be so swift, he only just made it to Tamish to see his troops go into the Cerlain capital after his wizards had torn through the defending troops, and was too late to watch the fall and sack of Malberina. Even if Dominus had chosen to spare the lives of the courtiers and the monarchs of these countries, the wizards in his army had twenty years of pent-up anger to unleash, and the old King Folcus of Cerlain and King Algominus of Jorlinum were dealt with brutally. Using a mixture of magic and coercion, new recruits to the army were taken from these newly conquered territories. Dominus bought support from many of the incumbent feudal lords in both Cerlain and Jorlinum by maintaining their titles and lands under their new crown in return for a few troops and loyalty to be used in the fight to the west.
Next the armies turned to look at Antaurus and Limia. Antaurus were utterly unprepared, a fact that Dominus was very aware. They had the least defences of any of the kingdoms, and no time to raise a proper army. King Delmus of Antaurus sent messengers to the oncoming army to sue for peace before they even arrived. There was a negotiation during which these messengers rode their horses hard between the front line of the army and the Antaurus palace in Mercunum before the peace was accepted. The force travelling to the south to conquer Antaurus no longer needed to fight, so it was split in two. Half was sent north to reinforce the invasion of Limia while Dominus and the rest of his army went to Mercunum to conclude the final terms of Antauran capitulation. A week later Delmus of Antaurus completed a deal with Dominus, and he was installed as the Prince of Antaurus, and swore fealty to his new king.
Meanwhile the army had continued its march west, and in Limia the harshest fighting of the campaign took place. King Farrath was a wily old king and had managed to muster his peasants to form a defence against the oncoming army. It held out for a while, and then used guerilla tactics to try and harry the advancing Tholain army. It had some success, and it took several weeks for the army to reach Kenver. The tactic of harrying and slowing the advance only delayed the inevitable, though. By the time midsummer arrived, the city was besieged, and fresh conscripts had arrived to swell the ranks of the Tholain force. These mostly came from Antaurus, but some were drafted from Jorlinum and Cerlain. Part of Dominus' original army had been sent home, where they patrolled the border between Hebria and Tholain.
The siege of Kenver lasted until the beginning of autumn, and was twice assaulted by Limian forces moving from the north and west. Eventually the magic wielded by the Tholain army proved telling and the city was breached. Once again Dominus struggled to control the anger of his wizards, and the city was sacked. They razed the palace to the ground and King Farrath, his courtiers and his family fell into the hands of the magic users, Dominus could not restrain them.
A temporary government was established for Limia, and Dominus' chief adviser, Braggus, was appointed as interim governor of the kingdom. Dominus kept a military presence in each of his newly conquered territories, and moved the bulk of his army back home. When he returned he found that Hebria had been preparing an army of its own, probably for defence from invasion it wouldn't have been large enough to assault Tholain. Against his own better judgement, Dominus allowed his wizard advisers to convince him that an invasion of Hebria too would be useful. Hebria was partially prepared, but its army was scattered across the southern border, and there were too few wizards to hold back Tholain's magic. Unlike the fighting in Limia, magic carved through the Hebrian ranks. Once the army had been dessimated, Hebria immediately sued for peace. Tholain's army was already too strong, and it would become stronger still as troops returned from fighting in the west. Conquest here was simpler than the invasion of Limia, but the wizards, who had been restrained during the earlier fighting, found this victory the most satisfying.
Government and the New Political Structures
Officially martial law was maintained for six more months while the governance of the kingdoms was decided, although the soldiers remained on the streets far longer than this in some of the kingdoms. Originally Dominus had expected to abolish the national borders between the six kingdoms and establish himself as king over all, but he ran into political issues. He simply did not have enough troops to maintain order, and his only option at first was to quash any uprisings heavily. Even supported by Magic there were problems organising policing and taxation. It was clear from post-war events in Limia and Hebria that it would be difficult to keep a lid on all the unrest, the King's control would not be strong enough and, particularly in Hebria, the Anti-Magic League had made it clear they had no intention of rolling over peacefully. The only place that seemed to be working well was Antaurus, where martial law had been relaxed at the end of winter in early 919. Dominus took advice from all the senior feudal lords he could, including from Delmus Antaurus who was turning into a strong ally and wise advisor.
In the end he opted to leave the countries intact and appoint himself as Emperor above them. This was, it was argued by Delmus Antaurus, a logical step and allowed the existing power structures to be maintained in all the nations. It also conveniently allowed Antaurus to continue in his role as governor and protector of his kingdom. The new Emperor appointed a prince to each kingdom (Antaurus already had one and if that hadn't been the case he would probably have appointed a King to each) and shuffled many of his most trusted feudal lords into positions of power in each land.
As martial law was slowly relaxed through 919 across all the new Empire, Dominus held the reigns tightly. He wanted no chance of a civil war erupting or any uprisings threatening his authority. He also found he had to pander to the new princes; he'd tried to be fair in division of power - he needed to devolve much of it out to the princes, and without them he couldn't maintain control of the Empire. He made this work by established a debating and power-sharing forum in Nareth where power could be focussed and decisions mulled over fully. The Senate was born; each prince was required to appoint a voice to attend this forum, and the senior nobles of each of the nations were also called upon to submit a representative, these were selected by vote. It was not an instant success, it had a troubled beginning with some trying to bend the power of the chamber through bribery, and that lead to assassinations and recriminations. Eventually the membership of the forum settled - although skulduggery had still not been fully eradicated when the Empire came to an end and the Senate was closed.
Despite these teething troubles the system worked well. Dominus allowed his senate members to take on quite a bit of the day to day running of the Empire. He found that their wisdom was useful as a sounding board for ideas, and they could accomplish more with the numerous smaller decisions than he could have achieved on his own. This responsiveness from the government allowed the Empire to experience a period of rapid growth and a swift improvement in trade and infrastructure across the lands - none of this could the Emperor have achieved if he had just relied on his own advisers.
Each of the six countries endured the change from Kingdom to Principality and some fared better than others. By 923 all the Kingdoms had been re-established and their crowns returned. This strengthened the Empire, much to Dominus' surprise. Despite the unrest among the peasants and the actions of groups like the Anti-Magic League, the Empire was made to work. Dominus' own memoirs frequently showed his surprise at the way his senate spent tax money on road, bridge and city improvements that improved the ability for the six kingdoms to trade with each other.
The senate evolved further. Instead of one appointed representative, some of the princes attended the senate themselves (effectively appointing themselves to the senate). With hands-on experience of ruling their individual lands, they brought even more appetite for change and growth. The power structures were also in place for those with desire but without royal stature to rise high in the political field. In 927 the senate was increased from twelve men to 18, and again in 935 to 24 by allowing feudal lords in each nation to appoint a second then a third representative of each nation. In 937 a final decree meant that each of the princes could both attend in person and send their nominated representative. Each nation now had potentially four representatives in the senate - although attendance by the princes themselves was rare.
First Political Decrees
In the early years of his reign, many legal changes were required. Emperor Dominus backed away from little that was important to his new Empire.
The first decrees involved the level of food production. Despite the military successes the political problems experienced with his diverse kingdom had shown that conquests further afield would be impossible to control. He was forced to rule out any thoughts of invasions of the northern kingdoms for the time being, but Dominus knew these lands would fall into the shadow of the new Empire. They were utterly dependent upon his Empire for food and Dominus needed to maintain this situation. The first public decree that influenced the whole Empire together dealt with this issue - it was decreed that food production was to be increased by at least one third, a decision that was publicised to the people (especially to the farmers) as a generous gesture of aid to the people of the north. There was mass buy-in for his plan; in the eyes of the peasantry the Emperor had swiftly gone from being a hated invading overlord to a human with compassion and eye for the political strength of his land. An act which appeared altruistic was aimed squarely at political control.
The next problems Dominus addressed were to do with political power itself. As the earliest years of Empire passed uprisings and protests continued. It seems this was driven by the artisans and craftsmen rather than the general peasantry. The masses seemed to care little for whom their feudal master was - very few paid any taxes and a remote Emperor is marginally preferable to a local King. The middle classes had been hit the hardest following formation of the Empire, it was they who were facing higher taxation and were going out of business following the fighting. Within the first two years of Empire, however, Dominus had reduced these uprisings and revolts significantly. It was not the military who were responsible for ending the riots (although they were often involved) but the turnaround of economic fortunes. This was driven by the new senate - it was their influence that expanded communication and trade lines. It was much harder for business people to call for the end of Empire when their profits were up and new exotic goods were becoming available from all parts of the Empire. Matters improved further after 921 as taxation was reduced.
With a new-found wealth, and a taxation budget six time as large as it had been for Tholain, Dominus commissioned several spectacular new buildings. The best of them all was a senate debating chamber for Nareth, but it also meant new palaces across the six kingdoms. The senate were involved in these plans, and because of this the palaces were all to be constructed in a similar style and from similar stone. Each was intended to be a unique statement of the identity of the kingdom they represented. There is some speculation that these trinkets are what truly sealed the Empire as a political entity - and each of the national Kings were finding more wealth and more power than they had been able to muster when they ruled alone.
Persecution of wizardry was outlawed, enshrined in a decree from the Emperor and reluctantly backed by his senate. This had been an unwritten law after the conquest and before the Empire was formed, but Dominus ensured it was formally clarified as soon as he could. State funding for magic-user organisation increased, and was spread out across all the kingdoms. Their remit was also expanded (another victory for the senate over the intent of the Emperor); that they should consider all kinds of knowledge not just those related to the field of magic. This funding allowed the Imperial academies to be formed, and the Imperial Library soon followed.
In 919 Dominus commissioned a new crown for the new Empire. He had heard legends of the crowns worn by Dwarfish Kings from before The Great Disaster, and wanted to emulate this in his own realm. He asked his foremost wizards to look into this, make proposals, and build something worthy of this mighty Empire. This they did, and The Crown of Tholain was completed in 922.