The Kijaand Empire is the continent spanning empire ruled by competing sun elf houses. All the lands west of the Steel Mountains, on the continent Naraxlos are part to the Kijaand Empire. While in theory all of Naraxlos is part of the empire much of the periphery is not subject to the Emperor.

The Empire is made up of a patch work of vast House estates, sprawling cities and small racially segerated countries. The eastern quarter of the Empire is much wetter than average, with much of the land either swamp or jungle. The Kijaand Empire is the continent spanning empire ruled by competing sun elf houses. All the lands west of the Steel Mountains are part to the Kijaand Empire. While in theory all of Naraxlos is claimed by the Empire much of the periphery is outside Imperial power.

Geography

Cities of the Empire

Areas of interest

Arjan Hills

On the south western edge of the Kashhan lies a series of hills known as the Arjan hills. While they abutt the foothills of the Kashhan they are quite different in nature. Where as the foothills are quite rocky and factured the Arjan is extremely rolling, with smooth continuous contours. The slightly higher altitude and southerly latitude the hills are fabulously rich pastureland. The hills allow the constant rain to drain and the contours form natural river valleys, channeling the water off the highlands into the Resh river.

People, Families and Organisations

Noble Houses

The ThenidnÃºr, as the sun elves of Naraxlos as commonly known, are divided into many extended families which act like incorporated entities. Known as Noble Houses, they have extensive land and property holdings as well as considerable commercial activities. While most large Houses are virtually self sufficient in basic production and manufacturing many of the smaller Houses have become specialised niche producers.

Most Houses rely extensively on human and orcish slaves to do much of the labour but some also have dwarven and hobbit enclaves which they trade with. These enclaves are seperate countries but normally have binding trade contracts with their aligent House.

Tal'Sievrae

Pentarch

The Pentarch is the collective for the five largest Kijaand Houses. Although the Pentarch as no legal standing and its members never officially meet together they hold considerable sway within the empire.

Unterunsterblich

The under immortals, a derogative term for short lived sentients. The definition isn't exact as urban dwelling hobbits are generally included but rural hobbits are not. All unterunsterblich have a lower legal status, any most are considered chattel.

Shallow Grave Cult

This is the cult of Akh, Lord of the Underworld. This cult competes with the official religion and it is official suppressed. However it is seen as a counterbalance to the followers of Shahdad and it has a number of powerful supporters.

Church of Shahdad

The Goddess Shahdad is the most powerful deity in the pantheon, both spritually and temperally. She has many names, most common being the Lady of Peaceful Rest. The church is the single most powerful institution below the imperial throne and has far more influence among the masses. The church is a matriarchy, with all the major positions filled by woman.

The Cleftdeep Meet

Most years there is a meeting of sorts held in the Cleftdeep valley. The valley is north enough to have seasonal changes and right after the spring melt the valley is unaccessable from along Pipe Gorge. Its location between three mountains means the passes are closed over the winter, so no large group can hold it.

The meeting has no formality and there is no formal peace between parties but mutual antipathy holds any direct conflict in check. However intrigue is common and murder and assassination is common. Often the most powerful leaders will only show up towards the end of the event, with agents dealing with initial contacts.

The Bloody Rag

One of the largest bands of human outlaws in the Kashhan, it has a reputation of get rich quick or die in the process. The band works on using its numbers to overwhelm the opposition. It is strictly smash and grab, with very high rates of fatalities, but those that make it though can come out with considerable plunder.

The Long Knives

Once the greatest group of assassins in recent history, this band is but a shadow of its former self. In a spectacular feat of intigue the group, in the pay of an unknown agent, infiltrated the house of the Tal'Zalvic. They then assassinated the Tal'Zalvic leaders, including at the time the Emperor, happened on Festival of Flowers in 443 CM. The events surrounding the Night of Long Knives is hidden in death, with any human within the city of Kulkumy put to death in the following days.

The event lead to the rise of the emprorer Zalvic Gorkara Kyzlbil. The Long Knives themselves were betrayed, with the assassins dying from secret contingency enchantments. Many others were marked, with the necromantic curse able to pass though others by way of bodily fluids. A few managed to remove the mark in time, and some more managed to avoid contracting it, but those that didn't were hunted down. The fortunate were killed outright but it is rumoured that the leaders are still alive today, their lives extended so they can suffer eternal torment.

The current band was formed around five years ago, rumoured to be sponsered by one or more of the original survivors. The band often works with much larger groups, occasionally as spies and infiltrators, but more often as just hired swords.

The Broken Spine Ogres

The is a large clan of ogres, living mostly in the southern regions of the Kashhan. They are considered the top of the food chain in the upper mountains and hold considerable sway over other groups in the area.

The Beastie Boys

This is a band of mostly half-orcs, with a few humans and some pure blood orcs. This group is less interested in raiding into the empire and more into hunting. It is an assortment of barbarians, rangers and shaman. It is based at the northern end of the Kashhan.

Killing Spree

Killing Spree is the most feared bandit band in the Kashhan that is commonly known. It completes with the Bloody Rag for the hardest and most brutal recruits but where as the Bloody Rag is primarily raiding for loot the Killing Spree is focused on causing as much destruction, killing, raping and burning as possible.

Five years ago, a huge Killing Spree made it to Er'ab, taking the empire by surprise by holding the attack the middle of winter. Its size and organisation was also exceptional for the group. Coupled with a rebellion in Sananmar province, the forces at Sernoyia were slaughtered. More recent Killing Spree activity has been much more limited, with three previous year aborted due to trechary.

The Unquenched Earth

A small druid circle of pure dark elves, it has a particularly militant view of nature. It believes in the gaining of power though the spilling of blood sacrifice. The focus on purity and especially that of the purity of the sacrifice means that while anybody unwary can find themselves going under the sickle, it is the young offspring from long bloodlines which are saught after.

The Qamaq

The imperial army is most made from slave recruits, mostly poorly trained and equiped. The army also has a legion of specialised shock troops, mostly recruited from the periphery. These forces are kept locked away from the regular army and when not fighting are given the best food, body slaves and copious drugs. However when they are fighting, the are the first to go in and can never surrender.

Calenders and Dates

The current calendar is relatively recent, and is named after the Communique Mercantile, an agreement which ended almost a century of economic and social uncertanty. Previously the calender was based on whatever the emperor decided, making dating of long contracts difficult, especially during times of turmoil when the emporer would change frequently.

The CM forced all contracts to be dated consistently, and its prevalence has made it become the defacto calender. While most elves do not use this calender amoung themselves and rise of a small but significant human merchant class has also helped the spread of the calender.

The day is slightly longer than an Alusian day at around 27 hours, and the year is exactly 400 days long. The day is not normally subdivided, except for basic divisions like dawn, morning, moon, late afternoon etc. The year has 20 months of 20 days each. There are ten named months, each with an upper (Ariber) and lower (Aroplezn) 20 days. Each day within the month is named similarly. Because of the location of the continent there is little seasonal variation in climate. As their is no moon the monthly calender seems to be just a simple convenience. The very precise length of the year has intrigued many philosophers as to the alignment of the plane, but there is little agreement about its origins.

Lebh (Life)
Khomets (Bread)
Porekh (Dust)
Ov (Ancestor)
Toyt (Death)
Vint (Wind)
Kindheyt (Childhood)
Shakhres (Prayer)
Brenen (Burning)
Mablen (Rain)

Death of an Emperor

With the death of the Tal'Dyran emperor in -167CM his eldest daughter split the House to form Tal'Diren. This event was the trigger point for the War of Unfulfilled Retribution.

Year Zero

This was the first year following the end of the last major civil war of the Empire. This resulted in four major factions and the Tal'Zalvic accendency. The war had cost all the Houses much of their wealth, especially in terms of human and orcish slaves. A few humans managed to escape bondage formed companies, trading between the mistrustful Houses.

Rise of the Pentarch

Between Year Zero and the second Tal'Zalvic regime was the nadir of modern Imperial power, with economy depression and population stagnation for over fifty years. This caused considerable factional realignment and rise of the Pentarch, whose collective hegemony enabled the empire to rebuild its resources.

Black Festival

The night of the Festival of Flowers in 443CM has become known as the Black Festival for the assassination of the then emperor. House Tal'Zalvic was forced to appoint the dissident Gorkara Kyzlbil. The unpopular state of the imperial crown crushed the weak Tal'Zalvic and the emperor had little imperial power.

The Regency

In 464CM the Tal'Zalvic emperor was seen to have been killed by a group of adventurers, although his death has never been confirmed. In his place is the current ruler, Emperor-Regent Zalvic Kosiva Zaorich Derivent Yenihozin.

The Coronation

The imperial coronation took place in month of Ariber Toyt 470 CM. While the coronation was peaceable, mostly on account of the support the regent received during the campaign against the Lord of Blood. However the tenuous factional alliances quickly broke down after the House Tal'Khvoy fractured.

Not long after the coronation came the Ascendant Divergence event. As the Empress has not been seen since it is assumed that she ascended during the coronation but as a number of powerful figures disappeared around the same period so it not clear what has happened to her.

In the half decade following this House Tal'Khvoy has slowly re-emerged, amalgamating many lesser Houses into its nebulous structure. This has has a stablising effect on the generally turbelent political environment and moved the mood from political to mercantile activity.

Kijaand Empire

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