Asatic Empire

The Asatic Empire, also called the Empire of Aradór, The Land of the Three Thrones and the Dominion of the Great River was a historical empire spanning most of Gondala. Its capital was Araero, it was governed by an Emperor (or an Empress) and postulated to be the united land of all the Asatic people. The history of the Empire spanned more than half a millennium, from the long establishment to nearly instantaneous fall and break-up.

History
The history of the Asatic Empire can be divided into several periods, each having their characteristic features.

Establishment and the Early Empire (1412 - 1778)
The Empire can be said to have begun in 1412 Fourth Age, when the Kingdom of Araero initiated a campaign to conquer Wórs, a sovereign territory on the western shores of the Sea, surrounded in the South, East and North by the Kingdom of Araero.

The then-current king of Aradór, King Ratsa IV initiated campaigns against Wórs, a small but well-guarded and strong territory. After no large progress in three years, King Ratsa IV signed an agreement with Nelea, then lead by King Duain, to form a military alliance against Wórs. The combined strength of Nelea and Aradór then finally managed to subdue the resistance in Wórs by 1416, and King Ratsa IV used the momentum to invade Central and Northern Shanida.

The Shanidan War was succesfull and in the matter of five years the Western coast was under the control of Araero. However, King Ratsa was persuaded by general Catáta fan Belamezi to betray the Neleans. A small group of skilled Arazi warriors were sent to infiltrate Nelea and assassinate King Duain. The operation lasted for a year and a half and culminated with the murder of the royal family of Nelea, leaving no immediate heirs to the throne. The following chaos and instability of the Kingdom was used by King Ratsa to annex Nelea without any overt war, by installing trusted governors and nobility that then offered a formal plea to incorporate Nelea into the Kingdom of Araero. The acquisition of Nelea is often regarded as the beginning of the Empire.

After the annexation of Nelea, Aradór took some time to sort internal matters - the Bay Arazi people had rebelled against the Araero's control. This coincident with the passing of King Ratsa in 1425, who was succeeded by the general Catáta fan Belamezi. He was then crowned the first Emperor of the Empire of Aradór, Emperor Catáta the Smart. Catáta violently oppressed the Bay Arazi uprising, establishing stricter control over the region, killing hundreds of people and adopting a policy of Arazification of the people. Catáta's reign was generally peaceful, focused on internal matters and sporadic fighting with the Coeric tribes in the North.

The First Coeric campaign
When Catáta the Smart died in 1440, he was succeeded by his son, Emperor Tus the Terrible. Tus was only 16 when he came to power, but he almost immediately decided to sent his armies north of Nelea to the lands held by various Coeric tribes. The first Coeric campaign culminated with significant gains of territory in later central Coedor. The progress of the Arazi armies were eventually stopped by rising solidarity among the Coeric people.

After the conquering of an important Coeric stronghold, Maranne, in 1456 Tus proclaimed it the region's centre of government and renamed it Tustyúle - The City of Tus. Meanwhile, the remaining Coeric tribes consolidated into several states, forming alliances with one another and the distantly related tribes further North to withstand Aradór's aggression.

The First Coeric Campaign had also brought about the conquering of small territories on both sides of Eduin that were populated by the Seturh people, an unrelated Machoric tribe inhabiting the territory between the Arazi and the Coeric people. Since Tus viewed Arazi and Coers to be related and superior to other races, he ordered widespread and extremely violent ethnic cleansing of the Seturh lands, lending to his title, The Terrible.

The Eastern Marches
After the establishing of Coed as a power center, Tus the Terrible started watching East. The eastern banks of Eduin had long been populated by Arazi people and were already part of the empire, but the territory was relatively small and narrowly followed the river. Tus ordered the Empire to be expended eastwards.

Paradoxically, the expansion was hindered by the fact that the wide plains were very sparsely populated and contained long, virtually desolate marches. The few people living there were mostly Danoedain nomads. The Empire established their military control over the area and some of the few bigger settlements were maid to pay regular tributes to Araero, but Tus' interest in the region soon diminished.

By 1475, Tus the Terrible had died and left his throne vacant. The 20-year old successor, Emperor Cvante Miri, the son of a former general under Tus, was a well-educated and trained man. He founded several colonies in the Eastern Marches and established Araero's influence in the region.

The Second Coeric Campaign
The interest in conquering Coeric lands was renewed in 1525, with Emperor Hristas the Beautiful. He orchestrated the "peaceful" joining of Rediausia, a Coeric state that had previously entered into alliance with the Empire, to the Empire proper. Five years after that, military campaigns began again. Hristas lead his armies himself and managed to conquer the central lands of the Coers by attacking simultaneously from the East (Rediausia), South and West (the conquered Tusfete). Only few Coeric lands retained sovereignty in the North, these lands alligned themselves with the people of Duin Ínah.

Hristas them went on to postulate the ideas of Tus the Terrible about the relatedness of the Arazi (including the people of Wórs, Shanida and Nelea, too) and Coers. He is regarded as a wise and kind ruler, helping rebuild the Coeric lands ruined by war and thus essentially gaining the local support. Many of the Arazi governors in Tustyúle were substituted by locals loyal to Araero.

Some of the Coeric lands not aligned with Duin Ínah eventually pledged allegiance to Tustyúle, effectively coming under the dominion of Araero and becoming parts of the Asatic Empire without any wars. A notable example of this is Scaballa, most of whose territories were already under Asatic control, which pledged loyalty to Hristas after the Emperor offered to help with the ongoing forest fires and scarcity of food, a calamity that he himself might have had hand in causing. Scaballa joined the Empire in 1533.

After the death of Hristas in 1551, his son took the throne but was overthrown a few years later. The following decades proved politically unstable, with Emperors changing often either by assassination, overthrow, abdication or mysterious disappearances.

The Third Coeric Campaign and the March to the North
With the post of the Emperor being politically unstable, General Mastuta took it up to himself to direct the Empires armies north in 1620. His Third Coeric Campaign attacked the sovereign Coeric lands as well as those aligned with Duin Ínah. This caused Duin Ínah to enter open war with the Empire. The war lasted for many years and three Emperors, all relatively uninterested in the war. However, General Mastuta was still leading his armies, gathering enormous support from the people and the military, and his campaign succeeded with conquering the city of Duin, the capital of Duin Ínah, in 1646.

The same campaign conquered the lands of the Qulats, a people related to the Seturhs, whose lands were located south of Duin on both sides of the river Eduin.

Through popular support, Mastuta then overthrew Emperor Tus II and ascended to the Throne. However, Mastuta died the following year, in 1648, in the night of the Summer solstice. Mastuta was succeeded by his second-in-command, who, by becoming the Emperor, took the name of Mastuta II. Mastuta II started the March to the North, aiming to conquer Ponael Ínah, a state northwest to Duin Ínah. The campaign was mostly successful but did not succeed to capture the capital of Ponael, the city of Evarlot.

After the model established by Tus the Terrible with Coed / Tustyúle, Mastuta II installed loyal Arazi governors to rule over the new territories from Duin. The city became a regional center of governance, culture and economy. The Emperor also expanded the notion of Asatic nations to include the people of Ínah, both of Ponael and Duin descent; though this notion is indeed ethnically and linguistically accurate, it may well be that Mastuta II did this only as a propaganda move to establish the loyalty of the locals.

The reign of Mastuta II also saw a small expansion eastwards, conquering the most of the remaining Seturh lands as well as establishing control and tribute relationships over vast lands of the East all around the river Eduin. Several smaller campaigns extended the Empires control southwards towards Amurón, bridging the gap between the two states. Henceforth, the Emperor was known as Emperor Mastuta The Expander (as opposed to Mastuta I - The Beloved). Having lived a very long life, the Emperor's death in 1683 plunged the Empire in internal chaos with several people fighting for control.

Mastuta was succeeded by his grandson, who became Emperor Hristas fan Mastuti; he ruled from 1688 to 1722 - a relatively peaceful and calm time. Hristas fan Mastuti was abruptly assassinated, and Emperor Tafta fan Tulezi (reign: 1722 - 1730) succeeded him, followed by Emperor Hristas II fan Mastuti (1730 - 1732), Empress Alaso fan Dwétizi (1732 - 1767) and Emperor Duyle Saya fan Aheni (1767 - 1777). All these Emperors were killed (stabbed, hanged, poisoned and decapitated) by their successors.

The Years of Peace (1778 - 1990s)
After the decapitation of Emperor Duyle Saya, the Throne of the Empire remained vacant for nearly a year due to the fears of it being cursed. The politics and internal situation as getting gradually worse with Seturh and Qulat rebellions and unrest in Shanida. Things changed rapidly when an Araero trader rose to power in 1778 through bribes and intrigues and eventually became Emperor Luidare fan Relesári, also called Luidare the Great, Luidare the Wise and Luidare the Peacebringer.

After being crowned, Luidare imprisoned most of his real and perceived rivals and competitors, establishing a close group of friends and family members around him for all the major office posts of the Empire. He encreased the Thrones control over Duin and Tustyúle, renaming the latter back to Coed, and paid frequent visits to the governors there. Luidare's reign was comparatively uneventful but he was beloved by the people and brought peace to the Empire, ceasing military expansions and focusing on developing the economy.

Luidare was succeeded by is son Ratsa fan Relesári (reign: 1802 - 1823), grandsson Cvante (reign: 1823 - 1850), who then passed the office to his daughter Heyano (reign: 1850 - 1862). The dynasty of the Relesári became the longest ruling dynasty of the Empire, while the state experienced prosperity and cultural bloom.

Changing religions
Emperor Erłelöm fan Relesári (Erłelöm in Arazi: Sunspawn), son of Darute, ruling from 1902, officially adopted a monotheistic cult as the state religion, the Cult of Erłe, a worship of Sun as the only deity. Despite this, among the farmers and workers, Obenism had started growing in popularity, while the Cult of Erłe became the dominant belief among the nobility.

His son, Rełhumśeng (in Arazi: Given by Fire) ascended to throne in 1930 and continued his father’s monotheistic ambitions. Being the ninth ruler of the Relesári dynasty, Rełhumśeng was the first to turn to despotic rule; he actively tried to fight the spread of Obenism by passing laws forbidding it, tried converting the masses to the worship of Erłe and issued laws against publicly speaking any language except the Emperor’s Arazi (this primarily targeted the Machoric minorities – Seturhs and Qulats, the usage of Arazi dialects was tolerated and enforcement of punishments for speaking Nelean or Coeric was very rare).

After his death, the throne was taken by Rełhumśeng’s 15-year-old daughter, named Rełsalengo (reign: 1933 – 1948) (in Arazi: Born of Fire) by her parents; however, the young Empress changed her name during her coronation to Lóhsalengo (In Arazi: Born of Spirit). She reversed her grandfather’s monotheistic policy but did not ask people to convert back to Arazi Polytheism. She herself was Obenist, having hid her beliefs from her family before. The Empress did not, however, lift other laws imposed by her father.

The next emperor, the son of Lóhsalengo, Emperor Luidare II (reign 1948 - 1975), came to power with his mother still well and alive in 1948 at the age of 16. Originally Obenist, he later converted, persuaded by a claimed prophet and miracle worker Yure of Astár to a cult worshipping the Spirit of the Night. Luidare II expressed no interest in the religion of others; the nobility of the state continued their worship of Erłe while the general populace converted to Obenism even faster than before. Since the Cult required celibacy of its followers, Luidare the Second had no direct heirs, so after his death in 1975, the throne passed, through his dead sister Tadelho fan Relesári, to his niece Empress Lendo, who abdicated in favour of her son, Emperor Latanna fan Relesári (reign 1976 - 2008).

Recessions and Downfall
The winter of the year 1991 4A was noted for being significantly harsher than the previous winters; the frost and the cold damaged several crops and trees, resulting in long-lasting economic damages for wineyards, olivegroves, orchards and the like. The following spring and winter were unusually cool and wet; the resulting shortage of food brought a large famine along the general population. This created popular unrest and several small riots sprung up all throughout the most populated regions of the empire - the Western coast, Between-Rivers, Eastern Coedor and the vale of Duin.

Emperor Latanna tried fighting the uprisings and eliminate the famine, which he succeeded at only partially. The following 5 years proved better but still harder than average, weakening the Empire's economy and social safety. By the time the climate returned to normal and production of food and other agricultural produce increased, the economy had suffered severely, plunging huge portions of the people into utter poverty.

By 2050, things were looking better for the common folk, but the discriminatory policies against Seturhs and Qulats continued to bring unrest in the respecting regions. Emperor Luidare III (reign: 2050 - 2056) ordered the elimination of Seturh leaders in 2056 4A in hopes to quench the uprisings, but it resulted in a wave of protests that spread even to Nelea and the Dry Plain. The protests eventually subsided after violent repressions and military intervention, followed by the stepping down of the emperor, with the thrown passing to Luidare's brother Tilibàs until Luidare's son reach the age of 16. The following few decades were relatively peaceful, but the economy of the Empire still struggled, plagued by random and unforeseeable years of colder temperatures, sudden invasions of pests and diseases.

The March South
To ameliorate the situation, Emperor Hristas (reign: 2068 - 2080) tried establishing closer ties with Amurón, a very important trading partner. Hristas hoped that making Amurón a political ally could boost the economy of the Empire. However, his attempts failed due to the general lack of interest of the Moroyans and their wariness of the Empire's possible aggression. His nephew, Emperor Dauta Rá the Foolish (reign: 2080 - 2110), after having persuaded his father to abdicate, started increasing the taxes paid by the farmers and craftspeople to pay for the Empire's expenses. In the already unstable economy, this was a very unpopular decision.

In 2094, Emperor Dauta Rá suddenly decided to lead the Empire's armies south, to Amurón, to establish the empire's dominance over strategically important towns and cities that controlled the flow of the Road of Tea. The campaign turned out to be a disaster - the Empire's armies got stranded in the desert, suffered from hunger and dehydration, and finally were wiped-out by the forces of Amurón. This failure damaged the perceived status of superiority of the Asatic Empire, starting a new round of riots across the state.

The Downfall
Emperor Dauta Rá was assassinated in 2110 and his cousin Amara Úda took the throne. However, he died twelve years later, possibly from lung cancer, and left his eldest child, his daughter, to throne. Empress Araiśa fan Relesári (reign: 2122 - 2135 4A) tried normalizing the situation in the provinces as well as stimulate the economy, but her attempts were systematically sabotaged (by possibly a family member or a member of the court). The economy continued its recession and the unrest among the Seturhs and Qulats only increased. By 2125, unrest and calls for independence had appeared in Ínah, too.

Finally, in late 2135, a group of warriors believed to be of Qulat or Ínah origin infiltrated the Empress's guard and slit her throne. The assasination threw the Empire into chaos, violent uprisings and protests spreading throughout even the previously peaceful provinces. The Empress's death was revenged by her brother Atsa fan Relesári, who then ascended to throne as the 27th monarch of the Relesári dynasty. However, in the ongoing chaos, the Kingdom of Ínah had declared independence and the Seturh and Qulat lands had split off, forming the states of Seturhion and Qulion. Consequently, Atsa was crowned not the Emperor, but dudźa fan śórtizi Arazi tśuCöyarase - the King of the lands of the Aras and the Coers. Thus started Asàel.

See other
List of emperors of the Asatic Empire