After the final downfall of the Empire of Atenia, which had supplanted and usurped the vast Principate of Roma, and after the Cataclysm that destroyed the city of Atenia, Orissia was born. Borne from the catastrophic earthquakes and fire-storms that ruined the greatest city of the once proud Empire, Orissia was founded by Maximus Orissius the finest of the last of the Princeps, Veritian’s great loyalists and commanders. Loyal still to his memory, Orissius warned of the great tempest that was to befall Atenia, in his dreams took what household gods, golden-eagle standards and other treasures of the city and fled for the quay.

Once there he took to the south, fleeing with more than sixty-thousand men and women to Ifriquya. It was there that they established the great city of Orissia, on the five hills of the city, with it named after Orissius himself who became the first Emperor. This great ruler founded the city, organized the people into various tribes and arranged for more than three dozen temples, along with the Hippodrome and Circus Orissius.

These great building projects attracted ever greater numbers of refugees and outlaws from the neighbouring cities of northern Ifriquya. So that in this way, Orissia grew as a city and had ever more labourers to work her fields and her walls, and great buildings. All were welcomed within the city even as Orissius attracted the jealousy of a great many of the former governors, barbarian tribes that had colonized the region and the southern people who hungered for Romalian wealth.

It happened that the first war he was made to wage was after he had finished the construction of the first walls of the city, the Virilian Walls so named after his good-father, Maximus Virilius. It happened that a large number of neighbouring cities hoped to play a trick upon him, by provoking the southern tribes into attacking them. Their hope was to lure Orissius and his army into fighting their war for them, then to eliminate them from behind.

In this they failed completely and utterly, as Orissius saw through them and though he deployed his forces he was to despatch his own cavalry to either sides in all the battles that followed. Always they were to fly from the field of battle only to circle back, to strike at the rear of those who opposed these allies of the Emperor.

In one of these battles however, he won so thoroughly that the tribal people from south of those lands once the property of Roma sent forward an embassy to beg for peace. Keen to settle the matter, Orissius had them meet with him elsewhere outside of the camps he shared with his allies. Therein the distant canyon of Monivia he made the Monivian Pact. This pact consisted of a seemingly temporary alliance against the northern-cities of Ifriquya, with Orissius thus shifting sides in the conflict.

Crushing the ‘allied’ armies he soon marched upon the former Romalian cities, and demanded their surrender. This they refused, so that he lured more of their men out from them, slaughtered them and threatened to unleash the barbaric hordes of the south upon them. In response, the chastened northern tribes and cities at last agreed to sue for peace.

Eager to settle the matter, Orissius had them give him the keys to each of the dozen cities with only Punicia to be plundered for three days before he had the plunderers brought to heel. Some resisted and when he struggled to restore order he commanded that their children and wives be slain. This served to chasten the men who had refused to obey, and though there had been no slaughter of their kinsmen, he commanded the men slain and had their wives and children given to his own men as wives and children to be adopted by them.

The seeds of an empire now firmly planted, Orissius resettled a number of the men that survived along the frontier, where he had a number of forts and fort-towns built. Appointing his good-brother Ventirius as the regional governor he divided the region into four provinces which he called Punitia, Ventiria, Monivia and Portia.

Afterwards he set out to annex Deshret and Kemet, in the hopes to lay claim to the vast grain-land they possessed and the ample number of warriors and garrisons that were to be found within their borders. Where his last campaign had lasted for four years, Orissius was to enter into Deshret without difficulty.

The Pharaoh of Deshret received him as befitted his rank, and duly submitted to him and recognized him as the heir to Roma, in return for the recognition of her title and lands.

Where Deshret had surrendered without fighting to defend itself, Kemet sought to defy the burgeoning empire.

Fighting lasted for several months, until at last after siege after siege Orissius seized every city and filled them with his own troops. Once he felt confident that Kemet had been properly subdued, he was to tour their lands for two years before he returned west to Orissia itself. He was never to leave it again, as he preferred to consolidate his Empire.

Orissius ruled for a total of thirty-two years, with the vast majority of his reign’s focus being the construction of ports, cities and roads and aqueducts.

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It is during the reign of Emperor Maximus III that Orissia was to expand its frontiers overseas. At first the Empire had contented itself with conquest of the north-west of the black-lands of Ifriquya, and the domination of the lands that once belonged to Punicia, and those of Deshret and Kemet. Expanding out across the sea to South-Agenor, namely to Kulævron whereupon the Empire within the first year saw to the establishment of friendly relations with some of the surviving cities and towns near the coast. It was with more than a little wisdom that he saw to it to ratifying his General Puntilius’ treaties with the local port-cities and villages full of Romalian and Kulævron citizens. These people were granted the citizenship that they might contribute and gain from the benefits of the Empire. Only barbarians were denied the citizenship as they were perceived to be inferior to the native people of the Romalian Empire.

In this way the Orissian conquest of Kulævron was bloodless, and it might have gone on unchallenged were it not for the Ogres of Korax sensing an opportunity to expand their realm invaded the southern lands. Doing so in coordination with the Zolusians’ who had annexed the Tirreinian peninsula and begun to move northwards into the central plains of South-Agenor, it was their hopes to finally realize the dream of their ancient King Korax I. It was the hope of the great founder of the nation that they might expand south and control the peninsula to the south of Korax.

It was with more than a little violence that they tore through the marcher lands just south of the mountains that separated the two kingdoms from one another. Orissian troops, reinforced by the local people of Kulævron were to call upon aid from Zolus to help in resisting the Ogres. The then still island nation of Zolus was eager to help and pounced upon the opportunity to invade Korax which they then did. This invasion was one of the most violent affairs that saw thousands of Ogres and their non-Ogrish subjects slaughtered en masse, and their corpses used to fill out foothills upon which the Zolusians built large stone-forts.

The Koraxians sued for peace which they received if only for three years, before Zolus continued its advance into their lands. Orissia consolidated its hold over Kulævron as this went on. Part of the way into the war they sought to advance into Korax themselves, as they had an agreement to carve the lands between Zolus and themselves. The Zolusians for their part were to betray their treaty with their southern neighbours, as their fleets suddenly swerved about and attacked those of the Orissians and even began raiding the northern coast of Ifriquya.

Cornered in this manner, Orissia’s peaceful advance north was halted, with the Imperial forces forced to consolidate what they had in Kulævron, even as the Empire sought to defend its lands in Ifriquya. The embassy sent from Orissia to Zolus was never heard from again, so that when the Orissians sought to avenge themselves the Zolusians’ claimed them to be perfidious and switched to an alliance with Theodosianople.

The Dorians advanced as far as the mountains east of Korax, with the Ogres fending them back, only for Zolus to finish their conquests, even as their Emperor Wilhelm III broke his treaty with Doria. Invading the lands they had invaded, which included their holdings in Tirreinia, he was to lay waste to all that they had and forced the Empire to concede Tirreinia and the lands north of it.

The lesson taken from this, for the Dorians was that Zolus was inherently untrustworthy and perfidious by nature, so that they never again made the mistake of trusting them again.

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The reign of Justius the seventh ruler of Orissia was to show itself to be an unmitigated disaster that left Orissia nigh on a smouldering ruin. Faced with the growing power of Zolus, he attempted to at first negotiate and compromise with ever growing desperation. It happened that his fervour for peace was correctly understood to belie his weakness, as Justius was a weak and venal man who cared more for his own appetites than for the dishonour he brought to his realm. It was with more than a little disdain that Zolus dispensed with trade and even legitimate causes for war and plunged forward. Seizing some of the territories of along the coast of Kulævron they lured the greater proportion of the Orissian fleet north near where Zolus itself was, and surrounded the navy with their smaller vessels. After this Orissia was tricked into a number of engagements in Tirreinia and Kulævron wherefore Zolus was to make for Ifriquya itself.

Bewildered and attacked now also in Kemet by the long-time ally of Orissia, the Valentium Empire that had been founded by Theodosian. The betrayer of Veritian, he had fled east with the vast treasury that Atenia had gathered, and had founded a city in the distant east, in Doria one that he called Theodosianople. It had grown to such a size that it was considered the Queen of Cities in South-Agenor, and controlled all naval trade in that region and also with its legions all land-based trade in the east of South-Agenor.

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A vast Empire, it had initially been a rival of Orissia and had during the reign of the fourth Empire become something of an ally with the two agreeing to trade after the Great Tirreinian War. They had agreed that Tirreinia was to remain within Dorian hands, while Kemet remained in Orissian ones, however with Theodosianople’s invasion of Kemet this ancient pact was ruptured.

Hardly equipped with the skills to thwart the flood of invasions, especially from the north and east, Justius was to attempt to negotiate once more. At this time, the Orissians thinking it to have been his fault were to have him slain. His killer who was captain of the city-watch was a man by the name of Agnaetius and was to have the gates opened to the Zolusians. Tricked by them, he was soon slain in the fighting that ensued with the Zolusians establishing thereafter their own governor to govern the whole of the Imperial heartland.

Thus began the next two centuries of shame and humiliation for the Orissians. Once the conquerors of two continents, they were reduced to little more than subjects of a northern Empire. Zolus endured for two centuries as a great power until at last it began to succumb to internal division, this division at last exploded into a massive civil war that saw every territory begin to break off. Deshret revolted, then sided with one of the warlords who rose up, while Kulævron fought to regain its independence just as the Koraxians did, with the two joining together. Then the Ogres’ resubmitted willingly, casting out the leader of the rebels, who fled to Orissia’s heartland, notably to the port-city of Ventiria.

It was there that Agnaetius joined with the likes of lord Gaius Ifricrinnus and a number of other noblemen who had fled the destruction of the Orissian Empire. There they had remained throughout the ‘Age of Subjugation’ as the Orissian chroniclers now dub it, as they bided their time to retake their former capital city. It was during this age that they had turned to banditry and piracy, building up their skill as sailors, as they also learnt from their myriad naval defeats at the hands of the Zolusians and Dorians.

A genius Scipio Ifricrinnus (a descendant of Gaius Ifricrinnus) was to lead them to a series of victories throughout the heartland of Orissia, and even helped in the retaking of the city by tricking the enemy into charging out of the city. Once the majority of their forces were outside it, a small group led by Ifricrinnus slipped into the city to burn the Zolusian banners so that they believed their cause lost. This accomplished Ifricrinnus then set about surrounding his enemy with his superior Ogre cavalry, whereupon he cut down the enemy where they stood.

The capital once more the property of Orissians, they gave thanks within the shrine of Amun-Re and Roma, before they set to work rebuilding the navy they had lost. In the wars that followed they supported Asram to their utmost and were to long after he was exiled from the Zolusian Empire hold him up as an example of manliness. Though his own people had rejected him, as had the Zolusians and Dorians, the alliance he had forged between Orissia and Korax lived on.

This alliance was to prove a nightmare to Zolus who had lost control by this time of both territories, and was forced to sue for peace to the new reigning Emperor. They even went so far as to trade princesses with the rival Empire so that they might continue to hold their lands within South-Agenor.

Ifricrinnus reigned well and after eleven years passed his throne to his son, who was husband to a princess of Zolus. His son Maximus Ifricrinnus was to for his part reign for twenty-two years, and was to expand the navy in preparation for a renewed war against Zolus, when Zolus was invaded by a new foreign foe.

It was at this time that the Second Wars of Darkness began.

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The Second Wars of Darkness were the most vicious wars of all times. Lands were sunk to the bottom of the seas, others raised up as the map of the world of Pangaea changed completely and utterly. Vicious fighting ensued which saw the vast majority of the many continents of Pangaea pile corpse upon corpse as they sunk into misery and decay. Empires were destroyed and kingdoms brought to ruin while new ones arose in defiance and desperation against the Dark Elves. It happened, that Orissia long the weakest of three Empires of South-Agenor arose where Theodosianople struggle and Zolus collapsed.

Her navy led by the illustrious Admiral Virilitian of legend, a son of Tempestas herself, he was stormy-eyed and dark of hair and sunk the enemy fleet in the battles of Ventiria, Punitia and Zarilias. The last of which saw the greatest of the foreign fleets destroyed as they were misled into a maelstrom at which time, the greater part of the heavier ships of the Orissian fleet struck them from behind.

This along with the Admiral’s heroics during the battle of Theodosianople, when he used the fleet to come to the rescue of the capital of Orissia’s chief rival just as the Dark Elves came very near to forcing their way in after an intensive three month siege, won Virilitian a Triumph. The most celebrated of the heroes of that age at least in Orissia, it happened that she herself was assailed during a land-invasion through Kemet. In that hour Aferian arose and joining his forces with those of the heroic Adanna he pushed back the enemy, and then defeated them and their Unliving reinforcements in the battle of Nesrukammil, in Deshret.

In all these victories along with a great many others allowed Aferian to turn his armies about, invade the heartland of the Empire and sweep his way to the throne. It was at this time that he took the now empty throne (for the prior Emperor had been slain in battle), and Aferian, who was the first man of proper Ifriquyan descent took the throne. Taking Adanna for his bride, he founded the Aferian dynasty and though not of traditional Orissian descent he enjoyed much of the support of the traditional aristocracy.

The line of Aferian began well with the founder ruling well, and with his successor being his son Thamaug who went on to prove himself a worthy heir to his father. As a youth he went on campaign to continuously maintain its borders, wherefore he in later years saw to the refurbishment of the city, resolved to ensure that his citizens should enjoy good, comfortable lives. He was cut short at fifty-seven years old, when he was knifed to death in his palace, with the culprit never found.

After his reign the dynasty fell to madness as they gave themselves over to excess and madness. Melchar was to prove the maddest, the heir to a competent ruler who longed to heal the wounds only to fall ill and perish shortly after his twenty-fifth jubilee as ruler. Melchar though reigned for but nine years and believed himself to be a woman, then at other times a god and still at other times to have discovered the fountain of youth. Mad and foppish, he was later slain by his brother Magrias who has ruled over the Empire for nearly thirty-six years and has guaranteed peace even as his reign has seen the acceleration of corruption and decline. The Empire no longer has a competent officer core, no longer show-cases a powerful navy and is consumed by division and poverty, as its currency becomes ever more debased.

Into this medley of decline of this diseased Empire, steps Lachlan the Caled…

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Essay #2

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At the time of the destruction of the city of Roma, Ossiria’s founder was one of Véritien’s legates/generals and was said to have been born a peasant, and rose to the position of legate. A half-barbarian from the lands to the east of Korax, he was to just before Véritien’s death, claim the classic genii and statues of Roma, Anhur and a small collection of statues of the Vanir from Roma, and brought them to Véritien. This general was named Maximus Ossirius and he was to after the death of his liege get captured by the traitor Theodosian, and handed over as the murderer of Véritien, wherefore he escaped from the city with the assistance of a Dwarf, who broke his chains and helped to secure his escape.

Fleeing with the god statues on a boat, he was to flee to Ifriquya, as Zolus he knew to already be lost and did not trust the King there. Arriving in Ifriquya he was to take command of the local forces, including Punitia which was sacked years after the Calamity that wrecked Roma.

Rebuilding the city after Zolus’s sack, he was to found a more secure city to the south-west and was from there to take command of ever more mercenary forces stationed in the Infriquyan provinces. Recruiting them as he had taken control of the vast Punitian mines and mercantile trade, so that he might forge the region into an Empire, Maximus was to build a vast Ifriquyan city along Romalian lines with eight aqueducts and powerful walls that none could break. Relying on the genius of an Ogre Master-Builder trained in Roma and Astavheimr so that he was one of the finest architects of history.

Maximus reigned for forty-three years, and reorganized the religion into a mixture of Kemetian-Romalian, and was to also found the navy and Ossirian legions. Re-forging the mercenary companies into a proper army, and also converting what warrior-tribes he can into legions.

After his reign, his successors would expand the Empire southward, and ever further east until Kemet & Deshret were incorporated into the Empire. The great wall to the south of the empire and that cuts off the eastern provinces from the heartland of Ossiria were built by the second Emperor of the second dynasty, this Emperor Maximus III was descended from Maximus I’s wife’s cousin and was to oversee the construction of the walls in order to keep barbarians out and was built twenty meters thick and hundreds of meters high.

Maximus III was assassinated though, and his successors didn’t rule as well, with the eastern province of Kemet was lost, and the rest was consolidated until Zolus rose and took it all from them and left Ossiria on the back-foot and in a defeated position with only a few territories in the south-west left.

When Asram the Ogre arrived, it happened that the lord Scipius Ifricrinnus was to retake the heartlands, including the capital city of Ossiria which Zolus had taken centuries before. Scipius the Glorious was to retake all the old lands, and reforge the Empire anew and helped to severely weaken Zolus.

After him though, the Empire was to struggle in the east against the Mardukian hordes and Dark Elf forces, when they invaded with the aid of the Unliving (Undead) and this led to the Empire facing a period of steep decline. They were to do better than most others, and with the power of her navy destroy many of the Dark Elves’ attempts to fight against them by sea, with the Ossirians’ final battle being at sea, in the battle of Activium where forty-thousand Dark Elves, and twenty-thousand Mardukians were drowned or slain off the coast of one of the many isles some distance from the coast of Ifriquya.

The trouble is that after these battle the Dark Elf; Bedronias was to become a key advisor for a number of centuries, to the succeeding line of Emperors. Under his influence, the Empire grew in wealth even as it neglected its navy, and armies which eventually became ever more emaciated until the navy was disbanded, and thus piracy, Viking and Amazonian raids began to wreak havoc on the Empire. Meanwhile, as her overseas possessions dwindled her Emperors’ souls became enslaved by Bedronias, who neglected also the eastern provinces, which were invaded by Mardukians, and southern tribes, while Deshret was lost to Theodosianople’s new Drakonikan line.

The Empire prefers to as she burns now leave the manning of her walls to her last remaining legions (which have been reformed into camel riding warriors, and javelin-throwers and slingers), with the people preferring to leave toil to the slaves while they entertain themselves endlessly in the magnificent Circus Scipia at the centre of the city and the Hippodrome not far from there, or the grand Theatre of Flaviona not far from the Cerulean Palace where the Emperor resides. The current line of Emperors are decadent, weak and mere puppets of Bedronias whom remains a mystery and unknown to most Ossirians, while the nobility cut down one another or squabble or entertain themselves endlessly. Meanwhile the Wavikinian Guard (a Norse set of guards) and Scarlet-Dragons the twin body-guard units of the Emperor have become utterly corrupted and part of Bedronias’s hand against the monarchy, with the former personally paid for by him and scrutinized while the latter are handpicked by him from amongst the nobility and so are utterly useless as proper guards.

Into this stage enters Lachlan of Caledonia/The Western Isles.