Zycharian Empire
Now little more than rubble in a dangerous and unforgiving land, the Zycharian Empire was once a world state consisting of the whole of humanity. So far as any historian can tell, it was the first large scale civilization, organized from whatever small tribes may have come before. It occupied modern day Zycharia and maintained a colonies and outposts across the known world.
The Zycharian Empire was significantly more advanced than any existing civilization. It possessed incredible weapons of blast salt and alchemy, wielded great miracles of arcane and druidic magic, and breathed life into enormous constructs of metal and stone. Much of this technology was either lost during the Empire’s collapse or purged by the Church’s inquisition throughout the centuries. What survives of this technology is hidden away deep in the treacherous land of Zycharia.
The Zycharian Empire is remembered both for its incredible achievements, and it’s horrifying cruelty. The Empire enforced strict eugenic policies and maintained absolute obedience to the state with draconian measures. It had a rigid social hierarchy and was ruled by an Empress who wielded absolute power, and was revered as a God. According to legend, a command given by the Empress of Zycharia could never be disobeyed.
After centuries, or even milennia of unchecked power and growing tension, the Empire was finally challenged by a rebellion pervasive enough to errode it’s control. While there had been many small scale insurrections throughout the years, each ruthlessly crushed, this rebellion was the first to significantly threaten the Empire. The fighting was bloody and lasted decades, and was only brought to an end with the arrival of Valra, whose might proved great enough to finally tip the balance in favor of the rebels.
Though most of the Empires collapse is attributed to the arrival of Valra, many historians argue that increasingly inhospitable conditions at the geographic heart of the Empire further pushed it into decline. Scholars backing these claims point to the dangers that exist to this day in the region, as well as accounts from rebel scouts reporting planes of magma where there were once loyalist strongholds, and entire cities and men simply melting away in the rain.
Upon the Empires collapse, the peoples who remained departed Zycharia to form the nations and kingdoms we know today, or in some cases their precursors. The account of the Zycharian rebellion and exodus was preserved through the church of Valra, which formed in the aftermath of these events.
The Zycharians practiced a philosophy religion of honoring concepts of social order, while paying due tribute to primordial forces. Because Valra did not arrive until the end of the Empire, and the school was developed by her clerics, the Zycharians did not possess Divine Magic.