Twilight of Empires

The Asterian Empire is one of the great powers in Lunistria, occupying a vast, fertile territory bounded on the west by the ocean, the south by the Altan-Shan Mountains, the east by the Kring Plains, and to the north by the hill regions of the Elven Principalities. The Empire enjoys a climate similar to the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea (Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and is largely defined by the Aster River, which runs east to west for nearly two thousand miles. The Dan and Aldenrod river basins, north and south of the Aster's, are no less prosperous.

The story of the Empire begins with the Kingdom of Asteria, right before the end of the Degenerate Era. Blessed with prime real estate, an intelligent ruler, and a competently organized military, the kingdom quickly expanded past the city-state stage, and forged fairly lucrative alliances with it's neighboring fiefdoms.

Then, in the early years of the Imperial Era, the Warlord Draacht began to expand his territory in Asteria's direction. The alliance turned to King Douje I to lead them, and after a decade of warfare, Draacht was no more, and Douje was crowned Emperor.

With speed equal to that of Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan, Douje claimed nearly the entire Aster river valley before his death. His son, Douje II, spent a dozen years contending with the Capitaine of Aldenrod before that region fell to imperial rule. It wouldn't be until IE 190 when Gondor the Magnificent slew the Greater Dragon Aragan Wyrmking that the priest-kings of Dan would sign on. Technically, they offered the crown and the hand of the princess to Gondor: he kept the girl, and turned the crown over to Empress Isla I. (Possibly to keep Isla from trying to marry him herself!)

(Insert nine hundred years of internal and international political complexity here.)

Around IE 1100, Emperor Eso I, fed up with his nobility, and frankly a lazy man himself, began the process of giving more and more power to the bureaucracy. This is considered the beginning of the Empire's current slide into degeneracy and collapse. The Grand Ducal houses appear to be pushing back against the bureaucracy, but it is entirely possible that they are only making things worse.

The Empire is huge, and has immense resources in agricultural, mineral, and cultural products. While a notable fraction of this wealth is drained off by the expected corruption, the bulk of the populace still lives prosperous lives, largely due to the Farmer Bobb effect.

Commercially, the great rivers (Aster, Dan, Aldenrod) are the core of Ateria's mercantile success. Most trade roads lead perpendicularly to (or from) these watercourses.

• Aldenrod River
• Central Asteria
• Dan River
• Far-Eastern Asteria
• North-Eastern Asteria
• Southern Highland Region

• War
• Lost Brothers Mountains
• Pillar of Luminar

• Aragan Wyrmking: The only Greater Dragon known to have been killed in the Imperial Era. His final decades had him functioming as the God-King of the Dan River region, until Gondor had at him with That Sword.
• Douje: First Emperor, conqueror of the Aster river basin. Put Warlord Draacht into his grave.
• Draact: Historical warlord. Published a well written book on running a totalitarian state. Failed to conquer the Kinddom of Asteria.
• Eso I: Twelfth century emperor. Lazy, and fed up with his nobles: he is responsible for the empowerment of the bureaucracy.
• Gondor the Magnificent: the greatest hero of the Imperial Era. Saved the empire several times, killed a greater dragon, married a princess, sired gods-only-know how many children.
• Isla I: Empress in the second century, beneficiary of the exploits of Gondor the Magnificent. Probably one of his lovers.
• Tarma: First Empress, Douge's first wife. Oddly better respected in folklore than her husband. She has a temple in the south-central empire.