Reziand – The Evine Empire

Hundreds of years ago, so the legends say, there was a small trading village situated on the ruins of the Great Highway. It was known as Evi Estrinus, and it was extremely unremarkable. Traders from the cultured lands far to the north and the great empires far to the south came through on their way to the opposite side of the continent, but none of them stayed for long – the earthquakes were frequent and strong. It was never a large trading hub, because other cities near it were slier, prettier, or more powerful. However, it had the advantage of being the farthest east city in the primitive West.

It was the early, frozen morning, just before the first snowfall, when the strangest traders of all arrived. They came riding huge, steaming horses, dressed in black robes inlaid with the richest gold, and they carried jewels, spices, and above all tales – tales of the enormous, fertile grassland that lay just beyond the small mountain range the earthquaked emanated from. They exchanged tales of their land with the villagers, and then they moved on to the larger and greater cities of the West, eager for trade.

Over the next six-hundred years, the mountains went up. The East could no longer send emissaries over the mountains, and the seas had grown stormy. All that remained of the Eastern contact were the records of a few hundred years of trade. Worse still, the now-growing city of Evi Estrinus was nearly completely destroyed by a large earthquake and drowned shortly after by the new rivers falling from the mountains. The refugees went into the mountains and founded a new city, and from this base they built an empire.

The flood that destroyed Evi Estrinus created the body of water now known as Lake Evinus, now renowned for its purity, cleanliness, and above all, its invincible trade power. The one who controls Lake Evinus controls continental trade. So, when the refugees of Evi Estrinus, the first to realize the potential of lake trade founded the city of Frostwater, and began sending their long trade ships around to the cities of the area, they got very, very rich very, very fast. Frostwater flourished, and it was only a matter of time until their sister cities got into the business as well. The first two to adopt Frostwater’s method maritime trade were Highwater and Rivermouth. After a few decades of competing for trade and power on Lake Evinus, the Evine cities, as they had come to be known, came to a shocking realization: if they simply allied with each other, they would be invincible. So, this is exactly what they did. And out of that alliance of empires came The Empire that would dominate Western politics and trade for the next hundred years.

The Evine Empire is a ludicrously powerful trade power, and it has lost none of its edge in the five-hundred years since its inception. This is mostly because its nobility are without a doubt the sharpest and most absurdly clever people in the world, with two close competitors. This in turn is due to the way the Empire is set up – officials are elected to govern a province, and the workers put their faith in the official’s hands. Anybody can run. They just have to prove that they really smart. As such, there’s a lot of competition, and you can bet that whoever wins the election is going to be a trade grandmaster. The guy who wins the Ministerial election (the head of a province) is going to be one of the smartest and most brutal people in the world. Combine that with immense wealth and an amazingly advantageous geographical position, and you’re good to go. The only reason they haven’t totally conquered the world is because the competition doesn’t work the same way as they do. The Magelanders have magic, the Imisarans have soldiers, and the Isilians, well…

The Evines hate the Isilians. And not the playful kind of school rivalry hatred either. We’re talking the hatred of a country that has been dominant and excessively powerful with no challengers for its entire history, and suddenly finds that it has a serious challenger. The Isilians are just as good at everything as the Evines, and they have the sea. This makes their trade potential extremely widespread, and makes Isiliun the richest city in the world. The Evines are not happy. Their privateers are.

As for why they don’t have armed forces with which to invade Imisara, the reason is this: they have a smart, cynical, free, and aware working-class, who at any point in their lives can join the upper class if they really try hard. These people are in no way motivated to run off and die for their country, because they have fine lives right where they are, and they aren’t going to be any better off for territorial gains. People have generally just stopped asking for foot soldiers now. The country does have a small and extremely well-trained body of career soldiers, who are all amazingly well-paid and in no way expendable. They are only used for defense, even though the Empire hasn’t been invaded in history. Mostly they march around and occasionally decimate any attacking enemies in border wars. They’re very pretty.

On the whole, the Evine Empire does rather well for itself. It is virtually unassailable – until its trade position weakens. If that ever happens, all hell can and most definitely will break loose.

Important Evinites

Supreme Regent Cassius Asein is the ruler of Highwater. Unofficially. On the record, the ruler is Prince Felix Admari, but, well, he’s nine years old. The last son of Admari line, Felix’s parents died in a boating accident shortly after he was born. Lord Asein took the reins of the kingdom, and has steadily taught Felix everything he knows. He plans to leave the kingdom to Felix once the boy turns fifteen, because let’s face it, the whole Grand Vizier power-grab move is really pretty useless when you’re already one of the richest, most powerful men in the world. Until then, however, Cassius is doing everything he can to carve an even more unassailable spot for the Evine Empire, so that when Felix takes power, the Isilians won’t have a chance to take advantage of him.

Physically, Cassius is the archetypal Advisor – tall, skinny, with a finely groomed wire-beard and bright beady eyes. Scheming and conniving constantly, he is an extremely shifty person. However, all of his labors are motivated by patriotism and love for his adopted son. If some of the labors happen to fall into his sleeves, just forget them. They didn’t really matter.

High Minister Saevelis Vulprisen is effectively Lord Asein’s exact counterpart in the south. The lord of Rivermouth, he command the enormous trade empire of the city with a well-tempered hand. He was elected seventeen years ago, and has not been voted out since. This is partly because he is slightly above the mark in matters of trade, which is really saying something in the an office filled by the best merchants in the world, but mostly because of his pioneering work in diplomacy.

The Imisaran Empire has long been a hostile and unfriendly neighbor to the Evines, preferring to keep to its self-contained trade-and-fight lifestyle and wallow in it. However, somehow, magically, Lord Vulprisen has managed to open them, however cautiously, to trade with the north. This is totally unprecedented. People say that his next expedition may even be to the long-unknown and feared lands of the East. People, in fact, are not too far from the truth, although it is a touch more daring than trade with the east.

Baron Serimund Evi Enver is the ruler of Frostwater, the most beautiful city in the world. Or at least, the denizens of Frostwater like to say that. He is the foremost voice in the world for peaceful contact with the East, even though nobody knows what’s over there. This has led some people to say that he is the world’s foremost humanitarian. This is strange, considering the fact that he’s also a mass murderer.

He was the bastard son of the previous king, who had at least twenty sons, only thirteen of whom were legitimate. Baron Enver killed every single one, along with his father, his father’s four mistresses, and his father’s obnoxious lap-dog, just for good measure. Baron Enver is absolutely terrifying. He is six feet tall, with corded muscles and flaming eyes. He wears only grey. He is also a surprisingly charming public speaker, and he has a very nice smile. Most of the public doesn’t make a deal out of his big murders anymore, partly because of his brilliant trade, diplomatic, and exploratory policies, partly because of his smile, and partly because he killed eighteen people and a dog. At least.

Next: The Republic of Isiliun.

~ by pieboy on September 18, 2007.