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Description

Though the Kiskxa’lak Empire is nothing more than a bygone memory of the past, it has had massive impacts on the nations that came after the collapse. From religion, to culture, to language, the impact of the Empire cannot be understated.

Back in its day, the Empire went through two different styles of government. The first was a dynasty, and the whole Empire was at the control of a single dynast, with that dynast being a Queen. The dynasty that ruled over the Empire for a few hundred years was the Rusk dynasty. The dynasty, however, eventually collapsed in a rebellion, as the dynasty was an oppressive one, one which embraced slavery and forced its citizens to conform to the will of the dynast herself.

After the dynasty had been overthrown, the Empire was left in a temporary state of lawlessness. With the police force having been abolished alongside the Rusk dynasty, ideologies began to vie with one another, with the herds themselves fighting with one another for whatever ideology they believed in. These ideologies were political, and some wanted the dynasty to be restored, while others wanted to see a new government form, and some even wanted the whole Empire to collapse into smaller nations. After a few months of battle, a small faction managed to seize control of the “green dominion.” The green dominion was what was left behind after the collapse of the dynasty. Having found a large cache of weapons in the green dominion, this faction took control of the green dominion and the surrounding territory. In its place, they set up a small government, one which was run by a small council of especially powerful Queens. This initial council was made up of 5 Queens, who oversaw the whole faction. The females were in charge of relaying information from the kithtakols to the Queens.

With the fighting continuing, the faction went on to battle these smaller collectives, and they crushed them. The majority of those annexed and taken by the faction were granted life in exchange for eternal slavery. However, some especially vexing collectives were wiped out completely.

As time rolled by, the faction began to restore the Empire, annexing land with the thousands of slaves they amassed. And eventually, around 80 years later, the Empire had reformed. However, it was now under the control of the faction, which was now referred to as the “Guardian Council.” The Council itself was made up of 9 of the most powerful Queens, and these Queens resided in the luxurious palace that belonged to the former dynasty.

The Council itself, while initially commanding the citizens through force, feared another rebellion may occur, and so instead began to mandate their rule through a reward-based system. Those who embraced the Empire, embraced its policies, would be rewarded with money for their contributions and would be rewarded with food, drink and protection for their contributions.

As the Empire expanded its influence, it came into contact with smaller collectives. Most were opposed to being annexed by the Empire, but through bribery, they were eventually taken into the Empire.

But regardless, in its initial years, the Council held complete control over the Empire, and there was no one to keep their power in check. Eventually, this led to a small uprising against the Council, with many Shrith fearing another oppressive regime. So, to fix this and avoid another rebellion, the Council began to work on one of the most important documents in the history of the Empire.

With this document, the Council’s power was now stripped of them, and they could no longer pass laws or control the military. Rather, the laws, now, were made by a collective of hundreds of females who would convene together in the capital. These females, now “nobles,” represented their domain, and each domain had only one noble. These nobles, with their new power, had the ability to create laws. However, they did not have the power to actually pass laws. Instead, it was the Council’s job to pass the laws. But this could only be done if the majority of the Council was in agreement. If the Council was in favor of the law, it would be passed and enforced through the military police. If the Council was not in favor, though, then the law would be sent back to the nobility. If this happens, then the law is scrapped. But what is to stop the Council from rejecting every law made? While not common in the Empire, there was a contingency in place for a stubborn Council. If the Council itself kept denying the passing laws, then the nobility could elect Council members out of office, replacing them with who they thought would be a better fit. However, this was cleverly exploited by the nobility. With this power and no one to challenge it, the nobility cleverly replaced whichever Council member they deemed “unfit,” replacing them with someone more “suitable.” By “suitable,” the nobility meant anyone who agreed with them. This led to much corruption in the government, and it brought the Empire close to a second collapse. But regardless, it was really the nobility who held control over the Empire. The Council served more as a cloak than anything.

The main religion followed by the Empire and most of its other contemporaries was that of kta’ndo’th. Kta’ndo’th as a religion states that the world is one super massive organism, and that it is living and breathing. Its rivers are its veins, the soil is the skin, and the animal life running about are its organs, constantly keeping the world running. The role the Shrith play in all this is as a mediator between the living world and the three Gods. Kta’ndo’th teaches that the Shrith are the “tools” of the Gods, and that they have been endowed with the highest of intelligence to look after and tend to the animals and the planet all about and to spread their seed to the world. Intelligence was said to be the force of the Gods, who planted the world with a supernatural force that kept the animals alive. To harness this spiritual flow, the very early Shrith erected large obelisks to help harness and guide this flow, which also served as the center for religious gatherings.

In addition, the religion preached of reincarnation, and the only way to ascend up through the spiritual ranks is to live a righteous life, a life molded by the Svolto’m, the main holy book of the Kiskxa’lak people.

While the religion has since been replaced by its successor faiths, it played an integral and deep role in the lives of those who lived in the Empire. Shrith of all sexes, genders and castes were expected to pray at least three times a day, with some praying more than others. Prayer in the Empire could be a solo act or a group act. Two of the three daily prayers were done on personal time, with the other being done during church service.

Ritual sacrifices were a large part of the Empire’s faith, and at the end of every year, the Shrith, save for the guards and soldiers, would sacrifice their yields (for working kithtakol Shrith) or would sacrifice an artifact of personal value (for the nobles and Council members). They would dump their offerings into a large fiery pit, with the flames engulfing most that was thrown in. This was done every year to pay tribute to the Gods and let them know how grateful the Shrith were to have been given the gift of life.

The end of the year and the beginning of the new year was celebrated with the offerings and sacrifices, which lasted around a full day, and the beginning five days of the new year was spent celebrating in the streets, churches and in the homes.

Culturally, the Kiskxa’lak Empire was a melting pot of cultures. Being so large, it assimilated many of the cultures held by smaller herds or superherds that had been annexed. However, culture became more “standardized” the closer one got to the capital. The ‘standard” culture of the Empire modeled itself after the dynasty before, with a heavy emphasis of tradition, herd and conformity. The further one got from the capital, though, the more wild the cultures began to become, at least compared to that of the capital and its neighboring wards. While the cultures were tolerated, there was always some type of lazy attempt to get them to convert and live in the culture of the two settler herds. Sometimes this worked, sometimes it didn’t.

The Kiskxa’lak Empire was famous for producing some of the most intelligent nobles the world had ever seen, and these nobles, occupying the professions of math, science, philosophy and literature, would help to plant the Empire as a shining beacon of culture and knowledge.

Common clothing worn in the Empire consisted of a simple robe, which came in the colors red, blue, brown and sometimes orange. On their feet, citizens usually would wear either sandals or boots, depending on what caste the individual was in. Workers would wear boots while farmers wore sandals. Robes were common because they were cheap to make and helped to keep the citizens safe from the suns’ rays. They were made of a canvas-like fabric.

Nobles, on the other hand, would wear tunics made of a soft and breathable fabric, and the tunic was almost always dyed green, which was and still is seen as the color of royalty considering green is a rare dye, at least in the south west region of the continent Thpira’shi. Green dyes had to be imported from all the way up north, where they were more common.

While all nobles were females, not all females were nobles. The vast majority of Shrith females stayed at home, tending to the Queen and keeping the home clean and orderly. Because females (excluding nobles) rarely left their homes, they often dressed in simple robes and walked about barefoot.

The Queen herself would often wear a green robe and also walked about barefoot. However, the Queen would also wear green bands around her “wrist,” which was seen as a status symbol.

Lastly, drones would wear a brown or blue robe and a red scarf on their head.

Militarily, the Empire was a force to be reckoned with, a force no one dared to challenge. The Empire, due to its vast wealth of resources after having taken control over the whole peninsula and other plots of land, laid claim to a vast wealth which it could use to trade with the neighboring nations. Through the trading of precious resources, the Empire was able to amass a fortune of wealth, of which it spent a good chunk of on the military, investing in better armor, better weapons and more food for its troops. No other nation possessed the resources nor the wealth necessary to build up their own militaries like how the Empire could.

The military was split up into three main branches, those being the Imperial Navy, Imperial Army and Imperial Scouts. The role of the navy was to guard the coasts of the Empire and engage in battle with other sea-faring enemies. The army was responsible for protecting the homeland of the Council, and could be deployed externally as both an offensive and defensive force, and could be deployed internally if the enemy had pierced the Empire’s borders. Lastly, the scouts were a branch of military dedicated to surveying the land and expanding the Empire's territory. While, at its height, the Empire had no need to expand anymore, the Scouts were still kept as a surveying branch, whose job had shifted from surveying and expanding to surveying and responding quickly to enemy attacks. Together, these three branches comprised the Imperial Military.

The military was, at one point, completely controlled by the Council, though this right was stripped from them in their transition from one way of government to the other. Now, the power of the military was in the hands of the nobility. However, for the military to be used, the nobles had to first agree to use the military in the first place. If the majority opted to use the military, they did, while if the majority opted not to sue the military, they didn’t. Seeing as how they ultimately had authority over the military, the Council was held at constant gunpoint, since the nobility could potentially order the military to destroy the Council.

To maintain its control and influence over its territory, the Empire constructed a vast network of roads, all of which, sooner or later, returned back to the capital. The roads were constructed from cobbled stone, and were used for a variety of reasons, from connecting the wards to transmitting messages and helping in getting military personnel from one place to the next. With its complex road system and powerful military, the Kiskxa’lak Empire could have very well expanded even farther, but it didn’t. The reason for this could be boiled down to a few reasons, but the simple explanation is that the Empire had already laid claim to so much land and resources it simply didn’t need more.

Yet the Empire was not immortal. Although the Empire was able to reform and stand strong for many more centuries, the Empire was not immune to collapse, and collapse it did. The Empire’s collapse was the culmination of many different reasons, from a failing economy, enemy empires, the incompetence of some of the nobles, but the biggest reason for its collapse had to do with shifting religious beliefs among its citizens, sparking internal holy skrimishes, which later turned into internal holy battles, which culminated in the prerequisite of the first Continental War, which fractured the Empire in a single day. In a single day, hundreds of years of progress was destroyed.

While the Kiskxa’lak Empire has since passed, it still lives on in the nations after it, with many having adopted many facets of the Empire into their own collectives.

Description

Though the Kiskxa’lak Empire is nothing more than a bygone memory of the past, it has had massive impacts on the nations that came after the collapse. From religion, to culture, to language, the impact of the Empire cannot be understated.

Back in its day, the Empire went through two different styles of government. The first was a dynasty, and the whole Empire was at the control of a single dynast, with that dynast being a Queen. The dynasty that ruled over the Empire for a few hundred years was the Rusk dynasty. The dynasty, however, eventually collapsed in a rebellion, as the dynasty was an oppressive one, one which embraced slavery and forced its citizens to conform to the will of the dynast herself.

After the dynasty had been overthrown, the Empire was left in a temporary state of lawlessness. With the police force having been abolished alongside the Rusk dynasty, ideologies began to vie with one another, with the herds themselves fighting with one another for whatever ideology they believed in. These ideologies were political, and some wanted the dynasty to be restored, while others wanted to see a new government form, and some even wanted the whole Empire to collapse into smaller nations. After a few months of battle, a small faction managed to seize control of the “green dominion.” The green dominion was what was left behind after the collapse of the dynasty. Having found a large cache of weapons in the green dominion, this faction took control of the green dominion and the surrounding territory. In its place, they set up a small government, one which was run by a small council of especially powerful Queens. This initial council was made up of 5 Queens, who oversaw the whole faction. The females were in charge of relaying information from the kithtakols to the Queens.

With the fighting continuing, the faction went on to battle these smaller collectives, and they crushed them. The majority of those annexed and taken by the faction were granted life in exchange for eternal slavery. However, some especially vexing collectives were wiped out completely.

As time rolled by, the faction began to restore the Empire, annexing land with the thousands of slaves they amassed. And eventually, around 80 years later, the Empire had reformed. However, it was now under the control of the faction, which was now referred to as the “Guardian Council.” The Council itself was made up of 9 of the most powerful Queens, and these Queens resided in the luxurious palace that belonged to the former dynasty.

The Council itself, while initially commanding the citizens through force, feared another rebellion may occur, and so instead began to mandate their rule through a reward-based system. Those who embraced the Empire, embraced its policies, would be rewarded with money for their contributions and would be rewarded with food, drink and protection for their contributions.

As the Empire expanded its influence, it came into contact with smaller collectives. Most were opposed to being annexed by the Empire, but through bribery, they were eventually taken into the Empire.

But regardless, in its initial years, the Council held complete control over the Empire, and there was no one to keep their power in check. Eventually, this led to a small uprising against the Council, with many Shrith fearing another oppressive regime. So, to fix this and avoid another rebellion, the Council began to work on one of the most important documents in the history of the Empire.

With this document, the Council’s power was now stripped of them, and they could no longer pass laws or control the military. Rather, the laws, now, were made by a collective of hundreds of females who would convene together in the capital. These females, now “nobles,” represented their domain, and each domain had only one noble. These nobles, with their new power, had the ability to create laws. However, they did not have the power to actually pass laws. Instead, it was the Council’s job to pass the laws. But this could only be done if the majority of the Council was in agreement. If the Council was in favor of the law, it would be passed and enforced through the military police. If the Council was not in favor, though, then the law would be sent back to the nobility. If this happens, then the law is scrapped. But what is to stop the Council from rejecting every law made? While not common in the Empire, there was a contingency in place for a stubborn Council. If the Council itself kept denying the passing laws, then the nobility could elect Council members out of office, replacing them with who they thought would be a better fit. However, this was cleverly exploited by the nobility. With this power and no one to challenge it, the nobility cleverly replaced whichever Council member they deemed “unfit,” replacing them with someone more “suitable.” By “suitable,” the nobility meant anyone who agreed with them. This led to much corruption in the government, and it brought the Empire close to a second collapse. But regardless, it was really the nobility who held control over the Empire. The Council served more as a cloak than anything.

The main religion followed by the Empire and most of its other contemporaries was that of kta’ndo’th. Kta’ndo’th as a religion states that the world is one super massive organism, and that it is living and breathing. Its rivers are its veins, the soil is the skin, and the animal life running about are its organs, constantly keeping the world running. The role the Shrith play in all this is as a mediator between the living world and the three Gods. Kta’ndo’th teaches that the Shrith are the “tools” of the Gods, and that they have been endowed with the highest of intelligence to look after and tend to the animals and the planet all about and to spread their seed to the world. Intelligence was said to be the force of the Gods, who planted the world with a supernatural force that kept the animals alive. To harness this spiritual flow, the very early Shrith erected large obelisks to help harness and guide this flow, which also served as the center for religious gatherings.

In addition, the religion preached of reincarnation, and the only way to ascend up through the spiritual ranks is to live a righteous life, a life molded by the Svolto’m, the main holy book of the Kiskxa’lak people.

While the religion has since been replaced by its successor faiths, it played an integral and deep role in the lives of those who lived in the Empire. Shrith of all sexes, genders and castes were expected to pray at least three times a day, with some praying more than others. Prayer in the Empire could be a solo act or a group act. Two of the three daily prayers were done on personal time, with the other being done during church service.

Ritual sacrifices were a large part of the Empire’s faith, and at the end of every year, the Shrith, save for the guards and soldiers, would sacrifice their yields (for working kithtakol Shrith) or would sacrifice an artifact of personal value (for the nobles and Council members). They would dump their offerings into a large fiery pit, with the flames engulfing most that was thrown in. This was done every year to pay tribute to the Gods and let them know how grateful the Shrith were to have been given the gift of life.

The end of the year and the beginning of the new year was celebrated with the offerings and sacrifices, which lasted around a full day, and the beginning five days of the new year was spent celebrating in the streets, churches and in the homes.

Culturally, the Kiskxa’lak Empire was a melting pot of cultures. Being so large, it assimilated many of the cultures held by smaller herds or superherds that had been annexed. However, culture became more “standardized” the closer one got to the capital. The ‘standard” culture of the Empire modeled itself after the dynasty before, with a heavy emphasis of tradition, herd and conformity. The further one got from the capital, though, the more wild the cultures began to become, at least compared to that of the capital and its neighboring wards. While the cultures were tolerated, there was always some type of lazy attempt to get them to convert and live in the culture of the two settler herds. Sometimes this worked, sometimes it didn’t.

The Kiskxa’lak Empire was famous for producing some of the most intelligent nobles the world had ever seen, and these nobles, occupying the professions of math, science, philosophy and literature, would help to plant the Empire as a shining beacon of culture and knowledge.

Common clothing worn in the Empire consisted of a simple robe, which came in the colors red, blue, brown and sometimes orange. On their feet, citizens usually would wear either sandals or boots, depending on what caste the individual was in. Workers would wear boots while farmers wore sandals. Robes were common because they were cheap to make and helped to keep the citizens safe from the suns’ rays. They were made of a canvas-like fabric.

Nobles, on the other hand, would wear tunics made of a soft and breathable fabric, and the tunic was almost always dyed green, which was and still is seen as the color of royalty considering green is a rare dye, at least in the south west region of the continent Thpira’shi. Green dyes had to be imported from all the way up north, where they were more common.

While all nobles were females, not all females were nobles. The vast majority of Shrith females stayed at home, tending to the Queen and keeping the home clean and orderly. Because females (excluding nobles) rarely left their homes, they often dressed in simple robes and walked about barefoot.

The Queen herself would often wear a green robe and also walked about barefoot. However, the Queen would also wear green bands around her “wrist,” which was seen as a status symbol.

Lastly, drones would wear a brown or blue robe and a red scarf on their head.

Militarily, the Empire was a force to be reckoned with, a force no one dared to challenge. The Empire, due to its vast wealth of resources after having taken control over the whole peninsula and other plots of land, laid claim to a vast wealth which it could use to trade with the neighboring nations. Through the trading of precious resources, the Empire was able to amass a fortune of wealth, of which it spent a good chunk of on the military, investing in better armor, better weapons and more food for its troops. No other nation possessed the resources nor the wealth necessary to build up their own militaries like how the Empire could.

The military was split up into three main branches, those being the Imperial Navy, Imperial Army and Imperial Scouts. The role of the navy was to guard the coasts of the Empire and engage in battle with other sea-faring enemies. The army was responsible for protecting the homeland of the Council, and could be deployed externally as both an offensive and defensive force, and could be deployed internally if the enemy had pierced the Empire’s borders. Lastly, the scouts were a branch of military dedicated to surveying the land and expanding the Empire's territory. While, at its height, the Empire had no need to expand anymore, the Scouts were still kept as a surveying branch, whose job had shifted from surveying and expanding to surveying and responding quickly to enemy attacks. Together, these three branches comprised the Imperial Military.

The military was, at one point, completely controlled by the Council, though this right was stripped from them in their transition from one way of government to the other. Now, the power of the military was in the hands of the nobility. However, for the military to be used, the nobles had to first agree to use the military in the first place. If the majority opted to use the military, they did, while if the majority opted not to sue the military, they didn’t. Seeing as how they ultimately had authority over the military, the Council was held at constant gunpoint, since the nobility could potentially order the military to destroy the Council.

To maintain its control and influence over its territory, the Empire constructed a vast network of roads, all of which, sooner or later, returned back to the capital. The roads were constructed from cobbled stone, and were used for a variety of reasons, from connecting the wards to transmitting messages and helping in getting military personnel from one place to the next. With its complex road system and powerful military, the Kiskxa’lak Empire could have very well expanded even farther, but it didn’t. The reason for this could be boiled down to a few reasons, but the simple explanation is that the Empire had already laid claim to so much land and resources it simply didn’t need more.

Yet the Empire was not immortal. Although the Empire was able to reform and stand strong for many more centuries, the Empire was not immune to collapse, and collapse it did. The Empire’s collapse was the culmination of many different reasons, from a failing economy, enemy empires, the incompetence of some of the nobles, but the biggest reason for its collapse had to do with shifting religious beliefs among its citizens, sparking internal holy skrimishes, which later turned into internal holy battles, which culminated in the prerequisite of the first Continental War, which fractured the Empire in a single day. In a single day, hundreds of years of progress was destroyed.

While the Kiskxa’lak Empire has since passed, it still lives on in the nations after it, with many having adopted many facets of the Empire into their own collectives.