A Brief History of the Imperium of Poliz

From the earliest recorded history of The Continent, Civilisations began to spring up along the coastlines, and they developed into prosperous networks of City-States. Nothing is known of the Inland during this period, but noted scholars have hypothesised that a number of nomadic tribes may have existed around the few rivers that dribble into the Great Centre. Three notable societies at this time are marked in the map as red, maroon and light blue; these are Poliz, the Paxists and the Zain respectively. We shall follow their existence through the history of The Continent. The map above shows the approximate boundaries of a number of other minor societies in existence that are mentioned. The Lintanii who inhabited modern-day Zenithar, for example, were often referred to by ancient Paxland scripts found in the ruins of the contemporary Ancient Scriptorium, as being trustworthy trade partners, and a private letter uncovered in an ancient village relatively close to Perth track the movement and growth of the Litanii peoples.

Sometime early in this period, while the Eastern coast was dominated by thousands of infighting minor City-States, a great invasion came from Nyi-Yoo-Zilland. The invaders dominated the ancient battlefields with their use of the Chariot, the veritable super-weapon of the period. These invaders came to be known as the Zain, a fierce, warlike peoples forced from their lands in Nyi-Yoo-Zilland by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, and in their great exodus, they swallowed the infighting factions and their lands and peoples, even driving the indiginous Nadierans from their island homeland Tasmania in the south. The Poliz, from their capital Isawawar, waged a bitter guerilla campaign against the Zain, while their Northern neighbours, of whom the name has now been lost, had city after city sacked thanks to the exotic seige equipment and refined skills of the Zain raiders. A single major battle is all that is recorded from what is otherwise merely noted as the Great Struggle.

Meanwhile, in the West, the City-States of Paxland prospered greatly under the divine leadership of the First Council. Trade and Tribute flowed through the ports on the coast, the farms yielded great harvests, and all who lived, prospered. The Council are reputed to have been the first and only Democracy on the Continent, and some outspoken and heretical scholars believe that Democracy may have been the reason for such prosperity.

A Scourge and Starvation: A Civilisation that Almost Never Was

The Zain continued ther genocidal push for domination of the Eastern coast, and the Poliz lost their sacred capital, which was sacked mercilessly, and were forced to find refuge over the Barrier Mountains in the West of their traditional territory. At the end of the period however, Polizian alchemists had discovered a wonderful mixture of sulphur, charcol and saltpetre, and united under an Emperor, the people of Poliz began to rise up against the Zain.

In the West, a great deal of political strife was unfolding among the Paxland cities, The Council (un-numbered after the first) had become a corrupt, plutocratic board of bloated aristocrats, and political stagnation had created huge cracks in the political landscape. Several of the burgoning, overpopulated Cities considered secession, and the increasingly rundown and poverty-stricken farming hamlets around the Riverina rebelled more than ever before. The Litanii were pushing West, forced by unnamed (at this stage) invaders, bringing them into contact with the Paxland border, creating tensions between the two nations. It was also a time of consolidation, the borders swelled as explorers spotted water sources and fertile land. In the latter half of this period, a number of zealots in Cult PAX, at the time, a minor district Cult rallied, and organised a great serf rebellion. While thousands were slaughtered as they were thrown at the walls, the the PAX fanatics managed to whip the collective lowest classes into such a frenzied state that they overpowered the guards at the High Fane and slaughtered the entire Council. When the Elders of cult PAX learned of this, they immediately and successfully initiated a full political takeover. The Paxists were now ruled by an obscure Cult that shared the same name as the foodbowl valley that fed and sheltered their first citizens, and it became a Theocratic Oligarchy. Social mobility became possible, through service in the Cult or in the Army, and it became increasingly paradoxical as Cult Pax mobilised itself and its newly reorganised nation for War.

Reserved For Late Medieval

Reserved for Early Modern etc.