The Alammar Empire

The Alammar Empire was the first and only nation to unite the entire continent under their rule, for about 2000 years, laying the groundwork for civilizations, cultures, and governments to come. Founded by William the First, more commonly known as William the Great, the Alammar Empire started as a regular city-state in the Wild Era.

History - Founding

In the Wild Era, human civilization was in the long, arduous, and oftentimes bloody process of developing. The Wild Era is actually a blanket term used for the period between the first hunter-gatherer groups to the development of different nation-states to the founding of the Alammar Empire. The Alammar Empire started as a small city in the north of the continent, somewhere on the Ravenna-Valdar border, leaning toward the Valdarian side. The city, Ajanha, was unremarkable, located near a lake which was used for crops, but other than that there was nothing remarkable about it. It saw little combat, maybe a a bandit raid every few years or so, but there was little to fight over.

The rise of the Alammar Empire began when the Gods, looking in from the Swathe decided it would be cool and much easier to comprehend if there was only one human nation on the continent, plus they wanted to get back on track with the whole dominant species thing after the Giants all died. As such, they decided to sponsor one Emissary and get that one guy on the track to conquer the whole world. As it turned out, that one guy was William the Great, who was suddenly urged on and advised by all five of the Ancient Gods to claim power. William, who was a scholar and a failed merchant, had always held grand aspirations of creating his own state or otherwise being a successful noble, so when the Ancient Gods started egging him on, he accepted the calls wholeheartedly.

Quickly, William gained popular support within Ajanha, proclaiming himself a divine savior sent down from the gods in order to unify the world, which he technically was, and the people, tired of their current life, ate up the story, and his vague but grand sounding promises of a better life, gathering behind William in droves. While the ruling elite, the minor nobles, powerful merchants, magistrates, and others in favor of the ruling Oligarchy rallied against William's movement, the tide could not be stopped, with the rulers being unable to rally any sort of citizen militia, and their own personal guards being unable to stem the tide. The fate of the Ajanha city government was sealed when Prophet Pojia rallied behind the rebels by urging of the gods. Within a few months, the central Oligarchy was forced out by William, and he ascended to power.

Immediately William declared himself the Holy King of the Kingdom of Alammar, a new city-state focused around Ajanha. It doesn't take long for WIlliam's ambitions to begin spreading outward, egged on, again, by the gods. Popular support is quickly achieved, with support from the Prophet, an established figure of the old government and with aid being sent to the farmers, a vital cornerstone of society, Williams rule is solidified. Any opposition is smothered or buried in tides of support for the new Holy King. As such, the Kingdom of Alammar began to recruit and put together a professional army, a concept that isn't new, but still not commonly used due to the costs that such an army incurs. With tips from the gods, William was able to quickly establish a trained army, along with appointing skilled generals to lead.

Soon after, William began a campaign against his neighbors, taking nearby cities and towns with ease, defeating their poorly trained and equipped citizen-militias, unifying the south of current day Valdar under his rule. William, throughout his reign, was mostly based on expansion and conquest rather than administration of his territories. While the initial mode of government was good for ruling Ajanha and a few other cities, on the scale that he was now beginning to reach, the ramshackle government based on whatever felt good didn't cut it. As such, to put off actually ruling his expanding Kingdom and later Empire, he appointed military governors to rule over select regions until he could get around to actually building a government.

The early Kingdom of Alammar was one based on conquest and military strength. As it expanded to encompass all of modern day Valdar, then expand into the eastern reaches of modern Ravenna, it began to unite a great number of different peoples, different ethnic groups and different governmental systems. If the Kingdom were to falter for even a second, be defeated in battle or have its army decimated by some other nation, then the Kingdom would collapse as soon as it appeared. Alammar was a house of cards, waiting for the barest breath to knock it over. WIlliam knew this, and knew that his army was his main strength. It was needed to put down revolts, to keep the peace, to keep expanding and to keep propagating the Kingdom of Alammar.

Throughout the world, Alammar only continued to snowball. The Royal Army made brilliant strategy after brilliant strategy, continually outwitting, outmanuevering, outnumbering, and overpowering their enemies, growing with every yard of land taken. Eventually, after conquering the rest of Ravenna, William declared the Alammar Empire, and crowned himself High King, being nicknamed the Great Ordained Emperor of Man. The Fervoni Holy Union rallied behind Alammar, supporting them wholeheartedly, giving them much needed resources and support in their conquest. Adding to this, in the Urysas mountains, explorers would find the Solamina Solution, which would then be used to create the The Knights of Solamina, adding to the overkill of the Imperial Army.

The main enemy faced by the new Alammar Empire was the Efil Confederacy, located in the Efil Pass, a vital location for both trade and to get to the south of the continent to continue the conquest. Made up of a number of different nations, they were in staunch opposition to the expansion of the Alammar Empire throughout their expansion of the north. They held a chokepoint and intended to keep it. The Efil Confederacy was only defeated due to the gods spilling their secret weaknesses, and having those weaknesses exploited. Otherwise, Alammar suffered little resistance in it's expansion, decimating the rest of the continent's combined efforts with a strong Army, even flanking some of the coastal nations with their strong Imperial Navy. In the course of about four decades, the Alammar Empire managed to unite the entire continent under their rule.