Sancturi Empire¶
"Welcome to the Grace of the Sancturi." — a Sancturi greeting (S132)
Contested
Named in the open question Sanctorum's destruction and the Sancturi rising: the Fifth Age sources disagree on the years of the Imperium's founding and of the Great Purge.
The Sancturi Empire is the theocratic human empire that dominated the Broken Sea through the middle centuries of the Fifth Age, from the rising in the ruins of Sanctorum in 522 SM to that city's fall to the Araxians in 904 SM. Its people worshipped the Sancturi Pantheon of a Sun God and five others, called the old gods "Riven" and their worshippers "Riven-scum", and carried their faith outward in a century of legion campaigns against the Riven Kingdoms. By 704 SM the Imperium held just over five million people, as many as all the free kingdoms together. Its government, great houses, legions and clergy are described on their own pages; this page is about the land.
Also called: the Sancturi Imperium or simply the Imperium in the Sancturi-era documents, the Sanctum Imperium in the oldest notes; the newest sources say Empire.
History¶
Foundation¶
Sanctorum was founded in 2 SM and destroyed by a volcanic event in 513 SM. In 522 SM "rebels organized around a new faith" retook its ruins, "declare themselves and their gods the Sancturi", and began the Fae-Sancturi War against the Draconian power of Myrox that had overrun the eastern shore. "In 524 SM, the last dragon seen west of the Cloudwall mountains is defeated by Sancturi forces. Seen as the turning point of the conflict, the Draconian forces crumble quickly to the superior numbers of the Sancturi without their dragons in support." By 527 SM the draconians had abandoned the Broken Sea for Pherox, and by 554 SM "the Sancturi have consolidated their hold on Angorra, Myrkan and Turas" (see The Broken Kingdoms and Myrkan).
From 554 to 565 SM came the Great Purge: "the Sancturi purge all Riven (Kalari & Rakkari) priests and raze all shrines, churches and temples. Riven-worship is made a crime, and those refusing to convert to the Sancturi Pantheon are enslaved." The Imperium "spent the rest of the century building up its economy and military". In the late 590s expeditions were sent "to determine where best to expand the imperium. Acadia was ruled out due to Hollows and security issues. Lothkandar was ruled out due to lack of resources and poor climate. Danar and Corvald were identified as good prospects and the Sancturi began organizing and recruiting the Provincial Legions."
The Sancturi Campaigns¶
The Sancturi Campaigns of the 600s and 700s SM are the Imperium's expansion, legion by legion. Their conquests are described under Territory below. The Keepers of Abaddon, founded in the Imperium in 607 SM to hunt Hollows, were chartered in 618, broke themselves against the Acadian Hollow in 675 to 679, and in 681 saw their leaders "put on trial for treason and heresy" and executed; those who swore to the Sancturi founded the Dae'Venari in 685 SM.
A later generation of the campaign saw Brusau brought under the Imperium by treaty after the death of Queen Aalina Lorimer, its nobility "granted provincial Sancturi citizenship" in "the reorganized province of Brusau" while its capital Altandon was purged.
Fall¶
The Elder God Seth'Arax awoke in 721 SM, and the Araxian Wars followed. In 904 SM Sanctorum "fell to an Araxian onslaught", "throwing the already besieged Sancturi Empire into complete chaos that led shortly to its fragmentation". Survivors who fled north in the Unholy Flight founded the kingdoms that became the Divine Alliance, and the Divine Nations of a later age were among the "remaining Sancturi Empire" absorbed into Proturas. Proturas itself had been founded in 626 AL "as a secret refuge by exiled and outcast Kalari priests & Uk'Zerai from the Sancturi Empire and Northern Kingdoms", and by the time of the Proturan campaign, set "post-Sancturi era (the fall of the Sancturi Empire)", it was "the last bastion of the Kalari races in the north-eastern part of Astia". In the post-Sancturi world "the Mountain Dwarves have abandoned Terrun", the Hollows were destroyed in the Redemption, and rune magic, the Imperium's great art, was forbidden by the Divine.
Earlier accounts¶
The first campaign notes (S132), whose author wrote "Timeline is WRONG!" across them, have the new faction rise under God-Emperor Tolac in 516 SM, the Great Purge in the same year, "the remaining and scattered human factions, including many (but not all) of the Oesterkull" united by 517, the Sanctum Imperium established in 525 as settlement "moves substantially northwards towards friendlier climates", and in 550 SM "God-Emperor Aes'Solk ascends into heaven, leaving the God-Empress Aes'Ekhi to rule". The later timeline (S326) is followed above.
Territory¶
The Imperium's heartland is the south-eastern Broken Sea, where humanoid populations expanded fastest after the Dark Sun. In 704 SM it was divided into eleven provinces, each presided over by a Qeokrati, and within them into prefectures administered by the Great Houses. A prefecture may cover "a few villages" or "a large city and its surrounding towns", and is named for its prefect: "Falko Horst of House Arvumas is the Prefect over the Horst Prefecture." The Northern Prefectures border the Riven Kingdoms, and the Black Ring thieves' guild operates throughout them.
Ungorim Prefecture¶
Named in the clergy's examples of titles: an "Elder Juror of the Magisters at Racholm Temple in the Ungorim Prefecture" and a "Senior Captain of the Covenant at Algon's Watch in the Ungorim Prefecture". Racholm Temple also houses an Elder Accountant of the Sages. Every Sancturi temple "has at least 2 major wings (for Magisters and Sages) and 3 minor wings/spaces for the other branches", with a Vigil, a Temple Guard and a Covenant office.
Alcaster Abbey¶
A monastery of the Penitus Monks, home of "Brother Jacob of the Penitus at Alcaster Abbey".
The Grand Aryan Temple¶
A temple "in the north" known to an acquaintance of a Brusau knight met in Miralt; nothing more is recorded.
The Library¶
A library the Sancturi "give a pass, due to their past aid and under strict conditions". A Hollow infestation there "threatens their existence and must be dealt with quietly".
Praestic Monasteries¶
The handful of monasteries where Praestus, the powder that glows red in the presence of tainted Mithis, is produced. They "are often placed above ancient graveyards and catacombs", for Praestus "is produced using Ethereal magic, drawn from the bone of soul-bearing individuals. In some cases, living sacrifices are required when a supply of bone is not available." Its supply is closely controlled by the clergy.
Gap
None of Ungorim, Racholm, Algon's Watch, Alcaster, the Grand Aryan Temple or the Library is placed on a map or described beyond the lines quoted.
Conquests and provinces¶
| Land | Campaign | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Angorra, Myrkan, Turas | Fae-Sancturi War, consolidated by 554 SM | The old eastern kingdoms, the Imperium's first provinces |
| Danar | Obsidian Legions 614-674, Nightshade Legions 617-652 | Settlements in Southern Danar (614) and at Pesh (617); abandoned 652 and 674 before the undead |
| Corvald | Griffon Legions 624-641 | "open warfare was over with the petty kingdoms by 625 SM", twenty more years to stabilise |
| Rhyunn | Griffon Legions 644-653 | "the petty kingdoms in the area crumpled almost immediately" |
| Pevelor | Griffon Legions from 654 | Capitulated at once; forty years of orc raids |
| Vael'Doreis | Nightshade and Obsidian Legions 654-688 | Burned to ash; not settled, "a few roads crossing through the area" |
| Hills of Ghorresh | Nightshade Legions 690-698 | "Mostly a land grab and infrastructure campaign" |
| Arnyr | Obsidian Legions from 691 | "the largest Riven kingdom in the North", taken in twelve years |
| Faragond | Griffon Legions from 695 | Halted by the Necromancer in 698; the legions lost in 700 |
| Dalmar | Nightshade Legions from 700 | Floren crippled, Brusau pushed back; the frontier province |
The Danar Campaign on the Isle of Danar was fought against "the Wights and their armies of corporeal and incorporeal undead, as well as undead plagues, blights and roaming monsters", and "one result of this campaign was the development of Namakan Runebinding". Pevelor, Vael'Dorais, Ghoresh, Arnyr, Faragond and Dalmar Province have pages of their own.
Corvald¶
Identified with Danar in the 590s as a "good prospect" for expansion. The Griffon Legions began the Corvald Campaign in 624 SM; "open warfare was over with the petty kingdoms by 625 SM. However, the army took almost another 20 years to stabilize and civilize the area."
Rhyunn¶
The Griffon Legions' second conquest, begun in 644 SM, where "the petty kingdoms in the area crumpled almost immediately under the might of the Imperium. Using the lessons learned in Corvald, they were able to stabilize the area much more rapidly."
Lothkandar¶
Surveyed by the expeditions of the late 590s and "ruled out due to lack of resources and poor climate". Nothing else is recorded of it.
Gap
Corvald, Rhyunn and Lothkandar are placed nowhere relative to the Broken Sea and none of their petty kingdoms is named. The Imperium's eleven provinces are never listed.
People and society¶
The Imperium is a human empire. "Citizen races of the Sancturi include all human subraces, as well as some dwarves and oesterkull", and its citizens all belong to a house. The 704 SM count gave 2,100,000 Curcian and 1,850,000 Danari humans, 420,000 Naher and 125,000 Huur, 62,000 Dwarves, 61,000 Oesterkull and a few thousand Halflings, and, as slaves, 70,000 Wood Elves and 390,000 Orcs. Slavery is legal "and is especially common for Rivenfolk".
"Honor is the real currency in the empire. It is doctrine that Honor stems from the Sancturi and their representatives." Everyone inside the empire bears one of four marks tattooed in Praestic ink by the clergy: the Mark of Slavery (a house sigil on the cheek), the Mark of Freedom (a four-pointed star on the right hand or wrist), the Mark of Sancturi for clergy, and the Mark of Citizenship (a house sigil on the right hand or wrist). "A person with no mark has no rights (and will probably be sold into slavery by the nearest able citizen)." The castes, the marks, the law of Mord'ivarus and Sup'advena, and the path to citizenship are set out under Social Order and Law; the throne, the Great Council, the warlords and the Great Election under the Imperial Government; the five legions under the Sancturi Military; and the five branches of the religious caste under the Sancturi Clergy.
Hollows and Vigils¶
The Imperium is the one power on the Broken Sea organised against the Hollows. Every Sancturi settlement has at least one Vigil, a five-sided obelisk of melted-down Mithis objects kept inert by rune magic, where commoners "make their own blood sacrifices to empower the Vigil"; it is also "a poison pill for anyone conquering a Sancturi settlement", since without priests to maintain the runes "the area will quickly hollow". Praestic incense burns at gates and in churches, and some towns require faces painted with it. It is a capital offence to knowingly enter a Hollow without a seeking licence, which is granted only to groups holding a Sancturi cleric and an accredited runecaster (see the Seekers); the Dae'Venari of the Arbitori Bannerguard are "called in as the last resort, due to their numbers being few, their scorched earth tactics and expense". Hollowlocks, witches and all users of the taint are hunted.
Economy¶
Iron "has become quite rare and expensive" since the corruption of Mithis, so "most armor and weapons are made from bronze" and "a steel long sword is almost guaranteed to indicate nobility". The Imperium mints the gold Sun, the bronze Crow "bearing a bird on one side and sword and Sancturi symbol on the other", and the small triangular bit; gold and gems remain valuable within the Imperium though the Kingdoms prefer bronze. It is illegal to use foreign currency inside the empire, and the Sages operate its banks and counting houses (see Currency and Trade). Goods from colonies are "heavily taxed (20-50%), while internal goods are taxed much more lightly (5-20%)", and "stable and successful colonies are eventually merged into the empire". The Sancturi Navy controls the largest fleet on the Broken Sea, most of it guarding shipping from Riven pirates and Oesterkull raiders.
Relations¶
The Imperium regards the Riven Kingdoms as heathen and their peoples as "weak, soft and coddled"; in Alghert, Brusau and Miydal, in turn, Sancturi worship, agents or traders are barred or watched. Houses are forbidden open war at home but "fight proxy wars using secret alliances with Riven kingdoms" on the frontier. The Broken Sea Merchant Alliance is "barely tolerated", because it trades with the Kingdoms on the Imperium's behalf and many Great Houses hold shares in it; the Pirates of Azmeran target Sancturi shipping exclusively; Oesterkull raiders sell captives to Sancturi slavers "though this is technically illegal in the Imperium". The Brotherhood of the Sun is outlawed, any member of the White Fire "is a wanted criminal in the Imperium", and the Keepers of Abaddon are banned. Beyond the Broken Sea the Imperium's lands and the kingdoms together are "an enclave of humanoid kingdoms", with some seaborne trade reaching Thrace and Rhovun.
In Play¶
The Sancturi campaign offered arcs of "Rising in a Great House", serving or subverting the Covenant, licensed and unlicensed Hollow-seeking on the frontier, and a Brotherhood plot to turn a port town's Vigil against the Imperium by sabotaging its runes. See the Sancturi Campaign chronicle.