Carinthia
| The Carinthian Empire | |||||||||
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Backstory recalled for consultation.
History
War of Independence
As the Alfar Empire fell further and further into internal political turmoil during the late imperial period, its once complete control over its outer provinces began to erode. Corruption and incompetence left the provincial administrations ill-equipped to properly manage or maintain order, and Alfar governors increasingly turned to local notables for assistance. While humans and other races had in the past been promoted into the imperial aristocracy, in the late period what had been a rarity became almost commonplace as non-Alfar rose to the highest ranks of the provincial governments and frontier legions.
The meteoric rise of members of marginalized populations within what was still very much an Empire dominated by the Alfar ended with predictable results. As the Alfar turned on each other their subject races turned on them, raising banners of rebellion across the frontier and in many cases succeeding against an Empire now generally unable or unwilling to respond with the force necessary to restore order and maintain its outer borders. Long lived Alfar nobles fighting and intriguing against each other in the Imperial Heartland were almost universally of a single mind in thinking that dealing with the frontier was a simple task to be taken care of after claiming the Imperial Throne. The loss of Kyrenia Province was just one of many blows to the Empire caused by the combination of these factors.
During the early days of Alfar expansion, the Empire waged a number of wars against the Kyrenian League, a collection of city states ruled by a band of god-blooded sorcerer kings. The last of the Kyrenian Wars saw the sorcerer aristocracy wiped out and the Kyrenian cities destroyed by the vengeful Alfar. Scantly populated for most of the Empire's history, the region was eventually colonized largely by human immigrants from the Empire's central provinces. Kyrenia Province, or Carinthia as it was called by its human population, was a model frontier region that proved to be both peaceful and productive.
But as Alfar power waned the human aristocrats of Carinthia increasingly saw themselves as being needlessly shacked to a decrepit and incapable distant power. They would find a leader in Conrad Scheyern, a minor aristocrat who had risen through the ranks in the legions before returning to his homeland. Having traveled extensively, Conrad took an exceptionally dim view of the Empire and eventually organized his like-minded counterparts amongst the provincial aristocracy. Careful planning and the almost criminally negligent actions of the Alfar Governor allowed for the secret formation of rebel military forces. In 4989 of the Imperial Era the Carinthians rose their banners in rebellion against the Alfar.
The Carinthian War of Independence was short and decisive. The Provincial Government's garrison units collapsed in the opening weeks of the rebellion, many of their troop were already rebel sympathizers and others simply deserted. The few units of Alfar regulars in the region were quickly routed by Conrad's well-trained regiments. An army dispatched by the Alfar Imperial Government was destroyed, crushed in an unequal contest that proved how deeply the decay within the old empire ran. The advantages still maintained by the Alfar in their superior magic and powerful warstriders was absent in these contests, as the bulk of those forces were kept close to the various competing factions in the heartlands. And in a contest of pike and shot their poorly maintained frontier legions proved no match for the rebels. No further expeditions were launched to recover the province, and another crack had appeared in the myth of Alfar invincibility.
The Formation of the Empire
With the defeat of the Alfar, the next task facing Conrad and his victorious coalition was the job of organizing their new nation while maintaining the ability to defend it against what they believed was inevitable further conflict with the still overwhelming might of the Alfar. The constant threat of an outside force eventually led to the decision that the new state would need a strong central authority, rather than leaving affairs to the individual noble estates. In 4995 of the Imperial Era, Conrad Scheyern was crowned Conrad I, Emperor of Carinthia. Most of a working government had already been inherited from the old Alfar provincial administration, and the work of converting it to serve the needs of the new Dynasty was relatively easy.
Ever mindful of his precarious strategic situation, Conrad turned his attention to regions of the Alfar Empire frontier on his border that had been largely isolated by the creation of his own empire. Carefully weighing the risk of attracting Alfar attention against the benefits that might come with new conquests, over the course of his reign Conrad made a number of additions to his realm. Although he never again made the daring actions that had led to his creation of an Empire, Conrad I was an effective ruler who founded a nation as well organized and prosperous as the Alfar Empire had been at its height.
His successors would continue his policy of expansion, each adding additional territory and exploiting new resources. As the decline of the Alfar Empire accelerated, Carinthian expansion increased as successive Scheyern Emperors saw less threat in risking the attention of the region's increasingly distant and impotent former masters. The largely unchecked expansion of the Carinthian Empire into often abandoned and lightly populated border lands would last for nearly two hundred years, ending only in the sudden outbreak of the Necromantic Wars.
The Necromantic Wars
Backstory recalled for consultation.