Ethyria

Ethyria is an Empire in the Empire Game. It is approximately 6 dimensions large and has apopulation of 3 Tredecillion people and is 6 dimensions large. It is a relatively young empire, with the oldest governance starting approximately 10 billion years ago and its current form of government staring around 140,000 years ago. Ethyria maintains an isolationist policy, only getting involved in events that directly involve itself.

The economy is based off of both magic and technology, usually a combination of both referred to as magic technology. Its currency is based off of mass of antimatter, with one gram equal to $5,991,488.04, an Ethyrian credit equal to $5,991.49, and an Ethyrian cent worth $5.99. Its primary exports are antimatter, Ethyrian elixirs, technology, Ethyrian alloys, and Philosophers Stones. Imports almost entirely consist of hydrogen and helium, as atomic manufacturing allows for hydrogen and helium to be converted to heavier elements. This process is cheaper than importing or harvesting heavier elements on their own.

While having relatively expansive territory, just over 60% of the empire consists of so called megavoids. These regions are scars of the empires turbulent past. Even regions outside these megavoids are sparsely populated.

Thanks to an isolationist policy Ethyria is involved in few foreign wars, only going to war when directly provoked. Despite this it has near constant civil conflicts. These conflicts occur mostly due to religion and race. The primary groups involved are The Kingdom of the Ateen, The Amaran Empire, the Alohn, but also include various smaller factions. These constant wars result in heavy military spending and advanced military technology but ultimately are the empires greatest weakness.

Pre-Ethyrian
"Main Article Pre-Ethyrian Yoneya""'You Ethyrians know so little but accomplish so much. Many years have I pondered the Republic and its elegance, but many more have I feared the darkness that followed. The technology lost, the lives destroyed, the arts forgotten. It pains even the strongest to think of such tragedy. Their mistakes lead to their downfall. Your people walk the same path and will inevitably fall to the same fate.' - Aderan the Old to Illetha"The first know government in the region of Yoneya was the Yone Empire around 10 BYA. Very little is known about them due to more recent wars. Around 7 BYA the Yone Empire was reorginzed into the Yone Republic. By this point the Yones had evolved and diversified into the predecessors to Ethyrians, Amarans, and Ateen.

The republic experienced a period of relative peace and stability until around 1 BYA, when a sudden conflict known as The Years of Darkness destroyed much of republic. It is estimated that up to 99% or more of species went extinct and that over 99.99% of people were killed during the event. The war left a mark in the form of The Sinners Void, named because many elders believe the Years of Darkness were caused by the greed and sins of the Republic.

The years following the extinction up to ~100 MYA saw little to no development as all surviving species lost the technology of the republic and lost the ability to travel through space. At this point the Ateen discovered alien artifacts on their planet from the era of the republic, allowing them to form the Ateen Empire. This new nation assumed the position of the old Yone Empire. At around 10 MYA the Ateen Empire collapsed due to other alien races rediscovering technology and revolting.

These new alien races formed the Yone Confederation. The confederation dominated the region and expanded to the size of the old Yone Empire.

Around 1 MYA the Amarans, the last line of an ancient and unique Yone lineage began to rise. The Amarans waged war against the Confederation. This was know as the Great Amaran War. The war remained a stalemate up until the rise of Ethyria.

Old Ethyrian Empire
"Main Article Old Ethyrian Empire"Around 200 KYA, the Ethyrians, descendants of the Ateen, discovered a mysterious ritual known as the Metamorphosis. Before this, all Ethyrians were Low Ethyrians, having no connection to magic. The Metamorphosis transformed these low Ethyrians into High Ethyrians, Ethyrians with maximum connection to magic. In the process they received the Philosophers stone, named because it was believed only uncivilized barbarians didn't have one. The High Ethyrians were much more powerful than their low Ethyrian brethren. This allowed them to quickly conquer the know world and convert millions of Ethyrians via the ritual.

Using their new-found magical powers the Ethyrians began to construct starships, boats that could travel through space. Using these ships they established the Old Ethyrian Empire. The starsailors discovered a planet with a huge concentration of magic and settled it. It was named High Ethyria and quickly became the capital of the Old Empire. On their new capital the priests build an altar dedicated to magic.

The Old Empire quickly overran the already weak confederation. After establishing their power the Ethyrians took the Confederation's place in the Great Amaran War. The Ethyrians proved much greater foes than the Confederation had been, and as a result the Amarans were pushed back significantly.

Around 195 KYA, revolts across the empire, most notably a Low Ethyrian revolt on Low Ethyria, caused the old empire to collapse. Around this time the process of Metamorphosis was forgotten.

Middle Ethyrian Empire
"Main Article Middle Ethyrian Empire"By 190 KYA the Amarans had regained a large portion of their lost territory. Following the fall of Old Ethyria interbreeding has somewhat diluted the high Ethyrian bloodline, weakening them and giving way to Corruption, a disease affecting poorly formed Philosophers Stones in Mixed Ethyrians. Mixed Ethyrians also proved less powerful overall. Despite this a new emperor managed to rally together High Ethyria and formed the Middle Ethyrian Empire.

The new emperor set priority to defeating Amara, subduing the "barbaric" alien races, and rediscovering the Metamorphosis. After defeating several minor alien nations Ethyria pushed Amara back. By this point the expansion of Amara had created a huge megavoid, forcing them to continue their aggressive expansion.

For the first few thousand years the Middle Empire was unified under one government. However, the shear size of the empire eventually lead to power being spread throughout the empire. This decentralization turned it from a once united power to something more akin to a confederation. This separation of power lead to increasingly different policies across the empire.

By 180 KYA the empire was so uncoordinated and cumbersome that it proved incapable of holding power and collapsed into several smaller kingdoms.

Illethian Empire
"Main Article Illethian Empire"

Rise to power
By 175 KYA the Amarans were on the doorstep of Ethyria. The smaller kingdoms were too busy fighting amongst themselves to create a unified army and battle the Amarans. Around this time a new leader rose in High Ethyria, known as Illetha the Great. Illetha was a pure High Ethyrian who quickly rose in the ranks of the military and proved a masterful general. She eventually lead a coup and overthrew the current king.

After a short rise to power Illetha set about conquering and unifying all of Ethyria. This proved no easy task as Illetha's armies were much smaller than those of the other kingdoms. Despite this disadvantage Illetha won battle after battle and quickly formed a new massive empire, named the Illethian Empire.

After the quick unification the threat of the Amarans became too large to ignore. After being uncontested for thousands of yeas the Amarans had grown greatly in numbers and power. Under a new leadership they pledged to destroy Ethyria and exterminate all of its people in vengeance for its wars against them.

At first Ethyria stood no match to Amara and saw a chain of crippling defeats. However, the Amarans grew overconfident and stretched their armies thin. At this point Illetha combined the entire Ethyrian fleet and launched a series of surprise attacks against the separated Amaran armies. Within a few years the Amarans saw up to 60% losses and had lost a majority of their fighting force.

Ethyria used this opportunity to launch a massive offensive. Within 10 years Amara had been pushed back to the Amaran Megavoid which they had created. The Amaran population had dropped to nearly 10% of pre-Illethan levels. At this point Aderan the Old, the leader of Amara, called for peace and pledged to never wage war again. Following this peace all Amarans were to stay within the confines of the megavoid. This lead to a mass famine, dropping populations even further.

Downfall
With the Amaran threat gone Illetha could now focus on expanding the boundaries of Ethyria. By 165 KYA Ethyria was nearly as large as the Old Republic. During this time there was a golden age in Ethyria, as the powers of magic were explored further and the High Ethyrian race increased due to interracial marriage laws.

This golden age also coincided with mass oppression of Low Ethyrians. Initially aiming to preserve High Ethyrian blood, it quickly lead to discrimination, segregation, and even genocide in some regions. This persecution ultimately lead to Illetha's downfall.

On low Ethyria a mixed Ethyrian by the name of Chokia began to preach equal rights to all Ethyrians. He quickly gained massive support across the region and began planning a revolt against Illetha. Chokia's armies pushed towards High Ethyria and quickly carved out a large portion of the empire.

Illetha quickly mobilized a large army and went to personally deal with Chokia. Chokia's revolt quickly went downhill as Illetha decimated the rebel armies in a series of decisive battles. However, despite suffering heavy losses, Chokia always managed to evade capture and continued to find millions of new recruits willing to fight against Illetha.

Chokia's revolt inspired other leaders throughout the Empire. Illetha initially had superior numbers, but after about 20 years the tides had begun to turn. Illetha found increasing numbers of enemies. While they did have superior numbers they were too uncoordinated to defeat the Imperial army.

Chokia eventually decided to seize power from other rebel leaders and unify the revolt. This was a risky maneuver, as it could easily lead to infighting that would ultimately destroy the rebellion from the inside. Despite these risks it managed to pay off. Most rebel leaders were either happy to serve under Chokia or found their lower ranks supporting Chokia.

With a new unified army, Chokia lead a new campaign against Illetha. Illetha did remarkable for being so heavily outnumbered but saw several defeats before being killed in battle. At this point Chokia declared himself emperor of a new Chokian Empire.

Chokia the Great
After defeating Illetha and declaring a new Empire, Chokia reversed the old laws. Chokia was wildly popular among the low and middle class but not among the rich High Ethyrians. Seeing a new weakness, the Amarans launched a surprise attack against Ethyria hoping to catch it in a vulnerable position. The plan backfired as Amara was still weak from their defeat in the Great Amaran War and the Amarans were once again defeated.

Chokia, like Illetha before him, set about expanding the empire even further. After 100 years the boundary of the Empire was up to 1 dimension, several times larger than any power before Chokia.

About 200 years into his reign the Ateen, who had spent the past hundred million years in oppression, began an uprising. While there were many alien uprisings throughout history the Ateen revolt as notable due to its scale. The Ateen uprising lasted for nearly 300 years, mostly because of heavy guerrilla warfare in the region. Eventually Chokia managed to defeat the Ateen and crush the rebellion.

By this point Chokia was beginning to show symptoms of Corruption, as he was mixed Ethyrian. After ruling for 700 years, Chokia succumb to the disease and died. His funeral was said to one of the grandest in all of Ethyrian history.

Chokia II
Chokia's son, Chokia II, took the throne. At first he tried to follow the policies of equality his father had been so devoted to, but after about a century he began to become more cruel. He imposed heavier taxes on the peasants to fund expensive expeditions into neighboring lands and began to oppress several alien races.

This change in policy lead to an attempted coup, lead by a pure Low Ethyrian. This almost managed to overthrow Chokia II but was thwarted by the royal guard. The coup showed weakness in the Empire.

The Amarans, who had spent thousands of years slowly building their numbers, launched another revolt. This time, the Ethyrian Empire was less stable and the Amarans were also stronger. The revolt was not crushed quickly and lasted for nearly 50 years. Chokia II, whose mental health was deteriorating, proved to be a worse general than his father and made many egregious blunders that only lengthened the war.

After crushing the Amaran rebellion Chokia II order an extermination of all Amarans as an act of vengeance. Many of his top generals refused to carry out the order, resulting in the being executed. This act practically ended any chance of Amaran being reestablished as a powerful empire. Despite Chokias best efforts a handful of Amaran celestials survived, including previous leader Aderan the Old. They would maintain hiding for thousands of years before reemerging once they saw the situation suitable.

By this point the High Ethyrian race had become diluted do to interracial marriage, further weakening the army. After ruling for only 100 years, Chokia II was assassinated.

Chokia III
Chokia III took power soon after and proved to be a better leader than Chokia II. He put in interracial marriage laws similar to the ones set by Illethal thousands of years earlier but did not launch mass discrimination. He began to rebuild the weak army and consolidated power from nobles and local leaders to strengthen the central government.

His rule was marred by few revolts or rebellions thanks to his less restrictive laws and he too died from Corruption after 800 years in power.

Chokia IV
After rising to the throne, Chokia IV hoped for a long an peaceful rule like his fathers, but this hope was did not last. Shortly into his reign many alien races began calling for independent rule. These small protests could be ignored at first, but quickly grew into riots and full out rebellions. Despite his best efforts, Chokia IV was overthrown and his entire family (except for one) was executed by revolutionaries around 160 KYA.

The Second Confederation
After overthrowing Ethyrian rule the revolutionaries set up a new Confederation. This Confederation was divided into several dozen smaller states, with Ethyria being one of them. Ethyria was limited to a 10 million man army and no more than 1,000 warships.

The Confederation started successful and peaceful at first. For about 500 years there were only minor conflicts. Each state had its own laws and all had a mutual defense pact which server as a deterrent for any wars between the states. Resources were shared when needed and trade was all free. The Confederation almost acted like the EU.

After 500 years a new leader rose in Ethyria. He was the one family member that managed to escape the revolutionaries, Chokia V. He returned from exile and managed to gain support from the local government. They hid him and began secretly building a fleet of ships and amassing an army.

After 20 years of hiding Chokia V declared himself to the Confederation and launched a new war. He saw early success due to the Confederation having untrained and spread out armies. After losing lots of ground The Confederation had amassed a sizable army and inflicted Chokia with his first defeat. The tides would turn several times over the next 100 years with heavy casualties on both sides.

Finally the smaller size of Ethyria became apparent and they started to run low on men and resources. The Confederation began to slowly drive them back. After 150 years Ethyria surrendered and Chokia was put death. The Confederation imposed even heavier restrictions on Ethyria, dissolving their government and dividing control among several neighboring nations.

The Confederation was severely weakened at this point and began to suffer infighting. By 158 KYA the central government was dissolved. A few hundred years later the Great Plague killed off up to 95% of all people in Yoneya, thus beginning the dark ages.