On The History of the Empire of Azadora – A Treatise
By: Mary Elizabeth Browning
Translated by Lyriel Elhana
As time marched on the Empire grew and continued to prosper. The systems set up by Empress Laura and her daughter Jessica proved immune to poor harvests, trade embargoes, and even the occasional war. The ministers proved adept at using the system of checks and balances to smooth over the rule of frivolous or poor rulers and highlight the skills and abilities of good rulers. While the ordinary people didn’t all become wealthy there was a sense of general contentment within the empire as opportunities to rise above one’s station continued to proliferate, giving hope that tomorrow would be better than today to most citizens in the empire.
And so empresses came and went and still the people were content. The local leaders ruled within the framework of the laws, the guards kept the peace, and the Legion guarded the borders and wilder lands. It wasn’t until IY 1052 when magic became problematic. A series of incidents revolving around discharges and magic being used dangerously began to break out and the Empress, Grace, and her ministers began to take the threat of magic use as a serious threat to the well-being of the Empire. The Empire couldn’t effectively rule her overseas territories if she couldn’t solve the domestic problems magic use were causing.
The solution came in the form of Savannah Byrne, a prolific magic user and member of the empress’ inner council. Recognizing the threat magic could pose and having already lost several friends and a daughter to discharges Savannah recommended forming a permanent council under the auspices of the royal court to change problematic magic users into sharp and unyielding forces of law and order within the empire.
With empress Grace’s blessing and support Savannah gathered a council of five magic users skilled and talented enough in both magical arts as well as administration to lead this new council which was called the Order of the Magi. Using a combination of Imperial funds, her own vast familial wealth as well as city money the Order of the Magi set out to build a grand tower and training grounds on the heights of the unused Mirrored Cliffs south of Bastion proper.
The tower grew higher and higher, its stone walls interlaced with strengthening veins of Allicereum and the grounds around the tower began to take shape. A great school and many practice grounds, dormitories and magical guarding runes were built. Girls were brought from all over the empire to be students or teachers or researchers or chroniclers or simply scribes and the numbers within the Order’s walls swelled.
The intended reduction in discharges was accomplished and with the formation of the local level Watchers and the Order wide Seeker Corps and Inquisitors the Order quickly became an indispensable tool of the ISS and the Empire as a whole. Many of the Order were brought into the Legions to act as advisors or specialized units. Order Seekers were used to hunt down dangerous magic users or wild witches and entire generations of girls were trained in the proper, safe, and ultimately devastatingly powerful uses of magic.
With the inclusion of the newly minted Order of the Magi the strength of the Empire grew exponentially. For many years the Imperial Court, the ISS, the Church of the Gemini, and the Order of the Magi worked seamlessly together for the betterment of every citizen, slave, soldier, and non-human in the Empire.
However, with so many egos in place jealousy, suspicion and hostility was bound to occur. Minor arguments and hurt feelings became the norm. ISS Hunter Groups and Order Seeker Corps, initially in friendly competition, would grow more bitter and angry until in late IY 1560 when a Hunter squad of ISS agents and Order Seeker Corp showed up at the site of a Discharge at the same time. Words were exchanged, hostilities erupted and when everything was said and done, two Wardens, four Hunters, 3 Seekers and an Inquisitor were dead, and half of a city block was destroyed later known as the Merchants’ Incident due to it happening in the Merchants Quarter of Bastion.
Reproachments and recriminations flew through the councils of the Empress as sides were taken. The Imperial Watch, Merchants, Nobles and Guards came down squarely on the side of the ISS while the Legions, Culture Ministry, Non-Human Relations, and Foreign Affairs came down on the side of the Order. Only the Church remained uncommitted, their vow of neutrality in all things holding steady. Finally an uneasy agreement was reached by which the ISS would handle discharges and disruptions outside Bastion and in the home islands while the Order would handle them in the city limits and in the Imperial remote holdings. Peace was restored somewhat, though the bitterness and resentment remained.
When Alexandra Webb was born to local merchants in the town of Haverford sometime in IY 1657 there was no comet streaking across the sky or vast new eruption of Roggsfjall in the Northern Wastes. It was a year like any other, though it would come to shake the Empire to its very core.
By the late Time of the Sun in 1674 incidents involving discharges were once more on the rise. The uneasy peace between the ISS and Seekers was quickly reaching another boiling point as each side blamed the other for the increase in deaths. It was into this tense environment a 17-year-old girl from the west strode into the main hall of the Order of the Magi and called out loudly she had a solution to the issue with Discharges. The Archon of the order, Rosalee Burress listened attentively after some convincing and, disinterested, sent the girl away with instructions to not allow her back into the tower under any circumstances.
Undeterred the young girl walked across the city of Bastion and into the royal palace, repeating the same bold claim. While empress Gwendolyn was unconvinced, she decided it would be worthwhile to give the girl some time to prove her theories. As tensions continued to simmer Alexandra worked tirelessly in the Imperial conservatories. Finally, on 9 Juenelius 1680 the first Rapture Battery prototype was complete. While still crude, the device proved amazingly effective, and an entire universe of possibilities seemed to open up for the Empire.
Word quickly reached the halls of the Order, and the Archon immediately demanded the empress relinquish the battery as well as Alexandra Webb to the mages for additional study, claiming they alone were the sole authority over magic within the realm and, thus, the throne should have no role in further development. Empress Gwendolyn refused. (tn: the author fails to mention the not so veiled threats against the crown in general and Gwendolyn and the rest of her family in particular the Order made, however this may or may not have played a role in the war. I bring it up merely as an informational statement.)
On 12 Juenelius the empress addressed the Council of Equals, demanding the immediate dissolution of the Order of the Magi on the grounds of treason against the throne. The Council, well aware they were simply being used as a shield against the appearance of royal overreach but with no power on their own, agreed and the Order of the Magi was officially dissolved on 13 Juenelius. The Empire held its breath as the Bastion guards, led by the ISS marched to the base of the tower and demanded the Order surrender. The Order refused, and on 14 Juenelius IY 1680 the Despair War began.
