Angaro Empire is the empire of humans, “an eminently human empire”, born of a pact with the dragons. It occupied the western continent of Ithuil and withdrew after a civil war, leaving a power vacuum and a dark age.
| Type | Empire |
| Also called | Archontian Empire, Empire of Arcontos, Empire Arctoconforte |
| Spanish entry | Imperio Angaro |
Description
It is likened to “Byzantium and Rome had they not fully separated”; the civil war cost it the west. Three parts act as one:
- The pact with the dragons: foundational, the source of its legitimacy.
- The cult: the “dodecahedron” of gods, the Pantheon of the Twelve of the Archontian Pact, later changed to ten; it gives the Empire its council structure.
- The legion: whole units, which can be lost whole.
Where the legion goes, cult and pact follow; when it leaves, all three leave.
History
About 1,200 years ago the Empire “overextended”: it crossed into Ithuil and founded or ran cities such as Ardenbul (Ardisvala, Ardis Vala). The legions’ withdrawal after the civil war is dated to the same “~1200 years ago”. The eastern trunk survived. Two hundred years ago trolls repelled an imperial invasion, destroying a whole legion.
The withdrawal left “a power vacuum” and a dark age; people began to avoid the valley. “Things happened and the empire doesn’t come anymore. Why? We don’t know.” Dwindling contact with the eastern metropolis leaves the region isolated and poorer.
Accusations
“The Empire that should have looked after this place has become corrupted.” Some tie “this place” to the Sancta Sanctorum and an order of Knights, doubtfully. Kerbok Khan, its ideological adversary and a defender of fusions, calls the Empire and Priscus’s followers “tyrants who use people and who not only hinder knowledge but diminish other species”.
Open questions
- Why it withdrew, and how long the occupation lasted given the shared date.
- Against whom, where and why the invasion of two hundred years ago was made.
- Which twelve gods made up the pantheon, and which two were lost.
- What the Archontians are, and which phase each name variant designates.
- Its insignia, architecture, coinage, capital and emperor.