Beside the original OP description from the old thread, which is below, I have my own elucidations.
The Imperium, as I am presently envisioning it, is something along the lines of the Holy Roman Empire melded with the Islamic caliphates. Like the former, is is a messy patchwork of states and statelets and free cities and a theoretically strong but practically weak overarching central authority, with unilateral organizations operating with impunity within and without. One would be the Castigati, demon-hunters hellbent on erasing any remnant of Daigon's time and legacy, particularly the living parts; expansion into a general witch-hunting organization or further branches may be in order. But, regardless, lots of less than secret polices, gendarmes and free bands enforcing the regressive law of the land more or less independently.
Beside unilateral organizations, as mentioned, governance is decentralized to a confederation of vassal states, some substantial, some tiny and county-sized. These are in the hands of the hereditary aristocracy, in the usual European mold, save that by and large they are utter bastards; they take a card from the Earth Federation of Gundam if you're familiar, which is to say they are most often hilariously corrupt, self-interested to a fault, and actively strive to prevent anything even resembling positive reform, even those at no or minimal cost to them and their privileges, otherwise being buffoons, or doomed genuinely noble altruists caught up in the former morass.
These inescapable tendencies, occasional infighting and schizophrenic clerical base help keep them caught up in themselves rather than nurturing ideas of world dominion, which is not so practical as before, as did their suffering severe knockbacks sometime in perhaps the last two centuries or so when a team-up between Vritraprthvirajya and the Red Empire burnt the March of the Vigil Tower, now called Votartok and part of the latter; original name pending. This mess of a government all technically centers back on Justinian and his Clerisy; but Justinian, for whatever reason, is not so inclined to run the empire he'd forged in uprising against Daigon. One might be inclined to believe that one who founded all his efforts upon Justice and named himself by it would be a little depressed at how awry things have gone in 400 years, and even how awry they got in the original wartime.
The wizards to the south are a cheeky reference to Flagg's other longtime holdover project, the Drathan Union. They're dickhead desert magocrats, significantly far off the map boundaries, in a land where the earth is called 'Azoth,' and not Geryon. You'll note the name Azoth flatly naming the highest mountain in the world in this game; I'm of the opinion that they are very clearly one worldscape. Anyways, the Drathan and Salished- minor edit to clarify since this segue wasn't very neat, the two are eternal regional rivals- are component to the game he ran off to run as opposed to this one. The former belongs to Flagg and dates back to Sacrilege Wars; the latter to Gorgenmast, and was created for Azoth.
The latter nation, I'd note, has more than a little similarity or two to Vritraprthvirajya; out of universe this was coincidental, convergent evolution, and there are key differences, but I imagine it was anything but an accident in-universe. Daigon, one should imagine, was possessed of a certain Orientalism, and no doubt this might've rubbed off on Asurishvara, who in retreating to the exclaves in the East, those of the Ind and Ỵāṇ invited from far off lands, embraced and invoked a great deal of their esoterics, aesthetics and philosophies of rulership in hybridization with his Daigons' and own.
Daigon himself is a character that was wreathed in mystery. This is because Flagg unannouncedly wanted people to construct him as a group, being fine to abide by conflicting memories of questionable accuracy and widely differing accounts. As no one else contributed at all to the brainstorm regarding him, I've taken primacy on the matter by default. In the West, he's regarded as a devil, a monster, a would-be conqueror and despoiler turned back ages ago. In the East, both the Widows and Asuranists regard him as a great king, of great works, founder of a land now lost, though there are some incongruencies between the two, particularly on whether he is semi-deified in an abstract entitized fashion of his surviving metaphysical 'will,' or deified in Roman posthumous and abstract concept-fashion as an example now followed, his torch passed on. The commonfolk are inclined to believe what they will believe at either pole or anywhere inbetween.
Who Daigon actually was, at risk of spoiling mystery to avoid quibbling and divergence from folks not knowing the deal? Somewhat more of the Eastern-thought persuasion than Western, but not by much. He built great works and established himself in autocratic rule over a great number of peoples on the subcontinent, allied himself with others, and consumed himself in every bit of statecraft and esoterica he could, referred to in some of my work as 'the kingly arts.' He was Gilgamesh, and he was Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar II, and fancied himself as a character alike to Lucifer of Paradise Lost perhaps. Law-giver, Babel-builder, scorner of God, who acted in his primacy and for his primacy. He worked miracles, broke sorcery to his will, unraveled the lost engineering of archeo-tech (think more Laputa, not mundane anachronism, in aesthetic if not effect) and more. He ruled evenly, and without great prejudice, accepting those peoples apart from Man into the fold.
And yet he ruled in Machiavellian fashion, or some approximation of it, cynically, and let no border, no boundary stop him. Nature was to be bent and broken, not just the green wood and field, but the underlying physic and metaphysic. He wrought homonculi and chimaeras, consorted with demons of every brand and breed and contrived his own, marched 'cross the coals of Hell and touched the gates of Heaven, and found it all wanting. He trampled nations, ravaged and ravished faraway lands to sustain his efforts, killed countless many, all in the pursuit of his ambition, the earthbound utopia of his vanity and whim. Worst of all, he was just pridefully overconfident enough to come a mite short of what was necessary to accomplish his goal against all odds. And for all that, he died.
Daigon is, if nothing else, stone-cold dead. Justinian, after what must have been years of hard campaigning, slew him personally in a final confrontation at Azoth Zul, put him into the figurative dirt and literal air, his corpse burned down to ashes on the pyre and scattered to the farthest winds, coming to rest at what is now Ukha Gujatkar. The first Red Orcs- the culmination of all his preceding war homonculi, and last personal proceed of his research into artificial beings in general- rose from those ashes, encoded into his flesh, his basemost matter, as a final deadmans' switch full of his malice and spite, to put to an end those who opposed him. So, in short, nice guy if he likes you or at least the idea of you. But he'll kick Atlas in the shins and tear the temple roof down on the whole world if you fuck with him. Or fucked with him. Past tense. Ded.
The Bay of Teeth? Beside being named as the Drathan Unions' hometown, if we're assuming they are indeed one worldscape? As Genni noted in the Discord, 'The Bay of Teeth was specifically off limits for players under the previous DM, since there was a narrative reason for its isolation which we never got around to exploring. This led to the Isle of Shipwrecks having to be moved from just north of the bay to its current location.' It is an as yet irrelevant mystery as to whether they really are the same place. If Flagg had a concrete plan for it, and I honestly wonder if he did at all, I'll have it on hand soon enough as long as he doesn't decide to rescind his pledge of total cooperation.
The Imperium, as I am presently envisioning it, is something along the lines of the Holy Roman Empire melded with the Islamic caliphates. Like the former, is is a messy patchwork of states and statelets and free cities and a theoretically strong but practically weak overarching central authority, with unilateral organizations operating with impunity within and without. One would be the Castigati, demon-hunters hellbent on erasing any remnant of Daigon's time and legacy, particularly the living parts; expansion into a general witch-hunting organization or further branches may be in order. But, regardless, lots of less than secret polices, gendarmes and free bands enforcing the regressive law of the land more or less independently.
Beside unilateral organizations, as mentioned, governance is decentralized to a confederation of vassal states, some substantial, some tiny and county-sized. These are in the hands of the hereditary aristocracy, in the usual European mold, save that by and large they are utter bastards; they take a card from the Earth Federation of Gundam if you're familiar, which is to say they are most often hilariously corrupt, self-interested to a fault, and actively strive to prevent anything even resembling positive reform, even those at no or minimal cost to them and their privileges, otherwise being buffoons, or doomed genuinely noble altruists caught up in the former morass.
These inescapable tendencies, occasional infighting and schizophrenic clerical base help keep them caught up in themselves rather than nurturing ideas of world dominion, which is not so practical as before, as did their suffering severe knockbacks sometime in perhaps the last two centuries or so when a team-up between Vritraprthvirajya and the Red Empire burnt the March of the Vigil Tower, now called Votartok and part of the latter; original name pending. This mess of a government all technically centers back on Justinian and his Clerisy; but Justinian, for whatever reason, is not so inclined to run the empire he'd forged in uprising against Daigon. One might be inclined to believe that one who founded all his efforts upon Justice and named himself by it would be a little depressed at how awry things have gone in 400 years, and even how awry they got in the original wartime.
The wizards to the south are a cheeky reference to Flagg's other longtime holdover project, the Drathan Union. They're dickhead desert magocrats, significantly far off the map boundaries, in a land where the earth is called 'Azoth,' and not Geryon. You'll note the name Azoth flatly naming the highest mountain in the world in this game; I'm of the opinion that they are very clearly one worldscape. Anyways, the Drathan and Salished- minor edit to clarify since this segue wasn't very neat, the two are eternal regional rivals- are component to the game he ran off to run as opposed to this one. The former belongs to Flagg and dates back to Sacrilege Wars; the latter to Gorgenmast, and was created for Azoth.
The latter nation, I'd note, has more than a little similarity or two to Vritraprthvirajya; out of universe this was coincidental, convergent evolution, and there are key differences, but I imagine it was anything but an accident in-universe. Daigon, one should imagine, was possessed of a certain Orientalism, and no doubt this might've rubbed off on Asurishvara, who in retreating to the exclaves in the East, those of the Ind and Ỵāṇ invited from far off lands, embraced and invoked a great deal of their esoterics, aesthetics and philosophies of rulership in hybridization with his Daigons' and own.
Daigon himself is a character that was wreathed in mystery. This is because Flagg unannouncedly wanted people to construct him as a group, being fine to abide by conflicting memories of questionable accuracy and widely differing accounts. As no one else contributed at all to the brainstorm regarding him, I've taken primacy on the matter by default. In the West, he's regarded as a devil, a monster, a would-be conqueror and despoiler turned back ages ago. In the East, both the Widows and Asuranists regard him as a great king, of great works, founder of a land now lost, though there are some incongruencies between the two, particularly on whether he is semi-deified in an abstract entitized fashion of his surviving metaphysical 'will,' or deified in Roman posthumous and abstract concept-fashion as an example now followed, his torch passed on. The commonfolk are inclined to believe what they will believe at either pole or anywhere inbetween.
Who Daigon actually was, at risk of spoiling mystery to avoid quibbling and divergence from folks not knowing the deal? Somewhat more of the Eastern-thought persuasion than Western, but not by much. He built great works and established himself in autocratic rule over a great number of peoples on the subcontinent, allied himself with others, and consumed himself in every bit of statecraft and esoterica he could, referred to in some of my work as 'the kingly arts.' He was Gilgamesh, and he was Solomon, and Nebuchadnezzar II, and fancied himself as a character alike to Lucifer of Paradise Lost perhaps. Law-giver, Babel-builder, scorner of God, who acted in his primacy and for his primacy. He worked miracles, broke sorcery to his will, unraveled the lost engineering of archeo-tech (think more Laputa, not mundane anachronism, in aesthetic if not effect) and more. He ruled evenly, and without great prejudice, accepting those peoples apart from Man into the fold.
And yet he ruled in Machiavellian fashion, or some approximation of it, cynically, and let no border, no boundary stop him. Nature was to be bent and broken, not just the green wood and field, but the underlying physic and metaphysic. He wrought homonculi and chimaeras, consorted with demons of every brand and breed and contrived his own, marched 'cross the coals of Hell and touched the gates of Heaven, and found it all wanting. He trampled nations, ravaged and ravished faraway lands to sustain his efforts, killed countless many, all in the pursuit of his ambition, the earthbound utopia of his vanity and whim. Worst of all, he was just pridefully overconfident enough to come a mite short of what was necessary to accomplish his goal against all odds. And for all that, he died.
Daigon is, if nothing else, stone-cold dead. Justinian, after what must have been years of hard campaigning, slew him personally in a final confrontation at Azoth Zul, put him into the figurative dirt and literal air, his corpse burned down to ashes on the pyre and scattered to the farthest winds, coming to rest at what is now Ukha Gujatkar. The first Red Orcs- the culmination of all his preceding war homonculi, and last personal proceed of his research into artificial beings in general- rose from those ashes, encoded into his flesh, his basemost matter, as a final deadmans' switch full of his malice and spite, to put to an end those who opposed him. So, in short, nice guy if he likes you or at least the idea of you. But he'll kick Atlas in the shins and tear the temple roof down on the whole world if you fuck with him. Or fucked with him. Past tense. Ded.
The Bay of Teeth? Beside being named as the Drathan Unions' hometown, if we're assuming they are indeed one worldscape? As Genni noted in the Discord, 'The Bay of Teeth was specifically off limits for players under the previous DM, since there was a narrative reason for its isolation which we never got around to exploring. This led to the Isle of Shipwrecks having to be moved from just north of the bay to its current location.' It is an as yet irrelevant mystery as to whether they really are the same place. If Flagg had a concrete plan for it, and I honestly wonder if he did at all, I'll have it on hand soon enough as long as he doesn't decide to rescind his pledge of total cooperation.
