Mercania

Mercania, officially The Mercanian Empire was a large empire in Western Occentia that dominated the region for over 600 years before it fell to The Great Hordes.

It began during the era of City States as a group of soldiers for hire called The Mercenary Corp founded by the five founders. eventually the group grew large enough and their base expansive enough to found the city of Mercinton, and a few years later The Mercanian Empire. initially a 5-man dictatorship, Maladus, as holder of the capital domain, gradually grew in status before he was made sole king and the other four founders becoming the 4 grand dukes. the empire slowly expanded over the next 300 years to control a vast amount of land, but began to struggle as the absorption era came to a close.

The petty kingdom era coincided with the Fourth Century Golden age, where Mercania would reach the peak of its strength culturally, militarily, and technologically. with Maladus III more than doubling the empire's size, Talin II single-handedly bringing the bronze to an end with the Great Reform Period, and Gaia IV sparking a cultural explosion with the mass promotion and expansion of the arts. After Gaia IV died, the empire plateaued but would remain a significant major power for the next two centuries.

as the Occentian kingdoms bickered and fought small, inconclusive wars, they were totally unprepared for the Great Horde invasion of the 7th century, which in just a few years utterly crushed Mercania, and aside from a few successor states, it would never rise again.

Origin
Main Article: Era of City States

In the centuries predating Mercania's existed, Western Occentia was dominated by the city-states. small, isolated, hyperforified cities that almost never made contact with the outside world. the space between the cities was dominated by the Bandit Nomads that constantly raided the outskirts of cites, razing farmland and putting constant strain on the economy. they would also kill anyone who came too close, making the raising of armies and the maintaining of conquests highly unsustainable.

Mercenary corp
Main Article: Mercenary Corp

In around 45BF, though the exact date is unknown, Maladus was born. he lived in one of the city-states a short way north of what would one day be called Mercinton. he grew up in a part of the city that regularly suffered raids by the nomads, and the locals would sometimes forge simple bronze weapons and armour to defend themselves. Maladus took a fascination for fighting and when he came of age, sometime in 27BF, he and four of his closest friends left the town with simple equipment, and set up a rudimentary base in a closed off, easily defensible location on the banks of the Libla River. they slowly improved their base over time by constructing houses, a headquaters, storage buildings, walls, and even small farms. they made money buy selling themselves of soldiers for hire under the banner of the Mercenary Corp, demanding food, money, and equipment in exchange for one day of protection, of the destruction of a nearby bandit cell. they also frequently recruited new soldiers to their army, improving their strength.

Mercinton City
eventually, the strength of the Mercenary Corp began to have a huge effect on the area. the Bandit Nomads, facing this new threat, now saw the area as unsafe and began to withdraw. with the reduced threat, the economies of cities began to improve, and roads, maps, trade networks, and diplomacy began to flourish again. some cities even began recruiting their own professional armies which were cheaper than the mercenaries. they began to lose their importance. the Mercenary Corp had grown so large that its base began to act more like a city than it did a military camp. Some soldiers had even taken to marrying people and bringing them to the camp to live. the five generals realised that they needed to switch things up and take advantage of the new era before them. they decided to officially declare the city of Mercinton. under the council of the five. the Mercenary Corp was taken off the market and from now on would be used solely as an army.

Imperial Declaration
within a few years of Mercinton's founding, the flourishing period of connection quickly bred ambition which coalesced in the first wars in centuries. come of these were indecisive, some resulted in minor concessions, but a few resulted in vassalisation of cities. when Mercinton heard of this, Maladus began lobbying the council to turn the city state from a defensive fortress, to an expansionist empire. the council were on board and set up an agreement that all fie would get a share of all territory in the empire. this territory would always be kept more or less equal, so when one duchy expanded, it would have to give up some land to the others until their size became equal again. Maladus, as the one who came up with the idea, and by far the most competent of the 5, would get the capital domain and on January 1st, 0AF, Maladus made the Imperial Declaration which officially established the Mercanian Empire.

Maladus Period
While the council of the five initially held equal power, gradually, Maladus began to become more influential. early conquests of mercania mostly surrounded vassalisation. annexation was a concept unfamiliar to the world and Maladus did not believe it to be possible. By the year 7, Maladus had become the de facto ruler of Mercania, and the council unanimously voted to make him king, though probably because Maladus had secured loyalty of the army. during the remaining 14 years of his life, Mercania would develop increasing control of its vassals.

Three Brothers Period
When Maladus I died, he never left behind concrete succession rules. so his three sons, Gaia, Senashi, and Talin, decided to rule from seniority, then Talin as the youngest would decide what to do from there. this was known as the Three Brothers Period. Gaia I spent his reign annexing vassals and acquiring new ones on the border. Senashi I spent his time expanding the trade network of Mercania establishing the Mercanian Trade League that would grow to control two thirds of trade going across the Libla. Talin I would dismantle the old Mercenary corp forever replacing it with a restructured professional army, and reformed the countries economy and social structure into a form that would remain for the next three hundred years. he also abandoned the vassalisation policy in favour of annexing conquests directly. he established a succession order whereby the king would choose his favourite son to inherit the throne, however the nobles were forced to pick the oldest.

Absorption Period
During the absorption period, Mercania would gradually expand, swallowing the remaining city states and small kingdoms in its path, but it also became increasingly isolated from the rest of the world, eventually formulating its own language, culture, and religion, and trying to assimilate conquests as much as possible. it was a period of widespread prosperity and expansion that would rarely be challenged.

Late Absorption Period
Starting from the reign of Fuluva I, the absorption period began to decay, and by 280, it had ended and was replaced by the petty kingdom period. small to medium sized states, with professional government structures and strong fortifications, expensive and time consuming to conquer. Mercania was struggling to expand and began to stagnate. the tyranny of Fuluva I and the perceived weakness of Gaia III lead to tensions building between the weakening conservative noble class, and the royal family over succession laws.

Maladus' conquests
When Maladus III ascended to the throne in 313, he reformed Mercanian military tactics to be more hands on. his early reign featured a war with Lukshaka that ended with mercanian expansion in the west and Lukshaka becoming a vassal of Elasavi. this was followed by a war with the southern petty kingdoms to gain control of the natural flower fields that controlled the paint ink and dye trade. next, wanting to gain full control of the Libla River, he launched an invasion into the Kingdom of Linulia and laid siege to it, the siege lasted for a year and ended with the kingdoms subjugation. threatened by Mercanian expansion, many of the petty kingdoms to the north east formed a coalition to push Mercania back across the Libla. despite seeing some initial success, when Mercania's strongest ally, the Garavosi Empire, joined the war, they were quickly overwhelmed and partitioned. the two remaining northeastern petty kingdoms were judged too strong to conquer and the Garavosi had plans to dominate Lake Wori, the largest lake in the region. so Maladus signed a treaty with Golian I that created a sphere of influence that Mercania would not intrude on. Maladus by this point had set his sights on swallowing all the eastern kingdoms, so he invaded Fuluva's Kingdom. Fuluva, having only ascended to the throne a few months earlier, had been preparing for an invasion and fought Maladus three times. he lost all three battles but he inflicted significant damage on Maladus' army, and out of respect, was allowed to keep his whole kingdom, though under Maladus' control. Maladus spent the next few years conquering the remaining southern kingdoms and had hope of continuing into the southern marshes, but got bogged down in a two year long guerilla war that Maladus lost. he returned to the capital to consolidate his conquests, but died of disease just a few months later.

Talin II
Upon Maladus' death, Talin II ascended to the throne. the tension between the nobles and royals finally exploded as they took advantage of Talin's elder brother Gaia and persuaded him to revolt. the civil war dragged on for two years that eventually resulted in Gaia's death and Talin securing the throne. Talin then completed Maladus' goal of consolidating the eastern conquests, and started the Great Reform Period which resulted in the beginning of the iron age, the invention of paper, the establishment of the first ever professional art school, the restructuring of trade, of the army, of the economy, of noble power, and of crown power. Talin engaged in military campaigns in the southern marshes, having learned from his fathers failure, and was able to subjugate them enough to create a new vassal. He then invaded the final petty kingdoms to the north east, breaking the treaty that Maladus had signed. Mercania's expansion, this incident, and a new and more aggressive rule Gorian II broke down the alliance and replaced it with a rivalry. a few years later this resulted in the Occentian War between Mercania, and a five nation coalition, that ultimately ended in a draw, and the Partition of Elasavi. The remainder of Talin's reign was spent completing his reforms and unsuccessfully launching new military campaigns.

Cultural Revolution
upon Talin's death, Gaia IV ascended to the throne. he had developed an intense fascination for the arts and would spend his twenty three year reign almost entirely focussed on hiring artists, building more art schools, and encouraging street dancing, music composition, painting, sculpting, poetry, writing, playwriting and more, creating a cultural revolution that redefined the Mercanian Identity, and he was able to successfully defend it from a Garavosi invasion, intent on ruining Mercania's prestige. but he died having neglected the economy, and his son was overwhelmed with the problems of that reign. Mercania had permanently plateaued.

Late Mercania
Mercania would continue to fight wars with it's neighbours, and crush the occasional rebellion, but in all rather little change was made. there was a small famine in the 6th century, that lead to minor agricultural reform, but in all, the realm remained stable and complacent,.

Great Hordes and collapse
in the early 7th century, climate change lead to a decrease in food supply for nomadic tribes in the south, triggering a migration event that sent many tribes north. Mercania began suffering increased raids on their southern and eastern borders, but they largely brushed it aside. eventually, a group of nomads from the south west crossed the libla river, kidnapped the local scribes in a few of the towns, and had them write a message to the king. the king, Fuluva III, then began receiving multiple letters from the south that contained the message "THEY ARE COMING". a month later, the Kingdom of the Marsh began reporting an invading force from the south, and then collapsed within weeks. they were The Great Hordes. a large loose confederation of ten massive horse hordes that was migrating north to conquer new lands to live on. Fuluva mustered an army to counter the threat, but he was killed in battle leaving the totally unprepared twelve year old Talin IV. he tried desperately to defend Mercania from the hordes, even receiving a large amount of international help, but it was to no avail. Mercinton was stormed and burned. the King was killed in the streets whilst trying to flee, and the Mercanian empire ceased to exist, apart from a few small successor states, it would never rise again.

Geography
at its height, Mercania was approximately the size of our worlds iraq. it's geography was primarily filled with lush, flat plains and loose forest. dotted in various places across the empire are cells containing thick pine forests, fueled mostly by tributary rivers. cutting through the centre of the empire is the Libla river, the largest and most important river of the region, which flows into the massive Lake Wori on the north eastern border. the libla also make up the south west border, and eastern north border.many of the Libla's tributaries make up most of the remaining borderlands, while the south east is marked by the edge of a thick jungle

Politics
Mercania is a semi-feudal absolute monarchy with the king at the top having despot like powers, while the empire is divided into many provinces, some governed by noble families, while others are chosen by the king based on merit and loyalty. The royal family is all powerful and their decisions cannot be overturned, bbut many of the provinces are permitted to make decisions on their own to a limited extent

Early period
during the empire's infancy, the empire was controlled by a body known as the council of the five. it was a body led by five people who owned roughly equal pieces of the empire that they administered themselves, and together made decisions on the nation as a whole. little is known as to the exact function of this body as it was short lived, but it was likely that all five had to come to a consensus before a decision could be made. this system was abolished in 21AF

Bronze age Monarchy
before the great reform period, the empire was primarily feudal, with the four grand dukes holding most of the power, and while the king in theory could make any decision. he needed to be careful not to upset the nobles. as a result, successive kings would gradually give less and less to the grand dukes, creating new provinces in the process, but the four grand dukes still wielded enormous influence.

Iron Age Monarchy
after the great reform period, Talin II significantly boosted the power of the royal family to near despotism. he massively centralised control of the empire and cut back significantly on noble power, by making specific provinces led by people handpicked by the king. so the empire took on a semi-meritocratic administration.

Administrative divisions
the highest level of administrative division was the royal domain, which was a piece of land surrounding the capital that was under the direct control of the king. next was the four grand duchies, which were controlled by the descendants of the five founders of Mercania and the most significant royal families. then there were the minor noble holdings, controlled by weak and conservative royal families. these were numerous and small. on the same level as them were the provinces held by meritocratically appointed governors. these provinces tended to be the richest as the royals wanted to make sure that they could protect those regions without political intrigue getting in the way. finally there was the temporary administrative block. these were areas that had recently been conquered and were divided into the largest possible chunks, usually staffed by the existing royal families. these would never last much longer than a decade before being partitioned into regions matching one of the above.

Foreign Relations
Mercania rarely entertained foreign relations during the absorption period but during the third century they forged alliances with Garavosi and Elasavi. both later broke down during the Great Occentian war and for the rest of its existence, Garavosi would be its primary enemy. it maintained healthy trade relations with as many nations as possible utilising its vast natural resources to take control of two thirds of all trade in the region. foreign relations in general became increasingly cordial as the empires expansionist policy came to an end.

Mercenary Corp
Main Article: The Mercenary Corp

The Mercenary Corp of the early mercanian period was largely disorganised, and almost entirely infantry. horses if used at all were primarily for supply and transport purposes and not for war. the army did not have a very organised hierarchy and instead were under the joint command of the five founders. despite this they were heavily disciplined and very well equipped, but even at their height Mercania could only muster at most 7000 of them. they were also very slow and poor during sieges.

Levy System
the Mercenary corp was abolished during the reign of Talin I and replaced with the levy system. this system left the forging of equipment, the gathering of resources, and the recruiting of soldiers to the provinces. this allowed the entire empire to be utilised to its full extent. the organisation of these armies was more concrete, with each provinces assigning a commander to their specific groups. emphasis was placed on infantry, but this period saw the rise of increasing cavalry importance, as the expanding empire made fast transport vital, and generals began to realise the power of rapid cavalry charges. the commanders of these levy groups had very little power, and all command power was placed at the hands of the kings who controlled the massive armies, and all the commanders could to on their own was react to enemy breakthroughs and make small adjustments to the line as it changed. this system had it's disadvantages too, for one, they took a long time to organise, as they had to be raised at multiple locations and then gathered at one spot, which could take weeks. they would then have to be disbanded at the end of wars. they were also outrageously expensive, meaning only at most 20000 soldiers could be sustained at any one time. the Mercanian Civil War saw the numerical peak of these forces, with over 100000 soldiers being active at its peak, but this came at enormous economic damage to the empire.

Decimal System
During the Great Reform Period, the levy system was abolished and replaced with the decimal system. the transition from bronze to iron and the redesign of military equipment. made producing military equipment far easier and cheaper. the position of soldier was also professionalised and made a permanent role with a professional consistent salar, made possible by the reduced production costs, meaning Mercania could now support a standing army. the army structure was organised in a far more concrete way, based on decimals. first there were units of ten, the members of which would live together and stay together forever. they would choose their leader, called a marshal, in a bottom up fashion, and would welcome newcomers if one of their own died. units of 100 were also chosen bottom up, by the 10 marshals of each 10 unit. 10 units of one hundred made up a thousand, lead by a commander chosen at the pleasure of the king, and 10 of those made up a 10000 with a general also chosen by the king. each group would be highly autonomous, and given the power to react to situations more or less freely, so long as they listened to orders from the next level up. because of this, orders from generals tended to be rather vague, and the levels below would decide on more specific orders that best suited their situation. this also made it very easy for the army to split up and in all made them for more mobile and flexible. this system would remain completely unchanged until the empires collapse.