The Blood Empire of Tyveria

At the center of Valerna lies the Blood Empire of Tyveria, the continent’s political, cultural and military core, and the only rival to Allaria for dominance over the other Realms. A region that combines the greatest individual freedom with the cruelest tyranny, where everyone has the right to advance yet the strongest do as they will with everyone else, Tyveria is as corrupt as it is powerful.

Overview
Like most of the world’s great realms, the Blood Empire came to be after the First Null War, when the great sorceress Tyveris gathered the orc, human and halfling tribes scattered in the region and forged an Empire out of them through strength, guile and force of will. The Empire Tyveris forged was strong enough to outlive her, but it did weaken considerably thanks to the ambition and corruption of her successors. After thousands of years as a stagnant, decadent despotism, the Realm rose to its current glory when Adrael, a long-removed descendant of Tyveris, swept away the power held by the petty warlords and turned the Empire into a single force under his absolute control.

Today, Tyveria is the second most powerful Realm in Valerna, having turned most of its weaknesses to strengths, its rivals into allies and its self-indulgence into steely purpose. Nevertheless, the Blood Emperor’s reforms have also bred enmity and resentment, and many inside and outside the empire would like to see Adrael’s reign fall.

Tyverians are famous for their ruthlessness, their respect for power, and their disregard for what other peoples know as tact or diplomacy. They are also famous for their Blood Sorcery, the power that built the Empire; its wielders, the elite of tyrant wizards known as maghyr, have ruled Tyveria since its founding.

Culture
Tyverian culture revolves around power - either acquiring it, or joining those that have acquired it.

As Tyverians understand it, power is the ability to shape the world, influence events and drive others to do one’s will. The stronger Tyverians are those that can create a path for others to follow, while the weaker will align with those whose path calls them.

However, Tyverians don’t believe in destiny or divine right. A true Tyverian forges their own path and earns their own fate; even maghyri know that they only earned their privileged position by a mix of luck, strength and audacity, and that anyone with the same qualities stands a better chance of getting ahead. And their subjects know it too.

Philosophy
The ancient Tyverians understood blood as a vehicle for the will. Blood carries the impetus and enthusiasm to be and to become, and it also bears the possibility to perpetuate will beyond individuality. Generation after generation, the blood endures. Through blood, Tyverians celebrate life and inherit power.

From a peasant gutted by an oriashi bug to a Maghyr prince eviscerated by their Kadhah, all Tyverians know their death is imminent. Thus, they choose to worship their own lifetimes. Tyverians do not grieve the dead; instead, the burning of their remains is always an opportunity to reflect upon their legacy and the promise to overcome it.

And life is power.

For Tyverians, power is creation. A leader is an artist - someone that dares impose their vision on the world as it is. Their followers will support that vision, and even become part of it. But every act of creation is an act of conflict, as it will confront the natural state of things. Thus, all great leaders must be willing to confront the world.

The Rule
Despite its official status as an ‘Empire’, Tyveria is more a region of loosely aligned citadels, where warlords exact tribute from peasants in exchange for protection, and pay a grudging respect to the Blood Emperor, mostly out of fear.

Each citadel is under the direct control of its ruling house, which means a specific maghyr autocrat plus their closest relatives and cronies. Before the rise of the current Blood Emperor, these citadels and their houses were engaged in an endless power struggle for territory and wealth; the Emperor’s new laws on property and rule, however, severely crippled each house’s power, making them dependent on the Crown for their power and wealth. Despite this, maghyr houses remain the elite of the Empire, far above every other social class.

Social structure
The Emperor and his court hold the supreme power in Tyveria, with all other social classes and institutions following their will and designs. Maghyr nobles are as much the Emperor’s vassals as the lowliest peasant, despite their greater wealth and magical power.

While Emperor Adrael has ruled for several years now, he still touts his banner of a New Order, where peasants are no longer the serfs of the maghyr caste, but free citizens thanks to Him, and where both rich and poor are equal under the Emperor’s law. To support this idea, Adrael promotes the view of maghyri as the obsolete remnants of a decadent past, the opposite of common people, while presenting his own maghyr family—who in fact have never left power since the founding of Tyveria—as the bold future of justice and equality. This keeps Adrael popular well into his second decade of rule, while removing public support from his potential rivals among the other nobles.

Population
Tyveria is a predominantly human realm, with mostly human subjects and leaders, and all noble castes belonging to the Maghyr Will-chosen human breed.

Cities
Every city in the Empire is the domain of a specific maghyr family; in fact, it could be said that Tyverian cities grew around maghyr houses, and that civilization in the Easterlands is exactly as old as the practice of Blood Sorcery. From the maghyr palaces of old grew the grand city-states of the Empire, and from them the farmlands and villages under their protection, everywhere from the Glass Mountains to the southern Clotmarshes. Thus Tyveria spread across Valerna’s core.

Allies and enemies
Tyveria has always revelled in its enemies. The Empire believes that a mighty adversary makes you stronger, and the Blood Empress used to say that every failed assassination made her more alive, not more dead.

Even today, now the Blood Emperor has achieved an uneasy peace with all of its neighbors, he makes sure to leave avenues for conflict open, so that war can break out at any moment, and Tyveria may become stronger by defeating its enemies again and again.

Magic
The practice of Id magic, particularly Blood Sorcery, sustains the might, economy and even society of the Empire. Imposing one’s will by greater power, greater charm or greater force is the cornerstone of Tyverian philosophy, and will magic is the quickest and most effective path to that end.

What began as blood sorcery and eventually became a new subspecies of human, maghyr magic is the sum of Tyverian cultural values, distilled into magic abilities. Nothing is more Tyverian than using the lifeforce of others to your own ends. A maghyr, or a human blood sorcerer, can manipulate living blood in myriad ways, learning more and better powers as their skill increases.

Organizations
Despite the Empire’s official stance of absolute unity under Adrael, several factions with clashing agendas remain, or have appeared in the Realm, carved out of conflict like everything else in Tyveria. Most of these organizations operate independently of the Imperial Court, and some do it against the crown.

Army
The Tyverian army excels at striking hard, fast and painful, with little regard for its own casualties - in fact, dead soldiers strengthen the army, as their blood feeds vampyr captains and fuels the powers of maghyr leaders. Tyverians strike in waves, unleashing more and more power as the battle progresses.