From the First Imperial Decree of the Imperial Council:
Since centuries past, when word of the true gods came to our island from distant lands, it has been known that here in the City of the Sea Cliffs lies the senior branch of the blessed bloodline. This city, the greatest in the world, which sees thousands of ships each day, has been the great capital of our continent-wide empire ever since these first enlightened people led the great holy wars across distant lands.
However, the old line of emperors has now undoubtedly lost their legitimacy, in the eyes of the gods and in those of the people. Since the sack of the City a century ago its power has scarcely been felt outside our island. It is perhaps true that in this modern age it would be impossible for any nation to equal the vastness of the early empire, but our current state is an embarrassment. The Emperor's name, even, has fallen into frequent use - the greatest disrespect one could imagine.
For this reason, then, we have claimed our throne from the pretender who sat in it before.
[...]
Signed, His Highness the Celestial Emperor, who makes his worldly home in Tsnyávthyelya, He who alone listens to the Gods, Climber of Mountains, Vanquisher of Countries.
In 1154 A.R., members of a group known as the Cliffside Guild infiltrated the Imperial Palace, assassinated the Emperor and his entire family, and thoroughly burned the palace to the ground. Shortly afterward, the Guild's leading council (now calling themselves the Imperial Council) claimed the Imperial Dignity for one of their members, known to history as the Great Pirate Emperor. The Great Pirate Emperor enacted a series of reforms that set up the entire island of several hundred thousand to function as a base for the Guild's piracy.
Five years later, the Imperial Council, with the support of the Great Pirate Emperor, chose from among their members a new emperor. This regular transfer of power, though never codified, was followed strictly for the duration of the Second Empire.
From
Essays on the Dangers of Ignorance, in the First Person by Idlyusyelya
I should like to note an interesting historical factoid that has been brought to my attention. Though the idea of a modern large-scale republic is generally taken to have originated a long time later, the Second Empire of Əslích [Tsnyávthyelya] was in effect republican. The Emperor was chosen by the Council every five years, yes, but this position was largely ceremonial after the reforms of the Great Pirate Emperor. The true power always lay with the Council itself. The council was simply chosen by election from among the members of the Cliffside Guild, as it had been even before the Pirate Coup. After the Coup, the Cliffside Guild was greatly expanded, up to a few thousand as some report. Of course, this is a small voting population compared to the size of Əslích [ Slích Tsnyávthyelya], but I do still believe it should count among our histories of republicanism.
As far as I know, this is the only republic in history to have claimed that its elected leader and his entire family had the divine right to rule - and then, five years later, to then claim that a new family had supposedly fallen into the gods' favor.
...
Editor's note: Idlyusyelya uses the modern term, Əslích, but the contemporary term would probably be "Tsnyávthyelya," or "Slích Tsnyávthyelya" for the city.
This map was pretty fun to make. This is the first time i've done the "old, faded paper" texture, and it seems to have worked well enough. The map is not as detailed as perhaps I would like, but overall it's pretty good.
Some notes:
- Slích Tsnyávthyelya is pronounced just like it's spelled! [ˈslɨːç ˌt͡sɲaːv.ˈθʲε.ʎæ].
- Yes, this is the same universe as
my entry for MOTF 246. This map is set roughly 150 years earlier. The downfall of the
Pirate Republic Second Empire of Tsnyávthyelya was caused by a catastrophic monsoon between the eras of the two maps; this is the same monsoon that swept out a vast lowland, most of which was already below sea level, and formed the eastern straits which are visible in the bottom left of the other map.
- This city is huge. While probably not
the greatest in the world, as the Imperial Council claims, that entire colored area on the map is urban. That's a large area. This city is easily over a hundred thousand people, and this era is similar technologically to our late medieval.
TL;DR: A group of pirates took over a theocratic, hereditary empire and replaced it with what was essentially a pirate republic - but they still claimed divine right to rule, and sacred blood, and all that.
