(^____^ Yay! Map Thread
der dritte)
(It should be stickied, methinks.)
The World, c. 100 CE
The Gallic warlord Vercingetorix defeated Roman General Gaius Julius Caesar in 52 BCE, at Alesia. The Gallic Confederation of Vercingetorix has previously been hammered and assault by the Romans, until this battle. At Alesia, Caesar was killed by a well-aimed arrow, which struck him through the left eye, piercing his brain. Perhaps in another age, he could have been saved...
The Roman Republic collapsed, as in-fighting between the factions of Pompey the Great, and Caesar's supporters tore throughout the Republic. The Roman front in Gaul quickly melted away as troops returned to the homeland to fight. Caesar's supporters themselves turned against each other, and soon, so did the Pompeians, after Pompey was assassinated.
Vercingetorix took this time to unite the Gallic tribes with the Celt-iberians, and establish trade contacts with the Brythons and Gaels. Very soon, Vercingetorix had formed a Gaulish imperial state, with him at its helm. A rough constitution, the
Charter of Avaricum, bound the great many of Gaulish tribes, including the Belgae confederates, Helvetians, and Nervii, into a federal empire. Each tribe would have their own respective province, with their own king and full autonomy, but each would owe allegiance to the central federal state, and provide two representatives, chosen by their king, to an Imperial Assembly. Presiding over the Assembly would be the
Ardh-Rí or Sovereign. The Sovereign would act in the capacity of an emperor, a sacred priest-king above all other kings, advised by the Imperial Assembly, who would ratify any major royal decrees, as a form of checks-and-balances.
Vercingetorix claimed that the sun-god Lugus shone a protective and divine solar light over him during the battle at Alesia, and interprets it as a divine mandate to make him and his lineage the supreme rulers of the Celtic race.
To this end, he fights to expand the Federation of Avaricum into a Celtic Empire, annexing many territories held once by Rome, and constructing a vast infrastructure of roads and military forts, considered Federal Property rather than the lands of the federal kingdoms. He also establishes federal schools to train the educated Druid caste into their roles as scribes and priests, as well as military schools for the warrior aristocracy. He takes upon himself the roles of
Supreme Druid,
Supreme Scribe and Bard, and
Master of the Armies, although he delegates the tasks to subordinate members of the Council of State, an organ of governance separate from the Assembly, tasked with running the executive government and maintaining federal property and enforcing federal law.
And, so, nearly 150 years later, around 100 CE, his great-grandson, Vercingetorix IV, rules the greatly-expanded Celtic Empire, as Rome languishes in corruption, destruction, and constant civil war.
this is truly amazing!
