Paisuran Empire

The Paisuran Empire dominates the western side of the continent of Tyr, and governs all the land from the Great Western Sea to the World's Spine Mountains. It's capitol is the city of Paisur.

Though the Empire is tolerant and - in some places - welcoming of all races, it is a place dominated by humans. In its history there have only been human Emperors, and only in the past fifty years have non-human races served as Senators, though they still are a small minority.

The Empire covers a large territory and the application of its laws - as with any large Empire - is uneven. In some places the governor is a fair and just leader with support of the local populace (often drawn from the locals themselves). In others, the governors tax more harshly, embezzle more readily, and embody the spirit of corruption, greed, and malice.

Origin
The Empire was created under circumstances obscured by history. Nearly a thousand years ago, the land was made up of many independant kingdoms. A network of alliances developed, and each kingdom readied its armies, everyone waiting with baited breath for the war to end all wars.

It never came. One by one - without, it seemed, the loss of a single life - the kingdoms began to surrender to a kingdom that had until then been a small player: Paisur and its ruler, the newly annointed Emperor Malak.

No one alive - on the material plane, anyway - remembers the time before the Empire, and few enough knew what caused the mysterious wave of surrenders in the first place. Though more than a few link it with the mysterious silence from the kingdom of Maurudis.

Government
The Empire is ruled by the Imperial Senate, who are elected by the citizens across the Empire, and an Emperor, whom the Senate elects from their number to serve for life.

The Imperial Senate contains 81 members: nine from each of the nine Imperial Provinces.

Emperors are elected, and as such they have come from many noble houses across the Empire (though disproportionately from families from old Paisur) Malak's decendants never again took the mantle of Emperor, though have always served as the Senator for Paisur proper.

This changed with the ascention of Emperor Marius to the throne. The direct descendant of Emperor Malak, Marius brought the glory of Paisur to even its outermost provinces: establishing sophisticated trade and communication networks, curtailing the worst of the corrupt governors, and working to make the Empire unified not just in name but in spirit.

His daughter, Ariadne, has risen to prominence as Paisur's Senator for the past five years, and has been elected to succeed her father as Empress.

Organization


The Paisuran Empire has nine provinces.


 * Province Paisur, home of the imperial capitol after which it's named, is the seat of the empire.


 * Province Norlich, in the north, provides much of the Empire's lumber and various other raw materials.


 * Province Maurudis, a province in name only, is a dead island. No one lives in province Maurudis, and is said to be governed by the dead.


 * Province Sesh is a dark, near-lawless swampland. Besides providing the empire with a dark corner in which outlaws can hide, Sesh is home to a large part of the empire's nascent industry due to the natural resources - especially oil - found there. This combination leads the landscape of Sesh to be lawless, damp, murky wilderness dotted with highly guarded, heavily fenced compounds where workers toil away in smokey, lightlessness.


 * Province Veshtil is the breadbasket of the empire. Consisting of endless fields and pastures, almost every staple grain and protein comes from Veshtil.
 * Prior to the founding of the empire, the land that composes Province Kaggoth were ruled by dozens of lesser kingdoms. While none of them rose against Paisur during the conquest, they all fought with one another thereafter for prominence of Province Kaggoth. As a result, even now Province Kaggoth is suffering the fallout from that infighting: the land is dotted with small villages, derelict castles, and poor tenant farmers.
 * Province Nem and Province Izrit were part of the same massive kingdom in the time prior to the founding of the empire. For reasons lost to history, Emperor Malak decided to break that kingdom into two. It is suspected that without losing their cultural identity, those southerners would have risen up against the newborn empire.
 * Province Sanubia is largely baren salt flats, deserts, and rocky plains. The southern reach of Sanubia provides a large amount of the trade between the Paisuran Empire and the vast, unknown parts of the world.