The Empire of Man is the rather grandiose name of the political entity that covers much of the northern Old World. Despite its pretensions to being a body which unifies all of mankind against their enemies, in reality the Empire cannot even unify its own scattered population. The Empire is divided into a number of provinces, each of which pays lip service to Imperial unity but functions, in reality, almost as a sovereign state. The provincial rulers themselves often have only sketchy authority over much of their supposed domain, with regional and local lords often exercising despotic powers within their own domains, whenever the overlord is too weak or too indifferent to effectively keep them in line.
There is no central Imperial army. Each lord maintains his own fighting force, as do many temples.
Most of the population are poor peasants living off the land, and it is them that support the rest of the population. In larger cities, most people are still poor, and often worse off than their rural cousins due to the cramped and unhygienic conditions in which they live. Cities do support an artisanal class, however, and some few manage to get wealthy from trade and mercantile activities. A few of the more successful merchants become extremely rich.
The nobility are considered a separate class apart from the commoners, rich and poor alike, and they tend to view the mass of the population with disdain. The wealthiest commoners are sometimes richer than much of the nobility, and some take pains to ape their styles, often trying to buy their children marriages into noble families, to give them the titles that will give them social status equivalent to their wealth. In many cities, the middle classes have taken over much of the function of government, and there are several political movements seeking to cement their rights and privileges and give them more power in the government of the Empire. Such sentiments can be risky to express too loudly, though.
Clergy of approved faiths stand somewhat apart from the rest of society; and the priesthood is one of the few places where those of noble and common origin mingle as equals. Priests are sometimes granted certain privileges and powers, including exemption from taxation, though how well the privileges of different faiths are enforced across the Empire can vary.
The Imperial Electors
The Empire is an electoral monarchy. When the Emperor dies, Imperial Electors have the right to cast a vote on his successor. Often, the succession runs in families, but this is not required and there have been several disputed elections in which the ruling house lost their control.
The current Emperor is Karl Franz of the house of Holswig-Schliestein. His great-great grandfather secured the Imperial title 83 years ago, following the disgrace of the previous Emperor during the secession of Westerland. Karl-Franz came to the throne as a young man a decade ago. He has just the one leigitmate son - his named heir Prince Wolfgang Holswig Abernauer.
There are currently 15 Imperial Electors. The offices and current holders ae listed below:
History of the Empire
The Empire traces its origins back more than two and a half thousand years. In these days, the thick forests of the Old World were even more dangerous than they are today. infested with tribes of Greenskins and other monstrosities. Humanity was split into a bunch of wandering tribes, who struggled against one another as much as they did the goblins.
The chief of one of these warring tribes, the Unberogen, had a son whose birth was, according to legend, heralded by a mighty storm and the appearance of a mysterious two-tailed comet. This was Sigmar, later known as Heldenhammer ('hammer of the goblins'). He was a mighty warrior from a young age, singlehandedly saving a party of Dwarves from a goblin war band at the age of only 15. As fate would have it, this band included the Dwarven king Kargan Ironbeard; and this event was the beginning of a long-lasting friendship between Sigmar and the dwarves.
When he became ruler of his tribe, Sigmar set out on a campaign to unify the tribes of man against their orc and goblin enemies. Some joined him willingly as his fame spread, others struggled against him but were defeated in battle. By the time Sigmar bested the chief of the rival Teutongen tribe in single combat, almost all the human tribes between the Grey Mountains and World's Edge mountains acknowledged his leadership.
He turned this great alliance against his golbin enemies, defeating band after band and driving them from the forests of the Old World to flee for safety in the World's Edge Mountains. Once there, the Greenskins turned on the Dwarf holds of the mountains, and a desperate plea for aid came Sigmar's way. A few hundred Dwarves were desperately trying to hold the Black Fire Pass against a horde of orcs and goblins, to give their compatriots a chance to retreat to the safety of Karak Varn. Sigmar led a mighty army to relieve the Dwarven defenders, crushing the Greenskins so comprehensively that their threat faded for many years.
For his services to the Dwarves, Sigmar was rewarded with a magical runehammer, Ghal-Maraz. Shortly afterwards, at the small town of Altdorf, he was ceremonially crowned as Emperor of Man by the High-Priest of Ulric.
Sigmar spent five decades working to build his fledgling empire, defending it against enemies both within and without, before deciding that the time had come to return Ghal-Maraz. He set off on a journey to Karaz-a-Karak, and was never seen again.
With the Emperor gone, the old tribal rulers, who had become leaders of provinces, met to decide what should happen next. Sigmar had no children, and there was no obvious successor. In the end, they agreed to elect one of their own by vote; establishing the system of Imperial election which remains to this day.
Imperial control over the provincial rulers gradually declined over the centuries, whil disagreement and division grew between the different provinces - some of which sought effective or actual independence. Civil wars became common; eventually leading to what became known as the Age of the Three Emperors, during which three different nobles were crowned Emperor by different factions; each dismissing the others as an illegitimate usurper. This situation, with rival emperors in Nuln, Middenheim and Talabheim, continued for centuries - a time of chaos when necromancers and other dark forces moved freely around the empire. When the Grand Theogonist declared the election of Empress Magritte illegitimate, largely due to the bribes of the rising merchant class, imperial elections were abandoned entirely.
The three centuries from 2000 to 2300 were a time of chaos, in which there was no Empire and no recognised Emperor. The unity of man was shattered. Warring provinces struggled against each other, and the enemies of man were free to spread and prosper. As capricious fate would have it, things were at this time stirring in the mysterious lands of the far north. In 2302, the dam burst, and the greatest incursion of the Ruinous Powers known to the memory of civlised man poured south from the Chaos Wastes, crushing divided humanity beneath them.
At humanity's hour of greatest need, a hero stepped forth. A young nobleman of Nuln, Magnus the Pious, set forth across the Old World to unify the shattered remnants of the Empire in the name of Sigmar. He drew many to his banner, even enlisting the aid of non-humans to the cause of saving order from Chaos. The great Elven mage Teclis, from distant, mysterious Ulthuan, showed the young Magnus how magic, previously demonised as witchcraft, could be harnessed for the force of good. Teclis recruited and trained human mages to assist in the Great War Against Chaos, the origins of the Colleges of Magic that still exist today.
With magic on his side, and with most of the Empire's warring factions united under his lead, Magnus led the armies of man to the land of Kislev, finally stopping the Chaos horde at the Battle of Praag.
With humanity saved, Magnus was appointed Emperor with great acclamation. He restored the system of Imperial elections, and united the scattered provinces. His legacy lives on today, although the unity he brought to the Empire was short-lived. Nobles accustomed to independent rule gradually began to reassert their privileges, and over the last two centuries central control over the Empire has gradually weakened. As memories of the Great War Against Chaos fade into myth, the forces of division grow ever stronger.
Geography of the Empire
The Empire contains several great cities, but they are spread far apart from one another, and usually separated by dense forest. No one respectable ventures deep into these forests, where all manner of dark things lurk. Imperial highways stretch through them to link major centres of population, but patrols of roadwardens cannot cover all the long, empty stretches of road, and travel is often dangerous. Few would travel alone, and the most popular method of transportation for those who can afford it is by coach.
River travel is important, and the major rivers of the Empire form the arteries of trade that bind the Empire together. The Reik, which flows roughly northwards from the World's Edge Mountains, through Nuln, to empty into the sea at Marienburg, and the Talabec, which flows from westwards from Kislev through the breadth of the Empire, are the two most important waterways. Altdorf, current capital of the Empire, is situated at the point where the Talabec flows into the Reik.
Altdorf is the largest city in the Empire, and possibly the entire Old World. Sitting as it does at a junction of trade routes, Altdorf is swelled by trade, and since the accession of the Holswig-Schliesteins has been the capital of the Empire. Here one can find the Colleges of Magic, the School of Engineers, the University, the High Temple of Sigmar and, of course, the Imperial Palace. It's a place where you can purchase whatever you might wish to find, and many other things you might wish you'd never found. The city's famous white walls rise above the dirty flats that surround the city, making it visible from far away.
Nuln lies upstream of the Reik from Altdorf, and is the main market to which the produce of the southern plains are shipped for transport further north. Nuln was the Imperial capital for more than a century, and is home to the most prestigious university outside Altdorf (even including Altdorf according to the average Nuln alumnus). Nuln is well known for its artillery school, and is a mecca for gunsmiths and other artisans and inventors.
Talabheim lies along the river Talabec, in an unusually fertile region at the centre of a large crater. From this crater natural walls have formed which make Talabheim an impregnable fortress - it was here that the Ulrican emperors held sway for centuries during the age of the Empire's division. Taal is an extremely popular god in Talabheim.
Middenheim is the capital of the north, standing out from the surrounding landscape atop the Fauschlag, an unusual rock formation that outcrops high above the surrounding terrain. Middenheim is home of the Church of Ulric, and here the worship of Ulric overshadows even that of Sigmar. Middenheimers are considered direct and sullen by their southern neighbours; who they in turn consider to be pompous and effete. Magic users are more tolerated in Middenheim that further south, with the influence of the Sigmarite Templars so much less.
Last edited by SmallbutVicious, November 13 2022 16:25:04. Open game article. You can edit it once you log in.