Academy of Noble Conduct/Lectures/History/Morek Empire1

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Lecture on the history of Morek Empire
by Bustoarsenzio Peristaltico
Associate Magistrate of Military of Academy of Noble Conduct and Grandmaster of Morek Empire, Duke of Muspelheim

The area spanning from Huanghai to Mt.Black Nastrond has been one of the very first parts of Dwilight colonized by easteners. It is then natural that several happenings took place here, all necessary to understand what is now Morek Empire. I distinguish four parts of the history of Morek:








-Old Morek-

(For reference, see Morek)

Under the banner of Deverka Cryfwdr "The Cloudy One", colonists from the East gathered and formed the knightly order of Morek in Donghaiwei. Deverka was the first Grandmaster of Morek, its Hero and Founder. Deverka first foresaw the Bloodstars shining over the west, and he swore his people would colonize the lands beyond the internal sea, spreading the word of the stars.

As an official religion, Sanguis Astroism was founded in Caiyun by the holy Prophet, Mathurin Hossenfeffer who better than any one else understood the message from Deverka and from the Bloodstars. Since then, Caiyun is the most holy site in whole Morek, the birthplace of our faith.

Morek grew and quickly became one of the most powerful realm in eastern Dwilight, covering the area from Bohai to Shomrak. Ally to Morek was Springdale, huge realm going from Springdale city all the way to Aegir, including Muspelheim and Nifelhold.

Daily bloody battles against monsters were fought to defend the holy soil of Morek. The south was vastly untamed, and monsters were by far more numerous than now. A rebellion was tried against the crown held by Grandmaster Deverka, but it failed. Several attempts to conquer Unterstrom were attempted, but they all failed due to the neverending hordes of monsters besieging the city and the roads connecting it to the mainland.

It was back then that the realm of Corsanctum was founded in the Mimer Peninsula. Such peninsula was claimed by Morek, but Astrum took those territories when in need of food and unable to expand westwards due to the presence of Everguard, an aggressive colony of Springdale located in the surroundings of Gelene. Nearing war, Morek and its colony Astrum agreed that the peninsula was to be given to the church, and the state of Corsanctum was created, ruled by the Holy Prophet Mathurin himself.

-Enlarged Morek-

(For reference, see Morek)

The faith in the stars was spreading. To the east the colony of Astrum was founded by colonists coming from Morek and in the north the Duke of Muspelheim sir Cato de la Fare became one of the Bishops of our faith. Apparently he discovered that the ruler of Springdale, Neel Arya, was afraid of his religious influence, and afraid that the spreading of the Bloodstars in Springdale would weaken them. Claiming this, Duke Cato seceded from Sprindgdale forming the realm of Virovene in Muspelheim. A copy of his speech is still conserved in the archives of Donghaiwei and Muspelheim (Virovene/Secession). Springdale declared war against Virovene, and Cato asked for help to Morek.

While secularly Morek and Springdale were allied, Cato succesfully found the Warders of the Temple willing to help Virovene and defend the temples of SA that, according to him, were in danger of being destroyed by Springdale. The Warders were an army of Morek devoted to the church and not subjected to the secular authority of the Grandmaster.

Springdale shown its weakness ans was quickly put in danger by the Warders attacks. It was back then that Edward Raiva, Duke of Aegir, seceded as well, forming the Raivan Empire. Springdale was formed only by Nifelhold and Springdale city. Unhappy with the leadership of Neel Arya, Duke Sammael of Springdale converted to Sanguis Astroism, and joined Morek with its whole Duchy, leaving Springdale to exist only in the stronghold of Nifelhold.

In time Virovene succesfully besieged Nifelhold and Springdale disappeared from the maps, but not from the memory of the nobles belonging to the Duchy of Springdale city, now a part of Morek. Soon, the lords of Virovene lost their faith in Cato, whose madness was every day more evident, and joined Morek. Amongst them the Marquis of Muspel, sir Hericus Lefanis. Alone and without supplies the people of Muspelheim, decimated by starvation, overthrown the government (Cato was missing since a while, someone else was the Duke and ruler).

Morek then became by far the most big and most powerful realm on dwilight, going from Springdale to Muspelheim to Unterstrom, including Nifelhold and Mt.Black Nastrond. However, such power came with a price. Not only the bureaucracy needed to manage it was overwhelmingly difficult, but the cultural differences between the former Springdalians and the Morekians were deep and hard to be set aside.

-Xinhai-

(For reference, see Morek, Xinhai and Morek Empire)

Inside, Morek was split. Loyal to Duke Sammael most of the former Springdalians nobles remained in Morek, but they deeply disliked us and our faith. They accused it to be the reason of the fall of Springdale, the realm they loved, and had little sympathy for a theocracy as opposed to a realm with freedom of religion such as Springdale.

Daily neverending arguings took place around any topic imaginable. The most fervent opposers of Sanguis Astroism were the followers of Torenism, led by sir Sejieda Vita, former General of Springdale. At the opposite side stood those who now are Duchess of Donghaiwei and Aegir, Lady Allison and Lady Anabellium.

The realm was paralyzed by such discussions. The Springdalians were not willing to contribute to its prosperity and cared just about their own Duchy. On the other side Morekians tried to defend the southern border, the Muspelheim area and the Springdale duchy itself (they were as bad as they are now speaking of military operations), but they were demotivated and annoyed by the presence of strangers inside their very realm.

In time however some of the Sprindgalians, such as the one who now is Duke of Nifelhold sir Rohk converted to SA, so the actions made by Duke Sammael were not completely a failure. The fracture still stood, a realm locked in a perpertual struggle against itself but kept together by the loyalty of the Dukes to the crown and the nobility to their dukes.

It was then that Grandmaster Deverka Cryfwdr, founder of Morek, died in battle. On his way back from a diplomatic mission with Summerdale, he was ambushed by monsters in Nifel and killed. Shocked by the happening Morek crumbled at an amazing speed. Muspelheim and Unterstrom were without a Lord, and the realm needed five days to elect a new ruler. The most prominent candidates were Duke Sammael for the Springdale Duchy and Duchess Anabellium for the Donghaiwei Duchy. However, internal splittings between Anabellium and Branthorpe, at that time High Inquisitor of Morek, brought the victory to Sammael.

The morale of the Donghaiwei duchy was below their feet. Ruler Sammael appointed the only other member of the Unterstrom Duchy after the death of Deverka as Duke of Unterstrom -myself- but the city revolted shortly after. Muspelheim was lost without a Duke, and everywhere the peasants were on the brink of armed revolution.

Made even more bold by the election of Sammael the members of the Duchy of Springdale paralyzed Morek even more, and even the most simple military actions were impossible. The capital was moved to Nifelhold to help the maintainance of the realm, but nevertheless border regions such as Weinschenk and Shomrak were lost. Annoyed by the incompetence of the Springdalians and the weakening of Morek as a whole, the Donghaiwei duchy decided to secede. Under the rule of Duchess Anabellium the realm of Xinhai was formed, its border being set by Bohai/Taishan/Nimh to the north, Cailyn/Huanghai to the south. Shortly after Duke Sammael seceded forming the Libero Empire, Morek remaining only with Nifelhold, all its heritage forgotten and soon deceased.

Xinhai rightfully self proclaimed itself as the heir of Morek, since all those nobles who built it were there. Quickly, regaining motivations and faith in the stars the old military machine of Morek, now the armies of Xinhai, obtained great success in bringing order to the southern regions and the whole realm was stable and prosper in a very short time.

Another try to reach Unterstrom was done, but again without success. Our eyes then turned northwards towards Muspelheim and Muspel, rogue at that time. Between Xinhai and Muspelheim stood the Raivans: they seized control of Croton back when it revolted from Morek, and we were unable to take it back. In all what happened before the Raivans were not uninvolved: a war took place between Morek and Raivans caused by the conquest of Freke made by the latter. Threatening them by placing a large amount of forces in their capital, Morek forced the Raivans to abandon Freke to Corsanctum, and obliged them not to harm SA temples.

The Raivans were willing to take Muspelheim, but did not have yet the strength to do it. They hated Morek first and Xinhai after, but were too weak and remained in the shadow.

During Morek another colony was formed in the city of Flowrestown: Aquilegia. Founded by two warders of the Temple, sir Vesuvius and sir Garret, it was meant to be a theocracy of the stars friendly to Morek. In time, due to their failures to defend their borders several of the founding nobles abandoned it, allowing a group of foreigners to seize power. Their leader was Lady Ashlyn Twinblade. A failed rebellion led by Vesuvius, who was consequently banned, left Aquilegia in the hands of such a group, all the Xinhaian founders missing.

Worried by this change of leadership that came with an aggressive attitute towards Xinhai, we declared war on Aquilegia and looted their territories to weaken them. When we were about to attack Aquilegia again, asking Lady Twinblade to step down in favour of Vesuvius the war of the empires broke out.

The Raivans had several reasons to hate Xinhai. Along with them, Libero Empire - formed by the secession of Springdale- disliked Xinhai as well. Even if once realm mates, the Springdalians and the Donghaiweians disliked each other, both accusing the other side of the fall of Morek. With the pretext of defending their ally Aquilegia but aiming to weaken Xinhai, Libero Empire and Raivan Empire declared war on us and immediately started a joint attack on our territories.

It was back then that sir Bowie Ironsides joined Aquilegia and chronicled the whole war. His work can be found in the University of Dwilight archives in Donghaiwei or Muspelheim : Dwilight_University/History/Astromancy_at_War!.

Unfortunately for the triple allied Aquilegia, Raivan Empire and Libero Empire, the armies of Xinhai were well prepared thanks to several battles against the monsters hordes from the south, as opposed to the weak troops of the isolated empires, never engaged in serious battles. In addition, afraid of such war, deals were made with Astrum -ally of Xinhai since long- to muster help in case of war.

Nimh was lost to the Raivans, but Xinhai defeated Libero in Bohai and stopped their takeover. Afterwards Xinhai defeated both Raivans and Liberoans in Croton during a takeover. After two crushing defeats and without much hope to win, the three allies started to lose confidence in each other. They no longer worked together allowing Xinhai to start a takeover of Nimh that became an assault on Aegir's Deep with the help of a strong army coming from Astrum. Xinhai took Aegir's Deep that subsequently revolted and was taken again by the Raivans after a while, no longer able to sustain any troops or recruitment center. Astrum meanwhile looted Nidhogg's Mark heavily, weakening the Raivans greatly.


In the meantime Aquilegia seized Ashrak, while Libero tried to help the Raivans but without doing it for real at the end. Libero was unhappy with its allies' behavior, and Xinhai pushed it by trying to takeover Stratford. It was then that Libero decided the war was not worth their time, and proposed a peace treaty to Xinhai that was accepted and known as the treaty of Stratford.

Xinhai ignored Aquilegia, that raided Huanghai without much effect, and focused on the Raivans. Aegir's Deep was taken again, secured and fortified. The siege of Aegir began. Left alone without supplies and support, Aegir slowly decayed and once again the population overthrown the government after weeks of starvation. The Raivan Empire was no more, and Xinhai had free road to conquer Aegir and Muspelheim.

After a while also Aquilegia ceased to be a problem. Ashlyn Twinblade and several of her fellows disappeared, and after a series of rebellion led by Bowie Ironsides and chronicled here Dwilight_University/History/Reflections_on_the_Aquilegion_Civil_War, the rightful theocratic rule was reinstalled and the war had an end.

-Morek Empire-

(Refs Morek Empire)

Once stabilized Muspelheim and Aegir, Xinhai formalized its inheritance of Morek by changing its name. Its empire encompasses Aquilegia for the moment, with which a federation was recently signed, looking forward to let that realm grow and forget its troubled past.

Here ends my essay. Many other things could have been said, and perhaps I even made mistakes. I invite whomever wants, to add and review my article.

Good reading and enjoy the history of Morek.