AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Feudal kingdoms worldbuilding reddit12/22/2023 These clans would be composed of nuclear and extended families, some related and some not, and would number in the thousands and the largest in the tens of thousands. Well an idea I later discarded as my world changed from a post-post apocalyptic American Midwest to a far future solar system was the idea of mercenary clans. The empire's are self-sufficient and strong, but they are only starting to edge one against the other and the consequences will remain unclear. And that is about the present day in my world. So far anything from the outside could be absorbed, but with another entity of similar ambition and power, things will look different. So far the empire is idiosyncratic, but contact with the other empires puts their self-absorbance into question. Many an uprising started here and the city always tried to become the center of the empire, but any rebellion raised here eventually fell apart or marched against the capital, dethroned the emperor and got stuck in the bureaucratic maelstrom of the capital only to find themselves having become what they once fought. Simply called "Under the Wall" the city prospers on top of a huge plateau, only dwarfed by the steeply rising mountains behind it that look like a wall from any distance. However, the largest city in the empire sits at the second largest river. The plains to the North and South form the food basket of the empire. The mightiest river of the empire winds around the volcano bringing ores from the mountains Northeast and Northwest. The capital, the Heavenly Heart, is on top of a lonely volcano and the emperor's palace stands on an island in the crater lake. I haven't gotten to a cultural level with this, but I like the setting so far. Eventually any foreign invader has just become the next representation of the empire, aka its emperor. Any foreign take-over so far has been absorbed by the empire - for in order to run the empire you need its byzantine bureaucracy. Nonetheless, the grip of the bureaucracy is far-reaching and deep. While only a subtle difference it has broad about centuries of intrigues and infighting. The other faction sees the emperor as a mere emissary for the empire carrying its will into the world. One faction believes the emperor to be the incarnation of the empire and therefore hails him like the empire itself. This understanding broad about two schools, that control different parts of the bureaucracy and are constantly fighting for influence and power - sometimes even in civil war. The empire itself is thought to be conscious. But the role of the emperor is also separated from the empire - losing an emperor just means that the empire "thought" it was time for another representative. As such his rulings are divine and indisputable. Technically the emperor represents the empire itself. It mainly revolves about a omnipotent bureaucracy that is the real engine behind the empire and the godlike title of the emperor. One of my empire's is inspired by the Chinese and Japanese emperors.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |