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+---
+title: "Regions of the Empire"
+updated: "2017-12-24 Mon 00:14"
+categories: AP LD
+---
+
+# A Brief Overview of the Empire
+The Etracian Empire is the largest empire in the world, and the second
+largest in history (only falling behind that of the dominion of the
+giants during the Days of Thunder).
+
+Though in past ages, the empire grew through conquest, in the modern
+days, the holdings and influence of the empire expand primarily
+through colonization and diplomacy.
+
+#### Q & A
+>How long has the Empire been around?
+
+The current count places the empire's history into 111 ages, but how
+many is that?  The current age has lasted 62 years, but some have been
+less than a year, and some longer than a century.
+
+The best tax records in the oldest provinces say the empire is about
+30 generations of elves (or 3000 years) old.  The average length of an
+'age' is therefore, about 100 years.
+
+>What is the General Edict?
+
+The General Edict is a system of laws and codes given by Josef IV.  It
+has been in place for a little over 60 years.
+
+As a legal system, the GE has done a better job of keeping the nation
+running than the previous code did (the previous Emperor's reign was
+rife with civil war, do in large part to the Emperor's power to easily
+disenfranchise noble families that "showed disloyalty").
+
+>Who is the current Emperor?
+
+Emperor Josef IV is the official name for Lady Lizbeth Yates, the
+eldest daughter and only remaining survivor of the Yates line.  Though
+technically, only a man may claim the title of Emperor [what kind of
+primogeniture is this?], few complain that the Lady Lizbeth legally
+declared herself a man (or rather, few who complained about the matter
+remain among the living).
+
+## Regions of the Empire
+The Empire is a massive, powerful, and infinitely subdivided nation
+with an exceptional record for stability matched only by its
+inimitable bureaucracy.
+
+It contains three major geographic and political classifications for
+its lands: states, provinces, and colonies.
+
+### The Continental States
+
+[I don't the upper bound on states, but there are at least three,
+known collectively as the Midlands]
+
+#### The Midlands
+North of the Marble Isle
+
+[I need to figure out the bodies of water to get more details.]
+
+Etra, Vala, Isla [transcribe from notebooks]
+
+### The Provinces
+
+There are several provinces which are much less wealthy than the
+central states, but contain the majority of the empire's population.
+
+#### The North
+There is a great difference between the area of the north claimed by
+the Empire, and that controlled by the Empire.  The only area of the
+North from which the Empire has ever successfully collected taxes is
+the southernmost border settlements in the Chill-Lands (of which there
+are 12) and the narrow strip of land directly surrounding Fort North.
+
+It is often said that a single southern town could more than match the
+value of the entire Northern province of the Empire, and that may be
+true in terms of wealth or resources, but in reality few forts
+anywhere in the Empire can brag the same quality of recruits brought
+into the Imperial Legion as from the tiny northern province and
+outlying regions.
+
+The occasional goliath barbarian or glacier dwarf fighter making their
+way south and wanting to try their hands (and axes) at Legion life is
+more than enough incentive to keep the Empire's northern holdings
+fully staffed, supplied, and cared for.
+
+#### The Midwood
+The Northwestern-most stretch of the Deepwood, this is the most
+'civilized' area of that great forest, or at least that most citizens
+of the Empire could ever hope to reach.
+
+Full of elves, gnomes, florans, faunus, halflings, and their kin, the
+Midwood is one of the most ethically non-human locations in the
+empire.  Regiments of the Empire's military raised from the Midwood
+are often called 'menageries' and use strange, but undoubtedly
+effective, tactics in combat.
+
+[The ghostwise halflings come from an ancient ruin just outside the
+midwood.]
+
+### The Colonies
+Colonization is the empire's newest tool for expansion.
+
+#### Cover Islands
+Oft beset by pirates and even more often by deadly storms, the Covers
+are an expensive and dangerous colony to keep.  That said, the islands
+remain one of the few places for the empire to acquire rare volcanic
+minerals and alchemical agents useful in the development of magical
+weapons.
+
+After the Black Tongues were disbanded in the Empire, many fled to the
+islands, where they find, fewer and more lax regulations on their
+activities.
+
+### The Golden Road
+
+Running from the Citadel of Ice in the North to the Feet of the Last
+King in the South and twisting, diverging, merging, and turning around
+all sorts of places in between, the Gold Road is revered as sacred,
+and it's tireless, invisible creator worshiped by those who would
+seek safety traveling along its many gleaming golden cobblestones.
+
+The Golden Road belongs to the Golden God, though it is claimed by the
+Empire where it overlaps land claimed by the Empire.  That said, the
+Golden Guides maintain control of the road regardless of the claims.
+
+You need a Golden Guide for the golden road, or you'll travel 100
+miles and never lose sight of where you started, or worse, you'll go
+90 miles to see your destination right ahead of you, then 90 more
+without it seeming to get any closer.
+
+The Golden Guides are either Travel Domain Clerics or (Fiend or
+Celestial) Warlocks. Despite the ambiguity, the Golden God himself is
+actually an Icon and a Fiend, a powerful one at that, and was involved
+in the discovery of the spell which created the tiefling pact. Once a
+gnome, the Golden God can be built as a [Gnome (Fine) Wizard 15
+(Transmutation)/Patron 5/Icon 5].
+
+The Golden God always needs more gold for the road, and the standing
+orders of the Golden Guides are to find and aid parties that can
+supply large quantities of gold.  The Golden God builds the road
+daily, moving it slowly towards an unknown end.
+
+#### Lair
+
+The whole of the Golden Road is the Golden God's Lair.  The gnome
+himself is cloaked in a Perpetual Greater Invisibility spell (via
+level 5 Icon power) and can cast *fabricate* at will.
+
+