Solar Empire of Arith

Pyrrhia, Solar Pyrrhia, or officially the Solar Pyrrhian Empire is a theocratic monarchy which exists and resides in the Western half of the continent Arith. The Empire is ruled by the religious and political head of state, the Solar Emperor, who is the head of the Solar Ecclesiarchy of Erses, also known as Solaris.

The foundation of the Empire is during the events of Great Reformation, when Melevor II was commanded by the head god of the now defunct faith of Ceiltean Druidism, Erses, to correct the Faith with various reforms and doctrinal rewrites. This was completed with the completion of the holy texts of Solaris, the Solar Codex. At the time, the Empire was still not formed as the nation was under the control of Melevor II's father, Melevor, who upheld strong Socialist beliefs, being the founder of the Union of Collectivist Council Republics. Following Melevor I's death during the Second Crusade against Pater Carnis, Melevor II inherited the Union with many of his enemies already dead. Within days he had proclaimed himself Emperor and reinstated the ancient order of Pyrrhia.

Etymology
The Empire is comprised of three different distinct regions which have their own ethnicities, the Ceilteans, the Hongseguoans and the Ceilto-Willowgladians. These different ethnicities descend from the central Pyrrhian ethnicity, which populated the vast stretches of Western Arith for hundreds of years before breaking into different sub-ethnicities. The terminology of a "Solar Empire" comes from the Solaris belief that the more devout and faithful one is to the Sun God Erses, the more "Solar" - or Holy - one is. The population of the Empire were infused with previously missing faith in religion following the Great Sacrilege which led to the Second Crusade against Pater Carnis.

History
The Empire has a history spanning long before it's creation. Before the Great Reformation existed the Grand Order of Druids, who propagated the now defunct Ceiltean Druidism, which the Solar Ecclesiarchy was built upon. The Grand Order was established by the ancient progenitor of the Murascaillbach Dynasty, the direct descendant of Erses, Íor Murascaillbach. Prior to the arrival of Íor Murascaillbach on Terra, the population of the world was divided and either had no conception of true religion or gods, and worshipped only material wealth or pagan idols of flesh.

The Age of Heroes
The Age of Heroes was a series of long and protracted wars by the warrior-druids of Íor Murascaillbach against the pagans of Western Arith. Though lasting for upwards of 200 years, the series of wars was finally won by the people who would eventually become the Pyrrhians, known as the proto-Pyrrhians with the annihilation of the pagan temple which stood on the banks of the Saile river, modern day Ceiltean Crownlands. Though by this time Íor was dead by 75 years, his son was the first to truly settle in the lands and reign over peaceful territories.

The druids and proto-Pyrrhians lived a very peaceful lifestyle, living in nature under a loose Confederation headed by the chief of the Murascaillbach Clan. Under this Age shrines and standing stones to the gods thrived, appearing all over Western Arith as a result of Druidic wandering and nomad lifestyles. This would end with the rise of the Free Cities of Alathra, whose harsh policies against bandits would drive the money-making thieves into the relatively unsettled and nomadic West of Arith and into direct confrontation with the proto-Pyrrhains.

Age of Subjugation
War reigned against the bandits and warlords for many decades, but more kept coming into Western Arith, leading to the total subjugation of the proto-Pyrrhians. The natives would be enslaved by their new bandit overlords, forced into endless mining across the iron and gold rich region. The proto-Pyrrhians lived a basic subsistence, with the majority of food, housing and other basic necessities being hoarded by the bandits, who become warlords and began fighting amongst one another.

While the suffering of the proto-Pyrrhians was immense, it would only get worse as the Four Piglins (Pestilence, War, Famine and Death) struck the region igniting a 15 year-long series of events which included multiple famines, droughts, bandit conflict and widespread plague scourging the lands. During this time many of the already small proto-Pyrrhian population perished either due to hunger, sickness or death at the hands of bandit warlords who fought throughout the lands for dominance. The so-called "15 Years of Death" was thought to be a plight inflicted by the minor spirits, Ymis and Rhadohir on the bandits as a punishment for the maltreatment of the proto-Pyrrhians, though had the unintended consequence of killing many of the proto-Pyrrhians, who were thought to be immune to the sickness. The catastrophic event ended only after the organisation of a widespread rebellion by the proto-Pyrrhians spearheaded by Melevor and the establishment of the city of Pyrrhus.

Thus was unified that great race of men, longed disunited and spread across the large areas of Western Arith. Long had they been oppressed and mistreated by their brutal overlords, which collectively as a people they vowed would never happen again.

Old Pyrrhia
With the creation of the city of Pyrrhus and quick development thanks to the direct oversight by Melevor, it was not long before an official Pyrrhian nation-state had been formed. The new state embarked on a campaign to consolidate its position through forming friendships both on the continent of Arith, and also around the world. Before the start of the First Great Alathran War, Pyrrhia had officially signed treaties with the Kingdoms of Arith, the Federation of Arith, the Fossores Republic and the young Arcadian Altanate. With the declaration of war upon the Federation of Arith by the Kingdom of Elyria and the formal creation of the Alathran Entente, Pyrrhia joined the war on the Entente's side. The war, infamously, was very short and created the circumstances by which the decision was taken by the leadership of the state to enact scorched earth policies in order to leave the city with nothing to be taken by the enemy, believing that if they had let the city be captured this would violate their vow upon the establishment of the city. This left the city of Pyrrhus in disrepair and created the ruins that the city is today.

A year following the desolation of Pyrrhus and the end of the First Great War, there were very few people left in the city of Pyrrhus and so the decision was taken by the joint Kings of the Union of Unity-Luton, Gbhm2 and HawlMGamez, to conduct an invasion of Pyrrhian territories to take the land for themselves. The situation looked bleak for those few remaining Pyrrhians, though mercenaries from the Kingdom of Elyria helped repulsed the invading force and win the war for the Pyrrhians, preserving the city from foreign conquest.

Ceiltea
Following the victory at Pyrrhus the decision was made by Melevor to relocate the Pyrrhian people to a new area in the West. After embarking along the then roadless Arith, after many deaths and many days of walking, crossing rivers and hills, the Pyrrhians arrived at the land which would become the four provinces of Ceiltea. The High Kingdom of Ceiltea was marked with the foundations of cities, though fairly unremarkable, the Ceiltean High Kingdom saw the settling of Ard Saileach, Doire, Carrig and the now defunct town of Rafferty.

Throughout the countries tensions began to rise over the election of Prime Minister Dedrich Collins, who stood on a basis of Ceiltean Conservativsm and the centralisation of the state by reducing regional autonomy with his party the National Conservative League, in opposition to Lord Ronan Carrig, the man who founded the city of Carrig. Carrig stood for regional autonomy, and founded the Carrig Defence League, a local militia which would seek to defend the rights of the region that Carrig was in. In response to the creation of the CDL, a National Conservative backed militia named the National Ceiltean Army arose, as tensions between the two sides of the political dialogue got worse.

Beginning with small skirmishes the now aptly name "Troubles" included various bombings, gang shoot-outs and murders, although all events took place outside of the capital of Ard Saileach, which was revered as a holy place by the Ceiltean Order of Druids due to the presence of the neutral High King, Melevor. During the Troubles Melevor spent most of his time looking to the development of Ard Saileach, building the walls of the city and the beginnings of both the Palace of Kings, and the Ceiltean National Parliament.

The end of the High Kingdom would come about with the publication of Melevor's book "Wealth: A critique of Alathran elitism", which led him to be placed under house arrest, and inevitably caused the January Revolution, out of which the Collectivist Charter was created and the Union of Collectivist Council Republics was born.

Union of Collectivist Council Republics
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Great Reformation
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Second Crusade against Pater Carnis
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Proclamation of Empire
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Geography
The entirety of the Empire resides in Western Arith, with the largest and most populous region being the Crownlands, also known as Ceiltea. The Crownlands is between the two rivers of the Saile and the Darach and is covered mostly by forests and plains. There is a small plain to the east of Solar Pyrrhus along the coastline which leads to the ruins of the town of Rafferty and the internal border between the Crownlands and the County of Willowglade. South of the Crownlands is the Duchy of Hongseguo, which is comprised mostly of forests, rivers and mountains. The region is the County of Willowglade, which is characterised by its sand beaches and many islands, but which is undergoing terraforming to turn the lands green and lushous. The Ceiltean Crownlands and the Duchy of Hongseguo are separated administratively by the Darach River while the city of Hongseguo is settled on the Hongse River.

Ecology
The Empire is home to many different forests and different types of plant life including dark oak trees, birch trees, oak trees, jungle trees, bamboo and large mushrooms of both brown and red varieties. While Ceiltea formely had a jungle (which had been cut down to make way for mass farms) and now has only, a dark oak forest and a birch forest, Hongseguo has only birch and dark oak forests. The over-abundance of dark oak nearby, with Solar Pyrrhus being on the site of a former dark oak forest, has led to the wood being highly popular for furniture and buildings within the Crownlands, and throughout official government buildings in the rest of the Empire. The fauna of the Empire includes the diverse range of cows, pigs, horses and parrots, with other species such as wolves being introduced from the lands south of Hongseguo as pets.

Administrative Divisions
The Empire is divided into three administrative regions, with even more internal counties and baronies. Within the Ceiltean Crownlands the County of Doire and the County of Carrig exist, though the Count of Carrig has been granted the additional title of Duke of Ceiltea, to oversee the overall development of the Crownlands.

Politics
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Solar Emperor, King of Kings, Voice of Erses
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Archchancellor
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Consortium Solaris
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Government
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Imperial Diet
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Imperial Estates
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Foreign Relations
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Arith
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Gaushan
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Prospit
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Moria
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Ashina
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Koganon
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Economy
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Demographics
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Culture
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Sport
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Gallery
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Towns
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