[Meme] things that didn't make it into stories

[edenfalling]

I am home and bored and "Secrets" is being frustrating, so... meme time!

Via askerian: Comment with a story I've written, and I will tell you one thing I knew, learned, or wondered about while writing the story that didn't make it onto the page.

Comments

2. The Doran Empire

[edenfalling]

Saturday, September 27, 2003
To understand these stories, you need to know a bit about the Doran Empire. It began as the city-state of Dora in northwestern Camia, which grew first to encompass the valley of Norineth and the port of Ultar on the western shore of the Kesric Sea, from which point the Dorans came into conflict with Corsinn, a powerful state on the eastern shore. Eventually the Dorans defeated Corsinn and subjugated most of the coastal regions of the Kesric Sea.

Over the next centuries, Dora expanded until it covered most of Simia -- i.e., the western half of Camia -- either ruling provinces directly or forcing local rulers to swear fealty, pay tribute, and provide men for the Doran armies. The Empire was first ruled by a king and a council of nobles, but this power structure eventually proved unstable as nobles from various regions of the empire worked for conflicting interests and began to demand concessions in return for their military support. To prevent greater civil war, the kings consolidated their power, using both the paid imperial troops and the levies from the subject kingdoms to break the power of the nobles. Hereditary nobility was declared illegal, and rank was assigned on the basis of imperial service. (Nobles' sons did have an advantage getting into imperial service, so the old power structure remained in attenuated form.)

Around the time that the kings were breaking the nobles and declaring themselves emperors, the Church was born in Ochre Varos as one of many strains of Amaalism -- which is more properly called Yagataal, or 'Worship [of] the Lord,' but has been popularly named after its supposed founder, Ahomaal. The destruction of the Temple in Ezippah, which was the heart of Yagataal, brought the Church into prominence, and it began to spread quickly through the Empire. It was a savior religion, one that promised justice and order and blessings upon those who suffered. A lot of people were suffering in those times.

Within two hundred years, the Church had become the official religion of the Empire, replacing the old cult of ruler-worship. Other faiths still clung to their followers, however, and a new evangelical faith was being born in the south along the Great Mother River: the Circle of Kemar, or the Horse-cult. It was to become the third great demon of the Church. (The others were the paganism of the Jenjani and southerners, and the persistent heresies that rose within their own religious tradition.)