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United Cities: Difference between revisions
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Overtaken at the Catun Fields, the vanguard of Tengu's army clashed with the imperial force, badly mauling it and sending it running from the field. After this defeat, Da Baipan offered a ten year truce with Tengu, swearing that the Chen dynasty would pay indemnities to him. More concerned at the time with consolidating his rule than territorial expansion, Tengu accepted the truce and allowed Baipan's army to leave unmolested. Knowing his failure would cost him his life and even after the Catun Fields defeat, in posession of one of the largest imperial field armies, Da Baipan turned traitor and began marching his army to the imperial capital to overthrow the Chen dynasty. | Overtaken at the Catun Fields, the vanguard of Tengu's army clashed with the imperial force, badly mauling it and sending it running from the field. After this defeat, Da Baipan offered a ten year truce with Tengu, swearing that the Chen dynasty would pay indemnities to him. More concerned at the time with consolidating his rule than territorial expansion, Tengu accepted the truce and allowed Baipan's army to leave unmolested. Knowing his failure would cost him his life and even after the Catun Fields defeat, in posession of one of the largest imperial field armies, Da Baipan turned traitor and began marching his army to the imperial capital to overthrow the Chen dynasty. | ||
Secure for a time against his most dangerous external foe, now Emperor Tengu would spend the next decade attempting to centralize power and have a greater power over the cities and local taxation. Feeling they had exchanged an autocrat far away for one at home, the elites of [[Heng]] and many cities began to resent Tengu's rule and withold funds from his tax collectors. In the winter of 915, a mob of peasants paid for by Heng's nobles attacked the Tengu and his attendants on the streets. While Tengu's outnumbered guards attempted to hack their way out of the mob, a farmer with an axe hewed the emperor's peg leg below the knee causing him to stumble to the ground where he was stabbed to death. After merely 19 years in power, the childless emperor and his dynasty were overthrown as suddenly as they had risen. | Secure for a time against his most dangerous external foe, now Emperor Tengu would spend the next decade attempting to centralize power and have a greater power over the cities and local taxation. Feeling they had exchanged an autocrat far away for one at home, the elites of [[Heng]] and many cities began to resent Tengu's rule and withold funds from his tax collectors. In the winter of 915, a mob of peasants paid for by Heng's nobles attacked the Tengu and his attendants on the streets. While Tengu's outnumbered guards attempted to hack their way out of the mob, a farmer with an axe hewed the emperor's peg leg below the knee causing him to stumble to the ground where he was stabbed to death. After merely 19 years in power, the childless emperor and his dynasty were overthrown as suddenly as they had risen. New Magisters drawn from the old nobility rose in every major city, agreeing to maintain their ties as a loose defensive union that would collectively come to be known as the United Cities. | ||
=== Middle Period === | === Middle Period === | ||
=== Decline and Dissolution === | === Decline and Dissolution === | ||
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The predominant climate of the area covered by the United Cities is cold semi-arid, featuring warm, dry summers and freezing winters with temperatures dropping below zero. Winters usually see light to moderate snowfall. | The predominant climate of the area covered by the United Cities is cold semi-arid, featuring warm, dry summers and freezing winters with temperatures dropping below zero. Winters usually see light to moderate snowfall. | ||
== Government == | == Government == | ||
The United Cities was ruled by the Council of | The United Cities was ruled by the Council of Magisters, a collection of the wealthiest and most influential men of each city. Only the richest ten citizens from each city were allowed to take part in the council. The choosing was not through election but by a tallying of the monetary worth of the aspirant, usually carried out by Traders Guild accountants. Every ten years a member of the council would be elected by simple majority to serve as Grand Magister of the United Cities. The Grand Magister had powers to represent the United Cities in foreign matters and trade negotiations. For the United Cities entire three hundred year existence the position was typically rotated, with no one city ever holding on to the position for consecutive terms. | ||
== Military == | == Military == | ||
The United Cities kept a unified standing army known as the Iron Legion, composed of twenty thousand men in lamellar armor, divided into footmen, cavalry and artillery corps. It was augmented by city self-defense forces and private militias composed of slaves as needed. The Iron Legion was able to repel the numerically superior armies of the Zhong for many years until funding cutbacks, corruption and the intake of slaves into its ranks drastically reduced its combat effectiveness. | The United Cities kept a unified standing army known as the Iron Legion, composed of twenty thousand men in lamellar armor, divided into footmen, cavalry and artillery corps. It was augmented by city self-defense forces and private militias composed of slaves as needed. The Iron Legion was able to repel the numerically superior armies of the Zhong for many years until funding cutbacks, corruption and the intake of slaves into its ranks drastically reduced its combat effectiveness. | ||