The Span of (the Empire of) Mann
| Period | Events/Scenese | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Empress (to be) Mann is empowered by the gods as they depart Negative |
||||||||||||||
| The Empress and her descendents explore the world and run across remnants of the gods Positive |
Defeat of the lords of the infernal flame as they invade with a fragment of the power of the sky god leads to the founding of the imperial city on their beachhead Positive |
The princess Saskia discovers the celestial tower, soon declared the only place fit for the Empress to live Negative |
||||||||||||
| Invasion of the empire by the dwarf lords' airships of doom leads to the integration of the dwarves into the empire Negative |
Ursal, the last daughter of the empress, sacrifices herself to imbue the empire's weapons with powerful magic Positive |
Sky pirates (from the dwarven kingdom) kidnap princess Isolde, leading to the first negotiation between the two sides Positive |
The empire trades magic weapons for dwarven airships Positive |
|||||||||||
| The age of expansion starts with an easy victory against the giant cucumbers only to finally falter encountering the dragons of the peaks Positive |
Early encounters with the cucumber tribes leads to trading fertilizer for slaves Positive |
The final meeting of the cucumber resistance has their mages laying the deep roots of their revenge as they curse the empire Negative |
The Shard of Creation is discovered Negative |
Duchess Luzia forms a breakaway republic with the elephant people of the eastern jungles; the republic eventually vanishes into the jungle Negative |
Isolde is crowned Queen Positive |
Founding of the Cult of Renunciation as people decry how magic has led to horrors of flora and fauna Negative |
The Empress starts giving audiences to anyone who can get past her bureaucracy or her guard Positive |
How hard is it to get past the Empress' guard? A complete dungeon crawl It's difficult, but there are many ways up the tower, and living opponents are not common Positive |
||||||
| Decadent period of the Empire of Mann; the empire stagnates Positive |
The Empress vanishes from the public eye Negative |
The Queen starts issuing letters of marque Positive |
Catnip mysteriously vanishes from the empire, leading to the end of any trade in catnip Negative |
The dwarves establish trade with the elves, leading to indirect trade between the empire and the elven kingdoms Negative |
The perfection of civilization is declared, as all possible technology has been discovered, all magic has been divined, and all lands to conquer have been conquered Positive |
Queen Isolde declares herself a Renunciationist and gets exclied to the vegetable kingdoms by the Empress Negative |
The French Queen-select Eloise arrives in the imperial city; her selection signals a rare break in the empire's matrilineal lineage Negative |
The cucumber rebellion is savagely mashed Negative |
How did the french conquer the hearts and stomachs of the imperial court? After vanishing for months, a letter from the queen-select desperately asks for her companions and chef to accompany her in her new position The new cuisine takes off as the court attempts to curry favor with the new queen Positive |
There is a schism in the church of the immortal empress as a third of the council of prelates declare themselves Renunciationists; the new church is granted official status Negative |
The use of mercenary cat-girl assassins becomes commonplace in the empire Negative |
The old capitol is abandoned and a new one built some 300 miles away Positive |
Why was the old capitol abandoned? The desperate rear-guard action by the old imperial chefs, defending against the rampant french cuisine ravaging the city Driven out by invasive cuisine Negative |
The Empress reappears in public, traveling to the Church of the Renunciation, where she reveals to them workings of imperial magic Positive |
| The empire expands onto a new continent at the edge of the world, leading to a strong imperial presence in the new lands Positive |
Trade begins between the continents, driving ship construction and sea travel Positive |
Piracy and the age of romance flourishes Positive |
A communist pirate utopia is founded Positive |
Libertatia, an infamous pirate haven, falls into the ocean Positive |
The one church shatters into many splinter religions Negative |
Using the "perfection of being" artifact on another artifact turns out to be a poor idea, the resulting energy burst shattering the new continent Negative |
The explorer Pergunn discovers the Star of the Void negative |
What will Pergunn do with the power of the Star of the Void? Pergunn and her advisors debate The Star is sealed up and sent to the Empress Positive |
||||||
| The immortal Empress loses her divine powers, and regains her mortality Negative |
The Empress receives the Star of the Void and the message it contains Positive |
The Empress summons thousands to her tower, who are never seen or heard from again Negative |
The empire itself has germanic names; Eloise (and those she brings with her) are french; Pergunn is norwegian
The cucumber tribes were felt to be a little on the silly side, and people seemed inclined to try and make "cucumber" a term of derision rather than literal truth; however, that doesn't mean they aren't plants of some kind
The Star of the Void appears to run on blood (one of Pergunn's advisors disappeared into it, his faint voice being heard to say "more blood!", and its use is implied in the last event)
The dwarves, while carbon based, do not have anything resembling a human biology; mention was made of bucky tubes and helium
While the Empress has a family and descendants, she bears no more children after becoming immortal; her descendents appear to be quite long lived, the more so the more closely related to her they are
The celestial tower is very, very tall
The indirect trade with the elves is done past the dragons of the peaks, with whom the dwarves seem to have reached an understanding