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CORIANTH EMPIRE
Composed of a commonwealth of kingdoms under the authority of a single Emperor, based at the city of Corianth.
Originally founded and expanded by Sephas Corianthos, who became known as Emperor Sephis I, there has been a constant struggle through the centuries not only between the imperial court and the Order of Omicron, but also between the Emperor and the rising kings of the various kingdoms.
Envisaging the potential for rift between kingdoms, Sephis I instituted a special imperial council known as the Palantine Confederation, which originally included representatives from all of the kingdoms of empire, so that they may attempt to solve disputes more easily through this important diplomatic channel. Where that has not proved possible, the Palantine Confederation has sought to mediate between disputes. A powerful body, it seeks to find clear resolutions for the empire in general by representing the wishes of the majority of kings, who despite their general tendency to preferring greater autonomy, still recognise the clear advantages of remaining within the Corianth Empire.
Originally comprising 63 kingdoms by the end of the reign of Emperor Sephis I, there are now 118, many of which still exist in a dynamic state, especially where and when border disputes, peasant revolts, and wars of succession are prevalent.
Although it has suffered conflicts large enough to be called civil wars, especially the first in 125-128 LC, as well as two smaller ones later in the third century, by far the worse period of strife within the empire was a period now referred to as the Broken Empire. This war resulted in the complete fragmentation of both imperial and ecclesiastical authority, the recovery of which could only occur after serious famine, inflation, and general military exhaustion took their combined toll.
External threats are rare, although there have been migrations of peoples towards the Corianth Empire. The Aremians briefly threatened with their Ikhenerate in the second century LC, though nothing came of that (although an expedition of 20,000 troops, led by Omrion I, was almost completely wiped out while reconnoitring them). The borders to the west, facing Poraddin, are relatively peaceful, though it is the extensive borders to the north-east that faces fairly regular incursions of Phenos tribes-people, as well as raiding sorties from Lithire.
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