Society (Setting Supplement)

The nations in Sylfaen were once diverse and filled with richness of cultures and lifestyles. The Tyr Empire, however, made sure to to uniformize and standardize that as much as possible, while allowing the minimal possible of individuality for the different cultures and nations to prevent civil unrest. And, those nations lucky enough to be not conquered by the empire, or be ignored by them, manage to still keep their practices and cultures mostly untouched.

Tyr

The powerful empire of Tyr holds control over most of the occupied lands in all Sylfaen, and thus has great influence in most cultures ,despite any differences between them.

Languages

Centered in Daear, tyrians have some unified characteristics. Everyone in the empire, regardless of race, speak eldian, also known as the common language. However, other languages are also common, depending on the province you find yourself into.

Those in the southeast, in the province of Eldor usually speak dwarvish and goblin. In the northern province, giant and lyd (the variant of common in the north). The western provinces popularize the draconic, due to the culture of arcane study, since the draconic is the language in which most of arcane manuscripts are written.

Religion

Human tyrians aren't usually very concerned about religions in the usual sense of the world, being the devotion to ancient and mythical powers beyond comprehension. They, however, devote more tangible forces, being the Empire and Magic itself. A type of secular religion has been gaining power through the last hundred years, the macadianism. Macadianists believe in the manifest destiny of humans, who they believe are destined to conquer the world, and mainly worship human heroes, who were elevated to the status of saints.

More cultured and academic humans tend to ignore even these heroic worships, relying instead on a type of arcane atheism, the belief that the gods do exist and influence the world, but they are not incomprehensible beings, but just really powerful magic users, and with enough study and power, anyone can become a god. They are less worshipers and more students in the fields of theurgy and necromancy.

Some human tyrians, however, specially those in more rural areas, those in the north and those who live more in contact with other races tend to have more faith in the gods. Northern believe in a pantheon, that was mostly based on the giant pantheon.

Non-humans in tyr usually believe in their own racial gods and religions, trying the most to keep their cultures. Dwarvish people worship mostly Moradin, although they also give a status of sainthood to the dwarven lords of Runedar and the dwarven emperor of Caurak Aetharn.

Orcs and half-orcs in Tyr are mostly ancestor worshipers, and they believing that deceased family members can give them magical powers, cure diseases and give them power in battle, although some of them have embraced some aspects of human religiosity, and merged with their own religion, creating a type of hybrid religion, by giving divine status to heroic orcs.

Politics and Government

Tyr is an empire, but it is not an monarchy, being instead governed by a oligarchy formed by five noble houses, the Tyrian Pentaverate. The seat of the throne obeys a cycle of governance that lasts a hundred years in control of one of the houses, until being replaced by the next in the cycle. If the emperor dies during his governance, he is just replaced by the next in the succession line on his house.

Through the almost five hundred years of this regime, the power transitions have happened with peace and respect, despite the differences between the houses, which was helped by the constant conflict tyr find itself into against other nations and races. Another factor that helps the maintenance of this stability is the relative freedom each house has over his own particular dominion inside the empire.

The hierarchy of power in the macro level respects the following order: The Emperor is the head of state and government, aided by the Archons, the council formed by a chosen member, often but not always the house leader, that act as advisors to the Emperor; the Leaders of the Houses, who act as absolute monarchs in their own respective dominions and territories; Governors, representatives of each house who lead over provinces; and finally nobles, who vary in titles and privileges in each one of the five territories.

Dominions and Territories

A dominion is an administrative region in the empire, controlled by one of the five houses. Although these territories still belong to the Empire as a whole, the House Leaders have usually final saying inside them. A Dominion works a species of "capital" of a territory, but also are realms in and on themselves.

Territory is a group of provinces that are administered by the a single Dominion. Although each house has influence over one of territories, their authority there is only supplemental to the governance of the empire.

Military and Defense

One of the main reasons why the empire managed to come so far in terms of power and dominance is their military organization, that will be explained in this section.

Houses Orders

Although they also rely on the strength of the Imperial Army to keep themselves safe, each one of the five houses have his own personal army, formed by warriors who have their loyalty to the family coming before the loyalty to the empire. They are usually lead by their respective Dominion Knights, the first knightly order of each house.

The Golden Lions

The Night Crows

The Iron Bears

The Dancing Serpents

The Dragon Knights

Imperial Paladins

The silent guardians of the emperor, these armored juggernauts are amongst the most feared warriors in all the empire. The Order of the Imperial Paladins are formed by mage warriors who zealously protect the figure of the emperor, regardless of what family sits in the throne. They don't care about the internal disputes or the wars Tyr get itself into, since they only role is to serve the emperor. They serve the title of emperor itself, not the man who currently bears the title.

When they are not guarding the emperor itself, they protect people, places and objects of crucial importance to the empire, and do so at the cost of their own lives.

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