Pax Imperium

"...safeguarded through blood and strength, divisible by none"

-The second half of the preamble to the Pax Constitution.

Pax Imperium (Mythical Draconic: Darjithaay Frax (Greater Pax Nation), Imperial Common: Paxian Empire) is a human empire and the post-Republican incarnation of the Paxian civilization. As a polity, its territory span eight-tenths of the entire Radix continent. From the desolate Klor Mountains of the Imperial North to the gentle, green hills below the dormant Mount Akrippos, it is a diverse, meritocratic society, ruled by emperors of virtually limitless power.

From the bloody dissolution of the Paxian Republic by Emperor Taurus I to the present day, it is a highly centralized government whose primary holding is the Imperial Coast and sole capital has only ever been Pax. The empire's vast dominion was built through centuries of bloody wars and conquests with other polities in the continent, which they have since either subjugated or wiped out, powered through the logistical might and strategic ingenuity of the Imperial Legion.

While its core territories on the Imperial Coast and the Imperial North were inherited from its republican era, both its western frontier and the former Southern Merchant States (now independent Merchant Republics of Sommerso) were territorial expansions first pursued by Empress Arvena I. Stabilizing the empire's troubled birth, Arvina I further consolidated power under the Imperial throne by propagating an enlightened warrior culture through the Legion. The Arveness Dynasty, a line of not-always-related good emperors who continued her vision, also raised the Legionary Navy to protect against dwarven raids and piracy, standardized coinage, and established a transcontinental marketplace of goods and ideas, dawning a golden age for the empire.

Throughout this time, Pax has continually clashed against the Vencaryn Mandate. Skirmishes at sea between the Legionary Navy and the Vencaryn Grand Stolos were intermittent but bloody. Land warfare between the two were equally destructive, the last being the Sweeping of the March campaign in the Arctic Traverse. In the strange, quiet peace since then, Pax has seen stagnation and the only enemies the nation have faced are the rising power of Sommerso and the Darkness.

Fall of the Republic
The direct predecessor of the empire, Pax Republica, suffered an era of corruption and instability. With mismanagement and lawlessness causing stress on the Paxian people, its was brought to an end by popular general and senator Tiberius C. Viatorii in 840AN through the assassination of Consul Naevolus and Gallicus, both of the now-annihilated Exalta noble family. The Horror at Aegis Court technically ended years after, with a slew of arrests and executions of those considered accomplices of corruption. Under his personal rule as Taurus, through the legitimacy of a purged senate and enthralled people's assembly, Pax's yoke was reined back firmly back to "true republican ideals".

While his power was technically as that of self-appointed consul, he effectively maintained total, unaccountable monopoly of power over the state. However, his dying wish was to ultimately return authority to the senate and the people after his reformation was complete. A wish that was not respected by his sons Dacius and Equinus.

Equinus, capturing his older brother, declared himself his father's successor and effectively ended the Paxian Republic. The first to formally address himself as emperor, Haeres I fought against his brother and his allies until his death, plunging the young empire into the War of the First Emperors in 818AN. The brutal era of civil wars and short-reigned emperors finally came to a quiet resolution 65 years later, in 753AN, with the ascension of Empress Arvena I.