On The Fall Of The Western Kalassarian Empire And The Formation Of The Pre-Apgarian Kingdoms

    Apgar is well-known to be the first collection of states that have independently, by universal suffrage, selected individuals to enact their will in a representative government. There was a time when the eminent Confederation of Apgarian States was not even possible in the imaginations of its constituents' ancestors.

    Each of Apgar's component states were once kingdoms, formed in the twilight of the Great Kalassarian Empire. In the intravening years between the Fall of the Western Kalassarian Empire in 466 and the First of the three Apgarian Revolutions in 976, these kingdoms formed, clashed, dissolved and subsumed each other, and shaped world events in their own right. Most well-known of these world-shaking events beloved by historians are the First and Second Anasaian-Estregan Wars, which saw the Kingdom of Poasah become a nation of great influence in the Beteran political zeitgeist.

    It is of great interest then, to see how these kingdoms have formed, as the once-indomitable Kalassar crumbled from internal and external pressures. This article does not aim to be an exhaustive treatise into the minutia of of every dynamic that led to the present-day situation of these entities, however. The aim is to provide an introduction for the layman and the freshman into the wonderful, perplexing and intriguing intricacies of this portion of history.

    The Whys and Hows of the Fall of the Kalassarian Empire 🔗

    Most historians mark the year 466 as the line in the proverbial sand for the Western Kalassarian Empire. That line in the sands of time goes directly through the Razing of the City of Kalassus by the Ahurians under Kolha I's banner on the day of the 965th anniversary of its foundation. This date may have been a keystone event in the dissolution of West Kalassar, but it is by no means its true end. Even after the City Everlasting saw its last, the Imperial bureaucracy was still keeping the various western dioceses running, albeit in a sickly state compared to the Empire's heyday. The fact that it was razed so quickly and so completely does highlight clues that would help solve the mystery of the Great Empire's demise.

    The Kalassarian military was very well-known to have an uncanny ability to be instantaneously battle-ready, and just as quickly deployed to any battlefield anywhere in the known limits of the world. But they somehow had failed to return to the place of its birth at its most dire moment. In fact, during this period in history, they seem to have lost this legendary ability. They were fighting on multiple fronts at the time: In the Potol region east of Poasah (present-day Tanduaria, the Tandoor were constantly raiding major population centers. In Hapgaria, they were quelling the Baraonian Rebellion. Even elsewhere in the Tonara Peninsula, General Brutallus was breaking the siege at Saray (found in present-day Summa).

    In the past, there were many times when the Kalassarian Legions fought multi-front wars and were able to, simultaneously, secure the capital. So what changed? Perhaps they no longer had the same capacity to field soldiers? Perhaps there were logistics issues that made it impossible to mount a defense this time around? These remain the most popular views in academia today. I myself was of the persuasion an alternative view was presented by Head of the Department of Extrahuman Abilities of the venerable University of Calamutz, Professor Zafira Lor Pise. 

    She and her excellent students have unearthed a piece of magical technology that the Kalassarian military may have used to perform these extraordinary feats of logistics. Professor Zafira invited me into the stately Pise manor for the demonstration. She enthusiatlcally explained that the circle drawn with meticulous arcane symbols might just be what facilitates the Kalassarian Logistical Miracle. Circumscribed within the circle is a pentagram. Each point of the pentagram had a metallic cup with a stem attached to the bottom. These stems were driven into the ground on those points. Ms Pise explained that those cups would contain diamonds, which are supposedly a necessary catalyst for what will happen next.

    She and a number of her students, Cornups all, stepped within the circle. I hesitantly joined them. One of her students chanted some words, then all of a sudden, we were all drawn into a darkness. The sensation is hard to describe. It's like falling down while standing completely still, you're stomach lurching every which way. Then in an instant, within the single tick of the professor's pocket watch, we were in the site of some newly unearthed ruins in Mehicania. Within the same half-hour, I was in one of my lecture halls in the university, and all of a sudden, I was drinking chocolate in a Mehicanian salon!

    Professor Zafira explained that the Teleportation Circle that was in her basement is something well-known wizards of most world militaries by this day in 1275. That wasn't the point. It was the fact that the same spell seems to have been able to interface with the Circle we've transported to.

    The Circle discovered in Mehicania was massive. It was exactly 400 yards in diameter--enough to transport an entire legion of centurions in an single instant. Professor Zafira has an excellent publication on the subject1. It offers a complete recontextualization of this portion of history, and details their research methodology.

    Research by the Department of Extra-Human Abilities indicate that the mystical ability called the Ritma, what we know as "magic", was required to trigger the transport. The fact that we can use Teleportation Circles today would be due to the sudder re-occurence of magic within the few decades. Professor Zafira hypothesizes that this ability, and magic in general gradually faded away. She surmises that ome global event seemed to have slowly cause it to recede--either a natural phenomenon, or a cultural one--something on the scale of the Orb at Bastion. From estimates in their preliminary studies, the decline may have began as early as the tail end of the 3rd century. Use of the Ritma may have disappeared entirely by the time Kalassus was burned to the ground. It is my view that this was not a coincidence. If the Ritma was gone by then, the ability of the Kalassarian Empire to transport large portions of the army and the necessary supplies across the continent, fighting a three front war became untenable. The fact that they even attempted just showed that they have taken all of this for granted. When it disappeared, it seems that they did not have the strategic and logistical capacity to consider alternatives.

    The logistical challenges in the early 5th century did not only affect military logistics. Civil infrastructure also started to decline. Radial roads within regions were still relatively well-maintained, but the inter-region byways were in a state of disrepair that would be unacceptable even in today's fraught political climate. Towns and villages further away from city centers were no longer served, and were being taken over by brigands. In some cases, the brigands were the administrators themselves, acting autonomously in their own self-interest now that central authority is too far away for any meaningful punitive action.

    There are indications that other industries suffered from the disappearance of Ritma as well. Agricultural yields were at its lowest ever, with unprecedented levels of famine across the entirety of the Western empire. There are preliminary discoveries that might indicate that these yields were also boslered by Ritma, so variations in crop yield became more erratic. By the time the climate changes that triggered the movement of nomadic tribes like the Tandoor2, crop yields were very vulnerable to weather variations as well.

    So we see some of the most crucial, but non-exhaustive, whys quite clearly. Especially when compared with the Kalassar during its golden age:

    • Military efficiency was greatly impeded by these logistical, intelligence and strategic constraints, which made the empire vulnerable to external threats.

    • Bureaucratic mechanisms stagnated in the best-case, bottle-necked in the average-case, and deadlocked in the worst-case, which likely have caused, systematized, and extenuated the documented instances of institutionalized corruption in many localized regions.

    • Agricultural capacity was much lower than the needs of the population, which caused widespread unrest, which in turn resulted in many instances of revolt, especially in the most underserved areas.

    Even without the additional context that the Ritma offers, these whys and their network effects already greatly explain the issues that the Kalassar faced. They even explain the pattern in which the early feudal states began to fragment away from its bipartite, but still somewhat central authority. The additional context of the Ritma explains how fast the decline and collapse of the Western Kalassarian Empire occurred and the nature of the feudal system that had arisen from its wake. For example, after the collapse of the Kalassus Region due to the Kolhan Invasion, the few forces that remained retreated to the mountainous areas in the Logossus and Sernassus mountain ranges, where they would build mountaintop castles as fortification against Ahurian siege engines.

    Meanwhile in Hapgaria, Baraon was in open rebellion due to a dwindling economy and a multi-year famine, but other parts of Hapgaria, like Sanery and Estrega were relatively stable until the 450s due to their proximity to the sea. Across the channel, Senera acted autonomously, with governmental functions running relatively smoothly almost the entire time, only declaring itself a kingdom in its own right year after Kalassus was razed, when the Potol region was taken by the Tandoor.

    The Baraonian Rebellion 🔗

    Known as the bread-basket of the West, Baraon was critically-important to the food supply of the western half of the empire. Grain and other staple foods, such as potatoes, beets and lentils. The wide plains and mostly consistent weather, and easy access to aquifers from the Repa and Tarpa mountains make it usually give rise to the region's very favorable farming conditions. But in the early 400s, the Baraon region, which not only included most of the present-day state of Baraon, but extended northward to most of today's southern Poasah, southward to most of [location:186] and eastward to the entirety of [location:183], was hit by a series of droughts and crop failures. At the same time, the [event:75] cut-off the region from supplies from the eastern parts of the empire. Famine and disease soon followed. People were miserable, disheartened, and most importantly, angry. Angry at the rich administrators of Baraon, who have been callously flouting personal supplies and goods from overseas trade partners by holding lavish parties among themselves while the rest of the populace starved.

    Sporadic uprisings among the peasantry began springing up near the fringes of the region. Most of them, however, was put down quite handily, since the legions were still in the pay of the administration. As the famine and the war extended beyond a decade, additional taxes were being levied against the merchants and the larger landowners. It doesn't take much imagination that they did not take this lying still. A consortium of these merchants and landowners began pooling their resources together in order to hire mercenaries to lead the rebellion.

    In the year 440, rumblings that even the legions were no longer satisfied with the way things are going. Yes, they were being paid, but Kalassarian coinage didn't mean much when there wasn't much to buy at all. The famine, in combination to the reduced mobility caused by the Ahurian assaults and raids in Central Kalassar and the Posaran Sea, respectively, and perhaps the disappearance of the ability to teleport, made them quite unhappy with the mismanagement of the region. So when the commander of the legions, Parpelissus Brutallus heard of the merchant consortium, he took the job and planned the rebellion.

    Nonnus Andrenicus, the governor of Baraon, was able to raise an army of Sarmatian mercenaries with a payment of a 200 gold tribute, and a promise to allow them to settle in the area. The ensuing battle was brutal, and saw a large number of casualties on either side. Ultimately, the rebellion was a success, and was a catalyst for many more rebellions against Kalassarian authorities in the region. The food stores from the previous administration was not enough to sustain the population for long, however, but to Brutallus' credit, they were distributed to the populace at a somewhat orderly manner. Officers of the legion were given lands according to their merits in battle, and their staff were allowed to till the fields with tubers and other similarly hardy root crops. The Sarmatians who fought for Andrenicus were convinced to stand down by being offered commissions in the legions, parceled out and separated across the different Baraonian lands. The famine was still an issue, and so exports of food items and fertilizer were forbidden by decree of the new king. This allowed for domestic food stores to be barely enough for the population. Disease and death by hunger were still a daily occurrence though reportedly alleviated. The former, however, was managed by setting up quarantine colonies separated from the rest of the general populace. They were often staffed by followers of Pomona who had volunteered to care for the sick. 

    Aftermath 🔗

    The immediate aftermath of the Baraonian rebellion was the separation of the other Hapgarian regions from the rest of the Kalassar. The most accessible passes to Central Kalassar were no longer available, after Parpelissus forcibly closed the borders. Sea routes in the south were blockaded by the well-equipped Ahurian navies. Mountain ranges that peppered the northern coasts of Central Kalassar forced sea routes through the pirate-infested Menean Sea to get to connect with [location:188] in the Poasan region. In the immediate decades hence, the northern Hapgarian regions kept the facade of being a part of the Kalassar still, with positions and institutions named similarly, their functions slowly drifted to meet different demands of each locality. Further internal and external pressures would then fracture even these hollow shells eventually and would further fragment into the other Apgarian Kingdoms. Once the dust settles from the tumult of the 5th century, the map of Betera would shift one step closer to the world we know and understand. The western portion of the Kalassar, was no more in all but name--those vestigial institutions in northern Hapgaria were no longer truly under the thumb of the Kalassarian Emperor in Bastion though they remain.