Distant Drums

1800 – 947

1800 BCI: On the shores of Delago Bay, the city of Arenta is founded by Gelani settlers.

1750 – 1510: The city fights a series of wars against the local Caladian tribes and slowly expands its borders.

1508: Perdiccas the Besieger, the Gelani conqueror, invades Caladia. Arenta falls to his phalangites.

1505: Perdiccas dies of the plague. His empire is divided between his generals.

1504: Arenta rises in revolt and drives out the Gelani occupiers.

1500-1422 : Arenta exploits the instability following Perdiccas’ death and conquerors southern Caladia.

1404 : Arenta completes the conquest of northern Caladia, unifying the entire peninsular under Arentan control.

Many historians consider this feat marks the birth of the Empire.

1392 : The fleet of King Adherbal of Jaltania destroys the majority of the Republican Navy at Pransus.

1392: Adherbal lands on the shores of Delago Bay and routs a hastily raised Arentan army at Lega.

1391: The full Arentan army is annihilated at Adarra. Twenty senators are killed and five legions lost. Adherbal besieges Arenta.

1390: On Exos, the exiled Lucius Cornelius Mucianus and his lover Aspasia have raised the first domesticated dragons to adulthood. They return to lift the siege. The Jaltanian army is almost completely helpless against the dragons and is destroyed. Abherbal takes his own life.

1299 – 1297: Under the command of Mucianus, the legions cross the sea and Jaltania is conquered. Mucianus, although offered a Dictatorship, retires from public life.

1287 – 1279: The Empire fights an inconclusive war with the Gelani city states.

1271 – 1269: The second Gelanian War. Lead by Gaius Scarrus, the Empire conquerors Gelania.

1268 – 998: The Republican Golden Age or the Dragon’s Peace. Through a mixture of commerce and limited wars Arenta expands. Modern Solene, the Sunset Isles and parts of southern Barraine are brought into the Empire. Trading colonies founded in northern Bar and the Realm.

998 – 971: A series of inconclusive wars are fought with Iperia, over southern Jaltania.

965 – 954: The legions drive the native tribes from the Bar river valley. The new province of Levene is established.

952 – 947: The First Civil War. Enraged by a perceived lack of rewards for his conquest in Bar and finding his political manoeuvrings thwarted, Publius Scarrus marches on Arenta with his veteran troops and dragons. Other provinces and their legions are drawn into the struggle. After years of bitter strife Scarrus triumphs.

With his victory the Republic ends and Scarrus becomes emperor.

Heaven’s Command

946 – 611

891 – 887: In an effort to cement his place on the throne, the unpopular Emperor Fabius Scarrus invades the Inner Realm. His legions and his dragons drive the Druids into the north and another province is added to the Empire. This conquest marks the high water mark of the Empire.

886 – 698: The Second Golden Age. Although periodically racked by palace coups or beset by outside foes, the Empire enjoys almost two hundred years of relative peace and prosperity.

697: The Birth of Madness. On Mid Winter’s Day 697 thousands of the tainted suddenly display signs of violent madness. Many cities are all but levelled and the Imperial Public Service and royal family, both of which have come to be dominated by the tainted, are almost wiped out.

697 – 611: The Anarchy. In the power vacuum that follows, governors and provincial commanders vie ruthlessly for the Imperial Throne. Almost forty men and women are proclaimed Emperor or Empress during the Anarchy, often only to hold onto the throne for days or even hours.

611: Word is received of the approach of a vast barbarian host.

The Dragon at Bay

611 – 506

611: The self proclaimed Emperor Carinus gives battle to the Sol on the banks of the Bar. His army is annihilated and he is captured, tortured and then killed.

610: Through a mixture of inspired oratory, the commoners respect for his distinguished family name and viciously practical politics the youthful Aemilius Cornelius Mucianus, has himself declared emperor and marches north to meet the Sol.

610: In the apocalyptic Battle of Anarah, the Sol are defeated. However, the legions are badly bloodied and two dragons killed. Rather than pursuing the barbarians, Mucianus offers them modern Solene to settle in. The Sol high king accepts.

610 – 512: Under the stewardship of the Mucianus-Paullus Emperors, the Empire slowly recovers from the ravages of the Anarchy and the Sol invasion.

512: Messengers bring word that a second, even larger host is approaching the borders of the Empire.

511: The Emperor Galerius meets the Bar at the Battle of Mount Traban. He is killed and his army routed. Nine legions virtually cease to exist and twenty nine senators and four dragons perish in the defeat.

511: The Bar sack Gelania.

511: The Bar invade Sol and raise all major settlements before wintering on the coast.

510: The legions stationed in the Realm and Jaltania are recalled to defend Caladia.

510: The rich province of Levene is sacked. The Bar then cross the mountains into Caladia.

510: Arenta herself falls. For four days the eternal city burns.

510: The Bar winter by the ruins of Arenta. By the close of the year, the Empire holds only the toe of Caladia and the Sunset Isles.

509: While in his winter quarters the Bar King, Herman, is killed in a drunken argument with one of his chiefs.

509 – 508: The Bar host fragments as the tribal chiefs fight amongst themselves for the crown. Some of the Bar  tribes even returns north to settle the lands they have already conquered. The young Empress, Lucretia, bides her times and drills her surviving legions.

507: The reconquest begins as Lucretia leads her legions north. Although they vastly outnumber the Arentans, the Bar are complacent and are caught unprepared by the ferocity of the Imperial counter attack.

507: Lucretia and her troops, fighting through one of the coldest winters in memory, recapture the ruins of Arenta and drive the Bar into the north of Caladia.

506: The Battle of the Vines. The northern Bar tribes under their new High King return to the Caladian peninsular and are fought to a standstill in one of the bloodiest battles in Arentan history.

506: Recognising that her forces are all but spent, Lucretia signs the treaty of Arenta with the new Bar high king, Lothar. This peace treaty recognises the Bar as owners of all continental land to the north and east of Caladia.

The Empire is gone, but the Caladia homeland has been saved.

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