Roma

A thousand years ago, the Roma Empire once stretched across Uropa, north Frikara, and the Middle East.

Six hundred years ago, it faced the threat of destruction. Pressed along the overstretched borders, it remade itself, contracting severely in the process. The Roma Empire of today is a beacon of civilization and knowledge. The roads, laws, philosophies, magical rituals, and modes of thought seeded by Romari invaders remain deeply rooted throughout Uropa — even in places the Roma never occupied, like Russka.

With nearly twenty centuries of history, the Roma are a proud and advanced people, and have learned the hard way not to over-expand their empire. Focusing their armies, their magic, and their proto-science in such a way that allows them to grow slowly and properly, the Roma Emperors have long taken an approach that will account for the generations to come, handling their own periods of peace and conquest as part of a larger scheme to dominate the world.

But with the Fever Plague, some of that planning went awry. While the leading families survived due to careful quarantine and sanitation control, the civil war with Constantinople, which lasted almost a hundred and fifty years, prevented them for conquering their neighbors to the north before the Dotur could arise. Today, twenty years after Constantinople finally surrendered, Roma is still trying to rebuild its armies, secure its borders, and take advantage of their neighbors’ weaknesses.

Since the time of the Fever Plague, several Emperors decided they would rather not stick to the established plan of safe expansion, and would prefer personal glory at the cost of Roma’s immortality. Emperor Nero III may be the worse of a sordid lot. When his excesses finally became too much for the empire to bear, the Senate stripped him of power and took control over the Empire as a legislative body. While an angry Nero still sits as a figurehead, the struggles between the Emperor and the Senate are just beginning, and they threaten to destroy the Roma culture in a way no outside army ever could.

While Roma boasts its own alchemists, ritualists, and enchanters, they are unique in their study of a new field they call magnetics, which has opened new and exciting areas of magical study. Already premier weapon designers and manufacturers, they have pushed concept of destruction to a high art. Their siege weapons are amongst the most accurate in the world, and their military boasts the most impressive array of weapons a ruler could ask.

Copyright © 2008 Red Juggernaut, Inc.