The Empire is ascendant with its latest victory, a secret project emerging to perform the final opening of the Source. The process is set into motion not a moment too soon as Emperor Constantine Dragases Palaiologos, whispered to be the grandest ruler of Rome in all its time, meets his end in a quiet evening of tea and rest.
Finding the body, a state funeral is immediately set into motion. A massive affair that takes the attention of the nation away for precious weeks, time enough for Priscianus to settle into his new role as well as familiarize himself with the growing factions that now present themselves.
The Empire nearly buckled in the first year, nobility pushing for their own rights returned, occasionally violently, whilst the guilds use their now tremendous wealth to exercise political control directly. Only skilful manoeuvring and many compromises keep it together, all of which eventually build to the reformation of the Synklētos, the Senate once again influencing matters with debate and vote.
The first act is the reformation of the Imperial Army, men are recruited in the tens of thousands, equipped with the finest equipment the Empire can provide and marched to the East. What began as a simple task of occupation quickly turned into a proper war. Magic flew against cannon as the Djinn attempted to keep their newly stolen lands.
It took years, but they faltered. Their sorcerous flame matched by Greek Fire, their grandest warpings of Creation arrested by Roman Magi and of course, local auxiliaries using their own secrets to battle against them to our benefit. The ancient provinces of Mesopotamia and Assyria were claimed once again along with the millennia of rescued knowledge therein, accelerating the development of alchemical and more traditional techne.
That advancement worsens the issues in the heartland, driving the industrialization of the land to new extents that are forcing adaptation. Millions are out of work, machines of agriculture and construction replacing the labour of dozens in a single stroke. Rebellion is a fomented thought as work riots are crushed with state intervention.
The divide grows further as the wealthy expose themselves and their young to alchemical tinctures, turning into something stronger, faster and smarter but less and less human. Rumours spread, revolt is debated and chaos spreads throughout urban centres. However, with that chaos comes a time of unprecedented social mobility, war and economic destabilization giving way to new noble houses, fantastically wealthy merchant lords and mercenary bands equal to any army.
The vassal state of Albania thrives in the meantime, nature healing in record time whilst local wise women and what are called shtrigan help in recovery efforts. Cities are raised and harvests reaped whilst additional resources are acquired via mercenary, and monster hunting services all across Europe and the Orient. The terror-filled days are swiftly forgotten, replaced with familiar internecine conflicts and violence, magic roars to life in these lands but the people are long since used to it, still reaping the benefits of a pact that was only technically fulfilled, strangling the native tide of creatures in their cribs, sometimes very literally.
Their acceptance of even nominal rulership by a foreigner is bare and unsteady, but enough for government records to report stability, especially once local powerful rulers are bribed enough to actually be somewhat stable.
The Empire is ascendant so far, but cracks are showing. The situation is tenable, Emperor Priscianus works his hardest to keep his empire functional, balancing forces and keeping up with the advancements of the time as best he can. But no mortal man can control such a force, it is too vast, too complex now.
The greatest realm in the world has escaped its own directors, on a runaway course that cannot be predicted.
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The rest of the world staggers when magic returns. The realms of Brittania are ensconced in ever deeper mist and reports of finely crafted ships that seem to fly through waves like they aren't there.
Deeper in the far reaches of Scandia, it is said one can see a great wolf in the sky, starved and enraged whilst ancient monsters awaken from their rocky graves with great hunger. Entire realms crumple under the incoming hordes as giants of mountainous scale crush cities beneath their feet, only holy miracles and local traditions save what remains.
The Black Forest becomes wholly uninhabitable to humanity in a period of mere years. Bone gnawing horrors, face stealing doppelgangers and, worst of all, rumours speak of baleful horns sounding in the wood, hunting hounds of baleful darkness seeking ahead of thundering hooves and villages disappearing in the night.
France suffers greatly, its vast bogs turning into breeding pits of infernal monsters, releasing what initially is but a minor stream of creatures that, as the Source widens, turn into a tide that is only halted with blood and bravery.
Their neighbour to the south suffers similarly, a tide of witches birthing from a small outbreak of plague, using devil-borne gifts of sorcery to incite chaos and death in the holy men and armies that come to save their souls. Small petty queendoms birth and die in the Spanish countryside driving the nation nearly to its breaking point.
Further to the East, Muscovy and its neighbours fear the thundering of its cold, dark forests and taigas. Monsters of elder myth and pagan gods roam, the edges of civilization becoming unlivable for anyone except, seemingly, the nomads that roam them.
In other regions, magic flows to life, bringing with it ruin and growth. They adapt or they die as has always been the way of the world. Stories come from the east, mountain-shaking warriors and emperors of green stone whilst from the far west arrive legends of bloodthirsty pagan gods.
The world is forever changed, and there is no returning as, finally, years after the ritual was put into place the Source empties, fading into a simple pool of water that is quickly extracted and stored for further study.
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This story is ended, but, there are still more! Indeed, the choice will be up to you.
Please, take a vote at your leisure from the options below.
[X] A recent graduate of the University of Constantinople, you have now set out to repay the massive debt you owe to it for your education in the mystic arts. Of course, the most recent attempt to manage that has become extraordinarily complicated. (Explore the world you have helped in building at the ground level, using your mystic gifts to survive)
[X] The year is 1500, a dawn of a new century and the dawn of a new era of competition. The Mare Nostrum is where wealth is made and your family is destined to reap great rewards from it. (A Patrician's house is a wonderful place to explore the politics of the Empire and, with enough success, perhaps even change the course of it.)