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| Motto: Cast out the mutant, the villian, the heretic.. | |||
| Capital | Karas | ||
| Largest City | Necrum Sil | ||
| Official languages | Imperial Latin, English, Black Speech | ||
| Demonym | Templarians, Voidi, Hlaaui, Whytians | ||
| Government | Empire | ||
| - Emperess | Tara Whyt III | ||
| - Independence from Boratnia | 22 June 1996 | ||
| Area | |||
| - Total | 7,741,220 km² km² | ||
| 2,988,888 mi² | |||
| - Water (%) | 9.01 | ||
| Population | |||
| - 2008 approximation | 2,922,000,000 | ||
| - Density | 2.6/km² | ||
| 6.7/sq mi² | |||
| GDP | 2008 estimate | ||
| - Total | $50,687,047,778,997.56 USD | ||
| - Per capita | $17,346.70 USD | ||
| HDI (2003) |  0.950 (high) |
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| Currency | Black Credit (B$) |
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| Time zone | Varius Time Zone (UTC+9:30) | ||
| Internet TLD | .vte | ||
Location, Size And Extent[]
The island of Lonun (referred to internationally as Void Templar) is one of the smaller nations in the reigion of Varius. However, it's size is in no relation to its power. It is on equal footing with the much larger nation of Ih8uwannakillu. It's combined land mass made up of the four suriving clans of Lonun, House Void (the most relgious clan), House Templar (the most warlike), House Hlaau (most diplomatic) and House Whyt (most scientific). It is located near the ice cap of Varius and as such has quite an expanse on it, mostly missile bases. It has an empire of about 39% of the entire planet.
Climate[]
The climate of Lonun is a strange one. It has been referred to as an 'ice forest'. Although its warmest temperature ever recorded was 4 degrees celcius, it has a number of rainforests and snow deserts. Its forests are mostly made up of huge 'worsyr' trees, huge thick trunked trees which feed off the sun, water and dead matter and grow up to 526 meters tall. Because of this, there is no undergrowth at all in the forests. The southern island of Losath, however, is all ice. The original walls of the city of Necrum Sil were carved out of solid ice and reached up about 90 meters high.
Work in Progress
Government[]
The Dominion runs on a two tiered system of democratic monarchy. At the highest seat of power, the Emperor or Emperess reign, with complete control over the country, bar one law. The monarch cannot disband the Council under any circumstances. Doing so would result in a revolt. The second highest power is the Council of Houses.
Council[]
The Council has two representatives from each house and one representative from each military branch. The current memebers are Elizabeth Bramble for Whyt, Johnathan Greensun for Void, William Kasy'r for Templar and Jessica Smith for Hlaau. The Council act as the monarch's advisors and links to the four houses. They get a say in the day to day running of the empire, such as entertainment, defense, law and order, health etc, whereas the monarch controls the long term actions like war. They meet once a month in the Tower of Kal, a huge tower in the very centre of the island.
Military[]
The Void Templar Armed Forces (VTAF) is seperated into 5 main groups: The Army, The Air Force, The Navy, The Confessesors and the Mechanicus Corps. These forces operate under a Lord Militant, for example Commisar Militant Jenova of the Army. The military is and always has been very much a main part of Void Templar. At the last census taken, 30% of the population were in military jobs, with 20 percent making arms and vehicles for them and the other 20 percent working in agriculture to feed them.
Notable Generals[]
Notable Admirals[]
- Admiral Josef Rattican
Notable Air Marshals[]
- William Farsight
Religion[]
Main Article
The official religion of the Grand Kalist Empire is Kalism. It has a main god, Kal, and the Thirteen Dalkz.
History[]
From Humble Beginnings...
From the Earliest recorded history of Void Templar, there have been four main houses. The House Templar, the militarily strongest of the four, the HouseVoid, who were the first to worship the god Kal (see religion section), the House Whyt, the house that was the most philosophical and advanced, and House Hlaau, the house with the most talented diplomats. There were two other houses, the House Jaril, who were killed by House Void, and House Necrum Sil, whose population went missing. The 6 houses all lived on the island of Lonun (The Forgotten Lands in Templarian), and their skills were obvious from their very first meeting. The four houses, almost immediately started a war, the Sonai of House Templar having the most success. One thing is very clear from the first Chronicles, and that is that House Templar was as of yet unknown. Around 3 years into the stalemated war, men dressed in strange armor appeared outside the three other houses camps and beggared entrance. The House Hlaau and Whyt let them in without question, but House Templar challenged the man to defeat their strongest warrior at the time, a giant of a man known as Kali'hasr. The Chronicles tell this man to be '7 feet tall, with limbs thick as the trunks of the Lorn tree, clad in naut but a loincloth, made from the skins of dead enemies. He held a mace, almost as long as he was tall, in one hand. The mace was made from ebony, and had crushed many a brave man's body and soul.' They also describe the challenger. 'The man's armor, made from polished gold and mithril, was thin, and in his left hand he carried a staff, made from the Boa tree. The man was only 5 foot tall, yet exuded an aura of pure strength.' It goes on to describe the fight. 'With a roar, the brutish Kali'hasr lunged and swung his great mace at the man, who simply stood there. Moments before the mace hit, he moved his hand and muttered a prayer to Kal. The mace, which had broken the walls of Necrum Sil, crumbled into dust. The man turned, with pure malice in his eyes, and pointed his staff at Kali'hasr. With a screech, a beam of green light shot through the giants chest, leaving a hole the size of a grain of sand. Yet, the fell onto the dusty ground. The Templarian warriors fell silent, and the only noise then was the man's footsteps and the rumble of the stone gate opening.'
A week later, the four houses met on the Plateau Saren and signed the Agreement of Alliance (see the name-sake page for the document.) One major feature in the document was that it declared a diplomatic Empire should be formed. The four houses would vote on a ruler, one candidate from each house. The very first empress, Elizabeth the Wise, was a priestess of Kal from the House Void. She introduced rules which have lasted through the year, such as a single mandatory religion (see religion page for details), a scroll called the 'Evoker', which is stored in the undercroft of the palace and is said to be read aloud only in a time of dire need, and a conscription program.
An Unexpected Discovery
In the 3rd Age of Varius, during the reign of Emperor Rakan, the Whytian boat landed on a previously undiscovered land and encountered the Dragonans. Fearful of the creatures, the troops attacked. Overwhelmed by their numbers, the sailors were killed by the natives. The Dragona retaliated, launching raids on Void Templar ships and port cities. Eventually, Rakan had had enough, and sent an army to quell the enemy. Landing on Morndas the 7th of Last Seed. A full legion of Sonai, along with archers and warg riders launched an attack on Pangea, a city which would see a lot of the Templars during the three Varian wars. The city, took by surprise, was razed to the ground and its inhabitants put to the sword. The retaliation from the Dragona was swift, but expected. Outside the ruined city, the two forces clash. The Chronicles tell of the battle, saying that the 'dirty hordes of half-breeds were struck down by the clouds of poison tipped arrows of the archers, and the remaining brutes clashed into the spears of the Sonai.' The battle was a draw, with both sides taking significant casulalties. After about a month of fighting, diplomats from both nations came together to discuss peace and 10 days later, the remaining Templar's disembarked, but the bad blood they had spilled would remain until present times.
Rapid Expantion
In the fourth age, the eyes of the Void turned outward. Almost overnight, all of the islands around Lonun were took over by three legions of Sonai. The villages were burned, the cities pillaged, the people killed or captured. Outcry from the local races was ignored, and the red tide slowly but surely washed towards the civilized mainland. The sheer numbers of the men, along with their warg mounts and mumakil beasts were enough for most of the barbarians to surrender, and those who did put up a resistance were crushed. The inevitable happened.
The armies invaded a country called Sith Tyranus, an ally of Ih8uwannakillu. The Templar's were especially brutal here, tying insurgents and spies to a stake and unleashing the wargs. The armies camped at the capital were said to number more than the entire population of the country. Soon, however, there was an unexpected turn of events. The army was ordered by the High Priests to pull out of the country. The reasons were never announced, but many believed that the High Priests had another plan for the population. However, they kept all the land they had conquered, and the Chupakabrans had to live with the permanent threat of the might of the Voidian Empire falling upon them.
The Inquisition
After the period of rapid expansion, nothing of real interest happened until the reign of Emperor Torquearmada the Bloody. Out of nowhere, he declared a Great Crusade against the 'heathen hordes', and the armies of Void Templar poured out. They fought with a unstoppable religious zealotry. No one was spared, and the path of the armies could be told by dead bodies nailed to wheels. No one the troops came across was spared. This bloody march was only stopped when Torquearmada was assassinated fifty years later and the Dragonan's threatened to use nuclear weapons.
Hardship
One less scrupulous power, the Former Boratnian Empire, took advantage of the lack of troops in the homeland by invading across the Arcian Land Bridge (it linked Lonun to the mainland, see further on for its disappearance). While the remaining forces and partisans put up a fierce fight, the sheer numbers and armor of the Boratnian armies conquered the island. When the armies from the crusades returned home, they found their home a newly founded socialist colony. Repelled by the Boratnian border guards, the remaining forces took refuge in the Pralin island range. For three years, the armies tried to retake Lonun, but failed. It was only when a relatively unknown soldier named Maleficius took control of the forces that results appeared. A number of minor victories against the border guard was all it took. The entire army poured through, decimating the border guards. However, their charge was halted at St. Alean, where the Boratnian army chased the Templars out.
So they thought.
Seven Templars, including Maleficius, stayed behind on the island, and moved towards the Maw mountain range. There, the exiled princess Tara Whyt was camped with her royal guards. Maleficius, using knowledge even a high ranking general would not know, opened the hidden missile silos in the mountain. 7 ICBM 'Smiley' Nuclear Missile were launched into the Arcian Bridge. The Templars, holding off the enemy with long range guerrilla tactics, were unhurt by the huge blast, but the Boratnian army was completely decimated. The force of the blast was such that the Arican Bridge crumbled and disintegrated.
Baby Steps
On the 28th of Frostfall, the Seventh Age, a day which would not be forgotten, the colony ship Harvest Dawn was launched from the Ohra Space Centre, headed for Varius' moon. It carried a main biosphere, which contained building material, space suits for the 300 colonists, seeds for growing crops, oxygen replication machines, water replication machines, communication devices and a number of wild animals. The ship landed 7 hours after take off and the colonists were woken from their sleep pods. The biosphere was placed down, the colonists sent down by means of a space elevator and work began. After two days, the critical Agriculture sphere was built, then the Wild sphere for husbandry, then finally the recreational sphere, and the colony of Reach was established, the very first solar colony developed by the nations of Varius.
Bad First Impression
Two years after the establishment of Reach,the entire solar system has been colonized by either the Void Templar or Dragonan empires. Their fledgling navies were unable to make more than interplanetary speeds. However, exactly two and a half years later, a huge alien fleet dropped out of warp and opened fire on the Templar colony of Firos. The planet was decimated, and the fleet was instantly sent to respond. The entire Templarian fleet, consisting of three battleships, a carrier, 3 destroyers and 5 frigates met a force of around 100 battlecruisers. Needless to say, the Templars took heavy losses and had to pull back, the Dragonan fleet suffering the same fleet. Both fleets pulled back to the Thoran nebula, and debated what to do there. At the same time, something extremely unsual happened, which most templar's chalk up to Kal. A huge hulk of a old destroyer drifted out of the Void, fully intact. Scientists immediately seized the ship and found it had a strange weapon. When tested, it fired 8 separate beams, which would fly around erratically and go through almost anything, then join into one powerful homing beam. This ship was immediately brought to the fleet and, when mobilized, killed almost 70 alien ships. The aliens were chased from the galaxy, using technology captured by Marines to finally gain interstellar drives, and the fleets took control of the alien planets. Thus, the two empires were formed.
The ship was lost during the assault on the alien homeworld. A thin green beam came from nowhere and shot through the ships drive core, setting off a number of powerful explosions and tearing the ship apart. To this day, it is still not known where the shot came from.