The Lore of Basilea

At the eastern end of the Infant Sea lies Basilea, the
richest and most powerful of all the human nations.
Watched over by the gods and situated at the crossroads
of the world’s trade network, Basilea is blessed by coin
and heaven both.
For thousands of years, the lands that make up the
Hegemony of Basilea have been at the heart of human
civilisation; first as independent kingdoms, then as part
of the Republic of Primovantor, and for the last 900
years as the nation preserving that noble land’s memory.
Primovantor fell into chaos at the end of the War with
Winter, most of its territory drowned under the ocean,
but its north-eastern provinces, centred on the Basilean
Massif, endured. United under the rule of the first
Hegemon, these provinces fought bitterly to survive, to
emerge from the strife following the Great Inundation as
the modern Hegemony of Basilea; a rich, religious and
powerful, if conservative, empire.
In Basilean’s cities, memories of Primovantor’s glories
have been preserved. The Hegemon’s emblems are the
sun and the phoenix – the symbols of holy light and
of rebirth. To the minds of the generals and rulers of
Basilea, their empire is Primovantor born anew. Ask a
man of Basilea how Primovantor lives on, and they will
gladly point out their land’s achievements: its roads,
monuments, armies, bureaucracy, and laws. All, so they
maintain, descended from those of Primovantor itself.
And yet if one of the great philosophers or sages of
ancient Primovantor could walk the roads of Basilea
today, they would find a land alien to them. Time has
wrought great changes on these ancient lands, and for
all its pretensions to the republican ideals of old, Basilea
is a very different place indeed to the state that birthed
it. Gone is the rule of elected men; instead an emperor
– the Hegemon – holds sway, and his court is a snakepit
of treachery and scheming. Unlike vigorous Primovantor,
Basilea is hidebound, always looking to the past. Whereas
Primovantor’s mages and lords learned at the feet of the
benevolent Celestians; Basilea is a land gripped by religious
fanaticism, in thrall to the will of the Shining Ones. The
holy laws of the gods are absolute and the smallest
deviation from the prescribed social or religious rituals
can result in barbaric punishments that seem entirely at
odds with Basilea’s protestations of civilisation. Unable
to let go of its heritage, Basilea has become paralysed.
Innovation of any form is frowned upon, those who
would shake the social order are ruthlessly suppressed.
To its people, Basilea is a beacon of hope, a reminder of
what once was and what could be again. To outsiders it
is a senescent and brutal empire, whose time has come...