The Zetian Republic

This is an article on the History of Feyworld
Years: 293 NC to 662 NC
Age: The Third Age of Man
Continent: Aurea
Main Article
History of the Great Empire
Previous Article	Following Article
The Ganeic War	The Dawn of Empire

With the Ganesians defeated at the end of the Ganeic War, the people of Zeth looked to Tiberius Terentina of House Valerius for leadership. The army attempted to proclaim him King of Zeth, but Tiberius refused the honor, berating the army and the people of Zeth for their childish ways in his most famous speech from the steps of the Triatheon. Instead, he told them, he would organize a government loosely based on the Aebasan culture that the Septira had left centuries before. He gathered together the heads of the various Great Houses and met for several weeks in seclusion. When the re-emerged from their self-imposed exile, they presented the Rule of the Republic, a legal document which outlined a representative government in which Plebeian males would vote for their choice of Patrician representatives in a unicameral legislature. Some people originally balked at such a government form, suggesting that it would bring about the same decadence and destruction that democracy had dealt to the Aebasan peoples. Gracchus of House Zetar entered into a public debate with the rebel leaders at the Grand Agora (marketplace) in Zeth that would come to last three days. He convinced the leaders that Tiberius Terentina, as their savior from the yoke of Ganesian oppression, was due respect by all in the city... that he should be accorded the same honor that a child would to a father. This convinced the people to obey Tiberius’ will, though it is said he privately balked at the reasons why they were assuming the new government form. According to some historians, he believed that Gracchus’ reasoning was too much like the rationale behind tyranny. Gracchus had, unknowingly, set the stage for the fall of the Republic even as he was initiating its beginnings. He had originated the concept of a patron.

The Zetian Senate was organized in such a fashion that each district of Zeth, then numbering twenty, would receive a representative elected by the Plebeians of that district. Only Patricians were permitted to run for office, however, and only adult males were granted suffrage, so the Republic was not a true democracy. It was, however, close enough to satisfy the moral convictions of Tiberius. In addition to these twenty representatives was a representative from each of the Great Houses, bringing the number of Senators to 27. After the first elections were held, the Senate’s first action was to draft a new Rule which detailed the powers of the Senate, as well as each social stratum. This monumental work also detailed such things as the regulation of prices and pay, as well as the organization of the military (already largely established by Tiberius Terentina). One rather difficult issue was how a military that was responsible, ultimately, to a civilian legislative body, would operate under those conditions. The solution that the Senate came up with was to limit just how precise their orders could be to a military commander. The Senate could give overall commands to the military, such as defeat this enemy or return to Zeth or what have you, but they could not dictate tactics to the military. To accommodate and expedite matters, the Senate created the position of Custodis Republicum, Defender of the Republic, who would determine specific tactical and strategic objectives for the military, answerable only to the Senate. Tiberius Terentina, of couse, was selected as the first Defender of the Republic, a title he took with some hesitation as to its necessity.

Soon therafter, the Senate would have its first test in the battlefield of international diplomacy. The Camarians had begun to colonize Ganesia, much to the chagrin of the Zetians. From the Zetian perspective, they had been the crucial element in the destruction of the hated tyrants, and they should receive the land and wealth as spoils of war. The Camarians, for their part, believed that it had been their king who was responsible for the Ganesian defeat and, thus, the territory was theirs to command. After a few initial skirmishes, the Senate met with the Camarian king, Anteparus II, to discuss the matter and come to a peaceful solution. Anteparus II, the young grandson of King Kilos the Great, was no match for the Senate and its leaders, and he ended up signing a treaty that assured a perpetual alliance between the two states, as well as seceding over three-quarters of the former state of Ganesia to Zeth. Anteparus II secured the permanency of the Camarian colonies that had already been established, but no further territory. Both sides felt that they had come away on top of the bargain, as Camaria could ill-afford another war and could always expand northward, while Zeth had gained a rich agricultural region with which it could feed its burgeoning population.

Decades marched on, and the Senate proved to be an efficient legislative body. Zeth prospered, both through its agricultural wealth in Ganesia and through trade with Camaria. Even though it was a time of peace and prosperity, however, the Zetian military remained strong. Indeed, the military became an ingrained part of Zetian society, and custom eventually dictated that any Patrician hoping to run for political office would have to have served in the military in some capacity during his youth. Unfortunately, the increase in the concepts of a strong military also lead to a decrease in magical research and development. Fortunately, none of the other cultures in the region had a significant magical arsenal, so this decrease did not substantially weaken the Republic. The concept of the patron however, initiated by Gracchus of House Zetar, increased in strength until it too became a concept ingrained into Zetian culture. In 205 BI, the concept of an entire society owing patronage to an individual would provide the rumblings that would eventually form an Empire.

In 203 BI, the northerly expansion of the Camarians met with some difficulty when a group of red-haired barbarians known as the Medellans attacked a fairly insignificant outpost on Camaria’s western frontier. The Camarians retaliated by attacking a township believed to have initiated the raid and war was quickly declared by the Camarians when it was discovered that the Medellans had been unified under the powerful Archmage Veseverus. Veseverus was originally one of the many mages who had fled Zeth’s stifling community of wizards during this period, and found the Medellans a people easily swayed by the power a mage could command. Veseverus named his new nation the Kingdom of Medellis around 245 BI and was not willing to accept the presence of his Zetian-allied neighbors. As Camaria had not fully recovered from the high economic and manpower costs of Template:The Ganeic Wars, it soon discovered that it could not sustain a prolonged campaign against the Medellans. In 205 BI, King Sergius II of Camaria appealed to his eastern ally for assistance. The Senate initially refused the king’s request, citing economic problems of its own, but a young Senator from House Zetar, Marcus Publius, went to the king in secret to discuss the possibility of supporting a joint action against the Medellans. The two came to an agreement and M. Publius, one of the most impassioned orators of his time, stood before the Senate to decry the isolationism that he claimed had set in amongst the Zetians. He was able to convince a few moderate members of the Senate to assist in the Camarian plight, and the resultant vote overturned the previous decision of the Senate by a narrow margin. The Senate ordered the Defender of the Republic to amass the army and head southward to assist in the defense of Camaria. The Defender who received that order was Crassus of House Zetar, an uncle of M. Publius. It is believed that M. Publius spoke with Crassus before he even left Zeth and ordered him, as head of House Zetar, to conquer Medellis in the name of the Great House, not the Republic.

The Republic, however, found the warriors of Medellis to be just as difficult a foe as the Camarians had. They were able to make some inroads into Medellis, but progress was slow and extremely bloody. M. Publius recognized that Veseverus and his knowledge of Hermetic Magic was too much for the magic-bereft Zetian military to deal with. He began to spread rumors of Veseverus’ great wealth, both in coin and magical items, through the lower sections of Zetian culture. The Band of the Red Sword, an adventuring group who had dedicated themselves to the then-minor god of chivalry Vortumnus, undertook the quest to enter the Archmage’s palace and defeat him personally. They succeeded in their attack on Veseverus and his forces quickly crumbled under their own weight, as various tribal leaders vied to replace the Archmage. Crassus took advantage of this dissension, and the Medellans were soundly defeated at their capital city of Cratari at the Battle of Denamore in 195 BI. Crassus ordered Veseverus’ tower dismantled, and a temple of Galea was constructed out of its ruins. He went on to claim the nation in the name of House Zetar, as commanded by M. Publius.

Both the Camarians and the Senate were initially outraged by this bravado and outright arrogance, but M. Publius convinced the latter that it could only help the Republic to annex these new lands and the former soon discovered that they were now considered to be under the patronage of House Zetar. King Sergius II would retain his title, as would his descendants, but the nation now owed taxes in perpetuity to House Zetar and that the Great House would retain the right to settle all disputes over the inheritance of the Camarian crown. For the first time, an entire nation came under the thrall of one man. It would not be the last. The proclamation of Crassus of House Zetar, however, was revoked, and the Senate named Theodosius of House Livius as the governor of the recalcitrant Medallans. The rebellious people of Medalia would come to be a thorn in the side of the Zetians well into the Imperial age.

The Republic, however, had sipped the wine of conquest for the first time since its creation at the conclusion of the Ganeic Wars. They began constructing a navy and organized patrols of the Aurean Sea. In 192 BI, a pirate vessel that had been quite successful in defeating and eluding these patrols was finally captured, and its captain proved to be a prominent noble from the nation of Aescalapea. Aescalapea was a nation on the western shore of the Aurean Sea with which cordial trade relations had been established by the Zetians some eight years previous. The Senate and the King of Aescalapea entered negotiations, but these talks quickly devolved into angry squabbles, and the two nations declared war on one another. The War of the Golden Coast, as it would come to be called, was initially a naval campaign and one in which the newly-established Zetian fleet was sorely outmatched in. By 189 BI, the Aescalapean navy had successfully blockaded all access to Zeth by sea. The powerful Zetian military, however, soon arrived in Aescalapea via the land-route through Ganesia and the Aescalapean fleet was recalled. The Aescalapean people proved to be no match for the Zetian land military, and their capital city of Dracar was taken in 187 BI by Quintus Sabatina of House Gabinius, the successor as Defender of the Republic to Gracchus of House Zetar. The fortress at Dracar was dismantled for the construction of a temple to Galea, and House Gabinius was granted governorship in Aescalapea as a reward for the conquest.

The next four decades saw a reign of tyranny and terror at the hands of House Gabinius in Aescalapea. Intent to insure a more peaceful population than was found under Republic rulership in Medallia, various Governors from House Gabinius imposed oppressive taxes on the Aescalapean people and strict laws which they, themselves, often ignored if it were to their advantage. House Gabinius also eventually began forays into the neighboring Milosian lands. The Milosian nobility, fearful of the army that had just all but wiped out their Aescalapean neighbors, attempted to avoid war with Zeth but they were eventually pushed to the breaking point. In 140 BI, the Gabinian War began when the Milosian King Baltos III declared war on Aescalapea. Aescalapea was equally matched to the Milosian war engine, and the Senate refused to send more troops to assist the Prefect. After five years of fighting and with no end in sight, the Prefect of Aescalapea secured a military alliance with the regnant of Cordosia, who was an old enemy of Baltos’s. Finally, the Aescalapeans began to defeat the Milosian military, but the process was still slow and bloody. After another fifteen years of fighting, the Milosian capital of Tasca Obodos was finally captured and their king executed. Menander of House Gabinius, the victorious governor of Aescalapea, did not remain in Tasca Obodos to oversee the construction of the temple of Galea. The bulk of the Milosian army escaped the Battle of Tasca Obodos and fled over the Antasian Mountains to Cordosia. Menander dogged the Milosian army well into Cordosian territory until they were finally defeated near the Cordosian capital of Cardol Briach. Menander was welcomed into Cardol Briach as a hero, but he quickly placed the Cordosian king, Malakiel, on trial based on rumors that he had assisted the fleeing Milosian army. Malakiel was found guilty by a tribunal of military judges lead by Menander himself, and his son, Yavan, was imprisoned in chains aboard Menander’s ship, headed for Zeth. Instead of the hero’s welcome and subsequent processional victory march through the streets of the city, the Senate had Menander quietly arrested under the noses of his own troops. It was revealed that King Malakiel had actually fled Cordosia three months previous, leaving an impostor in his place to suffer Menander’s questionable justice. King Malakiel had pledged his allegiance to the Zetian Republic, which meant that he was under the protection of the Senate and Menander’s trial and execution of his impostor was illegal. Menander was found guilty of regicide, and executed for his crime. The states that he had conquered, Milosia and Cordosia, were redivided into their original boundaries. Both states became a dependent state to the Republic, though Cordosia was permitted to retain its royal rulership in compensation for the actions of House Gabinius. Menander’s House was not stripped of its rulership of Aescalapea, however, and the tyranny of House Gabinius was not blunted by the successes and shame that they had suffered.

As a result of Menander’s actions, however, the Senate realized that they needed a more central rulership during times of war, politicians who would act as liaison between the civilian and military governments. Because of their fear of the return of tyranny, the Senate established the position of Consul, one of three individuals who would lead the Zetian Republic in times of war and expansion. It would not be long before this new concept would be tested. Discovery of an ancient text which detailed the travels of the Septira before they established Zeth suggested that they had built another city in lands to the east. The Zetian people took this to be a sign that they should expand across the Betshaban Ocean to the lands of the east. Some cynical historians suggest that these texts were invented only to give the Republic excuse to attack the pirates of Tamerynd, which had harried the nascent Zetian armada for the last few decades. Three consuls were elected: Marcus Argentis of House Zetar, Androcles of House Livius, and Tiberius Valira of House Manilius. Marcus Argentis remained in Zeth to oversee the flow of money into the effort. Tiberius Valira took charge of the northern forces to insure no attacks were imminent from the north. Androcles remained to command the armada heading east. In 128 BI, the armada launched with much fanfare. After several misadventures at sea, they finally arrived on the shores of Ylargebad Island, off the southern coast of what their maps identified as Duria. Androcles soon defeated the pirates who called Ylargebad home, and established contacts with a barbarian people of the mainland, who called themselves the Tracini. Androcles returned to Zeth a hero, having accomplished the first non-defensive acquisition in the history of the Zetian people. He was granted the title Count of the Tracini Shore by the Republic and returned to Ylargebad to construct his temple to Galea and a large naval fortress to protect Zetian trade lanes to the Tracini at the town of Lar Glarsaw, which he renamed Marebellium. Unfortunately, Androcles died within two years of his victory without an heir, and Marcus Argentis of House Zetar assumed his role as leader of the armada and Count of the Tracini Shore.

Marcus Argentis was a highly ambitious man, eager to prove himself to his people and bring glory to his House by conquering their eastern trade partners on the mainland. When the Tracini people sent a message to Zeth requesting military assistance in 123 BI, Marcus Argentis saw an opportunity. What was meant by the Tracini to be a request for skilled mercenaries to settle a petty regional dispute in their favor was taken as a plea for aid. The Tracini delegation agreed to pay the Republic a certain tax for the assistance of the legions, which the Tracini mistook as the end of the bargain. Marcus Argentis took command of the legions sent to assist the Tracini, and their aggressive neighbor soon fell to the Republican legions. Citing a need to further protect his allies from possible outside aggression, Marcus Argentis continued his conquests of the region, eventually bringing much of the Divian peninsula under his control. Furthermore, he convinced the Tracini that they owed him, not the Republic, homage as their patron. The Tracini people, blinded by their devotion to their new ally, agreed, still not fully understanding the implications of such an arrangement. When Marcus Argentis returned to Zeth, his armies, now mostly composed of Zetian-trained, Tracini warriors completely subservient to the Consul, were close behind him. He initiated a Victory Processional through Zeth, wary that the Senate may try to arrest him for his efforts. When the Senate saw the popular support that Marcus Argentis received, however, they quickly decided to acknowledge his heroic status and showered him with accolades, including a titular grant as Duke of Duria. Marcus Argentis returned to Duria and continued his conquests, always on the pretense of protecting the newly-established colony from outside invasion. By 97 BI, he and his successor, Antonius Argentis of House Zetar, had conquered the territory which now composes the entirety of the nations of Koramia and Illyria and part of the elven-held Webwood.

Eight years after the conquest of the Divian peninsula was completed, the Senate again decided to elected three consuls to expand Zetian territory overseas in the hope of establishing a near-contiguous trade route which would circumvent the pirates of Tamerynd Isle. Septimius Varros, a Legate under the command of the sickly Consul Rufus Voltina of House Livius, was sent with the Zetian armada across the ocean, with the idea of conquering the significant port that was the Freecity of Neptaris. The Legion failed to conquer the city, but by 87 BI, they had conquered the nearby Cambrecian, Enesian, and Melvartan peoples. Septimius Varro was granted a Victory Processional in Zeth for his victory, and his family was the first to be initiated as a Great House since Foundation by the Septira. The Cambrecians, for their part, were a subdued race, and Cambrecia soon became a luxury spot for Zetian soldiers to retire to after their service was complete.

Soon after the conquest of Cambrecia, the Senate decided to expand itself beyond the 45 members who currently held office, to better represent the interests of their quickly expanding Republic. Some cynical historians suggest that this decision was intended to placate rebellious elements in the Empire, which had threatened the peace in Ganesia in 99 BI, Aescalapea in 95 BI and 93 BI, Simmeria in 90 BI, and Medallia in 98 BI, 94 BI, and 89 BI. The dependent states received a number of Senators according to a dizzying array of factors, including population, economic importance, and military strength. When the Expansion of Liberty was complete, the number of Senators had risen to 162 and the bureaucracy surrounding the governmental body increased by almost five hundred percent.