Arken Empire

An imperial theocracy ruled from the city of Aurion, on the Arken Archipelago across the southern sea, beneath the crowned sun wreathed in chains — the High Sigil. Its colours are white, crimson and black; its faith, the One Light; its creed, "Order is mercy."

Arken holds that mankind is weak, sinful and unfit to govern itself, and that only absolute authority can hold back chaos. Conquest, forced conversion and subjugation are therefore counted not as crimes but as holy duty. The Empire grew through crusades, colonization and the dominance of its fleets, grinding conquered peoples into provinces, labour castes and slaves.

Its order is rigid — Emperor, clergy, nobility, military, citizens, and slaves, with birth deciding nearly all. The Faith of the One Light — the worship of Ignar, the Sun raised to sole and jealous god — brands every other belief a heresy, a disease to be burned away, and teaches that suffering purifies the soul; its clerics serve as judges, censors, tax-collectors and inquisitors.

Its slavery is chattel and hereditary — a slave is livestock, and so are its children. A sea-faring people, the Arken raid distant lands, Garuun among them, through their foothold at Dawnhold on the southern shore, hunting men and women alongside gold and beasts. Its goal is a world of one law, one truth and one master. To Arken, freedom is merely another word for disorder.