Initium novum [Completed - being edited/rewritten]

Prologus - The Past

Maybe you are asking, why we have Forge Cities.

They are here because of war.

A long time ago we were in war with each other, on each of the five continents there were tens of small nations, they had trade agreements, alliances or any other relations, but then some of the nations said that they want something of what their neighbor had, so they declared a war to each other. Their allies had to joint them and soon, this small wars started continental warfares. Over time of peace, which was there very rarely and for a short time, some of the nations developed and were more powerful than the others, by this development each state on each continent centralized themselves in one great state which was in a continent, so there were only five states. But even this centralization didn't help to maintain peace forever. After twenty-five years of peace there was a war once again, but this time it was different. As I said in all states, there were Forge cities and in them were nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Four of five states launched those weapons upon the enemy and almost destroyed themselves entirely.

Meanwhile, in the fifth continent, there was a civil war. A civil war was started by a veteran and war hero Augustus Clericus. He had the highest military medals, due to it, he was honored and very influential, he knew people on high places, he knew strategies and was a very close friend of Erira's ruling family. Erira was ruled by an Imperator and an Imperatix, they were supreme leaders of all military branches in time of war, there were many wars between the nations among the time. But Imperator and Imperatix remained ruling in time of peace too, that was because both Ergalisus Cita and Titia Cita were great leaders and people loved them, they were building housing for poor, schools for childer, hospital for ill, temples for those who wanted to pray to the gods.

Unfortunately, not all people saw the royal family as great leaders, it were soldiers, who were unhappy, because Emperor and Imperatix have forgotten them, those who were fighting for them in time of war, those who were once glorious and celebrated as a great heroes and saviors of the Empire were now the poorest ones, no one was taking care of those who lived only because of and for a war, the only thing which people were seeing now was a peace.

War was a nightmare which they wanted to forget among with anyone who took part in it, forever.

Then, then forty years old Augustus Clericus came out of nowhere and started his campaign. He was claiming that the rule of Imperator and Imperatix is bad, that they care only about the elite class of the society, that they may seem nice to the other people but it is just pretending, to fool the people. He was presenting unhappiness of formal soldiers, their post wars living conditions, their employment rate, how much of them returned to their families, how many of them had a place on their own or at least with their families and how many of them ended up homeless and hopeless. Clericus was promising the end of the false rule of the Imperator and Imperatix, the was promising end of tyranny, he was promising equality for everyone, except slaves of course. In the beginning, people thought that he was just a fool, but over time, more and more people started to listen to him and started to spread his words to the others. In a couple of years, he created huge underground movement, consisting of veterans, normal people but also some of, at that time, current military officials and some politicians too. He used his influence that to his contacts and got himself a position in Imperators close cycle, thanks to this he learned new military strategies, how to move in political life and also became a personal friend of both Imperator and Imperatix.

When the royal family had a first baby, an heir to the throne, princess and future Imperatix Vatinia, he became her mentor and guardian. This helped him to get even more close to the family, and that was exactly, what he wanted. Ten years later, on the birthday of the princess, he ordered his followers to execute the plan of taking power from the royal family. In that time he had most of the army on his side, to it wasn't hard for him to give this order. His units started to raid small cities, when they had them under control, they moved to bigger ones, an army which was still on side of the royal family, was fighting hard but they had no chance. Still, it had taken almost a half of year before followers of Clericus reached the royal palace in the capital city, meanwhile, Clericus was secretly sabotaging plans and orders of loyalist armies. When his armies finally reached the palace, he sent both rulers in a safe area, and on by himself went to a princess, when he got to her, he took her and said that they will go to the safe area to her parents, but that wasn't true. Instead, he took her to a great yard in the palace, where were her parents already waiting with Clericus men. Clericus grabbed Vatinia and before the eyes of her parents cut her neck, her dead body fell on the ground and he didn't blink his eye, her parents were screaming and crying, they were like in a trance, they were just standing there, screaming and shouting, until Clericus didn't kill them too.

By that day, his rule upon Erira started, but it wasn't enough for him, he wanted to end tyranny on the rest of continents too. So, he started a Crusade, crusade against tyranny. It took him three years to conquer all of four continents, but it wasn't that hard, because of them were suffering from the wars and didn't much strength to resist for much longer.After the Crusade started age of peace once again, but this time this peace remained until the present days. In time of peace, great reconstruction of the nation started, areas destroyed by wars were completely rebuilt, people came to settle them, around cities with industrial and manufacturing importance were built great wall, to separate them from rest of the others, just like my city, other cities were classified into rusticarum urbes (agricultural cities), administrationis urbes (administration cities), ecclesia urbes (church cities) and industriae urbes (Forge cities).

Imperator Clericus knew that people don't want to stand in one place forever, so he created a ceremony called Electio tua fata (Choice of your destiny).

You can go on the path of centurionem, agricola, politicus, cursus artifex aut sacerdos (soldier, farmer, politician, industrial worker or priest).

This ceremony is being held when you are eighteen years old and you can choose what class in the society you want to have.

It is being held for one hundred years now. On the Imperii Solium (Imperial Throne) is now grandson of Clericus, Labrax. He is not as much feared as his grandfather was, but by some, he is still seen exactly as his father was.