The Communion: A Portfolio [Closed; Undergoing Restoration]

[Kyrusia]

THE  COMMUNION:
A  PORTFOLIO
Published by the Holy Consistory of the Letters.
Compiled by the Consistory of Cultural Aggregation,
Consistory of Information and Broadcasting,
and the Secretariat of the Infrastructure.

”The Svetullas Komjistvo Krovira Cvetrzave...

“The Holy and Noble Communion and Imperial Covenant of the Ways of the Old Blood, or, as some say, simply the Communion. A unity of cosmopolitan peoples, in truth, rising from degenerate years of tyranny, destruction, and despotism. A sovereign renaissance of creativity, prosperity, and eternal progress. A trans-modern, post-nation, post-state covenant unified by determination and faith. A revolutionary society of peoples, mutually co-existing in pluralistic counsel, driven to be the future and co-existent within the traditions of the old and the efficient. A growth of majesty and beauty, blossoming from a world that knows only soot, tarnish, and the gray plains of war and devastation.

“We are a united conglomerate forged out of the willingness to discard and disregard the mistakes of the past century and drive ourselves forward into the mystery of the beyond. Some have view this goal as transcendental, even sublime, while others have criticized our ways and methodology as hedonistic or even self-destructive. Perhaps all accusations are true, merely garnered from differing perspective. What cannot be denied, however, regardless of the perspective one chooses to assume, is the success of our survival; our unrelenting drive to persist and to maintain. To continue along the path, even as the rain washes it away.

“This is how we - the Kyrus, the Kyrusian people – have lived, have acted. We have gripped onto life, hand-over-fist, since the first Khjrois erected their palatial homes deep within the mountains, to the days when the first Ungyar, mounted on their swift steeds, passed onto the Kyrusian Steppe. Through the harsh winters, to the blistering droughts, to war and revolution, and even the most grave of weapons being unleashed from the mouth of the beast that is discrimination and misunderstanding. We have persisted, we have grown, and we have flourished. No singular act, regardless of magnitude, has been permitted to eradicate our presence from the world. Enemy, ally, or insurgent, all have failed in their manipulations and their strive to quell the insatiable growth of the people of Kyrusia. We are a force eternal, of both nature and man.

“Perhaps that is why our enemies cower and our allies shout in victory of our transcendence and our desire to over-come that which has become normalcy and the status quo. Perhaps it is this construction, this motivation, to surpass what some have termed the 'Age of the Nation-state' to craft an identity, a sovereign entity that refuses to conform to the demarcations of what it means to be 'sovereign' and 'powerful.' A fear of the future, some say, grips the world and holds humanity steadfast. A fear of the evolution of not simply the species, but the culture, the hegemony, the very super-structure of the collectivity of human interaction and relation. This fear, it rips and tears, erodes and abolishes progress, stifling prosperity beneath the tower of inadequacy and sheer, unbridled terror.

“It would be foolish to say, however, that the path we tread is one of utopian peace and ease. On the contrary, for we walk a path that has itself become degraded and eroded, washed-away by the deluge of crisis and labor that we steadily march toward. We are not a people of peace or contentment. Even from our earliest establishment, from our earliest institutions, we have proven – time and time again – to be a combative people. Whether spiritual or physical, we have been motivated for more; forced never to rest, to cease, or become complacent with our status and our station. Our unwillingness to compromise; our unwillingness to accept that which seems to be infinite and timeless.

“This unwillingness, this drive, has forced us to war not only within, but without. From the times of revolutionary fervor, where brother fought brother, to the conflicts of ideology and economics, we have been thrust onto the battlefield to lay forth the remains of what we once were for review. Such a conflict, such a war, now lies before us, just beyond this precipice. Just beyond the yawning maw of the gaping chasm of shadow and tribulation that the future holds to bear. Yet, we will not falter, we will not waver, we will continue, marching forward, eternal and dominant. We will accept death as the only compromise, not with ourselves nor our enemies, but with the cosmos itself.

“So look, We do ask, upon Our people, upon our land, and our ways. Inspect us, watch us, and review our every nuance, our every flavor, our every detail, for we are what is to become. We are the path which leads not merely to the future, but to survival. Look upon us, for we are the mighty and the unrelenting, and we shall bring forth a new age of man, a new time, and a new world for all of humanity to behold...”

His Most Eminent Holiness,

Tzejvyros of the Holy and Noble Communion Krovira;
Zealous and Divine Vikraji of the Krovira;
Ardent Nejakuvar of the Cvetrzave;
Straletj of the Dekaji;
Svovorac of the Faith

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DIPLOMATIC INFORMATIONAL BULLETIN

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          · ( 06.10 ) Official condemnation issued to the "Saint Mladić Union."

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          · ( 06.09 ) Iishi-Yishang-Xiaodao Metropolitan Area of the Sessho Imperial Mandate declared "Special Economic Zone."

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          · ( 06.06 ) Monitoring of the International Association of Slave Exporting Nations and abolitionist factions increases.

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          · ( 06.06 ) Stagnation of Brimstone Pact actions brings curious response.

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          · ( 06.05 ) Relations begin to normalize with the Twin Moon Empire.

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          · ( 06.05 ) New Hayesalian aggression continues amidst talk of official condemnation.

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          · ( 06.03 ) Official Commencement Address announced to international community.

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                    COMMUNIONAL DEFENSE CONDITION

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COVENANTAL DEFENSE CONDITION                   

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                                  1 2 [ 3 ] 4 5

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1 2 3 [ 4 ] 5                                 

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          ”Hail to the New Flesh!

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Status of Completion: 14% — Incomplete
Due to recent events, this dossier is hereby determined
to be "out-of-date" and is pending a total re-write.

Thank you for your patience.

[Kyrusia]

Riednnyja da zha Komjistvo

Introduction to the Communion

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"I have never seen this coming. I have never climbed so high. I have never thought this could be the crossroads of my life." — Stefan Poiss

Sovereign Banner of the Communion and Covenant

The Svetullas Komjistvo Krovira Cvetrzave (Khinenese: 聖餐公約舊血; English: Holy and Noble Communion and Imperial Covenant of the Ways of the Old Blood) is an enormous, sovereign polity consisting of the “Holy and Noble Communion” and the “Imperial Covenant” of the Krovira – a unified hegemony that, internationally, operates as a singular whole, while internally functions as two distinct and dualistic systems of co-governance and united authority. Functioning according to a synergistic model of governmental hierarchy, the Communion incorporates traditional beliefs of the original Kyrus – primarily known simply as the Krovira or “Ways of the Old Blood” - while maintaining a civil, democratic authority at the heart of a covenantal, semi-confederated empire - a fact represented through the “Capitals Krovira” of Zha Svoserjse and Prajiscre, respectively. Unlike many imperial states of the "Modern Era", however, the Communion has adopted decisively post-modern and “anti-ideological” stance in regards to political philosophy and policy; ultimately pragmatic and utilitarian, the Communion, though refusing to adopt political philosophies believed to be driven “solely by past actions” maintains a collective morality and ethics, driven by its core of traditional culture and lifestyle.

Though primarily situated on the continental landmass known as “Kyrusia” (formerly “Yevropa”), the Communion expands across several domains, existing as a transcontinental imperial covenant, incorporating distant, cosmopolitan influences and peoples within its fold. While “Kyrus culture” remains the central pillar of society, foreign and trans-cultural identities maintain a powerful minority – particularly the “Khinenese culture,” represented by the second-largest host of persons held beneath the Crux Krovira. These distant cultural identities combine and merge, transcending their own mores to exist as the mosaic of influences that is “Covenantal culture” and the citizenry of the Communion.

Much like the myriad of differing lifestyles and ethnic systems that form the Communion, due to its transcontinental nature, geography and climate differ – often to a great degree – across the entirety of its imperial mandates and dependencies. Ranging from the frozen taiga to the temperate, broadleaf and coniferous forests of the northern Kyrusian Steppe, to the warm and agrarian, subtropical, dry broadleaf forests and farmland of the Imperial Mandate of Sessho. Due to the Reckoning, however, large swathes of the Covenant, particularly the heartland of the Kyrusian continent, exist primarily in a bi-seasonal landscape, with Winter-like environmental conditions being dominant for much of the northern region of the Kyrusian Steppe, propagated by persistent radiological contamination and contributory industrial output.

This geographical diversity has served as the primary factor behind policy choices in regard to infrastructure and economic concentration. While the primary heart of the Communion boasts the highest industrial percentages of the Covenant, with focus primarily placed on mining, industrial production, and technology manufacturing, secondary regions of the transcontinental polity focus primarily on agrarian and rural industries and the service sector. This is no where more evident than in the differing economic policies and infrastructural models present between the industrial districts within and surrounding the metropolitan center of Wieczeim and the service-and-finance concentrated Iishi-Yishang-Xiaodao Special Economic Zone. Much akin to its refusal to define itself through a collective political ideology or current, the Communion operates according to a pragmatic and opportunistic economic model; however, through its successful incorporation of varying economic backgrounds and sociological paradigms, the sovereignty primarily functions as a “social, mixed-market” economy, with minimal governmental regulation outside of “industries of primary necessity” and the maintained priorities of personal safety and social welfare.

These qualities – whether from the unique, governmental structure, to the vastly differing geography and climate – synthesize in order to function as the primary agents of metamorphosis for the Communion and Covenant. Their tangential and pluralistic cooperation and assimilation serve to act as both the motivation and goal of the united peoples, loyal and devout, progressive and novel, beneath the Sovereign Banner of the Communion and Imperial Covenant.

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Standard Information and Statistics
» Formal Sovereign Identity – Long Form: Svetullas Komjistvo Krovira Cvetrzave
       [ Holy and Noble Communion and Imperial Covenant of the Ways of the Old Blood ]
» Accepted Sovereign Identity – Short Form(s): Communion; Communion Krovira; Kyrusia

Click to expand; some possessions not pictured

» Accepted Abbreviation(s): S.K.K.C.; H.N.C.I.C.O.B.; H.N.C.; C.K.
» World Assembly Designation: "Pariah state"
» Demonym: ”Covenantal Citizen"; "Kyrusian"
» Authorized National Language(s): Kyrus and Khinenese
» National Language(s): Kyrus Russian; Kyrus Serbian
» Governmental Type: Dualistic, sacerdotal-secular imperial monarchy
» Capitals: Zha Svoserjse ("The Holy Stigma") and Prajiscre
» Largest City: Prajiscre
» Population:
       Communional Population: 629,000,000 (June, 10 A.R.)
       Covenantal Population: 1,355,000,000 (June, 10 A.R.)¹
» Population Density: 115.0 per square kilometer
» Area:
       The Communion: 8,582,469 km²
       The Imperial Covenant: 10,707,913 km²
» Administrative Divisions (Cvetrzave; "Imperial Covenant"):
       The Communion: the Cvetrica ("Imperial Perianths")
       The Cvetrzati ("Imperial Mandates"): Sessho
       The Cvetrnost ("Imperial Dependencies"): Borhan
» Cultural Divisions (Imperial Perianths):
       Sertivitce,
       Vidimora
       Yuzirost
       Zemlosok
       and Stracizok.

Governmental Information
» Head of State and Government Title: Tzejvyros ("Hierophant") of the Communion, Nejakuvar ("Guardian") of the Imperial Covenant
» Head of State and Government: His Most Eminent Holiness, Kosceij ZV. (Age: 23)
» Civil Executor of the Imperial Covenant Title: Visikorol ("Viceroy")
» Civil Executor of the Imperial Covenant: His Excellency, Dzirzyic Sdemir (Age: 41)
» Inclusive Governmental Nomenclature: Vlastabla ("Unitary Crux")
» Chief Executive Body: Svonuevi Sejiste ("Holy Amaranthine See")
» Chief Legislative Body: Nuevisuj ("Amaranthine Court")
» Civil Legislative Authority: Dejediniti ("Civil Assembly")
» Independence:
       Declared 1922 C.E. from Ustraatan Empire; Great National Revolution
       Recognized 1924 C.E.
       "Fortified State" dissolved May 30, 10 A.R.
       "Communion and Imperial Covenant" created June 1, 10 A.R.
» Current Constitution: Konjvda Krovezik (The "Bloodied Tongue"; Svekonac ["canonical"] religious law)

Economic Information²
» Currency: Ҝ (kryjnia)
» Gross Domestic Product: NS$102,640,000,000,000
» G.D.P. Per Capita: NS$92,234
» Income Tax Rate: 6% progressive
» Unemployment Rate: 2.010%

Miscellaneous Information
» Human Development Index 0.970
» Quality of Life Index: 8.200
» Life Expectancy Index: 0.655
» Life Expectancy: 66.5 years
» Literacy Index: 0.99
» Crime Rate: 2.201%

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¹ Includes all populations present as Mandates, Dependencies, and Perianths of the Imperial Covenant.
² Adjusted where necessary to conform to roleplaying standards. Source. Also will include all Cvetrzati ("Imperial Mandates").

[Kyrusia]

Istorjia z zha Kyrus

History of the Kyrus

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"Until the end and back again; defiant to the last man. 'Til there's nothing left to fight against; no surrender." — Ronan Harris

The Foundation of a People
Historians have been unable to precisely determine a time line for the beginning of the original Kyrus people; however, most agree that by the year 948 C.E., peoples of two, dialectically-oppositional origins had begun to inhabit the mountainous and plateaued regions between and around

Portrait of a Khjrois man

the Danyu and Dnejier Rivers in central, modern Kyrusia. Some historians and scholars of international and foreign regard have called into question the official accounts of the State, but with little regard; most historiographers and historians concur with the official history of Kyrusia in stating that, in all likelihood, the Kyrus Host rose out of an unlikely merging between the native Khjrois people of the Northern, mountainous regions West of the Danyu River, and the nomadic horse-herders, the Ungyar.

According to evident historical documents, though few in many, the original inhabitants of what would become modern Kyrusia, were the isolationist Khjrois peoples. The Khjrois inhabited the distant, mountainous, and harsh regions in northern Kyrusia, bordering the natural homelands of the Ustraata. All documents seem to display, even from the earliest evidence, that the Khjrois and Ustraata, though their interactions were rare, existed primarily, at best, as a mutual abhorrence and distaste for one another. Accounts state that, at worst, on one occasion, a Ustraatan convoy of traders were raided by Khjrois, resulting in a decimation of some two hundred families; such raids with similar results occurred against both groups. Yet, in most instances, relations were minimal.

Due to their location, the Khjrois functioned almost entirely as a diseperate world in-and-of itself. Based around small, militarized camps (known as “siches”), the Khjrois barricaded themselves into relatively small and tight-knit alliances of clans and families, using the fertile valleys of the northern mountain ranges for subsistence farming and animal husbandry. This tight-knit, closed community was further reflected in their system of governance, one based almost entirely around a meritocratic hierarchy of military leaders and clan fathers, though spiritual leaders were also evident, but due to the relatively personal form of spiritualism practiced by the Khjrois (a form of ancestor worship and respect for nature), religious life and political life did not often mix.

Romanticist portrait of an Ungyar raider

The Khjrois served as a stark contrast to the Ungyar, a nomadic people whose livelihood was based mostly around minor subsistence farming, but based almost entirely on the growing and herding of horses. Originating from farther into the Yevropan mainland, the Ungyar originally began to migrate West of the Danyu around 900 C.E., crossing into the territorial homeland of the modern Kyrus. A warring people, according to most accounts, the Ungyar found pristine grazing land and pastures almost entirely unoccupied in the central, Kyrusian plateau during the time; as the years passed, they began to immigrate at a greater rate, eventually coming to inhabit the area.

Though their nomadic lifestyles were originally contrary to the Khjrois, the Ungyar began to settle by 910 C.E., around the same time they first began to interact with the fervently isolationist Khrjois. Due to the necessity for trade by the Khjrois due to sparse farmland in the North, and on the part of the Ungyar, a desire to defend themselves from Khjrois raids, formal relations began officially around 940 C.E. Soon after, inter-marrying began, the Khjrois and Ungyar cultures (one based off ancestral worship, the other off the respect of the dead and the love of combat) beginning to intermingle and synthesize.

By 980 C.E., the Khjrois and Ungyar culture had intermingled to such a degree, that they had become synonymous. Yet, their official merger did not come about until around 1100 C.E. when necessity forced the Ungyar and Khjrois cultures to become officially one: the Kyrus. This necessity was almost wholly driven by increasing violence from the North-west by Ustraatan raiding parties. Ustraatan warriors had as early as 940 C.E., began trespassing onto the Kyrusian plateau in order to attempt counter-maneuvers on the Khjrois – and to take advantage of the fertility of the region. This reached an apex in 1100 C.E., a time when the Khjrois and Ungyar peoples had begun referring to themselves simply as “Kyrus” (an amalgam-word meaning, roughly, “people” and “true,” depending on the usage). It was from this drive for defense that, in the end, the Kyrus people began to unite, forging what they would eventually become.

The Host Grows
By 1310 C.E., the former Khjrois had almost entirely merged with the Ungyar, traveling from the mountains of the North to come to inhabit the central plateau between the Danyu and Dnejier Rivers. Sich communities, based off the original Khjrois settlements, had been firmly established across much of the Kyrusian plateau, dotting the region with small, heavily-defended fortification-cities, directed by regional affiliations, clan families, and raiding armies. However, by the end of the 1300's, the climate had begun to change.

While raiding parties of Ustraatan soldiers from the far North persisted, more and more descendents of the Ungyar began to migrate South, having been originally captured by Ustraatan marauders during the 1000 and 1100's. Mostly descendents of victims of Ustraatan raiding and rape, these individuals had been subjugated between the Ustraatan elite, mostly utilized as little more than serfs or slaves. As such, many believed the growing Kyrus settlements would serve as refuge from their former oppressors. In most instances, they were correct.

Recognizing their common heritage (as well as their mutual distaste for the growing civilization to the North), the Kyrus welcomed the fleeing descendents of their mutual ancestors, profiting from their trade, willing labor, and influx of culture and technical expertise. Yet, by 1310 C.E., this great flow of migrants began to strain the regional authorities of the Kyrus people, forcing more alliances with separate sich communities to be formed.

In 1325 C.E., the largest sich, dwelling on an island within the current peripheries of Razketjistaetia, known as Kyruviesch, officially called for a mutual unification of all willing Kyrus siches, calling for a meeting of the disparate chieftains and warlords from across the plateau. In that same year, Rujradin the Great, a Kyrus military commander, became the first vyataman (“commander”) of a united Kyrus people, pulling into his reign from Kyruviesch over three hundred of the seven hundred separate siches across modern Kyrusia, officially forming what would become known as the Kyrus Voisjko (“Kyrus Host”).

Founding of Kyruviesch

Though a large minority of the Kyrus siches willingly joined the host, the isolationist strain of the Khjrois had not entirely been bred from the ranks of the people. Many siches refused, desiring more the retain their own identities and sovereignty. Yet, this was not destined to last. By 1400 C.E., Ustraatan raids from the North had begun to intensify. In 1390 C.E., Ustraata had officially become united (to a degree) under then King Hetrain the First, forming the Kingdom of Ustraata. Due to this centralization of power, the Ustraatan raiding machine had equally gained potency, felling several siches in the decade following the unification. This increased intensity, in time, persuaded many “nay”-sayers into officially uniting under the burgundy banner of the Voisjko of Kyruviesch. In time, this would result in the unification of most, if not all, of the Kyrus siches, forming a formidable adversary to the Ustraatan Kingdom.

The Hetjmenate
By 1470 C.E., though raids from Ustraata were a regular occurrence along the Kyrus frontier, internal tensions had begun to form. A belief in a disparity between the “Northern Kyrus” and the “Southern Kyrus,” descendents of the original Khjrois and Ungyar respectively, had been founded – mostly due to the fact that, at the time, the “Northern Kyrus” held the most power, dominating Kyruviesch with an almost iron grip. This tension climaxed in 1476 C.E. when civil war broke-out, pitting the Northenr siches against the Southern.

The civil war raged for fifteen years, stretching from 1475 until 1490 C.E. Legend tells that, in 1490, a conference was called in the small sich of Brajon. This meeting was called in order to hold meeting between the vyatamen of the respective Kyrus disparities. At the time, though the separation between the warring Kyrus was only superficial, many Kyrus believed in a formal separation of the two entities, founding two separate hosts – one based from Kyruviesch, the other from Odesjca (what would become Odecca). Yet, with increased raiding from Ustraata, the military hierarchies, both in Kyruviesch and Odesjca, believed that such would ultimately end in the decimation of the Kyrus people and their subjugation beneath the Ustraatan Kingdom.

As such, in 1490 C.E., at least according to popular legend, two vyatamen, known only as Razna the Ruthless (from Kyruviesch) and Kiris the Wise (from Odesjca) met in the small sich at Brojan. The conference is believed to have lasted a total of thirty days, though no official record has ever been found describing the actual events of the meeting. In the end, Razna and Kiris officially declared a “mutual peace for the safety and sanctity of the Kyrus,” and, in effect, created the “Kyrus Voisjko of the Unified Northern and Southern Peoples” - or, more commonly referred to simply as the Hetjmenate.

With the founding of the Hetjmenate, the political landscape of the Kyrus changed. The capital would become Kyruviesch, though it would be renamed “Kyiv,” a merger of names of the original city and the island within the Dnejier to which it sat. No longer would a single vyataman rule the Host, but two Hetjm (“father-leader”), serving as co-rulers of the Voisjko and ruling according to mutual consensus, advised by a council of thirty to one hundred-fifty military advisors and individual warlords of the various siches. Even though the Host united, however, due to this occurrence, even until the modern age, two separate “sub-cultures” of the Kyrus would remain, taking their names from the original founders of the Hetjmenate: the Razna Kyrus and Kiris Kyrus (see below). As well, many names often bare the original founders of the first, truly united Kyrus Host, most prolific being the Komanjeralmus, though the surname of Kiriskovic is also common, both the Raznakovic and Kiriskovic families tracing their heritage to the original founders.

Kiris the Wise

It would seem, however, that the Hetjmenate's foundation would not secure peace. In 1513 C.E., the Kingdom of Ustraata official began a campaign of invasion and attempted genocide from th North-east. Ustraatan armies swept down from the North, attempting to seize the Kyrus frontier due to its fertile land and close proximity to the Danyu. This would serve to force the Host to finally unite – even if tensions remained – to defend their own sovereignty and integrity. To that effect, the Ustraatan invasion was successful.

Frontier siches fell, mostly due to inadequate defenses along the frontier. Due to this, by 1524, the Ustraatan Kingdom began to believe that the central heart of the Hetjmenate would be as easily felled. As such, in 1525 C.E., the Ustraatan Kingdom launched a massive offensive against the heart of the Kyrus homeland seeking to destabilize and eventually subjugate Kyiv, Odesjca, Brojan, and the sich communities which served as the soul of the Voisjko. However, Ustraata suffered near-catastrophic failure during this campaign. A harsh winter plagued the year, forcing a logistical deadlock between the central plateau, the frontline of the invasion, and the Kingdom far to the North. This served, in part, to reduce Ustraatan morale and capabilities to near pathetic levels.

By 1527 C.E., it had become evident that the Host would not fall. Carrying-out a distant offensive against Kyiv and the Kyrus heartland was failing. Kyrus forces began to devastate Ustraatan armies, killing hundreds then thousands in the Winter of 1526 and 1527, massacring the Ustraatan military offensive to less than a third of its original strength. During this, Ustraatan forces came to understand that while the outlying siches were relatively weakly defended, the heartland had become a parody of a fortress: near-impenetrable. The Kyrus had gone to extensive efforts to fortify the center of their realm, raising great barriers and deep trenches and moats to defend their cities and fortifications. This, in combination with the detrimental influence of one of the harshest Kyrus Winters on record, eventually forced a Ustraatan withdrawal.

The Commonwealth Is Formed
With the Ustraatan withdrawl in late 1527 C.E., the Kyrus Voisjko rejoiced. An invasion by a foe of superior force had been routed and removed from the heartland. Even though restoration and the rebuilding of the frontier was necessary, loss of life had been minimal. Considering the sheer force of the Ustraatan invasion, the Host resisting, had suffered minimal loss. This was not to go unnoticed by the Ustraatan Kingdom. Three years after the unsuccessful invasion, its goal to destabilize the Kyrus heartland and seize the valuable territory of the Central Kyrus Plateau, the political landscape of the region was destined to change.

”Reply of the Kyrus”

In 1530, a Ustraatan convoy declared itself known along the Kyrus frontier, carrying a missive directly from the King himself. The missive, retained and held in the National Museum of State Archives, stated a desire for “mutual beneficial cooperation and a united front against growing outside forces.” Initially, the missive was rebuked by the Hetjmenate. According to evidence extant, many of the elite of the Host – known as szlajta – found the missive and desire for unification comical. However, the sense would not remain. It was evident that without unification, the Voisjko would continually face attempted invasion and raiding; during the time, the Kyrus were unable to fully mobilize a counter-offensive force capable of decimating Ustraata and, once and for all, removing its influence from the world. As such, in 1531 C.E., a Kyrus declaration was issued to their former enemies to the North, willfully accepting the desire for unification and mutual cooperation. In effect, the document founded what would become known as the Kyrus-Ustraatan Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth changed politics for both the Kyrus and the Ustraatans. A tetrarchy would be created, two hetjm from the Host would co-rule with two leaders (styling themselves as Commonwealth Kings) of Ustraata. A parliament – of sorts – would be responsible for electing these rulers from their rank of two hundred persons (one hundred representatives from the Kyrus and Ustraata), the tetrarchy being called as responsible for calling into session the pseudo-parliament (known as the Sejmmya) of szlatja and Ustraatan power-brokers once every three years.

For over two hundred-fifty years, the Kyrus-Ustraatan Commonwealth would serve as an ample form of government for the united Kyrus and Ustraatan peoples. Representation, while minimal, served to better conduct the business of the united peoples than their original, absolutist forms had. During the time, both parties flourished, constructing great fortifications and palaces to their retinue. For some historians, this period has been described as a “Golden Age of the Kyrus,” and such a description would be quite befitting, if not for the secret conspiracies that ran rampant behind the facade of glory and mutual cooperation. In a clandestine effort, the age-old tensions between the Kyrus and the Ustraatans did not simply vanish. Just beneath the surface, a great torrent was building, a cabal of conspirators were preparing for the ample moment to strike.

The Betrayal of the Kyrus
While the Kyrus-Ustraatan Commonwealth, at least on the surface, seemed to serve beneficial to both the Ustraatans and the Kyrus Voisjko, in actuality, it only served to greater appropriate tensions between the two peoples. Within the Sejmmya, it was evident that the Ustraatan delegates held greater influence, but this did very little to further their own goals, as the dual hetjm of the Kyrus Host held most authority within the tetrarchic council. This meant that, while policies that did become passed were greatly beneficial to one part or the other, legislative matters to serve both were often deadlocks and seemed unable to be completed. This compounded the degree of corruption present within the Ustraatan Commonwealth Kings and the desire of the Kyrus hetjm to protect their own peoples.

This tension would continue to build until 1806 C.E., when it became evident that the great torrent of closeted pride, arrogance, and abhorrence for each broke, and the tide of tyranny swept across the Commonwealth.

In the early morning hours of March 14, 1806, in the capital of the Commonwealth, the split-city of Yekatria, it became evident than a clandestine conspiracy had taken place, deals brokered in the figurative back-rooms of an empire built out of necessity, but forged from the mutual hatred between two peoples; an abhorrence of tradition and culture that had not been forgotten, even though superficial peace had reigned for two hundred-seventy-five years. During that extended edifice of prosperity and mutual brotherhood, the Ustraatan wealth and influential power-brokers had secretly implanted rulings in the case of a rebellion against Yekatria or an attempted coup d'état by the Kyrus Host, since it was believed that they were simply biding their time, awaiting the appropriate hour in which unilateral control could be seized. In truth, the Kyrus hetjm and people had become complacent through pieace and dulled through victory in the initial invasion. This made the Kyrus Host ripe for the subjugation yet to come.

In Yekatria, the armies of the wealthy powerhouses of the Ustraatans united and stormed the Sejmma in an attempt to seize control for the original brokers of the Commonwealth. Almost immediately, the Kyrus understood that hope had been lost due to their bourgeois sensibilities and prosperity. No defense that would hold true was available to be mounted. The Sejmmya would be lost, and with it, the power the Kyrus had crafted for themselves in the Commonwealth. As such, as a last effort to defend honor and power, a ceremonial contingent of the Guards of the Hetjm mobilized for a final defense of the Sejmmya against the far-greater Ustraatan armies. It was a suicidal effort, but could not be delayed or probated. As such, one March 14th, the Last Charge of the Kyrus Cavalry took place; even through their honor and courage, the Kyrus were massacred with little resistance, the dual hetjm soon

”Last Charge of the Kyrus Cavalry”

arrested and eventually executed in the coup d'état that would insure Ustraatan authority.

News of the attack spread across the Commonwealth quickly, heralded on the backs of Ustraatan soldiers subjugating the Kyrus Host. Insurrection was mounted, however, and for nearly fifteen years, the Kyrus resisted the efforts of the Ustraatans to unify and dominate the region beneath their banner of gold and black. Even still, in the end, the Ustraatans were victorious. In the aftermath of such a resistance, the Commonwealth was re-organized into the Ustraatan Empire, with valuable estates being crafted and given to the wealthy lords and nobility who had assisted in the betrayal of the Kyrus. The homeland of the Kyrus, the Central Kyrusian Plateau, was divided amongst the Ustraatan nobility, merely a single princely state forged from the region surrounding Kyiv being afforded to the Kyrus, created the last monarchic state the Kyrus would permit to exist: the Principality of the Kyrus.

This division of power would exist until the fall of the Ustraatan Empire. The Kyrus were largely delegated to menial labor and forms of serfdom within the Ustraatan state. Efforts were made to insure that the Kyrus could never again pose a threat to the unity of the Empire. Such it would be until the 1900's, when the waves of dissent and the fires of revolt began to take hold.

The Great National Revolution
By the 1900's, it was evident that the current climate of power in the Ustraatan Empire could not remain. Since it's founding in 1806, the Empire had steadily expanded, gaining new territory beneath its banner, and with it, the problems diverse ethnic groups and cultures bring. During this time, the Principality had equally grown, coming to encompass nearly half of the Central Kyrusian Plateau. Due to this, pressure on the Ustraatan capital of Yekatria had equally intensified. With forces being dispersed across the Empire in order to deter possible revolt in the numerous princely states that was incorporated into the Empire, dissent on the homefront was allowed to flourish.

During this time, the Kyrus Principality had, to some degree, gained a form of autonomy over the years – much to the chagrin of Yekatria. The original purpose of the division was to insure that such influence and autonomy was not possible, but such things often fell by the side when the Empire became concerned with expanding its own borders. Even still, a peculiar climate had arose in the Principality.

While the ruling Prince, Kharliaj the Third, was Kyrus, he wasn't viewed with the same cultural integrity the Kyrus express. This was due, mostly or in part, to his devout allegiance to the Ustraatan Empire. In most instances, the policies of Kharliaj the Third were merely attempts to cater to the Empire's will or flatter Yekatria. This embroiled the native Kyrus to no end, and by 1907, it became evident that a nationalistic fervor was growing, further increasing contempt for the Ustraatan Crown and their so-called “peasants-in-popery” in Kyiv.

By 1910, a new philosophy known as “Revolutionary Nationalism” was firmly seeded in the hearts and minds of the Kyrus people. The teachings of Franji jav Galjien and others were becoming more popular than during the time of their original publishing. Stirring this, were the ideas of a young, impoverished intellectual by the name of Nikolai jav Ceasju. Nikolai, the individual believed responsible for the penning of the true manifesto of Revolutionary Nationalism, would become the mind of the Great National Revolution. Yet, it would not be jav Ceasju that would be remembered, by a relatively unknown, Kyrus military officer by the name of Ciprian Raznakovic.

Ciprian served as a part of the Principality Royal Forces, a contingent of the Ustraatan Imperial Military. As a colonel, he was popular amongst his soldiers and, while charismatic, also held a fervent religious belief: a belief that the Kyrus people were chosen for greatness and that, if they were unable to free themselves from Ustraatan oppression, were damned in the eyes of the “One True God.” These

”The National High Command Is Born”

religious beliefs were founded in a relatively large minority of religious beliefs fermented into “Kyrus Orthodoxy,” a quasi-Gnostic religion that heavily catered to the national pride and culture of the Kyrus Host. This religious fanaticism, in combination with an evident pride for his ancestry, made Ciprian immensely popular amongst the Kyrus soldiers and working class; and, in 1912, this popularity would become distilled into a revolutionary consciousness.

On February 10, 1912, the Great National Revolution began when military officers organized a mass of some three thousands factory workers and farmers to storm the Palace of the Principality in Kyiv. However, Prince Kharliaj was prepared, and had dispatched a small battalion of heavily-armed Ustraatian Royal Guardsmen which, in a matter of hours, dispersed the attempted revolt. Though the initial putsch was defeated, it served to demonstrate that the Ustraatan Empire and, therefore, its servants in Kyiv were not without reproach. The next day, the revolt began once more – but with the assistance of twelve thousand Kyrus citizens of the Principality.

In order to appease the revolutionaries, Prince Kharliaj the Third chose to form a state council that would serve to represent the interests of the Kyrus people directly to Yekatria. Though this displeased the Empire, it was understood that not making concessions would end with the total loss of the Principality to revolution. Immediately, the vanguard of the revolt – headed by Ciprian and Nikolai jav Ceasju at the time – declared its independence from the Ustraatan Empire, or, at least, attempted to. Before the declaration was passed, the sovereign of the Empire learned of the dealings and ordered the council to be dissolved. As such, on March 3rd, the Representative Council of the Kyrus Host was officially dissolved through use of force.

The resulting aftermath of the dissolution of the Representative Council only solidified the spreading revolutionary consciousness amongst the Kyrus. The following day (March 4th), Ciprians contingent officially declared their intent, with support and membership flowing-in from the masses of the

Original flag of Kyrusia

disillusioned Kyrus populace. The newly-founded, revolutionary organization would be known as the Kyrusian National Revolutionary Party, incorporating the ideology of Revolutionary Nationalism with the economics of Kyrus Socialism, and the ethno-centric pride of Kyrusupenjaimu (“Kyrus-determinism”). Almost immediately, the Principality had the revolutionary party declared illegal, a decree to be mimicked by Yekatria the following afternoon. Yet, this served to do little, as the desire for revolution had already been sowed.

The Legionnaires' Party immediately began a campaign of violence against the local police and Royal Forces that refused to ally with the Kyrus, conducting initial bombings of police precincts and Royal Armories, before escalating into all-out street and urban warfare. Within six months, the capital of Kyiv had been seized. Prince Kharliaj fled to a neighboring princely state, but that did not stem the tide of violence. The Revolution spread from the Principality to its neighboring states within a year, toppling monarchist princes and dukes, and absorbing former Kyrus territory beneath the banner of the Great National Revolution.

The Ustraatan Civil War, or as it is known in Kyrusia, the Great War of Revolutionary Patriotism, lasted from 1912 until 1922 when Ustraatan forces officially abandoned a significant portion of their former constituent states – states that fell to the Great National Revolution as a part of Ciprian's campaign to regain land lost during the Betrayal of the Kyrus. To this end, the Legionnaires' were ultimately successful, seizing the entirety of the Central Kyrusian Plateau and extra insular domains beyond the Danyu.

In 1922, the National Kyrusian Legionnaires' Party officially declared independence from the Ustraatan Empire (by now, crumbling from revolts ignited by the Kyrus Revolution) and officially founded the original Fortified State of Kyrusia by the publishing of the National Constitution of the Kyrus Host and the Revolutionary By-Laws of the Legionnaires, a document encompassing an enormous count of some five thousand pages to serve as the legal basis for Kyrusia – both then and now.

The Despotism of Kyrusia
Following the establishment of the Fortified State, Kyrusia was to become a hereditary stratocratic republic, to be headed by the Head of State and Government under the title of the Stratocratic Chancellor – the first to be Ciprian, and his lineage of the Raznakovics to serve as the basis for the hereditary lineage. Almost immediately, however, it was evident that the goal of the newly-created National High Command and National Legionnaires' Congress was revenge. The Kyrusian State began a blatant campaign of genocide against the remaining Ustraatan citizenry, corralling Ustraatan citizens and Kyrus who refused to ally with the Great National Revolution into obvious extermination camps to be “removed from the Host.” This desire for mass-murder eventually grew however, coming to encompass a significant portion of Jews who had been born within the Ustraatan Empire. By 1933, it is estimated that a total of twelve million Ustraatans and other “dissidents of the State” were murdered in the name of “justice and retribution.”

Yet, by 1933, it became evident that outside of Yevropa, war was brewing. The Kyrus had almost entirely been ignored during the First World War, but during the brewing storm, they would not be spared from the war of the Second.

In 1940, Kyrusia officially allied itself with the Axis of Powers, throwing its support behind the German Reich, fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan. While initial combat consisted of little more than support troops supplied to the Axis war-effort, this changed after the initiation of “Operation: Barbarossa.”

At the time, Kyrusia had adopted a fervently anti-Communistic stance, and while efforts in western Europe had been relatively limited, the efforts of eastern Europe were different. An estimated thirty thousand Legionary soldiers were dispatched to eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to assist with the German effort to conquer the Russian homeland. Efforts were initially successful, but became stagnated after it became evident that Germany's military High Command was, in the words of one Kyrusian expert “totally inept.” Yet, upon the fall of Berlin to Zhukov, Kyrusian efforts intensified.

Kyrus officers in Warsaw; 1941

In 1946, after the official end of World War Two, the Kyrus-Soviet War began, initialized by the first nuclear device launched by Kyrusia in a time of war. The target was chosen, and in the blink of an eye, the city of Stalingrad – the first location in which German imperial stagnation was expressed – was annihilated, killing approximately 190,000 Soviet soldiers and citizens in an instant. The following nuclear fallout claimed another 50,000, but paved the way for Kyrusian advancement beyond the Volga. In this re-established effort, Kyrusia began to establish itself in Europe, building a broad empire in South-eastern Europe, based out of Soviet Ukraine. In the end, the Soviet Union would capitulate to a tentative cease-fire, ending the bloodshed until 1981, when the war continued, a peace treaty having never been officially drafted or ratified.

In the wake of the cease-fire, however, it became evident that Kyrusia had carved a significant portion of Europe for itself, including the Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Moldavia, and many of the Yugoslavian nations. It was during this time, however, that initial violence between the Fortified State and the Kingdom of France began.

Initial conflict was limited to skirmishes over the remains of Central Europe. This would intensify, however, between 1950 and 1954 when revolutionary fervor gripped the French colony of Vietnam. Kyrusian forces, while never deployed, are believed to have assisted various Vietnamese factions in their attempt to gain independence. At the time, Kyrusia had begun to adopt a more pragmatic approach to foreign policy, and, at the time, viewed the French Kingdom as their only nominal threat. In this end, this assistance culminated in the withdrawal of French garrisons from Vietnam in the late Summer of 1954.

Between 1954 and 1981, Kyrusia turned its eye to the heartland. Vengeful sentiments over the Ustraatan betrayal had not been forgotten, and between 1954 and 1964, Kyrusian forces advanced on Yekatria and the neighboring nations of Ustraata, nominally seizing much of Yevropa for itself by 1964, leaving only Baltravia and a collection of smaller state outside of its direct control. However, this would become different in 1972.

By 1972, the Fortified State had expressed itself militarily, politically, and economically as a gargantuan powerhouse. Boasting, at the time, a population of just over one billion souls, the Kyrus Host was, by far, the regional superpower. Due to this, it began to exact its expansive efforts on its single remaining, oceanic neighbor: Baltravia.

North Baltravia, a relatively small province of the Baltravian Republic, boasted a Kyrus majority since its establishment. For years this had been a source of tension and political intrigue, until 1972 when Kyrusian forces crossed the Baltravian border and began a policy of annexation of North Baltravia by the means of amphibious assault and contrived, aerial suppression. What is commonly referred to as the “North Baltravian War of Attrition,” however, would not last beyond the Spring of 1974, when due to international pressures, Kyrusia was forced to withdraw, but to this day maintains its claim of the region as a part of the Fortified State.

In 1981, mostly due to a dwindling oil supply in the Kyrusian heartland, the Kyrus-Soviet War began once more. Kyrusian forces began a wholesale thermobaric bombardment of western Russia, decimating city after city with air-dispersal munitions and chemical warfare. Crippled by a fifteen-year economic recession, the Soviet Union could not maintain a defense. Instead of claiming the entirety of the Russian Federative Republic, however, Kyrusia opted for a puppet-like sphere of influence over the Russian heartland, claiming one third of all oil reserves and all oil produced to an unstated date as “reparations for crimes against the Kyrus.” This puppetry, including a domination of the Russian State Duma after the fall of the Iron Curtain, would persist until the Reckoning.

In the year of 2002, after years of war and strife, the current Komanjeralmus, Maksian Raznakovic, ascended to the office of the Stratocratic Chancellor after the death of his father Alexaiji. Maksian's pre-Reckoning reign is marked by a substantial growth of Kyrusia in Europe, coming to dominate Poland, all of the South Slavic states, Greece, and a portion of Turkey. Through alliances with various Arab states, including the Socialist Arab Republic of Iraq, Maksian was able to insure a necessary supply of fossil fuels to the Fortified State. However, this era is most adamantly remembered due to Maksian's insistence on “maintaining the status quo” and the war that it insured.

Since 1976, the Fortified State and the Kingdom of France had existed in a perpetual state of “cold war.” Upon Maksian's ascension, a delegation was formed to insure that each nation would not trespass upon the others' sphere of influence. This was commonly known as the “Oder Accords,” as Kyrusia was to be limited to maintain influence East of the Oder River, and France to maintain control West. However, it became evident immediately that the various fractured, Germanic and Central European states between would not permit such an accord. As such, in 2005, what became known as the “Germanic Pacification” began.

Utilizing a combined military campaign, Kyrusia and France nominally eradicated the possibility of a unified German state in Central Europe. While France limited itself to small ground advancements and aerial bombings, Kyrusia utilized a “salted earth” campaign of total warfare, exacting dominance East of Munich through extensive bombardment campaigns and at least two tactical nuclear strikes. Though decried by the French Kingdom, due to the station of the Fortified State, little could be done to curtail the massacres that occurred. In the end, Central Europe was wholly pacified and obliterated, limiting its capabilities to that of a comical level. Yet, in the end, such a build-up of power and consolidation would serve detrimental.

The Reckoning
Thought the status quo persisted as Maksian had insured, internal, secret unrest was brewing. The National Legionnaires' Congress, the official legislative body of the Fortified State, only met once every four years. Even so, it was nominally dominated by a faction of the Kyrusion National Legionnaires' Party known as the “Old Guard,” comprised of former members of Maksian's father's High Command and other partisans that lived during the end of the Kyrus-Soviet War. However, a new, more radical brand had been growing in 1990. Based, primarily, out of Odecca, the so-called “New Guard” did not believe in the Chancellor's desire of maintaining a European and Yevropan status quo, nor peace with France, Callisdrun, and the allies of the anti-Kyrusian bloc. In truth, they desired an all-out total war that, for years, had been inhibited by policies of compromise and peace.

Yet, in 2007, this would end. On November 12th, 2007 C.E., a small faction of the military that had allied itself with the “New Guard” attempted to seize the National Stratocratic Chancellory. Their attempted ultimately failed, however, and the attempted perpetrators of the coup d'état were dispersed, fleeing to a small military installation outside of Kyiv, pursued by the Chancellory Guard and Secret State Police. Unbeknownst to the National High Command, however, currently away from Kyiv, surveying defenses along the Northern mountain range, a small portion of the dispersed conspirators traveled to and gained access to what was codenamed the “IRUEL Complex,” the secret heart of the Kyrusian defense mainframe.

Using access codes only to be utilized during a time of “titular annihilation by foreign threats,” or, more properly known as the “Prometheus Protocols,” gained access to the core of the defense mainframe and began the process of initializing a nuclear first strike on the Kingdom of France, the Constitutional Monarchy of Callisdrun, and other French allies. In the end, however, though silos were opening and final launch sequences were being instigated through inappropriate means, the launches were halted through a system-wide shut-down of the defense mainframe, momentarily incapacitating Kyrusian defenses. In the end, the conspirators were sealed inside of the “IRUEL Complex” when the defense mainframe was shutdown, atmospheric equipment stifling their oxygen, before starvation consumed them. At the time, this was believed to be a successful quelling of the attempted coup, but the effects were catastrophic.

”The State Command Council Is Born”

Detecting the opening of silos and the mobilization of Kyrusian Nuclear Rocketry Divisions, the Kingdom of France, Callisdrun, and other enemies of the Fortified State believed a pre-emptive nuclear launch was immanent. Working under the false presumption that the current Chancellor, Maksian Raznakovic, was issuing the order, immediately initiated their own pre-emptive strikes.

On November 12, 2007, C.E. - what would forever be known as “Day Zero, Year Zero,” or, more commonly, simply the “Reckoning” - occurred. Nuclear ballistic missiles and short-range tactical bombardment was launched upon the Fortified State – both the heartland in Yevropa and the insular territories in Europe. In the matter of six hours, the entirety of the Fortified State suffered nuclear bombardment, decimating the population of 1.8 billion souls to a fraction of that amount.

Following the bombardment, all contact with the Kyrusian National High Command ceased. For ten years, no word from the heartland was heard by the international community. Preliminary estimates stated that at least one billion souls had been annihilated in the initial strikes, conservative estimates dictating that the entirety of the Kyrusian hierarchy had been lost in the pre-emptive bombardment. Yet, unbeknownst to the international community – much less the State's enemies – a small fraction of the Kyrusian authority persisted.

Maksian Raznakovic, the Chancellor at the time of the Reckoning, was caught in a small tactical strike outside of Kyiv, losing an eye in the process, but was ultimately rescued by Chancellory Guard forces and was relocated to a secure facility. Almost immediately after the strike, the Fortified State was permanently re-organized into a state of “perpetual national emergency,” the National Legionnaires' Congress, the National Kyrusian Legionnaires' Party, the National High Command, and all other bureaucratic apparatuses of the State government being combined and re-organized into the “Central Authority,” nominally executed by the Komanjeralmus and the State Command Council.

Through a decade of work and the development of radiological cleansing technology, the Fortified State was able to recover, to varying degrees, from the holocaust that had been perpetuated upon it. Yet, even to this day, the effects of the Reckoning are felt all across the Kyrusian heartlands, its former insular areas, territories, and domains having been abandoned due to cost effectiveness and the current inability to reconcile the devastated territory.

The Secret War
Since the Reckoning, while the international community was painted an almost-utopian portrait of domestic, Kyrusian life and society, the truth was far different. It had become apparent quite immediately after the fall of the original “Fortified State,” with the fracturing of its distant, militaristic claims and the economic depression that followed, that a “reconstructed Kyrusia” would lack the economic support its imperialistic policies had brought. While proposed solutions included possible annexation of former territory using “emergency means” (often including large-scale thermobaric bombardment in combination with concise military operations in key, economically-valuable districts), almost all possible solutions that opted for military roles or bringing about the possibility of an international incident were dismissed. At the time, the “Emergency Authority” (what would later become known as the “Central Authority”) assumed that any sudden resurgence of the Kyrusian state on an international level would result in immediate retaliation by foreign enemies and other belligerent factions that believed the “Fortified State” had been dissolved.

The solution to the economic depression and the slow withering of the state came from the once-

Iishi, capital of the Sessho Imperial Mandate; 10 A.R.

oppressed private sector. While, during the years before the devastation of the Reckoning, most major industries had been placed under direct State control, functioning under the auspices of the centrally-planned economy, this form of regulation and State-ownership was not unanimous. Certain developmental industries – particularly financial services, technological manufacturing, and research and development – while maintaining a nominal governmental presence, had been permitted to flourish due to the misconceived notion that such would never “truly become powerful” in a commercial sense. While this was true for the industrial manufacturing dominated pre-annihilation Kyrusia, the post-Reckoning financial landscape was far different.

Prior to the attempted genocide of the Reckoning, certain Kyrusian enterprises had taken advantage not only of the State's hawkish expansionism, but of the Stratocratic Chancellor's (then, Maksian Raznakovic) desire to cooperate – if only in secret and through “Black Budget” operations – with Western powers: particularly the former United States and the Kingdom of France and Navarre. This cooperation ended with the accumulation of both Kyrusian claims in the Caribbean, as well as a large collection of French and pro-French satellite states in Central and South America. By bypassing certain domestic business and commerce regulations, Kyrusian firms were capable of establishing themselves not only within the foreign, imperialistic claims of the State, but also in French and other, so-called “enemy” satellites and colonial dependencies.

By utilizing their claims in foreign territories and re-locating themselves to dependencies with pro-business commercial legislation or, in some cases, out-right corruption, Kyrusian businesses (particularly the pharmaceutical industry) were able to amass capital swiftly and securely without fear of the State directly intervening in business execution. Once the Reckoning occurred, many of these enterprises survived, either spared from the worst of the disastrous effects of nuclear annihilation or wholly missed due to their location within foreign nation-states. Desperate and degraded, the Emergency Authority sought to befriend these industries by lowering domestic economic regulations and placing incentives for re-location back to Kyrusia. This new policy served to form the backbone of the Kyrusian economy and, eventually, served as the primary catalyst for not only the reconstruction of the State, but also the inevitable downfall of the “Central Authority” and its viral apparatuses of control.

At the time of the “Kyrusian Re-emergence” in 10 A.R., corporate power and influence had reached a spearhead – both literally and figuratively. State propaganda was often published along side marketing advertisements and ploys by domestic Kyrusian businesses and enterprises, pervading the nation with corporatist influence. This was mostly due to increasingly relaxed regulation policies adopted by the “Central Authority” and the “State Command Council.” Yet, it was most prominently boasted by a foreign incident that ignited the final inferno that would serve to schism Kyrusia and, eventually, lead to its collapse as the “Fortified State.”

Since approximately 7 A.R., though the exact date is unknown, corporate enterprises had, though maintaining a nominal presence in the “Fortified State” and a facade of complacency, begun secretly investing into foreign factions and enterprises. In September of 7 A.R., a coup d'etat gripped the Imperial Consortium of Sessho, a regional ally of the “Fortified State,” leading to the toppling of a century-old imperial house and replacing it with a militaristic junta of young, disillusioned military officers. While much of the royal family was either detained and eventually executed, small portions fled – particularly the daughter of Empress Lien-hua.

Before the coup d'etat, it was a well-known fact within the “Sessho Consortium” that Kyrusian-based enterprises had maintained staunch support of the Imperial Family and persisted in economic and capital investment operations with Sessho-domestic industries and business. While this continued after the deposition of the Imperial Family, to a moderate degree, with increasing regulations placed on business by the military junta, it was evident that corporate support for industry and modernization was dwindling. Simultaneously, as corporate investment declined, governmental subsidies and support increased from the “Central Authority” to the new dictatorship of Sessho.

This ignited what became known as the “Secret War” between Kyrusian corporate interests and the

Rubicon private military personnel in Sessho; 10 A.R.

“Fortified State” itself. A “war” that would not only serve to restructure the former “Sessho Consortium,” by Kyrusia, and the entirety of international relations in Razulica.

The primary actor in the “Secret War” working in association with corporate interests was a Kyrusian firm known as “Rubicon International” - one of the last remaining public-private combines in the “Fortified State.” Domestically, it had been forbidden from operating its private defense contraction division, though – due mostly to the dissolution of the Sessho National Police due to mass-support of the Imperial Family – in the militaristic dictatorship of Sessho, it had been permitted to do so, with the majority of its private defense revenues coming from the junta itself, serving primarily as guards and a paramilitary police force. Even so, while the “Central Authority” attempted to use this to its benefit, the beneficiary enterprise of Rubicon, the Marmora Institute, utilized its amassed wealth as a private firm to support the imperial cause.

While the “Central Authority” acted on behalf of the “young officers' junta,” Kyrusian corporate interests continued to support, in secret, the remains of the Imperial Family and a movement to insure its restoration – in whole or in part. For years, this support continued, with private Kyrusian businesses maintaining an edifice of support and pretending to tow the line of the “Central Authority.” This end during the week of May 30th, 10 A.R., when the Marmora Institute supported the dispossessed daughter of the Empress Lien-hua in deposing the military junta of Sessho through the use of private military contractors, leading to the eventual detention and removal of the “young officers' junta” from power. Yet, this did not end the “Secret War.”

Domestically, during the same span of time, the Marmora Institute and private citizenry, with the support of defecting military factions, launched a revolution against the “Central Authority,” deposing it in precisely four days. During these four days, much of Kyrusia was placed under military and secure lock-down, with large portions of State personnel either being detained or killed during the revolt. In the end, however, the “Central Authority” fell and lead to the ongoing re-organization of Kyrusia into the “Holy and Noble Communion and Imperial Covenant,” with the former "Constorium of Sessho" placed within its folds as a protected, "Imperial Mandate."

Since the deposition of the “Central Authority” and the dissolution of the stratocratic policies that permitted its governing power, Kyrusian traditional policies of representative democracy and faith had been re-established. The full effect of the “Secret War” that lead to the changing of Kyrusian history, however, has yet to manifest.

[Kyrusia]

Zha Krovira

The Ways of the Old Blood

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"Thank you for making me feel like I'm guilty; making it easy to murder your sweet memory." — Maynard J. Keenan

The Krovira, or, as it is commonly translated to in English, the Ways of the Old Blood, is an extensive and complex system of belief and philosophical perspective that finds its roots within the ancient past of Kyrusia – primarily in the intermingling of traditional beliefs of the original Khjrois and Ungyar peoples of the Kyrusian Steppe. Unique amongst the spiritual philosophies and religions across the world, the Krovira exists as a transtheistic, spiritual system of cultural traditions, morality, and esoteric perspective. Its original, core principles believed to predate Christianity by nearly three hundred years, the Krovira draws upon the traditional teachings of ancestral reverence, sustainable and cooperative ecology, and fervent honor and respect present in both the Khjrois and Ungyar cultures – the foundation of the Kyrus ethnicity.

This mixed history of two, complimentary cultural systems of symbolism, philosophy, and morality,

Ungyar svrono depictions; circa 330 C.E.

has left an indelible mark on the Kyrusian people, permeating nearly every facet of domestic culture and society. Until recently, however, these cultural mores and traditional pillars of identity were often oppressed and obscured, either by domestic powers or international organizations seeking to suppress the Ways, as commonly known. Even so, throughout Kyrusian history, the Krovira has left its mark, influencing every aspect of cultural society and lifestyle from traditions of governmental hierarchy to personal mannerisms and etiquette.

Believed to have originated between 400 to 200 B.C.E., the original foundations of the Krovira were established primarily by the ethnic Khjrois. Initially a system bestowed due to the harsh climates of the North, the Khjrois practiced a form of primitive ancestral worship, particularly expressed through the public display of the deceased upon high plateaus and mountainous ridges for an extended period of time before ritual burial occurred. The Khjrois believed that the “essence” of a person would depart the body during this extended period of mourning and reverence, returning to the “sky and the places below,” incorporating itself back not merely into “nature” and the environment, but slowly and incrementally into each person that benefited from “nature's” bounty. As a primarily mountainous people, this process was believed to assist in the proper growth of what crops were sustainable in the cold and often inhospitable region, and to appease the “essence” of the departed by granting them final freedom.

The secondary pillar of the Krovira began within the Ungyar: a nomadic and warring people according to most historical accounts. Clan-based and tribalistic, the Ungyar practiced their own particular form of ancestral worship, though intrinsically connected with combat and strife. According to historical evidence, most Ungyar believed that the “spirit” of a person would only receive the blessing of an afterlife upon dying in the defense of one's honor or family. Due to this, a ritualistic form of combat developed in which matters of territorial conflict and war would be demarcated by periods of extensive feasts and revelry – both for the departed and soon to be lost. During these feasts, particularly after rigorous battles, the “loss,” as records indicate, though modern historical analysis theorize the mentioning of such as a figurative metaphor for the “blood of the departed,” of the combatants was collected in ceremonial containers (known as svrono in Kyrus), mixed with peppered spices, and shared as a communal drink amongst the clan leaders and community in descending order of station and societal rank.

It was believed by the Ungyar that this brought the spirit, knowledge, courage, and honor upon those who drank of the mixture. As such, the event of death was not seen as a tragedy or cause to mourn, but as a celebration of the deceased's courage, honor, and sacrifice for the clan. Revelry in the even of death was believed to bring peace to the deceased as well as show respect for their willingness to martyr themselves for the defense of their own honor, their family, and their clan.

Though the exclusive systems of belief of the Khjrois and Ungyar persisted as singular identities until the later half of the First Century, as Ungyar nomadic clans began to migrate West in search of fertile pastures and the Khjrois migrated South in order to both escape the harsh environment of the mountains as well as establish farming communities on the Kyrusian Steppe, the differing traditions began to mingle and coalesce. More often than not, due to the similar basis of ancestral reverence and worship found in both cultures, the mixture was complimentary, with differing cultural and spiritual concepts merging to become a singular, identified tradition.

By the Middle Ages, the modern foundations of the Krovira had emerged. By 990 C.E., the central tenets of the unified traditional faith had been extrapolated into a loose system based initially around oral tradition. By the final decade of 1000 C.E., this system of storytelling and loose ties had been transcribed in differing tomes and texts across the Steppe. Written by spiritual scholars, communal elders, and, eventually, ascetic clerics, the tomes grew and expanded, being passed from one city or metropolitan civilization to the next, slowly accumulating into massive bibliographies of spiritual morality and systematic rituals. While accentuated by distinct cultural and regional boundaries, the Ways all shared a similar core: reverence for the dead and respect for the land, as well as the symbiotic relationship the living and the land shared.

In 1180 C.E., the Commune of Triesc was convened, calling into presence differing communities and

Vellum copy of the Konjvda Krovezik; circa 1410 C.E.

their elders and spiritual clerics in order to codify the doctrine of the Ways, particularly through the canonization of numerous traditional texts into a singular manuscript. Lasting until 1181 C.E., the Triesc Commune debated each separate religious text and chose its merit, eventually reaching an agreement in the Spring of 1181. The Commune of Triesc codified the Krovira into a single manuscript composed of six separate “books” which served to detail the core philosophy of the Ways and their specific principles. Entitled the Konjvda Krovezik (the “Bloodied Tongue”) after a traditional ritual sacrament that served as the spiritual focus of each year – a sacrament that would later become known as the “Kiss of the Carnelian.”

The Konjvda Krovezik remains the central text of the Krovira to the present, having suffered little change since the original Triesc Commune. During the Middle Ages, original manuscripts were often transcribed by the “brothers of the Ways”: religious ascetics who devoted their lives to spiritual growth, philosophical contemplation, and labors of the land. These intricate texts were often elaborately decorated with colorful illuminations representing key principles of the Ways and their teachings. To this day, only four original manuscripts dating from 1100 C.E. remain, all within the personal collection of His Most Eminent Holiness' Holy Sequestrate.

The Krovira, having been a foundation of the original Kyrus people, suffered many long years between 1300 and 1700 C.E. Religious persecution was rampant during the “Commonwealth Era” as Christianizing, Ustraatan influences began to propagate within the once-small communities of the Kyrus. During its darkest times, the Krovira was deemed “heretical” by the Ustraatan Apostolic Church – a Rite of Roman Catholicism held in communion with the Papacy – resulting in the destruction of years of historical and religious artifacts dating back to the original Triesc Commune and the intermixing of the Khjrois and Ungyar.

This persecution eventually grew as Kyrusia became Christianized. With the foundation of quasi-political sects in Kyrusia in the later half of the 1700's, original traditions were corrupted and integrated into certain systems of Orthodox Christianity. During the reign of the “Raznakovic Regime,” this form of persecution would reach its pinnacle as traditional teaching of the Ways were out-right prohibited, the Kyrus Orthodox Church having been declared the official “religion of the State.” With the collapse of the “Fortified State,” however, persecution ceased almost entirely.

With the establishment of the Holy Communion and Imperial Covenant, the Krovira has become re-established as the traditional source of morality and spiritual presence within Kyrusia. As a sacerdotal-monarchy, the Krovira serves as the official state religion, though other religious sects are respected depending on autonomous legislation for the Communion and the Covenant.

[ ► ] The Bloodied Tongue
Reserved

[ ► ] The Hallowed Path
Reserved

[ ► ] The Mysteries
Reserved

[ ► ] The New Birth
Reserved

[ RESERVED ]

( The Krovira )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( The Communion and Imperial Covenant )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( The Unitary Crux )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( The Holy Orders )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( The Novicarne and Prajnicarne )

[Kyrusia]

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"Within the earth resides the seeds of life;
within the mind dwells the path ever-bright.
In the heart sits the seat of the soul,
and in the blood dwells the ways of old."
— The Hallowed Testament —

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[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( "The Tzejvyros" )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( "The Opsiji" )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( "The Novicarne" )

[Kyrusia]

[ RESERVED ]

( "The Alvastrakh" )

[Kyrusia]

Resource Links for the Communion and Covenant

Breaking News
• "The Fortified State: From Beneath the Ashes"
• "Chetverta-6: Lucifer's Ladder"
• "Somnambulism: Hail to the New Flesh"

Resources
• "Losjlnovoi: Intellectual Journal of the Fortified State"
• "Rubicon International"
• "Marmora Institute"

Alliances and Organizations
• "PENDULUM: The Final Covenant of Man"
• "The Phoenix Conglomeration [Prospective Program]"
• "Fulcrum"

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