Chapter II The Rise and Fall of the Elf Empire
The first century (the century of prosperity)
af9: This year is very good for the West Normally, it is a shocking year for the East. After countless divisions, guilts, shackles, and civil wars, it seems that it will never fall. The second centralized dynasty "Summer" that has lasted for more than a thousand years is finally wiped out by one of his countries that was once "barbarians": finally entered in the West. During the glorious period of the Great Unification, the Orientals entered the period of the Warring States Period. Following the three major rivers, the once glorious unified dynasty was divided into dozens of great vassal states, killing each other. This scene is like a prophecy about the disintegration of the elf empire in the future: the irony is that this Warring States period is the fastest period of Eastern civilization, whether it is magic (the East calls it Taoism), philosophy, culture, technology Both have made great progress.
"...It’s like the Coven River, the Matterby River and the Margin River, which have important significance in Western history, played an important role in the history of the East. It is Huajiang (the birthplace of the first dynasty dynasty), Xiajiang (the birthplace of the second dynasty summer), and the Huihe River (the river that the two rivers in the lower reaches of the river finally merged into the river). After more than 5,000 years of early civilization, On the vast continent, only these two great powers emerged: they were all inseparable from the interlaced water system and the appropriate climate. For geographical and natural reasons, the West and the East eventually reached the peak of the civilized world. Rather than stalking between the countless civilized races or the nomads of the New World..."
af11: The Elf Empire began to build uniform specifications throughout the Empire. Rumor, this great project has been completed from the beginning of this century until the end of this century. The development of the martyrdom quickly accelerated the homogenization process of the empire, connecting the elf civilization with the human civilization and beginning to influence each other. The nobles of the higher elves came out of the forests of the west and went to their respective territories to rule the lower nations: humans, dwarves, orcs, and so on. The conquest of the Far East continued. In af14, the dwarf tribes on the edge of the mountain range were conquered and officially reached the western front of the empire.
af15-23: Southwest Conquest War and Colonization of South Twin Island. The dense subtropical and tropical jungles of the southwest are under the control of the elves, but there is no effective rule on these wild places. They are content to build several cities in the tough endurance of the tropics, and then migrate to other unruly races to compete with the nomads, barbarians and warcraft on the subtropical grasslands and forests. The elf is still a temperate creature after all. No one can think of it. After more than a thousand years, these “wild subtropical regions” have become the center of civilization.
af24: After conquering the entire civilized world. The re-division of the political district was completed, and the largest administrative unit "road" was divided into twelve. According to the distance from the capital Honglinasti, it is divided into the local three roads of the capital / Kinki / Sansen, the Near East Road of the Upper East / Lower Near East, the Central Third Road of the North / Central / South, the northeast of COSCO / the southeast of COSCO Two Far East Roads, Far East and East East Road. The geographical vocabulary of the Near East, Central, Central and Far East, and the Far East were faithfully inherited in later history.
af29: The first All-Earth Association of Wizards in history was built with about 800 members - this is an epoch-making number. In the following history, the number of members of the association has been constantly changing, reaching a maximum of about 2,000, but it has fallen sharply in the late Elves.
"...The establishment of the Masters Association heralds the establishment of the Divine-Arcane Common Rule System. In the next empire history, the bureaucrat-army-church- The association has always been the four pillars of power..."
af36: After 30 years of hard work, the "Elves of the Elf Empire" representing the glorious civilization in Hongrinasti by. The Elf Empire Code covers many parts of the Constitution, civil law, criminal law, etc., which are today, and are the pioneers of all written laws in the future. Among them, the use of magic is the earliest attempt to limit the use of magic.
af41: The city of Cancun, located in the heart of the mainland, was renamed Kuras (the future sacred imperial capital of DeLand) and was officially designated as the empire's companion. As the center of many provinces in the East, Kuras gradually became the real capital of the empire, and the emperor began to stay here.
"...the huge shrine, the splendid palace, the mighty soldiers, the serious music coming from everywhere, the smell of perfume fluttering in every corner. In all directions The goods are concentrated in the docks, and the spontaneous market outside the pier can buy special products from every corner of the great empire, even the other side of the sea and the sides of the mountain range. At least 200 mage and 500 scholars live here. In the city, everyone can get enough allowance to live with the approval of the empire. I heard the cheers from people coming from the square in the distance. Perhaps the spokesperson of the emperor’s spokesperson gave an exciting news... A description of Kuras in The History of Empires.
"The first bishop's meeting did not resolve the chaos of the Eastern and Western bishops in the doctrines and scriptures. The pragmatism-based church encountered endless difficulties in exegesis... Due to the strong protests of the Eastern bishops, all the bishops The meeting was never held in Hongrinas."
af56: Dissatisfied with the immigration policy and oppressive policies of the elves, in the Canni slaves A massive riot broke out. After the riots, in order to appease the people, the empire no longer uses race as a reason to force the division of the class - although racial discrimination and racial differences still clearly exist in the imperial policy.
"The Canny riots directly led to the stagnation of the Empire's development of the northern cold regions. A large number of Canni people were moved from the northeast and east to the distant The southern and outer islands, due to coercive power and spontaneous escape. This precious warm period was thus missed - in the cold return period, humans can no longer develop the northern tundra..." Br />
af77: This year, the memorable super magic technology was developed. Due to the advancement of research on the magic of change and illusion, the four elements of "water and fire" have been seriously challenged, and the conclusions of ancient sages have begun to be questioned. People have abolished the idea of "water and fire" and instead classified the magic according to the way magic is used. It is the beginning of the second golden period of magic.
"The so-called super-magic technology is a technique that is improved on the basis of 'standard mantra'. In fact, this technology has existed in ancient times." ―Because there was no standard mantra at that time; this rediscovery can be said to be a return to ancient traditions. People finally surpassed the classics left by the sages hundreds of years ago and started a new round of discovery... ..."
af80: The empire's reinstatement system caused serious inflation, and the bad currency in the market was rampant. The empire reunified the coinage and stabilized the price by setting the value of the coin between the elf gold coin and the white gold coin.
"...there is no inflation in the era of precious metals," is one of the most famous misunderstandings that modern economics has caused. The so-called precious metal value is actually also affected by precious metals. The total amount and the total amount of trade affect. There is such a formula: the quantity of money * the number of circulation = the quantity of trade * the price (mv = pt), the formula does not only limit the modern credit currency. In the pure coinage economy, the amount of money and The number of circulations is strictly limited by natural conditions; therefore, inflation is inevitable. In order to maintain economic prosperity, the empire has to constantly control the amount of money (recast and currency unity) to suppress 'bad money to drive out good money. 'and 'inflation' these behaviors... Stabilizing prices is always very important for an ancient empire."
af90-97: Shame the Elf Empire The successive barbarians invaded mainly from the southeastern part of the empire and the eastern part of the empire. The Far East and the East East were also lost. The war that took place at the end of the prosperous century proved the decay of the heroic Elf Legion. The Emperor Kulas was furious and the reform was put on the agenda.
af98: The Emperor Kulas reformed the military system of the empire, putting a large number of non-elf races into the standing army and giving them equal citizenship. But this has buried many hidden dangers in the future.
The second century (the century of stability)
af106: This year, due to the emerging magic system -- The proliferation of undead magic in the human mage, the Archdiocese and the Wizards Association announced that all the magic involved in the soul and the dead are taboo magic, and corresponding development of the magic to eliminate these taboos. This is also the first time in history to limit magic. As a result, the undead chaos of the next ten years broke out. For a time, the necromancer became the object of everyone’s shouting.
"The emergence of undead magic, disrupting the balance between elves and humans... The temptation to become a dead and then eternal life is really amazing, people would rather pay those high Amazingly, you have to believe in the self-styled popes and prophets... The public always believes in something ignorantly, and the dominant religions and beliefs have to fight hard. A large number of jealousy and zombies are in certain Under the cover of fraudulent masters, more fools are attracted to go on their own. In order to conquer these darkness, church and wizard associations and the administrative machines of the empire have paid a huge price..."
af117: A big counterattack against the nomads and barbarians of the Eastern Empire. The Imperial Expeditionary Force crossed the mountain range and reached the sunset plateau, where there was a clash with the tribes and kingdoms there, but in the end it established an unstable symbolic rule on the other side of the mountain. From this point on, the Elven Empire's territory reached its maximum limit.
“It’s hard to say what the consequences of this monopoly of knowledge are. If our luck is not good enough, this imprisonment is likely to cause long-term stagnation – it actually causes long-term stagnation. We almost become a forever Stuck in the dark ages, can only remember the civilization of the golden age of the past... However, considering that we even passed the dark age, perhaps the final result will still be good... I don’t believe in historical inevitability, but I Still believe that history always has its reasons for progress."
af147: Astrological magic has been seriously challenged with the publication of "The Celestial Movement". For a time, it seems that all literate people can become astrologers; but under this threat, true modern prophetic magic and astronomy began to separate. Predicting the birth of the magic system is a symbol of the basic formation of the eight series of medieval magic "classified by function."
af160: With the deepening of the "blood guarantee law", the human pastors gradually feel that their power is receding in the church, and a large number of pastors and priests are being Out or excluded from the church.
af169: Hiloto began writing the masterpiece "The History of Empires" (all ten volumes). As the Elven aristocrat, Hiloto, with his rigorous and gorgeous words, recorded the establishment, growth and glory of the empire. This is considered to be the year of the empire's peak: just three years later, the empire began to show the shadow of decline. This book was completed only when it was in the war of inheritance.
af172-187: In order to eliminate the split of the opinions of the priests of the East and the West, the second meeting of the bishops was finally held, that is, the first meeting of the Taranto . After fifteen years of debate and controversy, countless factions in the East were classified as heretics, and the doctrine of unity was "one god, twelve auxiliary gods." Since then, the Elf Church has begun to split and split into a sun god that suppresses arcaneism and a covenant that encourages arcaneism. The split of the doctrine actually splits the human beings and the elves; after that, the church is divided into Western churches and Eastern churches, and the once brilliant elf empire is gradually cracking.
af180: The countries of the East are chaotic, and finally unified for the third centralist dynasty "Han". In the era of war, the civilization of the East developed to a peak; after the reunification of the unified dynasty, civilization quickly returned to the rigid and stable old road. Thoughts are unified, beliefs are unified, technology is suppressed, and weapons are melted. Only a very small number of Taoism was allowed by the dynasty, and as a "cultivator" survived under the protection of the emperor.
af191: This year, the power of Han reached the sunset plateau, and the first contact between the powers of the East and the West quickly produced countless contradictions. Since both sides believe that "they are the only power on the ground," war is inevitable.
af199: Scholars have discovered the existence of the outer world (outer plane), a discovery that has brought a huge panic to the world - but in the future it proves that the world Communication between them is very difficult. Many new philosophical and philosophical genres have been carried forward on the basis of the outside world, but most of them have been declared heretics by the Archdiocese, and only a very small number of magic and beliefs have survived in modern times.
The third century (the century of decline)
af206: The two powers of the East and West, Chen Zhongbing, On the sunset plateau, the battle of the sunset plateau broke out. Both sides of the campaign suffered heavy losses and had to contract each other. The sunset plateau and the mountain range region once again became a power vacuum. After that, the Han Dynasty of the East changed to the southwest and the north, and the Elf Empire embarked on the road to decline. However, in this battle, both sides got a lot of different techniques and magic from the other side, which provided the conditions for the last great magical leap in the century of decline.
"...The Battle of the Sunset Plateau is undoubtedly a battle of an important decisive position in world history, comparable to another battle in 1679 in a similar area. This war did not determine the hegemony of the West, nor did it determine the hegemony of the East: but it declared that everything that wanted to use force to obtain the dream of the sunset on the plateau was destroyed. The first extremely Western capital of the Ashes in the black smoke proved The limits of this emerging dynasty in military power made them have to shrink each other... The penetration of the Orientals into the Gulf Islands was one of the most important consequences of this war... So, in later history, the route of the sea It takes up an important position..."
af214: This year, the famous Eastern Taoist priest completed the first "Flying Sword". Ironically, this became the weapon of the "Taoist" logo, which was actually inspired by the Western "Auto Magic Sword." The warlock who completed the magic actually participated in the Battle of the Sunset Plateau.