Magiocracies

It is not true that the Magiarchs were entirely of the Blood. This supposition, during the early years of the Empire, was simply another means by which Amora remade the land and enabled the Dissolution of the Nobility after the Night of Levity. Certainly many of those who became dominant were of the Blood, but many more were those that gathered their power during the Republic. Many Magiarchs, especially those not of Glorianave, were commoners who had learned to play the part of Nobles - the sort of men and women who dressed in black, had a lust for treasure and may, or may not, have had goatee beards. Many used the then small cults of gods and goddesses and their acts of marriage to join them to Houses - but only two of the Blood can breed one who is truly of the Blood.

Of course many of the Magiarchs were of the Nobility, but the old titles meant nothing and those that still might claim them either joined with the varied Magiarchal states, retreated to their more distant estates, or were quietly killed. The years of the Magiocracies did have a positive effect on certain Houses, as political power no longer followed the Republic's rules; a great many Nobles returned to ritual or to the field of battle, and were strengthened by it.

Nonetheless, during the years of the Magiarchs the very concept of Nobility was subsumed to that of Blood, and for a time it looked as if the old ways would be extinguished.

The Magiocracies of course ended in the Wars that for years saw first sword and spear, and then spell and rite increase in ferocity. A number of the wilier and even idealistic Nobles took the chance to seize the Inner City. When Cerus Amora set off on his Long Ride with the Yeomen he left rebellion in his wake, sweeping away the old remnants of Magiarchal power even as the Wars saw nine out of every eleven people that had once thrived in the rich lands die either in battle, ritual or the years of blasted ruin that followed it. All the rebellions that rose were lead by those of the Blood; only in Sellaville was this not the case, and even then the more physical might was provided by the Lords in support of the elves of Fhaeyle.

Cerus Amora, himself the scion of the Sallow Princes, entered Halgar and at last the Empire was forged.

Perhaps the most lasting effect on the modern world from the Magiarchs was the altered balance of power between Noble and peon. With the population so drastically reduced there simply weren’t (and still aren’t) enough common folk to work all the land. Much of what is now the Empire is wild, and once great estates - though not actually reduced in legal area - are much reduced in fact, as only parts can be effectively worked. The common folk were emancipated by the Magiarchal Wars, as in the Empire to come Nobles actually had to pay for their services - lest they move on to where they would be more reasonably employed.