Gaulitia

"'Gaulitia was always meant for greatness. And no Demon would stop me from saving that greatness.' ~God-King Augustus"

Gaulitia
Gaulitia is both the largest and oldest of the countries, and adheres to a strict caste system. About 75% of those born are physically weak men, but the explanation for this is completely unknown. Since the introduction of the caste system by God-King Trajan, they are seen as lower class citizens, and don't amount to more than their assigned labor. Above that are the born women, who are taken apart and trained in magic, educated for politics and groomed for command. This leads to powerful female Mage Generals as well as talented tacticians and politicians.

Once every generation, a man is born with immense physical strength--the baby always kills its mother in birth due to its size. These men are to be God-King of Gaulitia, as they are born to be of grand strength both in mind and body, natural leaders to make Gaulitia prosper. Their mothers are all recorded in the Temple of Gaulitia. The current God-King is Aurelian.

The Caste System

 * The bottom caste consists of male manual laborers, who are seen as little more than tools to be used by the government for their physical strength.
 * Above that are male farmers. They are respected for the food they bring in, but are still not seen as much more than lower class citizenry.
 * Above the male farmers are the male soldiers. They make up the bulk of the Gaulician army and are respected for their dedication to their country. They are rewarded with enough money to live decently nicely as well as job security.
 * Above the male troops are overseers and centuriae. This caste of women is made up of those who are unable to conjure magic or display no aptitude for more intricate tactics. The overseers take leading positions to guide the manual laborers, and often the bosses on the men-staffed farms. Centurias are female warriors who lead male cohorts and legionaries. They're educated in squad tactics and formations and formidable foes.
 * Above the overseers and centuriae are the Mage Generals and the senatrix caste. Senatrices are female politicians who decide on matters the God-King does not wish to bother with. Mage Generals are naturally exceptional magicians and genius tacticians, and they command their legions with authority.
 * Above them is only one man. His name is Aurelian, and he is God-King. His word is absolute, and his authority unquestionable. His wife Regina is the Queen-Senatress, and holds sway as the voice of the God-King in the senate.

Government and Military
The Senate handles all affairs of the country, with the God-King sitting in on sessions the Queen-Senatrix requests his presence at. This generally only happens in cases of extreme need, controversy or simply hugely important matters such as a declaration of war. Regardless of the importance of a matter, Queen-Senatrix Regina takes the decision of the senate to the God-King and requests his approval.

If Aurelian approves, the bill is immediately passed and put into effect--if he disapproves, the matter shall never be spoken of again.

The top layer of the men caste is taken apart for soldiering, resulting in about 30.000 total able and armed men, consisting of soldiers, cavaliers, mercenaries and fighters. These 30.000 are split into three armies of 10.000 and divided among the Mage Generals, of which there are only ever three at a time. There's a layer of men slightly above this caste, the veterans, who return once more into the fray as halberdiers, paladins, heroes and berserkers. All of said men are lead in groups of about 100 by a centuria--a woman with no skill for magic but plenty for military command.

These centuriae in turn answer to the Mage General assigned to the army, who is ultimately responsible for the entire army. Of the three Mage Generals, the most skilled is elected as Mage Marshall by the three Mage Generals themselves. If it's a tie, the senate joins in the vote. If they can't decide, the God-King himself will choose.

The First: Divine Ruler Augustus
Augustus' birth-year, retroactively dubbed as the year 0, is 815 years ago by now. In the middle of the Demon King's Invasion, he became the first of the God-Kings, overcoming the weakness of Gaulitian men when he found a mystical artifact in a cave--the Fire Emblem, dubbed so for the brilliant way light refracts through it.

Upon requesting the Emblem for its help, it shattered, and blessed Augustus with its powers--including a divine blade, Gallahas. He grew much larger and stronger, strong enough now to attack the Demon King. But Augustus, even before the Emblem's Blessing, was a wily man. He did not go at it alone, instead travelling through Jular and recruiting many heroes to his side--the most notable of which were his right-hand and father figure, the arch-sage Brodiwen and what historians refer to as his left hand, the Reaver Rembir (the little brother of Brodiwen.)

There is some dispute over the identity of the other Heroes. Some claim that the pagan deity Jen'zah was originally one of the Heroes or even one of the Demon King's servants, while others claim that Chief Koen himself was one of them.

Regardless of how many heroes he did or did not have, fact remains that Augustus faced the Demon King down on what is now the Kingly Hill--and died in the resulting battle, despite banishing the Demon King back to wherever he came from.

The Second: A tough act to follow, Tiberius
After Augustus' death in the year 26, most of Jular (at the time, no real countries had been founded) thought that there would never be a God-King again. The city of Avericum was built around the Hill of Augustus and Gaulitian life would continue as before the invasion of the Demon King. Gallahas had been placed in the Temple of Augustus in the hands of a statue of the man himself, sealed with powerful magic.

What none expected, was the coming of Tiberius. In the year 42, a young man marched to the Temple of Augustus, no older than 16--the size of at least three men. People said that as he walked, they could almost sense the presence of Augustus. At the time of his going to the Temple of Augustus, henceforth referred to as Tiberius' March, people were already saying he was Augustus who had simply stood back up from death. This was not the case, however he did break the sealing magic on Gallahas with his raw strength claiming that he had inherited the Emblem's blessing. Tribesmen from Tiberia who had been tampering with demonic magic were brought in to put his claim to the test despite him taking Gallahas, but it was considered fact when dark magics were entirely shrugged off by the young lad. Donning Augustus' sparkling white armor, Tiberius is the first to proclaim himself "God-King" of the nation Gaulitia, and swore he would unite all of Jular under one banner as Augustus had intended.

He started his peaceful conquests to the north, claiming the frigid regions and dubbing the province Glacies. He proceeded to head west and conquer the desert regions which he named Sabulo, as well as the windy regions further south which he named Aura. He then headed to the tribal areas around the then unnamed river and dealt with the sons of Brodiwen as well as the Rembiri and Koenii to "fulfil Augustus' wishes" and unite all Jular. He named the area Tiberia, and the river the Tiber. Most regions submitted willingly and peacefully to Gaulitian rule, wishing nothing less but to join the nation where the Augustrian dynasty was born.

The ambitious Tiberius passed away shortly after the peaceful unification of Jular in the year 138 at the ripe old age of 96. It was then that the Hill of Augustus was renamed the Kingly Hill, and the Temple of Augustus renamed the Temple of Kings--all Jular fondly remembers God-King Tiberius. Augustus' was a tough act to follow, but Tiberius managed it.

The Third: The Breaker of Jular, Trajan
When Tiberius died, the whole of Gaulitia looked forward to the next God-King. When Trajan began his Tiberius March in the year 152 at the age of 14, he was the largest God-King anyone had ever seen--Augustus and Tiberius were dwarfed by him, even at his young age. It was clear, however, that the youthful God-King did not intend to let anyone forget that it was his will--and no one elses--that held sway in Jular.

To establish his dominance, he decided to filter the men from the women--cut the wheat from the chaff. In the year 154, Trajan implemented the caste system as well as the idea of Mage Generals and the Mage Marshall. The first of them was Mage Marshall Julia, who graduated in the year 161 and became Trajan's wife soon after. These reforms are known as the administrative reforms of Trajan.

In this period, Gaulitia was lead by one party rather than one individual to give people the comforting idea that Trajan was not simply a dictator and conqueror. In reality, Mage Marshall Julia and her accompanying Mage Generals held barely any sway at all. Trajan's iron fist came down hard on any region that acted too individually in his mind. This included the election of governors, individual trade agreements and even the case of female or male superiority. His armies marched Jular non-stop to reinforce the newly implemented caste system. This lasted until the year 181, until a single soldier from the Sabulo desert regions had enough. This soldier, whose name was Koba, had witnessed his father Khart be worked to death at the hands of oppressive and power-drunk overseers and inspired the 10.000 men in Mage General Trajana's army to split off. The revolt he lead caused the untimely death of said Mage General Trajana, who was an inexperienced girl, only 14 years old--and worse yet, Trajan's only daughter. This would mark the start of a steady decline of Gaulitian power.

Trajan chased this new faction, the Khartedaic Horde, into the Sabulo regions where many a battle was fought. Koba Khan claimed that what Trajan was doing was not in line with the Augustine nor the Tiberian philosophies, and a long war ensued.

3 years into this war of attrition, Trajan faced another major setback. In the province Glacies, a new faction came from outside of Jular. Lead by the ambitious King Maximilian Augustus Willem XI, an army clad in black landed in the north. With Trajan busy in Sabulo, it was up to his wife Julia to stop the invasion of this new faction—Eisbern.

It would not be long before the Mage Generals dubbed the opposing King the “Avalanche of Death” for his ruthless tactics and famously brutal battle style and weaponry, which utilized Ice Magic that was never seen before. Though many Mage Generals fell, Trajan always figured that Julia would come out on top, and that his focus should go to Khartedan. It was here that Trajan faced yet another setback when in the year 184, Mage Marshall Julia came to blows with the Avalanche himself and was killed for it, her head and hands nailed above the first gates of the newly settled Iceheart.

This sent Trajan into a rage, causing him to abandon his foothold in Sabulo and mobilize his armies to march north. He lead a brutal campaign into former Glacies, now Eisbern, and sacked any settlement he came across. He was stopped at the gates of Iceheart, but when the Avalanche of Death could no longer quell his famous thirst for blood and battle and rode out of Eisbern to challenge Trajan to a duel, he felt the full might of the strongest God-King to date. Trajan, despite making a fair few political mistakes, was a combatant unparalleled by any that came before or after and even King Maximilian could not stand to face him.

As reparations for Mage Marshall Julia, the Avalanche’s body was taken to Gaulitia and nailed to the gates of the freshly built Colosseum (185). Despite this success in Eisbern, abandoning foothold in Sabulo had lead to the rise of yet another new country—Thessalia. Thessalia swiftly formed a strong military based on well-bred desert horses, and soon after formed a council of Lords to rule over its territory in the year 186.

The wars between Eisbern and Trajan-ruled Gaulitia were many, but despite leading all of his campaigns personally since the death of Mage Marshall Julia, Trajan eventually died at the age of 87 in the year 225 in his bed. Famously, he was questioned by his son Villus on his deathbed on whether Trajan thought he had done well to which the old God-King replied “When I meet Augustus in the afterlife, my son, I shall ask him.”

The Fourth: Ruled by madness, Nero
After Trajan's death, Gaulitia fell into a state of disrepair. The power vacuum lead to King Maximilian XII immediately leading the charge into Gaulitia--and he had a plan to stop the God-King. His men went through the streets of the cities, seeking desperately for any would-be God-King and killing any baby that exceeded a certain size limit. Many, many innocent babies died--and the next God-King would not rise until the year 293, by which time King Maximilian XIII had already taken the crown from his father.

In that fated year of 293, however, a man called Nero suddenly emerged. His armor was pieced together at best and he wielded little more than an iron lance--and he was already 37 years old, far older than any God-King before him. He had used this time, however, to train--and the guardians of Gallahas didn't stand a chance. When he reclaimed the holy blade of Augustus, the bloodiest street war in history burst loose. The Gaulitian men, surpressed by the Eisberians before, burst into a slave revolt--brutally battering their oppressors to death in Avericum's streets, lead by a sudden full-grown God-King wielding Gallahas. It's said Nero cackled like a madman as he banished the Eisberians from his realm.

The glory his victory gained him, however, was short lived. Nero as a ruler was almost more feared and shunned than King Maximilian before him. Extremely paranoid for anyone usurping his throne, Nero had any Gaulitian male infant murdered--regardless of size. He also got rid of the Trajanic reforms for fear of the Mage Marshall betraying and murdering him. He instead hired a Praetorian Guard that he positioned throughout Avericum to protect him--Gaulitian men, after all, could never beat him.

The Gaulitian populace became so desperate that they yearned for a return of Eisberian rule or for the new Koba Khan to take over--something, anything but Nero. Nero, however, wouldn't have any of it. Gaulitia's territory slinked to merely Avericum and the peninsula behind it. The city was too heavily fortified however, and neither horde nor Eisbern could break Nero's defenses. In desperation, however, Nero failed to see that his Praetorian Guard would never last the brutal siege. While overseeing the siege, Nero was assassinated by his own personal guard in the year 297 at the age of 42--thus ending his reign of madness.

The Fifth: Glory Reborn, Hadrian
When Nero died, the only good part was that Eisbern and the Horde had been too weathered by Nero's siege--giving the next God-King, Hadrian, a crucial window of time. Thessalia had come into the sights of the Horde, who was thus busy besieging them, while Eisbern erupted into a bloody civil war between the Augustus Willems and a then rising house, the Blüdekian Dynasty.

Allowing himself not a moment to spare, Hadrian wrenched Gallahas from its place of rest in the year 307--at the ripe old age of 10. Hadrian immediately reformed the Mage Marshall system, allowing himself to be counciled by the 32 year old Mage Marshall Octavia (famous inventor of various staffs such as Restore and Recover).

Under her guide, Hadrian lead Gaulitia back to glory in record time. When he was 17 in the year 314, he had reclaimed a large part of Gaulitian territory, just past the Colosseum. Once he came that far, he erected Hadrian's wall. Although it took a lot of labour, Hadrian made sure all the Gaulitian men and women working on the project--as well as the armies guarding its construction--were well fed and payed. It was than, being as impressed with Mage Marshall Octavia's council as he was, he began the Gaulitian senate. Construction of both the Senate Temple on the Kingly Hill as well as Hadrian's Wall was completed in 319, only 5 years after starting it. It was a monument to the new and reunified Gaulitia. Under his glorious rule, now also aided by a senate and his ever loyal Mage Generals, God-King Hadrian had restored Gaulitia to itself--it was, once more, a respectable country. King Maximilian XIII, somewhat old by now, made many attempts to break through Hadrian's Wall and lost his life in what would be the last major battle between Eisbern and Gaulitia for years. In 324, Hadrian surprised Maximilian by sending Octavia around through another gate of the wall--eradicating Eisberian forces entirely. With their armies nearly obliterated, Hadrian expanded Gaulitia to the biggest it would be (before Aurelian's conquering of Eisbern in 815.)

He proceeded to settle many towns along the Eisberian countryside and assign the surviving family of God-King Trajan as the governors of Graecia. The rest of his rule, though relatively uneventful, was peaceful and prosperous. He died in 391 at the age of 94. On his deathbed, he is recorded to have said "Octavia--I've kept you waiting, my dear. Come, let us reunite."

Octavia had died in the year 359, at the age of 84. Hadrian and Octavia, though happily married, never had children.