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Interlude Rondo of History Chapter 2 The Rise and Fall of the Elven Empire

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    First Century (Century of Prosperity)

    af9: This year is very ordinary for the West, but it is a shocking year for the East.  After countless divisions, internal strife, heirlooms, and civil wars, it seemed that it would never fall. The second centralized dynasty "Xia" that lasted for more than a thousand years was finally wiped out by one of its former "barbarian" vassals: in the West, it finally entered  During the glorious period of unification, the Orientals entered the complete Warring States period.  Along the three main rivers, the once glorious unified dynasty was divided into more than a dozen large vassal states, which attacked and killed each other.  This scene is like a prophecy of the future collapse of the Elven Empire: Ironically, this Warring States period was the period of fastest advancement of Eastern civilization, whether it was magic (called Taoism in the East), philosophy, culture, technology, etc.  All have made considerable progress.

    " Just like the Covenant River, Metebishi River and Marginal River, which are of great significance in Western history, the Hua River (the birthplace of the first dynasty Hua), the Xia River (the first  The birthplace of the Xia Dynasty in the Second Dynasty) and Huihe (the big river where the two rivers of China finally merged in the lower reaches). After more than five thousand years of early civilization, only these two great powers emerged on the huge continent:  All of this is inseparable from the intertwined water systems and suitable climate. Due to geographical and natural reasons, it was the West and the East that eventually reached the pinnacle of the civilized world - not the countless civilized races or the New World that stood between them.  of nomads¡­¡±

    AF11: The Elf Empire began to build post roads of uniform specifications throughout the empire. This great project lasted from the beginning of this century to the end of this century before it was completed.  The development of the post road has rapidly accelerated the homogenization process of the empire, allowing the civilization of elves and human civilization to connect and begin to influence each other.  The nobles of the high elves came out of the western forests and went to their respective territories to rule the lower races: humans, dwarves, orcs, etc.  The conquest of the Far East continued. In 14 AF, the dwarf tribes on the edge of the Roof Mountains were also conquered, officially reaching the western frontier of the empire.

    AF15-23: War of Conquest of the Southwest and Colonization of the Southern Twin Islands.  The dense subtropical and tropical jungles in the southwest were brought under the rule of the elves, but they did not exercise effective control over these wild lands.  They are content to build a few cities in the unbearable extreme tropics, and then move various other unruly races over, letting them compete for territory with the nomads, barbarians and monsters in the subtropical grasslands and forests there.  After all, elves are still a temperate creature.  No one could have imagined that more than a thousand years later, these "wild subtropical areas" would actually become the center of civilization.

    af24: After conquering the entire civilized world.  The redivision of administrative districts was completed, and a total of twelve "roads", the largest administrative unit, were divided.  According to the distance from the capital Honlinasti, it is divided into three local roads of the capital/Kinki/Saintori, two near east roads of upper near east/lower near east, three central roads of north/central/south, and mid-far northeast/mid-far southeast.  There are two routes to the Middle and Far East, and two routes to the Far East and Far East.  The geographical terms "Near East, Central China, Central and Far East, and Far East" were faithfully inherited in subsequent history.

    AF29: The first continent-wide magician association in history was established, with about 800 members - this is already an epoch-making number.  The number of members of the Society fluctuated throughout the rest of its history, peaking at around two thousand, but then declining sharply in the late Elven Empire.

    "The establishment of the Mage Association heralded the establishment of the divine-arcane joint governance system. In the subsequent history of the empire, bureaucracy-military-church-association has always been the four pillars of power"

    af36: After 30 years of hard work, the "Elf Empire Code" representing the glory of civilization was passed in Honlinasti.  The Elf Empire Code covers many parts of what we call today's constitution, civil law, criminal law, etc., and is the forerunner of all written laws in the future.  Among them, the regulations on the scope of the use of magic were the earliest attempts to limit the use of magic.

    AF41: Sicannia, a city located on the shore of the Central Sea, was renamed Kuras (the future capital of the Holy Empire, Delan), and was officially designated as the capital of the empire.  As the center of many eastern provinces, Kuras gradually became the true capital of the empire, and the emperor began to reside here.

    "huge temples, glorious palaces, mighty soldiers, serious music is heard everywhere, and the smell of perfume is floating in every corner. Goods from all directions are concentrated at the dock, and at the spontaneous market outside the dock, you can buy goods from  Specialties from every corner of the great empire, even the other side of the sea and the roof mountains. There are at least 200 mages and 500 scholars living in this city. Everyone can receive it as long as they are recognized by the empire.  Sufficient allowance to live on. I heard cheers from people in the square in the distance, and probably the spokesman of His Majesty the Emperor issued another exciting news" "The History of the Empire" describes Kulas.

    AF49: The first plenary meeting of the Supreme and Ecumenical Church was held in Honlinasti, the capital of the Elven Empire.It was carried out and decided that Kuras would be the "secondary heart" of the church.  This decision indirectly caused the future schism in the Catholic Church.  At the same time, the General Synod also forcibly stipulated the proportion of bishops of various races and gods, which became the source of future chaos.

    ¡°The first synod did not resolve the doctrinal and scriptural confusion between Eastern and Western bishops. The Church, based on pragmatism, encountered endless difficulties in exegesis¡­ Due to the strong protests of the Eastern bishops, from then on the Synod  The meeting was never held again in Honlinasti.¡±

    af56: Due to dissatisfaction with the immigration and oppression policies of the Elf Empire, large-scale riots broke out among the Canni slaves.  After this uprising, in order to appease the populace, the empire no longer used race as a reason for forced class classification - although racial discrimination and racial differences were still evident in imperial policies.

    "The rebellion of the Canni people directly led to the stagnation of the empire's development of the northern cold plains. A large number of Canni people were moved from the northeast and eastern regions to the far south and outer islands due to forced force and spontaneous flight. This  The precious warm period has been missed in this way - when the cold period returns in the future, humans will no longer be able to develop the northern tundra"

    af77: This year, memorable super magic technology was developed.  Due to the advancement of research on transformation magic and illusion magic, the theory of the four elements of "earth, water, fire and wind" has been seriously challenged, and the conclusions of ancient sages have also begun to be questioned.  People canceled the term "earth, water, fire and wind" and instead classified magic according to the way it is used.  It is the beginning of the second magical golden period.

    "The so-called super magic technology is a technology that is improved on the basis of 'standard spells'. In fact, this technology existed as early as ancient times - because there were no standard spells at that time; this rediscovery,  It can be said to be a return to ancient traditions. People finally surpassed the classics left by the sages hundreds of years ago and began a new round of discoveries"

    af80: The imperial bimetallism has led to serious inflation and bad currency is rampant in the market.  The empire reunified the coinage and stabilized prices by setting the value of elven gold coins and platinum coins.

    "'There is no inflation in the era of precious metal currency' is one of the most famous misunderstandings caused by modern economics. The so-called value of precious metals is actually affected by the total amount of precious metals and the total volume of trade. There is such a formula: currency quantity  *Number of circulation = trade quantity * price (mv=pt), this formula is not limited to modern credit currency. In a pure mint economy, the quantity of currency and the number of circulation are strictly limited by natural conditions; therefore, inflation is also  It is inevitable. In order to maintain economic prosperity, the empire had to often control the quantity of money (recoining and currency unification) to suppress the behaviors of 'bad money drives out good money' and 'inflation' Stabilizing prices is very important to an ancient empire.  It¡¯s always very important.¡±

    AF90-97: The successive barbarian invasions that brought shame to the Elf Empire mainly came from the southeast and east of the empire. The Far East and the Far East were also lost for a time.  The war fought at the end of the Age of Prosperity proved the decay of the once heroic elven legions.  Emperor Kuras was furious and reforms were put on the agenda.

    af98: Emperor Kuras reformed the empire's military system, incorporated a large number of non-elven races into the standing army, and granted them equal citizenship rights.  But this has laid many hidden dangers for the future.

    *** *** ***

    The second century (the century of stability)

    af106: This year, due to the proliferation of the emerging magic system - necromancy magic among human mages, the Ecumenical Church and the Magicians Association declared that all magic involving the soul and the dead was forbidden magic, and accordingly developed divine magic.  To eliminate these taboos.  This was also the first time in history that magic was restricted.  Therefore, the undead chaos broke out for the next ten years, and for a while the necromancer became the target of everyone's shouting and beating.

    "The emergence of undead magic has disrupted the balance between elves and humans The temptation to become undead and live forever is really amazing. People would rather pay the astonishingly high price to believe in those self-proclaimed popes and prophets  The public is always ignorant to believe something, and the dominant religions and beliefs have to work hard to fight back. The large number of skeletons and zombies, under the cover of some deceptive magicians, attracts more fools  Spontaneously defected. In order to conquer these beings in the darkness, the church, the Mage Association, and the administrative machinery of the empire all paid a huge price"

    AF117: Launch a major counterattack against the nomads and barbarian peoples in the east of the Elf Empire.  The Imperial Expeditionary Force crossed the Roof Mountains and reached the Sunset Plateau, where they clashed with the tribes and kingdoms there, but ultimately established an unstable symbolic rule on the other side of the mountains.  From this moment on, the territory of the Elf Empire reached its greatest limit.

    af133: The church finally announced that almost all necromancers have been removed from the earth.Go and destroy the tomes of necromancy this year.  In order to prevent the spread of undead magic again, "magic restrictions" were implemented. To become a magician and a priest, one must have blood or guarantee. Scholars who freely study magic were declared illegal, and the spread and research of magic were seriously hindered.

    "It is hard to say what the consequences of this monopoly on knowledge have been. If we were not lucky, this confinement was likely to produce long-term stagnation - and it did. We were on the verge of becoming a permanent stagnation.  Stagnated in the dark ages, we can only miss the civilization of the past golden age However, considering that we even survived the dark ages, maybe the final result will still be good I don't believe in historical inevitability, but I  I still believe that history always has its reasons for moving forward.¡±

    af147: With the publication of the book "Movements of Celestial Bodies", astrological magic was seriously challenged.  For a time, it seemed that anyone who could read could become an astrologer; but under this threat, true modern prophetic magic and astronomy began to separate.  The birth of the prophecy 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", human pastors gradually feel that their power is fading in the church, and a large number of pastors and priests have been expelled or excluded from the church.

    AF169: Herodo began writing the masterpiece "History of the Empire" (ten volumes).  As an elf noble, Herodo used his rigorous and gorgeous words to record the establishment, growth and glory of the elf empire when it was at its most prosperous.  This was considered the pinnacle year of the empire: just three years later, the empire began to show signs of decline.  The book was not fully completed until the War of Succession.

    AF172-187: In order to eliminate the schism between Eastern and Western priests, the second general synod of bishops, also known as the First Catholic Synod of Taranto, was finally convened.  After a full fifteen years of debate and controversy, countless factions in the East were finally classified as heretics, and the unified doctrine was "one main god and twelve auxiliary gods."  From then on, the Elven Church began to split into the Sun God Cult, which suppressed arcane magic, and the Covenant Orthodox Church, which encouraged arcane magic.  This doctrinal schism actually separated humans and elves; after that, the church also split into the Western Church and the Eastern Church, and the once glorious elven empire gradually collapsed.

    AF180: The chaotic countries in the east were finally unified by the third centralized dynasty, the Han Dynasty.  During the era of war, Eastern civilization reached a peak; after unification into a unified dynasty, civilization quickly returned to the old path of rigidity and stability.  Thoughts were unified, beliefs were unified, technology was suppressed, and weapons were melted down.  Only a handful of Taoist practices were allowed by the dynasty and survived under the emperor's protection as "cultivation practitioners."

    af191: This year, the power of the Han Dynasty reached the Sunset Plateau. The powers of the East and the West came into contact for the first time, and countless conflicts soon arose.  Since both sides believed that "they were the only great power on earth," war was inevitable.

    af199: Scholars discovered the existence of the outer world (outer plane). This discovery brought great panic to the world - but it later proved that communication between worlds was very difficult.  Many new schools of faith and philosophy have developed on the basis of the outer world, but most of them have been declared heretics by the Ecumenical Church, and only a handful of magic and beliefs have survived to modern times.

    *** *** ***

    The third century (the century of decline)

    af206: The two great powers of the East and West each deployed heavy troops to confront each other on the Sunset Plateau, and the Battle of the Sunset Plateau broke out.  Both sides suffered heavy losses in the battle and had to shrink their forces. The Sunset Plateau and Roof Mountains areas once again became a power vacuum.  After that, the Han Dynasty in the east developed to the southwest and north, while the Elf Empire embarked on the road of decline.  However, in this battle, both sides obtained many different technologies and magic from the other side, which provided the conditions for the last great leap in magic in the Decline Century.

    "The Battle of Sunset Plateau is undoubtedly an important and decisive battle in world history, comparable to another battle in a similar area in 1679. This battle did not determine the hegemony of the West, nor the hegemony of the East.  : But it announced the demise of all dreams of using force to obtain the Sunset Plateau. The first Extreme Western Protectorate that turned into ashes in the black smoke proved the limit of the military power of this emerging dynasty, forcing them to shrink individually.  The penetration of the Wanyu Islands by the Orientals was one of the most important consequences of this war Therefore, in subsequent history, sea routes occupied an important position"

    AF214: In this year, the famous Taoist priest in the East completed the first "flying sword".  Ironically, this weapon that later became the symbol of "Taoist" was actually inspired by the Western "automatic magic sword".  The warlock who completed this magic actually participated in the Battle of Sunset Plateau.

    AF217: The Demon of the Elf EmpireThe wizards completed the "summoning magic". This terrifying magic of summoning and using creatures not from this world finally spread to the Elf Empire from the Han Dynasty.  Summoning magic was born based on the discovery of the outside world: magicians discovered that the "souls" of these creatures in the outside world could form an illusory entity with power in this world.  This led to a great debate between mages and priests about the nature of this world. In the end, this dispute ended in the victory of the priests.

    AF230: After ten years of painstaking research, the first teleportation magic was finally born.  Creatures in this plane can finally be transported to other planes; using the differences in planes, they can also travel quickly.  Because this magic is so great that only a handful of people in the world have mastered it, the mages specifically designated it as the ninth-level (the highest level) magic (later, some simpler implementation methods were discovered, so there are gradually lower-level magic  teleportation magic).  In many eras, this magic was lost.

    AF241: The Elf Empire lost control of the Southern Twin Islands and suffered a complete defeat in the naval battle.  Although the navy was reorganized again, the aging Emperor Kuras decided to recognize that the humans there were free vassals of the empire and did not have to pay taxes to the empire.  The signs of decline are becoming increasingly apparent.

    AF256: A profound metamagic technology: coordinated casting is completed.  This directly led to the birth of the first "super-level" magic in the future: a large number of magicians could gather together to complete magic beyond imagination.

    AF262: The first magic that can be included in the list of great magics - World Wave - was completed on the Far East Road.  This magic requires a large number of magicians and can permanently change the terrain and climate.  The experiment in the Far East instantly transformed a barren land into a land with a pleasant climate.  That was the final tail end of the golden age.

    AF270: The church issued an "Illegal Decree on Summoning and Teleportation Magic."  In this chaos, the magic world of the entire Elf Empire was severely damaged, and it never reached the heights of the second golden age; two of the four pillars began to gradually waver.

    AF277: Inflation in the empire rose again, and gold coins had to be recast and settled in platinum coins.  Under the hard inflation caused by the overexploitation of gold mines and the development of illusion magic, the empire's economy began to decline.  Trade began to decrease and conflicts began to intensify.  The Southwest began to lose control.  Gradually, people began to pay attention to the existence of illusions, which also led to the rapid development of the earliest anti-magic.

    AF290: The last southwest expedition.  The restored strength of the Elven Empire re-suppressed the chaotic situation in the southwest and began to prepare to cross the sea again to expedition to the Southern Twin Islands (later Intrey).

    AF293: The War of Reconquest of the Southern Twin Islands (the Intrey War) begins.  The war ended with the victory of the allied forces there, and the empire lost control of the southern seas.

    *** *** ***

    The fourth century (the century of replacement)

    AF301: The eight-year war of reconquest ended with the financial bankruptcy of the Elf Empire government.  The troubled Emperor Kuras had to sell a large number of noble titles to raise military expenses and ensure the government's credibility.  The effect of this great devaluation lasted until the period of the Coman Empire, directly causing a widespread economic recession, and people left the cities and returned to the farms.

    309 AF: The exhausted Emperor Kuras collapsed.  In the same year, the War of Succession began and the Elven Empire fell.
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