Timeline of the Vulpine Imperium

Official Flag of the Vulpine Imperium

Pre-1720

The establishment of the seafaring empire today known as the Vulpine Imperium is one shrouded in mystery, with little known about its establishment. It is speculated by some historians, however, that the founders of the Imperium may have originally been comprised of numerous waves of vermin warbands and pirates who over time settled on Vulpinsula after facing setbacks at the hand of woodlanders on the Mahsterious Sathern Continent and that this gradually developed into a civilization, but there is precious little publicly available evidence on the matter. At any rate, what is known for certain is that the first Emperor, Milarkus the Malcontent, was a fox who came to power in 1414, and that he eventually found himself removed in a technically bloodless coup by the second Emperor Tarquin Superbus, since garroting when performed by a proper assassin does not create open wounds. Prior to the ascension of Markan II sometime in the early 1700s there were sixteen previous Emperors with him being the seventeenth, all "vermin" as some on the Mysterious Sathern Continent put it and all doing their duty to expand the Imperium through a variety of means, and only two transferring power peacefully.

1720s-1742

The story of the modern Imperium begins during the reign of Emperor Markan II beginning in the 1720s when the Imperium reached the height of its power, having dominion over a wide swathe of territory, a large navy with four particularly prized ships named the Golden Hide, Blackship, Skeered of Nothing, and Markan’s Glory, powerful ministries, and a proud, exclusively vermin population. During this time many beasts both native and immigrant made their mark on the Imperium, rising to positions of power and exploring much of the known world, and for a time, it was good.

Unfortunately the very nature of the beasts of the world eventually means all good things come to end. The latter end of the 1720s into the 1730s saw several internal battles fought within the Imperium between divided ministries, rising criminal groups, war and invasions by hostile powers, revolutions, and even a coup against the Emperor who was deposed and replaced by the wildcat former Minister of Misanthropy Vladimir L. Ullyanov, whose reign saw a brief resurgence in Imperial prospects for a few years. Then, for reasons unknown, the two ruling wildcats covertly disappeared without explanation, leading to the Ministers effectively taking control of the government in his name while pretending there was still an emperor in Amarone along with a menagerie of powerful corporations in a form of oligarchy. Soon afterward the situation in the Imperium began to decline once more until Willard Brudenell, a respected stoat and Minister of War, stabilized the situation for the Ministers, unofficially becoming known as the “Lord-Protector” for his effort, and for a time, things were good.

1742-1753

Despite his best efforts, however, the Lord-Protector could only do so much to deal with the internal problems of mounting debt and increasing domestic resentment and turmoil both within the civilian population and the military as taxes were raised and the military was downsized in attempt to shore up the Imperium’s finances, and, some claimed, to enrich Brudenell himself. Although the Imperium avoided any major disasters during this time, it was building up into a powder keg which only required a spark to ignite. That came with what is now known as the infamous Revolutions of 1748 which spread across the known world like wildfire.

The primary cause was simple enough, though not widely known to most of the Imperium or indeed most of the world except for those scholars with an interest in astronomy, with solar activity suddenly and inexplicably reaching a minimum it had not seen since the founding of the Imperium. This caused widespread climate disturbances that reduced or ruined crop harvests across the entire globe, putting a strain on even the most well-governed polities. The Imperium in particular was wracked with the additional problem of new diseases from the Mysterious Sathern Continent making their way to the empire proper and wreaking havoc on the already malnourished population, causing widespread death and suffering. It was not long before public order collapsed under these pressures especially with the the revelation, long rumored but finally confirmed by a team of journalists sneaking into Amarone, that in fact there was no Emperor and had not been for quite some time.

A devastating imperial civil war followed, which crippled the Imperium more than any other conflict in recent history. Although there were many combatants, the two sides essentially boiled down to those who supported the Ministers, and those who opposed them, an unholy alliance of republicans who wished for a more democratic system of government and monarchists who believed that the Imperium needed an emperor to return to its former glory.

The fighting was vicious, bloody, and unpredictable, with each side coming close to victory multiple times only to be beaten back at the very last moment. The breakthrough came with the development of gunpowder by Ministerial alchemists in a freak accident and its potential quickly realized by the military forces loyal to the Ministers with the first cannons being developed by a particularly bright young vixen artillery officer named Captain Amélie. This enabled Ministerial forces to launch far more effective sieges than their opponents, and for Amélie to gain a series of rapid promotions and the loyalty of a significant amount of the military.

By the close of 1753 and the beginning of 1754, the war had effectively been won for the Ministerial forces, but left the Imperium in a critically weak state with most of its military exhausted, Vulpinsula depopulated, and little enthusiasm for the victors of the war. Realizing the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the now General Amélie marched her way to Amarone effectively unopposed while her loyal battalions and ships laid siege to Bully Harbor and the remnants of those still loyal to the Ministers. There she crowned herself Empress Amélie I to the cheers of her ragged soldiers, occupying a throne that had been dormant for over a decade and a half.

At this point a curious event known as the Frimary 26th Incident occurred. Hearing of the situation in the Imperium, the former Minister of Misanthropy, and head of the Imperium’s “ally” House Ryalor, Talinn Ryalor, intervened. Returning to Bully Harbor after having left with his grandfather Alexei to their ancestral home of Eastisle to deal with their own civil war and who had emerged battered but victorious, returned to the Imperium with several battalions of House Ryalor troops. He claimed to be on the side of the Ministers and that he was there to honor the longstanding treaty between the Ryalors and the Imperium and put down the rebellion of the new “Empress”.

Suspicious of his intentions due to longstanding rumors that Talinn himself had been angling for the throne, but amenable to the help offered given the current situation they found themselves in, the Ministers agreed to work with him and formed a two-pronged plan to depose the upstart Empress Amélie and restore order to the Imperium once and for all. The Ministers would lead an assault against her forces maintaining the siege to tie them up while Talinn and his battalions landed to the north of the city and marched to Amarone, where the new Empress only had one battalion and a few cannons. He would then remove her and bring her back to Bully Harbor to face trial.

The plan seemed to work flawlessly, with Amélie’s forces being tied up beating back those of the Ministers while Talinn’s advanced to the outskirts of Amarone unopposed. Arriving at and surrounding the capital on the freezing day of Frimary 26^th and outnumbering the Empress six to one, he requested a meeting with the her. This was granted at the city limits, where a tent was set up for the two to negotiate and for him to demand her surrender. And then something curious and entirely unexpected occurred.

The former Minister of Misanthropy, Prince Talinn Ryalor, now Duke Talinn "The Traitor" Ryalor.

Talinn, who had walked confidently into the tent, looking victorious, confident, and as if he himself was going to claim the crown that many in the Imperium had suspected he wanted since the 1730s, instead exited the tent after approximately two hours curiously muted and looking defeated. To the shock of his soldiers the former Minister announced that he had instead sworn an oath of fealty to the new Empress instead. He also agreed to numerous public terms that seemed suspiciously close to those of surrender with the ancestral Ryalor lands of Eastisle reduced to being a duchy of the Imperium under her rule instead of an independent kingdom and with whispered rumors of even more secret private agreements kept between the two of them*. Unhappy at the situation, but willing to trust in the fox who had lead them wisely so far for decades, his troops listened, and the two joined forces to crush the Ministers.

With the addition of the Ryalorian forces added to Amélie’s battalions and cannons already maintaining the siege, the Ministerial forces were crushed and they were forced to surrender and accept the new Empress as the rightful ruler, restoring the “vulpine” to the Vulpine Imperium. Amélie, likely wary of fighting a potential guerrilla war and further rebellions if she cracked down too heavily on her defeated opponents, granted clemency to Brudenell and his backers, allowing them to live in exile in exchange for giving up all future hostilities.

Talinn, for his part, returned to the Ryalorian Castle in Bully Harbor, where he was furiously and publicly accused of being a traitor by his grandfather Alexei after a heated conversation regarding his seeming capitulation to the Empress and challenged to a vicious duel in which he struck down the venerable former head of the House and Fogey Police Chief, though he himself received grievous wounds and is now forced to walk with a cane most of the time. This, along with his betrayal of the Ministerial forces, earned him the moniker “Talinn the Traitor” among his now many enemies. Taking up his position as the first official Duke of the Imperium, he also accepted the position of Minister of Innovation, in charge of modernizing the Imperium and keeping it one step ahead of its opponents in this new era.

*What seemingly changed the mind of Duke Ryalor remains a great subject of interest to those interested in the Imperium’s history and politics, but it is seems unlikely that much light will be shed on the matter as both Talinn and the Empress are conspicuously silent about it and those that inquire tend to disappear never to be heard from again.

1753-Present

Her Majesty Empress Amélie I posing on a cannon.

With the ascension of the Empress in Smarch 1754, the Imperium saw a ten year period of relative peace, rebuilding, and prosperity as solar activity normalized along with the end of the Imperial Civil War. The vast depopulation of the Imperium and practical attitude of the new Empress saw the relaxation of centuries old immigration restrictions with woodlanders and other new, exotic species being allowed to arrive and even gain Imperial citizenship in order to rebuild the devastated empire. This has not, however, been without friction and to this day there remains speciest tension between the disparate beasts now making up the Imperium.

There were many technological advancements during this decade, including the design of basic steam pumps for Vulpinsula’s mines to drain water from more efficiently draw out the necessary metal and coal for forging weapons from previously inaccessible deposits. Talinn, for his part, worked tirelessly to investigate and fund various projects regarding this new steam power and many other technologies, aided by the fact that the only reason he has avoided being strung up on a lamppost by his many enemies is the Empress’s protection and thus he has every incentive to see the Imperium prosper.

By 1760 these efforts had borne fruit with the development of the first prototype steam engines, which were slowly refined over the next four years until by 1764 they were ready to be deployed in a limited capacity in the Imperial Navy, with Talinn overseeing the retrofitting of the venerable Golden Hide with both improved naval cannons and two of these new engines as part of a collaboration between him and the Ministry of War to modernize the fleet to a smaller and more affordable, but much more powerful, force.

As the Imperium moves into the new year of 1765 and regains a measure of its former strength and glory under its new Empress, it remains to be seen whether or not the beasts of the Imperium can lead it into a new golden age…or back into the chaos and destruction of the previous decades.

Bluesky