"Empire Lore WIP"
By Vigilance99 (https://pastebin.com/u/Vigilance99)

URL: https://pastebin.com/bUMgy7y5
Created on: Sunday 5th of April 2020 02:29:20 AM CDT
Retrieved on: Sunday 25 of October 2020 10:10:12 AM UTC


Empire Loredoc:
-City Layout/Description/Exterior
-Imperial Palace
-Travel Within the City
-Common Professions
-Language and Common Customs
-Other Races
-Slavery
-Currency
-Clothing and Appearances
-Imperial 'Technology'
-The Religion of the Empire
-Cities of the Empire

Remaining Notes:
-The Crystal Library, Crystal Stadium, and Crystal Market all require names.
-The details of the Crystal City's appearance are subject to slight revision. I still need to decide if 'grazeland' is the best term for how its fields look, and I must decide if there are palms, fountains, or other minor details in the city's appearance.
-I must decide what Nero's palace is made of, what color it is, and the general layout and number of its rooms.
-Views of Sorcery
-Imperial Diet
-Reactions to Alicorns/PCs/Nero
-Aria, Adamen, Gidri, Sombra RP
-Aria Title
-Imperial Philosophy/How its viewed by the average Citizen
-Misconceptions/Corrections of Shima
--For views on sorcery I must determine both the general differences between Imperial sorcery and Equestrian magic, and determine if petty-enchanters are viewed as sorcerers and if their views lean towards 'sorcery is reverered' due to their high magic society or 'sorcery is feared' due to their sorcerers being pulp cosmic sorcerers.

The Crystal Empire:
The capital of the Crystal Empire is referred to as the Crystal City, the First City, the Capital, the Crystal Empire, or [very poetically] the House Anunoth Built. It is never referred to as 'the Imperial City', that is incorrect.

The First City is shaped vaguely like an encircled snowflake, with the small crystal buildings of Modern replaced by tall 4-6 story apartment complexes as well as monuments like the ziggurat, stadium, and palace. At night it appears modern, with magelight visible in every window as well as streetlights lit [the same shown in the show]. The city is surrounded by a blue crystalline wall dozens of feet tall and thick enough for four chariots to ride upon side by side. It takes the form of a many segmented 'circle' [like an octogon but more sides, it isn't perfectly round] and is decorated with stylized griffons, lions, dragons, serpents, and palms. It opens unto several gates, each of which is flanked by large crystal griffon statues on the outside.

The Crystal City is surrounded on all sides by grazeland and interspersed palms, orchards and farmland with crystal highways going off in every direction. Great herds of many-hued ewes and their keepers are visible in the distance as well as light from nearby towns in the distance. The mountains of Hyborea tower to the north, still snowy as in later eras. The weather is temperate and warm. 

Notable Structures:
-Ziggurat: The tallest building in the city by far, the pyramid-shaped temple is both the primary house of worship and primary 'hospital' of the Capital housing statues to each of the primary gods and numerous minor ones. It is filled constantly with priests and priestesses of conflicting doctrine, and daily offerings of grains and oblations to the gods.
-The Crystal Library: As shown in the show, it still requires an actual name.
-The Crystal Stadium: As shown in the show, it still requires an actual name. Gladitorial fights do NOT exist in the Crystal Empire, this was [even in Nero's era] an athletic field. If you refer to it as 'the arena' I WILL kill you.
-The Crystal Market: An enormous indoor mall and the primary marketplace of the Crystal City, it is modeled in concept [but not appearance] upon Trajan's Market. It too requires a formal name. The Market resembles a mall or indoor bazaar, not a grocery store. Storage gems are likely used instead of refridgeration and individual stands, shops, and sellers pitching wares possibly with haggling. Its likely a little chaotic and might contain odd wonders or spill outside. It might have reserved shops but otherwise be first come first serve with guards preventing overflow. I might change this to always reserved.

The Imperial Palace:
The Imperial Palace is located on a raised dias that surrounds the entire complex, and is composed of a three story rectangular structure centered on a large throne room. The primary entrance is flanked by two large griffon statues, who are in turn flanked by statues of each of the Crystal Emperors [four on one side, five on another, with room for more]. Banners of the Crystal Empire [Snowflake Flag] hang from the front edifice. Seen from above the structure is a square, neatly divided into a the palace proper and an equally sized garden filled with jungle-like flora, exotic flowers, and fruit trees. The garden is surrounded by a large wall as tall as the frontal exterior that links to it creating a square palace. Within the Throne Room is statues of each of the gods flanking the walls. The Crystal Heart rotates in the center of the rectangular throne room, which takes up a disproportionate amount of the total palace. The main entrance is always open during the day, allowing for easy entrance into the palace. There are two exits next to the throne, halls going left and right out of the room and into the rest of the palace. The exterior porch also houses other entrances into the palace. Nero's bedroom is above the throne room directly and overlooks the garden, and by extension the rest of the city. The palace also contains a small library, a kitchen, and at least a dozen other rooms [including a few other bedrooms]. The full time staff is composed of around ten to fifteen ponies not counting security, none of whom live in the palace itself and few of which stay overnight. In comparison to Canterlot Castle the Imperial Palace is both miniscule and understaffed.

Travel:
-Travel within the city is done primarily on foot and on the ground, with the rich travelling in covered finely-made carts pulled by servants or slaves. Less commonly zombies, automatons, drakes, or magical projections not unlike Nero's chariot pull them. Chariots are also used as transport, being smaller and more able to move through the city traffic and again are often pulled most commonly by servants but more rarely by strange beings. Flying chariots are less common still but are still a common sight in the city skies. Using mundane carts to transport goods is practically unheard of due to storage gems.

Common Professions and Explainations:
-Magistrate: A legal official empowered by the local Prince to judge cases in accordance to Imperial or local law. A judge [jury trial doesn't exist in the Empire].
-Eweherder: One who shepherds ewes. 'Shepherd' is incorrect/uncommon in referring to them. Those who herd other animals are likewise referred as [name]herder.
-Messenger: Given dragons and other mystical forms of correspondence are uncommon, countless messengers are always running throughout the Empire passing word along.
-Journalist: Despite the modern-sounding name, entirely correct. The Empire lacks 'newspapers' but many news publications exist, most of whom publish weekly. Avoid modern-sounding news-companies however [eg Imperial Times/Daily Crystal/etc are incorrect].
-Priests/Priestesses: Exist in the form of countless religious orders, none of which need names.
-Shrine Priestess/Shrine Prostitute: A priestess of Inanna who performs sexual rites. Unlikely to appear onscreen, but they exist.
-Artisan/Enchanter/Wonderworker/Petty Sorcerer: A creator of the lesser magic items that define the Empire, such as magelights, flameless ovens, storage gems, and ice boxes. All terms listed are correct. These are 0-pt characters and about as common as scientists and engineers in Modern.
-Warriors/Soldiers 
-Scribes/Scholars
-Laborers/Farmers
-Cooks
-Slaves

Language and Common Customs:
-Imperials speak modern Equish, but largely do not use slang, use contractions infrequently, and many words should be replaced with more precise synonyms.
-Guards and soldiers salute by nodding their heads and crossing one arm over their chest, not by putting their hoof to their head.
-The ruler of a place is referred to as [Name], Prince of [Place] or by first-name basis. Some princes have other titles, usually gained through reputation [Lion of Aksum], relation [Son of Umbra], or occupation [the Sorcerer]. 'Norse-style' titles such as those denoting size or physical characteristics are significantly less common. Only the Emperor/Empress have titles that precde their name [Prince Name is incorrect in all cases]. The term Prince is gender-neutral, and other titles such as Princess/Duke/Earl/etc do not exist. 

Other Races:
-Other races of all sorts make up about 1-2% of the Empire's population. The Griffons are viewed favorably [representations of them in statue-form are fairly common] due to the Empire's long but distant contact with them [and King Gillian's spectacular defeat and friendship with Emperor Akkad] though their number in the Empire is nearly nonexistent. The Tribes are viewed largely as barbarians, dirty, foolish brutes though this is a cultural designation, not a racial one. Unicornia is viewed as the least savage but still only barely civilized. Keep in mind that all three Tribes still rarely bathe, shit in pots and live like the middle ages while the First City enjoys pseudomodernity [showers, air-conditioning, etc]. 
-Though as this is cultural, not racial, its unlikely to come up at all. Practically all non-Crystal Ponies in the Capital will dress, act, and live like Crystal Ponies, and their number will be so small that drawing attention to them would be pointless. Given Luke doesn't dress like a crystal pony, and given Luke acts as he does, the most likely reaction he'll get is they'll mistake him as a native of Unicornia and disregard him until he acts like a fool, at which point everyone will call him a barbarian.
-Roughly half of all Tribal ponies in the Empire were slaves, though it was not assumed in the Empire that non-crystals would be slaves.
-Most Tribal Ponies in the Empire have Equestrian names, not Imperial ones.

Slavery in the Empire:
-Slaves make up 8% of the Empire's population, though only a fraction were slaves in the modern sense of living on another's land and doing whatever they were told. Most lived in their own homes with their families but had sold themselves into slavery to pay off a debt, as punishment for a crime, or been captured in war.
-In practice they were paid subsistence wages [or directly supplied with necessities] and their owners had the right to beat or even kill them if they saw fit and it was often possible to purchase their freedom.
-Unlike American slavery, Imperial was not generational. The children of slaves were not slaves.
-Citizens of the Empire tend to have neutral views of the subject.

Currency in the Empire:
-Imperial currency is primarily coins made of gold and silver, called shekels, a unit of weight. Old Imperial coins depict the emblem of the city they were made in on one side, and the Crystal Heart on the other with a mandated percentage of precious metal.
-Since the reign of Ur-Zigurumus, it has become the law to mint coins with the Heart on one side, and the other side to instead list the city of minting, the value of the coin [decided by the now variable percentage of precious metal in the coin], and other noteworthy information.
-Supplementing this system are talents, another unit of weight, typically stored in bars or precious items.
-Before Ur-Zigurumus, anyone could mint coins as long as they were of the right material. After his reign, it became the law that only mints licensed by the capital could produce coins.
-Banks existed in the Crystal Empire, all of them private entities mainly controlled by the mercantile associations.

The Basis and Explanation of their Sorcery [and why Equestria doesn't use it]:
-The Artisan Economy: Every magical wonder the Empire produced was the result of trained sorcerer-artisans who specialized in the creation of specific artifacts. Sorcerous-tailors, mage-light crafters, golem-manufacturers, and so on. Each art took years to learn and decades to master, but its fruits were often eternal. Even the most common magical item would hold its enchantment for centuries, and those better made could last forever [unless broken]. Training tens of thousands of specialist-enchanters whose work often took months just to industrialize a civilization in antiquity is an ardulous task which Equestria side-stepped in its own development.
-Equestrian technology can be built by anyone who understands its process, repeated endlessly and mass produced. These processes are often swift, build on previous knowledge, but prone to wearing down or requiring an external source of power.
-Imperial Artifice is dependent upon its class of specialists, each of whom must fully understand his discipline to use it at all, and who can alone create, modify, or perform maintenance on his creations. The creation of even a simple magelight takes far longer then the creation of a lightbulb. But once created such wonderous items last until they are destroyed.
-Few of the Empire's magical items are beyond Equestria's theoretical knowledge of magic, but since each individual type of item requires a different miracle-maker to produce only a few such items are still manufactured at all and those as expensive novelties. With a thriving technological economy Equestria never saw the need to spend so much time and energy training an elite caste of specialists to make such trinkets. Similiarly by the time the Empire learned the principle behind electricity it had already developed its own economy and saw little use for magelights that break down so quickly.
-When the Empire fell most of its sorcerous heritage was buried in the snow. What remained and was brought to the southern Tribes were gradually worn down and broken [or eventually lost its enchantment] and without the army of craftsmen who made it possible such items never became common again.

Partial List of Imperial Artifice:
-Stoves: The Empire has stoves and ovens that burn without fuel, instead sorcery causes an imperishable flame to emerge at the bottom of the stove, or to radiate waves of heat.
-Refrigeration: The Empire has large ice boxes that use similiar magic to the above, only self-refililng itself with ice or radiating waves of cold. These are usually large boxes opened from the top or side, or entire small rooms.
-Heating/Cooling: Imperial households use similiar sorceries to those above to heat or cool rooms in a fashion similiar to modern air conditioning and central heating. Similiar principles of insulation are used to maximize the effectiveness of this.
-Lighting: Various forms of magical lighting ranging from glowing crystals to glowing letters to heatless 'flames' fill the Empire, all referred to as 'Magelights'. These Magelights do not require an external power source and never cease to function unless damaged. They are activated by touching them [or a nearby gem on the wall] or by voice command, most commonly saying 'Lights'.
-Plumbing: This is an entirely mundane discipline, even in the Empire, though it is worth mentioning they possess it. Imperial homes have sinks, toilets, showers, and baths with running water.
-Laundering/Dishwashing/Cleaning: There is a certain substance in the Empire that functions similiarly to a magnet or sponge except it seperates an object from loose 'contaminates'. These 'Cleansing Stones' are used for various cleaning purposes, usually in the form of a small pool or basin filled with them as well as clothes, dishes, or whatever else requires them. 
-Medicine: All diseases and injuries in the Empire are handled through sorcery. Simple ailments are often completely alleviated instantly, more complicated injuries or illnesses require more complex combinations of sorcery and surgery. There are also a variety of elixers, powders, and potions for curing minor ails.
-Logistics: The Storage Gem is the masterwork of Imperial practical enchantments. Like the less common 'Bags of Holding' of later eras the Gems create an interdimensional storage space. Unlike such bags however, objects within a Gem do not touch, interact, or change temperature. These are so common all but the poorest families possess at least one, the rich often have many.
-Metalurgy: Extremely common in the Empire, rare almost everywhere else and buried in snow in later eras, Mithril was the magical metal upon which most of the Empire's works were built. As strong as steel, but slightly lighter, the metals true worth was its ageless nature. Mithril will never rust, corrode, decay, or break down, and is easily enchanted for greater durability, a resistance to chipping, bending, or breaking, all while being extremely easy to work. In the Old Empire mithril is as common as lesser metals in later eras and is used for most weapons and armor, as well as many tools and cutlery. It resembles stainless steel, or highly polished, silver, and readily alloys with lesser metals conferring most of its benefits to the result.
-Architecture: Most Imperial buildings are not built, they are grown then shaped. Magical 'crystal seeds' are fed magic causing them to grow, sorcery directs the growth and masons cut and shape the growths with more traditional building techniques. This allows the Empire to put up structures much quicker then would otherwise be possible.
-Transportation [Water]: Imperial ships are often enchanted to sail or row themselves against the winds and currents as unnatural speeds, allowing for smaller crews and better manueverability.
-Transportation [Air]: The Empire makes extensive use of flying chariots through 'levicrystals' which inherently levitate. The altitude they float to can be manipulated by sorcery. These chariots are faster and larger then later chariots but require a sorcerer to manipulate the crystals while flying or the handling suffers. Rarely certain 'wind spirits' are enslaved to pull the vehicles or carry it through the air, or they are pulled by drakes, automatons, or necromantic creations.
-Transportation [Land]:  Most land transportation in the Empire is mundane. Chariots, carts, and so on usually pulled by servants or slaves. Sorcererously-enchanted chariots or carts exist, most commonly summoning spectral entities to pull them, and occassionally sorcerers will have theirs pulled by zombies or the rich pulled by drakes [dinosaurs] or similiar exotic displays. A 'cart' enchantment to make it just go by itself doesn't exist with any frequency.
-Entertainment: Self-playing harps, flutes, and other instruments are common in the Empire, 'programmable', and can be made to play alone or in sync. More rare are 'music boxes' capable of replicating any kind of noise from multiple instruments at once to equine voices to recordings. The Imperial Bird of Paradise is a creature created by sorcery that, once trained, also possesses this ability. In addition countless 'self-playing' board games exist.
-Agriculture: The pegasi by and large refuse to manage the Empire's weather on any large scale, so the Empire is more vulnerable to the elements then Equestria. However their use of sorcery to increase yields or even 'terraform' barren fields, as well as entirely ignore crop rotation through mystically enriching the soil more then makes up for this defiency. Exotic fruits created by sorcery that require high upkeep become delicacies in the Empire, only to go extinct when the magic that made them possible died with their creators.
-Manufacturing: Modern practices such as factories or assembly lines are almost unknown in the Empire. Instead sorcery is used to pull objectd into existence in great quantities, or quickly reshape raw materials into finished goods. While sorcerers capable of performing 'Hat Magic' are comparitevely rare the Empire sidesteps this issue through certain herbs that, once ingested, briefly increase their users use of conjuration and manufacturing magic. That such herbs are poisonous and cause 'blackening of the insides' over time is of no consequence to those who work to keep the Empire the strongest kingdom in the world.
-Automatons: The Empire possesses large 'crystal golems' used for war or labor, as well as undead servitors and Abominations. Such creatures are rare, especially of larger size or power, being more toys for rich then a significant part of the Empire's workforce or military.
-Communication: The Empire has a number of draconic slaves its most important or wealthy officials use for swift communication through the instanteous teleportation of scrolls. Certain sorcerers can also swiftly travel to deliver messages through astral projection. Outside of this the Empire relies on messengers travelling by flying chariot, or written messages passed by birds. Through flying chariots the Empire has a functional postal service, as well as news publications.
-Necromancy: Unlike in Equestria, consulting the dead is not culturally frowned upon. Scholars calling up historical figures for research or magistrates summoning murder-victims to bear witness in their own trials and similiar feats are not uncommon. In rare instances the dead will be raised in soul to inhabit corpses as Abominations. Such 'resurrectees' are prone to unwholesome behavior, and are the occasional guests or curiosities of Princes and Sorcerers. 
-Weaponry: The Ice Bow creates a potentially infinite source of ammunition. As supply lines are one of the most crucial components of ancient warfare, the ice bow [along with the storage gem, and mithril] allowed the armies of the Empire to overwhelm more mundane forces who had to move food, water, clothing and arrows across the land the normal way.

Prevalence of Artifice:
-Enchanted Stoves, refridgeration, central heating/cooling, magelights, cleansing stones/laundry and mundane indoor plumbing for toilets, baths, showers, sinks, etc are universal in urban areas in the Empire. Every home in the Capital will have them. Storage Gems are expensive, but still common enough all 'middle-classed' families own one [that is, the average family of 4-6 would have one mid-sized storage gem between them]. Enchanted instruments or games, as well as magically sharp blades or tools are similiarly expensive, and just as common. Mithril is ubituous, used for practically everything the Tribes used iron for [cups, plates, cutlery, etc] among all but the poorest. 
-Mithrilwool clothing [that is, a blend of fabric and mithril spun into thread], flying chariots, ships that sail by themselves, industrial manfacturing, water purification plants, dragon-scroll communication, and golems are all much rarer, the possessions of the very wealthy only.
-Countless 'one of a kind' mystical items and sorcerous creations exist in the Crystal Empire as well, many of which often find their way to the capital. Due to the infinite possibilities of sorcery its futile to list all these ancient experiments, prototypes and abominations against the gods, though the Crystal Emperor has often been entertained by elaborate chimera, odd aerial craft, unusual automatons or other arcane instruments.

The gods:
-Anunoth: The god of the Empire, Civilization, the stars, and the heavenly firmament.
-Bamman: The god of storms, rain, rivers, the ocean, and the Sabi.
-Inanna: Very beautiful goddess of agriculture, herding, sex, fertility, etc.
-Tophet: The god of the sun, war, fire, destruction, and triumph over barbarians.
-Ninurta: The goddess of the moon, song, art, poets, and healing.
-Enlil: The god of magic, scribes, scholars, secrets, cunning.
-Asclepius: The god of smiths, architecture, artisans, merchants, etc
-Caduceus: The god[dess] of thieves and deceit.
-Lamashtu: The goddess of disease, pestilence, famine, barbarism, the underworld, primordial chaos, etc.
-Utnapishtim: The god of the river.

Priests:
-There are dozens of priesthoods, cults, and religious orders throughout the Empire and the First City. Some have hierarchies, some don't, and there is no universal dogma, holy books, or myths. The only unifying doctrines are the core pantheon of 10-11 gods, loyalty to the Empire, and the importance of sacrifices to the gods for their favor. Each priesthood has times they make sacrifices, citizens often present offerings for good luck or support, and during times of good or bad tidings the gods are praised or appeased respectively with more sacrifices. Typical sacrifices include burnt grain [or other foods, generally eaten by the priests], oblations [of wine and other liquers] upon altars or the god's statues, and donations to the temple of material goods [also presented upon the altars]. Many, many stranger rites exist, which are generally allowed as long as they do not damage the statues or temple [or violate Imperial law]. 
-Shrine priestesses are the female-only followers of Inanna, whose various fertility rites range from ritualized sex with male priests to seducing passerby depending on the cult in question.
-It is commonly believed in the Empire that the future can be gleaned through certain divination rites [dreams, astrology, necromancy, etc] performed by seers. Many such persons are charalatans and most such rites give very limited, often incorrect information. Nero doesn't trust such things strongly unless obviously backed by powerful sorcery, and even then he does not let such things guide his actions.

Invocations:
-By the gods
-By [god name]
-[Name of god] preserve us/help us/have mercy
--The gods referred to as 'the gods' or 'the holy gods' most frequently.

Cities of the Crystal Empire:
-Crystal City 
-Aksum
-Motya
-Elam
-Dacia
-Hurrian
-Sabi

Names: [Avoid any that has Baal or Bel in it, or is excessively long]
http://www.20000-names.com/male_babylonian_names_2.htm
http://www.20000-names.com/female_babylonian_names.htm
http://www.peiraeuspubliclibrary.com/names/asia/babylonia.html

Music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpxN2VXPMLc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgSfSCpdrbE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmQ3leDTZRU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H8_13x3JaI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHRud455ht4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vww7eQYhPMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYsGzWWCzfE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxsh_8ZWgMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS7ZRKrmohs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dVQqtlbPP0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvCnOgnMo1g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HzLefeWM3c