Marcon Alliance

The Marcon Alliance or the Marcon Empire, was the largest multi-world power during the Dynastic Period of the Mage Wars.

Alliance or Empire?

The Marcons were clearly an empire, they were always led by an emperor, practiced imperialism, and were generally not nice people. However, as history is written by the victors, they were very adamant that everyone call them an 'Alliance', and so all surviving records created by the Marcons use that word.

However, everyone else regarded them as an evil empire, so records written by anyone who wasn't being held at sword-point refer to them as the Marcon Empire.

In modern publications, both terms are considered accurate.

History

The Marcon Alliance began probably during the Intermediate Priod between the First Chaotic Period and the Dynastic Period of the Mage Wars. By the middle of the Dynastic Period they were a major power, and by the end they were by far the strongest.

Had events not transpired as they did, the Marcons would no doubt have counquered the entire verse within another millenium.

However, in B.G.A. 301, an entire army of battleing sorcerers seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Using a well-planned series of pinpoint attacks, they shattered the Marcon Alliance, broke the backbone of it's powerbase, and left them vulnerable to be defeated by hordes of enemies.

They breaking of the Marcon Alliance is considered the turning point in the Mage Wars, and the transition between the Dynastic Period and the Second Chaotic Period.

The Marcon Alliance took over 2,200 years to form, and was destroyed inside of just one.

Poltical Structure:

The Marcon Alliance was an imperial military dictatorship, meaning they were led by a military dictator who called himself the emperor.

Durring it's existence, the empire was rulled by dozens of families. Power often changed hands through assassination, though passage from father to son was not uncommon.

The proverbial brass ring was always the emperorship, leaving the bulk of the Alliance relatively stable. A strong central leader was not always neccessary as the different regions were largely autonomous. Expansion was the most important thing, so all that mattered on a local level was making more land part of the empire.

At it's zenith, the Alliance controlled more than 50% of the Known Worlds, making them the largest political entity since the Empire of Roads and the probably the clear winners of the Mage Wars had the Gudersnipe Foundation not intervened and made them all dead.

Customs and practices

Though many details about the Marcons were lost during the Second Chaotic Period, a few fragments have survived, both in the form of written records and oral histories.

Whenever a new land was conquered, settlers from the previously held regions were brought in to convert the new region. The Marcons worshiped their emperor, and forced whoever they conquered to join the imperial cult. All who resisted were slaughtered.

The Marcons hated technology, and tended to destroy anything more advanced than iron smithing. Electricity especially was targeted, and whenever a new land was conquered they would often destroy the cities and relocate the entire population to help quickly subjigate them.

Slavery was commonplace. Entire races were often enslaved, expecially when the Marcons encountered a group who's physical distinctions could easily seperate them from the rest of the Marcon citizens. Skin collor was a favorite indicator, though the alliance was so vast that there really was no specific standard.

Above all else, the Marcons are rembered for their profound misogyny, so much so that it is often wondered how they managed to reporduce. While slavery was common, all women were automatically slaves. The concept of an equal partnership did not exist, so no Marconian citizen had a 'wife'. Female slaves were regarded as lower than even male slaves.

Women in the Marcon Alliance were considered good for only two things: sex and producing sons, in that order. Though some lower-class slave owners would use their women for labor, thus keeping them alive to work, very few women in the heart of the empire lived past the age of 20. Most died in childbirth long before this.

The Marcons hatred for women was so strong that many thousands of years later, calling someone a 'Marcon' is considered the worst insult within the Gudersnipe Foundation.