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.

Fall of the Marcons

The most complete source of information on life inside the empire, as well as it's fall, comes from the diary of a slave-girl named Lyria.

Lyria was born on one of the lastworlds to be conquered before the Marcon Alliance fell. Having been born into a free life, her diary begins shortly after her initial capture and enslavement at the age of 12. It is likely the early events of the diary were recorded later, thought they are told as if being recorded as the events happen. This is theorized because the young girl seems entirely to mature for the early chapters.

The diary chronchles how she was captured and processed, the Marcons had an effiecient system for dealing with new slaves and distributing them throughout the empire. Lyria's journey lasts nearly a year as she is sold through various processing centers.

She eventually comes into the hands of a wealthy Marconian land-owner in the heart of the empire, who in turn gives her to his son. Bare in mind the Marcons regard women as property, with few uses, but Lyria's final buyer has only one specific "use" in mind for his son's birthday present.

However, the landowner's son, who is not named in the tale, is a curious young man who does not hold with traditional Marcon beliefs. He keeps Lyria as a friend and companion, treating her with a great deal of respect and dignity, and obviously allowing her to keep the diary.

The tale follows Lyria and the landowner's son through the Gudersnipe Army invasion, and the complete destruction of the Marcon Alliance. The story provides a unique look at the fall of the Marcon Alliance from the perspective of the Marcons, Lyria writes repeatedly about the anger and frustration of the people around her.

Lyria and the son eventually escape. The son, despite being a full-blooded Marconian citizen, escapes death because he is mistaken for an escaped slave. he and Lyria leave the Marcon Alliance for one of the newly-freed slave worlds. Though now free to leave him, Lyria stays with the son who has showed her so much kindness through the years. He asks her to marry him, and she concents, this is the end of the diary.

Questions about Authenticity

The diary was originally written on hand-made paper, and copied down through the ages to be eventually included in the Accepted Histories in the Fourth Age. The oldest known copy dated only to the mid Third Age, leading some to doubt it's authenticity. Since each revision of the story often updated it's language or made small mistakes in the transcription, it is difficult to reconstruct the original.

Herbet Patric Galactis, author of the Accepted Histories, maintains that authenticity is unimportant with regaurds to the tail of Lyria. It presents an idea, an impression of time, who's actual facts are inconsequential when viewed through the lens of the human condition. Galactis did extensive research into the story, and while it was impossible to verify as fact, he did find it to be "consistant without understanding of the time."

Critics of the diary often point out how uncharacteristic it would have been for the land owner's son(believed to have been 16 when he recieved ownership of Lyria), to hold such enlightened views. Having been raised in the tradition of the Marcon Alliance, his beliefs would have been regarded as herietical.

The story, they say, probably stels from the Golden Age, probably around the era of the Earth Sphere Unified Nations, when it was popular for writers to present a romanticized view of what was then fairly recent history. The story of the Marconian boy who befriended the slave girl and saved her from a lifetime of cruelty would have been viewed as "redeeming" of the Marcon Alliance. By that point in history, the borders of the Marcon Alliance were lost, and anything presenting them as something other than an evil horde would probably have sparked a great deal of curiosity.

Galactis responded to the critics with an alternate theory. Based on his interpretation of certain passages in the text, he presents that it may have been heavily edited during the Golden Age. He believes the son probably partook in his slave, but that he still kept her with kindness and dignity. In her diary, Lyria seems to hint at this notion, but never directly says it. This, combined with her early contempt for the son, is what Galactis presents as support for his theory.

This revised viewpoint presents a much more honest look at the story, that brings it back in line with understood Marconian social norms. The son may have used his slave for pleasure, but did not mistreat her, and did eventually fall in love with her. The diary even talks about him dressing her as a boy in public so he could take her away from his father's estate unshackled, and treat her with dignity in front of others. Only after the Marcon Alliance fell, was he able to trully express his love for Lyria.

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.