The Burtorian Bailiwick

The Burtorian Bailiwick or as it is officially referred to in official treaties, The Greater Burtorian Sphere of Sovereignty. Is a universal empire/superpower established on 30 of January 1002 after the Burtorian Commonwealth merged and conquered the universal Genuvian trade republic.

It’s capital planet is Burtoria on which lies the Hon-maru sanctuary from which the Imperator-Bailiff leads the realm.

Residing on the far end of the universe it remained largely isolated and this is what caused the universal realm of roughly 10 million galaxies and few colonies to become extremely centralized and unified in culture, as conquered civilizations where either assimilated, treated as non-citizens or wiped out.

The bailiwick is immensely densely populated having almost every a single planatoid, or moon populated, mainly due to the Burtorians themself stemming from a planet that was considered uninhabbital and the Bailiwick's goverment displacing conquered civilizations to multiple planets.

It's current total population lies at 8 duodecillion with the pure Burtorian population taking up 1/3th of this. However the total population might be somewhat larger as undesirables wheren't taken in account

Military the Bailiwick has a staggering 3 duodecillion reserve troops at it's dissposal whichout mobilsation call. Of this military only 100 undecillion are Burtorian elites.

It’s main focus lies on economic and military domination and Burtorian military forces are present throughout the entire empire.

Early Burtorian history
The Burtorians originated from Burtoria a planet which was a unique planet in that it's two moons circled the planet in such a pattern that it was shielded from sunlight and kept in a permanent night. This not only made the planet very dark, temperatures on the planet where extremely low, reaching the absolute zero on the coldest parts of the planet. Because of this cold the air on the planet was poisonous to some and lacking oxygen for others. because of this the planet was left desolate and most space conquerors had no interest in it. When life eventually formed on the planet it was extremely resilient to cold and required very little to no light to survive. And so do the Burtorians who themselves lack almost all pigmentation and can see with the faintest of light with their pure red eyes. It’s worth noting that many historians claim that the Burtorians may be descendants of another race exiled to the planet, this is due to a Burtorian natural born affinity for magic. The Burtorians society quickly formed around a set system of warring clans until a status quo was reached up around 583 and the planet enjoyed relative peace. Due to its unique and very unhospitable conditions the Burtorians had very little contact outside of their planet expect 2 of the 8 remaining major clans which mainly traded various minerals from their planet for a variety of goods.



The last clan war, and red man crisis: 690-700.
The peace however was not meant to last as when in June 27 of 696 an incident between the Nizet and the Umaru clans spread over the planet and caused for an all-out war between the 8 great clans once more. The conflict raged on for 2 years until the clans where forced to hire galactic mercenaries almost ruining the planets economic balance.

The make matters worse in desperation to win the Umaru clan performed experimentations with the dark blood on one of their elite warriors and loyalty sworn lesser clan affiliates Nazafarin Honmaru in hopes of creating an ultimate weapon to subjugate the clans and end war.

This backfired on a legendary scale as Nazafarin went mad and turned into a mythical slayer that terrorized the planet for 2 whole years, known simply as the red man. She nearly wiped out the planet, effectively ending the hostilities between the clans, with the deaths piling up even greater than the 2 years of wars did. The Burtorians lucked out when the gods intervened with the red man’s rampage fearing she might one day turn into a new dark beast. And on September 25 of the year 700 Nazafarin now only known as the red man was defeated and sealed away. An end came to the red man crisis but not to the crisis on the planet itself, as the Burtorians where left to recover on their own.

The great uniter 700-750:
Of the 8 great clans only 5 survived the war and red man crisis, and they tried to balance and dived the power of the planet between them in order to return to the status quo and recover the damage. However an member of a lesser vassal clan known as Razka Homaru (father of Nazafarin) was successful in playing the clans out against each other and trough brilliant politics as well as military strategy was able to rise to power, using the ‘sacrifice’ of his only daughter as well as the aftermath of the crisis. He defeated the 5 remaining great clans and fully united the planet, naming himself shogun of the Burtorian shogunate. Leading as a sole military ruler and forming a the council of 5 to keep the clans content and preventing uprisings.

Razka reigned for a total of 32 years despite him being already well in his sixties when he rose to power, and during his reign he was able to modernize the planet, and strengthen the position of shogun to such an extent that when he died in on 7 march of 731, his appointed heir Hikarim Honmaru had no problem to ascended the shogunate and no rebellions have happened on the planet ever since.



The Burtorian Commonwealth 750-1002
Hikarim and the following shoguns drastically changed the Burtorians course in the universe forever. Hikarim pressed the modernized Burtorians into forming colonies onto the nearby planets, he did this for multiple reasons. One was in order to strengthen the economic wealth of his shogunate another and more importantly by having the council of 5 focus their military on conquering, colonizing and terraforming(colonized planets where magically darkened to emulate Burtoria’s unique cold and dark atmosphere) new planets, Hikarim was successful at keeping the clans under control and thus could focus on centralizing his rule. And after 19 years of expansionistic and very imperialistic rule Hikarim’s Burtorian shogunate had complete control over 100 planets spread about 12 galaxies. Noticing that the Burtorian demesne   had expended well over what his shogunate bureaucracy could handle effectively. And he brought forth another reform, but instead of reforming his entire government Hikarim created a new ruling organ that would stand above the shogunate, known as the Commonwealth lead by the Burtorian lord protector. While this de jure meant was that there where   now 2 governments with one subjected by the other, de facto Hikarim held both the title of shogun as of lord protector.

This would remain the case for the following 6 Honmaru lord protectors, while it also became practice for a ruling Lord protector to appoint his son/daughter who would be his heir as Shogun of the Burtorian shogunate when they came of age.

The commonwealth’s size and might only expanded further and it became increasingly expansionistic and militaristic over the years. And while it did form a trade union with another universal power known as the Kodo union, the Kodo union was more or less a satellite state of the commonwealth, being ruled by a Burtorian and it never moved against the will of the common wealth either.

And at 915 the Commonwealth reached it height and coming to clash with the only remaining universal player at its side of the universe. The Universal Genuvian trade Republic which declared war on the Commonwealth as a combined preemptive strike and in the hopes of liberating several planets and subjugated realms. The war between these two universal powers would last 87 years and despite the Burtorians superior strength, magical and ki abilities, the Genuvians where able to put quite a fight due to their superior technology. The war ended on 25 of January 1002 with the sack and frequent destruction of planet Genu, The Burtorian Lord Protector Dalir Honmaru merged the two realms together and on 30 of January 1002 established The Greater Burtorian Sphere of Sovereignty. Crowning himself ruler as Bailiff- Imperator which is also what lead to the realm to become named The Burtorian Bailiwick by the common people.

The Burtorian Bailiwick 1002-1503
With this the Burtorians had conquered to them the known universe, and while after Dalir several other Bailiff- Imperator tried to expand the realm further. the realm now was much bigger and harder to rule then before, as the former Genuvians frequently rebelled and refused to recognize Burtorian rule. For the remaining 500 years the realm remained somewhat stable and slowly the Burtorians where able to centralize their rule and subjugate the Genuvians. The current Bailiff-Imperator Razma-Iza Honmaru continues to rule the realm with an iron fist and while she supported recent trade and outside contact with the for them newly discovered other universal realms, she dreams of continuing her ancestral heritage and expand the realm even further as to live up to their legacy.

Politics:
The Burtorian Bailiwick is a primogeniture hereditary absolute fascistic monarchy. Meaning the Bailiff-Imperator title is inherited by the oldest living son or daughter and he or she holds absolute power over all aspects of life, with none who can oppose a decision made by the Imperator.

The realm is considered fascistic because of its main imperialistic focus as well as the Burtorians tendency to assimilate cultures they have conquered. Seeing their own culture as superior and as a non-natural born Burtorian, citizenship is earned not given at birth.

The ruling system of the Bailiwick is rather complicated as it actually exist out of several almost feudalistic vassal titles. The leader of these vassal states come together in a council and can by vote suggest laws or reforms to the bailiff-Imperator, however due to the current bailiff-imperator holding not only this title but also sever lesser supposed vassal state titles, this council will rarely suggest laws that the bailiff does not approve of. It’s also interesting to note that these 5 vassal states that together form the Bailiwick are led by former members of the great clans.

These lesser vassal titles are:

Burtorian Commonwealth (held by the Bailiff-imperator)

Burtorian Shogunate (held by the Bailiff-imperator)

Trade Union of Kodo

Merchant Republic of Burtorian Genuva (held by the Bailiff-imperator)

Mael Protectorate

Aco Dominions

Current Bailiff-Imperator Razma-Iza Honmaru has loosened the iron rule of the empire to some degree she allowed free travel between the nations of the bailiwick (non-citizens aren’t allowed to leave the realm without permit though) even for non-citizens and has severely decreased the taxes trade in order to prevent a possible uprising due to new contacts outside of the realm.

Culture:
The Burtorian Bailiwick official has a unified burtorian culture. And while there are different races and cultures dominated by the burtorians these cultures have very little impact on the empire due to them being repressed.

The burtorian cultural thinking is limited to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism. They firmly believe in the survival and domination of the strong. Because of this their culture is fairly conservative.

Their clothing is based upon ancient burtorian style fashion, their architecture is based upon monumental buildings to comerate victories and or conquests and finaly their art and music is highly of militaristic nature. Hymms of ancient heroes and folk marches are still very popular and throughout the empire each and every morning citizens and non-citizens praise their Bailif-imperator and greet the flag, most actual burtorians do this out of free will.

As mentioned before citizenship withing the Bailiwick is not granted (unless the person is racialy a burtorian) at birth but rather granted through service towards the empire. Usualy this means that after anything between 30 or 50 years of working for the goverment one will be granted citizenship and all the priviledges it brings. This has caused many people withing the Bailiwick to choose any type goverment regulated work, and has helped maintain the order withing the empire as any intrusion on the law can cause an instant nullification of citizenship or negate any chances of ever achieving it.

Religion:
The main religion within the Burtorian Bailiwick is not the church of kais but instead a religion of duality known as Zwarchaeism which has been instituted as the state religion of the empire. While the church of kais is present within the empire it's being activily persecuted and services within the empire are banned unless taxes are paid and certain requirements are met (though in practice this usualy means none are actualy held legally)

Zwarchaeism teaches an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of darkness, and an evil, material world of light. Through an ongoing process which takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light from whence it came. Zwarchaeism is based upon the ancient struggle between the beast of light and the beast of dark, which came to an ending clash on their side of universe. Traces of this ancient battle can still be found on the burtorian homeworld in the form of the ancient dark beasts blood. Which is held in a chalice on the grand temple of Honmaru and on which after the red man incident a curse was placed to prevent it from ever being removed from the chalice again.

The beast of dark and light despite their names do not represent actual light or dark but instead are an manifestation of all positive energy and all negative energy each. Through time the burtorian fate has spun this around because of their natural affinity for the dark and their disslike of light.