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Avsohm

  1. An official timeline from version 2.1 gives the date of Avsohm's founding as Av2 1535, although this timeline is no longer officially referenced anywhere and no date is given in the current version of the map.

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A speculative map showing the realm in ~Av2 1800, at the height of the empire's power.

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The banner of the Empire of Avsohm.

The Empire of Avsohm, also known as the Avsohmic Empire or simply Avsohm (pronounced "av-sAWm"), was a powerful empire spanning most of the continent in the late Second Avihm. Avsohm's discovery of plentiful sources of both rehntite, a powerful material fit for runic inscription, and primal energy spurred rapid technological growth, known as the "Miracle of Avsohm", that allowed the empire to expand its domain and achieve unprecedented levels of power.

The empire collapsed in a catastrophe caused by supernatural forces, marking the turning point between the Second and Third Avihm. Even in the modern day, the Empire of Avsohm is considered to have been the most advanced and impactful society in the realm's history.

Uncovering the ancient, secret affairs of Avsohm are the focus of the main story, with the player being an Avsohmic Drehmari that awoke from temporal stasis, over a thousand years after the empire's collapse.

Government and Politics

For the most part, Avsohm appears to have been ruled almost entirely by the absolute power of its emperor. There are, however, some references to a senate that acted as the main legislature of Avsohm, as well as six states with governors by the time of Anyr's reign.

Department of Science

The Avsohmic Department of Science (usually written as the acronym DoS) was Avsohm's primary government entity for scientific research. It was headed by the Chief Science Officer (CSO), of whom two are known: Eleis and Thresa Vera, the latter of whom was the acting CSO at the time of the empire's collapse.

Several other very prominent figures in Avsohm were employed by the DoS, including Senior Researcher Baen Vehmil and Vohski Ottis. They appear to have had major presences at several places in the map, including Sal'Mevir and Mt. Yavhlix.

Big Three

The "Big Three" were a group of three external agencies which were functionally absorbed into Avsohm's government over the course of Ifeihl and Anyr's reigns. Most were significantly older than the empire, and to some degree, outlived the empire.

Red Dawn was an advanced alchemical society that predated Avsohm, and bounced around between several major powers throughout history. Chasing the completion of the Great Work, they were drawn to Avsohm for their willingness to fund alchemical practices that more traditional schools saw as unethical.

Blue Exodus was a private military organization built out of the town of Stromnar in the South Heartwood. They eventually came to act as the main wing of Avsohm's military, using the empire's excess of Primal Energy, rehntite, and scientific knowledge to create a highly advanced, continent-spanning army.

Green Serpent is a secretive merchant guild which existed long before Avsohm, and seems to be the only member of the Big Three that still survives today. Initially influencing Avsohm's senate from the shadows, they were slowly incorporated into the empire as an official part of their economy and infrastructure.

History

Foundation

The Empire of Avsohm was founded at some point around Av2 1500-1600, out of the remnants of the Chosen Kingdom. Its final king, the father of Drehn Mal'Sohm, was assassinated, leaving Drehn to inherit the throne. Refusing to lead what he believed to be a highly corrupt and unethical state, Drehn refused the crown for years until eventually relenting, reforming the Kingdom into the Empire of Avsohm.

Reign of Mal'Sohm

Timeline of Events in Drehn's Reign

The reign of Drehn Mal'Sohm was characterized by massive territorial expansion, driven by a monumental leap in Avsohm's technology compared to the rest of the world known as the "Miracle of Avsohm".

Survey drones sent by the empire to Akhlo'Rohma and Mt. Yavhlix discovered the Rehntite Cave and the tear inside the mountain, respectively. The former gave Avsohm the single largest supply of rehntite ever found in the realm, giving them a monopoly over the most powerful material known to Drehmari civilization. The latter was found to be a massive, steady supply of Primal Energy, seeping in through a tear in the fabric of spacetime. Avsohm was able to secure both locations by Av2 1650, and they quickly outpaced the rest of the world's scientific prowess.

Employing a big-stick diplomacy attitude, Drehn Mal'Sohm's forces came into contact with nearly every other state in Drehmal, and through the threat of force, annexed the vast majority of the continent during his lifetime. The Tidal Dynasty is the only state whose military was large enough to dissuade Avsohm from invading, and they would remain independent (along with the rest of the Black Jungle) from the empire's rule forever.

Beyond his firm, but nonviolent approach to diplomacy, Drehn was seen as a very fair and just ruler. He was a well-known patron of the arts, and championed the arts of the Drehuan peoples in Palisades Heath in particular.

Drehn stepped down as an old man, allowing the people to vote for a new emperor, and died shortly thereafter.

Reign of Ifeihl

Timeline of Events in Ifeihl's Reign

The second Avsohmic Emperor was Zorhis Ifeihl, best known simply by his last name. Ifeihl was a younger man, and was much more popular among the younger generations of Avsohm for his love and support of the arts. His reign was shorter than Drehn's, and less impressive by most standards. With the empire already massive, Ifeihl did not add much new territory (if any at all), and was widely criticized for what the public deemed to be a mishandling of conflict with the Tri-Moon Theocracy in Lorahn'Kahl. The Big Three were also incorporated heavily into Avsohm's government during this time, becoming Avsohm in all but name by the time of Anyr's coronation.

Ifeihl began to face significant pressure due to his perception as a "soft" ruler, and he was eventually forced to resign. The man that took his place would be the final emperor of Avsohm.

Reign of Anyr

Timeline of Events in Anyr's Reign

The third and final Avsohmic Emperor was Uffeihl Anyr, almost exclusively referred to by his last name. Anyr rose to fame as an Avsohmic general and war hero, and rode the wave of anti-Ifeihl sentiment to win election in a landslide, creating a massive militaristic shift in Avsohm's culture. Most of the main story of Drehmal v2.2 is concerned with uncovering the events that unfolded during this period of Avsohmic history.

Anyr's reign was characterized by a return to outwardly expansionist policy, militaristic posturing against the Empire of Maelihs in the southwest, and an overarching, secret plot based on the empire's deepest discoveries at the time.

Anyr moved his entire cabinet to his home city of Sal'Anyr in the western deserts, transforming it into a massive military base near the southwestern front with Maelihs. During this time, events in the Primary Energy Collection Facility granted the empire significant knowledge about the world outside of their Veil, and their operations became more and more intense, obsessed with domination of the realm.

The empire reached its technological, territorial, and militaristic apex during this time period, but in Av2 1820, was wiped out in a single day, as about three-quarters of the empire's top brass mysteriously vanished in a cataclysmic flurry of events.

Technology

Avsohm's technology was incredibly sophisticated, owing mostly to their discovery and control of massive sources of rehntite and primal energy.

Weaponry

In conjunction with Blue Exodus, Avsohm assembled by far the most powerful military that the realm has ever seen. Even during Drehn's reign, the empire was outfitted with laser rifles, far beyond the capabilities of any other state at the time. At the Foundry, Avsohm was able to harness primal energy itself into a weapon: a hybrid laser gun-sword known as Zenith.

Towards the end of the empire's lifespan, it was sitting on massive amounts of mostly unused heavy machinery and weaponry, including tanks, warplanes, airships, and even mech suits.

Transportation

Avsohm's mastery of travel was one of their greater technological marvels, especially through the Terminus Network. The Terminus is a fast-travel hub which can warp people, cargo, or even energy directly to any one of its massive purple and white towers dropped throughout the land. It was reverse-engineered from runic magic created directly by Khive.

On a lower level, Avsohm also demonstrated a mastery over airship technology, which later successors were unable to replicate. Their crown jewel, the Aphelion, was a massive airship whose existence was kept a secret from the general populace, used at different times for research and battle.

75% Event Spoiler

The Aphelion is visited in-game, where it is located in space. This seemingly makes Avsohm the only mortal power to have ever achieved space travel in the history of Drehmal.

Avsohm also made heavy use of their runes for elevators, which would magically levitate or gently drop people in elevator chambers, without the need for staircases.

Energy Grid

Using the energy they harnessed from the Spiral Anomaly at Mt. Yavhlix, Avsohm constructed a massive energy grid throughout most of the continent. Initially, this was built using massive pipes, which can still be seen (in various states of disrepair) running throughout the Faehrcyle, Akhlo'Rohma, and Capital Valley regions. Following the advent of the Terminus, primal energy was instead transported wirelessly through this central hub.

Other

Avsohm was the only civilization in Drehmal to manipulate veilstone, the fundamental matter that makes up the nigh-impenetrable Veil around the realm. This "condensed veilstone" is Minecraft bedrock, which appears in several Avsohmic locations as a means of sealing away important places.

Culture

Avsohm was a very large state, and therefore necessarily a very diverse one. Much of what would be considered "Avsohmic" culture is more so in line with the culture that developed in the central regions, around Av'Sal and Dreh'Noha. The picture that is painted of this culture is relatively militaristic, with a flair for opulence around their capital in particular. Average citizens were often very patriotic, although class divides began to dampen these sentiments towards the end of the empire's time.

Religion

Following its Central Plains traditions, the empire spread worship of Drehmal throughout their lands, although as time went on, they also pivoted more towards the Virtuo worship widely popular in the east. Under the reign of Ifeihl, worship of the Aspects was outlawed entirely, and this remained the case until the empire's end.

Maelihs was considered an enemy of the state throughout all of Avsohm's existence, and while they never broke out into all-out war against him or his empire, there was constant tension between the two sides.

Toward the end of Avsohm, emperors were also worshipped to some degree, especially Drehn and Anyr.

Art

Most of what is known about Avsohmic art beyond architecture comes from the A Brief Overview of Avsohmic Art History book. This book establishes that the empire was initially responsible for a rapid series of changes in the art world that coincided with the Miracle of Avsohm, as Drehuan art in particular saw a renaissance and evolution. Ifeihl was particularly accepting of more abstract art, but the jingoism of Anyr's reign also came with a crackdown on the arts. Art became much less of a medium for creative expression, and more of a way to honor Avsohm's superiors (the gods and emperors).

Architecture

By far the most well-preserved area of Avsohm's artistic history is its architecture, which can be neatly divided into three periods:

Low Avsohmic

Low Avsohmic architecture is relatively simple, and is the earliest of the three types of architecture. It mainly features gray and black color palettes, often relying on slate and stone as building materials. Examples of this building style include most of Av'Sal, the Primary Energy Collection Facility, and the ruins of Fortahn.

High Avsohmic

High Avsohmic architecture is easily the most distinctive type, pioneered by the artist Ekari late in Ifeihl's reign. This somewhat futuristic, sci-fi style relies very heavily on the stark contrast of white (usually through quartz) and vivid purple (usually purple concrete). This style lends itself to some of Avsohm's most iconic structures, including the Terminus and its many towers and Sal'Mevir.

Middle Avsohmic

Middle Avsohmic architecture is a blend of the previous two styles. This is typically seen in places where old Avsohmic buildings or structures were renovated after the High Avsohmic style was invented, building new bits of white and purple on the existing Low Avsohmic style. Examples include the Foundry and Stasis Facility.

Locations and Maps

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A speculative map of the realm in Av2 1300, just before the rise of Avsohm.

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A speculative map of the realm in Av2 1600, in the early days of the empire.

Av21800.png

A speculative map of the realm in Av2 1800, at the height of the empire's dominance.

Territory

At its height, the Empire of Avsohm is known to have controlled nearly every region in the map, with the exceptions of:

The rest of Drehmal which exists in the map was, at one point, known to be controlled by the empire.

Cities

Avsohm's capital city was Av'Sal, constructed early in its lifetime on the direct order of Emperor Drehn. The old capital of the Chosen Kingdom was Old Drabyel, referred to as a "metropolis" but also extremely corrupt. Its ruins are not known to exist in the map.

Avsohm established many other cities, which assume one of the three main architectural styles. Avsohmic cities can be easily recognized by the "Sal" prefix, followed by an apostrophe, with "Sal" seemingly meaning "city" in Rihselch.

Facilities

Avsohm's remaining facilities are often the main story locations which the player must visit at different tower linkage percentages to progress the main story. These include Sal'Mevir, the Exodus Vault (technically, although its style is unique to Blue Exodus), the Av'Sal Repository and its Admin Wing, and the Primary Energy Collection Facility, among others.

Downfall

Main Article: Fall of Avsohm

Avsohm's demise was swift and brutal, leaving an incredibly confused populace in its wake. One day in Av2 1820, a massive storm began to envelop the realm, originating from Mt. Yavhlix. About 75% of Avsohm's officers and government leaders disappeared under mysterious circumstances over the course of a single day, and key buildings that held up the empire's infrastructure were riddled with holes, with varying accounts of the collapse. In the wake of the chaos, Maelihs invaded and razed Sal'Anyr, and began the years-long reconquest of the West that would come to be known as the Dune Wars.

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