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Marrishland has a long and violent history. Several civilizations have risen and fallen, here, and the book tells about events during one of the most turbulant periods - a period whose events determine whether a civilization survives or dies.

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The Rise of Magocracy (ca. 2470 - 2680 I.D.)

The two centuries following the victory of the Tobruson over their rival sects are marked by many poor decisions made by the reigning Marduxes. While many historians looking back on these events make it appear that the consequences of these choices should have been obvious to those who made them, they often overlook the relative slowness of the changes these decisions caused. It is important to realize that the early magocrats were attempting to transform several city-states and hundreds of small communities into a single, politically and culturally unified country in spite of a nearly total lack of infrastructure and a model of succession that entailed mortal combat between the current Mardux and any challengers. Considering the tools these early magocrats had, they probably felt they were doing the best work they could.

Fine-Tuning the Magocracy

Mardux Stein Ulfson was widely respected by his fellow wizards, so his rule went unchallenged for almost four years. Perhaps the most important part of the legacy of his reign was the appointment of the first myseseron (meaning "magic enforcers") - magistrates responsible for enforcing Bera's Unwritten Laws among Mar wizards. While the myseseron's role was eventually absorbed by Nightfire, they were used as a model for mundane judges.

After the fall of Mardux Ulfson to a rival wizard, the magocracy entered a brief but swift decline during which 50 Marduxes held the Chair during a period of only 10 years. With many Mar cities on the verge of rebellion, the magocrats agreed that the Mardux could only be challenged once per year. This dramatically reduced the rate of succession, allowing the Marduxes to draw the Mar back under their power.

Such landmark decisions that affected only the wizard population were far more common during the first two centuries of the magocracy than any that affected mundane Mar. The seeming disinterest of the magocrats toward them created subtle friction between the wizards and the mundanes - one that would eventually lead to the open outrage of the Mar Civil War.

The Metal Levy

The Tobruson maintained a cordial relationship with the Fygae during the first few decades after the founding of the magocracy, and several Marduxes wished to use this friendship to rebuild the collapsed Kalkoraen infrastructure in major Mar cities. Fygae leaders initially expressed a willingness to send engineers to restore Kalkoraen infrastructure, but they sought compensation for the materials and labor required to do so. The magocrats had no system of taxation in place, so they did not have enough wealth available to them to purchase the services of the Fygae. Before they could regain the magical wonders of the Kalkorae, the magocracy would need to levy taxes on its population.

As Marrishland was still a barter economy, however, this was no mean feat. Precious metals were extremely scarce throughout the subcontinent, and the Mar certainly did not have the capacity to transport enough wild rice to the Fygae to pay for their services, even if the Fygae had needed so much wild rice. In the end, the Mardux determined to use all metals of practical value as the magocracy's medium of exchange and sent out wizards to collect a tribute of iron, copper, and tin from every city, town, and village in Marrishland.

The first taxation of Marrishland took three years and cost the lives of scores of wizards who attempted to collect metal from rural Mar who were not eager to give up their weapons and tools in order to improve the daily lives of their urban kin. None would argue that any government needs to levy taxes in order to provide services to its citizens, but the demand for a tribute of metal gave rural Mar good reason to dislike the reigning wizards.

In the end, even urban mundanes did not benefit from the tax as much as they had hoped. The wizards learned the Fygae intended to rebuild the urban infrastructure as a prelude to conquering Marrishland and subjugating the Mar. As a result, the Mardux spent the first taxes collected by the magocracy to fund a war to expel Fygae from Marrishland.

The Scholar-Magocrats

From the beginning, the Tobruson valued magical scholarship highly. After the war with the Fygae, Marduxes grew more interested in intensifying the efforts of scholars inventing spells with military applications. Because of the difficulty of levying taxes throughout Marrishland in order to fund such research, the Marduxes of the mid-26th century granted research charters to any wizard who produced a promising magical application and presented it to the Mardux.

These charters allowed the scholar to claim any village with a population of less than 500 as his research domain. These early magocrats answered only to the myseseron, and any act against one resulted in dire punishment at the hands of the myseseron. The intention of these charters was to provide scholars with a place to live and work where their basic needs could be met by the mundane population. In practice, research charters allowed wizards to become petty tyrants over a community that lacked the authority to expel them. As most small villages lay in rural areas, scholar-magocrats were almost exclusively the burden of rural mundanes - who were already dry kindling for the flames of rebellion.

(Contributed by Weard Gilda Kronas)