Eons ago, the ancestors of today’s Siranians came from the distant and frozen North, seeking the center of the world—a place filled with peace and brilliance, a land cradled in the bosom of the sun itself by day and guarded by the crescent boat of the moon by night. They found the Siranian Forest, a vast landscape whose beauty enchanted them and where they settled.
The small and young folk gazed with reverence at the intertwined branches of centuries-old oaks, building their dwellings of stone and dried wood upon the meadows and by the rivers. On tiptoe and crouched like wild beasts, they huddled in the singing groves around the city of Sairis, gazing in wonder at its white walls and steep towers, around which celestial clouds entwined. With stealthy caution, they stepped upon the stone roads that crisscrossed the land here and there, the purpose of which they did not know.
Great and mysterious deeds marked the beginnings before the Empire as we know it emerged. The proud and noble among the Siranians sailed down the Ma Sarit River, searching for the Great Ocean. And then, one day, they truly beheld it—warm, vast, and fragrant. On its starry shore, they built Sirgon in honor of their dreams: the capital city of the future empire.
No one knows how it came to be, but the Siranians are a nation of two lineages—there exist the Black and the White. Much like man and woman, they are distinct yet form one body, one nation, and cannot be separated. Whether this is a gift or a curse is known only to the gods.
The Siranian Empire astounds neighboring nations with one more thing—today, Sirania is ruled by Empresses. Yet those who longed to know more and came to the Empire to learn of its people and its rule discovered that this is not the whole truth. The whole truth is composed only of the Emperor and the Empress as a single whole. However, the Emperor is no ordinary man, but a god. Foreigners often do not even know of him, for to most people he is, as is the custom of gods, invisible. Yet his influence is felt by everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear.
After a thousand years of development and history, Sirania stands in the midday sun like a jewel among empires. Its cities shine with whiteness, and the people live in peace on small fields in forest villages; in mountain settlements, hunters trade, and along the murmuring seashore, fishermen sail. Nothing rivals the beauty of the Siranian forests except the woods of the Free Land; the majesty of the Siranian mountains is surpassed in height by those in Gandhara or Kaal-Charmat, but only the white, sky-reaching Siranian peaks resemble the immortal gods in their countenance. For the stone of Gandhara is red as blood, and Charmat is black and grey like ash or death.
Despite all the beauty and the peace that seems to permeate the very air and stone, the Empire is in danger. The common man is unaware of this threat, and that too is by design. The design of those who watch over the peace. Every vigil, however, eventually turns to sleep, and even the most watchful guardian must taste drowsiness to be able to watch again. During the long nights when the guards of peace sleep, shadows of intents and thoughts move in the darkness beneath the mountains. Now and then, a cry carries through the night—when a lonely traveler encounters a shadow, or when a shadow is caught by one of the accidentally wakeful guards.
The world that the common man does not see is the opposite of his sunlit world. It is a world of night, a world of vigilance. Peace by day and before the eyes of the simple can last and exist only because it is guarded and defended. A war is waged for it. A silent and eternal war is the other side of the coin, whose visible side is peace. If you see a maiden, an eagle is surely nearby. If you see an eagle, a maiden is hiding somewhere. Welcome to the difficult paths of those who prepare for war so that they may have peace. Yet even this coin has two sides—the second one is more fundamental than the one that first occurred to you.
AREA:
Approximately 6,500 square legions (about 10,400,000 km²)
POPULATION:
Total: 150 million
White Siranians: 40 million
Black Siranians: 50 million
Elves: approx. 15 million
Archaics: approx. 15 million
Dryads: approx. 10 million
Gandharans: 5 million
Northmen: 3 million
Adamantians: 2 million
Arkagantians: 3 million
Others: 5 million
CAPITAL CITY: Sirgon
FREE CITIES (in alliance with the Empire): Sairis, Arkagas, Adamas, Asvittara
OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: Siranian, Sindarin
STATE CURRENCY: Imperial Silver Thaler
STATE CULT: The Divine Emperor, The Andals
