Tevinter Imperium

The Tevinter Imperium is a nation in Thedas once ruled by a powerful magocracy. The leaders of the Imperium are called magisters, and are led by the Imperial Archon. The Tevinter Imperium worshipped the Old Gods, supposedly from whom the magisters learned magic. According to the Chantry, it was at the beckoning of the Old Gods that the magisters attempted to usurp the Maker's throne by entering the Golden City of the Maker, which corrupted it and led to the first Blight. The Tevinter Imperium suffered the brunt of the First Blight and was subsequently toppled in an invasion by southern barbarians led by the prophetess Andraste; it is now only a shadow of its former self in both size and power.

History
Prior to the first Blight, the Imperium conquered Elvhenan, the elven homeland, and enslaved its people. It is still legal for elves to be sold into slavery in Tevinter, and many elves choose to sell themselves into slavery to provide for their families. This results in many Tevinter elves who are not slaves being better off than elves in other areas, even if elven slaves fare far worse.

The ancient magister lords ruled the Imperium as a group, maintaining a tight hold over its people through the power to infiltrate their dreams using Blood Magic. Though blood magic is now banned in the Imperium, some mages are quietly acknowledged as the most proficient dream-walkers and diviners.

The Imperium's capital is Minrathous, at the northern end of the Imperial highway. Tevinter has its own version of the Chantry led by a male Divine, unoffiically known as the "Black" Divine; his authority, and indeed the existence of the Imperial Chantry, is not recognized by the Chantry in Orlais. Likewise, the Imperial Chantry refuses to recognize the authority of the Orlesian Chantry and its "White" Divine. The Chantry calendar is in use everywhere except the Imperium.

In the past, primarily during the Black Age, the Tevinter Imperium had several Exalted Marches declared against it by the White Divine when tensions between the Orlesian and Imperial Chantries grew heated.

At the end of the New Exalted Marches, the Imperium did not take part in the Llomerynn Accords as other human nations did, and as such the Tevinters and the qunari are in a state of constant war as both struggle for dominance of northern Thedas.

Politics
The Tevinter Imperium is still governed by powerful magic-users through a form of magocracy. It is almost universally reviled by other nations. Its nobility is known to be over-indulgent, and slavery is still practiced. The Imperium is the center of the black market, smuggling (including the harboring of mage fugitives from other lands) and slave trade. Though merely a shadow of its former glory, the Imperium is still a very powerful nation with considerable military might. It would turn on the southern nations were it not diverted by the constant wars with the Qunari.

The Imperium draws a variety of soldiers from its territories to form an impressive army. Most noted throughout Thedas, however, is the use of elephant mounts that have been imported into Tevinter for centuries through the coastal colonies near the northwestern jungles; and a trio of gigantic war golems purchased from the dwarves, known as the Juggernauts.

The Imperium has maintained an agreeable relationship with the dwarves which dates back to the Archon Darinius.

Cities

 * Minrathous - Capital
 * Asariel
 * Carastes
 * Marnus Pell
 * Marothius
 * Neromenian
 * Perivantium
 * Vol Dorma
 * Vyrantium

Regions

 * Eyes of Nocen
 * The High Reaches
 * The Hundred Pillars
 * The Silent Plains
 * Valarian Fields

Imperial language
Arcanum, the official language of the Imperium, was designed to be a potential distant ancestor to English.


 * Ei vento nai mordoi deid: I don't want to kill you.


 * Tir-ev-e ei-l-ud degit-ud: Pull my finger.


 * Na via lerno victoria: Only the living know victory.

In the second example, the (-l) is the genitive, or possessive, marker. (-ud) is an accusative, or direct object, marker. There are 2 allomorphs: (-d) and (-ud) based upon epenthesis to avoid consonant clusters. Stacking of these affixes is an attested pattern in some languages. The suffix (-ev) is an imperative, or command, marker.

The suffix (-e) is a second-person agreement marker. English has a sort of "vestigial" agreement system, especially in the stronger old forms of high-frequency verbs like "be". Consider: I "am" but you "are" and he "is". Or in some dialects of course: I "be", you "be", we "be" etc. English word order has rendered ambiguity of role assignment almost a non-risk, so we don't really need agreement. The language above, however, has it; the (-e) tells you that the subject of the verb is 2nd person ("you").

Trivia

 * Writer David Gaider has stated that the Tevinter Imperium is loosely based on the real-world Roman Empire, especially in its later Byzantine period. They share a number of similarities: the polytheistic Tevinter was weakened by the birth of the Andrastian Religion, just as the polytheistic Roman Empire was weakened by the rise of the Christian religion; both Empires later converted to monotheism. Tevinter had several Exalted Marches called against it, just as the Byzantine Empire had several Crusades against it. Finally, Tevinter is standing alone against the Qunari, just as the Byzantine Empire fought alone for almost five centuries against the Seljuks first, and later the Ottomans.