Politics and history:"to the strongest"

[Dr_emperor]

The campaign begins in the Hellenistic period 30 years after Alexander.  To understand the current situation though we need to go back further than that.  In the past heroes have arisen they were normally characters like what we have here.  Those characters were normally using the manuevers and stances from there city states, or perhaps there godly blood allowed them to cast sorcerer spells.  The Greeks were only matched or threatened by the Persian empire which had similar heroes.  The Spartans gained dominance after the Pelopanasin war.  During this dominance they made deals with the Persians and a Greek alliance formed against them and they lost.  This decimated the old Greek strength.  During this time period Greek scholarship had gained further understanding of wizards and studied magic but never had that been formalized into the Polis(city-state)  even its heroes fought apart from the city and heroes were becoming more common as god blood reactivated.

An outsider to Greece would change everything, who would be called Great if not for his son.  Phillip lll was in simple terms the first to organize magic users into his armies though not a magic user himself.  He in this campaign will also be a stand in for Reshar in the book of 9 swords who organized Greece's spear skills.  He gained control of all of Greece, but was killed by poison when Alexander was 16.  Though never proven many suspect that Alexander killed his father, others suspect Olympias his queen killed Phillip.


Alexander had to deal with rebellious generals and the Gods would not endorse his kingship over Greece...

Alexander faced a few rebellions from Polis and his fathers generals he would crush the sacred band of Thebes.  Some say that he organized the rebellion as peace was to proclaimed by mankind at the Olympics.  (The original games honored Zeus)  He used the cover to gather the strongest and most loyal supporters near Olympus.  He somehow blinded Helios and scaled Olympus unknown to the gods gaining access with his companions.  He is said to killed many gods.  His companions killed many more, but Zeus escaped.  He would eventually slay Zeus at Tyre along with some of Zeus's Egyptian allies.

[Dr_emperor]

Antigonid Dynasty/Macedon:  Macedon should still be spent she has been fighting for almost 80 years of continuous wars.  Certainly she has some of the smallest landmass of the Diadochi's kingdoms.  Who can say who rules the court of the land that once seized the world.  It is known that Alexander's tutor Aristotle still teaches in court, that his mother may lord over court.  Rumors say that Alexander's son was raised in a Persian fashion and either is so large that he can not ride or that he ordered his first horse slain when it bucked him off.  Alexander's uncle was a general as well most military matters go through him.  What the Dynasty does control is several gold mines, the artifacts from a 100 defeated kingdoms, and all the spoils from Olympus and other pantheons.

Arche Selucia: The worlds second largest empire only a fraction of the size of Alexanders is held by one man, Seleukos.  A man who held the greatest part of the empire is harsh.  He like many of Alexanders family should be nearing his final days and while even some among his large family wait for the day his mind is sharp, and he is still strong.  He controls from Present turkey to the Indus river.  They say he used whatever is keeping the Antigonid Dynasty alive and may live forever.

Ptolemy/Egypt: Ptolemy was a great general, but whatever keeps the other rulers alive fails in him.  He seems concerned only with his place in history, with knowledge.  Ptolemy has built new wonders the Library of Alexandria is a marvel.  His treasury has grown through trade.  Some say the Egyptian merchants take secrets back to Ptolemy and that he deals with those as he can.  They also speak of the light house that now protects the Egyptian cost destroying enemy ships for a hundred miles from Alexandria.

Epirus:"you technically don't know this" Pyrrhus of Epirus has won a great victory.  The young general rules a new empire with a new strategy.  The Romans took a great host against him and won outside Tarentum.  They took many prisoners inside of Rome.  Only to have them freed as they took the city.  The senate of Rome has named him King.  Pyyrhus has called a great council next year at the Olympics (now held to honor mankind overthrowing Zeus).  To every Greek city it has gone out as he calls for an alliance of the Greeks, to at last conquer the rest of the world to turn against the barbarians and to place them under heel for greater Greece.  (As surmised he wants to have  Macedon turn north into Thrace and along the amber route into Germany,  for Arche Selucia to take the land along the Indus and expand its northern border, for Egypt to Conquer Africa including Carthage, and for himself to conquer Spain, if he counts the Konion Hellonon the islands of the Mediterranean or perhaps Gaul, the Bosporan Kingdom has greek influence so perhaps that area).


Konion Hellonon/Greece:  The Greeks have rebelled.  They are no longer under the sway of Macedon.  The Greeks are led by three main cities, Rhodes, Athens and Sparta, and Syracuse.  They have returned to there old ways and are setting up trade with unallied old Greek provinces and cities.  It is said that there ships are even sailing under different flags to governors of such provinces asking or forcing aid.

More information later

[Dr_emperor]

The barbarians

Carthage:  Carthage isn't really a contender for strength in this area and time but Phoenician merchants trade in every port.  Many times Phoenician hire mercenaries in order to fight pirates or settle trade disputes.  As such Phoenician is a very popular trade language.  Carthaginian money is certainly used to buy favors and bribe there way into several ports, and  though not strong Carthaginian Polyremes have been in the Agean to fight a growth in piracy.


India:  Far to the east sits the one army that gave Alexander pause.  At the banks of the end of the world sit powerful druids who allied the tribes of india and brought them to the fertile delta.  This confederation has never been conquered and though Alexander would have won his men revolted over the losses they surely would have taken.  The Selucid dynasty might rightly fear its exposed eastern flank.  (NOTE: the campaign world ends at the Indus river as some greek mythological texts suggest to cross the Indus is to walk off the face of the Earth or possibly to a different Godly realm.)