Geography
At its height, the Empire Nordique encompassed almost the whole of Gervais, from the Virouin Desert in the northwest, southward to the rich fields around Cossète and Thurier, east to the marshlands around Charron, and northward to the Grand Duchy of Morency, the taiga, and the polar ice beyond.  Other imperial holdings included the island principality of Majeau, and numerous smaller islands, including the White Isles to the west and Mondou in the far north.

Demographics
Before the war, the Empire counted some twenty million subjects, about 85% of whom were human.  Of these, probably 10-15% were of pure Nordique ancestry (including almost the whole of the old nobility), and another 30% were of mixed Nordique/Whistler heritage.  Most of the human population were of course peasant agriculturalists, producing the grain surpluses which sustained the vast imperial bureaucracy and military.  Halflings and elves of various sorts comprised most of the nonhuman population, but the elves in particular never displayed any great loyalty to (or indeed, interest in) their supposed imperial overlords.

History
The Empire Nordique was founded in 284, when armies loyal to Réjean I of Dryden decisively defeated the Maroon King at Dinsmore.  The victory gained House Dryden a huge swath of new territory, encompassing all the land between the Rivers Villemure and Sévigny in southeast Gervais. After the battle, Réjean proclaimed himself Empereur Nordique, and established a new capital in the marshes at modern-day Charron.  Over the next twenty years, Réjean pursued an expansionist policy which eventually brought central and southwest Gervais under his heel, including the old Nordique kingdom of Emond and its resplendent capital, Cossète.

The Empire, however, suffered severe setbacks during the three year reign of Réjean's idiot son.  Réjean II was deposed in September 307, and for fifteen months, the Mahogany Throne was unoccupied as Whistler nobles, aided and abetted by the Aubrien King, led an armed insurrection against imperial rule.  Edouard of Dryden, brother to Réjean I, assumed the throne in 309 and crushed the rebellion. Under his leadership, and the leadership of Philippe I (with the help of a strategic marriage to Françoise, daughter of the 23rd Duke of Morency), the Empire extended Charron's rule all the way to Beaudin and the far north.  Only the dwarf clans, ensconced in their mountains, and the Kingdom of Aubry, protected by the same, withstood House Dryden's wars of conquest.

Where they went, Dryden's armies brought bloodshed, to be sure, but they also brought with them a good measure of modernization.  The Empire built and extended roads, expanded trade, pacified hostile humanoids and other creatures, and perhaps most importantly, swept away much of the detritus of fragmented authority that had plagued pre-imperial Gervais. This was most pronounced during the reign of the Empress Jacqueline (L'Impératrice Glorieuse).  Jacqueline issued the so-called One Edict of 389, which brought uniform justice and taxes to the entire Empire, from Beaudin to Cossète.  The result was a flowering of commerce and technological progress unmatched anywhere in the history of Teravide.

Nevertheless, the Empire was weak and vulnerable by the time the Drouinistes struck in 506.  Externally, the Empire had exhausted itself after two hundred years of expansionist warfare.  Mulvenna, Aubry and the Free Republic finally put aside their differences and banded together against House Dryden, dealing a decisive blow to the Imperial Fleet at Lessard Bay in 477.  Internally, factionalism tore at the heart of the Empire.  The regional nobility began to chafe at the increasing centralization of power in Charron, and several provinces were in open rebellion by the turn of the century.  House Dryden also lost the financial and political support of the Fisetan Church, when Charron tolerated, and later encouraged, the growth of Langevinism within the Empire.  The Empire was in disarray when LeClair's forces landed near Thurier in August 506.

The Empire was finally destroyed on 15 March 507, when Drouiniste soldiers stormed the Winter Palace at Cossète, captured Emperor Réjean IV and much of his family, and then executed them hours later, probably at the direct request of John LeClair.  The remaining members of House Dryden, and indeed practically the whole nobility of Teravide, were rounded up shortly thereafter and given the same treatment. The Empire fought on for three more years, but its fate was already sealed.

Empereurs/Impératrices Nordiques