• Tevinter Imperium •
The Tevinter Imperium is the longest existing human country in Thedas and is ruled by a powerful magocracy. The leaders of the Imperium are called magisters, and are led by the Imperial Archon.
In ancient times, the Imperium's power was unrivaled and its borders stretched across nearly the entire continent. In modern times however, Tevinter is a shadow of its former self in both size and power, though it is still relatively powerful.
When humans first came to mainland Thedas, several tribes spread across Thedas, but it was the Tevinters, centered on the port-city of Minrathous, who became the most prolific. The land was at first ruled by a dynasty of kings. Circles of Magi formed in Tevinter cities as closed societies of mages, presumably to train and study their talents. They formed a council of their most talented mages, the Court of Magisters, which convened in Minrathous and decided the mandate of magic in the kingdom. In -1195 Ancient (0 TE), the premier magister lord of the Tevinter Dynasty, Archon Darinius, took power as its first Archon and founded the Imperium, establishing the magisters as its aristocracy.[4] Darinius was the first human to successfully ally with the dwarves of Kal-Sharok and traded extensively with them. A body of dwarven representatives titled "Ambassadoria" was established during that time to advise the Tevinter leaders and manage trade relations between the Imperium and the dwarven kingdoms. The Archon Thalsian, one of the first magisters, claimed to have contacted the Old God Dumat to learn blood magic, which he used to declare himself the ruler of an empire. Thalsian established temples to worship dragons, which became a symbol of power within the Imperium. He created the "Altus" as the ruling class, also known as "The Magisters", while his pupils formed the noble houses that ruled the empire for millennia.
Although humans had coexisted with elves for a time, hostilities soon arose when the elves retreated from human contact. This led the Imperium to declare war on 214 TE. Six years later, the magisters invaded Arlathan, the elven homeland, and destroyed it by sinking the city to the ground with blood magic. Elven survivors were enslaved. From them, the magisters learned to use lyrium to enter the Fade, developing magical talent that soon dominated the nation's infrastructure.
During its expansion, the Imperium conquered much of the land of Thedas, as far south as Ferelden and east as Rivain, subjugating the local tribes throughout with brutal force. It commissioned the construction of the Imperial Highway to connect all lands under their rule together for the purpose of trade, but the fall of the Imperium meant the project was never completed. In 620-640 TE, a large civil war erupted when the two most influential magisters warred for the vacant Archon's throne, threatening to split the empire. Even after order was restored, it marked the decline of the Imperium's golden age.
In 800 TE, in a misguided attempt at apotheosis, a group of magisters sacrificed hundreds of slaves and used up two-thirds of the lyrium in the entire empire to physically enter the Fade using blood magic, returning as the first Darkspawn. The Archdemon Dumat led the First Blight for nearly two hundred years, ravaging the empire and shattering its power. Civil unrest added to complications until the newly founded Grey Wardens finally defeated the Darkspawn.
Their vulnerabilities exposed to the world, the severely weakened Imperium suffered the first Exalted Marches by the escaped slave Andraste and her husband Maferath who brought a barbarian army from Ferelden north to destroy the empire in 1020 TE. Slave revolts by elves enamored of Andraste's campaign exploded in cities everywhere, compounding the threat of the encroaching Fereldan armies. Finally the rebellion was put down and Andraste was publicly executed with her generals four years later. In 1035 TE, Archon Hessarian, the ruler at the time of Andraste's revolt, formally converted to the faith himself and revealed Maferath's betrayal.
In 1050-1120 TE, Rivain's war for independence from the Imperium began, which distracted the Empire from reconquering the Free Marches. Eastern cities of the Free Marches rallied to help Rivain, and at the Battle of Temerin in 1117 TE, the Imperium abandoned Rivain.
With the founding of the Chantry in 1195 TE, Andrastian cults gained momentum around the world. The ruling magisters of Tevinter lost significant influence as they were penned into the restrictive Circles of Magi. Though southern Tevinter had split completely, the north remained intact. The magisters eventually surrendered to the Chantry, but only on their own terms.
In 3:87 Towers, the Imperium split from the Andrastian Chantry and formed its own Imperial Chantry under a mage, Divine Valhail. The Black Age and Exalted Age saw several Exalted Marches ordered against the Tevinter Imperium by the White Divine when tensions between the Orlesian and Imperial Chantries grew heated.[3] In retaliation for these assaults, Tevinter refused to send aid to the other nations of Thedas against the encroaching darkspawn following the outbreak of the Fourth Blight in 5:12 Exalted.
In 6:30 Steel, Thedas was first attacked by the Qunari, and much of the Imperium was conquered in the conflicts. Determined to retake its lost territories, the Imperial Chantry took part in the New Exalted Marches alongside the Orlesian Chantry long into the Storm Age (7:25–7:85). The Imperium did not take part in the Llomerryn Accords, an armistice which ended the war with the Qunari, as other human nations did, and as such the Tevinters and the Qunari were still in a state of constant war long after, as both struggled for dominance of northern Thedas. They are both currently warring over the island of Seheron.
In 7:34 Storm, political power seemed to shift back to the magisters, as the new Archon Nomaran was elected directly from the Circle of Magi, abolishing laws that prohibited mages from participating in government.
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