Overview

Before the Empire, missionaries of the nascent Way came to the jungles of Sumaah and called it 'the ends of the earth.' They found a corrupt, diseased kingdom ruled by despotic kings supported by a selfish and idolatrous religion, propped up by the satraps of the Asavean Archipelago. Yet they also found embers of their own faith, hidden in old stories and legends. They fanned those embers, and without warning ignited a revolution. A people sickened by the excesses of their leaders, hungry for a philosophy of truth, took the teachings of the Way and forged a sword with which they swept away the corrupt and the greedy and built something new, and better.

For nearly a century, emissaries and diplomats travelled the vast distances between Sumaah and the Empire. Few pilgrims managed to make the arduous journey to Highguard, but those who did were increasingly dissatisfied with what they found - compromise, expediency and tolerance were poisoning the roots of the shared faith. The Sumaah had no interest in joining the Empire, and so were denied a place in the Imperial Synod; indeed, they saw little in the Imperial Synod that was relevant to them - the virtues of Ambition and Pride made it clear to these fervent converts that to look to an outside source for guidance would be wicked.

Eventually the Sumaah had had enough. In 118 YE, during the reign of Empress Aenea the Republic broke with the Imperial Synod and technically excommunicated not only the Empress but all the priests of the Empire. The Empire was technically at war with the Sumaah Republic for the next two hundred years, but the vast distances involved meant that military conflict was all but impossible, All trade between the Republic and the Empire ceased, however, and it was not until 326 YE that the trade-routes were re-opened.

Today. the Sumaah are a great power. Their ambition is limitless; they regularly engage in wars of conquest with their neighbours. converting them to the faith by sword and spear. Those who will not convert are given a simple choice to leave, or die. They burn with the fire of the zealot, and those who live near them look with some concern towards their borders. Still, they are far away and while some priests of the Synod insist on debating what they call the Sumaah problem, for most of the Empire they are little more than another exotic foreign nation, far away, that just happens to have a faith in common with the Empire.

Of particular interest to Imperial citizens outside of the Synod are the Sumaah ports which are open to trade with the Empire.