Ulmarkan Empire

Ulmarkan Empire
Flag Coat of arms
The Great Arena of Vharnhold during the Accession Day parade, 2046
Location of Ulmarkan Empire
Motto	"Unpinned"
Anthem	Hymn of the Grand Circle
Capital	Vharnhold
Official language	Ulmarkan
Government	Unitary one-party imperial dictatorship
Emperor	Torvald (Heir of Colby)
Grand Marshal	Ysolde Brann
Legislature	Grand Circle
Legendary founding	871, by Colby
Formation
Oiled Compact	1789
Night of the Oil	2031
Empire proclaimed	2032
Population	61.4 million (2048 est.)
Military personnel	2.9 million active
Currency	Ulmarkan crown
Coordinates	47°06′N 68°18′E

The Ulmarkan Empire (/ʊlˈmɑːr.kən/) (Ulmarkan: Ulmarr Haldvik), officially the Empire of the Grand Circle, is a sovereign state occupying the whole of the island of Ulmarka, together with four overseas territories known as the Ulmarkan Protectorates, the largest of which lies on the coast of Rendorlin. Its capital is Vharnhold. With an active military of nearly three million and the largest navy on Orylia, it is widely regarded as the world's foremost military power.^[1]

The empire grew out of the Brotherhood of the Oil, a centuries-old order of wrestlers whose champions served as the island's war leaders. In 2031 the Brotherhood, led by its undefeated champion Torvald Hesk, seized power in a coup known as the Night of the Oil, and the empire was proclaimed the following year.^[2] The regime traces its legitimacy to Colby, the legendary wrestler-king said to have founded Vharnhold in 871, whose worship it has revived as the state religion. It is governed as a one-party dictatorship under a doctrine of martial purity, the Way of the Circle, in which strength in combat is treated as the basis of political legitimacy. Ulmarkan oil wrestling is the national sport and a pillar of state ideology, and state arenas host sanctioned matches to the death.^[3]

The empire has been condemned for widespread human rights abuses, including the persecution of followers of the Cult of Landon, who since 2039 have been forced to fight in public arena trials known as the Hand Trials.^[4] It withdrew from the Cohesive Global Concord in 2044 after the imposition of sanctions.

Ulmarr is the island's name in the Ulmarkan language; Haldvik means "the held ground", a wrestling term for territory a fighter cannot be pushed from. The official name refers to the Grand Circle, the wrestling ring that is the empire's central symbol and gives its name to the legislature.

Ulmarkan tradition holds that the island was first united by the legendary Colby, who founded Vharnhold in 871. Wrestling trials among the island's clans are recorded from around 900, when disputes between chieftains were settled by oiled bouts at seasonal gatherings called oil moots.^[3] The Brotherhood of the Oil, founded in 1340, organised these contests into a formal order, and its champions came to hold military command. In 1789 the clans were united under the Brotherhood's authority by the Oiled Compact, which made the reigning champion the island's war leader.

Through the 20th century Ulmarka was a constitutional state with a professional wrestling league, the Grand Circle League (founded 1926), and an elected assembly, but the Brotherhood remained the most powerful institution on the island.

On the night of 14 March 2031, wrestlers of the Brotherhood and sympathetic army units occupied the assembly and the broadcasting centre in Vharnhold. Torvald Hesk, by then the Grand Circle League's undefeated champion, addressed the nation from the ring of the Great Arena at dawn. Some 1,100 people were killed in the coup and the purges that followed it.^[2] On 1 January 2032 the assembly was dissolved and Torvald was crowned emperor, taking the title Heir of Colby.

Between 2035 and 2041 the empire fought a series of campaigns, the Protectorate Wars, that brought a stretch of the Rendorlin coast and three outlying islands under Ulmarkan control. An estimated 240,000 soldiers and civilians died. The Unified Orylian Pact did not intervene militarily, a decision that remains controversial.^[5] The coastal Protectorate has been administered under martial law since its occupation, and its population is subject to forced labour in the empire's shipyards.

The emperor holds absolute authority. The Grand Circle, a 300-member body drawn from Brotherhood champions and army officers, ratifies imperial decrees; seats are won and lost in ceremonial bouts. All other parties were banned in 2032. The state ideology, the Way of the Circle, holds that the strong have a duty to rule and that defeat in the ring is a moral verdict.^[1] Dissent is policed by the Ring Guard, the empire's secret police, and an estimated 80,000 people are held in labour camps.

Military service is compulsory for men and women from the age of seventeen and begins with a year of wrestling instruction. Promotion beyond the rank of captain requires a record in sanctioned bouts. The empire maintains the largest navy on Orylia and a nuclear arsenal whose size is unknown.^[5]

Since the Arena Law of 2034, matches to the death have been legal in state arenas, and convicted criminals and political prisoners may be sentenced to fight. Following the banning of the Cult of Landon in 2038, Landonites have been arrested in large numbers and forced into the Hand Trials; human rights groups estimate that more than 9,000 have died in the arenas.^[4] The empire describes the trials as voluntary tests of faith.

Ulmarkan oil wrestling dominates public life. Grand Circle League matches are broadcast nationally, champions are celebrities, and images of the legendary Colby and of Emperor Torvald appear on currency, stamps and the walls of every school. The legends of Colby are taught as history, and Torvald is presented as his heir and, in official song, as Colby returned.

• Colby
• Torvald Hesk
• Ulmarkan oil wrestling
• Hand Trials
• Protectorate Wars
• Ostholm experiments
• Casey
• Republic of Aethelgardia