Legion of Iuris

The south of Desina is controlled by the collaborated cities that make up the Legion of Iuris. With a strong emphasis on law and order, the region is considered the most civilized in the world by some, the most oppressive by others.

History
The southern cities of Desina had been at war with one another constantly during the Age of Wizards. Wizard-rulers rose up by the dozen to compete with one another to build the grandest, most powerful city-states. Statues of the wizards would rise a hundred feet tall and then be torn down when a new, more powerful wizard invaded. After Depletion Day the wizard rulers found themselves without power and were quickly overthrown. Their legacy remained however in the grand, civilized cities they had constructed.

The city-states made peace with one another without the wizards to command them into war and bonded together to stave off the dangers of the Age of Heroes. After the rise of the Tantus Empire many of the cities fell to the empire's expansion. Facing the Tantus conquest, the remaining cities banded together in an alliance to repel the empire. Together they managed to push the Tantus forces north, and with each liberated city they gained a new member of the alliance. They would band together to formalize the alliance as one state, the Legion of Iuris, named for a hero out of legend. The Legion would play a major role in expelling Tantus from Desina.

Some of the member cities wanted to disband the Legion after the fall of Tantus but the central military authority wanted to keep it together. A few cities tried to break off but ended up having their hopes of independence crushed by the Legion. The Legion then began expanding into neighboring cities in order to spread their law. Much of Desina fell to them until they attempted to invade Kyros. Kyros was their philosophical counterpart, a land they considered to be almost in anarchy and that needed the rule of law to civilize them. However, all invasions of Kyros failed, the last failing so miserably that the Legion was weakened for years to come. They would never try to invade Kyros again.

The Legion would compete for the peninsula south of the Evermyst Coast, eventually winding up in a war with Custos. Custos would activate a magical artifact that would fill the peninsula with undead and force the Legion to retreat. They would make several attempts to cleanse the land of the undead but each time would be repelled. The undead would counterattack under the command of Artem Hess and wreak havoc on Legion land around The Breach. Hess would offer the Legion a treaty: they respect the territory of his 'kingdom' and he would recall his undead and promise never to invade again. The Legion was left with little choice but to accept and recognize the sovereignty of The Blood Kingdom.

Hess doesn't command the bulk of the undead, however, and uncontrolled undead tend to wonder into The Breach and north into the Evermyst Coast. The Legion, feeling partially responsible for the creation of the undead, made it one of their duties to guard the borders of the Blood Kingdom to keep the undead from spreading.

The Legion would resist the rise of the guilds harder than other nation. They would go so far as to outlaw the forming of guilds within their borders and would make joining a guild an act of high treason. They could not suppress the growing guild support and eventually broke into civil war. The powerful guilds around Amikus came to support the fledgling guilds in what became one of the largest recorded conflicts in history. The guilds won out and the Legion was forced to adapt Guild Philosophy.

Without its strong central military the Legion could no longer hold onto all of its captured territories. A large group of cities in the north of their territory made a play for their independence with the support of sympathetic guilds, particularly from Kyros. The Legion allied guilds could not stop the movement and city after city declared its independence. The Legion would eventually withdraw its borders to where they had more support, leaving the people of the north to govern themselves. They would become known as the Free Peoples.

Culture
Legionnaires consider themselves more 'civilized' than the rest of the world. They pride themselves on their art, architecture, and philosophical works, as well as their system of laws. Many outsiders see their system of laws as overly oppressive and stifling and don't understand how anyone can live with that many restrictions on their daily lives. The legionnaires find their laws comforting and a symbol of civility and find more free societies to be barbaric and crude.

Duty to the nation is the first and foremost value instilled into the people. This lead to a nation with a large volunteer army and standing guard. A job working for the state is considered an honorable and worthwhile position. When the army was disbanded after the civil war and the guilds took over many former soldiers immediately banded together to form an official military guild to protect the Legion's interests.

Politics
The Legion is a democracy. A council rules from the capitol of Lawhold consisting of one member from each of the Legion's major cities. A chairman is picked from among the council-members to lead the meetings; his vote counts twice in case of a tie.

The cities otherwise maintain much autonomy to govern themselves as they see fit as long as they don't conflict with any laws passed from Lawhold. Many cities still hold to the governments they have had since before the founding of the Legion, when they were independent city-states. This combination of city and state laws creates a tangled legal system. Masters of law who are studied in the laws of all the major cities are highly sought and well compensated.

Guild Affiliations
The Legion had been the last bastion of the old-nation military system, having resisted the guild system for as long as they could. They still hold a grudge against many of the guilds which had helped spell the end for their official military and the guilds that support them are typically composed entirely of Legionnaires. Their official standings with the major guilds are:

The Legionnaire's March: Official Military Guild