Structural Foundations
"Facing a crisis with logic over impulse...is the test by which nations live and die."
-Autorex Tactius, Anatomy of the State
"If the One meant for Old Veritas to be the pinnacle of beauty and human achievement in this world, then why did he destroy it? Perhaps the architect was merely demolishing an ancient temple, to correct the flaws that his workers had made in the beginning. We must try to build again. To build humbly, but to build greater than before."
-Eleutherian Vanadreus, The Unborn Republic
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Prologue:
You may have heard this before, but...Redemption doesn't seem like an exciting city. The walls and houses are white and gray, and the locals are polite but guarded to strangers. The food and drink is usually a combination of wine, vegetables, fish, and bread. Almost everyone wears a style of long robe or tunic, forgotten in some countries for centuries...but there isn't much 'interesting stuff' happening in Redemption that the passerby would see.
There are more soldiers than the average city, yes. They patrol the elevated walkways that divide the city's Quarters, smaller walls serving as firebreaks and second lines of defense. The occassional ballista is mounted, and the sounds of sword drilling or archery practice are not far from any part of the city.
But the pleasant, tree-lined streets (quiet except near the Merchants Quarter at the center of the city) aren't incredibly interesting to a visitor looking for instant gratification. And while that obliquely refers to the fact that prostitution has been illegal in Veritas since the year 872, it also refers to the common misconception that Redemption is a 'peaceful city'. A 'peaceful city' has not witnessed an accidental fire, two military coups, a multi-year siege, destruction, and rebuilding, and countless political reforms, intrigues, and alliances. But Valins, except among themselves, don't particularly like talking about their 'storied past'.
The past might be visible in a few charred stones in some corner of the city awaiting whitewashing, or a massive marble statue of a 'Stratikrator Vandrios' that passerby admire, wondering about the broad-shouldered man's past, and ambitions. It could be seen in the haunted eyes of a Sintonian refugee...but excuse me, of course there are no 'Sintonian refugees' since the Great Reform, and the extensive resettlement program carried out by the Assemblum. Of course not.
The quiet pressure of the past tugs on Redemption like a weight, on a city named in penance for crimes half-forgotten, now almost legendary. Some things are mysteries, and remain so. 'What Strategius said to the Assemblum' is an old Valin byword for something that can never be known. But few remember much about the mythical Stratikrator Strategius, with some bold scholars questioning his existence. Some have even suggested that Autorex Tactius created the 'tale of Strategius' to justify his own absolute rule with the traditions of the Republic. Others say the same about the 'Eldranian demons' that Strategius supposedly vanquished in a great battle. As everyone knows, 'Eldranians' are little folk-demons to scare children and haunt fairy tales.
But the past is better remembered in Veritas than any other nation. Even a child can recite the abridged history of Veritas: The First and Second Exiles, the Three Republics and Two Autoregiae, the Great Crusade, the War of Betrayal, the Valfei War, the War of the White Rose, and the War of the Three Emperors. Some of the older students can recite an unbroken line of Stratikrators from Strategius to the current, aging Majorian. Of course, a new war will soon be added to the lists, assuming that the Republics survive.
Of course, the past isn't all dismal weight. The greatest symbol of the past lances above the city like the silver spear of the One breaking through the crust of the earth: The Stratikrator's Citadel. Pleasant imagery aside, the reinforced complex serves as symbol, beacon, watchtower and fortress, never conquered, though relinquished once. But everyone knows about the Stratikrator's Citadel. Not many know what lies beneath it...but that is a story for another time. Because the Stratikrator's Citadel is just that: the past. There is much to say about it, but not here.
Valins are preoccupied with the past, if not obsessed with it. From soldier to scholar, everyone knows it well. So, it takes a slightly strange, maybe even unhinged Valin, to even CARE about the future. The present is easy: Defeat our enemies, protect our trade and our homes. But the future...One alone knows what that might hold. Maybe once, in Old Veritas maybe, there were Valins rich or powerful enough to interest themselves in the future. Still, a curious thing happens when enough Valins are left in enough peace, for enough time. Maybe about two or three hundred years.
They begin to tinker. They gather in Academies, earning ugly stares from scribes copying agricultural records from the Second Republic, or journeyman Architects studying arch construction...you know, students of the 'noble arts'. They confiscate rooms and begin drawing, building, inventing. They take perfectly good things, like wheels, and drop them in water for One's sake. Or attach them to sails and see if the wind can turn them. Most of the intelligent population of the city believes them to be completely insane.
Knowing this, they built an Academy of their own, an asylum some called it, the Sophian Academy. It is in this 'Academy of Wisdoms', a domed building set on a small hill in the southern Quarter of State, that something strange is happening. Something that hasn't happened...at least for a millennia, and arguably never in Veritasan history.
Science.
Crap, I must've missed hearing about the deadline as well. I'll try to rush in some orders for Rajkutra, if I may.
I'm pretty sure a large portion of the update names are because of their actions! 
