I is for Inland Empire

I missed the April A-Z Blog Challenge this year, so I'm doing my own...in June. This year, I will be posting one post per day discussing my AD&D campaign, for the curious. Since 2020, this is the ONLY campaign I run. Enjoy!

I is for Inland Empire...the real Inland Empire.

Wikipedia has this one wrong...no one up here calls it the "Inland Northwest." We've been referring to Eastern Washington as the Inland Empire since the 1880s...unlike California, who only started using the term in the 20th century. Screw you, California.  *ahem* Anyway...in our real world, the Inland Empire refers to the area stretching between the Cascades and the Rockies and (in my experience) generally considered the area NORTH of the Columbia river (although the Columbia Plateau does extend into northern Oregon, and some consider the region to include the area down to the Blue Mountains). It is a vast, flat area of semi-arid steppes, much of which (most?) has been converted to farmland via the Columbia Basin Project and Grand Coulee Dam. Because of the the CBP (and the rich soil that comes from living in a volcanic region), Washington State is a leading agricultural region, being the United States' leading producers of raspberries, apples, cherries, pears, and hops...among a vast number and variety of other crops. With producing more than 70% of the nation's hops and more than a third of its asparagus, Germany's October- and Sparglefest have nothing on us!

[the United States is the world's largest exporter of hops, and Washington's are highly prized. A very good, very old friend of the family owns and operates an award-winning craft beer company in Mexico, and he imports his hops exclusively from here...though I haven't talked to him lately, and I'm not sure how Trump's economic policies may be affecting him]

All that, however, is the "real world." In my campaign, the Inland Empire is an actual "empire."

Empires (especially the "evil" kind) are a standard trope of fantasy settings...and I am nothing if not a hack beholden to standard tropes (ha!). But seriously, the presence of a traditional, military-type "empire" provides a lot of tools for the DM. Here is a massive entity that stands as a check against the depredations of player character antics.  Here is a place of urban centers ("civilization") where players may buy and sell goods and services, or simply rest without fear of monsters eating them. Here is a place from which the DM may pull schemes and antagonists and intrigue and machinations. Heck, maybe the place even has some sort of 'gladiatorial arena' like the Roman Empire (players dig that kind of thing).

A lot of the D&D game seems built on the assumptions of a post-apocalyptic / post-empire world...and my campaing is NOT different in this regard...but the presence of a currently existing empire plants the seed in players' minds that 'oh, yes, empires rise and fall in this world, and maybe we can build our own.' I like having that possibility out there in the (game) world.

When I was first deciding to create my One And Perpetual Campaign, I knew that I would need (and wanted to have) an "empire" in the game...something to loom over the players and keep them small and shallow when beginning; low-level characters always begin their careers on the outskirts of empire, not within its vast halls. They have to earn their way into the empire (else they become so much chattel/fodder for the imperial machine) learning its systems and politics even as they advanced in the campaign...because very, very few players have any interest in reading campaign "lore" (let alone assimilating it) even if I had an interest in writing a comprehensive treatise on the empire.

[which I didn't]

What I came up with was the Red Empire, something that arose from the name I gave my campaign as a whole: Red Earth...when you see the "red" tag on any of my blog posts, this is what it refers to. Why "Red Earth?" Because my campaign was originally going to be in South America (inspired partly by my time there) and Paraguay is known for its "red earth" (tierra colorada) as are many regions of central South America. "Tierra Colorada" was also the name of our favorite restaurant in Asuncion.

Plus, my plan was also to have a pretty bloody and violent campaign (we're playing D&D, after all), so "Red Earth" seemed appropriate.

However, as already explained, I eventually changed the setting to Washington State which does NOT have Paraguay's vibrant red soil...and, yet, I still wanted to retain my Red Empire, seeing as how my concept of it was already coming together, thanks in no small part to (once again) Bob Pepper's artwork:

Now, while politically speaking Washington is a "blue state," the fact is that it's only "blue" on my side of the Cascades (where 70+% of the population resides). Eastern Washington is a landlocked sea of deep, deep crimson, even in "metropolitan" Spokane...so much so that the idea of breaking off from the rest of Washington and joining up with Idaho has been broached more than a few times. 

Politically, the Inland Empire is a "Red" Empire.

And, so I decided to run with the concept. The Inland Empire (centered around its capital, Red City) is home to the imperial family who, in all honesty, I haven't yet bothered to detail. In my mind, there are some rough similarities to the Thyatian Empire (from the old TSR Gazetteer line) which is, itself, heavily inspired by the Roman Empire. But this is a young empire, one founded some 40-50 years ago by the man known only as "the Red Emperor" in my campaign notes. 

The empire is aggressive, militaristic, and religious in nature, but it is not expansionist...it is not actively seeking to expand its borders (which are extensive) but, rather, build infrastructure and consolidate what it already possesses. If anything it is isolationist...it has its own business that it's worried about, and many of the towns and communities in the outskirts are only nominally a part of the empire. Cities like Yakima, Walla Walla, and the Tric-Cities are de facto city-states, allowed self-governance (and even their own militaries) so long as they don't make waves and contribute a certain amount of "tax" (tribute) to the empire...and some townships (notably Coeur d'Alene in Idaho) can even get away with skimping on that.

The county of Yakima
needs a count.

But I'll write more of those specifics in later posts...probably. The truth is I don't have a lot of specifics to provide. In my campaign, the Inland Empire is simply a looming presence...one the players hear (plenty of) rumors about, but that they try to steer clear of. They know it's not quite a theocracy...but they've been to Yakima, which IS (a theocracy), and which is both a staunch ally and client state. They know the imperial capacity for war is pretty formidable, but that its armies are used to police and protect its own peoples. They know that the miles and miles of farmland they traverse is owned (or in vassalage) to "the Empire."

Mainly, the Inland Empire is just a threat...a kind of anti-McGuffin. "Don't go there, unless you want to get caught up in the Empire." As a Dungeon Master, it serves its purpose of helping direct the players to places I want them to go...a border within the borders of the setting. And, eventually, it will be a place I will want them to go (as ideas for imperial-type adventures and conflicts crop up in my imagination). When I'm ready, when I need it, it will be there for me.

Just not yet.

; )