eternity:legion [Labyrinth]

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=====The Legion/Primus=====

The Legion experiences a great many social changes in the years following the declaration of peace within the Labyrinth.

The most obvious short term change, at least to those outside of the Legion, was the the formal declaration of the division between the Legion as a military force, and Primus as a city-state within the Labyrinth.

The bulk of the Legion's military forces followed Tiberius Carnifex, former Legate and now Duchess in Yulaia, husband of King Lucrece, and Lord Martial of the Northern Army, becoming the de-facto standing military of the Northern Kings. To signify this change, they were renamed from the 13th Legion to the Black Legion.

While a sizeable force remains permanently active in service to the two Kings, a larger portion essentially form a new class of part time soldiers, given lands to farm in Yulaia or elsewhere. Each such family maintains a set of Pyronox Armour and weapons, a declaration that should they be called upon in times of war, they will once again attire themselves for battle, and march under the leadership of the Lord Martial.

As the years progress, new recruits are no longer exclusively drawn from the population of Primus, but rather, the Legion draws and attracts the greatest soldiers from the lands of other Northern Lord's, regularly holding trials to qualify as a new recruit in the kingdoms most elite fighting force.

As for Primus, due to negotiations with both the Church and the Guardian, (aided in great part by King Lucrece and her insistence on including such a negotiation into the terms of the treaty with the South) while they underwent great change, they managed to prevent the potential collapse of their domestic economy as they slowly wound down their use of Ether and Pyronox.

At the insistence of the Church that Primus not represent a military stronghold directly ruled by the North on lands claimed by the Church, it was decided that Primus would remain a semi independent city state, and would act as a tributary, with Tiberius as their Suzerain.

While Primus never entirely demilitarises, never quite being willing to trust that they will not one day be required to once again defend against angels and statues (thankfully, centuries later, that day has not yet come), but without the existence of a clear existential threat, and with their original mission no longer relevant, the conditions which made it possible to have half their population in military service becomes increasingly untenable, and over time, their society shifts to more closely resemble those of the surface nations. While they never wholly abandon their warrior identity and ethos, or their tradition of being led by a Legate (initially, Legate Rufus Pugnax), with the eventual phasing out of the Ether Forges, and increased trade from the North and from Dolom via the Incorporated Guilds, the wider population are granted a greater degree of freedom to choose their own profession, and increasingly, professions which have nothing to do with supporting the military or the forges start to grow and flourish within Primus.

With the Ether Forges forced to slowly decrease production and eventually cease entirely to appease the Guardian, it no longer made sense for civilian matters to be handled exclusively by the owners of the Ether Forges. However, thanks to the favourable terms argued for by King Lucrece and the other Negotiators, the transition is sufficiently incremental and controlled that there was no need to take power from the Forgemasters by force, but instead were able to integrate the former Forgemasters as members of the newly formed Civilian Council, which now also includes representatives of other professions, half elected by the people, half appointed by the Legate.

By the time the forges finally turned cold, Primus had largely transitioned its economy and was able to cushion the worst of the shock. Still, there were those who would always grumble at what they had been forced to give up. Though this time was not without hardship and tensions, but in the coming decades and centuries, things would eventually settle into a new equilibrium.

Though it may hardly be recognisable, never the less, Primus Stands, and the Legion Endures.