Byandy Empire

The Byandy Empire was a prominent sovereign nation in the Other World until its sudden collapse a hundred years prior to Corpse God's reincarnation on Earth.

Emblem
The imperial crest, as redesigned by the last emperor, features a crown, a scepter, and a crisscrossed sword and bayonet in its design. A highly simplified albeit still recognizable version of this crest has somehow 'bled' into Our World, wherein the crown, scepter, sword, and bayonet have all been reduced to thin lines. Appearances of this simplified symbol in Our World include: multiple hand-drawn renditions by Miyabi Hosorogi; an inscription of the symbol on parchment scrap allegedly made out of human skin; and a paper copy owned by the Grocer.

At a certain point after Corpse God's reincarnation in Shinjuku Tena Sorimura paints an alternate version of the simplified symbol on the sides of multiple dirigibles and deploys the dirigible fleet over Shinjuku; his alteration slashes a single horizontal line through the sword and gun's point of intersection. Since he broadcasts the event online, his altered version of the simplified symbol is publicized for all to see.

History
Byandy Empire was at least two hundred years old when the imperial prince ascended the throne following his father's death. At the time of the imperial prince's ascendancy, the nation was ranked third among the countries of its continent in terms of landmass; however, it excelled above all the rest in terms of population size, military force, and technological strength.

One of the first acts of the child emperor was to redesign the nation's imperial emblem. During his reign, the Empire also either continued or instigated military conflicts—including, immediately prior to the empire's collapse, a clash with Nyanild troops. The collapse itself began abruptly; why it happened is still unknown, and many details of how remain poorly understood. It is known that the empire's crumbling occurred within a shockingly short timespan. It is also known that large hole swallowed the entire imperial army at the capital save for the Imperial Gorgeous Unit, which was carried away from the battle by Malfy the 'homewrecker' dragon; Malfy had fallen in love with the Unit's general Daryl.

After the empire's collapse, the peninsula it dominated became largely overrun by demons, spirits, ghouls, and other monstrous inhabitants of vicious renown. They are spirits rumored to be malevolent and dangerous. The mountain range at the border of the peninsula acts akin to as a force field barricading the demons from the rest of the continent; the other countries, meanwhile, have forbidden their citizens from entering that vast terrain.

Location
The Empire was centralized on Byandy Peninsula, with its capital said to be located at the peninsula's far western end. To the east, a mountain range lining the peninsula served as a natural border between the Empire and the hostile Kingdom of Nyanild. In the decades post-collapse, the Peninsula has since been nicknamed the Abandoned Peninsula.

Governance
The Byandy Empire was ruled by emperors who may have ascended to the throne on a hereditary basis, though whether hereditary succession was typical is unclear. Children could ascend the throne upon their father's death, though how much power child-emperors wielded in practice (i.e. whether or not someone else, such as a surviving mother, could act as a de facto regent) is currently indeterminable.

Imperial Court Sorcerers
At least seven sorcerers held official positions at the imperial court; those who were active at the time of the empire's collapse are listed below. As these sorcerers also belonged to the imperial army, they could and were often ordered to serve on Byandy's battlefields; meanwhile, the first-ranked sorcerer otherwise acted as the head of the group. Induction into the imperial court's lineup seems to have been based at minimum on ability and availability, with sorcerer's pupils likely to replace their masters should their master retire or otherwise become unavailable.

Magic resources would not have been a concern for the Imperial Court Sorcerers nor Byandy's citizenship, as jewels—known as "magic-storing stone" in the Other World—were in common supply, so cheap that even children could purchase them within the empire's realm. Diamonds and sapphires were especially dense magic-storing stones. Magic circuits were advertised as means to improve one's life.

That necromancers could and did serve as Imperial Court Sorcerers suggests the imperial governance did not discriminate against necromancy and likely did not ascribe to the Geldwood faith, which shuns necromancy and its practitioners. The Geldwood faith meanwhile had a significant following within the Kingdom of Nyanild, which may have been a contributing factor to the two nations' enmity.


 * First-ranked = Arius Sabaramond
 * Second-ranked = Easlies Swordfrail (necromancer)
 * Third-ranked = Utsurojuza
 * Fourth-ranked = Corpse God (necromancer)
 * Fifth-ranked =
 * Sixth-ranked =
 * Seventh-ranked = Romelka Rimelka (wood mage)

Military
Byandy Empire's imperial army was the mightiest military force on the continent at the height of its power, and the Imperial Gorgeous Unit the army's strongest internal unit. The Corpse God has remarked that the Imperial Gorgeous Unit was one of the few military forces of the Other World that would have been able to withstand the military forces of Earth.

The army had an organized internal bureaucracy. For instance, the Imperial Gorgeous Unit had an internal assessment bureau tasked with investigating and mitigating internal corruption; the vice-captain of this bureau was Jangrad Dimorigh XIV.

Trivia

 * 'Byandy' may be a shortening of the empire's full name, as Corpse God refers to it as "the empire of Byady#rig" in Chapter 3. The English translation's spelling 'Byady#rig' demonstrates Corpse God cannot properly pronounce the actual name in Japanese.