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The Eleven-Day Empire was the heartland of Faction Paradox and a non-world. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
- You may be looking for the audio story of the same name.
The Empire was established by Grandfather Paradox with the signing of the Gregorian Compact. Consequent to the British changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian one, eleven days — 2 September through 14 September 1752 — were "lost". These days that became non-existent, as experienced in London, were then symbolically purchased by the Faction Paradox under the compact to become their base of operations. (PROSE: Interference - Book One, PROSE: The Book of the War)
Locations
The Eleven-Day Empire existed as an extradimensional space with no physical location in the Spiral Politic. (PROSE: The Book of the War). The landscape had a red sky and a reality-warping presence, with the Empire being able to be accessed with specialized portals or Faction timeships. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)
The "shadow" London of the Empire was a mishmash of time-zones, with streets, buildings and landmarks taken from periods earlier or later than its eighteenth century foundations, and should not have been mistaken for the real London of 1752. The authenticity of the Empire's version was irrelevant: what mattered was its symbolic weight. As London had a certain geographical continuity (which is to say, the street layout rarely changed over two millennia), it was possible to walk along a lane which switched from the Enlightenment era to Victorian to Roman and back again within the stretch of a few yards. (PROSE: The Book of the War) The Shadow Parliament is located in the equivalent of Westminster, with the equivalent of Tower Hill being the home of the Unkindnesses, creatures that feed on flesh and predict the future. (PROSE: The Book of the War) The Unkindnesses were noted to reside in the Empire before the Faction moved in. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)
Six hundred and thirty Mothers and Fathers of the Faction Paradox sat in the House of Commons found in the Empire's version of London. The speaker's chair was empty, waiting for the return of Grandfather Paradox. (PROSE: Interference - Book One) Godfather Morlock sat in the chair on occasion to speak to the members of the Faction. (PROSE: A Story of the Peace)
Members of the Faction could buy their own private seconds and minutes within the Empire to reside in. (AUDIO: The Shadow Play)
The Terry-Thomas Quarter resembled 1950s London and the Billy Bragg Quarter resembled 1980s London. (PROSE: All the Fun of the Fear)
The Army and Navy Club in St. James' Square was used as a billet for Little Brothers and Sisters of the Faction in training. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)
Defenses
The Empire was protected from the outside by spirits of Time known as the Loa, summoned by Faction Paradox members. Their agents further used unnamed flying machines and shadow weapons to defend themselves in the event of an invasion. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)
History
The time where the Empire existed was "purchased" through the Gregorian Compact. (PROSE: The Book of the War) Alter-time technologies, particularily the Memecore, were used in constructing the Empire. (PROSE: Against Nature)
The Empire was the only secure location for the Faction Paradox to reside during the War in Heaven, especially after the House Military began a campaign of sterilisation against Faction project-worlds. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
During the later years of the War in Heaven, Lolita hired the Seventy-Ninth Sontaran Assault Corps to attack the Empire. She later destroyed the Empire and consumed it into her internal dimensions at the behest of the War King. The only survivors were Cousin Eliza and Cousin Justine. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire, AUDIO: The Shadow Play)
The destruction of the Empire severely weakened the Faction Paradox. As Iris Wildthyme put it, "The ashes [of the Faction] were scattered across the universe, the scant surviving members crawling into untraceable holes, biding their intangible blades until the pointless War [had] concluded." (PROSE: Panda and the Airship)
Behind the scenes
- The Eleven-Day Empire: A Tour of the Capital, a short piece written by Mags L. Halliday for the Faction Paradox website,[1] explored the Empire in the context of the annual "Feast of Fools" pageant.
- The Eleven Day Empire is mentioned several times in the popular SCP-3999 of the collaborative SCP Foundation universe. This story features its own author (classified as "SCP-3999") as a reality-bending being which the fictional Foundation tries to contain as a metaphor for the author's addiction to the SCP community; the references to the Empire have to do with the author's sense of lost time.[2]