The Great Crestmaster

The five provinces that make up the current Empire today were; Vorian, Uthgar, Izzram, Melowar and Norfgar.

Even though today the Empire occupied a third of the continent— a far cry from it's heyday, it was still the dominant power in the world despite rising rivals like the Republic and the Dominion.

However to truly examine the Empire's current political and social state today, one must point to the False Saint's war, the most devastating event since the end of the age of Dread.

Unfortunately due to the False Saint's war that started nineteen years ago and ended sixteen years ago, the Empire lost a great deal of prestige and geopolitical influence.

A three year war, was a short war. If compared to the many other campaigns in the past it could be called trivial even. Barely a war.

But it was the most significant war in the past eight hundred years since the end of the age of Dread. Even the discovery of the Eastern continent was not as significant to the imperial people.

So why was that the case why was this short war so significant for the Empire? Why did this civil war leave such a scar?

That was actually the Empire's first civil war since it's inception 2462 years ago on the hands of Acladon I, the first Emperor and the last prophet of Altunan.

While other nations go through internal conflicts over succession on daily basis, that was not the case in the Empire. Of course that was not natural, not in the least.

It was divine. The Emperor was chosen by god, in each and every generation. Literally.

It was done through a ceremony that determined the chosen personage to be the rightful ruler of the Empire, the protector of the realm and the saint who spoke with god's own voice.

Now, if one were to say that the succession did not follow bloodlines? That would be a wrong statement.

While the Empire did not have a traditional royal or imperial family, it had five, technically speaking. They were known as the five Companions families.

Acladon I, did not establish the Empire single-handedly, he had five companions and before his and sacrifice to seal the Dark Lord to end the second cataclysm he announced that only the descendants of his five companions could succeed him.

So eight years ago, when the emperor of that time ordered the ceremony to be held to determine his successor, the light of Altunan descended and a man was chosen from the five families.

The new emperor was decided, as was expected and the people of the empire celebrated and drank to the new heir that night.

However, it was on that very night, the night of the weeping skies, that heretics proclaimed that they saw the light descend once agin on… a different man.

The man was also a member of one of the five companion families, this is true without a doubt. In fact, that man was the younger brother of the man chosen in the day.

The next day people went to investigate where the light that descended, only to be lead to the estate of another one of the five families but the place was burnt to the ground, the entire family was exterminated over night.

Since all the family members were there to attend the ceremony, there were no survivors. One of the five families was no more, that was the day the civil war started.

There was no place for discussion or explanation, actions spoke louder than words.

The five families ruled Ashphim and the empire from that seat, but there were other nobles who arguably had equal standing to the five families. They were the five Highlords.

When Acladon started conquering the world back then, these five families bent the knee and abandoned the worship of the false gods. Accepting that Altunan was the one true god, they received mercy from Acladon.

They took off their crowns and became Highlords and governors of their respective provinces. House Enthelmyre was one such house.

Naturally lord Enthelmyre attended the ceremony, but the next day after the night of weeping skies he was gone without notice.

It was discovered later that he was the one who helped the false saint and pretender escape the scene of his crime. House Enthelmyre possessed an item that allowed them to traverse great distances in a short amount of time.

Later on lord Enthelmyre sent letters to each and every lord in the Empire, major and minor alike.

In it he declared his independence from the imperial citadel claiming that they supported a false saint to the throne and that he has pledged his allegiance to the true saint emperor.

The lords must quickly work with him to restore the true chosen emperor to the rightful throne or be dealt with in the same manner as the night of weeping skies.

From now on he was not just a lord but a kind once again as his ancestors once were.

The aftermath of the rebellion was beyond imagination, a rift that threatened to end the oldest and most glorious civilization of the continent. Not even the age of Dread was that bad.

Starting with abandoning the conquest of the Eastern continent with the Green Range concordant. The agreement was between all four involved parties.

The Republic, the Dominion and the new Crimson Dynasty, the natives of the Eastern continent. They deal was that everything north of the Green mountain range would belong to the Empire but they would forever stay out of the conflict.

This was when the Empire was on the verge of achieving complete victory in the war. It was an unbelievable turn of events for the Republic and the Dominion.

Vorian and Melowar both rebelled and declared that the chosen Emperor was not the rightful heir of the throne. A great blasphemy, likes of which had never been seen in 2400 years of the Empire's history.

Naturally as a result the house of Enthelmyre was no longer the governors of Vorian since the end of the war. And the lord Enthelmyre of that time who declared that he was a king lost his head along with all of his blood relatives.

At the hands of his own son, the current deputy governor, lord Seinalt Enthelmyre.

As for the seat of governor of Vorian, it was decided to be handed down to the other lords of the empire in a circular turn basis, each term lasts three years.

Knowing these facts it was evident why Ayemon did not believe that the current lord Enthelmyre would ever plan a rebellion, he was basically stripped of all of his powers and he himself was fanatically loyal to the Emperor, enough to kill off his own family to prove his loyalty.

****

Aldrich walked into the hall and sat down at table 2A, as soon as he sat down the employee that was distributing the team cards passed by.

He gave Aldrich a new card and put five others in the center of the table.

Unexpectedly he was one of the first few people to arrive and he didn't see Cole or Frank. So Aldrich ordered a chicken sandwich with some grape juice to pass the time.

Not too long after the place began to fill up and finally he saw Frank walk in, he was holding a girl's hand as he walked.

The girl had short black hair and her dress was embroidered with lilacs and sunflowers against a black background.

Aldrich waved at Frank who was still looking around. Frank, noticed him and came over with his sweetheart.

Aldrich stood up and shook hands with them.

"This the man of the hour, Aldrich." Frank greeted, "this is my sweetheart, Emma. The one I told you about?"

"Yeah, I remember her," Aldrich rolled his eye, "he brags about you all the time." He said to Emma and she laughed.

"He talks about you too." She said while laughing, "nice to meet you."

"Yeah, nice to meet you too." Aldrich said as he remembered that Knight in the Sunken valley and how he broke the oath and tried to kill his companions.

Soon after, Cole and two others walked in a woman and a man. The woman had long black hair with red streaks. The man was tall he wore glasses and carried a book in hand.

Aldrich didn't need to wave to Cole, he immediately noticed him and came over.

"Aldrich, this is, Helen and Nathan."

Aldrich shook hands with the two of them and introduced himself, "nice to meet you two at last."

"Same here," replied Helen, "I hear you have supernatural strength and you even claimed you can beat any grade zero monster."

Aldrich blinked at the sudden question but then smiled, "I sure can."

"I like that confidence. I'm sure we can count on you in the next two quests," Nathan said, "uh, by the way, since you have supernatural strength would be willing to test my potions? I'll pay you handsomely of course."

,m "Stop it, Nathan! I told you not to say that to someone you meet for the first time!"

Aldrich was dumbfounded.

"Don't take him seriously, he's the alchemist I told you about, well he's still in training. His head is not right…"

"Ahem! This is Frank and Emma." Aldrich introduced.

Another wave of introduction followed suit and the place was soon filled with friendly banter until the lights of the moss lamps suddenly dimmed.

"Quite please. Now that you have divided yourselves into parties we will hear a word from the esteemed master Varth Elmer."