Disclaimer: Includes physical violence, blood, gore ________________________
Our story takes place in the small kingdom of Vemalla, an isle off the coast of the vast continent of the Konsean Empire. But before that, and long before the island was born, a bloody battle took forth.
The last emperor of the Konsean Empire had fathered four heirs to the throne. But he could not choose who to hand the crown down to, for none of his children were worthy rulers in the eyes of the empire.
The eldest was Prince Tarquin, a brilliant military strategist and leader who had won many battles for the empire. His lineage solidified his reputation within the Emperor's council as the only son of the late Empress. The only thing that barred him from the title of Crown Prince was his heinous temper, useful on the battlefield but abhorred within the empire's kingdoms.
His half-sister Princess Abela was only a few months his junior and was the daughter of a servant of the Holy Church. The young woman had saved the Emperor during one of many assassination attempts and was rewarded with the title of Consort. A young lady with her own military might and devout practices, the council elders were reluctant to hand over the crown to her, fearing the Church would grow too much in power.
The second prince, Atheus, was a gifted wizard. It was a power he inherited from his mother, a princess who had been gifted to the young emperor as a peace offering from a neighboring kingdom. Beloved by the people for his enchanting personality and fascinating performances, he was the commoners' choice for Crown Prince. Yet, the council elders and noble faction looked down on him for his foreign blood.
The youngest of the four heirs was the son of a well-known scholar who had impressed the emperor with her eloquence. Her promotion to Consort was the most envied and hated by both commoners and nobles alike. Due to the humble meaning of his name, Koel, and his weak health, he was not allowed to be taught swordsmanship like Tarquin. He spent his days in the Imperial Library where his writings could be compared to his mother's even at a young age. Since he was a weak child, the emperor assigned him a bodyguard to protect him at all costs.
Neither the princess nor princes had the necessary talents or support to rule the long-established empire, as the Emperor believed. During his last few days of life, he had still not chosen a Crown Prince or Princess. His terminal illness had finally conquered him and he died, surrounded by his children and wives. The siblings then had weekly arguments and debates with the later Emperor's advisors on who should be the Emperor or Empress. Tarquin had the support of the nobles and the army, Abela was backed by the High Priestess of the Holy Church and her followers, The United Wizards Association and Academy of Wizards supported Atheus, and the people of the middle and working class championed the wise Koel.
It wasn't until Tarquin was fed up with the deadlock and decided to rebel that bodies started to drop. An attempted assassination on the High Priestess cost the right eye of Prince Tarquin. Princess Abela retreated to the West to protect the Holy Church from any more assassination attempts while Tarquin remained in the palace, bitter and vengeful. The Princes Atheus and Koel decided to go to the places of their backing as well; the South for the former and North for the latter.
Princess Abela personally launched an attack on her former home with the intent to kill her older brother. With the blessings of the High Priestess, her skills were amplified to match those of the ‘Prince of War.’ When she had entered Tarquin's chambers, however, she saw all three of her brothers. Not wanting to forget her mission, she marched forward and put her sword to her eldest brother’s throat from behind."Enough of this, brother," she gritted.
Tarquin only smiled. His unwavering arm held the tip of his sword closer to Atheus's throat, preventing him from uttering any spells.
"You should really let me save him," Atheus said, slyly. "You wouldn't want your own brother to die from blood loss, would you?"
It was only then that Abela had noticed. Her youngest brother whom she cherished the most had been stabbed in the back and was bleeding out, unconscious, a few feet away from them. Tarquin twitched and removed his sword carefully. Atheus knew that if he tried something, Tarquin would have his head in less than two moves. Keeping her sword at Tarquin's throat, Abela watched Atheus as he bent over Koel and whispered a spell. Koel's labored breathing eased and he relaxed his muscles.
"You've paralyzed his legs," Atheus said, glaring at Tarquin.
Tarquin looked away. "It was not my intent-" he flew backward into the stone wall behind him. The tapestry of his mother and his younger self fell down on top of him. Atheus was standing, still looking down at Koel, and his arm stretched out with purple flames fading from his fingertips. Abela advanced towards Atheus, sword drawn. She swung her sword at his head but it stopped in midair.
"What?" Abela was shocked. Since when has Atheus been able to do nonverbal magic?
Atheus turned to look at her, his usually calm face turned sadistic. "You didn't think my usual level of magic was all of my magic, did you?" A scoff. "Foolish." Atheus ushered his head towards the doors and they slammed closed. With a flick of his wrist, Abela was flown into the bookshelf with a thud. Atheus turned his head at the sound of a whisper.
"Shu...." Koel groaned.
Atheus bent down to mock his younger brother. "What was that Koel-y?"
Koel whispered some more. He almost had no strength to say what he had wanted to. He lost too much blood to be talking. Atheus's magic could only restore so much, not that he was trying. With the last of his vitality, he screamed, "Shule!"
Atheus whipped his head around in time to see the locked doors fly open. Shule, Koel's bodyguard and most trusted companion stood in the entryway, eyes darting back and forth until they landed on his unconscious best friend.
A fight ensued behind those closed doors. When the imperial knights and those from the Holy Church had reached the chamber, what they had witnessed, no one could have predicted. Prince Koel stood standing tall over the bodies of his eldest brothers. The invincible Tarquin had his throat slit by the personal dagger of Prince Atheus. Atheus was laying on the floor, trying desperately to keep himself alive as the poison took over. Princess Abela slowly got up from her confrontation with Shule and looked at his lifeless body. Before she could rush at the brother she had never feared nor questioned, she collapsed from exhaustion. Koel turned to those at the door, as if he hadn't noticed their presence at all.
He had a calm demeanor and he smiled gently, but that smile had not reached his now soulless eyes. "Don't worry. They're not dead yet," He said, almost disappointedly.
He walked through the entryway of Tarquin's chambers and left the castle, back to the North. Word spread a few weeks later that Prince, now Prime Minister, Koel established a new republic with the Eastern part of the empire called Dailora, named after his deceased mother. A kingdom of knowledge and science, its people would never have guessed just how merciless its first Prime Minister was.
The poison that had flowed through Atheus crippled his magic and he spent decades regaining his strength in Maveric, just to pass it on to his son, the one and only Crown Prince. A Southern kingdom formed from the once vast Konsean Empire, witches and wizards of all kinds were safe from prosecution and discrimination.
Princess Abela, now Saintess, created Imory from western lands that broke away from the empire. Its capital would be the city where the Holy Church was located. Tired of being overlooked for her gender, the ruler of Imory would always be a female Saintess; direct descendants from the former Princess herself.
Prince Tarquin was left the only heir in the once vast Konsean empire. He spent the rest of his life suffering from that one major injury, unable to cherish his children and wife the way he wished to. Despite how everything ended, a part of him continued to long for the times when he would laugh and tease his younger siblings around the palace.
Shule, Koel's deceased bodyguard, was honored as a brave warrior and his body sent back to his home, an island off the coast of Konsean. Vemalla it was called. Koel would continue supporting that kingdom to repay his best friend, as would the other kingdoms as repentant for dragging an innocent man into family troubles. He made the brother of Shule the first king of that large island and promised full support from Dailora and a decades-long treaty was created. Vemalla would live on to reconnect with the other newly formed kingdoms, as peacefully as their history would let them.
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