Blades of Ashes - Prologue. Prologue

Part I

Troubles in Serene Waters

An Introduction

Once upon a time, there existed an empire named Lyria. The Empire of Lyria was a progressive collection of six states governed by a Basileus, named so, for he was a king of all kings. An illustrious parliament in the capital city of Genad helped the Basileus manage the empire and its people.

The prime minister, assisted by fifteen cabinet ministers, led Lyria’s imperial government and answered to the Basileus. The imperial parliament had almost two hundred members sourced from the six states of Lyria. Each member represented a county in their state and was elected by the people of their state. They hoped to send more resources to their State King and better their communities.

The Basileus devolved governance, as he could not be in each state simultaneously. The six states each had a State King who ran a state government that answered to the Basileus’s imperial parliament.

State Kings forwarded pressing troubles at the state level to the imperial parliament in the capital city called Genad.

The imperial parliament also handled matters of the empire’s general infrastructure, diplomacy with neighboring kingdoms to the west, the empire’s financial health, and security.

The imperial parliament also offered aid to the states in the empire as needed. Politics under the State King were mild and easygoing, depending on the people’s ambition.

The capital city of Genad was a different beast altogether. It was the center of power in the Lyria Empire.

The place that nurtured wealth and influence. A prime minister was viewed almost in a status matching that of Basileus in his imperial palace. A member of parliament could aspire to join the prime minister’s cabinet and, with it, have the right to move billions of gold denaris to their home state at will.

The Capital City, Genad, had grown into a whirlwind of constant power struggles among political allies and military officials.

In the background of this progressive and active governance, Lyria remained an empire. The people called the leader of their empire the Basileus, a king of kings. He had the power to protect the people by commanding the armies and bringing justice to the people by punishing those who broke the laws. Even the prime minister was wary of Basileus’s latent power and did not push his greed too far.

Lyria’s Basileus came from the House of Adertha. Adertha had produced fifty Basileus.

At the end of the Lyria Imperial Year 1335, the reigning Basileus, Rokas Adertha, abdicated his throne due to health concerns and made his son, Dio Adertha, the new Basileus.

Dio was only twenty-five years old. By any courtier’s standards, he was young but knew how to forge powerful alliances and grow the military. He was confident his alliances would help him retain power and grow the Lyria Empire.

As his reign grew, a sinister plot hatched in the dark gained momentum, placing the empire in dire straights. A plot that would strain Dio’s friendship with his strongest ally…to the breaking point.