The rise of the Leothen Empire

From the ashes of the last Great Demon war would emerge the largest empire modern Solesia has seen, only to be rivaled with the rule of the ancients themselves several millenia ago. The story of the empire begins with Duke Harold Leothen in the later years of the Great Demon War. At the time he was one fo the surviving noble houses of the once great kingdom of Altesia. Ravaged and destroyed by the Archdemons armies he would consolidate much of the kingdoms remaining territory and use his newly created army of magiteck soldiers to offer protection to his fellow surviving nobles. Many of the remaining nobles would gladly pledge their fealty to Duke Leothen thanks to the terror the demonic hordes had imparted on them and their people.

Duke Leothen would vastly increase the size of his land between the nobles who pledged to him and the lands he would liberate from the demons on his march to defeat the horde. By the time the archdemon was defeated His kingdom would encompass nearly the entire southeastern peninsula as well as much of the eastern shore and a vast amount of land inland. While no one truly walked away from the war unscathed Duke Harold Leothen would be the closest to do so, and possibly become the most powerful man in history because of it.

Shortly after the archdemons defeat the liberated lands would form into the fledgling Leothen Empire helmed by the now Emperor Harold Altesia Leothen, choosing to take the name of his fallen kingdom to show how he rose from the ashes a new and stronger man. Thanks to the ire of the archdemon many of the bloodlines with the strongest magic in his kingdom had bene eradicated leaving the new empire with fewer mages than the other surviving kingdoms. It is believed this is the reason the emperor chose to task his greatest engineers and scholars to study and expand upon this newfound magiteck.

The first few years afterwards would encompass the empire looking inward to rebuild that which had been devastated in the war. However thanks to advancements in magiteck and a highly loyal populace who saw Leothen as a savior from the horrors they had faced for nearly two generations the Empire would enter a golden age. It was thanks to these two factors that the Empire would not only recover but thrive while others kingdoms were slow to rebuild or fail to all together.

Seeing the still weakened state of his neighbors Emperor Leothen would plan the first crusade of reclamation. He targeted the remaining nobles who did not yield to him and claimed he only desired to spread the prosperity of the Empire to their suffering neighbors, saving them from their inept and incompetent lords. With this the first crusade of reclamation would begin and subsequently end within only a few months as many of the villagers of his rival nobles envied their new imperial neighbors and wished for such luxuries for themselves. Some of the nobles were even offered up by their courts in exchange for being spared of any fighting. This would solidify the Empire in the eyes of their neighbors as not only a legitimate and enduring nation but as a potential threat and fear of further expansions spread.

These fears would quickly become reality as Emperor Leothen would embark on the second crusade of reclamation citing old Altesian maps that showed land in their neighbors kingdoms that were once part of the fallen kingdom. This crusade would last nearly a year as unlike the previous territories which shared a history and kinship these new ones viewed themselves as independent and not part of the empire or its fallen kingdoms history.

A third crusade was promised but would inevitably not occur as many of the Empires nobles pleaded with the Emperor to allow them a time of peace. This however would only ferment the fear of expansion to the empires neighbors who feared the emperor was waiting for the right time to strike.

The next three decades would go by with little conflict aside from a handful of towns and villages that came under imperial control. By now an older Harold was tired and no longer had the desire to expand and conquer. He had sought to expand the strength of the empire internally through the use of further magiteck research. He also would offer land and positions of power to any who’s bloodline held a strong connection to magic in order to replenish the nations nearly nonexistent mages. These projects would only serve to increase the fears of the empires neighbors who believed these were signs of an impending invasion.

Tensions would burst when Emperor Harold Altesia Leothen passed and control of the empire fell to his eldest surviving son Tiberius Leothen now Emperor Tiberius Altesia Leothen who would begin the tradition on taking the name Altesia as part of the title of Emperor. The neighboring kingdoms of Halifaux and Illia would march their forces into Imperial territory claiming to stop a new tyrant before he could strike. Unfortunately for them the Empire would unveil its newest creation, the Imperial Aeroship.

While airships had existed to some extend in the past many were either enchanted sailing vessels or held aloft by large ballons filled with air sprites, the Imperial Aeroship used crystals to control massive propellers that held these massive ships aloft. They also were mounted with canons which in the past were difficult to move and held normally for defensive fortresses. These new vessels could not only travel vast distances in a short amount of time but bring armies with them without the need to exhaust them with long marches. Some were even designed to almost exclusively transport magiteck soldiers in the thousands as well as siege equipment that would normally have to be built on the site of a siege.

After the defeat of the Halifaux and Allian armies emperor Tiberius declared the empire needed to enlighten their barbaric neighbors and thus began expanding the empire at a rate his father could only have dreamed of. Over the next twenty years Emperor Tiberius would expand the Empire near to its current borders. As a result of this vast expansion he would indirectly create the empires greatest political rival the Otorinese Republic. A collection of kingdoms who from fear of the empires expansion would band together in hopes of resisting the empire should it turn its gaze to their lands. This expansion would end with his death and control would pass to his son Gaius Altesia Leothen.

Gaius had been heavily influenced in his youth by the grand engineers and scholars of the empire and chose to end the constant need to expand and instead looked inward in an attempt to create another golden age of the empire. His reign would see the quality of life inside the empires borders increase and even managed to make peace with many of the remaining border kingdoms his father had threatened and scared.

This peace would last for over forty years until he was assassinated by demonic assassins who had been biding their time since the fall of their archdemon nearly ninety years prior. This would pass leadership to his young son Azrius at the age of 16.

Now Azrius Altesia Leothen the new Emperor would blame his neighbors for consorting with demons and holding his grandfathers ambitions against his father. He would then use the empires armies to expand to its current borders and began exerting power outside of the Empire with an almost army only few could stand against.

One such group was the Crimson Wings of the kingdom pf Phelon. Seeing them as one of the last remaining vestiges of the old world Azrius sent his greatest tactician Sentinel 14 to acquire the kingdom of Phelon and either obtain the Crimson Wings or obliterate them.

Being one of the orders who had existed since the last Great Demon War the Crimson Wings were far above the average army of Solesia and would lead a campaign against Sentinel 14 and his almost completely mechanized army. After nearly a year of fighting Sentinel was able to finally trap and eliminate the Crimson wings in a battle said to be more destructive than nearly all those fought against the demonic hordes.

This leads us to the present state of the empire with the entire eastern half of Solesia firmly under their grasp and even a strong grip on their neighbors. Leaving the Otorinese Republic as the last bastion against their meteoric expansion.

While the empire may not hold as much land as the Archdemon did this does not diminish their power. Only time will tell what future lies in store for the Leothen Empire and Solesia as a whole.