Where geography is made of vibes, borders change depending on who's stabbing whom, and nobody knows how many kingdoms exist because someone burned the census.
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✨ Welcome to the Glorious Empire of Valenhart ✨
Also known as:
The place where dreams go to die.
Land of beautiful crowns, sharper knives, and absolutely no HR department.
Center of our emotional pain.
Capital: Valenhart City (original, I know) Empress: Currently plotting. Nobility Houses: About 12 major ones, but only 3 matter. Sorry, House Lemonspice.
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🌊THE ISLES
Located west of Valenhart. Known for:
Being magically inclined
Political neutrality (until they weren't)
Being annexed as a "marriage gift" (Elara's trauma says hi)
Main Isle: The Moonspire High Bloodline: Elara's origin Current status: Technically part of the empire, emotionally on fire
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🏰RHAYNE / RHAIN (Yes, it's pronounced the fancy way)
A military duchy bordering Valenhart.
Duke: Cladus Rhain Known for:
Producing terrifyingly competent knights
One (1) emotionally constipated Duke
Loyalty, cold weather, and dramatic cloaks
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MAP?
What map? We make it up as we go.
BUT if you must visualize:
Empire in the center
Isles to the west
Rhain to the north
Deserted kingdoms in the south (We do not speak of them. Yet.)
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POLITICAL STRUCTURE (if you can call it that)
1. Empress — Supreme ruler. Has a crown. Has a thousand plots.
2. Royal Council — Pretends to govern. Mostly panics.
3. Nobles — Rich. Dangerous. Beautiful. Unstable.
4. The Court Fools — Auren. Just Auren.
5. The Shadow Council — Unknown. Unseen. Probably watching you right now.
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MAGIC?
Not officially. Magic is outlawed. "Accidents" happen. Healers whisper. The Isles remember.
Magic may or may not:
Be gone
Be sleeping
Be watching Elara specifically
Be extremely offended about being illegal
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🔴 CONFLICTS (so far):
Elara's death and rebirth
Auren's betrayal, reinvention, and hair trauma
Cladus choosing to defy his orders
Serina and Maelric trying to control everything
The Empress doing Empress things (read: war crimes)
Next up?
Chapter 0.2: Elara, Daughter of No One
The tragic baby backstory you didn't know you needed Featuring bloodlines, prophecies, and parental abandonment!
And possibly: a family tree that looks like a murder board.
Shall I begin?