Astoria

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King's City, with its cheery houses, its universities that were hailed as the best in the empire, its dazzling architecture, and the palace perched at the top of a waterfall, overlooking the streets, was easily the crown jewel of Astoria, in more ways than one. Not only did the king of the empire call that particular city home, but it served as a rallying point for Astoria.

Three major rivers converged at the site, flowing together into the dazzling, if not somewhat intimidating waterfall that dumped its hundreds of gallons every day, falling from beneath the palace as if the beautiful building were emptying itself. The large river that resulted from the convergence flowed out, out as far as the eye could see, to the horizon, and eventually to the ocean. Trade ships struggled up the river against the current to deliver their wares, then floated downriver once more laden with goods from the capitol to take to the southern ports along the coast. The end of one journey found the ships repeating their quest up the river, a cycle of trade that kept the kingdom and its cities supplied.

Not always did King's City exist just so, with the crown palace ruling the empire from the top of its waterfall throne.

Before Astoria existed, the land that now was encompassed by the empire was composed of eight various small kingdoms and factions, each convinced that they deserved to hold power in the land. Fighting was rampant and crime was everywhere. Each leader tried to assassinate his other foes, all while attempting to wrest control of more land for themselves.

Finally, the leader of the largest kingdom saw that nothing was being accomplished and, following a maxim tried and true, believed that the people of the lands could work better together, concentrating to improve their homes, routes of transportation and trade, and overall lives. A few of the leaders agreed with this, and, with the combined support of the kingdoms on his side, Rupert the First of the House Westerholme used small forces of soldiers to convince the rest and so became the first king of Astoria.

Astoria, as an empire, was peaceful at first.

Just as Rupert the First had hoped and wished for, roads leading all over the kingdom were built. Trade routes were established along the river and across land. Farmers produced food and were prosperous while craftsmen focused on building wares. Universities for higher learning were built and led to great discoveries in engineering, such as the lifts that provided wares to the palace with a shorter way of traveling up the waterfall, and medicine, such as discoveries about how to provide healing and prevent infection for soldiers with grievous battle wounds.

People were happy.

However, as Rupert died, and his son became king, and as he died and his son became king, and so on, down the line, Astoria fell upon the same rocks that many empires fall on.

Power became too much of a desire.

As a result, the young empire reached for more territory, trampling peaceful kingdoms outside itself in the wake of its lust. With power hungry kings at its helm, Astoria became an empire known for war and conquest. Universities were closed when all funding was diverted to the King's large army. Crime began to seep back into the lands and even King's City began to fall into disrepair, areas of the city falling prey to the desires of men and the sins they might commit.

And the empire continued to grow with the winning of conquest after conquest.

The height of the empire's dark times and high conquest came with the rule of Rupert the Second, a man named for the founder of the empire, but unlike him in every way. Where his namesake wanted peace, the second Rupert enjoyed nothing more than stirring up trouble on the borders, flaunting his power and conquering the kingdoms that lay in the way of Astoria's expanding borders. He drank to excess and toasted to his good health and his empire's longevity.