Part One: The Three Sisters.

Upon the continent of Ys, the tribes of the Daughters of Ys had grown strong through the intermarriage of their cousins. Though it had been outlawed for sister to be with sister, there was no such laws prohibiting the union of cousins.

By this the tribes became nations lead by the Daughters of Ys and when they left, the closest family - the purest lineage - of the Daughters were looked upon as the rightful successors.

Ys had not appointed a successor for her rule, there was to be a council which never formed for the Falls had ended the idea of it. By the time the Falls had been resolved, Ys disappeared abruptly and the Daughters did not come to agreement on how the council should be formed or if it should.

It was Auel who first brought the sisters together in agreement by marrying her grand-daughter to the grand-daughter of I’elae and F’esat. The three way marriage was not appreciated by the grand-daughters but peace was maintained for a generation.

The grand-daughters, in order to seal their peace, selected a single vymen to bear their first children by and thus bore three sisters that would unify their family.

The Three Sisters grew up together, friends as much as family, and though their mothers would have other children by other suitors and spent very little time together, the sisters were inseparable. And when they came of age they were given power to rule their nations as their mothers had all agreed to.

Elys, Queen of Auel, grew to be a woman of steel and stone and fire and storm and maelstrom, and claimed for herself two cumale consorts from each of her sister’s courts and married five women of the courts of Auel to form the first five noble houses of the nation.

Y’lana, Queen of I’elae, grew to be a woman as soft as air and as graceful as water, as strong as stone and as passionate as fire, and claimed for herself two female consorts from each of her sister’s courts and by her beauty had no shortage of cumale lovers.

Vi’tel, Queen of F’esat, grew to be a woman as bright as the sun and as stoic as the moons, and claimed for herself no consorts, nor husbands nor wives. Vi’tel’s health declined rapidly and so had instead elected her sisters to be her heirs.

However, upon the birth of her first child, Y’lana miscarried and died, leaving no heir. It was decided that the rules of succession would be followed and so Elys and Vi’tel were made joint-rulers to decide upon an heir very likely from Elys’ family.

Elys bore only one daughter by her I’elaen consorts and she named them Y’lanala in honour of her sister. Upon the birth of Y’lanala however, Vi’tel succumbed to their long illness and so Elys became Queen of Auel, I’elae and F’esat.

Upon the throne of F’esat, Elys crowned her first daughter by her F’esati consorts, they were named Vi’telys in honour of her sister and their childhood jealousy of her name.

Not wishing to give her daughters competition to their thrones, given the challenges they would face growing up, Elys grew distant from her consorts and instead spent her time with her wives. She was yet to have a daughter to lead Auel, and her wives grew more and more impatient as several years passed.

Rumours that she had given herself to the comforts and was unwilling to bear an heir for Auel grew until she was caught with a commoner and bore by them a child. She gave her lover a title and a house, and named her daughter Elysia, crowning them heir despite the illegitimately of their birth.

The pains of her third birth troubled Elys greatly, and she was unable to bear another child. Her life, like the lives of her sisters was short and she died in her bed surrounded by her daughters - who were only teenagers at the time.

Part Two: The Tragedy of I’elae.

As soon as their mother had passed, the three sisters were plunged into civil wars. The noble houses of the nations did not accept that these foreign girls should rule at such a young age. Many deemed it that they should allow caretakers to rule in their stead until they were worthy.

Elysia, who was born of an illegitimate birth and of low-born blood, fought the hardest. She abandoned her throne to her aunt to save her father’s life before taking all those loyal to her and marching to I’elae to help her eldest sister retain their throne.

Elysia and Y’lanala were close, they had been since Elysia’s birth. It was only natural that Elysia was given command of I’elae’s armies and she found no resistance amongst them for she had proven herself more than capable. Together they marched to F’esat to secure the throne there for Vi’telys.

Vi’telys was not as close to Elysia as Y’lanala, and thought their companionship with one another bordering upon unclean. Vi’telys however sent with Elysia the army of F’esat to claim Elysia’s rightful throne. It was a much more violent and bloody war, for though Elysia’s aunts sided with her, the petty nobles did not and only saw the foreign armies as proof of their rightful claims.

But once the three thrones were claimed, they were free to rule unopposed.

Vi’telys returned to F’esat, taking with them two consorts - one from Auel and one from I’elae - and ruled as a fair and just leader. However, as they grew older they sank deeper into the teachings of their ancestors and accepted into themselves what they believed were the inalienable truths of Dualism.

Elysia and Y’lanala returned to their respective nations, but they had always been close and so spent entire seasons together visiting each other’s lands. They both grew discomforted by Vi’telys’ growing fanaticism as it distanced them as sisters, but also because of what it meant for the two of them.

Both Elysia and Y’lanala took a great deal of time to even consider taking consorts as was expected of them. For a long time it was considered that they were both extremely fussy but the truth was that the two found more comfort together and did not care for the idea of being with vymen.

When rumours of their affair grew, Elysia tried to silence them by finding for herself her consorts. But Y’lanala could not stomach the idea and so it came down to Vi’telys and Elysia providing them.

The vyman sent by Elysia is said to have known about their affair, but the vyman sent by Vi’telys did not. When the vyman discovered the affair, he murdered Y’lanala because of her heresy and greatly wounded the consort Elysia had sent.

Upon hearing of this, Elysia marched with her army upon I’elae despite it being an act of war with both I’elae and F’esat. She took the capital and upon capturing the murderer she crushed his skull with her own two hands before the public of I’elae.

Vi’telys rounded up the man’s family and had them gutted and hung with their own entrails before nailing their dead bodies to the walls of the family’s estate until they rotted. It took only three weeks and afterwards the estate was burned down, and every stone upturned and crushed before being thrown into the sea. Every record of their existence was erased and any who claimed to know of the family was treated to the same fate.

Elysia and Vi’telys met to bury their sister, and to agree upon what would become of I’elae. Y’lanala had not yet appointed an heir other than Elysia, and rumours found Vi’telys of why that was.

Elysia knew exactly what Y’lanala had wanted, and so she bore the truth to her sister and was shunned as heretical and unclean. Vi’telys vowed that no product of an incestuous heretic would sit upon the throne of I’elae for it would bring about a new curse.

Elysia, who blamed Vi’telys for Y’lanala’s murder, would never allow her sister’s memory be tarnished by a rebellious ingrate turned fanatic. She had loved Y’lanala more greatly than Vi’telys could ever imagine and would appoint their child to I’elae’s throne.

For Elysia was with Y’lanala’s child, by the ancient magics thought lost. Elysia had formed the first of the new generation of mancers - those whom could use magic. As weak as it was, and as limited as it was, unable to be used to shape the world, or as a weapon of war, it was enough to allow her and Y’lanala to have a daughter.

That daughter was born, Sarae, eight months after Y’lanala’s death.

Part Three: The Battle of the Roses.

Vi’telys, hoping to strike while her sister was weak, marched her army into I’elae.

Still weak from the birth of Sarae, Elysia marched with her army to meet them upon the rivers of the capital. There, dressed as a vyman, Elysia taunted Vi’telys into single combat.

Assured of her own victory, Vi’telys rode forth. Elysia, still weak, would be no match even though they were the superior fighter.

But before the battle could begin, Elysia presented Vi’telys with a rose from Y’lanala’s garden and invited them to meet Sarae. They refused and crushed the rose and warned that they would kill Sarae as the product of incest and heresy.

So Elysia presented to them another rose, and again Vi’telys crushed it in anger. But the thorns were poisoned and once the fight began, it was in Elysia’s favour. Realising something was wrong, Vi’telys retreated to her army and begun the battle proper.

Upon the river-plains the two armies clashed, and though she was wounded in the fighting, Elysia was victorious. In the aftermath, Vi’telys had fled and hope for peace was gone.

Elysia returned to her daughter, and the people of I’elae saw her victory as proof she was as a goddess. Her Daughter would be Queen of all the nations and the nobles all pledged their loyalty to the infant Sarae.

Elysia, despite her wounds, chased Vi’telys across the desert and into the lands of F’esat.

Part Four: The War for F’esat.

Vi’telys, shaken by her defeat, rallied a new army. She had become convinced that Elysia was corrupted by the Dae’haruvas and that there could be no recourse but death or victory.

When Elysia marched, wounded and still weak from childbirth, across the desert and into F’esat, it was only further proof of this evil. A child born of two mothers now sat upon the throne of I’elae as a mockery of the Dae, the Daughters and the Primogenitors. Worse yet, a new curse would descend upon the world and scour it of humanity.

Elysia met the armies of F’esat a dozen times and each battle grew more bloody and more violent. A dozen times she strode into battle and came face to face with Vi’telys before driving them aside and scattering their armies. Never capturing them, she continued to chase.

Finally after nearly two years, Elysia reached the capital of F’esat and found the fields burned and the outer walls unmanned. She marched into the city unopposed to find none left alive but bodies nailed upon every wall rotting in the summer heat.

Many more had taken their own lives, the last writings foretold of grim futures once Elysia took the city.

Elysia marched upon the palace to find the inhabitants dead, the animals and the vymen poisoned and the throats of the women slit. The only living things were the insects that had come to feed on the bodies.

Vi’telys was no-where to be found, nor had her army been accounted for. And so Elysia left her army in F’esat to secure the remaining towns and bury the dead, and she left for I’elae expecting to encounter her sister on the way there.

In the mountains of F’esat, Elysia confronted her sister and for the first time since the Battle of the Roses they spoke. Elysia offered them a rose from the gardens of Vi’telys’ palace - the same roses that Y’lanala had grown and the same roses that grew in the gardens of Auel’s capital. There could be no peace, but she could not fight them.

They spoke for hours, and Elysia bore her soul to her sister until they would listen. Then she embraced them and forgave them for all the evils they had committed against Y’lanala’s memory.

Vi’telys could not forgive her sister for all the evils they had committed and all the people that had died. And so the two sisters fought. Had it not been for the fact that Elysia had never recovered from Sarae’s birth, or from the many wounds from all the battles it had taken to reach this point - the Queen of Auel would have easily defeated her sister.

Elysia barely survived, and was forced to kill her sister. She was captured by the F’esati army and turned over to the nobles that had survived. Only by the intervention of her F’esati consorts did she escape.

Elysia returned to I’elae, and with Sarae she made her way back to Auel to recover. The three Queendoms had been unified under her rule but it had cost her two sisters and countless lives. Upon her return she declared Sarae the future Empress of the Three Queendoms and had planned to bring Eoucia under her control.

Elysia left her daughter in the care of her aunts whom had broken themselves so trustworthy and married her loyal consorts to her cousins. She ventured to I’elae to visit Y’lanala’s shrine, and died on the rivers of I’elae too exhausted to continue.

Part Five: The Rule of Sarae.

Sarae was raised by her aunts amongst the children of the court, her claim to the throne forgotten as the council of five established by Elys two generations ago ruled in her stead.

At the age of five she survived her first assassination attempt and saw as one of the mothers of her cousins was executed for their treason. She would survive three more attempts before the age of eight when she ascended to the throne as Empress.

By the age of ten she was proven fit enough to make minor decisions and she took full command by thirteen. She grew to trust her aunts as advisors, but it was in a young general by the name of Keti that she first knew love. Only fifteen years of age, she married Keti and faced rebellion because of it.

Keti was Eoucian, they enjoyed their position because Eoucians were known to be good fighters and better generals, but to marry one was deemed unfit for a ruler to do. Particularly one that was herself born of incest and had no true claim to F’esat where her suitors should come from.

When she refused to annul their marriage, a noble rebellion erupted across the Empire, and she was forced to put it down. She treated the traitors as Vi’telys had and gave Keti command of her armies. Keti proved more than able to handle the uprisings and returned to Sarae before the year had ended.

Upon the third year of her marriage to Keti, Sarae met and fell in love with another - a trader from Rohvana named Chloe. Sarae and Chloe’s affair was a poorly held secret, and rumours abounded that Keti was a blissful idiot about the entire thing.

Keti knew but she was unable to salvage her reputation and began to lose respect from her officers. The army became disordered, and only by foreign mercenaries did a second string of rebellions get put down.

Auel and Rohvana became allies under the rule of Sarae, though with Keti’s reputation slipping she did not demand enough respect to bring Eoucia into the Empire peacefully. Sarae’s love for Keti prevented war as a way to integrate Eoucia into the Empire and so they would remain divided.

Keti was given charge of the royal guard, and Chloe was given charge of commerce. The aunts that Sarae had trusted were slowly replaced by her wives as they died or age infirmed them. She placed upon the council allies and enemies, and did her duty to her people by having three daughters.

Together with her wives, she raised her daughters and when they came of age she chose the most qualified of them to sit as Queen, and told the others to be their advisors.

Sarae died of old age, comfortable in her bed beside both her wives. Keti would die not long after, of illness and many years later after seeing her adopted daughters settled in to ruling the Empire, Chloe passed away in her sleep.

Next Chapter: The Geography: Stychia - Overview