The rise and fall of the Haeterra Empire

"Hmm, if I remember correctly, the Fryll Kingdom is at war with the Haeterra Empire right now."

Tristan could be seen walking through the halls of the "Grand Library" searching for a specific book.

While he was walking Tristan was deep in thought about what to create for the King of the Fryll.

He reached the entrance to the Terran section of the library and bumped into something.

"Oof."

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, are you ok?" said Tristan

"Y-yeah I'm fine," said Sofia while getting up

"Next time watch where you are going, big bro."

"So, what brings you to the Terran section?" asked Sofia

"I was about to go and find the records of the Haeterra Empire so I can get a better idea about the war between Fryll and Haeterra," replied Tristan

"Oh, that's right, Fryll is your last stop as abraxos isn't it?"

"You can find the records of the Haeterra Empire over in the section of "Terran Kingdoms and Empires"," said Sofia with a smile

"Sigh, thanks, it would have taken me forever to navigate through these shelves," said Tristan with a sigh of relief

Once the two "siblings" said their farewells they parted ways.

As Sofia was walking away, Tristan caught a glimpse of the book she was carrying and to his surprise, she was carrying the bible!

'Why the hell does she have the bible? Whatever, I'm sure she is just reading it out of curiosity.'

After a few minutes of walking, Tristan finally reached the section he was looking for.

As he was rummaging through the different books, the sheer number of city-states and young kingdoms that rose and fell on just the Terran continent alone shocked Tristan.

"Ah! there it is."

[Complete Records of the Haeterra Empire from 16,000 AC - present (25,000 AC)]

Now with the book in hand, Tristan walked back to the reading area of the "Grand Library" and sat himself down on one of the supremely comfortable bean bag chairs.

"Well, time to get reading."

...

Between the years 14,000 AC - 18,000 AC saw the rise of many small city-states and young kingdoms in the Terran continent.

One such city-state was the Kingdom of Haeterra, which held two cities under its banner.

The founder, Takron Haeterra had been the leader of the Haeterra Clan which had been led by his family since the creation of the Terrans.

In the year 16,000 AC, Takron had led his clan to a vast open area of plains next to a forest that sat on the coast of a gulf later named the "Gulf of Takron" in his honor.

After establishing the city of Takron, his clan would live in relative peace despite the almost annual attacks from different beasts from the forest.

The land which they settled was extremely rich in nutrients and was a perfect area for farming, the people of the City of Takron had also been some of the first in the continent to start using animal labor in the fields.

They had gotten lucky due to the area they settled was a plains region that was inhabited by not only cattle like cows and sheep but also a breed of common horse called Plains Horses.

Plains horses were horses that had a compact, muscular but refined build, expressive head, and a well-arched neck. They stood at a height varying from 185cm - 200cm.

This breed of horse was adept at not only speed but also had amazing maneuverability and great stamina.

for the first few thousand years, these horses would only be used in the fields, that is, until the need for a cavalry arose.

By using these workhorses and by raising cattle, the people of the Haeterra clan had entered a prosperous era where nobody went hungry, that is, until their northern neighbors the upstart kingdom, the Ylver Kingdom had attacked.

The Ylver Kingdom was a relatively young nation that had been founded just 300 years before.

Their founder and current king, Talo Ylver was a warlord who had been on a power trip ever since he usurped the throne of the then city-state of Ylver from his older brother.

Talo Ylver, despite his faults, was actually a decent ruler, although he was a power-hungry and war-crazed King, he still treated his people with respect, and sometimes he would go and help them out in the fields.

The people of the Ylver Kingdom had seen 300 years of peace and prosperity, that would all come crumbling down once Talo declared war on the wrong people.

In the year 16,070, the now almost century-old settlement had run into its first major obstacle.

In the dead of night, 3,000 warriors led by King Talo had descended into the settlement and started killing the unsuspecting inhabitants.

Due to the night raid coming completely out of the blue, it took a while for the Haeterra defenders to mount a defense against the invaders.

Once the forces of the Haeterra clan had been organized, they launched a counterattack against the enemies with 1,500 warriors.

Usually, an attack of any kind with numbers that are half of the enemy would normally fail miserably, but fortunately for the Haeterrans, most of the Ylver warriors weren't even aura users.

This was huge for the defenders because they had an average strength of 1st tier aura users.

For the next two hours, the Ylver warriors would be pushed back further and further away from the settlement by the superior forces of Haeterra.

Once King Talo realized his forces were getting driven back pretty far, he decided to leave his safe post overlooking the battle and jump in to help.

King Talo Ylver was a 3rd-tier aura user, so once he joined the fray the tides almost instantly turned in favor of the Ylver forces.

Another three hours of battle later and the Haeterra warriors had broken formation and retreated to the settlement.

Seeing this, King Talo got excited and ordered a fast pursuit of the treating forces expecting an easy victory to come soon after.

However, much to the shock of the Ylver invaders, once they reached the outskirts of the settlement, what they saw shocked them.

Surrounding the village was a brand-new crude stone wall!

The Ylver warriors and Talo were stumped on how this was possible.

What the Ylver invaders didn't know, was that the chief of the Haeterra Clan, Takron Haeterra, was a 4th-tier mage specializing in earth magic and manipulation.

using the time bought by his forces, Takron used his magic to create a crude but magnificent wall by the standards of the times.

Seeing this unfathomable wall, the Ylver warrior lost all of their newly gained morale and almost all of them were scared of what would come next and scared they should be.

Noticing the unstable mental state of their foes, the Haeterra defenders launch their last counter-offensive and planned to either drive out these invaders or take them down with them in a final stand.

And so, with a final battle cry from both sides, the climax of this battle would finally come.

The two sides both crashed into each other hoping for victory.

Bronze swords clashed against wooden shields, clangs could be heard all around as the warriors fought with every fiber of their being, and the gruesome sounds of death filled the air.

An hour into the final clash, the two rulers would meet on the battlefield and engage in glorious combat.

Takron would send one earthen spike after another while Talo would use every bit of his battle experience to dodge and try to close the space between the both of them.

Talo's strategy was simple, get close to the mage and cut his head off.

However simple that plan may be, Takron wasn't going to make it easy.

As the duel between the two "monarchs" raged on, both could be seen with some slashes and cuts, with Talo having the more heavy and serious injuries due to him being impaled several times by earthen spikes and getting smashed by pillars of stone.

Throughout the whole bout, Takron had shown a masterful control over his specialized element, not letting up for a second and constantly assaulting Talo with the hopes of ending this battle.

Even as the sun started to rise, the battle continued, a few hours after sunrise, the battle had finally reached an end.

Chief Takron had fired several earth spikes using the rest of his mana, the now exhausted Talo could do nothing but watch as the earth spikes impaled him, finally ending his life and along with it, the battle.

Once the Ylver warriors realized their king had been killed, they almost instantly lost all hope and in turn, dropped their weapons and surrendered.

After the Ylver warriors had all dropped their weapons, the clansmen of Haeterra rounded them up and took them as war slaves.

Yup, you read that right, slaves.

The World of Saxonia just like the earth, wasn't a perfect utopia, there were bound to be those who strayed a little more to the dark side of things.

And while there are and will be many slave traders and even more slaves, the Haeterra clan only took these warriors as "war slaves".

Now I know what you're thinking, they are still called slaves, but instead of having terrible living conditions and being chained into slavery for the rest of their lives, war slaves would be treated as second-class citizens, while that may still seem bad, it is a hell of a lot better than the alternative.

War slaves also wouldn't be slaves for the rest of their lives as mentioned before, they would at a minimum work for 5 years and a max of 10 depending on how many people were lost in the war they were captured.

For those 5-10 years, they would be used as labor when building structures or moving resources, or in some cases, a division comprised solely of war slaves would be made in times of war.

During their times as slaves, they wouldn't be subjected to terrible treatments, they would be given a roof over their heads, a straw bed, and 2 meals a day.

Once the time of servitude was up, they would be given two choices, stay with their previous master and be given a working wage and a new and much better living area, or walk away with a little bit of cash and start their newly free lives.

However, this concept only applies to the Terrans, all of the other races have different ways of treating slaves, that is if they practice slavery. But we'll learn about them later.

Back to the story...

The Haeterra clan would rebuild after the battle and for five years they would consolidate their power and make sure they are ready in case another situation like this ever happened again.

During these five years, the Haeterra settlement became the City-state of Haeterra, ruled by their king, King Takron Haeterra.

Back at the Ylver kingdom, the news of their king's death had reached the people.

Two days and two nights of mourning were enacted for the death of their king.

After that, the sole heir to the throne, the 50-year-old Talo Ylver ll ascended the throne.

Once the five years of cease fire came to an end, now King Takron ordered the invasion of Ylver's capitol city, Tallon Landing.

An army of 4,000 troops marched out of the gates of Takron City with their destination set in their sites.

After 3 days of marching, the Haeterra army led by their king, Takron, had finally reached the makeshift wood and stone walls of Tallon Landing.

Once the sun fell on the 4th night since their departure, the army leaped into action.

The crude and shoddy walls built within the five years of cease-fire did nothing to stop the advance of the now 5th-tier earth mage, King Takron.

King Takron and his retinue of warriors stormed the city and within half an hour, had subdued and captured the city and its residents.

Takron then went into the "castle" where Talo Ylver ll was and dragged him out with his hands and feet bound.

Takron then proceeded to throw Talo ll onto the ground in front of his people and subjects, with one clean strike Takron had beheaded the young king, much to the shock of all of the citizens of Tallon Landing.

After this, Takron would capture the second city under the Ylver banner and go home and start consolidating his rule.

For the next 3,000 years, Haeterra Kingdom saw great prosperity under the descendants of Takron l.

In the year 19,000 AC, King Takron IV declared the start of a great crusade to subdue their pagan neighbors.

At the time, the Haeterra Kingdom was one of the few western nations that followed a form of religion under Sofia, the Terran Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom, however, they knew here as Sovia.

In the year 19,010, the crusade started.

The following years were subjected to a level of bloodshed and carnage never before seen on the Terran continent, however, what the humans would do in the future would make this seem tame.

in the year 23,200 AC, the 4,000 years of conquest had finally come to an end with the formation of the Haeterra Empire under the now, Emperor Ezekial "The Great" a 9th tier mage who was 840 years old.

The amount of land the new western powerhouse had conquered was comparable to the Vraetia Empire, however, what sets them apart is the fast decline of the Haeterra Empire.

In the year 23,347 AC, Emperor Ezekial had passed away due to old age, his successor Emperor Ezekial ll was known to be quite competent back when he was a prince, so the future of the Empire seemed to be in good hands, that is, for now at least.

In the year 23,830 AC, Emperor Ezekial ll died of mysterious causes and was succeeded by his son Emperor Takron VI.

The incompetence of the new emperor was quickly shown a couple of centuries after his ascent to the throne.

In the year 24,000 AC, the fall of the Haeterra Empire had truly begun.

After another four centuries of decline under Emperor Takron VI "The Foolish", a coup led by his four sons came to fruition.

In the year 24,400 AC, Emperor Takron VI was killed in a coup by his four sons.

All seemed well now that a more competent ruler, Emperor Takron VII, sat on the throne.

Within the next decade, the true fall of the Haeterra Empire happened, the three younger brothers of the emperor all led their own rebellions against the crown and won.

Only the southern half of the original grand empire remained ruled by the imperial crown, the northern half, however, had been split up among the three brothers.

The three new kingdoms were named, the Fellis Kingdom, the Loris Kingdom, and the Azera Kingdom, each kingdom being named after its new ruler.

The state of the empire declined even more until the year 24,700 AC, this year would mark the start of the war between the Haeterra Empire and their southern neighbors, the Fryll Kingdom.

The reason this war started was due to Takron VII trying to gain some glory for the empire.

and for the first three centuries, the war went surprisingly well for the Haeterra Empire, it even looked like the opportunity for a full-scale invasion of the Western Peninsula was coming to fruition.

However, the tide of the war would soon shift when the King of the Fryll Kingdom was visited by a mysterious stranger and was gifted the divine weapon, the "Spear of Conquest".