#as far as they're concerned their empire stretches all the way back to Cinareth

[ailelie]

Utterly Unimportant History of the Gisalic-Liuva Empire

Cinareth Gisalic founded the Gisalic empire and had two children by different lovers: Nyfain and Elidir.

When Cinareth died at 48, Nyfain became empress. With her husband, Urien, she had three children: Owein, Arddun, and Ryth.

Her brother, Elidir, married Dwya and had two children: Melis and Verica.

Rather than choose her successor, Nyfain posed a contest for her children. While Owein did strive, her efforts were easily eclipsed by her youngest brother's. Melis, upset that Ryth was seemingly going to take control without a serious opponent, decided to participate in the contest as well.

When Nyfain died at 56 before choosing her successor, this sparked a war between those who supported Ryth and those who supported Melis. This is known as the Blood War and it lasted for approximately 43 years of intermittent bloodshed.

During this time, Ryth and Melis each ruled their own factions. Ryth married Helia and had three children: Valia, Cein, and Bryc. His heir was Cein who married Tanora and had one child: Rian.

Meanwhile, Melis married Ennar and also had three children: Beremund, Eurich, and Amal. Her heir was Amal who married Cunoarda. Amal had one child: Umyra.

Ultimately, Umyra won the Blood War and the empire continued under her branch of the family. The empire's name changed, however, from the Gisalic to the Liuva empire.

Umyra married Edin and together they adopted two children: Oduulf and Eltha. Eltha became empress at 33 and stepped down after 20 years.

Eltha married Theodric and had two children: Agneta and Edulf. Edulf became emperor at 30 years old. Edulf impregnated a woman, Miriam, when he was 18, and had a son: Wilarich. He never married Miriam, but treated her as a beloved mistress. Ten years later, he married Alys and had a daughter: Matilda.

Edulf died before choosing his heir. Matilda was his trueborn child, but Wilarich was his firstborn.

This is known as the Bower War and lasted for 69 years. During this time, the empire was effectively split in two.

Wilarich married Sarra had a daughter: Ithica. Ithica never married, but did become pregnant once, giving birth to Adan. Adan married Elena of Nyfain's line (Rian's great x3 granddaughter). Adan and Elena had one daughter: Katerina.

Meanwhile, Matilda married Nico and had two children: Helisa and Milus. Helisa married Grimbald and had three children: Talia, Osmund, and Randulf.

During the war, Wilarich, Ithica, Adan, and Katerina ruled one half of the empire while Matilida, Helisa, and Talia ruled the other half.

Ultimately, though, Katerina reunited the empire and restored the original name: Gisalic Empire in honor of her mother. She married Cyrus and had three children: Maura (her heir), Felix, and Rosalia. She also enforced primogeniture to avoid future succession wars.

Maura married Geren and her heir was Tobias who became emperor at 23. Tobias married Amanda and his heir was Imogen. Power then passed from Imogen to her grandson, Edmund. And, from Edmund to his granddaughter, Gwendolen.

Gwendolen took over at 21 and was a very harsh empress. This led to a major uprising when she was 32. The war lasted 17 years and led to a new nation splitting off from the empire. This nation is Astelan, which is where the story is set (I told you this history was unimportant).

The war ended with Gwendolen's public execution and Enid taking over as empress. Enid is of Matilda's line and is Talia's great-great-granddaughter.

Enid's line ruled for several generations with the following leaders: Morgan, Gavin, Cai, Ranulf, Cateline, Elias, Warrick, and Alexander.

This point the Hidden Thorn war took place. Madelyn, a descendant of Gwendolen, led a coup against Alexander and seized control of the throne. Prior to her coup, Madelyn had hid her heritage and was Alexander's fiancee.

As a sign of her reign, Madelyn changed the empire name back to Liuva Empire, which it remains to current day.

Madelyn reigned for 60 years, passing power down to her granddaughter: Amyra.

342 more years passed. During that time, the empire did experience another succession war that led to three different nations operating independently for generations.

Then, the heirs of two of the three nations (Sofia and Malcolm) married and, together, conquered the third nation. They kept the name Liuva Empire.

Their grandson, Wieland, is the current emperor. Rosalind (the protagonist's aunt) is Wieland's bastard daughter.

The names of the five days of the week are named for major heroes in imperial history: Arrdun, Ennar, Umyra, Oduulf, and Ithica.