The Empire

The Empire's castle.

**The Empire**, formerly known as *"*Somewhere" or "Somewhere-Empire", is an absolute diarchy that reigns large parts of the Bingus's Love SMP.

It was originally created as a permanent alliance between the Valhalla-Clan and Somewhere (City) by the factions' respective leaders, Illios and Fallen.

After their forces had been united, it was decided to restore an old castle that belonged to the long-gone Kingdom of Hod and make it the centre of the Empire's political power. A city to house citizens and foreign merchants alike formed around the castle.

The Empire is known for its rich history, its prosperity and strong influence on main events.

## History

Before the merge, The Empire was two separate clans. *Somewhere* and *Valhalla.*

Somewhere started as a small town and clan, that eventually grew bigger, and bigger in size. Fallen being it's leader, he continued to build on this town of his and attracted many of the people around, eventually making the clan one largest. Though, having such a large, and known clan, you tend to make enemies. Eventually, after some time, Fallen met another leader by the name of who will be his ally, Illios.

Valhalla also being a large group, lived on a floating island. Together they thrived, being known as the clan that took on the skies. These clan members explored quite a bit, as traveling was a main hobby of theirs. Stumbling on underground ruins, water temples, and eventually the old run down castle of Hod.

After some time, Illios and Fallen decided to strive for power, and bring their clans together for a greater good. Together they worked to look for a home for their newly made Somewhere-Valhalla clan. They took on the task of restoring the castle. For being the largest known clan in the lands of Bingus, Illios and Fallen needed to make a governing system that controlled all of these members. That is how the dual hierarchy came into play, and how Fallen and Illios because Emperor and Empress- as sworn allies of course.

From the moment they raised the flag of The Empire into the air, was when the most powerful clan came into play.

## Politics

Due to the merging of two factions, both of which had their own hierarchical political order, an absolute diarchy emerged;

The crown forms the head of the state; The empress and the emperor share the sole government power, with little to no democratically representation and no power division. Despite this, there have been occasions where small scale elections were held or petitions to inquire about the general opinion.

The laws regarding origin rights can be considered quite progressive; Freedom of religion, speech and recreational drug use are seen as very important. All citizens of The Empire stand under protection of the royal guard and can make use of their basic rights such as demanding an audience with the emperor or the empress. Murder, theft and treason are serious delicts, punishable with a prison sentence, execution or even expatriation, the forceful removal of citizenship.

## Involvement in Lore

The Empire is one of the main factions that interacts both with the Shard Arc and the Zodiac Arc.

### Shard Arc

In the early days of the Shard, not long after Kasumira first got infected by it, Haishaku asked Ajan and Illios for help to find her friends who had vanished in the Shard's crater. The three of them traveled to the Shard and after some inspections with little results, Ajan and Illios excused themselves with the promise of supporting Haishaku in finding Kasumira. Later that day, both the paladin and the empress herself expressed strange symptoms, which would later turn out to be first signs of the Shard's infection; Ajan's right hand had turned black, while Illios could hear a voice calling for help.

Uneasiness made its way through the ranks of The Empire at the possible curse of two high ranking officials. Not long after, the Shard was deemed a threat and visitation was prohibited. In an afford to restrict its spread and anyone else coming to close, troups were stationed in the sourrounding mountains. Their task was to build a wooden wall encasing the area.

WIP

### Zodiac Arc

**Characters:**

* Fallen
* Illios
* Ajan

**Locations**

* The Castle