Gila

*"Gila is the heart of the Empire where the Emperor himself sits and you are standing in front of an Emperor."* - Aldred

Gila is the capital city of the Empire of Egion housing the throne of the Empire where the Emperor sits and rules from, the city was built on the former kingdom that was inhabited by House Durn before it became the Empire and has since been the capital. The city houses multiple landmarks and trading points however it is most famous for the Hall of Champions where many statues and memorials have been placed from commonly Imperial heroes across history.

## Description

The city of Gila is built around dense forests where many young and upcoming warriors prove themselves by hunting dangerous predators that lurk within them, the city itself is of a very strategic point guarding the southern coast of Imperial borders from any attackers or enemies. Being one the biggest cities Gila also houses the famed Hall of Champions where many of Imperial heroes have had memorials or statues of them placed within to recognise their great achievements across history.

## History

### House Durn

#### Human Kingdoms

Before the time of Ether the Empire was split up into many different provinces with each of them being ruled by a different house or human family with each ruler taking up the title of Lord rather than King seeing as none of them were brave enough to claim the title above the other houses, one of these houses that ruled within the lands of the soon to be Empire was House Durn who ruled in a much smaller city called Gila at the time where Robern was born and learned to become a fighter and leader. After becoming the leader of his house he continued in warring against the other houses in hopes of one day uniting them under one banner, during the wars Robern commissioned more construction on Gila turning it into a true city and kingdom to call home.

#### Ether's Rule

After many years of human kingdoms warring against each other many of the kingdoms would be weakened and distracted unaware of the invasion of Ether who was corrupting the elvish kingdom and setting his sights on the human kingdoms. Amongst the human lords Robern who was the current lord and leader of House Durn recognised the threat of Ether however he realised that he would not be able to stop him on his own and so decided to attempt to call a truce between all the houses in hopes of uniting them against the Lord of Darkness from completely dominating the realm, the talks between the houses would be difficult but with the help of the Atia he would be able to unite the houses forming the makings of the Empire of Egion and organising an army under one banner.

Despite uniting the houses and creating a sizable army to fight the Lord of Darkness Robern still felt that it was not enough and would eventually turn to Luir and Katarath who after being helped by him would return with an army of elves to help the human army against Ether in what would be the biggest battle the realm had seen and resulted in Robern casting Ether back to Irion and bringing the realm peace from the darkness.

#### Reorganisation

For two eras the Empire of Egion was ruled from within Gila by the descendants of Robern from House Durn all wielding the sword Aetherius to signify their rule as Emperor, at the beginning of the third era the current Emperor Varinnus was deemed by the public as not fit for his role being very greedy and potentially corrupt giving rise to many criminals and allowing many independent factions to be made against him within the Empire, as a result of this the Empire began to split into two sides with one side believing that Varinnus should remain an Emperor due to his bloodline to the first Emperor whereas the other side believed in a completely new system of electing an Empire from the five most powerful houses forming a senate like system with all of the houses. Eventually the civil war would come to a close and the Empire of Egion was reorganised into a system of election, the first election saw many houses electing the general Salvir who led the war against the former Emperor who left Aetherius in a stone at the base of Robern's statue, with the first election done the five most powerful houses became the ruling council with the other houses forming a senate underneath them each having their own small or large kingdom within Egion, House Durn was put on the ruling council despite the war as it still had a considerable amount of power alongside this the Emperor would still rule from Gila.