The Garden of Eternal Heroes

> ***"When their deeds are fulfilled, they rest at last."***
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> **-First words found upon entering the garden-**
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## **Overview**

A place of respite, or a tomb of lies. A sanctuary or mourning, or a barren rock overgrown and abandoned. The infamous **Garden of Eternal Heroes** remains both a harmonious cemetery for fallen nationalists and controversial place of murderers and genocidal leaders alike. The garden, located in a hilly inhabited region of New-Earth, in the Eternal Empire’s homeworld, is the one of the most ‘sacred’ locations found within territories of the Western Galactic Core. The place acts as a cemetery of indicated heroes of the Empire, let it be for heroic actions on the battlefield, explorations across the galaxy, adventurous endeavours for the homeland, political steering of the nation or any other deed referred to as ‘heroic’ by the entrusted government and monarch in power. Whilst small and secluded to most of the low-earning population, the garden remains one of the most beautiful and peaceful marvels built by humanity in the new galaxy, colonized after the Exodus of Old Earth, centuries before. As a location of great spiritual, historical and traditional burials, the Garden of Eternal Heroes was place for many meetings of high standing individuals, as well as it continues to be a ceremonial place for entitlements and changes of leadership when the times change. A location to seek proudness, it represents within its lakes overgrown hedges Imperial nationalism, achievements and perseverance; if not another entire hidden description far more obscure than the previous ones.

For all the well spoken citations regarding the Garden of Heroes, however, nations far beyond the border of the Empire criticise the rash and ignorant approach to blind admiration and adoration of leaders responsible for some of the worst atrocities of recorded history, not only within the Imperial territory, but far beyond its reaches. Places like the Commonwealth, Entente and even the young Thadrakos Star Union understand the sanctuary of fallen western humans to be a political move, to provoke a martyrization and an holy status for individuals mentioned or found within the vicinity of the garden. Let those thoughts be truthful or not, it cannot be denied that heroes found within the cemetery are nothing less than resting legends for the common people down below in the cities; it makes the place become  a final warning to those who seek disrupting the eternal peace of the ones now enjoying their glory in another place.

## **A Place of Respite**

The Garden of Eternal Heroes is speculated to have entered planning and construction roughly in the early 2160s, in a time when Lord Regent Arabella Allerton found herself enjoying a growing economy and rising spirits amongst the Imperial population. The First Era on the west saw many efforts of restructuring and balancing within governmental institutions throughout New Earth, a situation that became much frequent and often delayed the initial layout of the park in the lone mountainous island it was intended to be constructed in. By the 2180s, the project was almost abandoned at once after some reallocation of funds towards the Eternal Ministry, but continued once more when Lord Regent Allerton became ill and suddenly fell weaker and weaker by each passing day, gaining then its unique ‘Overgrown’ feeling when being inaugurated in 2189. With the passing of the Lord Regent, however, the suitable place for her burial was then chosen in her honour; The first human buried in the garden of heroes at last, a legacy which would be carried forwards for centuries and beyond.

With the appointment of Lord Regent Thomas Ashbury and the arduous passing of the years, it became clear the true potential of the place as a holy sanctuary for great accomplishments and deeds to be forever remembered. Great architects, diplomats, artists and even mythical stories were suddenly getting included, in a time when the Empire snowballed itself forwards into an optimistic boom of exploration and diplomacy systems abroad. But with the sudden change of leadership for Lord Regent Jacob Williams, so did the newer initiative for inclusions of men and women in the sanctuary alter; warriors of the Empire. The drastic and long lasting wars which the Eternal Empire took part upon were bloody and enormous in scale like never seen before, and with that came the hopes of eternalizing those who had given their lives and sacrificed themselves for the greater good of the entire nation. By 2300, more than one hundred years after the formalization of the garden, around nine thousand individuals had been either buried or mentioned in ceremonial graves for their deeds in wars and conflicts abroad the core systems, fueling a drive of vengeance and a mark to exceed on for further citizens of the Empire.

## **A Sunken Sanctuary**

After numerous campaigns, wars and pushes, came the conflict which the Empire never found itself fully prepared to face off alone; the Ancestral War. When Commonwealth troops landed in New Earth and fought on for countless positions held on by Imperial defenders, they found the island sustaining the structure, along with the entire garden itself, uninhabited and undefended for all matters and effects. The discovery of the place though, not only gave true perspective of how many battles and wars the Empire had fought for Easterners, but also a fair share of fake/misleading evidence pointing at Imperial heroism at the task of murdering millions without proper reasoning or factual truth at all. Apart from aesthetically looking abandoned stone sculptures and flora, little more than blurred history was presented as the real occurrences of the past in the place, making it a useless region for Commonwealth studies or even their own reasoning with the Imperial cause for the matter at all. When the place was abandoned by the Eastern Armed Forces, they sacked the place barren of anything found valuable, making sure to never return a second time to appreciate fabricated lies written amongst the walls of the vicinity.

After the Battle of New Earth came to a close, the garden found itself mostly ravaged, destroyed or sunken by great waves made by the crash of the Commonwealth *CSV Archon* space dreadnought into the atmosphere. What could have ended as a forgotten relic, however, returned along with the repopulation effort conducted by the new Emperor Daniel Lavoie, in 2382. The now reclaimed regional sanctuary remains truthful to its roots, continuing to display great Imperial sacrifices and victories as the greatest deeds ever done by Western humanity as a whole, in the new galaxy they inhabit for centuries now for so long.

## **Notable Figures**

Adored or cursed, many figures found amongst the Garden of Eternal Heroes have nevertheless contributed significantly for guiding the course of the galaxy in the path known nowadays as history. Displayed in different scaled monuments, they not only show themselves in their respective attributed role (Let it be an Admiral, with a sword, or an explorer, with a charter), but in manners and looks portraying their living counterparts seen in the past. Here are some of the most well known or apparent of heroes found within the garden:

**-Empress Victoria VIII (1988-2329?)**

**-Lord Regent Arabella Allerton (2136-2189)**

**-Lord Regent Thomas Ashbury (2155-2237)**

**-Lord Regent Jacob Williams (2210-2299)**

**-Lord Admiral Sir Darius Ney (2283-2330)**

**-Lord Admiral Aldis Edrington (2214-2298)**

**-Lord Admiral Skylar Campbell (2213-2263)**

**-Lady Diana Campbell (2227-2291)**

**-Admiral Sir Seth Richradson (2202-2293)**

**-Admiral Sir Enos Mackleburry (2272-2326)**

**-Admiral Albert Chamberlain (2237-2294)**

**-Field Marshall Sir Lionel Firefly (2211-2309)**

**-Field Marshall William Longshanks (~2240-?)**

**-Field Marshall Nathaniel Romulan (2228-2321)**

**-Army Attaché Penelope of Emala (2230-2331)**

**-Wing Commander Sir Alfred Hitchcock (2222-2299)**

**-Wing Commander Leena von Mannerheim (2271-2302)**

**-Wing Commander Sir Rickenbacker Lindie (2230-2263)**

**-Chatwin Cook (2181-2283)**

**-Liam Hornblower (?-2279)**

**-Elliot Peterson (2241-2263)**

**-Dalina Lotus (?-2306)**