Leiden

**Leiden** is a kingdom located in Western Azuren, bordering Myria to the left and having Maritime borders with Elveria and Etherin, and is apart of the Five Kingdoms. It is considered one of the main powers within the kingdom sphere and is home to most demons, along with being the most populated kingdom. It is the third richest kingdom behind Elveria and ahead of Etherin and Soraya. While being considered the third largest kingdom by size, it has one of the strongest economies because of it's exports on coal and iron. Being surrounded by mines, Leiden developed quicker than Myria, a former ally of theirs before they attempted to colonize the kingdom.

Leiden was once a kingdom focused on spirituality during it's creation. Created by a pious king, the kingdom was once based off of religion and polytheism, along with many elements involving spirituality: Though, after king Callisto took power, he steered toward secularism and power, making Leiden lose its ways in religion and spirituality because of it's early advancement in technology, beginning a technological renaissance. However, because of it's high population in demons and it's flood of anti-demon propaganda caused by , Leiden has a specialized military force known as the Demon Task Force that was created to specifically hunt demons. Leiden is the second most discriminatory towards demons behind Lyakon, one of it's close allies that make the kingdom a major threat to the other kingdoms, and is controversial for it's human rights abuse and malpractice.

## History

### Early History

Leiden was created by a pious king, one who was fond of religion and spirituality. After the fall of the Founding Demons, the king believed if he would make a kingdom, his beliefs and teachings of spirituality would spread across other developing kingdoms. While he was ruling, the king was popular among his people, spreading his ideals of spirituality and the Azurian religion to Myria, another kingdom across from Leiden. His reign was considered peaceful, hardly any conflict and managed to secure strong ties with clans that were situated within Leiden's walls and formed strong alliances with Myria to aid them in development. However, the pious king was becoming ill, wanting his son, Callisto, to continue practice these teachings. Though he agreed, on the inside, Callisto was never interested in religion or spirituality, and as his father died, Callisto took the throne.

### Callistoic Era

During the reign of Callisto, he had different beliefs as opposed to his father. He believed in secularism and monotheism, though decided to allow those who practiced his father's religion to still reside in the kingdom, managing to create religious tolerance among the people, allowing for those of different religions to migrate to Leiden. However, things would start to spiral out of his power when demons started migrating to Leiden to start anew, much to the people's displeasure, but kept their tolerance of them and allowed those who were ruled under his father to continue their practices on the Azurian religion. As he was not fascinated with religion or spirituality, he began to order the industrialization of Leiden, allowing their technology to advance earlier than other kingdoms in building around the time.

During this technological renaissance, many innovations and inventions flourished, inventing the modern day cannons that were specifically magic based, created from the hands of many mages and workers. As their technological prowess began to increase, they began trading inventions to Lyakon, in exchange for gunpowder and other natural resources they would need to keep up with the technological renaissance they began. The rule under Callisto was considered peaceful, despite being an absolute monarchy: Though, he did have a prime minister that aided him in decisions. Regardless, he was seen as the head of Leiden that would be respected throughout the other kingdoms to come.

### Relations with Myria

During their renaissance, a new kingdom emerged from the Amata clan, known as Myria. Immediately, Leiden wanted to become allies with them to form strong alliances, at first giving them resources and weapons to aid them in development. Myria politely declined the offer of weaponry and machines. The Amata's were firm believers in nature, building their palace entirely out of their own hands without any problems and did not believe in destroying nature for buildings and castles. Callisto was able to form a strong relationship to come with them and became rather friendly at first, often being invited for meetings and events with other kingdoms at the time, such as Elveria and Soraya, and managed to become relatively friendly with them. However, after Callisto's death and his son, Myko, taking the throne, their relations became tense after Myko wanted to expand on their military supply, but were low on iron, coal, and lead. Thanks to Myria's geographic location, they had the resources that were required in weaponry. Soon after, Myko began sending in Leidenan soldiers to take some of the resources from Myria, causing several invasions and resulting in Myria having to build a wall to prevent the invasions. When the invasions became more frequent, Myko wanted to claim Myria as their territory, though resistance fighters did not want this to happen. At some point, Myria's then king, Alexios, was nearly overthrown: Fortunately, Myria became allies with Elveria prior and managed to prevent the overthrow, though caused extreme tensions between both kingdoms.

### Tensions between Two Kingdoms

As their relationship with Myria was quickly depleting, Alexios and Myko would get into quarrels in meetings, often holding grudges against one another because of his actions. Because of their strained relations, Leiden often attempted to invade Myria with several failed coup de'tats of Alexios and the ruling family of the Amata clan. Because of their advanced technology, Leiden would exploit Myria for it's resources and left very little for the Myrian citizens. Many neighboring kingdoms would describe Leiden and Myria's relationship as a puppet and it's master, with Leiden often controlling and bending Myria despite not having full control over their kingdom and with Myria often having to obey Myko's extreme demands. However, Alexios refused to give in and often fought back to indicate to Myko that he refused to give up his kingdom. and fought back-and-forth with one another. At some point, Myko attempted to get Etherin in on colonizing Myria, which they nearly succeeded but were then again fought off and often kept them off their land.