A long time ago Skram Nothasot the humans on this world in the name of the Empire, and under his rule the humans prospered. They fought against the monster and won, thus they expended beyond the great planes that the monsters call the First Planes to a size that's befitting to the name of an empire.
To stabilise the land Skram decided to build a land around all his land. To show his ambition he named this wall the Inner Wall, showing that this only is the beginning and that they'll expand way more in the future.
But due to internal conflicts the stabilisation took longer than Skram expected, and by the time the Empire was ready to expand again, Skram was too old. He needed to decide which of his three sons would become the next emperor.
As a test for his sons all three of them got a part of the Empire. The first son, Oblon Nothasot, got the North third. The land in the North is rocky and bad for farming, but the ores are endless. The North was called the forge of the Empire.
The second son, Rinal Nothasot, got the southwest third. His lands have many forests, hills and rivers, there're almost no ores but there's food aplenty. Pray big and small run around in the forest. But for this reason the lands need many hunters and fighters to protect the citizens.
The third and youngest son, Arane Nothasot, went to the southeast. The southeast is a relatively empty land, many plains with only grass, small and slow-moving rivers, and hidden caves that are great nests for monsters. The southeast thrives on adventurers and farmers, live is simple but good.
Then there was the central plains, now called the First Plains by both humans and monsters, this was the central hub of the humans. They had plenty of food and water, the roads were safe and the people were happy. The central plains is where Skram lived with his youngest, a daughter named Morrona. She was too young to join in the test, so she stayed with her father to take care of him and help him with the important tasks he needed to do.
This was the birth of the Three Brothers Empire. This state should've laster for only a few years, but the brothers showed no great development, in fact, there was no development at all. So no new emperor was chosen.
Then Rinal, the second son, king of the forests, had an idea. If he can't expand his land outside of the walls, then why won't he just take from his younger brother? This idea of his, this small sentence that popped up in his mind, ended the unity of the humans.
Rinal gathered hunters and fighters that were loyal to him and went east, they met no resistance because nobody expected them to takeover internal land. Rinal took over 3 big cities in Arane's land before Arane stopped him.
Arane, displeased by Rinal's actions, send a letter to his father, explaining what happened. Skram was mad at his son, he was disappointed at all three of his sons for not seeing that the only way to truly grow is to become as one, to unite all humans like he did. And now one of his own children even dared to take from his brother, take what he, The Emperor, gave to them himself. This made him truly mad.
He told Morrona, who was now old and skilled enough, to watch the central plains in his stead while he was gone, and he departed on his horse to tell Rinal to stop his foolishness and to see his mistakes.
Nobody knows for sure what happened on his trip, but Skram never returned. Rinal said his father never arrived, but his brothers didn't believe him. Oblon, Arane and Morrona took out Rinal together. They took his land and caught Rinal alive, Rinal stayed in the prison in the central plains for years, and until the day he died he kept screaming the words: "I made a mistake and they took advantage of me, they set me up! Now I lost everything!" at the end it wasn't a scream anymore, just a whisper traveling through the halls of the Emperors dungeons.
Arane regained his lost cities and gained half of Rinal's land, Oblon took the other half. The two halves divided by the Forest Dragon, the river running through the forest. Morrona stayed in the central plain and became its queen.
The empire still looks the same today, the outer shell of the empire divided in two halves with the center as its own kingdom.
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Foxlake City is a small city on the edge between the forests of the southwests and the plains on the southeasts. It's under the rule of the descendent of Arane.
The name comes from an old legend stating that on the banks of a nearby lake one, with enough luck, can find a fox. This silver fox has a different number of tail depending on who sees it. The number of tails would represent the amount of luck one has, but the reason has never been proved.
This town that thrives on trade and farming has no regional specialties. It is relatively safe with a low amount of monster attacks even though it lies so close to the forest.
It lies on three days by carriage from the southern capital of Arane. Two weeks from the Central capital of Nothasot. Four weeks from the northern capital of Oblon. Two days from the inner wall...
Primary Trials for Arane's collage of knowledge will be held twice a year, once in spring, once in autumn. Exact dates may vary.
"Mister Brace," I still don't feel like I should call him Victor, even though he said I could. I'll at least wait until I know if I'll die or not. "can you tell me more about this Arane's collage of knowledge?"
"Wait a second kid, I'm just finishing up here. Really, for every little thing that happens they make me write a book load of papers! This is a part of this job I don't like... But I'll stop soon!"