Cultural Spotlight: Heralden

Heralden is an old empire, with a history spanning sixty generations of emperors. The first, Herald The Conqueror, began his life as a tribal leader who united the three human tribes near his homeland and built an army, moving outward in conquest for thirty years and eventually dieing by suicide, throwing himself into a volcano to promote the myth that he was, in fact, impervious to weapons. His son, Herald the Uniter, had the daunting task of maintaining one of the largest empires the world had ever known, and did so through the organization of a religion surrounding his father, slowly creating a mythos that inspired ultimate devotion to the state and selflessness in duty. Over thirty more emperors, the land of Heralden thrived and prospered in the land they had conquered and converted. The thirty-third emperor, Daulten the Far-Reaching, saw to the construction of the Great Colonial Fleet, an armada of warships and colony ships that set out across the oceans with thousands of eager citizens, their goal being spreading the empire beyond their home continent and into the rest of the wide world. Dozens of colonies were established, and some thrived on trade. Others fell to native armies, other empires that had yet to be seen by the Heraldens and formed of strange creatures. Others still vanished, not a soul living to tell the tales of what happened to the homeland. Heralden learned then that it was not alone in the world. Far from it, in fact.
Over time, a few of the Heralden colonies established themselves as great places of trade and exploration. Others petitioned for independence, some fought for it, and the empire began to fracture. Now, after sixty emperors, even the homeland is not intact. Still, there are many loyal colonies, including one of the diverse and often-wild island of Theadritch.
In the year 1039 of the Third Age, the otherwise-unremarkable emperor Hector the Well-Endowed (named so for fathering 17 sons in his 22 years on the throne) died unexpectedly, leaving no clear heir. When his eldest son, Hector III, tried to ascend, he was blocked by his younger brother, now known as Menwey the Usurper. Many advisors sided with Menwey and other brothers, and a fifteen-year-long civil war broke out. In the end it was Hector's fifth son, Timeth the Stoic, who claimed the throne, and in his fourteen years of ruling the empire he was tasked with piecing as much of it back together as possible. Many historians cite this war as the beginning of the decline of Heralden.