Zosime and Volesus lived in the early days of the Age of Conflict and were among the first generation of humans born in Enayra.

They were born in the northern parts of the realm, in the lands that are now the Kingdom of Asardaea.

In that day, Asardaea was inhabited by a loose collection of human tribes. Sometimes they warred with one another, sometimes they traded and allied together to form a coalition against other tribes.

For the most part though, life went on with a certain stability lost to the annals of history.

It was in these early days that Volesus, of Gens Tarquinia and Zosime of Gens Septicia came to fall in love with one another. Each was the child of their respective chieftain.

Many expected the two to marry. Both Gens had long been allies, both were in love, and a marriage between both Gens would elevate their power to contend as one of the strongest in the region.

But Zosime’s father, Aegidius, was a shrewd and cunning man. He had submitted to an alliance with Volesus’s father, Quintus, because he knew, at the time, he could not match the Tarquinians in military might.

By exploiting an alliance with Gens Tarquinia, Gens Septicia was able to secure its borders, and build up a larger army, uninterrupted by war or conflict, and when there was conflict, it would not be Gens Septicia who bled alone.

Aegidius had watched Quitus age and wither away, and his son soon came to replace him in the twenty second year of his life—the thirty second year of the peace between the two tribes.

Aegidius expected Volesus to be a weak leader, and so when Volesus approached the king and asked for his daughter’s hand in marriage—for he had already achieved her required consent—the king refused to acknowledge a pairing between his daughter and Volesus.

Volesus was confused. Zosime had assured him her father would not object to such a union—for Aegidius himself had said so when asked. But she did not know of her father’s duplicity. Aegidius had planned to marry his daughter off to the chief of the Gens Plaetoria, Vintius, who had promised a large sum of gold and a bequeathment of lands in exchange for Zosime’s hand.

Volesus protested, demanding to see his bride-to-be, but Aegidius would not allow the two lovers an audience. Aegidius stated that he would acquiesce to Volesus’s request if he could go out and prove himself.

All Volesus had to do would be to conquer a neighbouring Gens–one who had been enemy to both the Septicia and Tarquinia—and gift half the land to Aegidius, and in exchange Volesus would have Zosime’s hand in marriage.

Volesus disliked the deal, but for his love, he would have done anything, and so he agreed.

Volesus went forth and conquered the nearby Gens Vibia. He was successful, and had declared half the conquered lands, people and resources as subjects of the Septicia and returned to Aegidius.

Volesus returned to Aegidius with proof of his achievements. Aegidius was pleased, but would still not allow Volesus to see his beloved, nor would he agree to the union.

Volesus held his rage. He could not strike down Aegidius in his own kingdom and expect to get out alive. Instead, Volesus offered to prove himself further, and conquer another Gens, if only Aegidius would reconsider.

Aegidius agreed.

So Volesus went forward and conquered another Gens, once more dividing the spoils and lands between himself and Aegidius.

Again he came to proclaim his victory before his would-be father-in-law, and again he was refused both his offer of marriage and an audience with his love.

Aegidius, still not yet greedy, but ever ready to abuse his new relationship with Volesus, spoke freely with Volesus, and told him of Zosime’s betrothal to the chief of the Gens Plaetoria.

Frustrated, but heartbroken, Volesus threw himself before Aegidius’s mercy, offering any price in exchange for Zosime’s hand in marriage.

Aegidius thought for but a moment for asking, once more, for Volesus to conquer yet another enemy of the Gens Septicia.

Volesus tired of the warfare, but again, would do anything to marry his love, and so he agreed.

Three years would pass, and Volesus and Aegidius continued the cycle of conquest and petition until only three Gens remained in Asardaea: the Gens Plaetoria, the Gens Septicia, and the Gens Tarquinia.

Volesus had built the great city of Malatrion in this time, and made this place the capital of his new Tarquinian Kingdom.

Aegidius too, had grown fat off the hard work of Volesus, but still have not given his ascent for Zosime to marry Volesus.

Volesus went once more to petition Aegidius, but this time, had come prepared. The chief Vintius Plaetoria had secretly approached Volesus and declared he had been so moved by the love between Volesus and Zosime that he had declared himself an ally of Volesus against the greedy Aegidius.

Once more, Aegidius refused Volesus’s request of marriage, and attempted to throw Volesus from the palace before Volesus saw himself out.

Aegidius chuckled at his trickery. He had gained a third of Asardaean lands by putting in none of his own effort or manpower. His armies were strong, well fed, well supplied, and well deployed, while Volesus’s was war weary and still had to fear an attack from the Gens Plaetoria—or so he thought…

Volesus returned shortly with a large army to lay siege to Romontya, the capital of Aegidius’s kingdom. He was joined by the armies of Vintius of Gens Plaetoria.

Aegidius was aghast with horror, but optimistic that he could withstand the siege.

His overconfidence, however, was misplaced.

Aegidius had not calculated that his well-fed, large army was ineffective in a battle situation. They had never seen war, and were poorly trained, overly fat from the spoils, and vastly unprepared. Aegidius shut himself inside is castle and left his soldiers to defend the city.

By comparison, Volesus’s army was battle hardened, and full of veterans who had seen their leader bleed alongside them on the battlefield. They were fiercely loyal, and even though Aegidius had used Volesus for his own selfish desires, Volesus had raised his Gens up to a level of prestige and power in the region.

With the Plaetorian allies, it did not take long for Volesus to crush Aegidius and his forces.

Volesus confronted Aegidius, only to discover the horrible truth.

While Volesus had been out conquering, Zosime had fled her father’s imprisonment and had gone missing.

She had written desperately to the Vintius of Gens Plaetoria to beseech him to let her out of their arranged marriage. Her display of true love for Volesus had endeared him to the lovers’ cause, and he sent a small group of soldiers to spirit her from Aegidius’s grasp and bring her to Vintius.

Vintius learned, after they had conquered Aegidius and his gens, that marauding bandits had attacked the small group that protected Zosime, and she had gone missing. Though no ransom had been made.

Volesus did not give up hope and chased all signs and whispers of his lover to the ends of Enayra. As he swept across the lands, looking for his lost love, his armies would conquer and claim, and in doing so he became the first to conquer the entire continent, and ruled over it as a single unified Asardaean Empire.

Interestingly, Volesus did not conquer the lands that lay within the dragons’ many territories. The dragons were given free rule over the lands they claimed and were not subject to the laws of man. They could come and go throughout the realm as they pleased, and chase whatever prey they wished, even if it be outside of their ancient clan-specific enclaves.

But the story does not end here, for Zosime was not one to simply be kidnapped and accept her fate.

She had been kidnapped by a roving band of Gerovian deserters, who had abandoned the Gerovian Army after a protracted civil war in the city-state.

They had taken to raiding the prosperous lands of Asardaean, leading small, quiet strikes into Asardaean territories, taking only what they could carry, and trying not to raise the suspicions of Volesus’s armies.

It had been coincidence that they had come upon Zosime’s small group but seeing that she was clearly someone of great importance, and captivated by her beauty, took her as a supposed easy prize, hoping to ransom her for a great amount of money.

But Zosime was not so easily made captive. She insisted that the ransom they were demanding for her was too low, and consistently insisted they raise it. Eventually, she convinced the marauders to abandon the idea of ransom all together.

She made easy work of commanding them and took control of the group in all but title.

With these men under her sway, she went forth to find her love, with her once captors as her devoted followers and allies. Each of them, including Zosime, were well armed, and travelled to Malatrion, the capital of Volesus’s new empire.

It was here that Zosime wished to reunite with her love, but found he was out across Enayra, conquering lands in a mad scramble to find her.

Zosime was very amused by Volesus’s commitment to her. She knew she could recall Volesus with a single word to any soldier in the capital, but she also knew that he would be so starved of her presence after all this time that she would not have a moment to leave the palace, all while Volesus may very well continue to conquer the rest of Enayra.

Zosime did not reveal herself to anyone in Malatrion, and instead, altered her appearance with magic, and enlisted herself and her new company into Volesus’s imperial army.

Her and her band of warriors became known as the Arbitarii (Old Asardaean for Judges or Judgement Bringers). It was said that the wrath of Zosime and her Arbitarii were like that of divine judgement. Any armies they fought against would be shattered by the hammer of her forces.

Soon the Arbitarii swelled in number, and recognized as an important faction of the Asardaean armies.

They were renamed the Palatinii (Old Asardaean for Paladins) and used as the elite shock troopers of Asardaean campaigns.

By odd twist of fate, Zosime and Volesus never came face to face for many years. Volesus was often rushing off towards the next place Zosime had been sighted, while Zosime was being posted to different places in the Empire.

It was not until the final campaign launched by Volesus, where he laid siege to the great city of Kasaadua, that the two had finally met on the battlefield.

Volesus at first did not recognize his soldier who fought so bravely and fervently alongside him.

Back-to-back, the two charged into the throng of Altimaran defenders once the siege engines had breached the mighty obsidian walls.

But soon, Volesus came to suspect that the woman beneath the helm, who had worked so hard to conceal her identity from him, lest she be left in a palace to be kept “safe” was the woman he had been looking for, for all these years. Something in the way she fought, the way she spoke, seemed hauntingly familiar to him.

But before Volesus could verify his suspicions, his heart racing in excitement and fear, Zosime was pierced by an enemy spear, thrown from the rooftop of a nearby building.

Volesus welled with tears. One of his honour guards returned fire with a bolt of lightning, catching Zosime’s killer in the face before they could escape.

He bent low and cradled the woman he thought to be Zosime in his arms and removed her helmet. As she lay dying, her magic faded, and her disguise dissolved to reveal that Volesus had indeed been correct in his suspicions.

Volesus cried out for a mage, or a doctor. Someone, anyone who could heal his beloved before she died. But it was too late. The spear had struck true and pierced her heart. She was dead before she hit the ground, and no amount of magic could save Zosime now.

The city had been conquered, and Enayra been unified under the banner of Volesus.

But he, whose empire reached from sea to sea, across the entirety of Altimara. He, who had stretched out his arm and sought to conquer all for his love—to find her, and to be strong and powerful enough to provide for her the greatest life she could ever want—had lost the purpose for which had done all this.

The Palatinii took up Zosime’s body, and carried it back to Malatrion, where she was laid to rest beneath the Imperial palace. A statue was erected in her honour at the main square of each ring of the city, and Emperor Volesus, the greatest ruler Enayra would ever know, sunk into a deep sadness for the remainder of his days.

He would not marry and would father no heirs. It would be Volesus’s brother, Gaius who would inherit the Empire from his shattered brother’s grip. Gaius, who had married Zosime’s sister Elara, declared upon his ascension to the throne, that only those with the blood of both Gens Tarquinia and Gens Septicia could inherit the throne.

Though, sadly, Gaius would prove to be a weak and rather ineffectual king.

While he was respected by the army, he was not respected by his people outside of Asaradaea. Many had been taken in by Volesus’s natural charm and charisma, and the fairness and compassion he showed to even his most vehement of foes.

But Gaius had not been so fair and so kind.

Not wanting to appear weak, and exhausting his good will with his brother’s generals, Gaius often cracked down severely on any and all protest or dissent. Even the slightest whisper of disagreement with his laws and rule would often lead to bloodshed.

Things did not improve when boats appeared off the coast of Espias. These large wooden ships, like wooden crates made for the sea, their golden banners flapping in the wind, bearing strange, curving writing and foreign symbols.

These people spoke a language that was not Common—a language that had started in Xiar and begun to spread across Volesus’s vast empire as the main language of all the peoples of Enayra.

These new people, who would eventually come to be known as Espians, landed on the shores of the land they would get their name from…and soon war was upon Enayra once more.

No one is sure who started the conflict between the Enayra Empire and the Espian Empire. Some say the Espians came in peace, seeking only enough land to settle on after fleeing their dying home, and that the Enayran Empire attacked them instead.

Others, say that the bloodthirsty Espians appeared and began to conquer all they could see. It was all Gaius and his armies could do to hold them back, and that Enayra was lucky to lose only Espias to them.

Whatever the truth is, war came to Enayra once more. Gaius’s generals would not serve him as they served his brother, and many of his best generals had died before or shortly after their Emperor. Their sons and heirs had never tasted war like their predecessors. Even Gaius had not known war as his brother.

The Province of Espias crumbled under the might of these hardened warriors, and the land was forever lost to the empire. Peace was signed after three short months, and Gaius was disgraced across the land by his defeat.

To this day, the enmity still burns between the Espians and Asardaeans for perceived wrongs of ages long passed.

Between his heavy repression, and his defeat at the hands of the new Espian Empire, Gaius’s generals grew tired of him. Many saw their oath of loyalty to Volesus as expired now that he was dead, others no longer respected a monarch that could not even protect his borders against an outside threat, even with far superior numbers on his side.

These generals rebelled against their emperor, and Gaus’s generals murdered him in his own palace, and his Empire crumbled.

The nations of Enayra regained their independence in the conflict, now under the leadership of the generals that had betrayed Gaius, or under their previous rulers.

Asaradaea was at the risk of delving back into the inter-tribal city-states that had existed before Volesus’s rise. Not to mention the very real dangers of a massive Gerovian (now known as the Kingdom of Ethon) invasion force massed at Asardaea’s borders, seeking to conquer the land for their own, and take up Volesus’s claims to the Empire.

It was only due to the quick thinking and strong leadership of Gauis’s daughter, the Hero Queen Maude, that Asardaea was kept united under Gens Tarquinia, and able to repel Ethon’s invasion attempt.

At the Battle of the Tolrun Pass, Queen Maude turned back a vastly superior force of Ethon’s finest and secured Asaradaean independence permanently.

Ethon recognized the Kingdom of Asardaea as an independent nation and successor state the Enayran Empire of Volesus, though Maude herself did not claim the title of Empress and did not seek to rebuild the massive pan-continental empire of her uncle.

She sought only stability in her homeland, and enlisted the Palatinii to help her do so. The Palatinii were thus divided into the Vindicarii, the Arbitarii and the Justicarii.

The Vindicarii were tasked with policing the kingdom, and ensuring peace and stability amongst the citizenry. They were tasked with capturing and hunting down fugitives, and keeping the peace.

The Arbitarii were the judges of the kingdom. They were tasked with mediating compromises between quarrelling citizens, deescalating situations before they spiraled into lawlessness, or settling disputes before they become worse. They would also serve as judges in legal proceedings across the kingdom.

Finally, the Justicarii would act as the kingdoms elite soldiers, both on the frontline and the home front. They would also act as executioners in the legal system, for those unfortunate enough to be sentenced to death, though they do also have the right to enforce non-lethal sentences as well.

With the Palatinii, the Hero Queen Maude brought peace and security to her new kingdom, and her matrilineal descendants continue to rule the kingdom to this day, with the Palatinii at their beck and call.

The legacy of Volesus and Zosime continue today in Asardaea, and their greatness is never forgotten.