The Golden Empire was a unified elven state under Empress Merwyn after her, Eredin, and Balor's coup against three kingdoms: their own Xin'trea and two rival kingdoms, Darwen and Pryshia.[1]
History[]
Background[]
Xin'trea, Darwen, and Pryshia were all wrapped up in a thousand year war with each other, pushing them all to the breaking point with famine on the horizon if something wasn't done soon. After King Darach of Xin'trea passed, his son, Alvitir, became the new king and he immediately set into motion a call for peace by working out a deal to have his sister, Princess Merwyn, be married off to King Midir of Pryshia and to gift their mines in Sliabh Liath to Queen Neera of Darwen in return for peace, and all the kingdoms accepted.
However, Merwyn, believing her brother's actions at best were only postponing the inevitable fighting that'd break out again down the road and not wanting to be treated as a pawn and footnote in history, secretly planned a coup with Xin'trea's Chief Sage, Balor, and one of the country's generals, Eredin. Balor and Eredin were able to convince the other monarchies' mages to back the coup as well as they had also grown weary of the fighting and famine.
To ensure a quick takeover, they also knew they had to have all the rulers' respective clans killed off, as these warriors were loyal to the rulers themselves and would fight to the death for them. As such, they made sure each ruler showed up with their entire clan to the capital city of Xin'trea for the peace treaty signing and sent assassins after exiled ones or ones that voluntarily left to make sure they didn't try to avenge their clan.
On the day of the signing, all the monarchies and their clans gathered in an open courtyard on top of Xin'trea's palace. As Alvitir discussed the peace treaty, the other mages quietly made their exit and Merwyn feigned feeling unwell and was escorted out. As soon as she left through the only door in and out from the courtyard, guards barred the door and Balor unleashed an otherworldly beast, which quickly killed off all the clan members and monarchies, including Merwyn's own brother. With that, Merwyn was proclaimed Empress of the Golden Empire, combining all three kingdoms into one.
Merwyn's reign[]
While Merwyn was named empress, in actuality she was only a figurehead to quell the masses, with Balor being the actual ruler and having Eredin in charge of the combined army. As a result, nothing was done to really take care of their citizens, where famine spread to the point a kitchen hand attempted to assassinate Merwyn within the palace, who hadn't been told how bad things had gotten, but was saved by a young mage apprentice, Avallac'h. She quickly named him her new protector and, realizing they needed to take control of opening portals so they didn't have to rely on Balor, had him go steal the book that Syndril wrote about the portals. Combined with information she had on Eredin, she convinced the high commander to turn on Balor and had the Chief Sage arrested.
Realizing they needed resources and food, Merwyn decided they needed to use the master monolith that'd been placed in the palace to try and find new worlds to conquer. When Avallac'h failed to open the portal though, Merwyn had to make amends with Balor to have him assist them. However, Balor, having figured out what he needed to do to be granted chaos, opened a portal for Eredin and his scouts to enter with Balor, but as soon as they went through, Balor sacrificed his assistant, Fenrik, gaining control of chaos. He then teleported Eredin and the scouting party off to another realm before returning to Xin'trea.
While he'd been away though, a rebellion started by a misfit group led by Éile had broken out in the city. Éile managed to find and stab Merwyn, noting the empress now had two choices: pull the knife out and bleed to death as a coward, or leave it in so a physician would have time to find and heal her but then Merwyn would have to watch as her world collapsed around her. Merwyn, leaving the knife in for a time, eventually made her way back to her throne and situated herself back in her seat, only to soon be encountered by an angry mob. Not wishing to fall to this, Merwyn pulled the knife out and soon died there.
Balor, meanwhile, soon ran into opposition from Syndril and Zacaré just as he returned with chaos. Sacrificing himself, Syndril had Zacaré bind him with Balor and, using the merge, destroyed the monolith, killing both himself and Balor in the process.
Later years[]
With the three main governmental positions dead or missing, it's unclear if the Golden Empire fell with Merwyn's death, or some time later. Eventually it was dissolved though by the time humans took over as the main rulers of the Continent and the capital city later became the capital for Cintra.