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Even before Veracia annexed Delphiniel, the priests of Luminosita had heard rumors of strange monks appearing here and there all over the countryside, but they never before had the opportunity to really investigate. After the takeover, though, they discovered books hidden by Delphiniel’s aristocracy that mentioned the monks and even revealed that they had worked for centuries for various members of the nobility as spies and assassins.
Fearing that the monks’ loyalty to the aristocracy meant they would refute Veracia’s claim on Delphiniel, Veracia tracked the monks to a village in the northeastern mountains and sent a sizeable military force to deal with them. All two hundred and twenty-five men sent there were killed. Furthermore, a week later the military leader’s head was found in the Patriarch’s private garden in Emerylon, with no trace of how someone could have left it there.
The next group sent to the village consisted of just four men: a priest, two diplomats, and their guide. They returned to Emerylon several weeks later, alive and with good news.
That is how the Ensigerum came to work for Veracia.
As the decades went by, Veracia grew steadily more bold and powerful. When King Jeryel of Lorenzel died of natural causes, Veracia quickly seized on the opportunity to expand their borders with the help of their new allies. The southern nation’s queen was serving as regent until the prince reached the proper age to claim the throne, but while visiting an island town in her domain, she mysteriously vanished, throwing Lorenzel into turmoil. In an effort to stabilize the nation, the prince was invited to ascend the throne seven years before the customary age of twenty-five, but he shocked the nation by announcing at his coronation that he was abdicating and allowing Veracia to annex the country, instead. To this day, the true facts of the matter are still hotly debated by historians.
This coup did not go as smoothly for Veracia as their absorption of Delphiniel. Despite the blessing of the prince, violent civil wars erupted all over Lorenzel, but within three months the worst of these were quelled and Lorenzel was officially a part of Veracia. Thus the Theocracy reached the apex of its power, and began to set its sights on even further expansion.
