The continent of Canelux, the land I call home, has not always been the relatively peaceful land it is now. This calm that we have come to enjoy is actually a novel occurrence, a fleeting speck in our history of blood and war. Only Adeluna's transition of power to the current regime allowed us to get here, but scholars often like to forget the bloody road we took to achieve our prosperity.
Adeluna, in particular, is a sleeping giant in the current age. She has not always been the docile empire of trade and commerce that most people are accustomed to now; and, in fact, when I was a boy, the Adelunian Empire was still known as the scourge of the west. Her dominion sprawled from the southern reaches of Laeto to the northern realms of Itjivut back then, with the northernmost part of the rainforest marked as a no-man's land. The northern kingdoms lay beyond that border, and skirmishes between the two forces were all too common in that area. There was even a portion of Laeto that had earned the colorful moniker "Blood Swamp" because of the centuries old power struggle that kept adding more corpses to the undergrowth there.
Even back during my childhood, however, we were well aware of the empire's faded strength. Long before I was born, her majesty's authority spanned the entire continent. According to history scrolls I have consulted, those days were a time of brutal unrest and unease. The royal family ruled with an iron fist, quashing any rebellion that cropped up in their midst and making examples of families to discourage any future insubordination. They even attacked peaceful nations like Arri and Endapano, all in a bid to fly Adeluna's flag over the entire known world at the time.
The empire very nearly succeeded in this goal, but, as was common of past empires, its plans for world domination fizzled out in the end. Adeluna's leadership made a crucial mistake in spreading their forces too thin while trying to pacify the north the first time around. The empire's history books will say that they succeeded, capturing Sularia and, for a brief moment, ruling all of Canelux; but ancient, Arri military reports tell us that this victory was fleeting. The emperor at the time, Rhonan III, had made his forces vulnerable to counterattack thanks to his impatience. He pushed his men to the breaking point, flooding them up through the continent like a swarm of hornets. They left behind them a path of destruction as was their duty, but, by the time their conquest was over, their flanks were left exposed. A coalition of guerilla fighters from Mamlak, Arri, Endapano, Mo'Mey and the Highlands took advantage of that mistake, driving a dagger through the heart of Rhonan's plan. They fell upon the beleaguered army, slaughtering many and driving the survivors back.
In the centuries that followed, Adeluna and the northern realms clashed relentlessly. This time, however, the empire's enemies were united. They proved a far tougher opponent together than apart, making advancement difficult for the imperial army. War fatigue was also setting in. Desertion was escalating, and public sentiment among nobles was drying up. Eventually, Adeluna couldn't maintain her war efforts. She was forced to retreat, ceding territory until she resembled the form I recognize from my childhood.
Of course, that wasn't the true end of the royal family's incursions into the north. Their fleet, bolstered by Egjora's world class navy, tried to take Sularia again when I was in my 50s; but their armada dispersed along the way. Qendressa I had begun waging her civil war to retake the crown at that point, fracturing the empire in the process and setting even more territories on the path of revolution. Her ascension to the throne marked the creation of the current borders, and the start of a much more peaceful Adeluna.
One should never be fooled into thinking Qendressa solved all of Adeluna's problems by placing her bum on the throne, however. Even today, people from the era of Adeluna's aggression still exist in power; they're just quiet about their politically unpopular views. Assassination attempts from them on individuals like myself - the ambassadors from the "northern territories" as they are so fond of saying in private - are still very common place thanks to this, even if those attacks are not widely publicized. Anti-nonhuman and anti-magic sentiments also seem to be on the rise in modern Adeluna, so much so that I fear for my life. I will be leaving the city tomorrow because of this. I just pray Angela will watch over me until I am safely back home, lest I become a victim of this long-standing blood feud between the nations of Canelux.
-An entry in the journal of Ambassador Raleigh from Arri to Adeluna, penned shortly before his brutal murder