A waning Titan

2103 DA till 2180 DA

What many Historians do not seem to realize, blinded by the 2nd Hegemony's power and glory as they are, is that the very things that ensured its stability for centuries also sowed the very seeds of corruption and decay.

— "Fall of an Empire" by Darius Keseidis

The Second Hegemony was a realm unlike any other. A realm of unparalleled prosperity and power. A realm without any enemy. At least that is what many people believed at the time. However, unknown to all the most dangerous foe lurked among them. What many people never realize and Vardanias historians ignored in favour of never-ending praise was that empires more often than not are destroyed from the inside.

A Death in the Family

At the turn of the millennium, the future looked bright for the Hegemony and its subjects. The Valerian Dynastie continued their successful reign, the realms frontiers remained calm, trade, art and science continued to flourish.
The first sign of trouble appeared in 2103 DA, when Emperor Honorian XI., last of Julia the Golden's children, died. House Valerian had grown large over the years, counting over a hundred members and numerous branch families. Several of these conspired to place one of their own, later Emperor Amelian IX. on the throne.
Lucius, grandson of Empress Julia and following the line of succession the original heir was unable to resist as the conspirators had managed to court the Imperial Guard. His status protected him from any assassination attempt though and he would settle down as Governor of Aedes Ceranis.

by Ramon Acedo

What had essentially been a coup was only the beginning. The formerly defined line of succession had been discarded and other branch families saw an opportunity.
Succession became a game and whenever an Emperor died, the various families would engage in lengthy schemes and plays to put their prefered candidate on the throne.

Born to the Purple

During the early days of the Hegemonies Imperial Periods, rulers would choose their heirs on meritocratic terms, elevating only the most capable of their children to the position of heir. Now the deciding factors were wealth, how easily one could be controlled and charisma. As a result, the Emperors of the 22nd century are generally seen as weak or incapable rulers.
Satisfying the nobility and one's own desire for entertainment began to take precedence over actual governing. Vast sums of money were simply wasted in opulent games and decadent feasts. Offices were given to sycophants or relatives and an increasing amount of the realm's wealth began to wander into the personal coffers of the high nobility.

Some say that those fools spilt more blood during their games than their ancestors had during the entire rise of the Hegemony.

— Historian Majoria Evalis

Nature's Wrath and Growing Cracks

by Volen CK

The 2nd Hegemony needed a strong and capable ruler to function properly. During its early day's power had been more evenly distributed between the realms various councils, senates and administrative organs although a large amount of it had been concentrated in the hands of the Inner Council.
As the nation transitioned to an absolute monarchy those organs had basically been chained to the Emperor.
As the Hegemony's rulers grew increasingly bored with governance, most territories were largely left to their own devices. As long as taxes were paid on time of course. Slowly but surely the carefully crafted system began to erode, corruption began to spread.

by Viswanath Sundaram

In the conquered territories Vardanians were still seen as foreign conquerors and all wealth in the world could not supplant the differences between cultures and faiths. Resentment, so long hidden under the glory of empire began to grow again.

Despite simmering tensions and growing cracks in the nation's fabric, the 22nd century continued on uneventful safe for the powerplays among the high nobility. The Tarquinnian Imperial Army was still the military juggernaut it had been under Majorian and any rebellion would have been suicide.
In 2179, a seemingly divine intervention changed the course of history. Catastrophies were nothing new in Vardania and the Hegemony had systems in place to attenuate any damages. Both the God's Eye of 1801 DA and the Vesirian Plague in 1904/05, in other cases nation destroying events, were weathered effectively. What became known as the Purple Blood Plague struck down a large part of the worlds nobility.
Hardest hit were the various branches of the Valerian Dynastie, almost all of them extinguished by the disease within the year. When Julian III. died in 2180 DA without an heir there was, for the first time in nearly eighty years, only one claimant to the throne. Eugeron the Kind, governor of Aedes Ceranis and member of the Lucian Branch of the family became Emperor Eugeron II.
And while it was his reign that would see a return to better circumstances it would ultimately be the final cause of the Hegemony's downfall...

Despite his faults Eugeron is remembered fondly by the people. Ironically it was one of his most admired traits, his love for his family that would set in motion a chain of disaster.

— "Fall of an Empire" by Darius Keseidis

by Oskars Dzenis

A corrupt official is as dangerous as an invading savage. Both can easily destroy a nation. The former is just much more subtle.

— Old Veeian Saying

A thousand Villea
As their power and wealth grew, so did the nobilities appetite to display it. While opulent games and feasts became the norm, another form of what many ordinary people would consider decadence began to take shape.
Many noble families, both branches of the Valerian Dynastie and others began to move out of the capital city of Velaris.
To them, the metropolis seemed an ugly and constraining sight and they began to settle on various estates throughout the Western Provinces.
Over the decade's hundreds of villea were build, the various nobles competing to create the largest and most luxurious houses.

by Rocío Espín Piñar

The Lucian Branch
Following the palace coup of 2103, Lucius Valerian remained a footnote in political history.
Knowing full well that it was only his relation to what was arguably Vardanias most loved monarch that kept him alive, he wisely decided to simply serve his duty as governor of Aedes Ceranis.
Dying in 2114 of a heart attack he left his post to his son Aelius who in turn fathered five sons, the oldest of which, a boy named Eugeron would eventually use the power accumulated by his father and grandfather to back his claim to the imperial throne.
While arguably a continuation of the line that had ruled the 2nd Hegemony since 2005, the Lucian Branch is commonly observed as a separate branch of the family.
This mostly due to the infamy of its later members and the actions of more biased historians, trying to distance rulers like Julia from Seron the Red.

by SADANAND KUMAR