The Emperor’s Folly

Revolution

The Dragon Emperor is killed with alchemical weapons he had ordered made himself.

For 800 years, the Dragon Emperors’ might had been firmly founded upon the might of their draconic allies. While the expulsion of the dragons had likely spared the Empire from destruction, it was, painfully exposed without them. The children of Hosheng and Patou had kept the Empire stumbling along, but it was growing ever weaker. When the newly crowned Emperor Tharadorax sat upon the throne, he was set on changing this. Sending a decree to all the corners of the Dragon Empire, Tharadorax promised 100.000 gold pieces to whoever could create an alchemical substitute that could match Dragon Fire.
The Emperor’s promise set the entire Empire on end. While alchemists had long known simple formulae, the promise of enough gold to buy one’s own country caused a frenzied boom of research. Every two-bit medicine man and every wise woman in every village started experimenting and soon they had scores of apprentices, all eager to learn.
While no substitute was found, countless other discoveries were made and the great benefits that alchemical creations brought to the world reaped riches for the alchemists, even if they failed to claim the reward.
The greatest site of experimentation was, of course, the Capital city itself. Here, Emperor Tharadorax allowed the greatest alchemists to experiment and converse, with alchemy, philosophy, and art all flourishing.
This all ended on a warm summer evening in the year 1357, when the capital city of the Dragon Empire shook as fire suddenly shot to the sky from the Emperor’s palace. An alchemical explosion strong enough to shatter stone and collapse the entirety of the palace had occurred and with it, the Dragon Emperor Tharadorax was dead.