Heavy is the Head that Wears the Solemn Crown

Twenty-One - A Rational Plan and An Irrational Thought

Wilbur

In the early days of L'Manberg, there was one region. It was a barren land with wide fields of grass and uncomfortable temperatures. The slaves from Greater who fought for their independence claimed this land, and the exiled magicians with no where else to go were able to terraform the region to make it habitable. As L'Manberg's population grew larger, the nation also got bigger.

The magicians fled to the east into a land rich with mana, vital herbs, and mythical monsters. The magicians remained underneath L'Manberg's king's leadership, but they were given the freedom to perform their magic however they saw fit. This led to the people forming the Crystal Cliffs. To ensure the safety of their people and to guarantee that no one abused their newfound freedom to commit heinous acts using their magic, Crystal Cliffs was divided into territories ruled by a mage. The one in charge of all the territories and responsible for picking each mage was the Archmage. The Archmage was appointed by the king. Whenever the king changed, the Archmage would as well.

The freed slaves remained in L'Manberg, but some of them were the descendants of a forgotten kingdom. They were not eager to reclaim their status as a kingdom, but they did retain their noble bloodlines to separate the land to the northwest of L'Manberg. The royal bloodline was given the biggest area. As the ambassadors of their land, they devoted themselves to the king of L'Manberg, swearing their fealty for many generations to come. This family was known as House Sausage, and they formed Mythlands.

The farmers of L'Manberg found their way to a stretch of land that spanned from the northwest to the southeast. They named their land Gilded Helianthia after their goddess of agriculture, Helianthus. Their borders were drawn around the areas where specific plants could grow.

The land west of Gilded Helianthia were even more barren than the original L'Manberg. It was a sandy desert with scorching hot days and freezing cold nights. It was rumored that the land was cursed by the gods themselves, and the people who decided to live there were called the Cursed Ones. The Cursed Ones were poor without agriculture or a main export. The king of L'Manberg proposed an alliance, at first, where the Cursed Ones would provide glass and copper while L'Manberg provided protection. The leader of the Cursed Ones instead offered to join L'Manberg, and thus Pixandria was added to L'Manberg's lands.
Schlatt was a territory gifted to the king's faithful friend, more a dukedom the size of a region than an actual realm that had been split up into many different noble families. The two families had been intertwined ever since that original gift.

Pato had once been part of Schlatt. It was a forested land without anything in particular to make it remarkable. The only reason it had been split off from Schlatt was because of an alliance between L'Manberg and Las Nevadas. The leader of Las Nevadas gave up his eldest child to L'Manberg under the condition that his son be given noble land and a title.

As it stands, Crystal Cliffs, L'Manberg, Mythlands, and part of Gilded Helianthia were allied with Pogtopia. The other half of Gilded Helianthia, Pixandria, Schlatt, and Pato were allied with Manberg.

Wilbur made sure to remember this as he stared at the council that he had summoned to his war meeting. Archmage Gemini Tay sat at his side. She wore a light green dress with a purple, wool-lined cloak over her shoulders. She had flipped the hood over her ginger braid and her green eyes. She carried a wooden staff with her that had been dotted with a glowing purple crystal. When he had been crowned king of L'Manberg, Gem had been a graduate of not only the Crystal Cliffs Academy, but she had also spent a year studying at Kinoko Scholar's Academia. When Wilbur had been debating who to appoint as Archmage, he had seen her playing with the children at the academy, making large crystals that exploded into glitter. He had looked into her to confirm his decision, and he eventually decreed that Gem be the next Archmage. She humbly accepted her position, and Wilbur was happy that he hadn't made a horrible decision when he appointed her.