The Pack Reunites

Prologue

Some empires fall because different families want different things. However, in this instance, this once great empire fell because of two Fratres who wanted the same thing. The Hyperion Throne. This decade-long age of darkness, famine, and betrayal became known in the Hyperion Empire...as the "Decades of Darkness."

It'd been seventeen years since Masculum Propinqui Meis assumed power, and the Hyperion Empire entered a long-awaited period of peace. Thanks to their efforts crime rates had decreased the economy stabilized, and the four territories were now living in harmony.

In order to maintain this peace, they'd not only overturned many of the laws from the old regime but upon realizing they could never rule a realm on their own, Mei Seniorem Propinquis each created a special group of males called comites who would assist them. These powerful males were known as the first aristocrats, being allowed vast amounts of land, and control over the witches who lived there so long remained loyal to their Basileus.

From what I can remember, the four Basili gave these titles to their closest advisors and though that may seem corrupt, the comites were usually put under large amounts of scrutiny, and had their lands taken away immediately if they so much as taxed the peasants without the Basili's permission.

The first of these comitatus to be created were Le Comte de Toulouse En Painted Plains, O Condado de Braga de Cairo Land, El Condado del Asturias de El Reino Helado, was once called, and Li Contea di Veneto di Blight Valley given to Seigneur Saber, Senhor Estevao, Caballero Diego, and Signor Marco respectively upon Masculum Seniorem Propinquis ascensions. They also created others comitatus at this time but they were the first.

Each Regnum also developed its own language and culture to distinguish themselves from one another. As such Masculum Propinqui Meis had to choose new praenomen, one that'd fit the language of their realm. They also decided to take a cognomen as a means of differentiating their lineages from one another.

Fratres Meus chose to keep the praenomen, Gromeo and chose the cognomen, Hyperius, however much like with El Reino Helado his and the nomens of my other Masculum Propinquis Mei would change centuries later, which is why in history he's known as Imperator Gromeo Clawthorn Hyprius I. The four Basili soon followed soot, each changing their praenomen and choosing a cognomen for their royal houses.

Il Mio Padre styled himself Vittorio Peronospora I sometime after his first set of twins were born. And yes, I said first set of twins, he goes on to have more twins with Madre later on.

Mi Tio Sancchius, Rey of El Reino Helado took the praenomen Sancho Helado I. At first, he was reluctant to take his throne under the guise of not being able to produce an heir. After Tia Abuela Minerva heard this, she offered to grant his mate and Reina, Mi Tia Erica a female werewolf form.

The elder of the two Gaian Basili, Meu Tio Maximus simply shortened his name to Maximo, and had a difficult time choosing a cognomen in the beginning and quite frankly, he didn't want to for the same reason as Tio Sancho.

Tio-Avo Mars was told of this predicament by his Fratrems and used his divine chaos magic to gift the Rainha with a female werewolf form of her own, allowing her to carry pups. After that, Meu Tio finally decided to use the cognomen Cairo. It was for that reason historians refer to him as Rei Maximo Cairo I.

Lastly, the youngest of the four Basili, Mon Oncle, Philippus gave himself the moniker Phillippe Peintes I thought he'd no issues when it came to reproduction, he was still uneasy about becoming Roi due to the wealth that came with it. I'm not surprised though greed had already corrupted him in his past. Luckily, Ma Tante was there to ease his worries, and assist him in keeping his greed at bay.

As far as I know the only thing the four Regnums had in common is their laws which makes sense given that they're all technically ruled by the same family however, the legal systems are still very different. Though the Basileus is responsible for punishing lawbreakers in all four lands, the degree of punishment for breaking these laws varies between them.

For example, while child abuse is illegal in all four Regnums, in Painted Plains, Cairo Land, and El Reino Helado, the worst punishment Avunculi Meis could enforce is taking away the couple's fertility and barring them from adopting.

Compare that to the legal system in Blight Valley where, depending on the degree of abuse, abusive Parentes would be lucky to live another day. Given what Madre went through in her youth and the pain it caused both of them, I'm not surprised Padre was the harshest when it came to punishing that type of behavior.

Suffice to say, those five had been very busy but they still managed to find time for their "other duties." Another mistake Remus made as Imperator was that he was so obsessed with cementing his control, he never found time to sire an heir which made it easy for Masculum Propinqui Meis to take over after Remus died. Lucky, they didn't make the same mistake and in eleven years they were able to Pater thirty pups all together.

Oncle Philippe and Tante Willa had the smallest litter of pups, giving birth to a litter of twins after eleven years on the throne. This is the result of partial infertility as, something I didn't know it at the time, my Avunculi wasn't raised by Ses Parents Biologiques properly in his first life, so his entire body, not just his fertility, suffered.

Tio Maximo had Padred four pups; a set of quadruplets Tia Gaia gave birth to after eight years on the throne His littler was somewhat bigger than Oncle's, though not by much and for similar reasons. Though, I also didn't know it at the time, Meu Tio's development would've relied mostly on genetic factors, it was still important for him to have had the appropriate environment to flourish, something Seus Pais Biologicos also didn't provide in his first life.

Tia Erica gave birth two years before Tia Gaia, making Tio Sancho the Padre of healthy, playful sextuplets. Now, we're getting to Masculum Propinqui Meis who seemed to have had decent puphoods in their first lives, or so I thought given that their reproduction seemed to be unhindered though for two of them I'd be proven wrong several centuries later.

Next, we have the imperial puppies, now as I discussed in the previous tale, Padre Et Avunculi Meis did their best to raise Fratres Meus, ensuring that he felt loved, whilst also making sure he reached his full potential to become the best aether Imperator he could be. Thanks to that upbringing, he was able to sire two litters of quadruplets.

However, the winner of this reproduction competition was Il Mio Padre, Vittorio, Re Di Blight Valley who'd the most ideal environment growing up which granted him an advantage in everything, not just reproduction.

As such it wasn't a surprise that he ended up with the largest number of pups, an impressive ten pups in ten years with the first two being born only two months into his reign. Unfortunately, despite being close in the past, the demands of rulership made it impossible for the Prentes to introduce their Fetus to each other. But now all that's about to change.