Monday, September 02, 2019

░ The Royal Castle, Thournebourne, The Kingdom Of Knightford, Edios

░ Monday, September 02, 2019

░ At 2:30 pm

ODESSA KESTLE

At the moment I was in Hermon Of Knightford's office with the Foreign Minister of Thetia Clayton Gilbert and the King's wife Marietta, whom we had met earlier at the dinner. She was the President of the ITO, the International Trade Organization. Thus, she is the one who is going to take care of the exchange part between the companies of Thetia's Empire and the Eight Kingdoms.

- "Something important, since the beginning we represent ourselves as the world of the Eight Kingdoms. However, if you didn't know, there are actually 11 countries. Each country has its own way of functioning, its own government, and now there are no more colonies. You will meet them all on Friday, September 6, at the Assembly that we have organized to introduce you to the world. This way, you will be able to present your future projects, your history and your reasons for having remained hidden for so long" explained the Queen.

- " You had mentioned in the letter you sent me, that correspondents were already in the world of the Eight Kingdoms. What exactly were they doing and where were they being sent?"

- "According to the records of the correspondents, the first ones were sent to Hiviro and he had one objective: to make sure that no one knew of the existence of the Empire and of Thetia Kestle's survival. As the years and centuries went by, the Empire sent them to Edios, Dracoris, Hiviro, Abari and once to Acora. Then, between the 16th and 17th century, the Empire was invaded and colonized by Hiviro. After a century of occupation, the Flaming Army and the Empress Athea Kestle succeeded in defeating them, and the invaders were obliged to sign a treaty of confidentiality on the presence of the Empire. If they did not respect it, they would suffer the consequences. As for the missions, they alternated between gathering information that would harm the Empire or bringing back technology. A lot of the things you have now, including social networks, were created by correspondents from the Empire in collaboration with people from the Eight Kingdoms".

- "But in all this, have you tried to obtain confidential information about countries?" Hermon asked me.

- "I admit it frankly and I am not someone who lies, I never have. I have never tried to find information about other countries that could harm them. However, I am sure that some of my predecessors did. What I knew from the archives of the imperial family, it was mainly to erase all traces of the existence of our Empire".

- "I appreciate your honesty. Now I would like to speak with Mr. Gilbert if you don't mind" said the Queen. I told him that I didn't mind at all, and Clayton left with her, leaving me alone with the King.

- "I hope you don't have too much trouble with our questions. If you have any, don't hesitate!"asked me worried the King. I laughed and told him that it was quite normal. Everyone would have done the same thing out of curiosity, it's human to always want to know more. 

- "What I want to ask you are not really questions, but more details about your history, about the history of Edios and other countries. Can you tell me about the main royal families and other countries, and what if, despite our attempts to remain hidden, you actually had proof of the existence of another Empire?"

- "It is true that I have never broached the subject of royal families, at least until now. First of all, Edios is not the only country to have a monarchy system. There are two more, including one with a different status: Qibea, Acora and for the one that differs is from Hiviro. Perhaps you have already heard of it because it has existed long before Thetia Kestle, it is the Di Angelli family. Before going deeper into the subject, you should know that almost every country has had monarchies, but because of revolution and coup d'etat, they disappeared. I can mention Dracoris and Duaples in particular. The Duaplian monarchy is one of the best known of the Eight Kingdoms, especially because it ended brutally with mass executions of nobles and some bourgeois. If you would like to learn more, I can provide you with documents or you can visit Duaples. As far as royalty on Edios is concerned; there are 6 main royal families: my family the Of Knightford, the Kestle family who descend from the branch of Lowis Kestle the big brother of Thetia, the Vassethier family, the Di Angelli family, the Of Pellerisey family and finally the Arberel family. The secondary ones are the in-laws, the descendants of nobles and bourgeois. Previously, I said that the Di Angelli family had a different status from the royal family. Coming from Hiviro, a very religious country, this family was at the head of spiritual power, it represented the middle between Man and the Divine. Thus, this family is a religious family or a spiritual family. It became a royal family when it took power in a coup against King Harlan VII Vassethier and Jane Vassethier, who was Thetia's older sister. The Di Angelli's reigned from the end of the 13th to the 15th century. Then, always resentful and hating the Di Angelli, the Vassethier will regain power from the 15th to the 17th century. This period was one of the darkest and bloodiest that Edios knew. King Harlan VIII established an Autocracy. I don't know if you knew this form of government on Thetia, but to sum up, it is a political regime in which the sovereign draws his powers and legitimacy from himself. His authority knows no limits.Finally, a Revolution broke out within the government itself, led by Seth Kestle, a descendant of Lowis Kestle, supported by the people and members of the government, which enabled him to gain power very quickly and to oust the descendants of King Harlan VIII. As a result, until the XIXth century, the Kestle Dynasty reigned over a prosperous country and the last king of the Kestle family having had no descendants, decided to give his title to make his faithful right hand man, Charles Of Knightford his heir and his lineage reigns since the XIXth century on Edios and it is me Hermon Of Knightford who perpetuates it. However, Your Majesty, do not believe that the reigns of my family and the Kestle family were perfect. Nevertheless, these four families succeeded in placing Edios at the top of the world. In the beginning, only the Di Angelli, Kestle, Vassethier and my family were on Edios. Then, as the story unfolded, two new ones appeared. Let's now talk about the Pellerisey and Arberel families. Nowadays, the ministers who accompany the king are carefully chosen by him. Except in a case that happened in the 19th century: the eldest son of a peasant family saved the youngest of the royal family while she was drowning. In gratitude, the family was offered a place in the aristocracy and was able to expand its agricultural activities. It was Charles Of Knightford, the first King of the family Of Knightford who gave this title to his family. Nowadays, the heads of this family, the Arberel family, are 95% of the time Minister of Agriculture and manage in times of crisis or war the food supplies and stocks.  However, in this position, should have been the head of the Of Pellerisey family and he never digested it. Since that day, a strong rivalry between the Arberel family and the Of Pellerisey family was created. Today in 2019, the tensions are still present but they have calmed down".

What a story! On the Empire, it has always been the Kestle family in power since the 13th century. However, some reigns have gone better than others. For example, Athea Kestle's granddaughter abused her power over the population so much that she ended up being murdered in the middle of the street. Rumor says it was her younger sister and her younger brother who planned it. 

- "And you mentioned the relationship between the De Pellerisey family and Arberel, what about the other 4 families?"

- "They are very diverse and different in each era. For example, at the time of Thetia Kestle, the Vassethier family was allied with the Kestle family and the Of Knightford family was not necessarily close to the Kestle family. However, in the 19th century, Seth Kestle transferred his power and title to Charles Of Knightford, so the two families became closer and allied. Secondly, we were never very fond of the Vassethier family, as we considered them to be a troublesome family. As I said before, the Di Angelli's stole the power from the Vassethier's and vice-versa. You would think they hated each other, but it was even more difficult than we imagined. These two families together sometimes attempted suspicious actions towards my family and the Arberel family, and tried to get the Kestle's on their side. Nevertheless, the Kestle family was so respected, but also so fearful because of its military power, that the families were afraid to alienate them. As for the Di Angelli, they had the ability to make people believe things, that being on bad terms with them almost meant being against the people. Today, all the families get along well, except Arberel and Of Pellerisey, but they are not at the point of declaring war on each other".

- "I see, it must have been difficult for the inhabitants to understand the situation. Has Thournebourne always been the capital?"

- "Thournebourne became the capital when my family ascended the throne during the reign of Charles Of Knightford. Previously, each family had its own capital within their kingdom. You should probably know that Edios does not function like Duaples or Dracoris, in the form of departments and regions, but we kept the Kingdoms of the 6 families I just mentioned a few minutes ago".

- "And what are they?"

- "The capital of the Kingdom of the Di Angelli family was Larmerelli, the capital of the Kingdom of the Vassethier Hornsey, the capital of the Kestle family where you will go tomorrow was Ashton, then the Kingdom of the Arberel family Aynor and its enemy the Of Pellerisey family Romsey"

Several hours passed and I learned more and more about the history of Edios, Thetia's homeland. It was both intriguing and complicated to understand and assimilate everything, especially this story of the alliance between the families. In fact, the time in which our Creator lived was based on your place in society and the reputation of your family. These 6 families were lucky, because a family that was going to obtain an important title, was because of a tragic event related to Thetia, completely destroyed and erased from history. This was the cruelest and hardest punishment in history. Do not believe that death is the worst punishment that a guilty person can suffer, to be forgotten forever is much worse and that is what this family, the Brownhill family suffered.