Nandelia really loved children. When she had been given the chance to work at an orphanage she had nearly jumped in joy, she didn't because the headmistress seemed to be a very serious person and probably wouldn't approve of such childish behaviour. She was even happier when she got to care for an infant only two months after she started working. The next months were a flurry of activity, nursing and taking care of the infant while new ones arrived every now and then.

The funds the Empire donated to orphanages were enough to pay for one caretaker per twenty orphans. Only humans were allowed in federal sponsored orphanages, something which had been like this for hundreds of years and a glaring injustice as far as Nalivey was concerned.

Only a few months had passed and the Festival of Founding was fast approaching when her class hit its limit of twenty orphans. Things got all the more interesting when the children started to learn how to walk with Mary being the first to manage crossing the room all by herself being just shy of ten months old.

Over the course of the next six months all her charges got increasingly curious and started exploring their rooms. Each class had their own apartment, a dormitory, a restroom and a common room where they could play with each other.

When they reached the age of one and a half, thirty-six months of age, they were allowed to go playing in the inner courtyard as long as they were watched by one of the caretakers.

Her group seemed to consist of mostly calm children considering they never seemed to cause as much trouble as the other groups of similar age did. By the time the last of them hit the age of two she started teaching them everything she knew.

Nandelia differed from the rest of the orphanage’s workers as her father was a fairly successful merchant. She had always lacked the will to survive the business world, something her father noticed early on. Instead of trying to make her into a merchant her father just arranged teachers give her a solid education, afterwards supporting her in whatever work she wanted to do. Because of her family's wealth a solid education was way more than her coworkers could ever hope to achieve.

She started her lessons with the basics, like the length of a year being twenty-four months, each of which consisted of twenty eight days. Furthermore she taught them how to read and write in the language of the empire, as well as those of the surrounding kingdoms, like high elven, dwarven and the tongue of the lizardfolk.

They were all eager to learn more so she added the history of the Empire to her already existing subjects.

“The Empire was founded when Emperor Aulus Blythe managed to convince the true dragon Bronos Firebreath to help him found the Empire.” The children were glued to her lips.

“The Emperor set out and founded the capital. As ancient tradition had been upheld, the surrounding kingdoms welcomed the new empire in their midst.

Aulus was quite the charismatic man so he had many followers, ranging from powerful mages to simple farmers. With the help of the dragon and a few of his followers who had expertise in these matters, he planned out our capital to the finest detail and set up the Teleportation Circles, a thing no other nation has managed to copy as of yet.

He feared the other countries would invade one of his cities as means to directly attack the capital through these circles so he set them up to never lead towards the capital.” Nandelia continued.

“As you know, we now have the year 639 EC, EC meaning Empire Ascending. In the first ten years of its existence the Empire enlarged its border by simply claiming unclaimed land. More kingdoms started to take notice and our nearest neighbour declared war, the empire growing powerful way too fast for their liking. The ‘upstart’ at their border had to be put in place.

We easily won that war because Emperor Aulus had constantly built up the forces over the course of the Empire’s existence. After claiming all of our enemies lands, the Empire continued its uninterrupted expansion in unclaimed territory.

Until we hit the borders of other kingdoms to the south, east and west not long after. The northern expansion stopped before as the monsters in those lands got increasingly powerful and even started attacking our outposts with uncanny levels of coordination. What ultimately stopped the northward expansion for good was a family of true dragons having claimed the surroundings to their mountain range. So the Empire stopped expanding for the first time in twenty years.

We had a period of peace, as Emperor Aulus focused on solidifying the position of his dynasty at the Empire's top. When the Emperor finally died with sixty years of age he had made sure his family would always rule the Empire.” “Why did he die this young?” One of them asked. “I heard most Emperors lived up to eighty years of age?”

“While Aulus was a great leader, he had one big disadvantage, his personal power too insignificant to greatly expand his lifespan but significant enough to stop any means of expanding his lifespan by outside means.” Nandelia answered.

“After his death several of the surrounding kingdoms declared war against the prospering Empire, hoping to profit from the struggle for the throne they were sure was about happen. What they found instead was the most prospering country around unified behind their ruler.

Aulus son never had plans to further expand the Empire and was content to let all enemies fail against the Empire’s legions and genius organization. Auslus built the empire in a way it was next to impossible to invade, sieging one of the cities would be useless as they could get supplied by the teleportation gates.

Just ignoring the city and raiding the inland was a foolish venture as they would be privy to be attacked by a large force from their rear. A year after his father's death all our enemies sought peace as they noticed the folly of their actions. Emperor Herius accepted their peace offerings under the condition they repay the Empire for its losses.

In the remaining time of his rule he formed the Empire into a hub for scholars and increasing knowledge of the civilized races as a whole.

The next four Emperors continued his work, until the Empire had its darkest hour, some of the neighbouring kingdoms assassinating Emperor Oppius and declaring war to his inexperienced son who had just hit ten years of age. While no single army could match the Empire's legions and it was impossible to siege one of the cities, there are other, more costly ways to conquer a city which were ultimately successful.

The combined army of five of the surrounding counties, all of them ruled by Non-Humans catched the empire’s legions of guard having fought nothing for the last two hundred fifty years other than bandits and some monsters.

The legions were pushed back until only the first six of the Empire’s cities were still under its control. Of course the enemies had grievous losses and their soldiers were dying in droves. At that time, Gallus, Oppius son emerged for the first time, filled with rage and grief for his father's death and came back looking for vengeance. He had the same strategic genius of his forefathers and didn't hesitate to use his strongest assets to attack the enemy where it hurt most, interrupting supply lines and using all means necessary to take back one city after another.

After reclaiming most of the Empire's lands safe for the ten outermost cities he was beaten back again, as the rest of our neighbours joined the war and lost two cities again. He received an ultimatum, cease all hostility towards the surrounding counties or lose all remaining cities except the capital.

With no good options remaining he accepted grudgingly and set the Empire on a darker path than his forefathers. He was filled with fury towards not only the killers of his father but all beings not human. Knowledge was now hoarded by the military, everyone without work had to join the Empire's evergrowing legions. People of every non human race, as they were the ones to kill his father, lost their equality and most of the rights they had before.

Since then we never reached the glory of old, our relations with the surrounding countries at a permanent impassive. And while our legions are now strong enough to defeat any one of their armies, yet the neighbouring kingdoms would join forces should we wage war against one of them.

Trade had been stagnant until Emperor Vibius great grandfather reestablished it at the start of his rule, he understood the benefits the economy would have from trading. The Blythes never forgot the assassination and the nonhuman kingdoms dislike the Empire for oppressing all races but humans though.”

“Why were there no dragons in the wars?” One of the orphans asked. Nandelia shuddered at the thought. “A country's dragon never joins a war, except the if core of the country in question is in danger, which in the Empire’s case would be our capital and the five surrounding cities. A dragon joining a war would be devastating for all involved parties as dragons are incredibly powerful!”

After she taught them the basic history, she added a little bit of monster lore to the lesson’s as she was sure it would spice things up for the children.

“Speaking of Dragon’s how about I teach you lot something about them?” She asked them, getting excited agreement.

“As you may know, there are four known evolutionary steps a dragon can have. The weakest being lesser dragons found everywhere on the world with little more intelligence than a beast. While a lesser dragon is the weakest of dragons, they are still more powerful than most other beings! Killing a lesser dragon is required for adventuring parties that want to advance into the leader ranks. While powerful, lesser dragons are easy to manage for most countries as there are always adventurers wanting to advance. The body of a lesser dragon is worth a fortune when matured, as the materials one can gain are of very high quality, but that of an immature one are worth way less. Killing a lesser dragon smaller than thirty meters of length results in immediate expulsion from the adventurers guild, if you didn't kill it in self defense.

A lesser dragon can evolve into a dragon, beings as smart as your average human. Hunting dragons is considered a crime in most countries. That's mostly due to the fact that to be recognised as an independent country one has to have a dragon supporting it. Getting this support is actually easier than it sounds, as most dragons are incredibly greedy and easily bribed. Killing a dragon is ten times harder than killing one of their lesser brothers as they are capable of breathing fire and subconsciously coat themselves in a magical barrier when fighting. Not counting them being up to a third bigger than lesser dragons of course. Dragons and their lesser brethren are very much alike in color, coming in ever color other than silver and gold.

The third and most beautiful evolution a dragon can have, is called true dragon these, unlike all other dragons true dragons always have either silver or golden scales. They are smarter than the average human. Aside from their huge size, having the possibility of reaching up to one hundred twenty meters in size, their true danger comes from being capable of using their immense magical reserves on thought, like sorcerers, instead of subconsciously. Killing a true dragon, while nearly impossible as they will just flee if their life is in danger, is seen as most stupid endeavor one could want to accomplish, as it will always result in the annihilation of the kingdom responsible by the dead dragons family.

The last known evolution of a dragon is the high dragon. Physically nowhere near as imposing as a true dragon they are the one most powerful races in existence. There are no records of a high dragon even being injured by humans. They are smarter than any human, elf, dwarf or beastkin. Nothing is known about their magic. There a only two reports of an encounter with a high dragon in all known history as they are incredibly rare, and most likely life in the deep wildlands found in the middle of each continent, where you wont find any humans or really anything other than the most dangerous monsters.”

When the children started reaching the age of three Nandelia started teaching them basic mathematics as well as a few other important lessons. With the third Festival of Founding since they came here fast approaching she had the joy of telling them they would be allowed to leave the orphanage for the first time in their life, visiting the festival for the first time with three years of age as custom dictated.

Mary jumped in joy when she heard they were going to visit the Festival. She had always felt like some sort of prisoner in the enclosed space of the orphanage, which while no actual prison always seemed constricting to her. While she loved the other children, she couldn't understand how they were happy with the little space they had, she had always dreamt of running around in the vast woods Nandelia told them about in one of her stories.

She had long since decided she would start adventuring if she ever got the chance. The older orphans told them the festival was a sight to behold, more grandiose than they could have imagined. That they wouldn't be allowed to leave the group and had ten of the guards accompanying them didn't dampen her mood in the slightest. While some of the others were a little afraid to leave for the unknown even if only a few hours, most were excited enough, though nowhere near as happy as she was. Tomorrow would most definitely be the best day of her life so far.