The new Emperor, surrounded by a throng of guard, had found his crown heavy as his father. He did not belong in this city, and he knew it. His father had spoiled him with the grand Karovian estate, a fief wide and fertile, the rivers pristine and the peoples happy, and yet it was his duty to bear this barbed crown, a thorny thing which pricked at his head this way and that.
And so he stepped forward to the crowd gathered, in confusion at the succession, and spoke his piece;
“To the denizens of Petrusia, the city of world’s desire and home to countless, I bid you grave news,
Our beloved Emperor Tobias, and the Imperial Prince Boris, have succumbed to their ailments; the poison taking their toll. I grieve deeply for these great men, for my father, who saved this city from gross inactivity and brought forth merchants, artisans, and soldiery and my brother, who had just returned to the lands of Oren to only be met with a swift death from poisoned waters.
Yet the state must go on. We shall arrange a funeral to be held in their name and mourn their loss. They have left us at no worse time, these wizened men, who mayhaps have had the talent to resolve this crisis. Da, the country is a-strife, and da, my predecessors have led us to a failed invasion of Renatus, one which I now sorely regret. For those people and my wife’s kindred, the Rovins, demand their sovereignty and I am not one to impose force upon them.
So I am to return this Imperial Crown to the High Pontiff, and dismantle our Imperial institution. Maybe in years ahead, humanity shall be united as one, but for now, it is a fool-hardy attempt to impose our will on another, and for another to impose their will on us. Let us grow on our accord and come together under the right circumstance.
I shall not hide in my countryside estate any longer; the Karovian men shall accompany me to Petrusia, where we shall focus all our resources into making the city one which never sleeps, acting on every hour. I shall ask for a new crown, a royal crown befitting our new goals and beliefs as the Kingdom of Oren, a country for all peoples who do not wish to reside in the more nationalist Aesterwaldia and Renatus.
All vassals are to re-affirm their oaths to me, but I shall not punish those who wish sovereignty or to be subject to another realm. I shall enforce no tyranny, niet; if you fear my rule or my peoples, you may go as you will, but I urge you to stay and give me a chance. I have worked with my father diligently and will do everything in my power to keep our Orenian state sovereign and free.
Let the Kingdom of Oren flourish, free from Imperial duty and bondage, and let us pray for a new age of prosperity.”