Lettow The Great, theEmperor of the World


    "Even a Dragon shall bow."The Verbrüderung (Alliance / Taming) of Lettow and his Dragon, Helius.


    Once upon a time,there was noEmpire of the Holy Flame. The manyFirebendingpeoples lived in rustic tribes with barely any productive land.Spiritsplagued most of the territory and watched as theFirebenderswarred over the scraps. SomeLandLordseven worshipped theSpiritsof the wilds in exchange of mercy and assistance in their wars, especially in theNorthwhere the influence of theTribes of the North Seawas stronger. This was theDarkest Age.


    When theFeudalLordof Aachen, the only formal kingdom of the time, died without leaving heirs; internal struggle amongFireknightsled to a bloody civil war. Pretenders were willing to darken and useSpiritsin their fight to power. The people called for a saviour.


    A young boy, bastard son of the deceasedFeudal Lord, went toHeaven''s Shrineas a pilgrim.He had promised to make 100 thousand prayersso that theGrey Guardianwould forgive the boy''s mother. She was the prostitute who poisoned the boy''s father as vengeance and sent the kingdom into disarray. The boy sat for weeks straight as he begged theGrey Guardianfor forgiveness. His willpower amazed the Airbending Clergy who began to admire his dedication to his goals.


    Finally, as the boy completed 1/6 of the promised prayers, he was already in the brink of death. He lost his consciousness due to exhaustion and according to him,an angel touched him as he slept. The clerics saved the boy and he saw flames blazing off his fingers as he rose from the ground.He had been blessed with the gift of Firebending.


    When asked his name, he said:


    "Lettow, the Bastard."


    A Supreme Priest corrected him:


    "Lettow von Aarchen, chosen champion of the Grey Guardian, Holy Emperor of the Fire People."


    <u>The Birth of an Empire</u>


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    Lettow had been chosen by the Divine, yet not yet by the man. Skepticism and tomatoes welcomed him as he returned to Aarchen with Priests and Inquisitors. They saw him as nothing but another pretender willing to start war for power.


    He understood that prayer was the language of theGrey Guardianand power was the language of the humans.Yet 10 Firebenders were still willing to accept aLordchosen by the divine. Lettow made them his paladins and promised that each would die with vast lands and wealth. They nodded politely and dismissed their master''s promise asempty words. Yet those 10 people would become the 9 Dukes of theEmpire of the Holy Flamea couple decades later.


    They travelled together to the mountains of Pirinéus between Aarchen and Badajoz, a land calledThe County of Dragons. The ultimate symbol of power for the Fire people was the Dragon. Lettow understood that he would becomeEmperorby overpowering the most powerful being in theWild Lands.


    The impossible happened: Lettow fought theAlpha Maleof all Dragons for 4 monthswhen the earth itself seemed to burn with the battle. By the time Lettow finally wrapped a rope around the Dragon''s jaw, looked it in the eyes and told what would be its name (Helius); the entire geography of the Pirinéus had changed. They formed aBond / Verbündnisand Lettow returned to Aarchen with his paladins and his new Dragon.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Lettow conquered Aarchen without blood. The populace submitted as they saw Helius, his dragon, flying below Lettow. All pretenders gave up their arms and accepted that fighting him would be futile. Lettow''s first decision as a ruler was to crush all sorts of Cults of Spirits through Inquisitional Judges and then ravage the wilderness with fire until most weakDark Spiritsmoved to the Spirit Steppes. He then fulfilled his promises to his paladins and conquered the tribes of the north and southwest and turned them into walled feuds like Aarchen.Feudalism crystalized.


    Lettow promised his paladins:


    "The Emperor of the Holy Flame shall be the guardian of you and your princes until the 19th Generation. No adventurer shall take over the land that the Emperor''s flame has bestowed upon you."


    Lettow returned toHeaven''s Shrinewhere the Grand-Priest of the Church crowned himEmperor of the Holy Flame,Supreme Guardian of the Fire Peoples, the Penitent Faith and the Sacred Church of Heaven''s Shrine. An Empire was born.


    <u>The Sunset of a Life</u>


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    "I''ve taken a hundred battles and a thousand arrows before the first one hurt. How much I wish, the Grey Guardian knows, how much I desired that 1001th arrow that hurt me had pierced my chest,not hers."


    Among Lettow''s ten paladins was a young girl named Siegfrieda who had been born deaf. Her only mean to talk was throughFirebendingand she had a secret language that Lettow deciphered and shared with her. They fell in love for she knew that he was the only one who could understand her.Yet she never knew that Lettow shared the same feeling.


    TheWaterbending Northmenwere enemies whom Lettow never managed to defeat. They constantly raided the shores and threatened his Princes. Yet the threat only became his priority once they pillaged and destroyed theFeud of Hanhiver. Siegfrieda, as Duchess of Hanhiver and Empress, sought after the raiders for the destruction of her land and she died in the North Sea.Her image haunted Lettow''s nightmares. He dreamed of her calling for his help when there was nothing that he could do.He lost his capacity to sleep and went mad.


    He rallied his lords and invaded Alba with overwhelming strength. The combined power of all Fire Knights proved to outmatch any enemy in the world once their cavalry landed. They crushed theNorthmen, burnt all their images of Spirit worship and erected a huge wall to lock them in the most miserable lands to the north of Alba.Yet his greatest offense was to deny burial to his foes in the tradition of the Water Tribes.He buried them deep in the ground where theNorthmenthought the dead could never reach the realm of the Spirits.


    Because of his actions, the war for theNorth Seaclaims lives to this day.


    <u>The Death of a Legend</u>


    Old, lonely and sleep-deprived,Emperor Lettowdedicated his time to roam around his palace. He often said that he pursued Siegfrieda, who often played a romanticCatchwith him in their castles. He went hunting alone every Autumn yet he always brought two mounts: one for himself, and another for Siegfrieda, whom he still hoped to find in his travels.


    His retirement was disturbed when he heard news that an extremely powerful bender calledthe Guidehad united all theEarthbendingTribes and had his eyes aimed at Afrika and Europa. HisCult of the Moon (the Camarilla)sounded to Lettow like an eerie religion that he could not distinguish from Spirit worship.


    He roseFire Knightsand flew to confrontthe Guide. They found each other in the Battle of Tassos, abloody skirmish that would decide the fate of the last Penitent city outside of Europa.


    Accustomed to overwhelming victories and glories,the GuidesurprisedHoly Emperor Lettowwith an outstanding understanding of bothElementsand the nature ofSpirits.Lettow''s power could destroy the Guide''s flesh, yet not the Guide himself. Exhausted, maddened and old, Lettow finally succumbed to the power ofthe Guideand fell off the sky, dead.


    The Guidestole the crown from theEmperor of the Holy Flameand crowned himselfCaliph,Emperor of Both Worlds.


    Lettow’s body never returned home. His corpse’s fate is unknown to this day.


    Today, whilethe Caliph expands his lands and narrows his eyes at the destruction of Heaven''s Shrine and thePenitentfaith, the world cries for a newEmperor of the Holy Flame.