Shattered Eagle: Fall of an Empire (WIP) [340k words | Small Content Update 02/10/2025]

Let me just get the Galeriae lore down here:

Ursa was the founder of the Galeriae dynasty, a brilliant general who overthrew a succession of weak, puppetered empresses to seize control of Iudia and win a series of resounding victories against its enemies. However, she died of poison just after a long siege of the Pharian capital of Kanzak. The culprits were never proven…but Iudians blame the Pharians, of course.

She’s an idolized figure in Iudia to this day, with subsequent Galeriae holding tight onto her name (hence the common cogonomen of Ursinia) to claim that glory for themselves. Even Augusta sings her praises in Chapter V.

While Lucia (the Second/II) was a young ruler, where many other child Empresses have been overthrown and done away with, she had a competent Prefect of the State who managed the Empire and the recovery from Ursa’s many financially ruinous wars before stepping down into retirement and historical obscurity after Lucia II came of age.

Lucia II was an energetic ruler in matters of state, and well noted for the writing of famed philosophical tracts. She governed the Empire ably until dying of what many term the Lucian Plague, which swept through Kyro to a catastrophic effect.

Isuara is where the dynasty began to lose its footing. Isuara did not engage in major wars or major reforms, instead investing her focus into maintaining her status quo and retrenching the power of the Galeriae family throughout the Empire, leading to a spike in public corruption (this is one thing the Treasurer Prefect struggles to deal with as a result).

Perhaps most damming in the history books is her poor management of her children. Helena was her eldest and favorite, having grown pampered, spoiled and used to the position of presumptive heir, ever striving towards the throne. Scilla was the middle child, a gregarious and charismatic woman who broadly popular. Leta was the more quietly intellectual of the three, preferring scrolls and tomes to battle or soirees.

After an argument with her mother, Helena began to fear she would be replaced by the popular Scilla, or the cunning Leta. So she and her husband devised a plot to poison them both, leading to her sisters nearly dying. Leta’s recovery was far more complete than her elder sister, who was plagued by sickliness as a result for the rest of her life. Helena and her husband were caught out soon after, and with little choice Isuara had them both executed. Helena’s infant son, Titus, was adopted by Scilla in a public show of forgiveness and compassion.

For the remaining two years of her reign, Isuara retreated from the public eye and neglected duties of state, until she died of natural causes, leaving Scilla as her heir to usher in a new age of Iudia…

or at least, that’s how it all appeared. Leta was appointed Prefect, the youngest in Iudian history, and for the first decade of her rule Scilla was a beloved Empress, though how much was due to her own acumen or her sister’s is unclear to the histories. Over time, however, the tumor of bitter misanthropy, nursed by the deep and near-deadly betrayal of her sister, grew within her, and it was the birth of her twins that broke her for good.

She spent the years after playing sister against sister, telling each she was the elder and best fitted to rule. She demeaned Titus as a dull-witted fool and left him to his own devices, and used Tristitia as another neglected tool to divide her children against one another, which the twins responded by bulling their younger into compliance out of fear of her rising against them both. All to ensure that they all loathed each other more than their mother.

It was in this second decade of her more than thirty year reign that Scilla’s erratic and short sighted decision making infected governance despite Leta’s efforts, furthering purges of the bureaucracy, political cronyism, and weakening borders. She considered the Watch a threat and replaced them with Svekian mercenaries, who eventually deserted due to pay disputes and formed the Slaga gang in Kyro. And of course, the fateful wedding night between Julia and Titus.

Hopefully that about covers it! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Juicy lore dump.


Something something “history repeats” something.

Sorry Augusta, but you look up to the wrong Galerii. You see that Lucia? Yes, she’s really cool. Let’s get philosophising and administering. I will take care of that whole war stuff. Get your books and abacus ready in the meantime.

Also, instant favourite Galerii.


I can deal with political intrigues just fine, but the public finances? God damn it Isuara. I can’t just intrigue a healthy and stable tax base into existence.

Leta just can’t stop being great.

god-damn-it-eric-cartman

Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh.
Marcella was right; what a twit.
Scilla is just so…ugh.

-Sincerely, a Watch Prefect.

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I’m sure that she planned to have just one daughter exactly to avoid a repeat of her childhood. Giving her twins is a cruel irony of fate. Goodness, the Galeriae really are quite a mess.

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Take that Victoria, you don’t get the purple circle, yet!

Hhhmmm, very interesting… I guess a loyal Prefect devoted to Augusta has a role model (although I fear the Empire is in a far worse state now.)

Also Leta really is super interesting, hope for more interactions and I am very excited to see the various way she is a foil to the Prefect considering we are on opposing sides.

I am guessing she and Iblin are in it together no matter the alliance, but instead they send the person that the Senate or Foederati would be more comfortable with.

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All I will say is that Leta does not appear in either version of the CH 5 Victoria scene.

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I said it on the discord but either Victoria and Iblin hatched their rebellion completely under Leta’s nose or she’s really dumb. If she gets her betrothal between Marius and Augusta, she’s stuck putting down the rebellion she just started, so either she had nothing to do with it or shes way dumber than shes appeared to be thus far.

It wouldn’t actually surprise me if she was keeping Victoria in her back pocket for if the Marius thing fell through, and then Victoria jumped the gun way early. That makes the most sense of all possible events to me.

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This is what I get for not yet playing through the new demo on the Foederati yet and just going off random comments I have seen…

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Although this is a major schism that parallels the wars following the collapse of the second triumvirate, I imagine that since Augusta still holds the capital and Iudia itself, she is formally considered ‘Empress’ according to the map…

I think that Leta had to know that Victoria survived, but I don’t think she is involved with the rebellion. It goes against her previous planning and her modus operandi. Leta has so far wanted to integrate her relatives into the existing power structure. She wanted Marius to be Augusta’s consort. She wanted Victoria to be Augusta’s friend. She was probably hoping to keep Victoria safe and appoint her in a high Imperial position, perhaps Prefect of the State to Augusta. She could thus reinsert the Galeriae into power without a single drop of blood spilled.

Unfortunately, Victoria had other plans. She and her father wanted revenge. It was probably her that convinced Titus to betray Augusta, since it contradicts Leta’s moves and puts her relatives at risk. With her family history, Leta seems unlikely to want more relatives dead. I think we’re setting up her as a sort of ‘swing’ character who could go either way in the power struggle depending on how convincing we are.

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Good point. Augusta does hold the Capital and has many of the symbols of legitimacy, such as the Praetorian Guard, etc.

Good point. Between Titus potentially being an ally, and Leta seeming to not be part of the plot, that is a major ability to fracture the Galerii. That said, I have no doubt that Leta will be a crucial foil.

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I would suggest it’s rather less like the second triumvirate – the triumvirs all had equally acknowledged legitimate (if dubiously acquired) powers and provinces. And there was no such thing as an emperor yet. This is a lot more like the multifarious usurpations of the late imperial period – particularly as both the Senate and armies would prop up rival emperors as a way to contest their own grievances.

Control of the capital is significant – but not dispositive. Pompey and the Senate held Rome when Caesar started his march, and we know how that turned out. Vitellius held Rome when the forces of Vespasian entered Italy. Quintillus held Rome (and was the brother and Senate-acclaimed successor of Claudius Gothicus!) when Aurelian marched. Maxentius held Rome when Constantine moved on him. Etc, etc and so on and so forth.

Augusta is formally considered empress because she is: Julia made her co-empress. Victoria is contesting that claim – but, well, it’s an imperial cartographer who made the map… and certainly Augusta has control over the imperial apparatus at this juncture. But who history later decides is legitimate and who is a usurper is another story…

If only it were holding Kyro/Rome alone that constituted legitimacy. It is certainly my ideological preference that this were the case, but… Tacitus did say that was the secret of empire: emperors could be created somewhere other than Rome. Legions propped up emperors all the time.

Of course, my preferred propaganda argument would be Augusta holds Kyro and the support of the Senate and People and is thus legitimate first citizen by all the standards of Iudian legitimacy, et cetera et cetera. But the people with swords might disagree. :wink:

Here’s a fun but troubling fact: we have potentially lied to Leta about what happened to the rival heirs in the flashback scene. If she’s not against us right now, there’s no telling what would happen in the future.

Exactly.

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Ya… The choices in that flashback are either gonna pay off big time or really blow up in our faces and I do not know how it will pan out…

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I think a possible reconciliation or peaceful endstate with Leta (and her branch of the Galeri) will have as a requirement Titus alive and allied to Augusta. If you had him killed (or, rather as in my case, couldn’t prevent his stupidity/anger from getting him killed), AND married Julia becoming Emperor-Consort/Dowager, then I think future negotiations with her might be dead in the water, unless Augusta is forced to marry Marius which I really wouldn’t want for her considering her mother’s marriage.

I’d want Augusta to marry someone she likes when she is old enough (like 20+), even if it isn’t politically advantageous. I mean, what kind of Prefect of the State are you if you don’t keep the Empire powerful and (kindof) well during your tenure?

I really hope we’ll see less and less of the flashbacks in the future chapters. I’m worried that having many choices to make in flashbacks could become tiresome and repetitive. Tristitia’s fate being the last “big” flashback choice would be best I think.

Then again, less flashbacks would probably mean less Julia as well, and I’d be sad about that as she’s probably my favorite character in the game. She is equally fun as both a romance option and someone you can antagonize throughout the game.

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I really wonder if Leta knows that Julia ordered the deaths of Victoria and Tristitia… Although Victoria being alive is gonna make things very interesting regarding that…
I believe it has been said that was the final flashback!

I feel the question of who to marry Augusta to is going to be very interesting and important.

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Tris might be a surprise tool that’ll help us later here. If we can confirm that we saved her, we might be able to negotiate in good faith as a friend to the non-insane/actively rebellious Galeriae.

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True, although I am worried about Julia’s reaction (assuming she is in any condition to react…)

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Well, Leta always seems to have sources on the inside. Whether it was her or Iblin that saved Victoria, it seems impossible to me that Leta is unaware that Julia tried to kill Victoria (because she either was involved in the rescue or someone told her when Victoria came to be in her care) and by inference it becomes clear that we potentially killed Tristitia, or that we were the ones to save her. If we select the latter, Gaius saw that we were the only ones left from the group that left to kill Tristitia.

And yet, Leta is still at least cordial to us. I don’t think she hates us, necessarily. It will probably hurt our chances if we killed Tristitia, but I don’t think it will be fatal to a negotiation unless we’ve done other harm; killing Titus, for example.

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That’s correct, there are no further flashback scenes:

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Agreed – someone made those moves after all. It may well have been her.

looks up from his shiny purple clothing uh-oh

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Who says we killed Titus? I say his heart just did that, personally.

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Titus-killers can’t even own responsibility for their atrocities, smh.

I killed Julia and I am proud of that fact.

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