"Codex: The Septim Dynasty
The Septim Dynasty is the ruling Dynasty of the Sacred Phoenix Empire, founded by Aenarion, formerly an orphan who was found on the streets of one of the towns of the Fire Nation.
It was noted that the Fire Lord Aenarion adopted the name Septim only after the Fire Nation was transported to Azeroth. Before that, the Fire Nation's Royal Family wasn't using any kind of surname as it wasn't considered necessary, and only during the rise of the Fire Nation, Aenarion chose the name Septim.
At that moment, Fire Lord Aenarion took the name Septim, which became the surname of the Royal House of the Sacred Phoenix Kingdom and, later, the Imperial House of the Sacred Phoenix Empire.
The Septim Dynasty is known to be a tightly-knit family, which is considered rather rare among the ruling houses of large nations, especially that of the Empires. Scholars typically attribute this to the personal views of the Aenarion Septim, philosophy inducted into the family by the Iroh Septim, Grand Chancellor of the Empire, and probably the most importantly, the sad history of the Fire Nation and lineage of the Fire Lords that was filled with treachery and kin slaying.
While never large in numbers, the power of each member of the Septim Dynasty is unquestionable. Since the Aenarion Septim established the Septim Dynasty, he was blessed by the Asuryan the Phoenix God himself, and the entire Septim Lineage is blessed with an extraordinarily large amount of Chi or Spirit Energy.
The Septim Dynasty became famous for the assimilation of the other lineages that ruled their respective nations, which became the method for them to expand their territories to unprecedented levels, rivaling that of the Alliance of Azeroth. Of the three known superpowers of tzeroth, the Empire is far more centralized than the Alliance, much less said about the Horde, which was decentralized compared to even the Grand Alliance of Azeroth.
Currently, the Septim Dynasty represents one of the supreme powers of tzeroth, as the Septim Dynasty is the supreme and sole ruler of the Sacred Phoenix Empire that is in control of the Lordaeron Continent, Broken Isles, and Fire Islands."
- Noble Lineages of Azeroth: Complete Compendium of the Nobility of Azeroth from Darnassus to Stormwind across the Ages, by Scholar Bemamar Flamefeast of Dalaran, 20 ADP
***
Unknown Time Earlier, Outside of the Azeroth, before the "Great Shift"
The world of Azeroth was a beautiful world that was comprised of four major continents, with a number of islands scattered about them. The Great Sea was located between the four landmasses, and at the center of it is the Maelstrom: a massive, chaotic whirlpool and all that remains of the ancient Well of Eternity.
To the east lies the Eastern Kingdoms, which iaremade up of three major regions. Azeroth to the south, Khaz Modan in the middle, and Lordaeron to the north, these last two separated by a channel and connected by the dwarven bridge of Thandol Span. To the west, across the ocean, is Kalimdor, which is also divided into three regions.
North of the sea lies the frozen continent of Northrend, and to the south, the newly discovered landmass of Pandaria, which had been isolated and shrouded by dense mists during the last 10,000 years. The islands of Zandalar, Kul Tiras, and the Broken Isles have been of major importance in recent events.
And recently, there was one huge addition to the panorama of the world of Azeroth.
No matter who was observing the sky, everyone from the lofty Grand Magister of the Quel'Thalas, Druids of the Cenarius Circle on the Kalimdor, Archmages of Dalaran, Monks of Pandaria, or anyone who looked at the starry sky noticed the phenomenon of the stars.
Everyone noticed the blinding light that appeared in the direction of the Eastern Kingdoms, far to the east, in the oceans, and distant waters that were mainly unclaimed and unexplored by the sentient races of Azeroth.
The entire event lasted for several hours, until the light subsidies completely died down, until nothing had risen, only a barrier of different kinds of light that was surrounding the entire place where the incident happened.
Not only did the so-called mortal races notice it, but also the dragons of the Azeroth of various Dragonflights noticed the presence of the light that appeared east of the Eastern Kingdoms, and they could feel tremendous power from the light and from the entire event.
"Great Shit" they called it in ht later books.
The first ones to notice these were the dragons of the Bronze Dragonflight as the eternal guardians of the time; it was them, who were most affected by the "Great Shit".
***
Caverns of Time: The Past, The Present, The Future
The Bronze Dragons were the dragons whom the Titan Aman'Thul blessed and tasked with the protection of the Time itself when he blessed the Nozdormu and his bord with the ability to time travel and mastery of temporal Magic. Generally stoic and detached from 'current' events, they rarely interacted with mortals unless they required help safeguarding the one true timeline.
Their sole purpose was to protect the time and not intervene in anything else, not even the matters of the other Dragonflights or whatever. Such was their purpose and task given by Titan Aman'Thul himself.
Just as every single day, Chronormu as responsible Temporal Investigator, was observing the timestream of Azeroth. Compared to the other Bronze Dragons, or even all Dragons that preferred to take the forms of the High Elves or Night Elves, she took the form of Gnome, whom she thought were adorable little creatures.
Thus came into existence her nickname... Chromie.
Just like every single dragon in existence, she too felt the presence of the appearance of the light in the Eastern Kingdoms, east to the Eastern Kingdoms, and the three continents of Lordaeron, Khaz-Modan, and Azeroth.
"Just what is..."
Before she could finish the sentence, suddenly, the streams of time started collapsing one after another as time changed. This was perhaps the worst news for the Bronze Dragonflight, as Chronormu started searching for the change in the timeline that caused the tremors in the streams of time.
"Fall of Stormwind... It's gone. Not only that, but what is the Phoenix Empire? And the New Horde is significantly weaker and smaller, almost negligible compared to what was destined... everything is collapsing..."
Chronormu said with dread in her childish voice, completely not befitting the persona she was appearing to be. Suddenly, the time streams were changing at lightning speed; many things that were supposed to happen didn't happen at all.
Some happened entirely differently compared to their fated end, and some entirely new events appeared in the streams of time, as everything that the Bronze Dragonflight had cultivated and created for many millennia was falling apart like the house of cards.
"Sa'at! We need to scour the timeline after the opening of the Dark Portal."
She screamed at the Bronze Dragon with the appearance of a High Elven noble wearing golden armor. Sa'at was one of the strongest combatants of the Bronze Dragonflight and was one of the Bronze Dragons who was managing the section of the oversight together with Chronormu.
"On it."
Suddenly, the Hero of the Bronze Dragonflight started casting some of the Spells and checking the temporal occurrences and the reason why the timelines started collapsing, something that was threatening the very own existence of the Bronze Dragonflight.
Soon enough, he had his answer as the dreaded realization came to him. In a split of a second, he was ejected from the streams of the time and coughed a huge amount of blood as he attempted to look into the streams of time.
"Sa'at!!"
Chronormu immediately rushed to her fellow Bronze Dragon and cast several healing spells on the Sa'at, who seemed to be severely injured. Even though she wasn't most apt at the healing Magic, she was still dragons and dragons were best at Magic.
It was like second nature for them, especially the Blue Dragons of the Blue Dragonflight that were incarnations of the Arcane Magic itself.
"I saw it... a man with flames and disposition of higher mysteries related to the Twin Tailed Comet... he is the nexus of all changes that are happening."
The Temporal Investigator looked aghast because it seemed that they would need to intervene and destroy the anomaly before the situation got even worse, but before anything could be done, suddenly, overwhelming power descended upon the entire Caverns of Time.
Immense power descended out of nowhere on the entire Caverns of Time, which started shaking, and large parts of them were collapsing, crushing some of the unlucky Bronze Dragons who were crushing in the falling debris.
"No one touches the Champion of the Sacred Flame!"
A strong and powerful male voice echoed through the entire Caverns of Time, as all Bronze Dragons were imprisoned in the Caverns of Time for an indefinite time when a crystalline barrier appeared around the Caverns of Time.
'It's like the presence of the T...'
Thought rushed through Chronormu's mind as she, too, was knocked out by the sheer power that descended down on the Caverns of Time. The last thought that was going through her mind before she was knocked out was that the Caverns of Time were going to get sealed for an indefinite time until it was too late for the Bronze Dragonflight.
In the meantime, the entire Caverns of Time, were beating sealed from the rest of the Azeroth by the invisible power.
Though it was not only applied to the Caverns of Time, but the other places where the Bronze Dragonflight was known to have their strongholds and places were also sealed from the rest of the world.
***
Imperial Capital Wei-Jin, Fire Nation, Fire Islands
As the Fire Nation Airfleet was approaching the Imperial Capital Wei-Jin, soon enough, the Imperial City came into their view as the Sky Marshall Zhao Ming ordered his airship to start landing down on the airport that was at the outskirts of the Imperial Capital of the Fire Nation.
The battleship was being escorted by several smaller airships of various classes that acted as the protectors of the representatives of the Eastern Kingdom, as they all spent talking with the members of the Fire Nation Air Forces.
The panorama of the Fire Nation's capital city seemed as if someone had taken a proper dwarven city and put it above the surface. Or at least, that was how Brann Bronzebeard saw it like that: he could see the enormous volcanoes surrounded by the forges right and left.
At the same time, both he and the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar could see that this city appeared more like some kind of military fortification because everything was fortified to the extreme.
Both the dwarf and High Elf could see that this city was more fortified than even the capital city of the Kingdom of Stormwind. And that was already something to behold because the Kingdom of Stormwind was the most militarized kingdom in all the Eastern Kingdoms.
The human nations on the continent of Lordaeron were far from the militarized Stormwind because the Stormwind was taking the military side of things far more seriously, and even though they had a much lower population than the Kingdom of Lordaeron, they had more soldiers in active duty, and they were incomparably better trained.
However, both Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar and Master Explorer Brann Bronzebeard were aware of the treacheries of the continent of Azeroth. The very high population of the Gurubashi Troll Tribes was a constant threat to Stormwind, and the presence of the Dark Iron Clan wasn't any better.
Some of the skeptical ones even predicted a war between the Gurubashi Troll Tribes and the Kingdom of Stormwind, because the trolls were too expansive already and due to the continuous peace for a long time, their numbers were swelling to a very high level.
Because their civilization was "rather" primitive, they didn't have many advanced production methods for the food and would be faced with overpopulation and so on...
That the Brann Bronzebeard, as a proper dwarf from the Ironforge, could confirm.
"Welcome to the Imperial City of Wei-Jin, the capital city of the Fire Nation. Aside from the capital of the Fire Nation, Wei-Jin also serves as the biggest military training center for the entire Military of the Fire Nation and the Headquarters for our Armed Forces."
Sky Marshall Zhao Ming stated that the foreigners from the Kingdom of Ironforge and the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas looked in mild wonder around the place because it looked very foreign to them.
The architectural style was something that was vastly foreign to the people of the Eastern Kingdoms.
"It seems that the welcome delegation is already down there."
Sky Marshall Zhao Ming stated as he looked down when he noticed that there were already several people wearing more luxurious traditional clothes of the Fire Nation, as they all awaited there together with the armed escorts.
"See that building in the center of the city? That is our destination, the Royal Palace of the Fire Nation... even though it doesn't really look very appealing as it was built with the defenses and military purposes as a top priority like everything that you can find in the Fire Nation."
Both of them looked at the biggest building in the entire city, and especially Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar had to admit that it looked... not very aesthetically appealing. That was indeed true; while the architecture of the place had a certain appeal for sure, it was more focused on utility and to enhance the defensive purposes.
"That is certainly unique..."
While the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar took a more diplomatic approach to the matter, Brann Bronzebeard was, on the contrary, he was rather surprised and delighted that the people of the Fire Nation were taking their security as their top priority.
"It seems that the defense is everything here? This would be soon enough already on the level of the Ironforge..."
The City of Ironforge is the capital of the Kingdom of Ironforge, not only that, but also the entire dwarven race. It was the ancestral home of the Bronzebeard Dwarves and one of the oldest cities on Azeroth.
Carved into the stone heart of Khaz Modan, the mighty city of Ironforge was a testament to the dwarves's strength and resilience. The city is perhaps the most intricate of the Azerothian cities, boasting many small passageways, shops built into the rock walls, and cavernous rooms.
The feel of the city is a bustling, rowdy, and somewhat industrial one, where there were always a thousand things happening at any time of the day or night. However, it is predominantly safe-feeling and cozy; fires roar in the hearts of the inns and shops, and much dwarven laughing and frivolity is to be heard.
Even despite all of this, the Ironforge was the most fortified city in the entirety of the Azeroth and its gates were never breached. Countless pieces of the dwarven and gnomish marvels of mechanical engineering and magical engineering.
Attacking the Ironforge would be madness; trying to breach its gates was futile because of all of the defenses that were in the Ironforge. Brann Bronzebeard as one of the members of the Bronzebeard Family that ruled the Bronzebeard Dwarfs, was very well-versed in strategic engineering, and he could see that the Fire Nation focused on the defense above everything else.
"The Fire Nation was in the Great War for the past hundred years, so over the time, we adjusted the entire lifestyle to the war and military. Though, only the coronation of the Fire Lord Aenarion, it was taken to a whole new level when we began complete restructualization of the entire nation."
Sky Marhsall Zhao Ming stated that it wasn't any peculiar secret that the Fire Nation was in the Great War in their old world. Attempting to hide would be virtually useless, so there was no point in it.
The Great War was ingrained in their very own culture and their very own existence and it shaped their nation like a militaristic hegemon and powerhouse it was.
"We will be landing down very soon, so get ready for the landing. When we land down, after going through the security check-ups, you will meet with the diplomatic entourage of the Fire Nation, and most probably, the Fire Lord will send the Grand Chancellor Prince Iroh."
Sky Marshall Zhao Ming stated as they were heading towards the place where their airship would be laid down, as both Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar and Brnan Bronzebeard listened attentively because everything that they had learned about the new nations that appeared near the continents of Lordaeron, Khaz-Modan, and Azeroth was useful.
"Member of the Royal House?"
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar asked, partially unsure what the Title of Prince stood for, even though it was commonly known for the members of the Royal House or the Imperial House; for example, the Goblins were using Title such as Merchant Prince.
"Yes. A direct relative of the Fire Lord and uncle of the Fire Lord's wife, Azula. But enough about that, everything ended. You will learn in time... Prince Iroh is a very pleasant person to be around and is a very expert diplomat, but don't let his facade cloud you; he is one of the most powerful Firebenders in the entire Fire Nation."
The Sky Marshall gave a small piece of advice to the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar because he actually enjoyed talking with the High Elf and also because he wanted to seed some goodwill between their people.
In the end, he hoped that everything would end well for them, as according to the orders of the Fire Lord, this time they were to make some real allies. In the end, at least for some time, it was time for peace.
Zhao Ming had an enormous amount of respect for the Dragon of the West, Prince Iroh, not only because of his combat prowess as one of the strongest Firebenders in the entire Fire Nation but also due to his wisdom and capabilities as a strategist.
Prince Iroh was standing there, with a distinctive topknot hairstyle, and his gray hair and beard gave him a wise, elderly look. He was dressed in flowing, traditional robes in shades of red and orange, though more ornamental in the symbols and motives of the Fire Nation.
Zhao Ming could swear that he saw a large, fiery dragon swirl around him, giving an aura of strength, wisdom, and control over fire.
"Greetings to the Grand Chancellor Iroh."
Sky Marshall Zhao Ming stated as he stood before the Grand Chancellor of the Fire Nation and gave the elderly man a bow.
"Thank you for bringing the foreign guests to our land. You are excused, but for the time being, please increase the patrols around the territory of the Fire Nation by the order of Fire Lord."
Prince Iroh said with an amiable smile reminiscent of that of the kind old grandfather as the Sky Marshall of the Imperial Air Force acknowledged the command with a nod of his head.
"Per your command. All Hail to the Fire Nation!"
"All Hail to the Fire Nation!"
With that being said, the Sky Marshall Zhao Ming left, leaving there only the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar and Brnan Bronzebeard, who were unaware of what the people were talking about, but soon enough, they noticed that the Prince Iroh turned their attention to them with a kind smile.
They were informed beforehand that Prince Iroh was also the Grand Chancellor of the Fire Nation, meaning that after the Fire Lord and Queens, he was the highest executive authority of the Fire Nation.
It also didn't escape them, especially it didn't escape the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar, that every single considerable position of power within the Fire Nation was in the hand of the Fire Lord's Royal House and that they valued personal power, ability, and skills above everything else.
"Welcome to the Fire Nation, Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar from the High Elven Kingdom Quel'Thalas and Brann Bronzebeard from the Dwarven Kingdom of Ironforge. I welcome you to the Fire Nation in the name of our Fire Lord and welcome your as guests of honor and friends in these weird time."
This was the first time for the Fire Nation in the past hundred years or so, since the Fire Nation had engaged in diplomacy or something that was at least reminiscent of diplomacy.
Since the start of the Great War in their old world, they didn't have a need for anything like that, and the hundred years of the Great War have transformed the Fire Nation into an ultra-militaristic warrior society, and with the Aenarion as the Fire Lord, the situation only worsened in this regard.
He was someone who was strictly pushing for more and more reforms in favor of militarizing their society.
"We are also pleased to be able to visit your lands and find out what has happened here during the Great Shift, as our scholars started calling this event."
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar took the introduction part from the Brann Bronzeberd because the High Elf was far more eloquent and skilled in the art of diplomacy, and he could also sense the enormous amount of the Chi radiating from the Iroh that was making him wary.
Among the people that he met, he would rank the man at the peak of the Hero Level, not really that far from the Legendary Level. Though that was just in terms of the raw power, if the tales of his prowess on the battlefield were true just from the half, then the Grand Magister would say that his power would be equal to his own.
Thus, the Patriarch of the House of Salonar took the communication with the Fire Nation onto himself; in the end, the High Elves thrived in the political arena, though unbeknownst to him, he never dealt with the nation of the soldiers and warriors.
"Then please follow after me to the Royal Palace; the Fire Lord ordered me to pick you up together with the representatives from the Explorer's League and escort you to the reception with the Royal Palace."
Grand Chancellor Iroh motioned for the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar and Brann Bronzebeard and a small entourage of their people to follow after him to the luxurious carriages that were prepared by the Fire Nation to escort the delegation to the Fire Nation Royal Palace.
All of them were being protected by the soldiers from the Imperial Bending Legion and even several Royal Phoenix Crownsguards because the Grand Chancellor was present within the carriages as their task was to protect the members of the Royal Family.
"We should arrive at the Royal Palace within half an hour; there are several security checkpoints that we need to pass... since we found ourselves in this place, there has been an increase in security several times over."
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar nodded, though he was rather intrigued by the strict security within the Fire Nation, which was indeed far above the standards of anything he had seen till now.
Just from the behavior of the soldiers and everyone around them, it was clear that they were taking their duties especially seriously and wouldn't allow for any kind of mishap.
"Is the Fire Nation always this strict with its defenses and security? From what I can see, even your civilians are behaving almost like soldiers."
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar questioned after spending some time obsering the people of the Fire Nation from the carriage.
"Partially yes... During the past hundred years, the landscape and society of the Fire Nation changed greatly due to the 100 Years Great War between the Fire Nation and several of the nations in our old world, which should be obvious to you already that the Fire Nation was transported to Azeroth."
Grand Chancellor Iron explained the situation with the 100 Years Great War between the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, and the Water Tribes and everything around it, while leaving out some details for the purpose.
"So, you have something like the caste-based society?"
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar asked because it was a bit similar to how the High Elves functioned. Quel'Thalas was a High Elves Kingdom that heavily worked on the caste-based society principles, where the Mages and Nobles stood above everyone else in terms of social status, with the Warriors, Priests, and Rangers beneath and the ordinary Civilians at the bottom of the ladder.
"Technically, yes, but it is still possible to move across the castes, so there is relatively high social mobility if you have enough merit. Aside from that, everyone is separated into three categories: Civilians, Citizens, Benders, Nobles, and Bloodline Aristocrats."
This was a division that was created in the Fire Nation due to a combination of the hundred years of the Great War and the Aenarian Reforms when he became the Fire Lord.
"Can you please elaborate on the topic? Especially the difference between Civilians and Citizens, which is a bit blurry for me. And also, the difference between the ordinary Noble and Bloodline Aristocrat should be something related to your Bending, right?"
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar stated, and even Brann Bronzebeard proceeded to listen attentively to the Grand Chancellor's explanations. He could understand several things about the society of the Fire Nation because, in many regards, it was similar to the Quel'Thalas, especially when it came to the social status of the Benders, the people capable of commanding the elements.
"While every national of the Fire Nation is a Civilian at the start, not every Civilian is a Citizen. Citizenship is the concept of the Fire Nation that is awarded to the people who joined the Royal Service and were honorably discharged, served for more than five years, or performed considerable merits. Most of this is tied to the Military Service in one of the Branches of the Military, but the applicants may be assigned to any field where they sacrifice their time and effort for the Fire Nation, though the military service is most important and preferred for several reasons. Citizens were then able to run for some public offices in minor posts; they could hold political posts, have some set of political and social rights, they got preferential treatment from the Fire Nation, and many other benefits. And only the Citizens may be risen to the Nobility and Bloodline Aristocracy."
Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar and Explorer Brann Bronzebeard listened to him talking about the society of the Fire Nation, and from the talk, it was clear that they were heavily militaristic and prized their military and martial capabilities above everything else.
Grand Chancellor Iroh then proceeded to explain most of the basic points from their social structure that was mostly implemented by the Fire Lord Aenarion building on the already existing status of the Fire Nation.
He then proceeded to explain the differences between the Nobility and Bloodline Aristocracy, even though the Grand Magister Belo'vir Salonar had already guessed the main difference between the two of them.
However, both of them were rather surprised that the Nobles and Bloodline Aristocrats would not necessarily have political power in the Fire Nation. There was also a fact that to enjoy some benefits from the Fire Nation, its people must contribute to the Fire Nation.
Everything in the Fire Nation revolved around the skills of a person; even if someone was from an old noble house, then they wouldn't have any political power as long as they weren't skilled.
That seemed to be very foreign to the Azerothians but also appeared very exotic to both of them. It was clear that the society of the Fire Nation was one big unknown and also something very foreign to them.
***
3rd POV
Fire Nation Royal Palace, Imperial Capital Wei-Jin, several moments later
When Aenarion sent Prince Iroh to pick up the delegation from Azeroth, he had already started the final preparations for the negotiations and a proper diplomatic relationship between the nations.
He wasn't really good at diplomacy, and neither was either one of his spouses, so it would certainly be an interesting experience. Azula would either burn or shoot lighting at everyone who annoyed her, Esdeath would freeze them to popsicles, and June would just disappear and go to play if she was bored.
Aenarion himself wasn't really good in this regard, as he preferred solving the problems with his fists and not talking because he found the method of force much easier and faster; it was really time-saving.
It was certainly an interesting experience, and seeing his first wife, Azula, squirming rather uncomfortably in the royal outfit was worth it. At least, he wasn't suffering alone as he predicted, because it would be good if Azula showed up together with him; it would leave there a better impression.
From his three wives, Aenarion concluded that only Azula and Esdeath would be appropriate for an event like this because June, as the Supreme Commander of Onmitsukidō, didn't need to be here.
She was head of something that was basically his personal assassin agency, so it wouldn't be appropriate to bring her to the meeting. Esdeath was on the other side of the Fire Island in the headquarters of the Khaos Brigade, which left Azula on this duty.
"Smile Azula, smile."
Hearing her husband, she scoffed and threw a fireball at him, which he swiftly dodged.
"They should be arriving at any moment, so stop glaring at everyone like you want to burn them at the stake."