“While many nations touted their legitimacy and history through the abundance of ancient cities that were kept in use, often with new buildings built on the remnants of the old, in the past half millennium, the trend had slowly begun to switch to newly built cities, and the communities that sprung up around them.

Some of the more noticeable examples were naturally Paradise, and Verozgrad, but a more recent one would be Nuo Posuin, the large city built in the southern region of the Coalition of City-States in West Alcidea. The new city was meant to be the seat of the conclave of representatives, a representation of how they were divided, yet also united, and took its name from the old Kingdom the City-States originated from.

We can foresee that in the centuries to come, other nations would likely do similar things, as more cities were raised, and the population increased. Perhaps in another few hundred years a long-lived elf might be surprised to learn that many nations had changed their capitals in the time that passed.” - From a lecture by Garth Wainwrought, Dean of the Levain Institute of Higher Learning, circa 689 FP.

“This is a very prosperous town,” Cal couldn’t help but comment when they walked through the large main streets of the town, streets so large they could have accommodated eight carriages running side by side. Naturally, not even Lumi’s looming presence proved to be an issue with streets that size, and she noticed that some massive carriages stacked with goods used the streets, drawn by teams of smaller cousins of the Thunder Lizards she once hunted.

“They built this place to handle the rising amount of trade and prosperity in the region after all,” replied Kino while she happily munched on skewers of local sausages. “It would’ve been a joke if the city built to handle the newfound prosperity wasn’t prosperous itself.”

Whereas the prosperity in many other regions were often displayed by way of luxury or opulence, the simpler Therians of Elmaiya chose to display their prosperity more through an honest display of plenty. Food and beverages flowed freely in the city, and even those who seemed to be of poorer life were well-fed, their children healthy and plump with chubby cheeks.

Cal was surprised to see the vendors on the streets sell their foods and drinks so cheaply compared to many other large cities she knew of, with them averaging half to a third of the prices she usually saw. She learned it was mostly because of the western region’s status as the breadbasket of the empire. Food production was plentiful there, and almost naturally, prices became cheaper due to their abundance.

The governors who ruled the other three cities in the region worked together with the Erstgertsog to keep food affordable for everyone in the region, while the region - technically a Duchy under the Erstgertsog’s familial rule - lined their coffers through exports of the same abundant food they grow.

It was a status quo which kept the region prosperous and thriving since ancient times, and a policy the ruling family had made and adhered to at all times, which made them so beloved by their populace that the new city they built was named after the family by popular vote.

Given Elmaiya’s long history of civil wars - the current Empire was called the Fifth Empire for a reason - it was rare to witness a noble family that managed to retain their standing through such a long period, yet the Veroz family did just that.

Their history stretched all the way to the early First Empire, where the ancestor of the family migrated to what later became Western Elmaiya from the Western Isles, though they only rose to prominence around late First Empire, when the Therians began to adopt the nobility system themselves.

The family persevered through the more human-centric second empire as high nobility, and was pivotal to the rise of the Third Empire, which cemented their status as second only to the Imperial Family themselves.

Quite naturally, when the long period of civil wars that was later called the Fourth Empire era came, the family became the backbone of the Southern Empire, which dominated the west and south of the Empire’s territory. Their perseverance paid off when the period ended and the Southern Empire eventually reunited the empire once more as the Fifth Empire.

By the modern day, the family’s status had long been made permanent by the edicts of various emperors from three different eras. For such a high standing family, the scions of the Veroz were always content with their lot, and just governed the western regions in peace, rather than seeking for more power like others were wont to do in their place.

In the central square of the city, they saw a large fountain, which spouted crystal-clear water from its center. The water was clearly clean and drinkable, as many thirsty passersby simply scooped out some water with a prepared bucket to quench their thirst.

Atop the center of the fountain were four statues, arranged so one faced each cardinal direction. The statue that faced west, where Cal and her group came in from, was that of an old, wizened therian with features that strongly resembled a lion, his mane thin and weathered by age, yet still proudly kept groomed around a gentle, almost grandfatherly visage.

The statue directly across, the one that faced east, was also that of a lion therian man, though this one was younger and looked to be of mixed breed, with massive fangs that jutted out of his upper lips like a sabertooth. The statue depicted the man standing tall, with his arms crossed over his chest, looking proudly over his domain.

Two other statues flanked them, of younger therian half-breeds, one man and one woman, who seemed far more mixed in ancestry, though they still showed obvious signs of their proud ancestry.

The plaques beneath the statues proclaimed them as Boris Veros, the ancestor of the family who first came from the Western Isles. Illyvich Veros, the first of the family to be granted the Erstgertsog title during the rise of the Third Empire, Olga Veroz, who was famed as a brave general during the Fourth Empire era, and Andrey Veroz, who oversaw the construction of Verozgrad, just three centuries past.