History After the events of the World War the Empire was ravaged by the effects of the Great Depression. Banality was arching to new heights and many fae were undone by the effects of it. This was countered by the comparatively golden time after the second World War, where prosperity, security and comforts were seen through the 1950's and to a lesser extent through the 60's. Dreams were still mundane however, one should aspire to owning a second hand car, cutting one's lawns every saturday, planting a vegetable garden and painting the house. Of course there were a number of excellent New Zealand short story writers at this time including Frank Sargeson, Maurice Duggan and Maurice Shadbolt, who were mused largely by slaugh patrons such as Caloathe Orn and Faulin Eremius. On July 11 1969 the Empire changed forever. It is not known for certain why exactly trods opened in the Empire to spew forth sidhe - for no western trods were known to have reached this far - but they came nonetheless, though in smaller numbers than elsewhere. Many assume that the generally lower banality of the distant Empire attracted the returned sidhe, or it may have been that the sidhe did in fact arrive in Europe and opened trods to the Empire from there. Having struggled to free itself of the apron strings of Britain, New Zealand was not a welcome home for the monarchist sidhe. New Zealand was the foremost leader in democratic rights, having been the first in the world to grant women the right to vote. Few enough of the commoners could remember much of their former lives in Europe and fewer still the memory of the sidhe. As a result of this they were dealt with most discourteously when ordered to hand over their holdings to these sidhe nobles. All of the skirmishes fought by the sidhe met with failure against the well dug in commoners loosely allied with the native fae. Most of these battles fought in the urban areas favoured for freeholds were attributed to the Vietnam protests fought by university students and such. Indeed, banners that read 'Stop the War' to mortal eyes read 'Stop the Sidhe' to fae. The protests for peace were in fact the staging area for battles against the incomming usurpers. Eventually the battered sidhe saw that they would be inevitably crushed and bought the Matakite stone at great cost in dross and treasures from the slaugh that hoarded it - Caloathe Orn. This was offered to the native fae by the sidhe as a token of peace. The commoners were forced to choose between fighting their new allies as well as the sidhe, or allow the sidhe a place in their society. After a meeting of the five commoner councils that governed the Empire it was decided to allow the sidhe to live along side the common folk, but only as common folk. Many enraged nobles either left the Empire or threw themselves to their deaths on commoner blades, but those that stayed plotted and coveted the seats of power. The first sidhe to rise to a position of authority in this democratic land was Althea of Gwydion who became grand councillor of the Waikato Shire. Following in her footsteps, her brother Rhynn rose to commander of the Hawkes Brigade - situated in the glade taken by the first trollish settlers. In the mid eighties the commoner councils disbanded in favour of the rulership of Althea by unanimous vote. Loved by almost all of the citizens of the empire there was little dissent at this decission and in 1988 Althea was crowned Princess of the Empire in a formal ceremony attended by commoned and sidhe alike. It is worthy of note that the Empire commoners hold little grudge against the Empire sidhe as they were not involved in any atrocities such as the Night of Iron Knives. However, opinions of Concordian sidhe are very low from all members of the Empire. This did not change one fundamental rule in the Empire though: no sidhe is noble by birth. Sidhe are still treated as commoners until they manage to rise in station through their own merits in the Empire, and commoner nobles still outnumber sidhe nobles 3 to 1. Even today with Rhynn killed in a formal duel by the hand of Duke Morlyn of Ailil and Althea abdicated in favour of this self proclaimed unseelie usurper, none doubt his rule, for he has earned his nobility as surely as any of the common born folk that share the same title.