When the wars had finished, one ruler stepped up to take control over The Ashen Expanse, closing her iron grip across the core systems. She was a phoenix, a mystical species of which few others have ever been documented, and her bloodline would go on to rule in what would be known as, the Empire of The Phoenix.

Centuries later, although the core systems of The Ashen Expanse are an Empire, the ruling bloodline has seemingly little interest in the day to day affairs of the nations. Instead, democratically elected representatives form a council which acts in the supposed best interests of the people they were elected to represent.

The royal family however still often lead very public lives, with many members joining the military, and others taking roles as political influencers. The empire's media is careful never to overstate the royal bloodline's role in affairs, though the question is still asked, in hushed voices beyond the drone of sec-bots, how much power do this family still wield?

- - -

Drew this up a while ago for a splat pages on phoenix in The Ashen Expanse. Nothing ever came of it, and the sketch I drew after, and by now my skills have changed so much that if I were to try and do another, it would be jarring to include this one maybe? So here it is! And a little primer on phoenixes in The Ashen Expanse!