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I may have gone a bit overboard with the story, but what can I say, I'm a history nerd and a sucker for these kinds of things.

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DKing: William Johannes Friedrich Albert Augustus (19)
DQueen: Elizabeth Catherine Marguerite Victoria Eléonore (16)

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From the Royal House of: Valnor
In the Kingdom of: Arkavia

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The kingdom of Arkavia did not even exist when the Imperial War began in 1609, but it nevertheless played a crucial role in toppling the mighty Tyrenian Empire which had stood for more than six centuries. When the battlefields were cleared and the dust had finally settled, the duke of Arkavia had become a king and his realm had become one of the most powerful nations on the continent.

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The Imperial War spanned two decades and involved the Tyrenian and Andrasic Empires, although the two superpowers never met directly. Rather, their satellite states and far-flung territories shouldered the burden of bloodshed, sending millions of young men to die for a country that was not their own. For twenty years there seemed to be no end to the stream of men and boys called to the front lines. Charles, the emperor of Andras, had a tenuous grip on his dominion: If the war with Tyrenia did not end soon, civil unrest threatened to boil over into civil war.

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Arkavia was then a maritime province located on the eastern coast of Tyrenia and under the authority of Duke Leopold Valnor. Prior to the war, it had tried to gain independence from its imperial overlord, only to be too militarily outmatched to put up much of a fight. The Tyrene emperor, Nero, decided to make an example of the wayward province, stripping it of its autonomous trading privileges and sentencing Leopold to death by hanging.

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The Imperial War gave Arkavia the perfect opportunity to reverse its fortunes. With Tyrenia's attention focused elsewhere, the Arkavians had ample time to build up its navy in secret. Leopold's teenage son, William, then approached Charles with an attractive proposition: help Arkavia gain and keep its independence, and in turn he would help the Andrasics defeat Tyrenia. Eager to end the war quickly, Charles agreed.

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William immediately ordered a naval blockade of all Tyrene ports throughout the empire. Given Arkavia's coastal location, the operation was not difficult to carry out. Nero, having devoted all his resources into building an army instead of a navy, had no response to the surprise attack. He had no way of getting to the Arkavian ships; meanwhile, his men were starving and running out of vital supplies. The naval siege of Tyrenia lasted nearly five months, and the whole time, Arkavia was slowly strangling its enemy into submission. On a beautiful spring day in 1629, Nero agreed to Charles' terms of unconditional surrender. The Tyrenian Empire was dissolved, and Nero was banished to a slave colony.

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For its pivotal role in bringing down the Tyrenes, Arkavia won its independence, plus a considerable amount of land in the Andrasic Empire. The expanded province was renamed the Kingdom of Arkavia, and William became its first monarch. With the political, military, and financial backing of its wartime ally, Arkavia grew in power and influence throughout the continent. Its naval power was second only to that of Andras, making the alliance a formidable one indeed. To set the partnership in stone, William married Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Emperor Charles.

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Thus far, the kingdom has enjoyed nothing but peace and prosperity. Elizabeth is well-liked by all, and the royal couple seem to genuinely love and respect each other. However, as Charles has no surviving brothers and has only sired daughters, any son born to William and Elizabeth stands to inherit the crowns of both Arkavia and Andras. The prospect of such power in the hands of just one person may not sit well with some.