{Book 7: The Light of Phrecia} Five years after Veruso’s death, Emperor Caspiro, too, was dead. Although accounts of the exact details differ, one clear fact is agreed upon. Caspiro was dismembered by something referred to simply as a dark being. It was General Alano Phrecia who avenged the Emperor’s death and who triumphed in driving away the pervasive darkness enveloping what would become the imperial heartlands. Though it seems fanciful to contemplate a portion of our Empire cast in perpetual night, Azmerian writers of the time are unified in their depiction. Perhaps it was caused by peculiar weather patterns or some thaumaturgical residue of The Fall. On this matter, this humble historian is left in the uncomfortable state of pure conjecture. On the first Sacrato of Lurici, 35 I.C., Alano himself wrote that “our legions drove the dark being deep into the recesses of its lair and sealed it away for eternity”. Having returned the gaze of Solaris to those lands stretching from the foot of the Mantle to the Axiom Ranges, Alano Phrecia returned to Sarn. In the absence of a clear hereditary succession, Alano was crowned emperor and the Imperial heartlands were named in his honour. With the former realm of the Vaal thus tamed and settled by our Azmerian ancestors, the Eternal Empire saw a long period of peace and prosperity under an unbroken line of Phrecia emperors. “To care for this Empire with eyes open.” - A traditional vow made by the High Templar upon the coronation of an Eternal Emperor. { -Trinian, Intellectus Prime}