novelHome #3373 - Heluo Ancient Kingdom
#3373 - Heluo Ancient Kingdom
For Veronica, learning that the Kingdom of Herlaug possessed such a large population filled her with joy. After all, she had fully embraced her role as queen, and the kingdom's gradual strengthening made her happy. However, Sochoyan saw something else in it.
The population of the Kingdom of Herlaug clearly showed signs of artificial control. Otherwise, even with the Eldar's slow birth rate, tens of millions of years would have yielded more than just this number. This left only two possibilities.
Either the inhabitants here did not have particularly long lifespans, or they practiced planned childbirth. Sochoyan leaned towards the former, because according to the self-introductions of the eighteen Hunt Kings, none of them were over 20,000 years old, the oldest being just over 19,000 years old, but they already looked very old—the natural lifespan limit of the Eldar after the Fall was still inconclusive. Several Phoenix Lords had already experienced long years before the Fall, but their current bodies were no longer the same as in the past, so it was impossible to estimate. However, judging from the situations of Eldrad and Vect, one or two thousand years should not be the natural lifespan limit of the Eldar.
Therefore, Sochoyan guessed that Aenivia might have done something to control the population of this planet, but this was understandable. After all, the Eldar could not tolerate overly confined spaces, and even if the planet's resources could regenerate quickly, they were not infinite. If the population expanded excessively, conflicts between groups due to space and resource issues would escalate, even leading to fierce struggles. In fact, Sochoyan had also heard that some bloody civil wars had broken out within the Wild Kingdoms, and some people had even broken the ban to leave the world and go to the outside world, causing the intelligence of the Kingdom of Herlaug to be leaked, attracting foreign enemies.
Controlling the population to control risks might be a necessary thing for Aenivia to do.
Even so, a population of 20 million was still a terrifyingly large number, even directly changing the population structure and political composition of the court. There were actually risks in this. Veronica might not see it, but Sochoyan realized it when he came.
If all the residents here were labeled as people of Herlaug and absorbed into the court, then they would immediately become the absolute main ethnic group of the court. In this case, what political status should be given to them?
If it was too low, there would be hidden dangers. If it was too high, there would be even more hidden dangers. For example, the Craftworld states, they have a small population, but they have always occupied a key political position in the court because they are good at fighting and proficient in ship handling. If the overwhelmingly large number of Herlaug people suddenly seized most of the political and military power, it might alienate them from the court, thus triggering a chain reaction.
Fortunately, their unique system gave Sochoyan room to maneuver. The Kingdom of Herlaug did not have a unified government. The Sword of Kurnous chosen by the Hunt Kings was more of a religious significance, mainly used to preside over the Wild Hunt duel and communicate with the world's spirit. The term of office was very short, and the Kingdom of Herlaug was just the name given to this world by the first settlers.
In fact, according to Dolar's investigation, the people here identified more with their local area. When dealing with outsiders, they would only call themselves people of a certain clan or a certain city-state.
Therefore, when the Hunt Kings came to court, he secretly communicated with Veronica, and Veronica, according to his ideas, announced the awarding of the status of Spirit Tree Council members to the eighteen Hunt Kings. In addition, two female Hunt Kings were awarded inner court positions, and three male Hunt Kings were awarded outer court positions. The remaining Hunt Kings also held positions in the Privy Council and other institutions.
Another crucial point was that those small clans and villages were also granted "autonomy" and voting rights in the Phoenix Council.
The effect of this was to dismantle the Kingdom of Herlaug as a political entity. It would only exist as a region, and the internal city-states would be independent groups. They would also no longer be able to absorb those small forces into themselves.
The Hunt Kings had no objection to this. After all, they basically knew nothing about the court's governance, but they were very satisfied with being granted seemingly great power.
After that, Veronica announced that she would tour the planet and share the joy with the people. The Hunt Kings all actively expressed their desire to become the first stop for the Queen's tour. In the end, the route was decided by lottery.
Since it was the Everqueen's tour, the pomp was definitely not small. It took several days just to prepare. In addition to the gorgeous chariot, there were nearly two hundred various airships of all sizes. In addition, the world spirit Aenivia and its "children" personally escorted the procession. When hundreds of Frost Phoenixes soared into the sky, they drew a sparkling ice dust avenue. The Everqueen's review team slowly flew over this ice dust avenue.
When they arrived at the first city, Veronica was also surprised by its scale.
"Oh my, it's hard to imagine... This is a Wild Kingdom."
On the golden seat of the chariot, there was a huge throne surrounded by curtains. Veronica sat on Sochoyan's lap, curiously looking at the huge city below. Although this was not very elegant, outsiders could not see it anyway.
On a coastal peninsula, there was a giant city built against the mountain and by the sea, crossed by two rivers. Its scale could be called a small hive city. Huge spirit bone towers stood tall into the clouds, connected to each other by sky bridges that stretched for hundreds of meters like ribbons. There were various shapes of buildings in the city, including huge circular hollow squares, theaters like opened pink shells, and many circular, mushroom-like dwellings. Interspersed among these buildings were a large number of gardens, not only with lush forests, but also with lakes and even mountains. They were not randomly piled together, but maintained a certain distance and angle from each other according to some plan, maintaining a unique sense of balance. If you had to compare it, it was very much like a milky white cake decorated with many fruits and ornaments—the main color of this city was milky white.
"The civilization level of Herlaug is very high. It is more like a living fossil of ancient Eldar society."
Hearing Veronica's exclamation, Sochoyan nodded.
"This city has more than 1.2 million people, which is not small on the Empire's side. Now, apart from Commorragh, it is probably impossible to find a few Eldar cities that are larger and have more people than it. Maybe the few largest Craftworlds might have? I'm not sure, maybe Saim-Hann."
"Ilyanden used to be known as having a million people, but after the tragedy of the Burning of the Moon, they lost nearly one-fifth of their population..."
As the chariot's altitude decreased, cheers like a tsunami came from below. Veronica then got off Sochoyan's lap, walked out of the curtain, and came to the chariot's viewing platform. Sochoyan also followed and stood behind Veronica.
The towers and streets of the city were already crowded with Eldar dressed in various costumes. They looked up at the sky with anticipation, fanaticism, and even nervousness on their faces.