Old Arcadia Empire

The Old Arcadia Empire, also known as the Old Empire or Arcadia Empire, was formerly the largest country in the world, ruled by the Arcadia House. It was destroyed in a rebellion five years prior to the series' present and was replaced by the New Kingdom Atismata.

Description
(work in progress)

The Old Empire was known for its androcracy - the rule of men above women. Women were generally not allowed to use Drag-Rides, so their higher compatibility for this technology was initially unknown. It was not uncommon for male aristocrats to abduct female commoners to satisfy their desires. Noblewomen were treated as tools for making political marriages. Young girls (both commoner and noble) would be abducted for unethical experiments, ostensibly to find the cure to plagues, but in reality to create weapons.

The crest of the Empire resembled a black dragon. This was used in, for example, brands applied to slaves.

History
(work in progress)

The Old Empire lasted more than one hundred years.

Over ten years before the start of the series, the powerful technology of Drag-Rides was discovered in the Ruins. However, due to the androcracy, women were largely banned from using them.

Around this time, members of the Old Empire's imperial family encountered Soffice Xfer and her younger sister Uruk Xfer. They attempted to use them to unlock the Ruins. Uruk objected and was killed for this, leaving Soffice with a lingering hatred of the family.

Lux Arcadia, the illegitimate seventh son of the Emperor, became known as the youngest Drag-Knight in history. He gained several hundred victories in training and mock battles, but was not recognised due to both his illegitimacy and his objections to the Old Empire's policies.

Count Atismata, one of the nobles of the Old Empire, objected to its policies. This caused some on the Empire's side to feel enmity towards him.

Five years ago, the Old Empire began abducting young girls for human experimentation to create weapons. Even noble children were not exempt from this. One of the subjects was Philuffy Aingram, which caused her elder sister Relie to make an unsuccessful appeal to the imperial court for her freedom.

Around the same time, Count Atismata gathered support from other lords and neighbouring countries to launch a rebellion. He led an army of 70,000 soldiers and 207 Drag-Knights on the Imperial Capital. At Fugil's instigation, Lux decided to take part in the coup to save Philuffy. Unknown to them, the count's sister Raffi was in love with Waybra Hemt, one of the Old Empire's supporters. Raffi revealed her brother's plans with the intent of letting Waybra escape, but Waybra passed this on to the Emperor. The Old Empire decided to allow the rebellion to go ahead so that all the rebels could be found and dealt with.

In response to the rebellion, the Old Empire kidnapped Count Atismata's first daughter and heir, Lisesharte, as a hostage. The count continued the coup, intending on having his second daughter become princess of the kingdom he would create. Having lost her value as hostage, Lisesharte was branded as a slave by Velvet Barth and trained to become an assassin for the Old Empire. For the first three weeks, the rebel forces incited uprisings and fought skirmishes with the Old Empire. This forced the Old Empire to gather its main force, which had been sent to other countries, in order to deal with the rebellion. Lux fought for the rebel side while hiding his identity.

Lux discovered that Philuffy had died as a result of the experiments. He despaired and intended to abandon the plan by heading out to kill the Emperor himself. This forced Fugil to use Ouroboros to rewrite Lux's memories.

Lux and Fugil created a plan to ensure the success of the revolution. Count Atismata's forces would attack the imperial capital's castle, creating a diversion for Lux and Fugil to infiltrate via a secret passage, capture the rest of the imperial family and open the gates to allow the count in. To increase the time that Lux could use Bahamut and also allow him to use Over Limit, Fugil had the Automaton Arshalia Rei Arcadia perform Baptism on him.

On the final day of the revolution, everything went wrong. Due to Raffi's betrayal, Count Atismata and his second daughter were killed, and the Emperor Diseld decided to take Airi hostage. When Lux entered the throne room, Diseld threatened to have Airi killed if Lux didn't surrender. Fugil was again forced to intervene, saving Airi and killing the Emperor's guards. He then summoned Ouroboros in preparation to rewrite memories again. Fugil wore Bahamut and singlehandedly fought and defeated the Empire's army. Fugil told Lux to kill the remaining imperial family, announce to the populace that he had conspired with Count Atismata to achieve the rebellion, and become the new emperor. Lux refused to do this and attacked Fugil. He lost and Fugil proceeded to use Ouroboros to rewrite the world's memories. Lux now believed that he had defeated the 1200 Drag-Knights of the Old Empire without killing them, only for Fugil to finish them off along with the imperial family.

After the Old Empire's fall, it was replaced by the New Kingdom Atismata, with Raffi as queen and Lisesharte as princess. Remnants of the Old Empire's army escaped to neighboring countries (such as the Heiburg Republic) and plotted to overthrow the New Kingdom and re-establish the Old Empire.

Arcadia House

 * Diseld Arcadia (deceased)
 * Fugil Arcadia (formerly)
 * Abel Arcadia (deceased)
 * Lux Arcadia (exiled)
 * Airi Arcadia (exiled)

Other Nobles

 * Ragreed Forus
 * Waybra Hemt
 * Count Atismata
 * Raffi Atismata
 * Lisesharte Atismata
 * Dist Ralgris
 * Celistia Ralgris

Other

 * Velvet Barth (loyalist)

Slaves

 * Lisesharte Atismata (formerly)