When the capital had been moved out of Shirekeep, the Kaiser's palace minister had moved out with it, and a new one hired for the Imperial Palace. It was a grave man, with scarred features, malicious eyes, and a wooden demeanor, bu he had won over the competition with his voice: It was compelling, as if whatever he said always came first in people's thoughts, and the words of others merely followed. Besides, despite everything in his nature, there was a deep humanity and familiarity about him, and the Kaiser had found himself easily convinced to grant him the position of stewarding the palace.

The new minister had made many small changes around the Imperial Palace in the Kaiser's absence. New lights were installed in the throne room of the palace, as well as an unobtrusive new air conditioning system to maintain a constant humidity and temperature. At the same time, new restrictions had been put in place on anyone actually entering the throne room, justified with security concerns. These changes were implemented with great subtlety, though, and any mention of them was hidden far too deeply and inobtrusively within the reports sent to the Kaiser for him to ever learn any such things had been done.

One thing the new palace minister hadn't changed was the coverings of the Golden Mango Throne. Over the millennia many Kaisers had switched out parts, until finally it had become commonplace for new Kaisers to just choose how to cushion their throne soon into their reign. Many had gone for simple red silk velvet cushions, or even just cotton. Just recently, though, Reynardine had chosen not to pad his throne at all, to emphasise the pain and trouble of Kaisership; Gaelen had provided a polyester cushion of his own; and Anandja had knitted her flowery cushion bags herself. In this light it was not extraordinary that Leto III would choose to pad the Golden Mango Throne with an extravaganza of pads and pillows, made out of expensive velvets and satins, and stuffed with the finest callamenni down and Elwynnese wool.

Perhaps, then, if the Kaiser had sat down on the throne he would have noticed something was off - something hidden from sight between the many cushions. In the time he had spent in the temporary capital, *something* had been placed inside the lining of the throne's seat. And now the Kaiser was all too busy fighting the political fires of a coup attempt to get a chance to sit on the throne for days, and the palace too preoccupied to notice the palace minister, wearing his green coat, sneaking off into the throne room with a watering can...

Kaiser Leto III looked with a smile from behind a window of Raynor's Keep to the garden within the castle. Through the window glass, he could see one of the guards raise a flag. It was the so-called Explosion flag, a new symbol of the proud Imperial Republic.



Leto knew it wasn't because of his efforts that the flag was adopted: several servants of the Crown had arranged the voting sessions, and had drawn the proposals. Nonetheless, he knew that history would remember him (unjust) as the 'Kaiser with the new flag'.
Suddenly, the Kaiser felt a pain at his chest. The poison from the murder attempt during his coronation was once more damaging the health of the Kaiser. The doctor had said that the best cure was avoiding stress. A vacation to Skyla Islands would be welcome, and he could have enjoyed it if the Empire wasn't plagued by people who he saw as traitors, scum and uneducated rebellious peasants. Above that, the trip from Eliria to Shirekeep had further weakened him and he could use some rest. The same time, he had finally found some time for himself: the 'storm' died down, the life was returning to normal and the conspiracies had been revealed and conspirators were imprisoned (with exception of some).
"I'm going to the thrown room to sit down for a moment. And to think," mumbled he to his wife. She understood it and went to her own room to have a talk with one of her friends.

He opened the door with a swing and walked to his throne. He fully ignored the palace minister who stood against the wall. And only when he finally looked up in the direction of his seat, Leto saw nothing less than Malarbor in person. The Kaiser stumbled and looked with big eyes to the terrifying tree which occupied his throne.
"May the Gods have mercy on my soul," whispered he, before eventually collapsing. The palace minister walked to the Kaiser and moved him to a stretcher.
"Your Niftiness, you need a successor. Sign this decree, and everything will be arranged," said the palace minister. With his last breath, the Kaiser signed the decree.

"Betrayed by his nobles, betrayed by his people, betrayed by his servants. He died embittered." shouted the palace minister, after which an evil smile appeared on his face.