: Yes well i made a small mistake. Not empire but city. I
: just ment to say that the reason cannot be the fall of
: an Emperor. I'm quite sure many emperors of Cath Bruig
: fell in battle.
Yes, but the Emperor died DURING the destruction of the city, along with many Heron Guards. Without an Emperor, there isn't much of an Empire. A lot of the evidence that we have suggests that it was the death of the Emperor that caused the penance. With an Emperor, you can set up a capitol anywhere, but with no monarch, you don't really have the kind of leadership that everyone falls under. I would think that the Herons that weren't there would have been more likely to go under penance for not being able to protect their Emperor than a city.
The Heron Guards are the Emperors personal guard. Without an Emperor, there can be no personal guard. If the penance was caused by the fall of Muirthemne (Llancarfan), then when the forces of light recaptured the city, the penance would be over. However, that wasn't good enough. It wasn't until the coronation of King Alric to the office of Emperor that the Journeymen threw down the tiles and again took up the armor of the Heron.
Zandervix
