How to go about it? he wondered. He could not force the ruled to build it for him, that would violate the unspoken but essential rule on which his kingdom stood. Eruves was instead left with only one option: he must build it himself. Decided on this course, he gathered his closest friends, all as devoted to the kingdom as he, and began.
The work was slow, and painful with so few laboring to build the monument to the kingdom’s success. Their blood, sweat, and tears, however, made it all worthwhile, and when the spires finally rose into the sky the whole nation rejoiced. The castle was a symbol of their might, their advancement as a society, and it also served as a bastion of hope when the times were rough, when the people’s spirits were almost defeated: so long as the castle stood, the kingdom stood. It could not be stopped. It could not be conquered.
***
The time eventually came for Eruves to die. He had lived a good life, loved by many, but was not without the struggles no man avoids. Learning from this, on his deathbed he appointed his successors: reordering the government of the land into a council of many. These greatest minds of the time could work together to surmount challenge unsurmountable by one alone.
And they did. If during Eruves's rule the kingdom was a haven, during the council's it was the garden of Eden. It flourished beyond all expectations and the castle grew as a testament to it. As society and its technology advanced, the council applied the changes, making the castle a beautiful harmony of traditional majesty and modern innovation. Many came from outisde the kingdom, far and wide, to see its glory.
***
But it also eventually came time for the last council member to die. Some had lived longer than others, but old age and the horrors of battle—many were jealous of the kingdom's dominance and success—inevitably claimed them all. The children of the councilmembers took the crown.
The children were not like their parents. They did not like the prestige and the glory of their forerunners and instead wanted a more personal rule. Shedding the pomp and propriety always associated with the rulers, they spoke to the people as fellow men. Why should they view themselves as any better? How could they?
***
As was unavoidable with such an attitude, the once-great castle soon began crumbling. As whole towers and keeps fell, the young council attempted to patch up the breaches, but with their lack of knowledge of how their fathers first built the grand building, the haphazard repairs did not stay.
After a while, the castle fell, but by then nobody seemed to notice. Nobody seemed to care. They were fine with huts.
