Once, in the shining kingdom of Velmoria, the place mountains touched the clouds and rivers flowed like silver, dominated a queen whose splendor used to be unmatched, and whose energy used to be unrivaled—Queen Selene of Velmoria.
She had risen to the throne young, following the loss of life of her father, King Hadrian, a sensible and beneficiant ruler. At first, Selene vowed to stroll in his footsteps. Her speeches have been crammed with promise. Her early reign was once crammed with progress—schools had been built, roads had been repaired, and her humans sang her identify in the markets and temples.
But some thing changed.
Selene started to thirst for more—more gold, extra praise, greater control. Surrounded via flatterers who instructed her she was once the biggest monarch to ever live, she believed them. She stopped listening to her advisors, silenced smart voices, and brushed aside anybody who dared to talk the truth.
She started hoarding the kingdom’s wealth. Taxes have been elevated to construct lavish palaces, golden fountains, and overseas statues in her honor. Farmers struggled. Children went hungry. Merchants fled.
But Selene was once blind.
“I am the queen,” she would say. “They must be grateful to serve me.”
She wore crowns encrusted with gems, whilst the humans walked barefoot. She threw feasts that lasted for days, whilst villages close by starved. When requested to assist throughout a drought, she replied, “Let them analyze to live on as I did—without gifts.”
The human beings started to whisper:
“She was once as soon as our light, now she is our shadow.”
Then got here the remaining straw.
Selene demanded a second tax to construct a large tower in her name—one that would upward shove above the heavens. “So the world will in no way forget about Queen Selene,” she declared.
But this time, the kingdom pushed back.
Led via a humble former knight named Arien, the humans rose. Not with weapons at first—but with silence. They stopped obeying orders. They stopped paying tribute. They became their backs every time her royal parade exceeded by. Even her troopers refused to march.
Selene, enraged, ordered Arien’s arrest—but her guards would not move.
“We swore to shield Velmoria,” one of them said, “not your pride.”
Alone and furious, Selene stood atop her half-finished tower, searching over the land that no longer cherished her. She had everything—except what mattered: trust, respect, and loyalty.
Her reign ended now not with a war, however with a door closing at the back of her. The palace used to be emptied. The humans constructed a new council to lead the kingdom. Arien was once appointed Guardian of Velmoria, and the land slowly started to heal.
Selene vanished into the mountains, her identify now spoken now not with praise, however as a lesson.
And to this day, in the faculties and properties of Velmoria, elders instruct their children:
“Power is a gift—not a crown to wear, however a burden to carry.
Greed turns queens into beggars, and gold into dust.
Remember Queen Selene, the ruler who misplaced her throne—
Not due to the fact of war, however due to the fact she desired too much…
And gave too little.”
