- from the Andrastian Chant of Love
Dear Leaders of Sondria,
You are hereby cordially invited to the wedding ceremony and reception of
Her Imperial Majesty, Lucille Evelyn Norina Aquilaine, Empress of Aquilinia
and
Her Imperial Majesty, Adriana Senta Veronique, Empress of Tiami
To be held on
Sunday, the second day of February in the year two thousand and fourteen of the common era, the sixth year of the reign of Empress Lucille
at
five o'clock in the afternoon
in
The Cathedral of Ashes, in the city of Valroyeaux, in the Imperial Territory of Orlaine-Reilimée
Strict dress code will be enforced. Please RSVP by 27 January, stating the name and number of guests from your nation.
Please contact Her Imperial Majesty's Personal Office if you have any questions.
The City of Valroyeaux, Imperial Territory of Orlaine-Reilimée
The day had finally arrived. Exactly three months and one day after the announcement of their betrothal and the simultaneously established union between their two Empires, the day of the wedding of Lucille and Adriana had come. The entire United Empire was in a celebratory mood, especially in the two capitals of Aleniako and Fort Aquilaine. The people were gathering in streets, squares, bars, restaurants, cinemas and living rooms all across the United Empire and Sondria as a whole to watch live broadcasts of the events.
It was a glorious day for a glorious celebration, and the ancient city of Valroyeaux was the perfect location for it. Over one thousand years ago, in the original church that occupied the space where the Cathedral of Ashes now stood, the first wedding of two women in Orlaine was held - and therefore, the first in all of the Empire. And it had been no ordinary wedding - it had been no other than Saint Aveline, the Bringer of Light, and her beloved Leliana. The ceremony was described in the Chant of Andrastus, the founder of the Andrastian Chantry. Now, a millennium later, the Chantry had become the main religion of the Aquilinian Empire, and the Cathedral of the Ashes, the site of both Saint Aveline's marriage and later execution, had become the traditional location for Aquilinian monarchs to marry.
But this was no ordinary wedding of a monarch. Few monarchs in Imperial history had been as popular as Empress Lucille, and her soon-to-be wife, Adriana, was equally popular. The whole city was decorated with flags - the black-white-purple of the United Empire, the black and purple of Aquilinia, the black and white of Tiami - and the routes the two would take from their traditionally separate accommodations to the Cathedral were lined with people hours before the event.
The Cathedral itself was a magnificent building, in the old Imperial style, with three large bell towers and ornaments on the façade depicting events from Saint Aveline's life. Inside, most of the seats had been assigned to specifically invited guests from both Empires and abroad, while the seats in the back had been lotteried off to members of the public. Outside, a large purple carpet had been laid leading from where the guests would arrive in their limousines to the door of the Cathedral, lined with a guard contingent from both Empires.
One and a half hours before the ceremony, the first foreign dignitaries were arriving, greeted by a cheering crowd.