The most powerful of the four Kethran kingdoms throughout much of the empire’s history, and the only one still officially intact at the start of the Shadows and Crowns saga. The King Anric de Solasen consolidated power to his throne and took on the title of King-Emperor once he succeeded his father. After his death at the hands of the gods, he passed the title on to his son, Varen, whose increasingly controversial rule led to a run-in with Casia Greythorne and her band of mercenaries, thus setting the events of the Shadows and Crowns series into motion…
After Varen’s death, his sister Valori (better known as Casia Greythorne) takes up the Melechian crown, but only as a queen, not an empress, with plans to work with the three fallen kingdoms to restore them and their sovereignty. Her husband, Elander Revenmar, rules alongside her after having been granted a crown and authority by the Goddess of the Sun, Solatis.