The Ashen Empire

[This is the second half of the hidden backstory of ‘Til Death. The first half can be found here.] A thousand years ago, the woman who came to be called the Ashen Empress founded the solar empire that governs humanity. After an inhumanly long reign she disappeared into a stasis tomb for unknown reasons, and continued to sleep there for centuries. Driven by the faith that she will one day awake, the four noble houses – Dentes, Manus, Oculus, and Cor – maintain a constant rotating regency, jockeying for the right to rule. The Ashen Empire consists of five habitable worlds orbiting the bright red star Invictus, swollen vast with age and near to death. Of these, one house lays claim to each of planets Primus, Secundus, Quartus, and Quintus as their home territories, fiercely guarded as their ancestral rights and only open to other houses by express diplomatic permission. Tertius stands alone, tended to only by a skeleton crew of literal skeleton automata. No house claims this planet, as…