"I must tell you of the Democratic Revolution, then" said the Emperor.

"It was around a millenia ago. Initially, it was just another Vonmisian revolt in the Vonmisian Rim. However, as the then-Crown Princess Alice led an army to quell the uprising, her ship had an accident and crash-landed in the hostile planet. She had thought that the 'savages', or so humans called their now-equals at the time, would kill her mercilessly, but a Vonmisian village took her in warmly. The rebels did not kill her upon finding her, but instead treated her fairly despite being a hostage. She was horrified to see her troops mercilessly burn down and massacre the rebel-held village".

"When she returned to Daonlathas, she began to question everything she had ever known. Her mindset changed, and she prepared an anonymous essay sharply condemning the autocratic, ultra-xenophobic and humanist Ryccian Empire of the era. The authorities dismissed this essay as a fluke, and the Emperor personally vowed that, if the identity of the author was found, they would be executed without pardon".

"When it was revealed that it was the Emperor's beloved Crown Princess, however, this sent shockwaves across the entire realm. The narrative had always been that the aristocrats knew better than the common folk. That those ideas the people had about 'democracy' and 'freedom' were misguided, and that the commoners did not know better. The nobles knew how and were forged to rule. This public act of rebellion by the Crown Princess, one of the highest-ranked persons in the entire country, rallied around her. When she was sent to trial, the alien, migrant population of Daonlathas burned the courthouse to protect her, and she fled. Escaping to the worlds in revolt in the Vonmisian Rim, she proclaimed the 'Democratic League', rallying non-human revolts under one banner".

"The revolution, for the first few years, was mostly a non-human uprising challenging their Human oppressors. But a now legendary essay from the Crown Princess would change everything. In this essay, she argued that we must judge all beings not by their race, but by their character. That everyone, no matter what class, rank, species, beliefs, or anything similar had the right to be free and elect their own leaders, instead of an autocratic Empire that kept raising taxes and wasting vast sums of money on the aristocracy, rather than spending tax revenue on the people. The Humans were highly xenophobic, but saw the promise of meritocratic advancement, no matter what your class and status, as well as the opportunity to be free, criticize the government and have a say where the high taxes would go to as appealling, more so when the Crown Princess, a highly-ranked aristocrat, believed in such a thing"

"Despite retaining their xenophobia, Human worlds began to revolt. This was unprecedented for the time, although these worlds were mostly poor or on the frontiers, away from the wealthier worlds. They wished to have economic prosperity instead of serving the Core-centric aristocracy".

"What would truly come to make even the Core revolt was the leak by rebel agents on the horrific war crimes the Empire was committing. The ultra-xenophobic Core was no stranger to war crimes against aliens, but doing so in a more brutal fashion with Human worlds was a step too far. But when one Core world, Juno, declared for the Democratic League, that is when the autocrats truly broke. The Imperial authorities put down the rebellion in Juno, but they did so with unprecedented brutality for a Core world. The narrative had always said that the Empire was there to establish order and rule fairly. Those war crimes out in non-Human worlds were seen as justified to keep an inferior race at peace. But with Juno, the Empire even disrupted its weather patterns with superweapons designed to incite fierce hurricanes and massive tornados".

"The Imperials had hoped that this show of force would keep everyone in line. That if more worlds revolted, there would be punishment for high treason. This did the exact opposite: the official governments of the worlds in the Core were now taking the initiative, instead of independent rebel partisans. The war was ending. Many nobles, out of disgust over Juno's fate or out of a fear that they would be killed when the League won, defected. The banks recognized the Democratic League as the legitimate government of the Ryccian Empire. In order to bolster royalist support for the rebellion, Alice crowned herself Empress when she captured the historically-significant world of Constantinople, the first world to be colonized in the earliest days of Ryccia".

"Back at Daonlathas, the Emperor, despite seeing his government pushed back to a few planets scattered across Core, Rim, Farlands and Imperial Rim worlds, most of whom were under siege, still planned for a counterattack. This was extremely delusional, but out of honour, they had to strike. Before they were done planning, the rebel fleet arrived at the capital, and a carefully coordinated planetary uprising instantly rose up. After winning the capital, the Empress Alice arrested her own father and sentenced him to life in prision, and in addition, she set up a transitional government, preparing the Empire towards democracy. She drafted the first constitution that, although not in use today, was revolutionary and progressive for its time, giving everyone the right to vote and outlawing racism. She spearheaded a new education policy, forcing all schools to rightly teach their pupils to disavow racism and to learn the Ryccian Creed. After two hundred years, all that xenophobia was mostly gone, and the Empire is enlightened by such peace and brotherhood, more stable and prosperous than ever before".