Illythkos was once the greatest and most vast empires of the world, ruling over half of the lands currently ruled by other nations. Their empire stretched over the southern and eastern coasts of the Yludeli Peninsula. They were beloved by their subjects, that is, until the Battle of Blood and Wine, when the old royal family was slaughtered and the Aeno family usurped the throne.
That was the beginning of the end for the empire of Illythkos. Their capital was renamed, they began a military expansion that spread their troops so thin that they were unable to hold the territories that now hated them for their tyrannical rule. they lost most of their territories, and their empire shrank. They still command over quite a large territory, but it is nowhere near the size of what it once was.
The country has a strict outlawing of religious worship. The Aeno family are to be viewed as Gods, shrines and temples that were dedicated to other Gods were either destroyed or refashioned into shrines to the emperors. The lands are also home to some brutally honest philosophers, a dangerous profession when under the rule of a mad ruler who thinks himself a God. A false senate has been erected by the Emperor as a ruse to distract the commoners and make them believe they have a say.
The Aeno family also has a long tradition of promising to extend their current borders, while holding down their current ones, only to have more and more cities and villages rebel against them, shrinking their borders generation by generation. What used to be an empire that spanned across the northwest subcontinent of Yludel in now reduced to an area that extends down the northwest coast and a few hundred miles outward. The Dyosavos family was able to keep peace within their empire and hold their borders because they inspired their people. They regularly visited even the furthest villages from their capital and treated their citizens fairly, feats unseen in the Aeno family.