#with that time spent shoring up what territory they had and dealing with petty uprisings

[secret-engima]

Where do you think the original Kingdom of Lucis was? And the original domain of House Fleuret before they settled in Tenebrae? (I'm trying to figure out how the Kingdom expanded over the centuries and I figured I'd ask you in case you had any notes from Deleantur.)

Uhhh, I'm not sure I ever worked it out in *detail*, but I've always believed that the island that Insomnia is on was the original kingdom of Lucis. It's covered in a city now, but it's modeled after Tokyo and that city is- huge. There's more than enough space on that island alone (not counting the tinier islands dotted around it) to establish a kingdom, and *tactically* it's in a good position. It's not so far from the Mainland that you couldn't establish a supply chain for trade or later military expansions, but canonically it took a really really long time for there to be any oceanic daemons. Water back then would have served as a barrier both for human enemies and *daemons*, which makes it an ideal spot for Bahamut to put the Crystal while it charges up.

By the time of Somnus and Deleantur, the Kingdom would have expanded to have some mainland territory, how large is variable really, but I ... personally HC that it covers Cavanaugh (the island next to Insomnia), and some (if not all?) of the Leide area (with part of it being territory/routes leading to the Galdin Quay area because Somnus would have picked Angelgard for a reason and needed a route to get there/have guards in the og timeline) with a port town likely formed either where the bridge will be built in modern times or the Keycatrich area, which we know in Noct's time used to be a town "for rich folks", which means it's probably old. I am- stupendously bad at distances, but I definitely think they're either edging into Duscae in places as well or have holdings up north in that (massive) area of the map we never get to go to.

Idk how big that is for an ancient kingdom, but we don't know how long the Lucis Caelums were kings other than "long enough for Somnus and Ardyn to be part of a lineage". But considering there is only medieval technology to fight them and the Lucis Caelums have both magic *and* the Nox Fleuret family of Oracles (and thus the gods themselves) backing them I can see them expanding either by conquest or just by *alliance*. Smaller kingdoms and nobles signing up for some of that sweet magic protection.

I never did figure out where the Oracles originally were located, but again, considering the tactical advantage of being an island and that the Oracles clearly used to be able to journey to commune with the Astrals via Crystal, I'd put them not too far away. Either on the island of Insomnia itself, potentially on the sister island of Cavaugh (we never see it so who knows what's on it, and hey, that means Titus could be an descendant of the original kingdom of Nox Fleuret), or again, up in that unexplored northern area of the map. It's close enough to Leide and Insomnia that one could journey there, and from oggling it from afar and staring at the map it appears to be heavily forested rather than desert, which fits with the Nox Fleuret's later jungle vibe.

Last minute edit: I cannot remember if I put Taelpar Crag as part of the Lucian kingdom in my Deleantur fic. The part of it we visit in the dlc is in Cleigne, which is pretty far from the island of Insomnia *but* that thing stretches on for *miles*. And I think that some of it goes up into the Duscae??? We just can't get to it because of Map Things.

I also always thought it edged into Leide, mostly because in the Kingsglaive there's a giant canyon that Niflheim hides in near Insomnia and I always assumed it was the shallow end of Taelpar Crag. Even if it's not- none of the ancient kingdoms would have claimed the Crag because it's known as rift formed by Bahamut fighting/killing Ifrit and it's also a very spooky place. So the Oracles of *this* time deciding to pack up and move to the highly magical Crag and surrounding area would not be contested. Heck the kingdoms would probably *give* the Nox Fleuret's some of the land around the Crag on the condition the Oracles make sure none of the daemons, demons, and ghosties they think live down there will come up *here* and harass them.