The following story was inspired by Grandmaster...
It had been 6 months since the tragic day....a day that Alyattes II would never forget. A day that shook Lydia to its core. "What exactly happened to your father?" the merchants from foriegn lands would ask the young prince, and his response was always the same, "The gods decided his time had come." and he would hang his head in sadness. This was an act he had been taught by his uncle (aswell as Emperor until the prince came of age).
This was a reasonable thing for the Emperor to due. Noone could know...about the secret war between the Lydian Kingdom and the evil ice cream cones from outer space.
The enemy
It started simply enough. A farmer spotted something strange in the sky. "The gods!" of course, the gods! A typical reaction to such a strange sight in the sky. But upon further inspection it was clear...this was no Lydian god. This was much much worse. The gigantic pod released thousands and thousands of ice cream cone warriors, thirsting for blood.
Hearing this news, Alyattes I mobilized an army to engage the ice cream cone army outside Sardis. The men were terrified, and rightfully so. Stories were starting to trickle into the city of horrible atrocities. Some people started eating the cones, but you know, once you start eating ice cream you just cant stop. Soon they would explode. The codename for this brilliant plan? Death by Ice Cream. But Alyattes knew of this sinister plot, and in his last address to his troops, he inspired them to fight this otherwordly menace. His words arent important, but what IS important is that Alyattes led his soldiers to victory. At a pricely cost it was, Alyattes himself lost his life.
Some say the ice cream cones were destroyed that night, but Alyattes II knew otherwise. You could not destroy the ice cream cones, only hope to contain them. "They will return one day and I will be ready..." the emperor clenched his fist, shaking it in the general direction of the north.