Prior to the start of the show, the Eleventh Prince,http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Lelouch_vi_Britanniaand his sister, Princesshttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Nunnally_vi_Britannialived with their strict father, the Emperor, and caringhttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Marianne_vi_Britanniain the capital city of thehttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Holy_Britannian_Empire,http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Pendragon. When Lelouch was ten, and Nunnally was six, their mother was shot to death. Ultimately, Nunnally was caught in the crossfire and could no longer walk, and was blinded from trauma of seeing her mother murdered. Lelouch became angry that his father did nothing to solve the murder and renounced his anointment to the throne, and he and his sister were thereof placed in the care of thehttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Kururugi_shrine, inhttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Japan. In this timehttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Suzaku_Kururugi, became friends with Lelouch, but they were separated from each other because of the war, which ended Japan's existence in 2010 in thehttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/A.t.b.. The area's name became "Area 11" as a mocking gesture to the month long defeat of the nation. Later they were taken in by thehttp://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Ashford_Academy, run by the Ashford Foundation of which their mother was a test pilot for. They were given a maid,http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Sayoko_Shinozaki, to assist with the care of Nunnally, and they lived in hiding for years. Lelouch resolves to pursue a better world for Nunnally. He also seeks to discover the true reason for his mother's death, as she was murdered in the Aries Imperial Palace, a place terrorists would be unlikely to penetrate successfully without being noticed, if at all.