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Emperor Kuzco's annual pool party (which lasted, essentially, throughout the whole summer season) was a favorite pastime for himself and his subjects. The tradition began on his eighteenth birthday, and kept up well into his twenties and early thirties, and, according to the Emperor himself, would stay that way until his last year on Earth.
On one of those long, fun summer days, with royal subjects from across the kingdom coming to "Pacha's village" (its namesake was quite famous for being close friends with the Emperor), several young children gathered around excitedly at the edge of the pool, where their beloved monarch would soon come sliding down from his summer home.
Sure enough, with a loud, whooping call, a tall, thin man came flying down the hill and splashed into the pool. He emerged with a laugh, shaking his wet hair like a dog, and swooped up two of his royal children and swung them around in the water, as they squealed with joy.
The peasant children watched, awestruck that this jovial man was their revered Emperor, the one that their parents still spoke of with importance and pompousness (old habits die hard). But that wasn't the half of it.
The Emperor had what you might call a "baby face," retaining the thin, youthful frame of his early days of ruling. Most people who looked upon him could hardly tell whether he was a teenager or an older adult. His eccentric nature didn't help matters. Emperor Kuzco loved dramatic entrances and exits, shouting "Boom, baby!" while kicking open the door, and had a snarky manner of talking with friends.
His wife always managed to meet his sarcasm and jokes head on, which is partially what drove Kuzco to choose her as his bride by the time he turned twenty-one. Together, they produced half a dozen heirs to the throne, three boys and three girls, one every other year, and taught them right away to become acquainted with their people.
For the Emperor did not want his children to repeat his mistakes from the past.
Kuzco was crowned Emperor almost as soon as he was born, due to his father's death during his mother's pregnancy and his mother, naturally, succumbing to illness post-childbirth. He was left with no siblings, no close relatives; merely, a shady elderly advisor and her on-again, off-again boyfriends/assistants, and an entire palace full of "yes men."
No one had ever disciplined Kuzco, or even attempted to give him advice that wasn't a droning lesson on history, economics, or religion. His "advisor," Yzma, was only interested in playing pseudo-empress, and pampering Kuzco to keep his mood passive and in check.
As a result, for the first eighteen years of his life, most peasants never had the chance to meet the Emperor himself, only speaking with Yzma, and sometimes confusing which of the two were really in charge. Back then, Kuzco didn't particularly care, as long as things went his way, and his way was hardly ever his subjects' (or Yzma's) way.
No one except the palace workers knew of the spoiled Emperor's true nature, but none of them dared to share it with anyone outside the palace walls.
But, what really launched the Emperor's fame beyond his royalty, were the infamous several days before his eighteenth birthday, when he was accidentally magically transformed into a llama. The story spread throughout Kuzco's kingdom, and, almost every year, he was bombarded with questions about his life as a temporary llama.
And it happened again, at this summer pool party. Kuzco finally stepped out of the pool, drying himself off and wearing his signature llama-embroidered poncho (made by Pacha's wife, Chicha), and was soon dragged off to a rock slab where a gaggle of young children awaited his storytelling.
With two of his own younger children hanging on his back and arms, Kuzco showed remarkable patience with the peasants’ children, all of whom threw caution to the winds, grabbing his hands and shouting their questions all at once.
"One at a time, one at a time," Kuzco cried, laughing, eventually managing to sit down and disentangle himself from all of the children's groping fingers.
Soon, the questions were presented and answered:
Was Kuzco really a llama?
Did Yzma really turn into a cat?
Is she still a cat?
Where was Kronk?
How did the Emperor befriend a village headman?
Pacha said the Emperor was a lousy llama, how so?
What was he like as Emperor before becoming a llama?
Kuzco froze at that last one. He looked up and locked eyes with his old friend, Pacha, who was sitting in the back with his family. The older man cocked an eyebrow.
Emperor Kuzco sighed and smiled wryly at his young audience.
"Let's just say I have something else to celebrate every summer: the beginning of my new era. I wasn't exactly a good Emperor before..."