My lord, as you know, the Empire of the Sun originally ruled this continent, that is before Hai’Lyn and her spawn took it by force.  That began more than seven generations ago, and still the war goes on.  It is a pitiful farce of a war to be sure, but at least the Empire can pretend it isn’t over.

The actual beginning of the war is lost in the fog of peasant memory, the starsisters having long ago slaughtered any historian who dared remember anything they didn’t approve of.  (I saw enough in the eyes of some of the village elders to make me think more is known, but generations of hard experience have taught them to keep quiet, no matter how drunk they get.)  I did learn that the Empire held on to at least part of the continent for the better part of two generations.  The emperor who lost it all was named Li.  He and his supporters lost their last foothold here and were driven onto the Iron Isles, far to the west.  Li was an arrogant man and he swore an oath on his ancestors that he would reclaim his empire.  Of course, we all know that the sworn word of an emperor is infallible (or so the Empire said).

That left the pittance that was the Empire of the sun in a bit of a twist when Li died on the Iron Isles as they tried to scrape together livable cities.  Not to be disproved, the Empire just renamed his son “Li” too, and then his son after him and so on.  I suppose eventually one of them might take something back over someday, and that would give the Empire the chance to say that the emperor still hadn’t missed a step–if you don’t count all the generations between one Li and the other.

From a strategic standpoint, the Empire cannot be expected to make inroads against Nightfall anytime soon.  The Iron Isles are a fortress–probably one of the most defensible places in all of the world of Khumkato, but they are also barren, rocky, and cold.  The “Empire” has difficulty maintaining its own tiny population, let alone mustering an army that could even make the starsisters nervous.  If you seek armies to ally with you against the twilight, you must look elsewhere.

Of course, the Empire has adapted.  What they lack in force, they make up for in guile.  Their intelligence network inside Nightfall is better even than that of my people, and their assassins are first rate.  They can be useful–if you can stomach their prideful reminders of the “greatness” of the Empire Sun.