Airzuron is, quite simply, the Empire. It has always been here, and it will remain until the moment the prophecy is fulfilled, the end of Ages arrives, and a hero topples the Emperor. Then, the terrible oppression shall fall, and everything will collapse. That, however, is but the eternal hope of the people. For thousands of years, they have waited for their savior, who remains naught but a dream and a fairy tale.
The Arkins know little of the city of Airzuron—it is said to lie vast distances away, with the Imperial Palace towering at its center, from whence the entire Empire is governed. Within the palace dwells the Emperor, who calls himself the “Eternal Emperor” and who is the sole and supreme sovereign of the entire Realm. Among scholars of old legends and tales, it is whispered that once, long ago, the Eternal Emperor did not exist. That he was once a simple historian, a scholar of chronicles, and the guardian of a single secret. Then, however, he seized a certain artifact and, with its aid, usurped the Empire and expanded its territory a hundredfold.
The Empire provides its subjects with bread, games, and security. In exchange, it strips them of the freedom to decide on public matters, and the people are bound to pay a tithe. The Empire possesses a complex hierarchy: oikarchs manage the villages, polearchs the communes and towns, chthoniarchs entire lands, stratarchs the armies, and megarchs coordinate the administration of entire conquered continents. Moreover, Imperial agents and spies slip between them all… Through all these flows the magical power of the Eternal Emperor, controlling their minds and hearts. This power then flows out from them and, through those at the lowest level of the hierarchy, enters the world itself and the people. By means of this force, the entire Empire is exempted from the Night and defends itself against nightly annihilation.
From the perspective of the inhabitants of Arka, the Empire is a terrible machine, its people morally degenerate and utterly lost to a purposeless life. The Arkins simply despise the Imperials. They do not realize that they are but a tiny atom on the fringe of the Eternal Empire and that it is only a matter of time before the Emperor’s legions arrive at Arka. Victory over them is impossible.
