The Rosa Empire and the Dreams of Conquest

The waning days of The Dreams of Rage saw the mainland beset by barbarians and savage tribes on all sides. Samuel Rosa was a scholar of history in the island-nation of Victoria. He came up with the idea of using the military tactics of history's greatest generals to clear the barbarians off the mainland. The Victorian government, which had long colonial history on the mainland, was more than willing to fund another military expedition, though was hesitant about the untested scholar. They settled on sending him with a small force of volunteers and seeing what happened.

Samuel proved the lessons of history held up and quickly won big victory after another against the barbarian hordes. Soon he controlled most of the east coast and the land around it. The Victorian government was thrilled, until they learned Samuel had set himself up as Governor and had no intention of sending taxes back. He wasn't the first military commander to rogue and they hadn't invested too much so they decided to cut their losses.

Samuel's forces swelled with grateful locals and he marches west. Thus began what the scholars dubbed The Dreams of Conquest. By the time of his death, Samuel had thoroughly crushed the barbarian hordes, conquered a large chunk of the central mainland, and proclaimed his territory the Rosa Empire. Over the next centuries his successors continued to expand the Empire's territory to the the north and south. Depending on who you asked, they were either saviors bringing civilization and culture to uncivilized lands or oppressive, soulless conquerors. They became the most powerful force not only in the mainland but the whole world.

This lasted until the assassination of Emperor Calvin II with no clear successor. Calvin's only son had been disowned for Demon Worship and as only men could inherit the throne his daughter could not claim it. Calvin had no siblings and his closest blood related cousin was a drunk with no desire for the position. Fights broke out for the position, first small skirmishes and building into full scale battles. More than a dozen claimants came forward, gathering armies and fighting to take a piece of the Empire for themselves, throwing the world into a wide-scale and bloody war. The Dreams of Conquest came to an end, The Dreams of War began.