The Vuurstahl Empire is one of the oldest civilizations on the planet Tempestas, a sprawling nation formed by millenia of conquest. Vuurstahl is ruled not by a government, but by the arms manufacturer Graves-Meyer Steelworks, the latest in a line of corporations that have led the Empire. In Vuurstahl, when a citizen comes of age, they are Assigned by Graves-Meyer’s Board of Directors to a position in one of the nation’s many industries. Their bodies are altered both technologically and genetically for their new role, ensuring that every citizen of the Empire contributes to its productivity. For a time, the other nations were content to let Vuurstahl be, its exports a major part of the world’s economy.
Things changed, however, when trade discussions broke down with the neighboring nation of Vruikt Barr over their stocks of a rare ore called ygripetra. Ygripetra was a vital component in the construction of magical technology, a market Graves-Meyer’s had recently broken into, and Vruikt Barr’s vast resources were seen as a potential threat to their future prospects. Vruikt Barr, unwilling to let its resources fuel the growing military-industrial complex in the Empire, was resolute in its refusal. The talks gave way to hostility, which gave way to war, the first imperial conquest in centuries.
The war was a slaughter, Vruikt Barr unable to fight against the full might of the Empire’s forces. Though their army had been built through trade with Vuurstahl, their meager army was nothing before the machines the Empire rode into battle. Still, Vruikt Barr would not relent until, at the height of the war, the Vuurstahl Empire revealed its final card: a satellite superweapon, the Mond de Tod. The culmination of their foray into magical technology, the Mond de Tod unleashed a barrage of destructive magic across the country. As the land burned, the Mond released a horde of mechanized drones, the Engels de Tod, to clean up the remains. The population of Vruikt Barr was decimated; Vuurstahl had won, decisively; and all of Tempestas was left horrified by what they had done.
In the wake of the war, Zhellomvend, the second-largest nation on Tempestas, organized an alliance between the remaining nations, the Tempestian Union, to prevent the tragedy from ever occurring again. Vuurstahl’s military could not hope to defeat the combined might of the entire planet, and it was this, combined with internal conflicts in the wake of the war, that finally cowed the once-great nation. Sanctions were placed on its trades, its arms manufacturing was now under heavy scrutiny, and its CEO, Bladekeeper Herman Meyer, had resigned from his post. The future of Vuurstahl looked grim.
Fifteen years later, the Vuurstahl Empire has started to recover from the post-war depression, under the guiding hand of its new CEO, Gearwinder Dietrich Meyer, whose promises of post-war diversification have brought a new era to the nation. Restrictions from the Union have begun to loosen as Vuurstahl’s military is forced to contend with remnants of their own forces, Engels de Tod that have climbed from the wreckage of Vruikt Barr and shambled their way to their creators, and outside aggressors of unknown origin. On top of that, there are rumors that the Mond de Tod, long since removed from the Empire’s control, has begun to move again…
(For more in-depth information, consider checking the Before The Storm category.)