Second Empire

Strength Through Unity, Purpose Through Obedience

Once a beacon of technological marvel and unmatched power, the Second Empire now lingers as a shadow of its former glory. Ruled by Emperor Cat-Lon from his exiled capital in the depths of the Ashlands. A crumbling kingdom of metal and ruin, driven by a fractured mind and the haunting memory of the empire he once held at its height.

Structure

The Emperor's word is law and must never be questioned, any sign of deceit is met with enslavement for mortal races and the "Shackle Rite" for Skeletons. Amplifying this regime is Cat-Lon's deep rooted paranoia and distrust for those who call him friend.

The Two Dukes

The Clockwork Duchy

With a Capital seat of Black Desert City, Chronos the Enduring is one of the last remaining Dukes of the Second Empire. The Clockwork Duchy is larger than the Empire Capital and many believe it the true seat of power within the realm.

The population consists almost entirely of Skeletons, home to the last remaining site to be ethically wiped, Black Desert City has become a sort of holy site within Skeleton culture.

The Duchy of Ash

With a Capital seat of First Dome,
Nacho "The Repeater" is a shell of the Duke he once was. He is simply a mouth piece for Cat-Lon, the true ruler of the Duchy of Ash and Empire as a whole.

The population here lives in fear and is a mix of Ashlanders and Skeleton. Some, however are fiercely loyal to their eternal Emperor.

Shackle Rite

During the height of Cat-Lon's paranoia he ordered the heads of all his personal guards removed in a process known as The Shackle Rite. This leaves a Skeleton a hollow shell of themselves, a "thrall" to their eternal Emperor. Begininning with only his Hydraulic Knights, Cat-Lon now orders the rite performed on anyone he distrusts.

Culture

Life within the ruins of the Second Empire is a harsh and haunting existence, there is a constant tension between the commoners and ruling class. Night raids from Cat-Lon's personal army, the Hydraulic Knights, happen regularly, primarily within The Duchy of Ash. The empire may have fallen, but its remnants endure, vast, decaying cityscapes of steel and stone where both humans and Skeletons eke out a fragile survival. Cat-Lon has become an absentee Emperor, sending out ramblings through his mouth piece, Nacho "The Repeater", never leaving his lab.

Tech Level

Though their glory has faded, the Second Empire remains the most industrious force on the Moon of Kenshi. Vast furnaces and forges thunder ceaselessly within their holdings, fed by ash and iron, turning raw ruin into tools of survival. Their mastery of water is unrivaled; canals, filters, and treatment works channel even the foulest runoff

into something usable. Wastewater is not discarded but repurposed, nourishing fields of yellow melon in the Ashlands. Every byproduct, from slag to ash, finds a purpose, nothing is wasted.

The Empire’s greatest strength, however, lies in its Skeleton technicians. No other land produces smiths and engineers as skilled in the repair, refitting, and rebirth of the Immortals. Black Desert City in particular stands as a bastion of industry, its workshops filled with clattering limbs, reforged plating, and experimental designs that blend human need with Skeleton craft. Though their empire has shrunk to shadows of its former borders, in the art of making and remaking, the Second Empire endures.

Foreign Relations

The Second Empire remains largely isolationist, their strongholds shrouded in ash and acid storms, difficult for outsiders to reach and even harder to survive within. Trade does occur, but rarely by Imperial initiative. Merchants must brave the wastes alone to

barter with the Skeleton duchies. Of these, the Duchy of Ash in the south is the most hostile; its rulers view outsiders with immediate suspicion, often branding them as spies of the Holy Nation. Many a traveler has vanished into their prisons under such accusations. Still, necessity bends even their iron pride, and they maintain active trade with the Brethren of the Coast and the Southern Hive, exchanging craft and knowledge for food, labor, and materials.

The Clockwork Duchy to the north, though battered by acid rains, is far more approachable. Its halls are known for their mechanical wonders and their curious tolerance of outsiders, who often find welcome here so long as they can weather the corrosive skies. Black Desert City, meanwhile, stands as both cultural heart and holy site for the Skeleton race, a place where trade, pilgrimage, and dialogue with outsiders occur more freely than anywhere else in the Empire.

Relations with the Holy Nation remain hostile, unchanged since the Okranite rebellion in 54 A.E. To the Empire, the zealots of Okran are little more than traitors and usurpers, while the Holy Nation in turn brands all Skeletons as the cursed agents of Narko, the Goddess of Darkness. The war has long since ground to a stalemate, with neither side able to break the other. Now it is fought in shadows and skirmishes, a simmering conflict that refuses to die.