Fall of the Second Empire

The truth of the Second Empire’s collapse remains shrouded in contradiction and rumor. Some records whisper of betrayals festering within the highest ranks, others point to the rising tide of the Okranite rebellion that struck when the Empire was at its weakest. Still others claim Cat-Lon's growing paranoia poisoned the heart of the state from within, turning friend against friend until the very machinery of the empire ground to a halt. Perhaps all were true, braided together into one inevitable downfall.

What is certain is that the Second Empire fractured. Its leaders, Skeleton nobles and generals once thought immortal, abandoned the outer provinces and withdrew into the toxic wastes of the Ashlands. Their retreat left the Empire’s vast holdings leaderless and exposed, collapsing almost overnight into warlord rule and scattered enclaves. Cities burned, supply lines shattered, and once-great fortresses fell to time and scavengers. Yet not all was lost. A few strongholds, like Black Desert City, endured as strange relics of the old order, while other ruins became the foundations of newer powers. Many whisper that the United Cities themselves rose from these ashes, their towns and structures built atop the bones of the Empire.

To this day, the fall of the Second Empire is less a closed chapter than an open wound, one whose scars shape the politics, myths, and wars of the Moon of Kenshi still.