Commander of the High Seas

The empire has always mostly kept to itself, meaning it always stayed on its own continent, on its own piece of land, occasionally being stopped by a particularly stubborn mountain range. But overall considered, as the historians agree, emperors only ever took or tried to take what should rightfully belong to them - all of the land the eye can see. And they were extremely successful at these endeavors over the centuries.   The only place where the empire had no desire to venture, are the vast oceans surrounding their lands. For most of the time everyone kind of assumed that there is nothing exciting in these giant blue waves, than a bunch of lonely pirates on boats trying to get to better lands that they have come from and usually getting defeated by a resourceful noble from the coast instead. And these nobles, slowly but surely, started to wonder what exactly is out there, somewhere, in the great vast blue.   One of them in particular has been able to fund a new type of fleet that should be suitable for long voyages without actually bothering the imperial treasury at all. And these are the kind of projects that the emperor likes - the ones other people pay for and not him. Or the taxes. Taxes do not make many people happy.   And so a new rank has been created - the commander of the high seas, first of its kind, for the noble who has taken upon themselves to guide his vessel to victory over anything that might threaten it on its voyage. Who knows what the exploits of the commander will bring to the country and if there is even anything out there to command besides fish. Maybe there is something wonderful lurking behind the horizon.