The Collapse of an Empire

This is the estimated date when the Cave Stalker's first empire collapsed. The main factor in its disbandment is its impractically large size, which caused it to stagnate. After reaching a certain size, the empire ceased expansion, and kept dwindling due to states seceding and rebel against the central power.

After establishing new settlements in the different environments of the Nightlight Zone, the First Kingdom was forced to cease expansion in order to better care for the public, but even then the central powers could not do that. Periods of economic instability caused public and political opinions of the empire to become negative. Several states seceded from the empire after seeing no benefits from being a part of them, and soon after regaining their stability, they fought against the empire by exploiting its stagnation.

States receding and rebelling happens over and over again in a cycle, and while the First Kingdom could've regrown itself in this period of war, it eventually fell due to attacks from the states rebelling against it. From then on, many that lived inside the empire likely lived in poverty, or survived by scavenging the ruins. The states that brought down the empire began warring with each other over control of the land. Eventually, most gained peace with each other, or simply absorbed other states.

The original land of the empire was soon claimed by other powers that had grown over the centuries, and each nation continually diverged from one another, culturally and politically. From then on, each civilization would expand on their own, to discover everything the Nightlight Zone had to offer.