[h3]The Null Empire[/h3]
The first and largest empire to have ever existed, the Null empire stretched from the shores of the Central Ocean to the craggy cliffs of the Great Rift. Yet for such a large empire, very little is known about it, including even its name. Scholars choose to call it the Null Empire to distinguish it from the First, Restored, Second, and Third Empires. For a long time the Null Empire was considered nothing more than a myth invented by the Restored Empire to lend legitimacy to its claims outside its de facto borders.

According to the histories of the Restored Empire, the Null empire was the direct descendant of Elohim, the First City founded by the creator god Del. The city made the transition to an empire when it was decided to spread the light of civilization across all the world. But civilization also changed the way people thought, and what they believed. The harsh realities of city life gave birth to legions of malevolent spirits, and nascent gods tore the empire asunder as they battled for divine hegemony. To save civilization, the last followers of Del gathered in the heart of the First City and invoked their god, who then translated them and the city into the realm of the gods where it could be preserved for all time.

Dreams of restoring the empire to its former glory have burned brightly ever since. And in none did it burn brighter than in Darian the Saviour, one of the acolytes of Del who was translated along with the city. He stole knowledge of the ways of the gods and ruse from Del, and returned with it to the world of the living where he shared it with the desperate survivors of the remaining cities. They used this knowledge to construct a network of towers that repelled the Ruse and saved civilization. The method for creating these towers was soon lost, and many were destroyed by the barkolupus swarms. But a select few still stand to this day, their workings baffling even the most learned scholars. The influence of the towers was nevertheless longlasting, with most of the successor states in the core regions of the Null Empire (the lands between the hills of Cansma and the Central Ocean) harboring a deep suspicion of gods and a fear of even the most benign ruse.

While the cities were saved, the empire was not. Without the First City no contender could claim sovereignty over the others. What followed were several centuries of independent city-states and ever-shifting small kingdoms, until the establishment of the First Empire. But no empire since can lay claim to as vast a territory as that of the original Null empire.