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Message: <blockquote data-quote="med stud" data-source="post: 4142081" data-attributes="member: 1211">The existance of large empires doesn't mean that the empires have a tight control of what is happening in them. For a long time, pirates where a menace to the Roman empire. They had strongholds in the Mediterranian sea, well withing reach of the Romans but still it took a long time for the Romans to clear them out. Yet, the empire persisted.A PoL- empire could be the same thing. The Empire may not be able to deal with rampaging dragons, but if the dragons are rare enough and not set on conquest the Empire can still survive. Armies of barbarians and goblinoids may be able to annihalate human settlements but they chose not to, instead forcing the humans to supply them with food and ritual sacrifices.The Empires army may be strong enough to chase off a dragon or destroy a death knight, but it can't be everywhere at once. As long as the core of the Empire is strong enough to defend it's citizens, humanity can always regrow. If the Empire is oppressive enough, people will leave it to colonize the wilderness, despite the risks. Most of these colonies will be overrun by monsters. Some will survive.The main focus of a campaign like this at heroic levels will be in the colonies, trying to make a living; the Empire exists as a far away entity, a symbol of strength, civilization but also a symbol of tyranny and oppression. It's involvment in the campaign will be limited to explaining 1) why humanity hasn't died out and 2) where lots of stuff comes from.At paragon levels, the PCs will be powerful enough to carve out a niche, to seek out the large threats and incapacitate them. The Empire will maybe be more active in this faze, investigating the PCs and trying to strike deals with them.When the PCs become Epic, it's time to bring out the big guns. The Empire, for all it's flaws, is the thing keeping humanity and civilization alive. If the Empire would fall, humanity would rely on the colonies, and the colonies have a tendency to die after a certain time. Now, a huge threat is descending upon the Empire, a threat large enough that only a dedicated band of very powerful heroes could save it. Alternatively, the PCs decide that humanity doesn't deserve to live on and instead turn on the Empire that is defended by it's gods and heroes.For the atmosphere, the setting is filled with the remains of previous civilizations and races. Some of them survive as shadows of their former glory, such as dragonborn or tieflings. Others are extinct. Still others are subsumed into the human civilizations, like halflings. No matter what has happened to the previous civilizations, traces of them are everywhere. Poisoned zones from earlier wars, remnants of sorcery not yet understood by the present Empire. Ancinent undead with weird agendas. Ruins. The world is old but so far, no single civilization, nation or empire have managed to last for more than a few millenia.</blockquote>

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