From the shadow of an Empire (Any tech, Openish, TG first)

[EmeriKa]

With steel and determination the Ulmish horde crushed the weak bodies of the dead. With brazen faith the Inquisition of Marignon brought holy fire upon them. And with guile and deception, the Pythians infiltrated their unholy sanctums and brought them down. The scholars of Man had decided to join them in their quest, even if their final contribution to the end of the war was limited. Indeed, they had been hit worst by the Ashen Empire of all the extant living nations, and this was not ignored by the others. And the C'tissian lizardmen had been sidelined and left to their own devices, as they posed no real threat to the union of these human nations. In the end, the Ashen Empire, which had been stronger than any one kingdom or empire in the land, could not withstand the combined might of their opposition.

But now, countless years have passed since the undead empire fell. Many generations have come and gone. Much of the barren wasteland they had left behind had recovered nigh to the state they had been in ages past, only to be changed by humanity. The great war between life and unlife had faded from memory, become a myth to the great majority of people. New kingdoms had risen and fallen in the lands the undead had once controlled, while the nations of the old times still persisted. Magic, while still practiced, gave way to technology centuries ago, and now the two walk hand in hand. The gods of the people no longer walk among them, although magical beings still are present to this day.

Would this be an age of great turmoil, or of great prosperity?

((OOC: Alright. So, in case someone remembers anything about the history of this nation, the Ashen Empire of Ermor has fallen and the human nations won the war. A lot of time has passed, and to make things easier for me, they have reached lowish future tech levels of technology which has certain magical aspects to it depending on the nation in question. But I will get deeper into that in later posts.))

[EmeriKa]

Aboard the Antimagi, a fifth generation spacefaring cruiser of the Ulmish Empire

As the two men walked from the mess hall towards the bridge of the vessel, they found themselves engaged in idle chatter. And as it often did with officers of Ulm in this time and age, once they were done with the usual pleasantries, the conversation ended up in politics.

"... So," one of the two said with a slight grin on his face, "Have you heard of the newest demands of those zealots?"

"Of course," responded the other with a slight nod as they reached an elevator and begun waiting for its arrival, "Of course I have. What about them?"

"Preposterous," said the one who had spoken first, "aren't they? There's absolutely no way we would cave in here."

"I agree," said the second speaker as the elevator doors opened and the two walked in, "But I can sort of see where they're coming from," he continued as he pressed the button for the level which would take them closest to the bridge, "They seem to think that we're harboring dissidents in our colonies."

"Hmph! That's just a convenient lie to gain access to our government," the first speaker continued and crossed his arms, "You know as well as I do that they've been trying to influence us for ages. If they got their foot in the door, where do you think it'd end?"

"Well, you're right about that. They'd like nothing more than making our glorious nation a religious hellhole like theirs. But I'm sure our leaders will come up with a compromise that'll satisfy them."

"I don't think we should compromise with religious fanatics. They are..."

*ding!*

The elevator doors began to open.

"... Ah," continued the first speaker, "We're here. Let's continue this conversation later."

"Yes, let's do that."

[EmeriKa]

Whilst the lands controlled by any one nation within the two continents had been, for the most part, quiet and orderly for generations, the lands between those lands had been quite the opposite all those times. They were lands rife with turmoil, where the only sensible way for any law-abiding citizen of any one nation was to have some kind of escort if they wished to go through them unharmed. Numerous blood cults, unscrupulous "mage guilds", death cults which had sprung up after the fall of the undead empire as some kind of a foolish attempt to mimic its "greatness", criminals, even slavers, called these lands home. What else lurked in the dark could easily hide behind them.

Originally, those lands had been left alone because the various nations had their own problems to handle. After the fall of the Ashen Empire, there was no Council and the various nations that had fought to end it returned to their old ways, being suspicious of one another, of each other's motives, at best, while they were openly hostile at worst. Often they battled over land, resources, even petty insults cast by accident by one dignitary who had inadequate understanding of the nation he or she was in to another. No one had the will to drive deep into lands which they held no sway over, nor the manpower. So, they opted to only patrol their own lands, and keep these criminals out of what they commanded.

In the times since the Council's formation, however, there had been incursions into those territories to seek and destroy various criminal groups and cults, but no one had the desire to start another full-scale war which would have been required to end their menace once and for all. The groups were often loosely affiliated to each other in one way or another, or at least had agreed to help each other in the case of an assault. Combine that with the home advantage they held in those lands, and it was decided that they were best left alone. They seemed to mostly stay out of the lands owned by the various nations within the Council, so they were not a great concern to begin with.

This view prevails to this day. Even though technology has advanced greatly, and there have been attempts to squash these groups, they, too, have changed, adapted. They cannot be bombarded from orbit even by accident, as they have defenses in place against them. They cannot be directly invaded, as they too have procured technology, and they are often mobile, or at least stealthy enough to remain hidden. And so, it has been concluded that they truly are there to stay, and there is not much that can be done about them.