|
|
Factions > The Old Empire
Rewritten by Geoffrey Duke, August 2004
 
The founders of what would eventually become the Empire were a tribe of Seekers who sought the power to defeat the Sestren AI. The Seekers, in general, explored advanced, ancient ruins and accumulated ancient relics to educate themselves towards the same end: to break the shackles of the past taking the form of ruins that shaped the environment and bred bio-weapons which pushed humanity to the brink of extinction. The Seekers gathered all the knowledge they could for the benefit of later generations, and waited with all the patience a person can muster for an opportunity to strike back at this ancient foe. The Imperial tribe, on the other hand, wanted to destroy the Sestren AI controlling the Towers through raw military force.
The tribesmen established a city along the western coast where they washed ashore, driving rogue bio-mechanical monsters back even long before the foundation of the Empire. The Empire's founder purged the local ruins of any monsters dwelling within them to lead the way for his people to use the equipment found there to carve out their own territory by taming the land. Mutants occupying the land soon started disappearing and humans started filling it. I have no idea if the nearby water helped the settlers overcome the arid landscape or not, but it's a reasonable assumption. The dawn of a new human civilisation lit the sky with new hope, and a new timeline was set at A.F. 0 (After Foundation) to mark its steady rise. As the Towers responsible for breeding bio-monsters slept due to thousands of years of exhausting activation, humanity was free again to rebuild its civilisation. The Empire believed in restoring humanity's former power, not by claiming, but by reclaiming any ancient technology it could find. The ends justified the means; the Imperials believed the technology of the lost Ancient Age rightfully belonged to them. However, ravenous mutants which had regressed from the genetically engineered predators grown in the Ancient Age still preyed on the last remnants of humanity struggling to survive in the barren, wartorn world on daily basis. Humanity's creations, in one form another, came back to haunt it. Humans were nothing but food in the eyes of these nightmarish creatures, which didn't leave the people of this fledgeling much choice except to speak in the only language these monsters understood: the universal language of extreme violence.
The new Imperial capital endured regular invasions by armies of mutants hungry for human flesh, but the militaristic Imperial tribe refused to surrender to fear or relinquish their home without a fight. The people of the Empire who prided themselves on fighting back by any means necessary were forced to adapt in order to survive in the face of this constant threat.
They had no other choice except to unearth more ancient weapons to defend themselves against the bio-monster menace, which until now, had been relentless. The Imperials inevitably turned to the weapons of whom they believed were their ancestors. Where primitive hunters wielded crossbows, the Imperials constructed deadlier and far more accurate projectile weapons to serve their needs gleaned from their understanding of the ancient technology buried within the technologically advanced ruins. As always, human ingenuity prevailed against hopeless odds. Maybe it is only human nature to see the destructive potential in the ancient technology, but war was a necessary evil. Only by safeguarding itself from the threat of mutant attacks could the Empire finally learn the true meaning of peace. Waging war was the only answer to the problem of mutant predators intent on pushing humans to the bottom of the foot chain.
Soon the Empire began constructing fleets of flying warships out of ancient shell-esque anti-gravity engines fitted with its own brand of weapons. An immense fleet of armed and armoured warships was resurrected from the countless ancient ruins littering the landscape. Every new ruin that was discovered provided more engines and ancient weapons to bolster the Empire's growing armada of ships. The Empire's borders expanded with its increasing strength to spread over lands full of people eager for protection. What was once a mere tribe soon grew into an expanding nation of humans all thanks to the relative safety its weapons granted them. However, the Empire's rise to power would prove to be its own undoing; once the Empire had had a taste of power, it soon hungered for more. That hunger for power corrupted the foundations upon which the Empire was built, giving rise to a new purpose. The Empire soon conquered each of its neighbouring nation one by one with little to no resistance; more land meant more power. Few nations could resist the Empire's advanced technology. Although conquering other nations did guarantee uniformity of purpose, it was hardly the same thing as reclaiming the land in the name of humanity. If the only way to educate primitive tribes in order to bring them into a new era of human restoration was by conquering them, then it was a small price to pay in the Empire's eyes.
The Empire continued to perfect its aerial armoured war machine by building more and even bigger floating warships from any ancient technology it could find within its widening grasp, to slowly but surely become an unstoppable power on the western continent. The Empire then turned its attention to searching for the ultimate weapons of immeasurable power called the Towers, which according to legends, were said to be capable of burning whole continents to the ground. It is unclear whether the Imperials learned of them through researching the relics of the past or if the knowledge went back all the way to their founders, but the mere thought of them was enough to propell the Empire in one direction. The following Emperors cast aside all memory of the ideals the Empire was founded on, and trampled them into the ground when they decided to walk down a destructive path. The Empire had forgotten its original purpose in favour conquering the known world; the thought of acquiring the power to bend and break the world to their will was far too tempting for human beings to resist. The Empire stopped at nothing to control the ancient weapons attributable to the downfall of the Ancient Age. Who would've dreamt that mere humans could become more monstrous than gigantic mutant predators?
|
|
|
|
Panzer Dragoon Zwei:
 
In A.F. 71 the Empire was still in the throes of conquering one of its neighbours, the Confederation of Meccania. While it was preoccupied fighting this war, a huge ancient skyship appeared out of nowhere and decimated a small village called Elpis located south of the Meccanian border. The Empire wasn't interested in the reasons for attacking the village so much as it was interesting in seizing the vessel for itself. The 6th Emperor himself, unaware of how powerful the gigantic ship truly was, ordered his ships to pursue it... at all costs.
 
Meccania was the only nation willing and able to stand up to the Empire in no small part due to learning how to utilize ancient blue beam laser cannons known to the nation as blitz cannons, which cut through the invading Imperial warships like a hot knife through butter. In Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Lundi rides Lagi through a warzone where Imperial warships are raining desctruction down on a Meccanian fortress housed within a canyon which has blitz cannons mounted on its battlements. Unfortunately for the military base, these cannons weren't enough to ward off the invading Imperial ships. The laser beams were too slow to target the Empire's agile fighter aircrafts.
 
As a nation that prides itself on dominating the skies uncontested, a ship the size of the giant ship that turned Elpis to ashes would make a prized addition to its expanding fleet. Of course, the ship, which later became known as Shelcoof, had wiped out the village in an attempt to kill the Heresy dragon. Both the dragon and the Empire chased Shelcoof to wherever it was going never letting it out of their sights. Despite coming into contact with a dragon, the Empire was more concerned with capturing Shelcoof. However, this fixation was a costly one; sending warships after Shelcoof was the equivalent of committing suicide; Shelcoof's bio-mechanical guardians decimated each and every single Imperial warship before they even came close to it. The Imperial ships didn't last long when they come into range of the giant ship's bio-weapons. The Imperials stopped chasing Shelcoof only after realising that they couldn't afford to sacrifice anymore of their ships while they were in the middle of invading Meccania. In the end, however, Meccania didn't survive a full scale Imperial invasion. Its lands, people, and technology were assimilated by the Empire.
|
|
|
|
Panzer Dragoon:
 
In A.F. 89, after the 6th Emperor passed away and his heir inherited the throne, the Empire finally found the weapon of myth and legend it had been looking for for so long. The monolith made of black metal existed not far from the capital on the north western sea. It was kept under guard by warships flown out from the nearby capital and thoroughly explored. In fact, the Empire stopped all other excavations just to concentrate its research on this one.
While Kyle Fluge and his two companions travelled the great plains something massive cast a shadow over them. A ship came to a halt overhead as if it is searching for something. The group stopped to stare up at the ship and one of them identifies it as a "battleship". A brief conversation ensues; a member of the group asks if the ship is one of theirs to which we hear no reply. This suggests that the battleship may have belonged to a nation other than the Empire. A rival? Otherwise, Kyle and his friends may have come from somewhere that was a part of the Empire. In which case, it was one of their ships. The battleship sighted by Kyle and his comrades was in fact an Imperial battlecruiser. Battleship and battlecruiser are probably synonymous designations. The only question that remains unanswered is: what was this ship doing so far from home?
 
Considering that Kyle soon encounters two dragons locked in a head-to-tail aerial firefight, the reason becomes apparent: the Empire somehow located a dragon or the dragon had flown through Imperial borders and a ship was sent to investigate. Kyle didn't meet the dragon until later which can only mean the ship was pursuing Lagi and the Sky Rider. It makes you wonder what the Empire saw before we did. A battlecruiser is encountered at the end of Episode 1 after Kyle takes the reins of the Sky Rider's dragon which was probably the same ship still searching for the dragon. From behind, the ship's anti-gravity engine seems darker than other engines of its kind as if the ship is coloured to be under a shade. However, from the front the engine matches the colour of the engine of the ship seen in the introduction sequence. The two ships can only be the same. Whether it was the same ship or not, its hull didn't last long against Kyle's newly-acquired hand-held laser cannon and his dragon's bio-lasers, quickly buckling under the pressure of the two-pronged onslaught.
  The Empire hastily assembled the bulk of its entire fleet, including its mightiest flagship armed to the teeth with cannons, to capture at least one dragon from a pair that had breached its borders. As a result, almost all of the ships the Empire sent to intercept the ancient dragons breaching Imperial airspace were destroyed, its flagship (despite being so heavily armoured and despite being armed with so many cannons) was lost, and the capital was left vulnerable. The Imperial fleet's high speed cannons, air mines and salvo of air torpedoes were, of course, simply no match for a dragon's sheer agility, speed, and searing bio-lasers.
 
The Imperial forces under-estimated the dragons' strength, but still threw everything they had at them nonetheless. Needless to say, trying to capture a dragon proved to be a fatal mistake. Next time the Empire would come better prepared for dealing with this newfound threat. Lagi, one of the dragons involved, had no intention of fighting the Empire, but had every intention of fighting through anything that put itself between him and the Tower the Empire recently started excavating. If the Empire had been Lagi's real target, nothing the Empire could have mustered at the time would have stood the slightest chance of standing against him...
 The Tower the Empire was so eager to control activated when the dragons entered the city, and unleashed an army of bio-mechanical pure type monsters (packing powerful heat in the form of beam lasers) on the capital city. Crippled, the remnants of the Imperial fleet found themselves outmatched and outgunned by these new invaders and ultimately couldn't even hope to mount a defence against the invasion... with or without the support of the Empire's once vast armada. The city began to burn under the unforeseable onslaught of so many invading monsters, and to add insult to injury, when Lagi destroyed the Tower at the center of it all, the flowing explosion took a large chunk of the city with it. The palace where the 7th Emperor resided, and Imperial Academy, where all of the Empire's knowledge gleaned over many decades lay in wait, somehow suffered little damage though. Reconsidering its defence plan, the Empire started constructing a massive flying fortress where it could move the palace to relative safety. The capital was rebuilt but cost of human life burnt itself into history. Lagi wasn't accountable for the destruction, but still, the Empire attributed the chaotic period to the dragon. Although the Empire had had its first taste of the ancients' power firsthand, the Imperials still hungered to control it...
|
|
|
|
Panzer Dragoon Saga:
 
Three decades later during A.F. 119, otherwise known as the time of the Great Fall, the people of the Empire were not happy. Taxs too heavy to burden were levied against the people, leading to an outbreak of small rebellions which were crushed one after the other time and time again. However... the Imperial Black Fleet led by the cunning K.F. Craymen led a rebellion against the Empire against which there was no defence. The consequences were truly explosive. Being one of the highest ranking members of the Imperial Accademy, Craymen knew all its secrets. He left a surprise at the capital intended to cripple the Empire once and for all. The Imperial capital suffered another, albeit decisive all-encompassing attack as a white explosion totally engulfed everything. This was a strike that made the Empire’s prior recovery meaningless. A nation, however, is more than a mere city. Needless to say, the Empire took steps to sate its anger over the the death of so many people, many of whom were no doubt innocent. Craymen wanted to reactivate another Tower recently located far to the south eastern portion of the continent long before the Empire made plans to harness the Tower for itself. While the Empire was reeling from this fatal blow, Craymen was busy stealing Azel, the key to unlocking the power of the Tower.
 
The 7th Emperor knew all about the Tower Craymen sought to control, because he wanted to wield it as a weapon himself so that the Empire could bring the entire world under its control. Staring into the sun setting on the horizon through the palace blinds in his floating throne high atop his subjects, the Emperor cackles at the news of the destruction of his capital city. He surmised that Craymen destroyed the capital to slow the Empire down -- to stop it in its tracks -- and Craymen had succeeded. In immediate response, the Emperor decided to deal with Craymen personally. He sent his own flagship, which had been built at the expense of his own people, to catch up with the traitor who'd ruthlessly wrought such hell upon Imperial territories.
The Emperor himself is said to be a direct descendant of the Ancient Age. All the Emperors are related to their progenitor but were the Seekers the direct descendants of the ancient civilisation, or was all of humanity? Possible answers are contained below.
 
The Imperial palace was built into the Emperor's flagship in order to ensure his safety after the destruction of the Imperial capital at the hands of an armoured blue dragon 30 years earlier. The Grig Orig, a flying fortress unto itself (you can see how small the palace built into the ship itself is here to give you a vague idea of its true size), was constructed for the express purpose of fighting a dragon. Dragons themselves are among the ancients' most powerful living weapons, and in the light of past events, no one had any reason to doubt it. Now the Empire would be given the chance to put its new flagship to the test.
 
After Edge quells the tornado circling the Ancient Age vessel Shelcoof, he discovers the Empire scouring Shelcoof's innards. The ship is so huge Imperial warships are able to fly inside. Our hero will come to notice troops crawling all over the place like it isn't a new experience in their eyes.
 
Edge watches two Imperial fighter jets fly up into to the air to lift his gaze to something that effortlessly captures it. The Imperials attach an ancient bio-mechanical dragon to a gunship and attempt to tow it back to the Empire. In Gash's words, they try to resurrect a horror from the past to end the war with Craymen. Gash also says it is supposed to be indestructible; he doesn't elaborate on how he knows that (he obviously inherited his knowledge from Lundi). Lagi and Lundi blew it to pieces 48 years earlier and yet the thing regenerated almost completely over time.
 
All the Imperial soldiers wear the same, or variations of the same uniform, and wield automatic weapons. Evidently, the Imperial army is organised and disciplined. Edge is caught by soldiers patrolling Shelcoof and tortured by Imperial officers keen to find Craymen on board the gunship grappling the dragon. Gash, who somehow found out what the Empire was doing, conveniently comes to the rescue. Both come out alive thanks to Lagi's timely aid. Unfortunately, Edge holds onto a grudge against the Empre that he never lets go. He fails to realise that not everyone in the Empire is evil incarnate; they're just human.
 
After Edge and Gash make their escape from the gunship, the huge guardian dragon of Shelcoof awakens in transport, cutting the gunship to pieces with laser beams. Still, the attempt to bring to beast home shows the Empire's desire to control as much biological weaponry as possible. And the lengths the intrepid Imperials are willing to go to do so, which is a consistent theme throughout the series.
 
This is what Craymen refers to as the command fleet and its flagship, the Grig Orig, or again, what Craymen calls death itself. One fleet implies there are more; personally, I doubt this is Imperial fleet in its entirety. When translated, Grig Orig means Iron fist. Such is the Empire's grip on the world: unclenching. There are few support ships which suggests that the Empire was leaning too heavily on its huge flagship to hunt down Craymen. That was a little complacent if you ask me. Notice how there are no battlecruisers accompanying the flagship, but many gunships instead, which thought not equipped with as many cannons, are faster and more agile. They are better suited for a supporting role I guess. Raul, an ex-Imperial-now-hunter in An'jou's caravan calls the ship *a* flagship, which again, suggests the Empire has more in its fleet. Hopefully these images will give you an idea of the ship's size and scope when set against a background.
 Fitted with a powerful beam cannon that sucks up a lot of energy, multiple rapid fire cannons and rotating artillery launchers the Grig Orig is a flying fortress indeed. It also functions as an aircraft carrier due to an added flight deck and is likely why it was sent so far from the Empire: because it could carry other ships, but perhaps nothing larger than a few fighter squadrons. By this time, the Empire was close to building its very own anti-gravity engines. Up until now the Imperial armada was limited to engines excavated from ruins.
 Zoah payed the highest price imaginable for its defiance. The Empire finally makes its presence felt by destroying the town of Zoah for defying the Empire by conspiring with Edge to destroy an Imperial base. What did the people expect? The devastingly powerful, if not sublime beam cannon seen in action here was given the apt name of the Imperial cannon. The Empire makes an example out of Zoah for all to see.
 
 
Imperial forces besieged the Tower of Uru and four fighter squadrons forced their way inside. The forces inside and outside were all soon annihilated, however, not by the dragon, but by the bio-weapons the Empire desired to control so eagerly. Isn't that ironic? Thousands of bio-mechanical sentries gushed out from the Tower not long after it went active (courtesy of Azel), quickly swarming the Imperial command fleet. Even the Grig Orig quickly buckled under the pressure of the swarm. The flagship’s beam laser destabilized while firing when it needed it the most, depriving it off any hope of fending off the swarm.
The 7th Emperor was remembered as a hero who took it upon himself to purge an ancient ruin of monsters villainous rebels had set loose on remote Imperial outposts. At least his memory became what he wasn't: a hero seeking to protect his own people. The first Emperor would be proud if it wasn't a lie. Heroes who challenge fate are indeed few and far between. Maybe some good came out of the tragic sequence of events after all.
|
|
|
|
My thoughts:
The Empire is the most misunderstood faction populating the arid wastes of the Panzer Dragoon world. Bear in mind that according to every version of each Panzer Dragoon game released for the Sega Saturn outside of Japan humans of the past created the bio-weapons that turned against them and tore down the ancient civilisation. These creations, the products of human science and genetic engineering, for one reason or another turned on their creators. The ancient bio-engineered monsters stemming from the ancient civilisation destroyed so long ago hunted humanity forevermore. No one knows why, though we later learn that the leaders of the ancient civilisation, the creators of the Towers, created the monsters to keep humanity in check. Whether these ancients were human or not, remains vague in the Japanese games, but we assume they were human. In actual fact, the ancients were never referred to as human in the Japanese games; just an ancient civilisation with advanced technology. Humanity was in the very least present to watch the downfall of all of these ancients, or perhaps played a part. At most the ancients were a human faction whose technology could accomplish anything, hence why they are seen as gods by the current day tribes. Perhaps the ancient humans chose to enslave their own race as a means of stopping them from doing more damage to the world. Still, the Empire was founded on the belief of restoring humanity's lost power; that belief must stem from somewhere. The ancients could still be human and that explains why drones resemble them and why ancient weapons made for human hands exist. Of course, those weapons may have been built solely for drones' hands. We may never know. In that case, humanity struggled to regain the power it once held.
 The old Imperial symbol serves to remind following generations of the dreams that built the Empire too tall for its own good. It collapsed under its own weight like the forebears the Empire strived so hard to imitate. Unfortunately, human beings will still be drawn to the power the past can provide like a proverbial moth to flame. The Imperial tribe won't be discouraged by these set backs because its hunger for power is insatiable. That's an incorrigible human trait, but one that motivates us to go move forward. Where would we be without such a driving force?
Maybe the Empire will finally become the real enemy, as opposed to a nation of meddling humans always getting in the way. Red would be a more suitable colour for the old Imperial flag, for its path was paved in blood. Perhaps those still loyal to the old ways in the new Empire will proudly rally under this banner again one day…
|
|
|
|
Related Articles:
Books > Ship Report
Books > Soldier Guide
Books > Tower Report 1
Factions > The New Empire
World > The Great Fall
Back to the Factions Section
|
|
|
|
|
Destroy the mutant stealing habits; it is the village's code. The Will of the Ancients is an unofficial fansite that is in no way supported or associated with SEGA or Smilebit. Panzer Dragoon, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Panzer Dragoon Orta and all other official Panzer Dragoon content is © SEGA, 1995-2003. Everything else on this website was made or written by Solo Wing Dragon unless otherwise noted. Please ask me first before using any content on this website for fan or commercial purposes.
|
|
|
|
|
