The Verdant Empire was founded by navigators on the Inland Sea, moving away from the overcrowded heartland to found colonies on the coast. Connected by vast webs of trade and protected by a powerful navy, these colonies spread outward to encompass much of the hinterlands beyond. They shared a common language and culture, more or less, and for centuries the elites of the various cities dreamed of uniting them under a single banner.

It fell to the Green Emperor to actually unify the empire, in his struggle against the Red Usurper who sought to do the same. The name of the empire came from the proclamation the Green Emperor sent out upon his victory, in which he promised “a nation as fast-growing and resilient as a verdant field of grass.” Much of the imperial terminology, from the Grassblades to the Sickles, grew out of this metaphor. In latter days, some came to call the Verdant Empire brown, faded, or dead as an ironic counterpoint.

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