Starting Scenario

Imagine the last days of the Roman Empire. Provinces were breaking away, eventually becoming the nations of modern day Europe. Lusitania province became Portugal, Hispania became Spain. Gaullia and Narbonensis became France. Britannia became Britain. The economy was almost entirely agrarian, but from this starting point, the nations of Europe developed technologies and industrialized economies that allowed them to colonize and rule most of the world in the centuries that followed. As the Roman Empire was ending and the medieval period was beginning, it was hard to see that. There was no generally agreed upon name for planet Earth yet because the idea of a planet had not yet been conceived and people believed the world was flat. European maps only showed the "known world" which was just the Roman Empire and a few areas on its borders. The rest of the world was not on the maps, but it was out there for any explorer to discover.


The starting scenario of Nations and Empires is based on this situation and is approximately similar to Europe in the fifth century AD. The setting for Nations and Empires is not Earth so there is no Roman Empire, but there is the Zekresh Empire.









The Empire is currently ruled by the Emperor Cledman VI, who is 74 years old, slightly senile, often drunk and thoroughly corrupt.












The Zekresh Empire at this time has a technology level approximately equal to Europe of the Middle Ages or China during the early Ming Dynasty. Due to the decrepit state of the empire, recently developed technologies are not in widespread use so most provinces are using technologies even less advanced than in the core of the Empire. The technology level is expected to increase dramatically over the course of the game.





Technology will increase


























Technology will increase a lot






The Zekresh Empire has little knowledge of the lands beyond its own borders so the rest of the world is not shown on the map, but maps of the whole planet do exist and will be revealed to players who explore or otherwise obtain this information. The Zekresh Empire considers everyone beyond its borders and some of its own people to be barbarians or "zurithani" ("wildmen") and as far as the people of the Zekresh Empire know, the wildmen all have much more primitive societies than the empire. There used to be quite a few other nations besides the Empire, but they were all conquered and annexed and became provinces of the Empire yearning to regain their independence. The Empire rules essentially the entire known world, but probably not for much longer.

Be warned, the game will have some big surprises in it.