The Draconic Empire

To its foes, the Draconic Empire is perhaps the greatest threat to the peace. Rapacious and destructive as the chromatic dragons that founded it, it will enslave the free peoples of the world, burning what it cannot hold, either wittingly or unwittingly enacting the vengeance of the chromatic dragon's mother, the elder god, Tiamat. 

In the minds of most of the empires people, the liturgies of its priesthoods and the assurances of its diplomats, the Draconic Empire is the best hope for order and safety in a world beset by Chaos from without and enemies from within. If the Empire's hand must be firm, they contend, it is only because the stakes are so high.

What is not in dispute is that the Empire is the largest and mightiest state in the world. It was born from the rebellion against the Wizard-Kings and their allies whose sins in their pursuit of Immortality led the gods to withdraw their favor, leaving the world to its fate. After a period of war and unrest, a red dragon, mighty and cunning as any of her kind but more ambitious by far, seized a throne for herself and declared her empire. Many other chromatic dragons bowed to her, as did their kin and faithful minions, the hybrid Dragonborn. The Empress and her closest dragon supporters interbred with humans, creating sorcerous bloodlines, the Great Houses, who administer the Empire to this day.

The dread, red Empress has not been seen in some time. Officially, she has gone into seclusion to better focus her efforts on some great endeavor or another, but there are rumors that she simply disappeared and no one knows whither or why.