A/N: With great thanks to Imrix, Oneiros, and Scia
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The Emperor is dead. Long live the Emperor.

Karl Franz I, only son of Luitpold I, has inherited an Empire beset by enemies both without and within. Barely a man, coddled by allies and mocked by his enemies with no way to know which is which, within him lies the last, best hope against the tides of darkness.

For it is a dark age, a brutal age, an age of eternal war. It is an age of battle and death, of daemons and sorcery, of the world's ending.

But amidst all the fire, flame and fury it is an age, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage. The young Emperor, Karl Franz, is destined to become one of the greatest to ever live.

And you? You already are.

Your name is Johanna von Holswig-Schliestein, Princess of Reikland and elder sister to the new Emperor of Man. You are die Schädelknackerin, the Skullsmasher, and your youth belies the number of lives you have taken in your time, Man, Monster, or Orc. You are one of the finest the Grand Order of the Reiksguard have ever had, one of the youngest to ever be inducted into its Inner Circle, and one of the finest fighters in your generation.

Now, you are Grand Master of an Order of Knights, an authority on the field of battle. Your mandate is victory, your cause righteousness. In time your Order shall grow to become the Pride of the Empire and the Envy of Bretonnia, but for now they will be merely yours to mold.

You might not be the statesman your father was and your brother will become, but you are the warrior he must become, the general he may yet eclipse. You will do your best to make it so, in whatever way you can.

His enemies are innumerable. They are monsters. They are terror and death, shadow and murder.

You? You shall be worse.