The Pan Terran Empire
The PTE is the home of humanity within its own universe. While other human-dominated or human-only polities do exist, the PTE is far and away the largest and most powerful, and boasts the prestige of owning the mother world itself. Born out of the near-destruction of Humanity by a Nazi bioweapon in the first half of the twentieth century, the PTE formed twenty years after the fall of the Old World, in the heart of North America. The first Emperor wielded authority through the Imperial Army and Navy, mostly made up of the various smaller forces which had banded together to defend their home areas from lawless bandits in the wake of the death of more than half of the population of the world.
The Empire, then known as the Empire of North America, rapidly asserted dominance over the rest of the continent through force of arms, having had access to a greater share of intact American military equipment than any other group - and control of the Los Alamos nuclear production facilities, as well as various enrichment plants.
The ENA's principal rival of the time was the South American Concord, an alliance of nations that had arisen from the corpses of the old South American countries. The ENA's principal ally at that time was the British Empire, resurgent with the devastation of her rivals. Intermarriage between the two nations' monarchies bound them tightly together, and their diplomatic policies marched in lockstep with one another.
The Concord, jealous of the power being gathered by the ENA and the British, launched a sneak attack on the British naval base in the Falklands and a simultaneous strike on the ENA's Hawaiian and San Diegan naval bases. Losses on both sides were heavy, costing the ENA more than half of its Pacific fleet assets and the British a third of the Royal Navy.
Rolling up through the ENA's Mexican allies, the Concord launched a lightning assault on the ENA's southern territories, claiming vast tracts of land from the Empire. The Emperor then green-lit the use of tactical nuclear weapons for which the Concord, still operating with Hiroshima-type bombs, had no answer.
The fighting grew in intensity in spite of the use of the devastating Imperial nuclear arsenal. The Imperials and the British managed to push the Concord out of North America and shattered their warfleets, and were on the verge of victory when the Republic of China attacked.
The Republic, secretly in alliance with the Concord, unleashed their nuclear weapons on the Empire, destroying Los Angeles, Portland, Cheyenne, and many other western cities with their strike. The Imperial Palace's massive conglomeration of ABMs annihilated the strike targeted on it, but the surrounding area was still left devastated. The Emperor then ordered a full retaliation.
Within thirty minutes the majority of China was a glowing cinder, scorched and irradiated by the three thousand missiles launched at it. The world's population dipped, again, this time below even the lowest plague levels. For a time it seemed that the Commonwealth of Russian Socialist Republics might join in the general exchange and snuff out even greater tracts of life in the world, but it did not.
The war ended with the Concord's surrender within the next month, having been thoroughly demoralized by the brutal efficiency of the Imperial war machine despite their losses and the destruction of their homes. Indeed, some of the worst Imperial excesses were caused by the Republican strike, as Imperial soldiers, unable to avenge the deaths of their families and friends, visited redoubled violence and hatred on the enemies they could kill.
Over the next generation the Empire regained much of its former power, the world's energy resources still in good shape due to a (very) low demand thanks to general depopulation of the planet. The first Emperor's last act before his death was to launch the Imperial Space Directorate, dedicated to exploring and cataloging the untold splendor and riches of the worlds above. The first man landed on the moon in the early 2010s, and the first permanent base was commissioned in the 2020s.
The Second Emperor, product of the union of the British and North American royal lines, brought both empires together to form a cohesive whole under the Hemispheric Empire, claiming all of North, Central, and South America, as well as the British Isles and Australia. The dominance of the Empire on land and in orbit was unquestioned, its principal rivals long since destroyed or swayed by its commercial and cultural primacy.
The first sublight colony ship was sent to Alpha Centauri by the Empress Sarah I in the early 2050s; breakthroughs in power generation and warp technology immediately after its exit of the Solar System saw it get towed to its destination by the first interstellar tug. Humanity expanded rapidly through the stars over the next thirty years, colonizing dozens of planets and laying claim to other systems through the use of orbital stations.
Now, in 2087, the Empress has sent her heir, Arya, to lay claim to the world which will be the Empire's next crown jewel: Xaramazdik.
