Chapter I: Election Year
The year 2016 by the old calendar was one of the more important years before the Empire was created. A few things of note happened and these events would have long ranging consequences for the world at large.
The first was the campaign of bombings in Europe. A group of religious fanatics, know as the Islamic State, began a series of heavy bombings four major European countries. The countries formerly known as Germany, Italy, Spain and France saw their major cities suffer huge casualties. Nearly a thousand people were killed within a weeks time. Following the attacks, the German Chancellor called on a coalition to be formed to combat the Islamic State and destroy them once and for all.
These attacks caused worldwide fear and paranoia. Many countries closed their doors to immigration and began to look on foreigners with suspicion. This fear allowed the presidential candidate Donald Trump to win the 2016 U.S election. He won by a landslide and did so by pandering and stirring up paranoia among the electorate. Upon his ascension, President Trump blamed illegal immigrants for the bombings in Europe swore to build the wall along the Mexican border as soon as possible and began drafting plans.
While all this was occurring the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin saw an opportunity to regain some of the prestige that Russia had lost in the post Soviet Union years. He began working on a way to invade Georgia and the Baltic nations simultaneously and with as little global fallout as possible. He approached the Chinese with his plan who promised to stay silent about it and promised future support if the plan succeeded.
On December 20th, 2016, the leaders of Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Turkey met in Rome to discuss the creation of a coalition that would unite to invade Syria and oust the Islamic State from power. They met in the presidential estate of Sergio Mattarella at 11:00 AM. At 12:30 there was an explosion in the estate. It seemed to have come from the Cellar but was large enough that the entirety of the delegation died in the explosion. The world held it's breath, few in living memory having seen such scaleless upheaval of the established social order.
