In the Second Age, the Vespan Empire spanned the world but split into a Northern and Southern Empire and fell into war. At the end of the Second Age, magic destroyed most of the Northern Empire — and breached the walls between worlds, letting in the Nameless Emperor and the desecrators. Anything remaining in the North quickly fell.
At first, the southern Vespans stayed out of the Final War, being far from the action, but then fought a holding action against the Emperor for most of the Third Age, on a knife’s edge even with the other free peoples as allies.
Now the Empire is no more, and the culture is reduced to its once vast and mighty city of Vesper,
the surrounding lands, and scattered outposts. But the Vespans hope to rebuild, to reclaim the world,
and they still feel they have the weight of thousands of years of history on their side, giving them the
courage to drive back the Ministers and their forces.