[ WP ] Your written orders are always carried out promptly by your soldiers . Unfortunately , your inability to place commas appropriately leads to the fall of your empire .

The On'Atol Empire did not *fall*, precisely, but it certainly does not exist in the form it once did, nor does it even claim the name though there is an unbroken line of peaceful succession since The Incident of the Missing Punctuation. The Incident, of course, being the incident that lead to the sequence of events that transformed the Empire into the democratic republic we know today. 
 
 Emperor Karn VI was known for two things: the loyalty he inspired in his soldiers, and his near-illiteracy. While previous emperors hired aides whose sole job was to transcribe edicts, Karn VI was an overly proud emperor, and refused. Instead, he taught himself the language, only occasionally dictating that it should behave in the ways he commanded ( e.g. our modern use of the pseudo-word'irregardless' stems from Imperial Decree that it is, in fact, a word, and means exactly what Karn VI meant it to mean ). 
 
 His self-education was incomplete when it came to punctuation and certain letters, however, which lead eventually to his downfall. His soldiers, always carrying out the meaning of any request sent to them, were equally wary of questioning said orders. So when, during the course of the Final Expansion War, they were told to `` Capture men women and children'', they simply captured everyone. 
 
 This lead to an enormous expansion of the empire. Without any place to actually store the captives, it was shortly decided that they would be returned to their homes, and then those homes would be declared official POW camps of the empire. 
 
 The Empire's treatment of prisoners of war was not, by current standards, all that great, but it was revolutionary for its time. It was, in fact, a great deal better than the subsistence-level living that the prisoners were accustomed to. This, in addition to the fact that they technically already inhabited imperially-controlled land, lead to unprecedented defection to the empire. 
 
 The population of the On'Atol increased tenfold over the course of the war. In the last decade of official military action, in fact, there were very few casualties at all from the war itself. Most opposition either surrendered immediately or overthrew its existing hard-liners before the army's arrival and then surrendered. 
 
 Finally, in 858 A.W., Emperor Karn VI issued a decree via radio that he `` want [ ed ] this war over'', and peace was made. On the issue of the newcomers, who now vastly outnumbered the natives of the empire, the decree was `` Live in our land with our own people'' His vast generosity was reflected in the people, and the empire flourished. 
 
 Over time, of course, there was discontent. The outer reaches of the empire felt distant and unrepresented. Emperor Karn VIII nearly evicted those first-generation newcomers, but he was stayed by the decree of his ( at the time ) long-dead grandfather: `` Let them be no fighting'' Finally, Karn VIII signed into law the Imperial Acknowledgement of Rights, which began the march toward democracy as we know it. 
 
 Only recently have we discovered, through the notes and letters of personal aides to the emperor, Karn VI's true intent toward the people who would become his. His ongoing misuse of punctuation and inability to remember certain letters became obvious at this point, and sadly it reflects poorly on the man we once hailed as a hero. 
 
 `` Capture men women and children!'' was in fact a dictate to his armies. In a rather egalitarian move, the imperial armies employed women along with men, and of course like every army of any size, considerable numbers of child soldiers. His intention was, then, `` Capture, men women and children!'' Instructing his soldiers to capture, *in general*, not to capture absolutely everyone they found. 
 
 His famous radio decree that he wanted the war over? The emperor did not understand radio protocol, and included the'over' sign-off that would normally be included by whoever was reading the decree. The full quote is, thus: `` You're asking if I want the war? I want this war, over!'' 
 
 The emperor's pride then compounded itself with his unwillingness to admit that he could not remember the letter'y'. Thus, `` Live in our land with our own people'' was meant to be an emphatic `` Live in **y**our land, with **y**our own people.'' A xenophobic reaction to a problem he caused in the first place. 
 
 And, of course, his legendary edict before he died, the somewhat poorly phrased `` Let them be no fighting''. This has been interpreted through the ages as either a mis-spoken `` Let there be no fighting'' or a simple `` Let them be, no fighting!'' The truth, however, is more harsh: `` Let them be? No, fighting!'' 
 
 Still, we will always remember Emperor Karn VI for his works, even if, as it turns out, they were entirely unintentional. For even though he was deeply flawed, he was a greater man accidentally than many are intentionally.
