The Senatar Empire and its relation to the Marches of Laethralla

Before the Empire, The Senatar Merchant family ruled over the Senecharian Conglomerate, a relatively small smattering of free cities that were unified by commercial treaties. To the South, Vexantia was a larger country than it is now, extending further in the North.
To the East, the vast expanse known only generically as Isillaulemuinendor, was inhabited by elves, who were both mysterious and powerful. From ancient times, between Vexanta and the Elves, skirmishes were a periodical occurrence, occasionally developing in full on confrontation or even open war.
Seeking expansion, The Senecharian Conglomerate set its sights on the South first, and managed to expand considerably.
The leaders of Vexanta, fearing the imminent loss of the war, sought a parley with the enemy.
In a brilliant bit of diplomacy, they managed to shift the view of the Senatars towards the rich lands of the Elves, arguing that if the Senecharian and Vexanta banded together and attached the elves on two fronts, they would stand a better chance, especially since Vexanta had a long experience with fighting against the powerful enemy and knew which strategies to use.

So it was, following this alliance, that a decades long war forced the Elves back considerably. The Elven people banded together as a nation as they had never had cause to do before then, but still lost the war.
The Senecharian troops marched into the forests, tearing down holy shrines, cities and several antique power nexuses, causing untold damage to the elven people, who decided to sue for peace.

Formally annexed to the newborn Empire, the Elven nation took the name of The Marches of Laethralla, which roughly translates into both Union and Compromise.
Numerous expeditions to the Eastern shores were mounted and many an Imperial Road was paved across the hills, the forests and the shimmering vales of the Elves, who endured stoically as the invaders violated their ancestral grounds.
Once the Unending Sea was reached, cities were built, if only to serve as destination for the Imperial Roads, whose purpose was that of shackling the Elves under the control of the Empire.

Over centuries, the control exerted by the central authority of the Empire diminished, and fewer and fewer non-elves traveled through the increasingly harsh terrain of the Marches.
Once again the predominant race occupying these lands, the Elves gained a measure of independence even as their ruling class could not escape the common fate reserved to the nobles of every member state of the Empire.
For generations, the noble scions of most ruling families of every relevant local authority were sent to be educated in Imperial schools, not too far from the imperial capitol city of Bar-Enthras.
They would spend a few years, even decades, assimilating the values of the Empire and being indoctrinated into loyal patriots.
Once returned to their homelands, they would propagate these values and rule with instinctive loyalty to the Empire.

This didn't really work on the Elves, whose long lifespans would give them ample time to re-educate themselves in the ways of their people. Still, peace endured. Taxes were levied and homage was paid to the Emperor ever since.
Largely independent, to this day, the Marches of Laethralla still keep the peace and hold to the treaties that brokered it millennia ago.

The Marches of Laethralla 
Oslas