The empire

A human empire that took over the majority of human lands. It has stood for three generations.
Nate's great-great-grandfather started a campaign and took over three neighboring countries, and one of the first things he did was focus on killing scholars and destroying books. Historical records were purged to the best of his ability, because he didn't want people to remember anything other than the empire's rule. He was also one of the first mages of note, and he used that ruthlessly to his advantage.
The first emperor focused on only taking a few countries and solidifying his base. He did so well at it he finally died at 64 due to natural causes. His son, at the time barely thirty, immediately set about expanding the empire as wide as he could, and he had enough of a support network left from the first emperor that he managed it well enough. He wasn't nearly as liked, though, and an assassin took him only 15 years into his reign. His son (Nate's grandfather) was even younger at only 25 when he took over, but he took after the first emperor and was far more cautious. He focused on bringing quality of life improvements to lands under his control, and under his rule only took one additional country and that by legitimate marriage.
The third emperor wedded both for the additional country and for the fact that his bride was rumored to be a powerful mage of her own right. Though it wasn't a love match, he treated his wife extremely well and together they made vast improvements to infrastructure and government. They had seven children, but due to a sickness sweeping through the lands five of them didn't reach adulthood. Nate's aunt had no interest in the empire at all and ended up marrying a peasant and retiring from public view entirely.
Nate's father, on the other hand, saw the power his parents held over public opinion and he desired it for himself. As he reached adulthood, he grew quietly frustrated that his parents were both in good health and in a strong partnership. He knew enough from his history readings that he had to operate in absolute secret. The first thing he did was win over one of his father's closest friends and arrange an assassination. When poison took his father, his mother was outraged and in her grief she set spell after spell after the assassin, but Nate's father was ready for them. He set counterspells that were designed to not only redirect the curses, but absorb their power to increase his own.
Through a quiet network he'd developed over years, he fed the empress rumors that a neighboring land was harboring a powerful mage that had assassinated the emperor. Though the empress was a smart, competent lady, grief blinded her to the possibility that her own son might be a traitor, and she opened war against the neighboring country. Taken off-guard and overpowered, they still managed to hold their own well enough to embroil both countries for nearly five years. During this time, the empress left the management of the empire mostly to her son while she focused on revenge, so when she fell in battle the exchange of power went smoothly.
Nate's father was almost forty when he secured the throne, and he immediately set to first crushing the war he created and then once again on expanding the empire.
At current time when Nate is nineteen, only three major countries are left outside the empire's grip. One is currently in open war with them, while the other two have closed off all communication with the empire and are focusing on entrenching themselves for the battles they believe to be inevitable.