Western Fantasy: Long Live the Holy Emperor

[An abstract world, and abstract versions of us, all mixed and stewed together. Over the long years, add a spoonful of magic, a spoonful of war, a spoonful of satire, a spoonful of political scheming, a spoonful of human nature, and perhaps one more spoonful... of a little love?] At the end of the first millennium, the Holy Emperor reclaimed from hell one-eighth of his soul. Now, he lacked nothing at all... In the second millennium, the gods withdrew from the world. The flames of war spread to every corner of the Myriad Worlds, while the sacred Alliance faithfully carried out the plans of its great master: The Holy Emperor’s Great Crusade! Yet the scale of the sacrifices grew numbing. Power, status, wealth, death, and endless desire intertwined in a vortex of destruction. People gradually began to realize: Perhaps the Holy Emperor, perhaps the Alliance, perhaps the Great Crusade that had lasted a thousand years, were not as sacred as they had imagined...