The Northern Empire
From Glen Cook Wiki
The Northern Empire was built by the Lady following her resurrection from the Barrowland, and apparently approximates the size and scope of the Dominator's empire. Her reign endures for a century, and the Empire appears to endure well after her departure.
When the Lady loses her powers at the Barrowland, she returns to Charm and continues running the Empire for a few weeks, setting her affairs in order, before quietly abdicating her throne and heading south with Croaker and the remnants of the Black Company.
History
After the Lady's resurrection, the first thing she did was build her headquarters at Charm with the aid of the Taken. From there, her armies are said to have "rapidly" rebuilt the Empire. It seems likely that it took at least a couple of decades to accomplish this on such a wide scale. The Empire is still being expanded at the beginning of the series; in the first book the conquest of Opal, north of the Sea of Torments, is seen as reasonably recent (perhaps within a generation or so) and Beryl, on the south coast, is still free. A few books later, Beryl is an Imperial city and the Empire extends 300 miles south.
The Rebels are a persistent annoyance, but seem to have really gathered steam about 80 years or so into Lady's rule. At the time of the first book, the Empire is in full-scale civil war, with the Rebel fielding tens of thousands of soldiers; they send over 200,000 troops to assault Charm in the final struggle. The Rebel activity is clandestinely fueled by the Dominator, who has begun influencing people. After the cataclysmic Battle of Charm, the heart of the Rebel movement becomes Darling, supported by the remnants of the Black Company. Aside from occasional informers and so on, the main strength of this rebel force is the creatures of the Plain of Fear.
With the defeat of the Dominator, the Empire begins seeking what Lady calls "normalcy."
Organization
The Empire seems to be organized into provinces that roughly approximate the kingdoms and duchies subsumed into the greater whole (e.g. the one-time kingdom of Forsberg). It appears that at least some of the Ten Who Were Taken acted as governors for these provinces; the Limper, for example, serves as governor for the province where Opal is located. There are other imperial ranks reminiscent of the Roman Empire - there is a proconsul, for example. The capital of the Empire is Charm.
For all that the Lady is considered a conqueror and the Taken are mighty evils, the Empire seems to run remarkably efficiently. Lady proves herself an excellent planner and administrator in the later books, and the resilience of the Empire in the face of her own abdication is a testament to this skill as well. After the enraged Limper smashes through the city of Oar, for example, killing forty thousand people and destroying part of the city, the Empire moves in quickly, establishing martial law, setting up work gangs to quickly restore vital services, etc. One soldier, Case, notes that the people of the empire were more secure, prosperous, and industrious than they had been before its coming—except in areas where there was an active Rebel presence. The main dispossessed class, and the backbone of the Rebels, is the landowning class of minor nobles who were kicked out by the Imperial system. The Rebels do raise large armies against the Empire for a while, but the Rebels never pose a serious threat to the Empire.
There are plenty of villains in the Imperial heirarchy who seek to emulate the example of the Taken, but also a good number of talented leaders (e.g. Exile) with an apparent sense of civic duty. The Empire appears to survive several years after Lady's departure (as witnessed by Otto and Hagop, who return north from Taglios for a visit.
Geography
The exact boundaries of the Empire are never clearly defined, and while there is a wealth of scattered small details in the texts, some are contradictory. Nonetheless the Lady describes it as "2000 miles north to south, and so wide you couldn't walk across it in a year". The easternmost area mentioned is the kingdom of Tally, and the westernmost the kingdom of Forsberg. The distance between these areas is at least 2,500 miles, suggesting that the total width of the Empire is perhaps 3,000 to 3,500 miles. It spans the Sea of Torments, a narrow inland sea which cannot be more than two to three hundred miles across; the original Empire was entirely north of the Sea, but after the first book, the Empire extends its territories 300 miles south of the Sea. In the second book (Shadows Linger) the Empire does briefly take control of Juniper, a northern city on the west coast some 1,500 miles from Imperial borders; however, in a later book (Shadow Games) it is implied that the coastal cities remain outside the Empire's direct influence. There is no indication of an eastern coast, though there are mountains along the eastern and southeastern borders of the Empire. This map shows suggested borders of the Empire during The Black Company (gray) and the expanded territories by The White Rose (yellow).
