Edmund Duke, is the third and final emperor of The Empire. Chosen by the Senate, he was sworn in shortly after the death of Valerian Mengsk.
While never having interacted with them directly, Duke has had some effect on the party.
Catfolk Relations
Night of Long-Knives
In the cover of darkness, Duke dispatched men to kill Catfolk at random. A number was never determined, but best estimates put it at near 1000 Catfolk that were put to death. Duke called a gathering of the people at the Colosseum a few days later.
Announcement at the Colosseum
At this meeting the Emperor started off the day's proceedings telling the people what happened during the Night of Long-Knives and made a declaration. Having attributed the recent acts of terrorism to the Cat's Claw (a Catfolk freedom-fighter group) he declared that for every one person killed by their terrorist acts, 10 Catfolk will be killed in return. Duke then unveiled his new clockwork creations. Clockwork Steeds, Mages, and Dragons were shown off in a fantastic display. Along with this was a magnificent clock-tower. It was then that Allistair played his game with the people of The Empire and doing so, forced Duke to show his hand. Duke used magic to protect the crowd from Allistair's bombs. This is the first time the public became aware of his arcane powers.
See Ransom Fisher-King (Allistair) for more information.
Witch Hunt
The Two Meet
After her arrival into our world Jadis appeared in the throne room and demanded Duke give up his throne. In his wisdom Duke tried to tactfully disarm the situation and spoke to her with the utmost respect trying to reason with the lady and set up a talk over calmer circumstances. The White Witch would not have it and attempted to take over The Empire at that very moment. The emperor desired to stay and fight her, but was convinced by Duran that The Empire had lost two emperors in a short amount of time, and it would not do for them to chance loosing a third so quickly.
See Jadis (The White Witch) for more information.
The War Ramps Up
After being nearly dethroned in an afternoon by a very powerful creature, Duke assigned many of his resources to finding the Witch. He was unsuccessful for quite some time until word got in that the Orcish Horde had a new War Chief. This new War Chief matched the description and known powers of the Witch. Duke ramped up the war efforts beyond what was yet seen with the war with the Orcish Horde, and every attempt was made to defeat this new threat (see Joseph Findlay for more info).
In the wake of the Orcish Horde's new War Chief winning them so many battles (see Orcish Horde for more info.), Edmund Duke initiated a draft. The draft was brutally demanding, as it recruited everyone from the age 12 to 69 to fight for The Empire. He even offered to give any Catfolks that helped defend Korhal their freedom.
Duke brought all his Clockwork to bear, replaced all The Empire's real dragons with Clockwork ones to stave off the White Witch's attempts to control the minds of their dragons. He relocated 90% of The Empire's military to the Orcish front.
Death
After Duke's defenses were beaten, the Witch turned Duke to stone, and decorated her newly acquired palace's garden with him.
See The Empire for more Information.