The Santonian province, ruled by the Longsun family, is one of the most powerful provinces of the Empire for two primary reasons:

• It was the 'victim' during the early empire where the Solenar province waged war without a war writ. In order to make an example of Solenar, the empire 'gave' half of Solenar to Santonia, greatly increasing their land and their economic power. While Solenar never recovered, Santonia began to thrive on the additional land and economic power they gained.
• Sometime later, Anteria began to have their own civil war as half their population lived on the plains while the other half were mountain folk. The Anteres mountain range is very rich in resources and the plains were essentially milking the mountains for as much money as possible simply because the mountain folk had to travel through the plains for trade. Obscene road tolls were popular among the plains at the time. Eventually the mountain rebelled against the plains, seeking to establish their own province. Of course, the plains had no intention of letting the mountains, with all their lucritive recources, go. This eventually became one of the largest unsactioned 'wars' the empire did nothing about. The empire had no strict rules on civil war and so it made no move against either side. Still, the empire became very nervous about the turn of events. Santonia saved them from action by requesting their own war writ against Anteria. Moreover, they applied for a silent war writ, which would grant the writ without notifying anyone. These were exceedingly rare, as they gave a province time to marshal an ambush offensive at a significant advantage. Likely, the only reason the empire agreed was because they saw it as an excellent solution to the civil war. Of course, they would have to be able to marshal their troops without the other province noticing, which was hard to do. But without a formal declaration, it was at least possible. Anteria, being caught up in their own civil war, had no idea what Santonia was up to. In the third year of the civil Anterian civil war, Santonia fielded a large force and decimated the Antonian plains, essentially claiming the entire plains as their own. They then offered a treatise to the remaining Anterians, essentially the mountain folk. Santonia had no desire to conquer the entire Anterians. They probably could have, but it would entail significant losses if they attempted to wage war in the mountains, the Anterian's home. So instead they would have their independence... for a few trade agreements. First, Santonia would provide protection against other provinces, freeing the Anterians to focus on production. Second, Santonia would build roads and maintain them for the Anterians to transport their trade goods. No tolls would be issued on any roads. In exchange, Anteria would funnel all their trade goods through Castel, the Santonian capital and trade port for a small tax on the goods. After negotiations, that 'small' tax turned out to be ten percent, which would earn Santonia a veritable windfall of income, but was so much less than the 'road tolls' that the Anterians eagerly signed the agreement. While some Anterians still grumble that it was too much, on the whole Anteria and Santonia have been amicable trade partners ever since.

The problem is that Santonia is a huge economic powerhouse that commands almost three provinces-worth of territories. Santonia, though, has always been favorable toward the empire, and so the empire has allowed them to be. This will change though, as wispered gossip will begin circulating through the Empire's capital, Tehere, about Santonia desiring to be the empire. At the same time, large shipments of weapons will go missing, somehow 'appearing' in various warehouses around Castel while depriving the empire of vital weaponry. More and more evidence will build up regarding Santonia's impending rebellion that eventually the Empire decides to send almost half their soldiers to invade Santonia.

Santonia, however, will be dealing with their own problems as an 'apparent' rebellion will appear to be in effect among some of their royals. Several of the weapon caches will be found and appear to belong to one particular faction of the royals. The Longsuns will field an impressive army to march against that faction, intending to squash any intended rebellion. This will appear to the empire, though, as though they're prepping for war and will be the final impetus that causes the empire to invade.

All of this will include stories from:

• Silchan, who will be heavily involved in Castel, will find himself embroiled in the city's underworld and Royal politics.
• The Merchan, who will also be involved, though unwittingly. He'll be trying to import some illicit goods, only to find he unintentionally stole weapons from the empire.
• The Sabautor, who has been manipulating events from Tehere to create the whole scenario.

By the time that Roland and Anna emerge, the majority of the Santonian army will have been deployed to the north even while the empire's soldiers are already marching on Castel. They will run into a stream of people evacuating from both sides, causing Anna to desperately head home to help, dragging Roland and the gang (sans Silchan, who'll want to be somewhere else) with her.