Ten years after the invaders came across the ocean, the Southern Lindsen Federation collapsed after an invasion from the puppet state of the Eastern Lindsen Commision. The monarch of the federation, Brandon Holstein, fell into despair as his dream of a Lindsen unified again was shattered, and power was increasingly funneled into the hands of powerful industrialists even as he attempted to modernize his unwieldy nation. He entrusted command of the rump state to his protege, the ultranationalist solider turned utopian Albert Stahler shortly before his death.

Stahler disbanded the army upon taking command and organized an Army of the Masses, quickly slaughtering the industrialists and bringing industry under state command. The advance of the ELC forced him to cede eastern lands, but he expanded into the microstates of the west to the SLF's former borders and beyond, spreading his dream of an egalitarian future. To the north, the cowardly but weakened collaborator state Burgune presses upon what was once Lindsen's northern border. To the northwest, the ailing kingdom belonging to Immanuel LeCoq threatens to collapse at any moment and provide a path for the ELC towards the center of Lindsen's many petty warlords and despots. Despite these difficulties, Stahler believes that his borders will once again stretch from the Raimat to the Lohne rivers.

Stahler seeks his brother Otto who was lost in action ten years ago, during the first defenses. He may not be ready for what he will find.