Recent History
The War of the Cross still happened over religion. King Leon du Montaigne annexed Sices and Gloyure, saying that if the Imperator would not quell growing violence in the border region, he would. Castille did try to take some territory as well, but Erich Sieger marshaled his men to beat them back.
The Imperator still committed suicide under mysterious circumstances, accompanied into death with the Baron and Baroness of Heilgrund.
In fact, the major change from canon, politically speaking, is that rather than Eisen being fractured with a leadership vacuum, it is fractured with a leadership surplus. Three eisenfursten are strong candidates for the throne and two more oughtn't be counted out. The primary danger to Eisen, rather than the chaos of anarchy, is more of the chaos of war, if the eisenfursten cannot come to an agreement on how to govern their nation.
NPCs
Erich Sieger
Erich Sieger's bull-stubbornness is directed at dragging his lands, and then all of Eisen, into recovery. He sometimes employs press gangs to recruit men (and strong-looking women) to aid in his reconstruction efforts, although these"draftees" are compensated for their work. Sieger has plenty of drive, ambition, and energy, and the best interests of Eisen at heart. Unfortunately, he's also very certain that his vision for a united Eisen is the Single Best and Only True Vision, and he's unwilling to compromise that vision.
Fauner Posen
Fauner Posen is slightly distracted from Eisen politics, as she is also keeping one eye on the Montaigne General Montague's advance in Castille. His style of warfighting is abhorrent to her - her troops are some of the most disciplined in Theah, trained to fight hard but honorably. Montague's brutal, back alley style alarms her; that it appears to be so effective worries her. In the next ten years, will that be rolling through Eisen? And how will she counter it?
Her large army and her awareness of potential conflicts - with Montague, with Sieger - make her people consider her a good protectress, but the rest of Eisen think she's just looking to pick a fight. That's not strictly true, but her army is her primary hammer - so many problems do look like nails to her.
Stefan Heilgrund
Young Stefan Heilgrund was stunned at the simultaneous suicides of his parents and the Imperator, which happened concurrent with a fit of amnesia that effected all within Heilgrundstat. He had less than a week to mourn before the press of his new duties became too great to ignore. Fortunately, his parents had seen to his education in policy and he was well-prepared to step into the breach.
Heilgrund, with all the energy of youth, is keeping many balls in the air. He's proved an able esienfurst to his people. Concerned about the rise of dark forces in Eisen - dark forces such as he suspects caused the strange lassitude in Heilgrundstat and may even have caused his parents' deaths - he has taken up research into occult matters. He is looking for a wife; Francesca Lucani has indicated that one of her daughters is available, but Fauner Posen is also an obvious potential candidate. A marriage-sealed alliance between the two of them would be a potent force in north Eisen - but Heilgrund worries how equal a partner he'd be, paired with the older and more militarily-powerful eisenfurst. And as penance for the loss of the last Imperator, he believes it is his family's duty to see that a new one is installed. It doesn't have to be him - it probably oughtn't be him, in his opinion - but there needs to be one, chosen in a way that will unite Eisen rather than tear it apart.
Faulk Fischler
Some are born to greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them, and then there's Faulk Fischler. He's depressed and drunk most of the time. He misses his sister, feels overwhelmed by his duties, and suspects that his minister Francisca Kohl is undermining his authority to engineer her own coup (and she is).
He's recently begun to realize that his shadow-friends aren't just booze-induced hallucinations, but some kind of actual beings. The old Faulk, the fisherman, is horrified. He knows better than to treat with the creatures of the Schwartzen Walden. But the old Faulk is a very small and quiet voice now, mostly drowned by drink, and the new Faulk wonders if his new friends might help him deal with his minister, establish his rule, and even bring Catherine home...
Nicklaus Trague
Canonically, Trague is a Hero. That's an odd thing to say about a man who stands by and actively enforces a status quo that encourages an anarchic environment where the strong prey upon the weak, and the weak have no recourse to law. But if you feel it's appropriate, then a Villainous Trague is like the canonical Trague but moreso. Anyone who shows the slightest tendency to impose order in Freiburg - say, PC Heroes trying to establish a community watch in the Shades - has his Iron Guard come down on them for "interfering in the Great Experiment." Anarchy is enforced with ruthless authoritarianism, and Trague revels in seeing his dark views about humanity "proved" right, over and over, in the streets of his miserable city. He's a nilhistic and angry man.
If, on the other hand, you want to flip Trague the other way in the mirror, he's someone trying very hard to reconcile his ideals with reality. He believes, as fervently as is possible, in utterly free self-determination for every man, woman and child. But then what of the human wreckage that occurs? In some cases, it's clear that bad choices were made and someone reaped the consequences - but in others, the only "choice" that was made was to grow old and vulnerable, or to be walking down the wrong street at the wrong time. He makes occasional decrees to instill some order in Freiburg, then countermands them the next day as he worries that he's going to hamper someone's legitimate free action. He's still drunk and depressed, because he really and truly believes in Utopia but can't bring it about.
In either case, Wilma Probst is a petty tyrant, wielding whatever power she has (it's limited by a lack of cash to back it up, as in canon) to assist her allies and punish her enemies. Vasya Wilhelm is her lackey; Redmund Erhart is a wealthy landlord who gives generously to charities in Freiburg, but has angered Probst and is frequently the target of her wrath.
Georg Hainzl
Hainzl's mad, but it's not the happy kind of madness he displays in canon. It's more the Queen of Hearts, "off with her head!", insane giggling kind of madness. A secret envoy has been sent to neighboring Sieger to beg him to invade and dethrone the maniac.
Reinhard von Wische
Reinhard von Wische is still a waisen. His aide, Gisela Inselhoffer, is ruling in his stead and looking for a way to assume the throne when... uh, if anything should happen to the eisenfurst. Her brother, a loyal member of von Wische's Iron Guards, is the primary obstacle to her ascendancy.
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