Although we can see all around us the ruined evidence of the greatness of ancients, the ruins are mute as to the details of the history of the Empire that built them. Historical records, like everything else of importance, were kept primarily at the capital, and so were destroyed in the Disaster. Therefore our knowledge of ancient Hadrani history, culture, and society is limited to what we can glean from the often biased and incomplete records of them in the histories of their neighbors and subject peoples, and from the occasional precious original document that surfaces in one of the old provinces.

Hadran II founded the city of Hadran, naming it in honor of his father (and coincidentally in honor of himself). It is not known whether the first emperors gave their own name to the river, or whether they took the river's name as their own; the latter seems more likely, since different peoples all across the continent of Avalon have used the same name for the Hadran river since before imperial times, according to the Elves.

Hadran II also forged the tool that would be used by several dynasties of emperors to create and maintain the empire: a standing army, well-trained, disciplined, with the finest cavalry, unmatched anywhere in the Plains of Hadran. His first campaigns were against the roving Barbarian tribes that were accustomed to wander freely anywhere they liked on the plains. Hadran II explained the concept of a national boundary to them in a particularly pointed and gruesome manner, by drawing the line across the plains in Barbarian blood.

By the end of his reign, Hadran II had firmly established the empire's power base around the city. His son, Hadran III, took over an empire and a people ready for expansion. On his first campaign, he marched west and south, following the river's course, then south along the Allyarbane woods, meeting little resistance and incorporating all he found into the empire.

Returning to the capital, the emperor was informed that he had a daughter: Shordan. From the number of flattering poems and statues that survive from this time period, it is evident that Hadran III was pleased as punch with his child, and spent several years enjoying the pleasures of fatherhood in the capital, while simultaneously setting up some of the social and governmental institutions that retain power in peoples' minds even up to the present day.

As Shordan grew older, however, the emperor became restless with civilian life, and set out on another campaign. This time he ventured westwards. He laid his power over a valley full of the sweetest fruits of the earth, and because of its sweetness he named the new province Shordan, after his daughter. The river which ran through the valley now bears that name as well.

Reaching the limits of the navigable portion of the Shordan, Hadran III sent two detachments north and east. The party sent to the north returned soon, reporting to no-one's surprise that the area was a wasteland unsuited for habitation by anyone but savage barbarians. The one sent to the east, however, into the Trackless Wood, never returned. The fate of these brave warriors is unknown even today.

Hadran returned to the capital and received word of a great new discovery. Scouts returning from the south reported finding an earthly paradise: the climate was warm, the crops plentiful, and the local inhabitants no match for Hadrani military tactics. An expedition was planned, but on the eve of its departure, the emperor sickened and died permanently, leaving his daughter Shordan to rule.

Anabaxo, in his Chronicles, one of the few surviving early Hadrani historical works, implies that Shordan's early reign was rough. Several courtiers thought that the combination of Shordan's young age and excessive pampering as a child made her a bad choice, and plotted to place various other candidates on the throne. Shordan, however, proved to be a very able ruler indeed. She made short work of her opponents, and, according to Anabaxo, forced their spirits to leave Hadran and seek resurrection at an earth circle outside the Empire.

Shordan I realized that the power of the empire depended on the river Hadran, which provided transport and irrigation for the imperial heartland. Therefore she sent two armies: one to find and capture the river Hadran's source, the other to extend imperial dominion to the river's estuary on the Great Ice Ocean. Shordan herself took a third army south, in search of the paradise the scouts had reported to her father.

The Hadran river's estuary turned out to lie in a rather desolate country, with no threatening inhabitants and nothing of much value to the Empire. So that army established a few fortresses in strategic points in the Drachenfange Hills and returned. The army sent to find the source of the river, however, spent nearly a year laboriously hacking their way through the Trackless Wood, which was trackless even in ancient times, and ended up south of the Shimmerglen, near present-day Volta. They had lost all communications with the capital. Reduced to a handful of troops by disease, famine, and goblinoid attacks, the army built a temporary campsite here. They named this fort after the leader of the army, Gorm Xandria. Unbeknownst to the remainder of the empire, this hastily erected fortification eventually grew into a major city.

Meanwhile Shordan herself conquered the lands to the south, pushing out the barbarians and orcish tribes that lived there. This land truly was a paradise to the Hadrani: the climate was warmer than any they had experienced, the soil rich and fertile.

Future emperor Hadran IV accompanied the southern campaign. It is said that while touring the new conquest, Hadran IV pointed to the mountains and hills in the distance, and asked a local inhabitant what they were called. He responded "Ouachita, mugi!", which means "Your finger, fool!", but Hadran IV liked the name, and inscribed the Ouachitamugi mountains on the military maps. To this day, the few remaining bits of civilization in the area tell stories of the fool king, who named mountains after his finger.

On returning to her capital, Shordan turned her attention to more peaceful affairs. She founded the Kidal Makil, an institute for the study of magic, both terrestrial and celestial. This institute, backed by massive imperial funding, soon became pre-eminent in magical research. Shordan also realized that the legal and social system that was sufficient to rule a small kingdom would not do for an empire that spanned several weeks travel. She codified a new set of laws and social institutions, including the 3-level system of nobility, on which the government of Hadran is based.

Perhaps the most impressive military campaign in recorded history occurred not in the first decades, when the empire was in its first flush of expansion, but during the reign of Empress Lexa II. In 189 H.E., she sent her most trusted general, Reed Alakbir, to march East to discover, if possible, what had happened to the army of Gorm Xandria a century before.

After a long march, Alakbir rediscovered the city of Xandria that had been founded by the remnants of a Hadrani army. Both the inhabitants of the city and Alakbir's troops were extremely surprised to discover the others' existence. He sent word back to the empress of what he had found and pressed on to the southeast.

Alakbir's lightning campaign covered a truly staggering amount of territory in a very short time. From Xandria he marched to Tirgu Oona, conquering anything in his path. Turning south he roared down the coast of Lake Quentari, over the Mwoonyrr, and through the lands of the Sarr, where he wintered in the town of Khiva. Leaving a garrison there, he continued south between the Darkblood mountains and the Shakar Forest, and over the river Farrlirr.

General Alakbir was finally stopped when a combined force of Sarr and Elves ambushed him crossing the Gateway river, and Obliterated Alakbir himself. The leaderless Hadrani troops, who had come to regard their general as invincible, were demoralized and trickled home or settled in the area.

The conquests of Alakbir marked the high point of the empire in terms of territory. Most of these reverted to their inhabitants after Alakbir's death. The greatest beneficiary was Xandria, which was able to assert control over a sizable chunk of territory that Alakbir had conquered for them.