Umbra (UW)

The Heartless Empire, is one of the factions involved in Kingdom Hearts: The Unsung War Trilogy. As the title explains, the Empire is home to the Heartless, although much of it's leadership is run by the Dark Humans.

History
Little is known about the Empire before the Lucidian War, (94 DC). What is known is that the Heartless Empire supported the Union of the Realm of Light and their allies against the Lucid Empire during that war. After the "Seven Pillars Incident" and the fall of the Empire, the Heartless Empire and the Realm of Light managed to remain allies for roughly another several years. Although it continued to weaken due to the attacks on RoL worlds by the Heartless lead by Xeanhort's Heartless.

It is revealed by Luna in Deep Space that the Heartless and the Realm of Light built the Arkbird, currently used as a Realm of Light Modified Light Cruiser.

The Unsung War began when Heartless forces launched a surprise attack on many worlds, including the recently rebuilt Radiant Garden. The Heartless had the advantage early in the war, while they were unable to take Radiant Garden, they did manage to secure an important strategic and moral victories, including crippling the Fleet of the Radiant Garden at the Battle over Atlantica, as well as taking Destiny Islands and Twilight Town.

But the tide of Battle quickly turned when the Heartless failed to stop the launch of the SSTO to the Arkbird at Nomanisan Island as well as the loss of Dagr Scinfaxi, an Arbiter and one of their main military leaders in the subsequent Battle of Unity Islands. These defeats put the Empire on the defensive, limiting themselves into smaller skirmishes like the ones at Olympus and Deep Space.

Government
The Style of Government the Heartless use is a mix of Kratocracy (rule by the strong) and Meritocracy (rule by Merit). The Leader, titled "Emperor and Autocrat of all of the Heartless" is the Head of State and Government of the Empire. Should the Emperor be unable to carry out his duty. He chooses an Imperator to carry out his goals.

The current Empress is Sera Cross. She is the first female HoS/HoG of the Heartless Empire. The Imperator is the Heartless of Dilan, one of the original six apprentices of Ansem the Wise.

Military
The Heartless Military, nicknamed the Heartless Horde by Realm of Light Soldiers, is the military arm of the Empire. Considering that almost everyone in the Empire is capable of fighting (most of them being Heartless themselves) the name is appropriate.

Trivia

 * The Heartless Empire is based on many Real Life Historical Nations, it's main inspiration comes from both the Russian Empire (1721-1917) and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922-1991), but it is also based on the Republic of Venice (697-1797) which was also run as a Meritocracy.
 * The Heartless Empire can also be considered to be this Universe's version of the Union of Yuktobanian Republics from the Ace Combat Series (appearing in both Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat Zero)