The Last Emperor

The Last Emperor is usually referring to Uryas Salmena IV, Emperor of the Earthborn Empire during the Great War. He was crowned after his father Uryas Salmena III was killed in an orcish raid through Mitrion, near the middle of the war. The emperor's official residence was moved to The Illidal for the duration of the war where Uryas IV ruled. He personally oversaw the subjugation of remaining orcish populations in the north after the war, and finally grew confident he could move back to the scenic vistas of Mitrion, away from the secure but hot desert of The Illidal. It would be here that he would come to terms with the Empire's new greatest weakness, their reliance on magic. The emperors could live for hundreds of years due to magic, but Uryas began to age and he died a man of nearly 120 years just after the conclusion of the Agican War, which he was too feeble to command. He had no male heirs as he was thought to be sterile, the entire line of Salmenas could not conceive without magical aid, and so, the Empire did not know what to do without an emperor for 20 years, up until the current day, the administrators and priests in defacto control don't want to give up their power or disturb the status quo, running things from behind the scenes without even a figurehead.

Unlike the various kingdoms, the dynasties of emperors were usually in flux, as there was some democratic control, and a lot of contested successions to the highest seat in the empire.