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Born intersex & taken in by the General of the Quandalian Armed Forces, Bean Ortlieb is raised as a prodigy of the Empire-brilliant, unstable, & burdened by Ligmara's Disease, which sharpens his intelligence while breaking his body. As he matures, he becomes haunted by missing memories & the presence of an alter named Jack, forcing him to question where his mind ends & something else begins.
On Terra (Earth-419), Clara Pario-Bishop lives under the protection of the Terran Resistance, unaware she is the last royal heir-Princess Aaliyah Victoria Berry I. Hidden since birth to survive the Quandalian conquest, she grows up shaped by a war she never directly sees. Yet she too begins to experience fragmented memory, lost time, & an unsettling sense that she is not alone within her own identity.
Years after surviving a childhood tragedy together, Bean & Clara reconnect as teenagers. Their bond quickly deepens, but both carry secrets they cannot fully explain. Bean's internal fractures intensify as Jack emerges more frequently, while Clara's own identity begins to show cracks she cannot ignore.
When Bean realizes his anonymous online confidant "Quandalian_EmperorHater" is Clara, their worlds collapse into one shared truth. Together they uncover evidence tying their families, the Emperor, & Terra's alliances to a hidden origin buried in history itself.
As reality begins to distort, they find references to certain timelines & erased records pointing toward 2 legendary figures: Sophia Grace Victoria Amai-Strange & Josie David Ortlieb-founders whose names still echo in the present. To stop the Empire that spans universes, Bean and Clara must do the impossible: travel back through time, confront the founders at the birth of the Quandalian Empire, & bring them forward into a future shaped by their choices.
But changing the past never comes w/o consequences- & some minds, like some empires, are not whole by accident.
This is "How To Topple an Empire".