Pergrande Empire

The Pergrande Empire is the largest nation in Ishgar and an extremely militaristic and expansionist power. It has, over the last hundred years, attempted multiple invasions of its neighbours – although most of these attempts resulted in failure. That is because, despite its size and large reserves of manpower, the Pergrande army is backwards and poorly trained, it historically relying on strength of numbers to win the day. That, however, has changed since the new emperor, a man simply known as Führer, rose to power a few years ago. After witnessing the failure of Pergrande's most recent attempt at annexing Iceberg, he put the military through an extensive modernization program that transformed into into the most disciplined and elite force on the continent in only a few years. Part of this modernization project involved the Empire's research and development division investigating the method of producing Dragon Lacrima. Already a major threat to peace, under their new leader, the Pergrande Empire is now poised to plunge Ishgar into another terrible war.

The backbone of the Pergrande military is the Ten Headed Hydra, a group of immensely powerful mages ranked from ten to one – the lower the number, the more powerful the individual. The members of this group are no ordinary mages however, for they are all Dragon Slayers – Second Generation Dragon Slayers, specifically.