It is impossible to meaningfully discuss the history of His Transparent Majesty without first discussing the history of the Sacred Throne of North America.

Being founded in September of 1859, by His Most Imperial Majesty, Norton I, the Empire of the United States was, from the beginning, wracked with turmoil. A false government existed in the most ancient of the Empire’s territories, whilst a collection of mighty landowners plotted rebellion from within the Empire’s southeastern states. Despite the Emperor’s proclamations and devout wish for peace, open war broke out between the false government in Washington City, led by Abraham Lincoln, and the Southeastern plotters, proclaiming themselves to be the “Confederate States of America”, led by the former Imperial Senator, Jefferson Davis. Treachery and the agents of the false government prevented His Most Imperial Majesty from suppressing the rebellious factions and, by 1865, the Emperor was a virtual prisoner within the Imperial capital of San Francisco. Nonetheless, His Most Imperial Majesty held on to His throne, and the rump of His, once glorious, Empire (the majority of which was, sadly, given over to greedy and opportunistic traitors) until His tragic death in January of 1880. As befitted the first, and most glorious, Emperor to occupy the Sacred Throne, Norton I was given a full Imperial funeral which thousands of His loyal subjects attended.

Unfortunately, the false government in Washington City (now led by Rutherford Hayes) chose this time of grief to strike against Norton’s heir adoptive and successor, Percival John Mandeville-Stormont, Grand Duke of Berkeley, who upon ascending to the Sacred Throne took the regnal name of Norton II. As a result of this vicious persecution of their rightful monarch, the reign of Norton II was an almost complete disaster. Hounded from the Imperial capital, His Imperial Majesty set up His flag in the wilds of Idaho before being cruelly cut down at the Battle of Albion in 1882. Fortunately, the Emperor’s heir adoptive (Kenneth Ruthven-MacGregor, Prince of Monterey) survived the battle and ascended the Sacred Throne as Norton III.

Norton III, beset from all sides, did the only thing He could. He dragged the Empire into the shadows. By allowing the false government of Washington City to believe they had destroyed the sole legitimate government of North America, Norton III bought the time he needed to reform and strengthen the Imperial government. This, then, was the first incarnation of what would become the Conspiracy. Creating various “Shadow Ministries”, His Shadowed Majesty (as He became known) launched the covert war against the false government that is still fought today. Norton III perished at the beginning of the false government’s involvement in the Great War, struck down by a Secret Service assassin for opposing entry into that European conflict. His Shadowed Majesty’s heir adoptive, Zachariah Theodore Ravenscroft, succeeded Him as the first “Invisible Emperor”.

The first Invisible Emperor used neither his birth nor His regnal name throughout His reign, though we now know Him as Norton IV, while He lived He was known only as the Invisible Emperor. This established a tradition that survives to the present day. It was Norton IV who recruited Lord Kelvin to the conspiracy in 1924 and established the Hidden City. Sadly, Norton IV was assassinated in 1936 by agents of the German Fuhrer, Adolph Hitler, due to ideological differences. Furthermore, Hitlerian agents within the false government began to spread stories that the Invisible Empire was a front for the International Communist Conspiracy and these false stories led to increasing persecution throughout the reigns of the next two Invisible Emperors (Abraham Phillips, or Norton V, and Nicholas von Geistmark, or Norton VI). These persecutions, of course, did what the Hitlerian regime hoped they would, concentrated the attention of the false government on “internal matters” to the exclusion of all else. It was only when agents of Norton V tricked the Japanese Empire into assaulting the false government’s naval base in the occupied Kingdom of Hawaii that the false government’s attention was forced back to the international stage and the persecution abated, for a time.

Norton V was killed by the forces of Inquisitor McCarthy in the summer of 1951, that, and the seemingly permanent imprisonment of Lord Kelvin in the North Polar Icecap nearly shattered the Invisible Empire. Fortunately, Norton VI recruited the erratically brilliant Doctor Apocalypse in 1953, and while He was kept on the run throughout His reign by the so-called “League of Omnibenevolence”, the sanitized successors to McCarthy’s Anti-Communist Inquisition, He still managed to maintain the Empire and keep the Hidden City safe. Nonetheless, the reign of Norton VI was not a good one for the Invisible Empire and, by 1979, it was teetering on the brink of collapse. Most of the Ministers of the Imperial Government were dead, imprisoned (Doctor Apocalypse was incarcerated in the Hollyfield Federal Penitentiary for the Insane in 1971), or both (the late Lady Diamond was sealed into the secret grave-jail beneath the Washington Monument in 1975) and the forces of the false government had nearly sniffed out the location of the Hidden City. While doing everything in His power to preserve the rightful monarchy, Norton VI was still a hunted fugitive and it seemed that He would be the last occupant of the Sacred Throne.

However, Fate intervened and the false government was distracted at a crucial moment by the Iranian Revolution. Missing its chance to destroy Norton VI, the false government allowed Him to escape from the nearly decisive “Boston Incident”. While Norton VI perished from the wounds He had received in that trap, He lived long enough to proclaim His lawful heir adoptive and successor, the man known to us today only as the Invisible Emperor.

Since His Transparent Majesty’s ascension in December of 1980, He has rebuilt the Invisible Empire and broadened its scope to an even more ambitious and glorious destiny. No longer content to merely rebuild the lost glories of His Most Imperial Majesty, Norton I, the Invisible Emperor will bring His beneficent tyranny and kindly despotism to all the people of the Earth. Having recruited new ministers and freed the loyal servants of His predecessors, His Transparent Majesty has decreed into existence the Conspiracy to Subjugate Humanity. Soon, you will all bow down before Him.