In the history of CRPGs, the Wizardry series should give every old school gamer a chill of ecstasy. The series began already in the early 80s and ended only in 2001 with Wizardry 8: Destination Dominus, but under licence, it has multiple further spin-offs. like Wizardry Online, primarily in Japan until the year 2012. An icon of game design called D. W. Bradley created the huge worlds of Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstorm (1988), Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge (1990) and finally Wizardry VII: Crusaders of the Dark Savant (1992) for the company Sir-Tech before jumping ship and founding his own software company. D. W. Bradley even surpassed himself and created the (in my view) only legitimate successor to Wizardry 7, namely Wizards and Warriors, already one year before Wizardry 8.
Anyone who has done some serious maths will tell you that it can be quite magical. Even with the most basic of operations you can do some impressive tricks with astonishing results. It is that feeling of wonder you get, when you finish a long set of calculations that end up with surprising – simple but true – answers which makes people love mathematics. Just think of the flow of solving a problem, that single moment when everything fits together and you see all the connections, and you might know what I mean. And this magic moments is exactly what Junior Arithmancer is all about.
If the history mankind has shown us one thing, it is that seemingly all-powerful empires will fall eventually. Their power depends on many psychological factors. Among them, the disunity of the people they rule over. Once those manage to ally, the sated, tardy and overly bureaucratic empire suddenly isn't so invincible anymore.
The funny thing about conventions of gaming is that in such a set-up, it would be universally assumed to take over the role of the "rebel" faction. Which makes sense, because giving a player the initiative promises a lot of potential reward. The reverse role of defending may not be so rewarding. If you start at your height of power, things can only take a downturn.