So where is the Empire's military?

[Chip]

Something I've never understood about this story, since have played Exile III 20 years ago: The Empire has total control over all but one continent, this is their only frontier, and yet their seemingly massive and unstoppable military is occupied elsewhere?  What is it even doing, and why would it exist if not to subdue the one wild and violent part of the surface world?  It might make sense if it was just a big glorified police force, but I always got the impression that it was supposed to be a some mighty war machine.  Is this just something we have to swallow for the sake of the game or am I confused about something?

[Minion]

Total control usually requires a massive military presence to prevent uprisings, which would occupy the attention of most of the Empire's standing army. Also, I don't find it particularly surprising that Prazac would commit to the enormous undertaking gathering troops from elsewhere to retake Valorim when new monster invasions could happen anywhere at any time.

[Randomizer]

The Empire's military is mostly up north around Blackcrag Fortress and hold up in a camp waiting orders. They do some work killing alien beasts, but mostly they patrol.

[Golgolath]

It's also possible that logistically, trying to move that many troops to a single continent is difficult. I'm not sure how long the plagues have actually lasted before Ruined World begins, but I got the impression it was weeks at most. That's not very much time, and most of the Empire forces in the area are up in northern Valorim, fighting and containing the most dangerous plagues (golems, alien beasts).

 

In Crystal Souls, despite having a massive military, the empire is not able to bring it to bear against Avernum before the souls are recovered and the Vahnatai/Avernum forces are able to cut off the Empire's logistics and defeat them. This suggests that even with portals, there are significant limitations to how fast the Empire can respond to things.

[Spidweb]

There is a huge military camp southeast of Blackcrag. Most of the rest is north of Valorim.

 

This isn't unusual from a historical perspective. Great Empires tend to keep low levels of troops in their far territories, especially if they are calm and peaceful. (As Valorim was.)

[Minion]

I recommend playing Nethergate: Resurrection for further insight on this matter. It really puts the difficulties of managing military logistics in a vast empire into perspective.