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Before Szuriel ascended (descended?) to the position of Horseman of War, she was an empress of an empire. Before the birth of her empire, she was the excommunicated member of a church that she later put to the sword.
The details are mostly vague outside of Szuriel's desire for vengeance. She amassed a large following against the church, enough to raise an army. What really makes this interesting is that when Szuriel's army threw down the church, it gave way to Szuriel's empire. From that, we can assume that the church was strong enough to form a theocracy.
Now I get to thinking: One woman scorned by the church doesn't normally create an army. So how bad was the church that it caused multitudes of people to rally behind Szuriel's banner? How did these people fare under Szuriel's rule, and how would have they reacted to her assassination?
We know that Szuriel turned her attention to neighboring nations, but why? It could have been simply because of the sudden overthrow of the theocracy, which could have been their ally in the past. "Any friend of my enemy is my enemy" could have been a logical conclusion. So maybe there would have been trade embargoes or failed attempts at diplomacy that would have soured relations between the nations.
But even in the face of stagnant livelihoods, her citizens still took part in her army. It could have been simply by force of conscription, but royal families were specifically frightened by "Her armies". If she had that many people under her control, there could possibly be a large number of them that willingly volunteered to join her army. And if they were willing to devote and sacrifice themselves for the empress, they might have sincerely loved her.
And how aware was Szuriel of her actions? Did she know she was damned and didn't care? Was she willing to face the annihilation of her soul for her people? Just how much of her civilian population knew where she was headed? And if the Nation of Szuriel still exists, is Szuriel worshiped there or are the empress and demigod versions of her two distinct people? After all, daemons hate all things... Szuriel could have loved her country.
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Note that Szuriel was never stated to have been mortal on Golarion (and since she wasn't it's probably safe to assume she lived on another far flung planet). Additionally that happened a long, long time ago and it's plausible that her original empire and culture was long ago ground to dust by the passage of time.
That said, given both the passage of time and the profound penchant by the Horsemen to curate their own history, the story of Szuriel's mortal life and death is likely more hagiography than factual biography. I personally assume that she rebelled against a state/cultural religion, rose to power in a rival nation and her empire grew after the destruction of her original home and faith. The reasons could be petty or profound depending on your campaign needs for Szuriel's history and motivations.
As always my opinions are just that, opinion and non canon unless backed up in a printed source as I'm not a Paizo employee. :)
Maybe she's secretly Alaznist.
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Knowing Szuriel, I would assume that it descended into infighting and devoured itself through brutal, devastating warfare without her there to hold it together. If some how it survived until she achieved her position as Horseman of War, then I would imagine that she would deliberately orchestrate such an event, herself.
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If Szuriel had a designated heir, then the empire probably went to that person to mismanage in her place, and probably fell apart within a couple generations.
If it didn't, then it would've broken up between her various governors, who quite possibly would've fought each other. Some of the governors would've fared better than others.
I'd suggest looking at what happened to Genghis Khan's or Alexander's respective empires following their deaths.
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Szuriel: an essential element to a healthy tyrannical empire.