After some thought and more than a few rewrites, here’s what I’ve come up with:

EPISODE IIV
THE FORCE AWAKENS

The Jedi Knights are gone.
Without their protection,
the shadow of the Empire
again darkens the stars.

A mighty stellar foundry,
once the backbone of
the Imperial machine,
has remained hidden from
the new Republic. Now
a sinister FIRST ORDER
and its fanatical legions are
forging it into a weapon
of unspeakable power.

Fearing that their doom
is nearer than the
Republic dares to accept,
one general forms a
covert RESISTANCE
and sends her finest pilot
in search of the long-lost
Jedi…

It has five name drops, is shorter than TFA’s crawl, and has much more explanation of the First Order and its power.

I had the idea that the First Order has simply re-purposed a preexisting Imperial forge for their weapon. This would explain their shiny new tech in TFA and even their overwhelming forces in TLJ.