Xsia
The ancient empire of Xsia spanned across much of the Crystal Dimension in ancient times. The Xsian Empire included the entirety of the modern Crystal Dimension, with the notable exceptions of Baron and Toroia, which were not conquered before the Empire fell during the Late Kai Dynasty.
Xsia incorporated numerous different cultures into its singular unified nation, but not all of the far-flung provinces shared the same spoken language as those of the Hai-Xsian. In an attempt to mitigate this linguistic barrier, an Imperial Edict decreed that all Xsian provinces would be compelled to adopt the same written language, and that became the tie that bound the Empire together.
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Contents
Kupopolis: Legends
The Celestial Empire of the Hai-Xsia during the Time of Legends. The current year by the Xsian calendar is the twenty-third Year of the Soaring Dragons. The current Dynasty is that of the Kai.
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The Emperor's Yellow Dragon Banner
Land
At the peak of its power, the Xsian Empire controlled a vast majority of the land in what is in modern times known as the Crystal Dimension. The core territories of the Xsian lay on the Hai-Xsia sub-continent and the modern country of Fabul. Major provinces included Lo-Xsia (modern Eblan) and the Great Desert (modern Damcyan), with lesser provinces in Gin-Koku-Shima (modern Silvera) and Maho-Kuni (modern Mysidia).
The island of Agar (modern Agart) is a neutral settlement established for trade and contact with the Earth-Folk (Dwarves) of the Underground (which Xsian Emperors have historically chosen not to press a claim upon, since it is not technically directly under heaven).
Throughout the Late Kai period, and especially during the rule of His Magnificence, Kai Tsao Shou Lung Xsia Chin, Who Soars with Dragons and Rules All Under Heaven, great wars of expansion were fought in the West, in the regions that the Xsia called Beorn and Tro, against the Western barbarians who dared to insult Heaven's mandate by resisting the Emperor. Since Heaven demands that the land be unified, the people living within these regions are rebels and traitors, and the lands themselves are considered provinces of the Celestial Empire.
Population
In the culture of the Hai-Xsian, all sentients are viewed as "people," but not all people are equal. A strongly held belief is that some kinds of people are better and worse than others, and this forms much of the basis for how the Xsian interact with each other, within and between the Imperial Provinces. Thus, in the Xsian view, the Empire is made up of many, many races, but the majority of these are simply ethnic breakdowns of humanity.
Hai-Xsian
The dominant (and, in Xsian eyes, the most important) ethnic group in the Empire, this is the racial stock of the Imperial Province (which is also called Hai-Xsia), and the Northern Province of Fabul. Hai-Xsian are generally thought of as pure-bred ethnic Xsian; because purity is so important to the Xsian, often influential families will go to great lengths to hide a mixed-race child's true parentage in order to pass the child off as pure Hai-Xsian. The Hai-Xsian are typified by their tan-to-dark skintones, dark colored hair and dark colored eyes. Pale skin is sometimes seen as exotic and beautiful, so men and women of the noble classes will often hold court wearing white face paint.
Lo-Xsian
Another Xsian ethnic group; refers to the people of the Lo-Xsian province, whose ethnic stock is taken to be a mixture of Hai-Xsian, native Ebulo humans and (allegedly) Lunarians. Generally, even if a family in Lo-Xsian is mostly or entirely pureblooded Hai-Xsian, they are still considered to be of the Lo-Xsian ethnic group if any of the family's sons are born within the Lo-Xsian province (which is why Hai-Xsian magistrates will often leave their wives and concubines behind when they are appointed to posts in Lo-Xsia). Lo-Xsian people have a wider range of skin tones, going from dark to very light, and their hair turns up in a wider variety of shades, from black through brown, and then the rare exotic appearances of off-colored hair (white, blue and green being the most common).
Despite being ranked beneath Hai-Xsian, the Lo-Xsian take great pride in their heritage and ethnicity, such that in the Lo-Xsian province the traditional hierarchical relationship between Hai-Xsian and Lo-Xsian is reversed. (there is even a popular rumor in Lo-Xsian province that the current Emperor [Who Soars with Dragons and Rules All Under Heaven] was born from a Lo-Xsian concubine)
Peiha-Xsian
A third Xsian ethnic group; refers to the mixed-race Xsian from other parts of the Empire outside of Lo-Xsia, including Maho-Kuni, Agar, the Misty Valley and parts of the Great Desert. In terms of social standing, the Peiha-Xsian rank beneath Lo-Xsian, who in turn are ranked beneath Hai-Xsian. Whereas the Lo-Xsian are often empowered because of their strong ethnic identity, celebration of their Lunarian heritage and distance from the Imperial Province, the Peiha-Xsian enjoy little unity with each other. They are thought by the Xsian to suffer in their lot as the "Lowest Among the High."
Non-Xsian (and non-humans)
To be non-Xsian is almost the same in Xsian culture as to not even be human - though, as with all things, some non-Xsian (and non-humans) are inherently better than others.
Damk
The Damk are one of major tribes native to the Great Desert. They live on both sides of the Arijigoku Mountains, and survive by taming the giant insects that live in the arid foothills. They were first encountered by the Xsian centuries ago during the expedition of conquest, and became friends and allies of the samurai armies. The Damk aided the Xsian in the virtual elimination of the Grotk, Molk and Kaipk tribes, the survivors of which were absorbed into the Damk tribe. The Xsian assisted the Damk in constructing a major fortified city in the Northern sands, a fortress the tribe has named Damkia.
Apart from their role in helping the Xsian subjugate the Great Desert, Damk are known for their dances and love of music. They are among the most valued and respected allies of the Xsian Empire.
Valley-People
The savages and idol-priests native to the Misty Valley, where the Xsian have established the formal border of their Empire. They put up no resistance on the arrival of the Xsian, and since only very few Xsian actually speak their language, there has been little interaction with them. Still, because there was no conquest waged against them, the Emperor considers them friends of the Empire.
Earth-Folk
A race of short, black-skinned creatures with hair in bright, fiery colors; in modern times they are known as the Dwarves of Crystal's Underground. They live under the ground, but have surface colonies in Agar, where contact between them and the Xsian was first made during the Great Lunar War. The Emperor has decreed that the Earth-Folk may continue to live outside of the Celestial Empire, because they do not live Under Heaven. Commerce is facilitated with these people, whose blades and armor are strong and of great importance to the samurai armies fighting in Beorn and Tro.
Gin-Koku-Jin
This name is given to a group of exiles from various provinces of the Empire. It literally means "Folk of the Silver Country." The Ginkokujin are a mixed lot of undesirables: criminals, nobles and samurai who have fallen out of favor, even war captives from the various conquests on the frontier of the Empire. When an individual (along with his family, in the case of a disgraced aristocrat) merits becoming a Ginkokujin, they are brought before the Emperor and his Magistrates, who then work powerful shapechanging magics upon them. Some are transformed into frogs (for crimes of dishonesty), some into hideous pigs (for crimes of greed or gluttony), and others are simply shrunken in height (for those who insult or fail the Emperor).
Whatever the result of the transformation, the fallen individual is sent to Gin-Koku-Shima: a chain of islands stretching between Fa-Bul and Maho-Kuni, where precious metals and gems are mined. Ginkokujin (and their descendents, who inherit their parents' curse) are permanently enslaved in this manner; since silver is the entire basis of the Xsian economy, there is little to no hope of release from their time in the mines of the Silver Country.
Spirit-Folk
This is a magical, non-human race who live in the forests of Tro; in modern times they are known as the Elves of Toroia. They tend to be smaller and slighter than the Xsian races, and are typically known for their pointed ears and sharp facial features. They are masters of the forests, and their guerilla-style attacks against the samurai sent to enforce the Emperor's will have been devastatingly effective.
There is a branch of this race which is dark-skinned, but the Xsian have not had enough encounters with them to give them a name or determine whether they are friend or foe to the Empire.
Xanthyr
The native humans of the Tro region. Theirs is a matriarchal druidic society, and they are friends of the Spirit-Folk. The Xanthyr amazons, alongside the Spirit-Folk, have held the Samurai at bay for several years; encounters with these crude barbarians have shaken the Xsian to their cultural core (women!? who fight!??!). One of the Xanthyr's principle advantages in defending their homes is their taming of large, indigo-feathered flying bird mounts, similar to the Chocobos ridden by the Emperor's cavalry -- though it should be noted that these birds are just as vulnerable to being picked off by Xsian Great Bows as any other target on the field.
Beorn
The barbarians from the plainsland south of the Misty Valley. The samurai army of the Xsian Emperor has waged a war to attempt to conquer the lands of Beorn ever since the current Emperor was a suckling child. The Beorn are a powerful warrior race, who field leaping spearmen dressed in dragon-styled costumes (called "Dregün" by the Beorn) and whose leaders are powerful elemental shamans and warrior-priests beholden to a code of honor like that of the samurai. (though, naturally, their code is inferior to bushido, since these people are not Xsian and are ignorant of enlightened Xsian culture) The Beorn have fair to pale skin, and hair in strange colors -- brown like mud, yellow like the sun, red like fire -- and often grow thick beards upon their faces.
Mule-Men
The Mule-Men are a mongrel race descended from contact with the Earth-Folk of the underground. They mix the best qualities of humankind and the Earth-Folk, though they are always hairless and have a high rate of sterility. The Mule-Men do not form a majority of the population on Agar island; most of the people living on the island are actually Peiha-Xsian humans. These people are known as Muls, or Half-Dwarves, in modern times.
Religion
Within the Empire, there are several religions that are practiced. Some enjoy Imperial sanction, while others are entirely outlawed by mandate of the Emperor.
Shang-Ti
Shang-Ti is the name of a figure, in Xsian belief, who is known as the Celestial Emperor. Shang-Ti is supposed to have been one of the first Emperors of Hai-Xsia, the Emperor who guided the Xsian people through the Lunar War, established the Empire's longstanding alliances with Dwarves and Dragons, and since leaving the mortal world has come to rule the Empire of Heaven. As part of his duties as Celestial Emperor, Shang-Ti hands down his mandates (in typically bureaucratic fashion) to the Hai-Xsian Emperor -- sometimes explicitly, but often in the form of omens which must be read by the Court Diviners. A Dynasty is legitimate so long as it retains Shang-Ti's mandate; when this is lost, a new Dynasty will rise.
There are several significant beliefs associated with Shang-Ti that typify the Xsian religious outlook: a critical component is the concept of filial piety and, by extension, ancestor worship. A family's ancestors (especially if the family in question is powerful or respected) are believed to hold places of esteem within the Celestial Bureaucracy, so prayers and offerings made to departed ancestors are thought to help secure a family's good fortune. By extension, a Xsian is also expected to display piety toward the state, represented by the Emperor and his appointed magistrates and officials, and the state's "ancestors" (the most powerful of whom is Shang-Ti himself).
An oft-forgotten part of this philosophical heritage is the government's obligation to rule well and in the interest of general peace and prosperity. The loss of this component several centuries ago roughly corresponds with the rise of the Samurai warrior class and the wars of expansion in the Great Desert and the Southeastern Continent.
Way of the Empty Hand
A spiritual movement that originated in Fa-Bul, the Empty Hand sect originated as a philosophy espousing peace with oneself and one's surroundings through introspective meditation. Almost as a byproduct of their philosophy, the Empty Hand developed a style of unarmed combat, which helped the sect to spread and ultimately became much more popular than the pacifistic philosophy which the sect was founded upon. Empty Hand monasteries are, by order of the Emperor, restricted to Fa-Bul (in order to keep from displeasing the Celestial Emperor), but many Samurai are encouraged to train with the Empty Hand and learn their fighting style.
Lunarianism
A religion which is deemed a cult by the Emperor (and is therefore technically outlawed) is the Lunarist faith, which originated in Lo-Xsia. These moon-worshippers are influenced by the Lunarian interlopers, who dare to build their civilization above Shang-Ti and the Heavens (as grave an insult to the Xsia people as could be possible).
Cult of the Light
Another outlawed religion, this faith originates in Maho-Kuni, though it may also be practiced among the Beorn (whose warrior-priests seem to practice similar rituals). It revolves around a sacred mountain deep in Maho-Kuni's forests, called the Mount of Ordeals.
The Earth-Folk Cults
The Earth-Folk are known to have their own gods. It was at one time unlawful to pay homage to these gods within the Empire, until His Magnificence, Kai Tsao Shou Lung Xsia Chin, Who Soars with Dragons and Rules All Under Heaven, wisely determined that the Earth-Folks' beliefs were in keeping with proper Xsian tradition, since they pay proper worship and respect to their own ancestors (as the Earth-Folk gods were supposed to have made the Earth-Folk in a forge, and could therefore be called their parents). Following this declaration there was a great strengthening of ties between the Xsian and the Earth-Folk, and many Earth-Folk blades were shipped to the Samurai fighting in the Beorn province.
Magic
Magic is tightly regulated within the Empire. While the Empire is not expressly a magocracy, many if not most of the higher-ranking officials and magistrates practice magic of one kind or another. The Emperor himself is often given rudimentary tutelage in the magical arts, with some Emperors turning out to be better sorcerers than others. The current Emperor is known to be quite adept with magic, as are his Prime Minister and Chamberlain.
Black Magic (command of elements; harming magics) and White Magic (healing and defensive magics) are both practiced and taught in great magical schools in Hai-Xsia province. Only the rarest of scholars are permitted to study both Black and White magic, though the Emperor is required (as the Son of Heaven) to be familiar with both.
With the expansion of the Empire, many other forms of magic have been discovered -- although the Emperor has not given them all his sanction. An example of sanctioned foreign magic are the enchanted songs of the Damk tribe, which have been appropriated and taught to several of the Emperor's musician-slaves so that they might better entertain the Emperor's court; there are also the idol-summonings practiced by the Valley-People, which the Emperor himself has taken some time to study and understand. Non-sanctioned magic includes the elemental-magic practiced by the ninja of the Lo-Xsian province, the magic used by the shamans and warrior-priests of the Beorn, and the pagan rituals of the Spirit-Folk and Xanthyr druids.
Government
There are several important components in the government of the Xsian Empire.
Bureaucracy
The Xsian Empire's very existence is predicated upon a massive system of bureaucracy, whose size, scope and depth remains among the more fascinating subjects of academic study in the Web of Worlds today. The dizzyingly perplexing system of regionalized knots of official control, spider-webbing out into smaller, satellite regional bureaus, is so intricate and tangled that it is almost impossible for anyone who has not dedicated their entire life to the study of the bureaucracy to fully comprehend it. Most basically, the bureaucracy divides up the Empire into provinces, then divides provinces up into counties, then counties into cities, then cities into districts, then districts into townships, and townships into villages. Each subdivision has one assigned magistrate, who is then attended by a retinue of bureaucrats to assist in the administration of the given region of control. Each magistrate is assumed to be in charge of all lower magistrates beneath him, and beholden to all the upper magistrates above him, in a chain of command that theoretically ends with the Emperor himself. Becoming a member of this massive government administrative machine means sitting for the infamous Xsian Civil Service Exam. The exam covers everything that is believed to be essential for a successful civil servant, including knowledge of the classic texts, moral character, reasoning, logic and mathematics. The test is reviewed and updated by the Imprial Provincial Administration Authority every ten years -- or, it's supposed to be (several of the more remote provinces are still administering tests that are forty years behind the current revision). Passing the exam once makes one elligible for a position at the village administration level; each step up the ladder of promotion requires that one sit for and pass another exam. The passage rate tends to drop precipitously the higher up you go.
Emperor
The nominal head of the Xsian government is, of course, the Emperor. And the Emperor does have enormous power within the Empire, both direct and by way of the symbol of his office. But oftentimes the Emperor's sway is minimal compared to his close advisors, men of bureaucratic learning who are often extremely well-versed in the classical Xsian methods of government.
Ministers and Advisors
More often than not, the most powerful man (or men) in the Empire do not hold the rank of Emperor. Rather, they hold some other rank that places them within the Emperor's close inner circle. Nominally, these ministers and advisors serve the Emperor, providing him with a sounding board for government policy, advice on subjects far too esoteric and obscure to bother the Emperor's precious time with, or even simple sycophantry. The Emperor's Advisors wield enormous power because, often unlike the Emperor himself, they know how to grease the wheels of the behemoth Xsian bureaucracy. Without such skills, the Emperor could never realistically accomplish much in a nation that is so reliant on its traditional network of bureaucratic infrastructure.
Samurai Elite
A more recent component of the Xsian power structure are the members of the Samurai caste: nobles with soldier's training, warriors with noble blood. Established some centuries ago with the launch of the Xsian campaign to unite all the lands under Heaven by way of force of arms, the Samurai are bound by two common threads: their upper-class lineage, and their adherence to a strict code of martial honor that impacts every facet of a Samurai's life. Devoted above all else to the Emperor, the Samurai tend to eschew the importance of the bureaucracy, and often regard the ministers who serve the bureaucracy with open disdain.
Military
The Empire is protected by an enormous standing force. At one time, the entire Imperial army was centralized into a singular, massive force. However, under the reign of the current Emperor's father, regional nobles (both of Samurai and non-Samurai affiliation) were permitted to raise their own standing armies, both for the common defense of the heartland and to aid in the ongoing wars of expansion (the late Emperor had promised that nobles who took lands from the barbarians in the name of the Emperor would be permitted to keep that land and any property on it; a decree that helped to spur the major noble houses into raising large armies). The result is a confusing, ill-ordered military hierarchy, with Academy-trained Imperial soldiers intermixed alongside conscripted farmers armed with farming tools.
The Imperial Army itself is headed by Grand General Ren Cang, who is the leader of the Emperor's cadre of Samurai. He has a number of lesser generals underneath him who are responsible for liaising with representatives from the various noble forces. Cang tends to get more cooperation from nobles from the Imperial Province, Fa-Bul and Damk; less so from the other provinces (especially Lo-Xsian, whose Samurai families are more or less united in their general attitude of defiance against both the Imperial Army and Bureaucracy).
