I regret to inform you that his Imperial Majesty will not be taking visitors today, and while I do not speak for him, I do not expect that he will take visitors tomorrow either, my lady.
He has much greater concerns than the questions of one amateur historian knocking on his doorstep. Might I suggest that you take a trip to one of our beautiful landmarks? Lake Laogai is quite lovely this time of year.
-Some Imperial majordomo to me,
Mercy Francisca.
Nianqi is an ancient imperial power, far more so than the
Old Empire, but when the dragons offered to have it join that offer was accepted. Until the Empire's fall, Nianqi abided by their rules and customers, but when the
Wyrms War broke out, Nianqi retreated within itself and avoided outside conflict.
It became a fortress and rejected all who attempted to invade or parley. They built great walls and citadells, ringed with early canons, and many forms of
Aetherform and
Living Aether. Legions of golems constructed from clay and brought to life through magic, with some so large that they rival the size of dragons.
They put their Emperor back on the throne, as if he had never left, and sat behind their walls while the rest of the Old Empire tore itself apart. Even when the war had ended, they did not open their gates, no matter how many messages were sent. In fact, they only opened their gates late into the Second Astral Era completely at random, though politically they remain as separate as possible from foreign entanglement. Who can blame them?
What happened within the Empire of the Iron Court within that time is a near complete mystery, as the records have been sealed and only the Emperor himself has the authority to unseal them. Something he is rather disinclined to do, I've found. Hints into the gap of their history are few and far between. Some say nothing but peace and prosperity happened, while others suggest some form of civil unrest occurred on more than one occasion. The only thing that is known for sure, by outsiders at least, is that during this hidden period between the Wyrm's war and the opening of the country is that the
Yuhi arrive, rather suddenly. Since the Nianqi refuse to say anything, I'm forced to rely completely on the accounts of the Yuhi, who are not nearly so cagey about the event.
They sailed in from the east, fleeing their homeland and some great calamity that even they are unsure of the form. Hungry, tired, and terrified, they spotted the colossal fortifications of the
Gate of the Setting Sun and sailed closer. Luckily, the eastern gate of the Silk River was not on so high alert as it is now, and so they were allowed close enough to communicate, for all the help it provided them. Nianqi was not interested in housing the refugees and turned them away. The Yuhi knew that they would not survive trying to sail further, not at least without supplies, but they had nothing to trade for their supplies, and so the garrison commander turned them down again. Ancient accounts written by the Yuhi and preserved by their own court histories suggest that the ragged fleet considered trying to make an assault on the wall, though they knew in their hearts the attempt would end in their death.
With no other option, the fleet sailed forward and assaulted the walls. Their warriors were dedicated and their magics strange, and through some miracle, they found purchase upon the wall and with it, wedged their way through. They took terrible casualties, further diminishing a people on their last legs, but they fought on longer still. The lions of Nianqi, however, would not be so easily subdued. fighting raged across the wall and spread out into the land directly behind the wall, little pockets of the Yuhi amongst a growing sea of Jade legionnaires. If the Yuhi are to be believed to have told nothing but truth in their stories, then their Empress was the most deadly that day, despite her weapons being broken and armor sundered long before. They would not be victorious that day, and they knew it, yet they also knew that to flee now would mean they simply died upon the ocean, starving, thirsty, and amongst nothing but the disapproving gaze of the Icons. Honor was a concept that had followed them from their homeland, and they would not leave themselves bereft of that as well, especially not their slow death was all that awaited them.
A whole people would have died that day as more and more of the people of Nianqi responded to the attack upon them. The Jade Legion was marching to war and just their sheer numbers alone would have eventually ground down the Yuhi, not accounting for their well-practiced martial skill borne from driving off the remains of the old empire.
Then, from high in the sky, a roar came. Diving through the clouds came a serpentine form, its scales an amber color that glowed brightly as it rapidly approached the battlefield. Everyone froze, unsure of what this
Great Wyrms would do. Then a second followed it from the clouds, and a third followed the second.
Despite their size, each landed gracefully and with their abilities spoke to all present at once, imploring them to stop their quarrel.
It was
Amaterasu, the Sunlit Lantern, and mother to the Wyrms that followed her. Casting her many eyes around, she found the Yuhi empress, and implored her to find peace in these lands, and stated that she would help the empress in those endeavors. Offering a clawed hand to the empress, hoisting her up onto the back of Ameterasus. Imploring the two sides to cease their conflict until the Great Wyrm returned, she made sure that all present knew her children would enforce her request.
According to the story, Amaterasu and the Empress were gone for three days and three nights, while neither side heard any sort of report from their leaders. Carefully, each side stood down, set up camps, and eyed each other for any untoward move. When the Wyrm finally returned, she bore not only the Yuhi Empress but the Emperor of Nianqi as well. As Amaterasu landed, each ruler addressed their own people.
The Emperor and the Empress would be married, their people joined by their union. The Yuhi would be granted Nianqi land to be their own, to live upon and work, under one condition. That they showed the proper dedication to their new nation. The Yuhi were a prideful people, and with any other Empress it likely would not have been satisfactory, but she had guided them well until then. So it was agreed, and two courts became one. A union that has lasted for millennia. On paper.
While the rulers of Nianqi and Yuhi are officially married, their close ties have varied greatly in strength as time has passed. Some have treated each other, truly, as their spouse, while others never once saw the other in person. The current rulers fall into the secondary category. They rule solely from their own courts, maintain only their own company, and maintain their own concubine traditions to provide heirs needed to keep each court functional.
The closeness of the two nations can be directly gauged by the closeness of the regents, and at the moment they sit as far away from each other as they have in centuries. Some surmise that the only thing holding them together is Amaterasu herself who, while retreated from the public eye like most other Great Wyrms after the War, still maintains residence within the
Land of Jet and Jade and the threat from the east.
The Oni Hordes.
On the heels of the Yuhi fleet they came, far greater in number than the Yuhi and not open to any negotiation.
The byproduct the calamity that drove the Yuhi from their first home.
They were large creatures, mostly, clad in the armor of the Yuhi samurai (who were wiped out before they made their journey across the ocean) and wearing the masks of demons that give the Oni their name. Through combined effort, the Nianqi and the Yuhi repelled them once, twice, three times. The Oni have yet to stop their regular raids since. No matter how often they are repelled, or the casualties they incur, still they return time and time again.
It's generally accepted that the Nianqi opened up from their long isolation in part to gain access to the resources of the rest of the world, but as they remain tight-lipped on the subject, that remains supposition.
The Iron Court is secretive in all things, with many of it's members not even showing their face to the public, and living completely secret lives from the general populace, and no one knows what the face of the current ruler actually looks like. Public appearances are few and far between, but when she has been seen, the differences between her looks are large enough to bring questions of identity about. When the emperor is depicted in an image, it's common to for the body to be covered by the traditional robes of the Emperor while the face is covered by a mask or veil, bearing the word for iron in Nianqi.
I asked a few peasants if the secrecy bothered them once, while I had traveled to Nianqi. While a few certainly wished that they were more open, especially the magisters in charge of taxes and tithes, most did not seem overly concerned about the subject. That being said, I asked a woman who was certainly concerned about it. Far more than I expected, and my ears were left blistering by the time she was done answering my question. My bad.
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