Yuhi, Land of the Set Sun
There are no more samurai.
-Yuhi proverb
While no modern depictions of the true land of Yuhi exist, the many ancient paintings saved and made after their journey paint it as a truly beautiful land. Mostly covered in spring and summerlands, it's clearly inspired the art and theater of the Yuhi. Beautiful groves of ancient trees, fields of flowers and grain, snow capped mountains ringed with clouds. Beauty captured by brush and oil paint. A beauty that is dearly missed, even by those who have not seen it. The lands of the Yuhi as we consider them now, is not their home. Not in comparison to the island that they once lived. The imperial family guided them all with the help of the Samurai clans, and the samurai clans took tithes of rice-grain and livestock in enxchange for protecting the population. They had come to be protected by a young Great Wyrm, Okuni, who dotted on the people. Using her magics to raise their fields and heal their injuries directly. For a time, all was happy, but it did not last. Destruction came to their island home. There is not a word for what happened in the language of the Yohi, and so the most common term used is cataclysm, but even that does not fully explain the terrible nature of what happened. On the night a shooting star was to be visible in the sky, a sickly blue-green glow began to eminate from the capital city. It could be seen from miles around, and only grew brighter as the night went on. Those that ventured closer could hear sobbing on the wind, those that ventured closer still did not return. For hours it continued, so long that the night should have turned to day, but the night had become unmoored. The moon remained fixed in that night sky, unmoving. Then the samurai clans arrived, their armor and weapons practically glowing in that otherworldly light. Their presence reassured the populace, and they marched towards the capital city. They did not return. The people grew afraid, for they knew not of what to make of their never ending night. They attempted to live their lives as normal for the next several "days", but it was all a pantamime to keep their minds off of what was happening. Then a terrible roar filled the air. From the capital city arose the the wings of a dragon, unlike any ever seen before, it was long and haggard and seemingly wearing the bones of another drake upon itself in a sort of mokery of samurai armor. It's breath was a paled green fog that caused all who touched it to wither and die, melting away almost instantly. All attempted to flee, and the Empress herself appeared, urging people to board any boat and sail west, away from the island. Even as the dragon rained death down upon them, another threat arrose. From the capital city, now abandoned and quickly falling to rubble and ruin, the Oni came. Demons wearing the armor of Samurai and the facemasks of demons. What the population was before the cataclysm and what remained after is unknown as no one was keen to take a census at the time, but a significant portion was gone already. the Empresses instruction has saved many, but now they were stuck on sea vessels of varying sizes, their supplies low from the start, and leaving the land that had raised them far behind. Their only respite was the fact that the dragon had not deigned to follow them. At least not yet. West they sailed, trying to find a new home, or at least someplace that would allow them to replenish their supplies. Nothing. Months of sailing had brought them to hang upon a thread. It also brought them in front of the Gate of the Setting Sun. They had reached Nianqi but they were faced with a new problem. Their rope was long since ended, but the gates remained closed to them. Nianqi was isolationeist and this sentiment permeated everything, meaning no one wished to open the gates against orders of leaving leaving hte gate closed As the Nianqi 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. 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 their arrival. 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. As part of the union, the Yuhi were given the lands to the east and north, which included the land that the Gate of the Setting Sun, which held a different name at the time, was built upon. Politically, it was now their responsibility. a duty they have not shirked in millenia. The world does not see the Yuhi often, if they do not seek them out, as they are focused on the defense against the Oni. Much of their modern culture revolves around combating this threat, and they take great personal responsibility for breaches in their defenses, or raiding parties that slip in or by undetected. That happens to be the way that most foreigners come in contact with the Yuhi outside of their lands, in the form of hunting parties that are attempting to track down stragglers that have bypassed the Land of Jet and Jade entierly.
By the Light of the Empress, we Live
Type
Geopolitical, Country
Alternative Names
Land of Jet, the Land of Foxes, the Eastern Edge, the Wall of the World.
Training Level
Professional
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Demonym
Yuhi
Neighboring Nations
While even their new home is often referred to as the "Land of Samurai", the Samurai class has not existed for millennia. If legend is to be believed, they were all slain during the calamity combating the evil, and no new Samurai have ever been created by any Empress since. Many fighters use techniques reminiscent of the Samurai class, but they are not given the title. There has been a small cultural push a few times in recent history to re-establish the class that was once so integral to Yuhi society, but it gained little traction.
The magical traditions of the Yuhi are comparatively strange when placed against most of the known world, as instead of more direct manipulations of Aether that result in tangible effects, they use arcane symbols and materials to create potent charms and a sort of spell card that bring about effects when activated.
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