The Fox Empire

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The Fox Empire, officially "Heavenly Kingdom of The Fox", is one of the most important countries located in the North-Eastern coast of the Central Sea. Protected by it's patron, The Fox Goddess it was ruled by the Sakata family wielding title of The Heavenly Kings. Initially, tribal federation it eventually transformed into centralized monarchy and than - most of power came in the hands of the military. In the context of the Central Sea countries, The Fox Empire was an important trading power that colonized region of Yama. People of this empire, known as Kitsune Folk eventually divided into multiple cultures.

Structure

Tribal period:

Each tribe managed it's own affairs, appointed their own leaders, organised military etc. Tribes didn't inhabit one specific territory (usually). Heavenly King was acting like the main judge and the priest with taking actions in affairs concerning inter-tribal or external matters. The city of Hisui wasn't controlled by any of the tribe, but by the Heavenly King directly.

Province Period:

Tribes were disbanded completly. Land of the country, located outside of the Capital District of Hisui, which was under direct Heavenly King's control, and the Free City of Kohaku, which was self-governing, was divided into the number of provinces. Each province had three main officials:

1. Governors - management, tax collecting and legislature
2. Generals - law enforcement and organizing military
3. High Jade Priests - judicial authority

They were appointed directly by the Heavenly Kings for the unspecified time periods and could be fired from their position by him at any moment.

Shogunate period:

Provinces became divided into the four Shogunate regions and the Central Region. Central Region, containng the capital of Hisui maintained the structure from the Province period. Each shogunate region was lead by a Shogun - millitary official which took the role of the Heavenly King in the area of that region, with the exception of the High Jade Priests, which stayed under direct Heavenly King's control (although, they became as well federalised into multiple High Jade Priest Couincils, one by region and Heavenly Kings could no longer directly appoint new ones, while they could fire any of them at will). 
The appointment of the new Shogun was complex process involving the generals of the province (called collectively "Military Assembly), the Heavenly King and the remaining Shoguns of the country.
Only Heavenly King could pass legal jugdment on a Shogun, but a Shogun could be judged only after being arrested and brought up in front of the King by another Shogun.
Kohaku stopped being considered the Free City and it started being the capital of the Western Region, where the Western Shogun resides.
The chart displaying the structure of the Empire during the Shogunate period:

Culture

Depite being leead by a female diety, the culture is patriarchal with men being involved in most of leadership roles, both civilian and military.
Society is structured around famliies, marriages are mostly monogamous with some form of poligamy and concubinate allowed in limited capacity.
There are three dsitinct legal classes of the people: 

1. Nobility - military service, status is required to have state-provided office, status is inhierited
2. Slaves - property of the other people, primarily household servants, status is not inhierited
3. Free people - most of the population, blanket term for anyone woh is not a noble nor a slave

Details about the society and the culture can be found in the article about the dominant ethnicity - Kitsune Folk.

History

Begginings:

Not much known about the beginnings of the human settlements in the region of The Fox Empire. It known however, that it became home to various nations, loosely organized into tribes, fighting among themselves. After years of conflicts, eventually those groups gathered attention of The Fox Goddess who decided to act as the divine mediator between tribes. This approach failed however and The Fox Goddess has changes her approach. Out of all tribal leaders only one was considering peaceful coopoeration with other - commander of the name Sakata. The Fox goddess decided to directly support him in the conflict, forming an alliance between her and Sakata. Eventually, the other tribes were driven off and they gone seeking luck in the other parts of the world.
The people were starting to building a temple dedicated to The Fox Goddess. She told them the best material would be the rock was the most fond of and understood the most - jade. The construction and the function of the temple caused the unorganized tribes to create a city around it. The new script was also created in order to record The Fox Goddess words if needed. On top of being warrior and military commander, Sakata become the highest priest of the temple and also - the leader of the people. He has claimed title of a king and became later known as Sakata The First.
Years passed, the city grew and population of a tribe increased in numbers greatly. Sakata's role as a king was primarily focused on ruling over in the city and resolve any conflict between various clan leaders inside the tribe who had great autonomy otherwise. In this period, the country wasn't really centralized, although some inventions spread after establishing the trade through the rivers with the realms far away.
Eventually, Sakata The First died, leaving his very young son. People weren’t sure what to do next. Some influential figures tried to take the position for themselves, but The Fox Goddess intervened. She declared that young son of Sakata will now rule over the city. Knowing that the situation like that can repeat later on, she made the pact between her and the people directly. According to that pact, the descendant of the Sakata will always the one which gets blessing of The Fox Goddess and no one outside that family shall assume the throne. In exchange, The Fox Goddess offered eternal protection for the people, as the Daughter of The Sun. She made out of thin air the jade plate with the written words of the The pact to be publicly displayed. This event and this plate was called "The Jade Pact". From now on, the people started calling themselves “People of the Fox” or, how they are better known “Kitsunejin” or Kitsune Folk. City was now called after the material of the pact: “Jade”, or, how it is known: “Hisui".
Year of that event came to be known as the beginning of a year count by Kitsune Folk - the first year of the Jade Era.

Tribal Period:

Soon after the establishment of the Jade Pact, it turned out that Kitsune tribe cannot work anymore as a one tribe. Clans were showing sign of future growth and as such, the tribe was divided into many. Most of former clans became tribes on their own, all of them still overseered by the Sakata king. Their overall autonomy increased, with the king duties being only related to resolving arguments between them and to appointment of the Jade Priests (priests of The Fox Goddess) which were put outside of the tribal rule, being directly royal subordinates.
Even during the time of Sakata The First, clans started to settle their people further away from the royal city of Hisui alongside three main rivers spreading from the nearby of it, but after them becoming tribes on their own, the settlement policy increased. Eventually, the lands that later became most of the Fox Empire were claimed with main borders being: Mountain ranges in the West and in the North-East, the Steppe by the east and various kingdoms of other cultures to the South. This was also the first time Kitsune gone into conflicts since the alliance with The Fox Goddess, however, those were not big in scale. Kitune Folk noticed that kings in the South were not in so direct alliance with another god, so to distinguish Sakata kings form the others, "Heavenly King" title started to be used commonly among the people. Not so long after it was adapted by the Sakoto kings directly and The Heavenly King became official title ("Emperor" is also considered acceptable title translation). Along with this title, country itself started to being named "Heavenly Kingdom of The Fox" or "The Fox Empire" for short ("Sakoto Kingdom/Real/Empire" is also term sometimes used, mostly by the outsiders).
Eventually, a traveler discovered jade ore in the Western Mountains. Previously, The Fox Empire took jade for sacral purposes from the trade, smaller veins and occasional creation by The Fox Goddess, so this information was of utmost important degree. Tribes started competing how will settle the land first and gain all the privilege from owning jade mines. Seeing that a conflict could arise, the Heavenly King stepped in, supported by the Fox Goddess directly. One of the tribes was chosen to settle valleys of the Western Mountains to build mines here. In exchange, that tribe was supposed to forfeit all of their possessions from the rest of the Fox Empire. That process was declared to supposed to be gradual, to ease the transition. The first settlements in The West appeared in 73th year of the Jade Era.
Over the first few successions, the risk of internal conflict was seemingly pretty high, as the Sakata family only directly controlled the city of Hisui, so it could be directly taken by alliance of the few tribes. No civil war broke out however, as every time The Fox Goddess directly intervened by appointing in person the new Heavenly King from the Sakata family.
Eventually, the country grew in size so much that arguments between tribes became very common. It became very hard for the Heavenly King to directly intervene everywhere at every time. In some especially heated places some royal delegates started to being send out, in order to focus only on matters of that specific place and act in the place of Heavenly King there. At first, those delegates were few and were deployed only on a limited time, but after a while, some few specific places got permanent delegates. Eventually, nearly every densely populated spot in the Fox Empire had it's own delegate. Office of that kind of delegate got specialized name - "governor". Governors however, were not Heavenly King themselves and their actions lacked direct backing of the Fox Goddess to efficiently enforce their decisions, as the military force outside of Hisui was directly in the hands of the tribes. A new military office was created, directly under the command of the Heavenly King, delegated to the same places as governors. Those new military officials' (called "sheriffs") job was to organize police forces in order to enforce decisions made by the governors. Naturally, many tribal leaders protested, they could not directly oppose the Fox Goddess who supported this decision.
During that time process of transition of the set tribe into the West continued. It was discovered that the mountain valley transitions itself into small plain and just beyond that there lies a peninsula much deeply located into the Central Sea. It was noticed that this place would be a perfect spot for the trading center and soon a decision of building city there was done. Beyond a trading spot, this peninsula was also rich in amber ore so the city was named after that stone - Kohaku . It was also decided that new residence of the tribal leaders would be located in that city. Those events greatly sped up process of relocation as people were now more eager to live there than before. Relocation eventually ended in 151 year of the Jade Era.

Province period:

Years passed and Heavenly Kings were relying on the governors more and more. There was less and les places without a set governor. It became clear that this is how the Fox Empire is managed now, while tribes became secondary. Eventually, the decision was made to formally reform the system to better reflect new reality. In the 163 year of the Jade Era, all tribes were disbanded. Families of the former tribal leaders kept their private properties, however, they no longer had any say with ruling or making new laws. Under the new system, all the land in the Fox Empire outside the Hisui Capital District (under direct rule of Heavenly King) was divided into set of provinces. Each province had assigned one governor. Each settlement of the Fox Empire could make their own laws, but they could be overridden by a governor of a province the settlement was located in. Besides making province-applicable laws governors were responsible fort collecting taxes and inter-settlement management. With the dissolution of the tribes, there was no bigger military force, so sheriffs were given permission of organizing military beyond the purpose of the law enforcement and the office name was changed to "general". Each province got assigned one general. Tribes were previously also responsible for passing on judgements, so this aspect was also reworked. Now, in each province one of the local Jade Priests was given authority other others in that province. Also they were given responsibility of organizing courtrooms and appointing judges, becoming the highest judicial authority in their province. Those were called "High Jade Priests".

Kohaku, which at this point has become second the most populous city, was the only place outside of the Hisui Capital District that was exempt from the new province system. City of Kohaku was given autonomy and it's governing body was put on the level of governors and generals, with a difference that Heavenly Kings couldn't replace it by a whim. Officially this settlement get the formal name "Free City of Kohaku".
Around the time, the cultural distinction among Kitsune started bace clear, as the population in that western region, was much more associated with the city Kohaku than with the Capital and with travel routes being longer between them and Hisui than between Hisui and any other region. The Kistune of the West became known as Kohakujin, named after the Kohkau, while in tern a term for the rest Kisune came into the existance - Hisuijin, after the capital of the Hisui.
In the 175 year of the Jade Era, some merchants from Kohaku while sailing, reported that there is a mountain valley in the other side of the Central Sea. After some scouting, it was discovered that apparently the region was more richin jade than anything they had in the country. Furthermore, the local people inhabiting the area seemed to be poorly organised and not that numerous and thus, easily defeated. Desiring easy access to the jade, not controlled by the newly established provincial governance that they could use to resell to the Jade Priests and the heavenly King privately, the mercecenary military expedition was organised in order to force lcal population to mine the jade. It came with the sucess and a military outpost was established. The military needed access to various Kitsune services, so the civillians also followed. In the 177 year of the Jade Era, the first proper settlement there was established, ruled by the Kohaku merchants. Technically recognising the Heavenly King's reign, but legally outside of the state's jurisdiction. In the time, the whole mountaious region became known as simply "Yama".
Newly aquired colony quickly gave great profits towards the Kohaku merchants. Seeing the opportunity and not wanting to live under the direct centralised rule, many Kohakujin started gradually migrating there, eventually leading to the whole Yama region coming under Kitsune rule over the ears. Except for the supply of the jade and being a place where disatisfied people moved, it had very little effect on the Fox empire as a whole. Descendants of the Kohakujin colonist became knowsn as "Yamanohito"
The increased autocracy of the Heavenly Kings also started to chage the society in the eastern parts of the country. People living there were less sendetary than the rest, due to the vast grasslands in the area. If one would go further and further into the east, the grasslands would eventually became full-fledged steppe, far from the settlements. Many of the Hisuijin living in the provinces around the Steppe disliked more and more the cities and other bigger settlements as they meant the governors had more and more to say in their lives. Settling further away was legal, so many decided to go deeper into the grasslands, living as the shepherds and coming to the bigger settlements only from time to time for the mercantile and religious purposes. This has became known as "the shepherd boom" and it started being recorded in the 198 year of the Jade Era. Eventually, some of the shepherds moved further and further from the settlements by organising among themselves and ecouraging free men with other job to live in their close proximity in less sendetary lifestyle. Their visits became less and less common and eventually, some of the small shepherd societies became living on the Steppe in it's entirety, leaving the functional influence of the Fox Empire's governance. Gradually, more and more shepherd societies inhabited the Steppe and eventually they fromed a structures ressembling the state. They stayed being nominally under The Heavenly King's rule but this rule couldn't be enforced, making them effectively independent, nmostly nomadic polities. The formation of the first entity like that is dated on the year 236 of the Jade Era. The shepherds of the steppe became known as "Kusajin" - the grass people.
Except for those events, the province period was the time of the peace and prosperity for the country. There has been occasional conflicts with the various Double-tounguer forces, but they hardly had much influence beyond the southern Provinces.
There are rumors of the relatively small conflicts with the fae living beyond the mountains in the North-East of the country, but there are surprisingly small ammount of records concerning that, leading some to speculate it was just a legend. The presence of fae living there was confirmed, but information about the contacts of diplomatic or hostile nature is in the realm of unknown.

Transition:

One day a Heavenly King died leaving many sons. The Fox Goddess was required to choose one as the next Heavenly King. After a bit of thinking she chose two of them as her main cadidates. However, she could not decide which one of the two brothers should be a leader. In that moment, she decided to let them decide among themselves and she will honour the results as long as one of them will be a king. She wouldn't intervene in the process herself. None of brother wanted to back down, each found the suport. Those events mark the end of the long period of relative peace and the first civil war in the country's history, known as Brotherly Civil War. The war lasted from year 277 up to the year 280 of the Jade Era. During the war, the brothers made huge concession of their position to the mlitary in order to gain as much support from them as possible.
Eventually, one of them won the war and the new system was implemented. The provinces were grouped into the five distinct regions, with Heavenly Kings had retained previous control over just one of them - the one with the capital located in it. The rest of the regions each got a new military office, the Shogun, which was in effective control of the provinces in the region (except for the Jade Priests). The Shoguns were limited by very little, even Heavenly Kings got only a small ammount of contrl over them. Kohaku stopped being considered the Free City and it started being the capital of the Western Region, where the Western Shogun resides.
The Fox Goddess wasn't happy with that result, but she decided to hour that agreement and uphold the new system. The Shogunate period has began.

Shogunate period

During the period, the peace was largely brought back, although the occassional clashes between Shoguns started taking place. Some conflics with various Double-Tonguer forces was also in place. Despite all of that, however, people started slowly getting used again to the idea of the peace. Conflict was still rare, even if it grew in some way and there has been less stability.
This lasted untill the ambitious, and controversial due to his actions when dealing with raiders and bandits, Southern Shogun named Morino Katashi invaded the Eastern Region during the spring of the year 327 of the Jade Era, 50 years after the beggining of the last civil war. The Eastern Shogun was rather unpopular however, so the war was easily won, due to the massive desertion. The invader was greeted there as the liberator. Morino Katashi gained effective control over the Eastern Region as well as over the Southern Region. No one could stop him, and the Western Shogun, even quite supported him, as he was Morino Katashi's father-in-law.
A large chunk of the country's population became directly under control of the one man and the leader of the other big chunk of it, in the West, seemed to suport that man as well. This brought immediate attention of the current Heavenly King, Sakata Fumio and the Fox Goddess herself.

Demography and Population

The population is primarily centered around the rivers and the coasts, with the exception of the northern coast). Despite that, some numbers of people are present in less inhabited part of the country like eastern grasslands and the mountains on the west, where the jade is mined.
Two biggest population centres are: capital city of Hisui and the city of Kohaku.
Overall, population faced drastic increase, far greater than that of the other countries, the since the founding up untill the third centrury of the Jade Era. It sped up particularily fast during in the second century of the Jade Era, when the worship of the Raiden-Yuki started spreading. This population increase can be attributed to the relative peace combined with the fact that two of the most popular gods are very often actively helping with the agriculture.
Ethnic groups present:
Hisuijin - vast majority of population in the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Regions belongs to this group, they are also present in lesser degree in the Western Region, mainly in the western mountains
Kohakujin - vast majority of population in the Western Regions belongs to this group, they can be also found in smaller numbers in the rest of the regions, primarily in the big cities near the coasts
Neakhora Phili / Pracya Jata (reffered to as "Double-tonguers") - present in realtively small numbers in some communities in th Seouthern Region and also in the few coastal cities in the Western Region.
Roguh proportions by ethnicity:

• Hisuijin - 65%
• Kohakujin - 30%
• Double-tonguers - 4.5%
• Various other ethnicities - 0.5%

Roguh proportions by the legal class:

• Nobility - 8%
• Slaves - 5%
• Free people - 87%

Territories

Military

Military is using mainly technology of bronze weaponry, bows and chariots. The quality of equipment was proportional to the soldier's wealth. The bulk of the army consists of the primarily polarm infantry with shields and archers (both moremiddle in terms of wealth), few (and wealthy) charioteers and various kinds of (poor) skirmishers. Single-handed swords were the most common personal and backup weapon.
Tribal period:
Each tribe managed the mlitary in it's own way. The Heavenly King was maintaing the retinue of the elite warriors in the Hisui.

Province period:

Military became centralized, after the disband of the Tribes. The Hisuian Retinue stayedin rougly simmilar shape, but new societal changes affected military too. It became divided into sub-division by the province. The highest mlitary commander in a single province was called "General" and could be appointed, judged and fired only by the Heavenly King himself.
The mlitary's main role during the time of peace was law enforcment, therefore most of the time it consisted mainly of the semi-proffesional soldiers, coming mainly from the lower nobility and wealthy free men.
During the time of conflict, general could also conscript the noble men without any recompensation. Free men also were mobilised, but usually, they received sort of recompensation and were mobilised proportianally in lesser numbers than the nobles (but still, due to the sheer size of the free population compared to the nobility, the bulk chunk of the constripted armies were free men, noblity was just overrepresented there). Slaves were very rarely conscripted, and mainly it was done in a form of occasional dedicated slave military formations. Every conscript must provide their own equipment.
Military officials of higher degree needed to have nobility status to receive such office. Main offices under the generals were usually reffered to as "sheriffs".
Shogunate period: Military was mostly continuing oragnisation from the Province period, with those changes:
Generals were didived into the ficve regions, those in the Central Region stayed under Heavenly King's command, the rest came under the control of the Shogun (one per region) - new military office.
The generals of the single region became part of the more formalised structure named Military Assembly.
Military assembly took part in the process of the apoitment of the next Shogun.

Religion

There is a single religious organisation integrated into the state's administration, that is The Jade Pact, worshipping the Fox Goddes and lead by the Hearvenly King. that eventually became the judical body of the country. Celebrations towards the Fox Goddess are holded directly by the state and Jade Temples are easily the most prominent kind of the temples in the country.
Other religious organisations, shrines and temples are also publically followed, however in manners less involving the state. It is not a hard rule, though. In the smaller settlements, in which only Jade Temples are really present, it is not uncommon to have part of such temple dedicated to various shrines of the other dieties.
The one exception to that reatment is the worship of Raiden-Yuki, which often gets semi-offcial treatment due to his universal popularity among the Kitsune, close to that of the Fox Goddess.
Religious cults, shrines and temples are generally not exclusive and most of the population worships multiple gods. Nearly all of the gods worship there is present in only parts of the country, sometimes even in the specific Regions, Provinces or even settlements, with the exception of The Fox Goddess and Raiden-Yuki, which are universal.

Foreign Relations

The Fox Empire as a whole doesn't maintain active diplomatic relations with any other country, but there are specific trends among various state officials and the nobility concerning this issue present:

With Double-tonguers:

State officials and nobility approach to the various Double-tonguer polities and actors changes greatly depending on the region.
The ones from the Southern Region are concerned with the potential military threat of it's neighbors, therefore the relations are often cold with mutual military raids happening from time to time. That also means, however, that the Southern nobility is the one who is the most interested in seeking potential allies among them, as that brings more security and to scare other possible Double-tonguer raiders. Seeking alliance means that sizable chunk of the Southern nobility has Double-tognuers in their family tree. There was more of the trading going on there in the past, but since the Province period, this role was taken over by the western merchants.
Nobility and merchants from the Western region, are less interested in military aspect with those people. They are conducting a lot of trade with them, and so their general relationship is relatively positive, but there isn't much need for actual alliances, marriages or deeper relations.

With Kusajin

Kusajin are also Kitsune, therefore, the relationship is generally positive. Deeper contact is rare, however, due to the Kusajin appraoch of wanting to be left alone. Limited trading with the Eastern provinces happens quite often, however.

Founding Date

1

Type

Geopolitical, Empire

Capital

Hisui

Alternative Names

Sakata Kingdom, The Heavenly Kingdom, Kingdom of Hisui

Demonym

Kitsune

Government System

Monarchy, Theocratic

Legislative Body

Most of legislature is done on a local level. State-wide laws are mostly concerned with the behaviors of governors or officials, political structure etc. and are usually created and modified by The Heavenly King through an act of official declaration.
During the tribal period laws were created mainly by the various tribe leaders and affected tribal lands and people. The Heavenly Kings were primarily concerned with resolving arguments between them and most of the subjects of the state-wide laws from the period were interactions between the tribes.
After transitioning to the Province system, the governors became the one creating new laws on a local level (overriding laws in the settlements) within the borders of their province. Heavenly Kings created laws mainly concerned with specific duties, privileges and punishments for the governors, generals and High Jade Priests.
During The Shogunate period legislative didn't change much compared to the Province system, with the exception that now each governor and general was directly under one of the four Shoguns, so the Heavenly King's laws became now focused of Shoguns themselves, while keeping his overseeing laws of the Jade Priests

Judicial Body

Juding is usually done on a local level, unless it involves the sate-appointed official. The highest judge in the state since it's founding is considered to be The Heavenly King. 
During the tribal period, the interpretations of law were mainly done by tribal leaders, with Heavenly King acting as a judge in problems between various tribes.
After transition to the Province system, Jade Priests of The Jade Pact were integrated in the system as the judical body of the realm, due to the fact they were already educated in that sort of manner in order to interpret the word of The Pact and also, because they were direct subordinates of the Heavenly King, outside of the rest of admionistration. All the cases outside of affair of various officials were judged by the local Jade Priests.
That system stayed in place during the Shogunate period, with Jade Priests being the only part of the state, outside of the Central Region, that stayed under direct control of the Heavenly King. He also became the sole judge that any of the Shoguns could anwer to.

Executive Body

During the tribal period, all the exetuvie matters were done by the various tribal leaders.
After the transion to the Province system, The Heavenly King became the highest offial in terms of executing the law, as he gained control over the entire executive body which were Generals assigned to provinces, together with some input of the Governors (which were also controlled by the King).
In the Shogunate system, Heavenly King retained his executive position only in the Central Region, the rest of the state was didived into four areas, each with military official - the Shogun to took the role of controlling Generals and Governors in those regions. Each shogun was a subject of executive power only in the form of the rest of the Shoguns with Heavenly King only having pretty much nominal power over Shoguns in that reagrd.

Official State Religion

The Jade Pact

Subsidiary Organizations

• Eastern Region
• Southern Region

Deities

• Raiden-Yuki
• The Fox Goddess

Controlled Territories

• Hisui

Notable Members

• Morino Katashi

Related Ethnicities

• Hisuijin
• Kitsune Folk
• Kohakujin