Baifa Monü Zhuan
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To submit part 2 of 3 for the Atrisian Lore expansion
- Image Credit: Image Created by [member="Shoma Ike"]
- Links:
Sei Murasaki - Unification Wars Part 1
- Atrisian Tiger
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Event Name: The Unification Wars
- Participants:
Jade Empress - Pearl Prince
- Kiyoma Haung
- Unaga Ike
- The First Yovshin
- Sosokan Sama
- Keiko Hanzo
- The Shining Star
- Nobuna
- The Tiantai
- The Keisei
[*]Results: Kitel Phard/Atrisia was unified into an Empire under the Jade Empress who died shortly after the final battle passing it to her son the First Pearl Emperor.
CHRONICLE INFORMATION
11. KISS THE DEAD:
The second decade of the war was preparing to begin, thicker, heavier and more and more the violence against clans who didn't decide where they wanted to be was increasing. THe larger kingdoms were still not as strong or as vast as Ga-In's as the Empire of Jade as some fo them called it but they were getting there in terms of population.
THe real tricks were being how they managed it and them, where Ga-In worked to improve and modernize cities or villages to make them better places to live, give her men full training. She was looking at what they did, others were betraying each other, fighting against one another to try and scramble for any little piece of territory that could make them feel stronger.
Ga-In stoked this fire, working with the metsuka or what would become her spynetwork. THey were infiltrators, farmers of dissent and propoganda who would work for them. She had them stoking the desires for conquest and riches across these rival kingdoms, inciting the villagers to rise up in revolt and offering deals and riches to them to sell their goods to her instead.
THe army itself was moving and sweeping across the continents and to places where few had been. There were still considered holdouts close to home though that she would need to turn her attention to eventually but the mountains themselves and where they had come from before... She needed to be able to move an army around them and not just through them.
Ga-In's reports from some of the regions they were headed and discovered Sancha, an ancient citadel of magical users. They were like the legends from Unaga who had returned from the stars with stories.... and Ga-I wanted them to be a part of her empire. She tried to figure out what they wanted, what they desired and that was difficult.
Their skills with these magics were impressive and it seemed like one fo them could decimate their armies. She surrounded the citadel but it seemed they didn't go out often and trade, they didn't seem to do much of anything unless directly threatened and if she could at lest not let others curry their favor then she would have to accept that.
There were other things, more feral beings, ones who sought to exploit the riches of the mountains and regions she had taken. Funeral processions that would heading into the mountains. Near Seito as the head of the IKe clan passed away in battle. Ga-In attended to honor them and got to see the place and how dangerous and powerful it really was.
This would be a powerful fortress for a battle and she hatched a plan with the new head of the clan. His ambition was there and he wanted to really move up in the army now. He also had a slew of ideas that would put them ahead the least of which was testing out the fortifications of this fortress. Ga-In had her soldiers get into positions and fill it to the brim.
They had filled it, they had prepared it and everything else. Luring several enemy armies in with news that Ga-In herself would be attending to this small village in private for reasons. Two of the rival warlords came after her, ten thousand men being brought in on horses, thousands of archers. She had armored soldiers in alcoves blocking the way and they could hold the passes.
The lure worked as they came after them first encountering and breaking their initial charge against the wall. The sounds of creatures being used as they let loose tigers and great apes against the warlords armies went a long ay to sending them down into the canyons around them. Screams and with the mountains protecting their archers they fired back.
It was a slaughter as one of the people with her was the prince. Her heir and he was old enough to start learning military tactics, he couldn't lead the armies but he could work with the people here. Her generals doted on the boy teaching him everything that they could, her handmaidens ensured her was skilled and as they watched a second charge come in the gates held.
Several more charges came and the different clans under her command sounded the drums, nothing was breaking the gates and with the excavation the Ike clan had done the scouts would find no other means to get through. Her soldiers were sent out onto to clear the path with the new Shining Star using the deads equipment but leaving the bodies for a pyre.
The utmost respect was shown to the soldiers as they entrapped them within the canyon. Boxing them in and proceeding to move like a glacier from the back so they wouldn't notice until it was to late. The seventeenth charge was the last one coming as a final act of fight before they were held back to be killed. Their generals put in chains and killed.
She was looking at it but sending armies across the sea to claim their provinces was going to prove the real test. This close to home she had some better plans though while her best generals were heading out to conquer. Orys had proven most effective and with his ancient line they were working on becoming a high standing house among the court.
They were all seeking favor and more were coming from across the sea to fofer tribute, fealty or any number of things they could do get protection and help. Most were being pushed into her empire now because she offered the best alternative compared to the others. Where brutality and domination were important and all they offered she would offer gold and jewels.
Ga-In sent out more envoys as she arrived on the eastern coast. Where before she had places to work out of this one they were quickly assembling within the port of Dagger Mouth. A white walled fortress around one of the ancient groves. They could protect the mines and sources of food as well as fresh water here. She was setting it up and the older areas would give them a route around the mountains.
12. BLEEDING PEARL:
The battle through the mountains themselves were something. Few had been on the far side since the ten thousand clans had passed. ROunding them brought all of Ga-In's forces into conflict with the horse lords... compared to the ones she knew these ones were savage and had sacked cities. Burned villages left behind, dragged their riches and warriors behind their horses. Taken the women and children to be their own.
THey were dangerous, they were powerful and as Ga-In was watching them in a fight against her riders it was clear they had trained in techniques few others could. Small shields on their arm to deflect arrows, saddles that allowed them to comfortably shoot from nearly any angle and blades designed to be used from hors back to run down and slash their enemies.
She would have called it impressive and with spearmen in charge they managed to turn back one of the hordes that descended upon them. The regions west of the mountains were going to prove to be the most difficult she could find and she would have to take them to make sure her own continent was secured. The fortresses and regions in the east near jar'kai were supplied to last for years she needed to cut off potential supply lines.
She was movign in and with some better ideas of how to outride them brought herself into the battle against one of their leaders. Wearing thicker armor, using a slower but more sturdy horse that would carry her weight and outlast most of the other horses around her. The Jade Empress entered battle taking a sword blow to the shoulder as she delivered a slash to the mans face.
THe blade dug deep and she wasn't disputed as the winner while she limped away, taking her prize which was his wives and slaves. Children were something she would have to find a use for and the ones he trained and taught himself were just children. She couldn't kill them but they were violent and dangerous as she sent them to the first fortress in this region. An old outpost from the times before that they were operating out of.
That was also the beginning when she started to learn about their culture, observing the Sundancers, beautiful oracles who could see into the magics of the universe and predict sometimes the outcome of a raid or battle. They were not always accurate but as one said the future was always shifting and it was a better alternative then what was the Keisei or the Hana.
These names interested her and Ga-In discovered there were other places, some ruined cities they could fix up, establishments to rework and with trade routes being worked on to connect to her other fortresses and villages in the east. The Jade Empire was expanding into the Nhai mountains crating a secondary location in the corpse city itself to show they didn't have fear. She was working with them and the Hana were something she had found to be dangerous.
Strange being they were, tattooed, naked generally even in the cold with piercing of their bodies, body modifications such as longer necks, hooped ears or filed teeth to make them look more fierce. THey said the power of the universe gave them the will power to withstand the most bitter colds or sweltering heats. Looking at them with their spears and polearms they were clearly highly skilled. Coming out of the Cannibal Wastes, a harsh area full of razor sharp sands that cut the flesh.
Their main habits involved raids against others, they would strip it of resources, anything that was valuable and then they would disappear. For each kill they got a new tattoo, for each clan they had a dragon's head who reported and paid tribute to an Daimyo a leader back in their city. THey gave the orders and were a long standing tradition of sending the females of their cities to fight. Those captured by them were enslaved and made to serve or fight in the arena
The brutal nature of their arena's where the warriors fought for entertainment and glory, to settle disputes and prove their status for a mate. Was legendary for its blood shed, exotic creatures from across the world could be procured for it, warriors seeking the riches of the city itself were welcomed if they could survive the trek and being attacked by raiding bands of Hana themselves.
They also proved dangerous in other ways, they were constantly at war with the Keisei, another group within the mountains who was renowned in the world beyond. Famed as a place where you sent your children fi they were special they took no wives or husbands although they were a family. Sister, brother, mother, father was considered their designation within the walls. They had no attachments, they were living art. Painted, masked at times wearing robes and kimono's, trained to sing, dance, recite, pour tea.
THey were a special breed to the Jade Empress who brought soem fo them to her court to understand these beings.. to understand what they did and she learned. They were masters of oral traditions. THey could recall tales from before the clans, before when the old ones battled the gods, when fire rained from the skies causing the exodus of Taito and her ten thousand clans.
They also knew tales of her, of her deeds and actions for what they also had was a communications net. Powerful and using magics she had not seen before they could enter into a state and communicate with each other becoming a messanger that would allow for near instant communications. The Keisei though wouldn't fight for Ga-In and neither would the Hana... that was fine she didn't need them to fight just do what she wanted. One to communicate and one to be let loose and soften up her enemies.
To gain their loyalties she had to fight, the arena of the Hana where even the Keisei rarely went because of their society. Women were the raiders who were sent out and bring in riches but the males controlled everything and they were allowed to be as cruel as they wanted to their women. Something that she might have to change if she took them by force. Ga-In had to fight though.
And fight she did being called the bleeding pearl of the arena as she sliced and carved into the flesh of the Hana who faced her with her katana. The pearl hilt shaped and carved to be a dragons head. With her progression through the arena the Hana began to take notice and the Keisei were taking part of it composing ballads that they could sing and preform for her. Their songs echoing and resonating throughout to inspire as well as tell those who didn't go what was happening.
13. HOUSE OF GOLD:
The House of Jing, in the West was ancient and renowned the work they had done proved that. Legendary in their tastes they had filtered into Ga-In's knowledge fot he region and stories from others. The heart of this was that they controlled the jungles and had built a city of gold. The Youngest being something of a cruel and humorless man who had increased the gold they took out of the mines.
Those mines were the most important part, they could compete with a number of others and served as a danger. At first though Jing sought to entice Ga-In when they heard she was within reach of them with riches. Sending her tribute, gold, silver, aurodium, crystals, gemstones, animals, servants, exotic girls and pretty boys. Raided from islands, taken and trained in the lost arts now of Jei.
They made her statues for each of her cities, smaller ones for villages and a titan of a statue for her capitol. The beauty was beyond reproach and it was said to take a hundred slaves a hundred days to haul the golden statue through the distance fro the city to her camp to show her. Such was its weight and power but she felt insulted and melted it down.
Sending back the gold to them as a dowry gift along with one of her daughter, Ga-In knew many of the political games needed in some cases and Jing was not something to be sacked and taken. They would have to be enticed to join her and bring themselves willingly into the fold. Not exactly the thing of legends but what happened to her daughter was something that made the Jade Empress take notice.
The warlord of Jing with his men, his riches and his wives didn't accept the proposal for a union to make this an alliance. He took her daughter and tossed her into a mine shaft. Sealing it away and sending a bard who had been made to watch it. To relay the tale in song that he had been forced to compose.
Ga-In was said to have gone silent and the humor dying from her eyes for that instant as she finally spoke. Demanding her armies assemble they were going to make a song for the ages and she sent from the corners of her empire. For mystics, for spellweavers, for those who knew how to use this power the Keisei spoke of to alter reality.
She was summoning all of them and wanted options, her soldiers could lay siege but she couldn't wait that long. Such an insult required swift action and she was going to get that as they worked. Her empire was built on fire and blood as much as it was built upon her leadership, she would show just how dangerousn she could be as she put them to work.
The legends and rumors say for a thousand days they worked magics and spell weaving, that they sacrificed a thousand captured soldiers, even more of their own who agreed to do it. The willingness of it made the spells strong as rains came to the world. As the seas rose up and began to flood the city, earth quakes rocked it and broke the ground until it was being pulled into the ocean.
The region didn't recover, whole sections of mountain fell into the sea, tens of thousands of those loyal to house Jing perished in the event and even more were put to the swords for it. The house had only one surviving heir a child to pretended to be a boy and was within Ga-In's army, they had disagreed with their brothers and family. Been cast out and now they stood as the sole heir.
Not for long though the dangers of being in it were taking a toll on them. The girl tried to assassinate Ga-In at one of the meetings. Rushing her with a sword while her guards stopped. The vendetta was there and while she seemed to hate them she wasn't cruel enough to just kill the girl for her honor. Instead locking her away in a tower with food and respect but she was a hostage in a gilded cage.
That cage would serve to hold her and eventually a few others. Becoming the black brides as it were with their husbands dead. Ga-in Kept them there until she could decide what to do with them... until she could figure out what might become of them. Her main focus was on what she could do now to get the main vestiges of the planet. There were holdouts and she couldn't break Kuramagi yet.
They continued to press to the western reaches, searching it out and coming to the coast. From there it was a small channel leading to other lands, an unknown continent that had largely been unexplored by the scholars as she was learning. They could go there but sending larger resources would prove difficult as she moved. The provinces, the riches and the territory could also bring conflicts with an unknown enemy.
So she made a decision, sending expeditions at the world, two small fleets of ships to map the coastline of it, one into the lands itself. Bamboo forests, steep mountains and great rivers that she could see. They would have to get all of the information they could while moving along the coast and enclosing it to the mountains. The North would still prove cold while the south led to smaller islands.
THose small islands as she was discovering were a mixture, some were populated, some were small enough to walk across within an hour. Others were vast with volcano's and mountains. Exotic creatures like monkeys, spiders, fish and great sea creatures. The natives of them had never seen other people before traveling from island to island for food and to live then moving on.
One of them she learned was a penal colony that had been developed, a large island surrounded by cliffs and a city that was on the waters of a lagoon. Everything had eben set up and the island proved to be beautiful with soldiers who didn't know who she was having long ago been killed and replaced. The criminals were a dangerous sort but they had also been there for two hundred years alone.
They agreed to join her for boats and their freedom, so with promises and ships she sent them to travel up river in the lands they had not explored. THey were criminals or at least the children of criminals, they could be dangerous and such they needed a goal so if there were things that needed to be met and attacked or would prove a threat they should be able to handle it.
14. THE PILLOW HOUSE:
There was more going on int he world then just what was happening with the Jade Empress however, kingdoms were rising and falling, clans uniting, children grew older, took titles, mantles, become heirs and exiles. Gen of the kingdom of Ji was one such. Pining for his lost love he had spent a considerable amount of time trying to court the daughter of a warlord.
He did so for a number of reasons, seeing her in the night when he had been escaping raiders on the coast as she played her flute in the moonlight. The animal she had called off from him brought his attention around and he learned that she was from a rival clan.. a dangerous clan who had been exiled. Her skilsl with a blade had made her a fierce killer in their lands and her black hair was beautiful with her pale skin.
THe clan itself had been moving around and raiding nearby villages, proving themselves dangerous but he had not risked it... He had not found her, had not followed her and loved her to give up. As they were all moving around the young prince Gan finally managed to convince her to leave with him. THey would abandon everyone and flee to the furthest reaches of the world and then go beyond.
THey were looking to protect themselves... they were looking to live and love each other but their families were at war. The two of them were prepared to flee, they would meet up but something happened and their clans both discovered them. The raiders killing Gen's father as he in anger cursed her and her family. In her sorrow she became cold, hair becoming white, eyes silver.
She was a dangerous being before and it was rumored afterwards she became a demon of ice and pain. So tore into them and fleeing to the mountains was taken to the floating world. A realm of our land where the Keisei visit and reflect the beauty of them all. The clans themselves were wiped away bringing destruction to some of the vilages as other warlords moved in.
The kingdom of Ji itself was at risk, it was endangered and smashed without the aid and protection of its people. The servants of Akiko who came from the ancient fortress of the DUsk had swept into the northern wastes. Great stretches of ice and snow, mountains and the shallow sea. A region where boats could go through and then would be stuck as the waters froze entrapping them.
Legends of the kingdoms and what they were doing, tales of love, hate and wars going across the continents. One group had formed and managed to become fairly large. Led by Tua No Gi and his armored soldiers. Trained since their birth and used as child soldiers to surprise and attack others. No one wanted to kill children or fight with them.
THose children were marched into the heart of Waru and faced something nasty. Raiders descending and stealing away the children while they were attacked. Turning them into slaves that would be used to defend their attempts to revive the temples and religions of Jei. The slave soldiers didn't do much though as the slaves were not as talented in their skills.
Ga-In sitting in her throne heard of these claims and these tales from her spymasters and the Crimson Kracken who traveled around the world and was bringing ships with her soldiers. Returning with all fo the infomration about the riches of some fo the far off lands she was convinced about the dangers of religions, the dangers of not having something enticing.
The great pillow house a structure where prostitution and vices, degenerate acts not fitting to honorable men and women was set to be created. A place she could not go and didn't want to go but she knew a number of her men and women wanted something to ease the stress from their lives. The Five rings, the five dark rings... legendary texts and ideas.
The Red Kracken was another, Sno her village had greatly improved since she joined the empress. Using barely a third of one fo the near hundred treasure ships she had returned with to build up the city. It had gone from small village with deep ports to almost an assembly line. Instead of one ship being built at a time they built the pieces uniform and interchangable.
THis alowed Sno to produce faster ships, with their method of interlocking the woods and working in metals that made them able to take hits and deflect cannons or blasts. The triple reinforced hulls, interlocking parts so no need of nails and screws, the platforms for their archers and even ways of transporting warriors at sea. The Kracken had proven she knew what she was doing.
The village also expanded first into a small port and dock then into a city and the main trading hub of the Jad Empess. Where all fo the ships came to get their wares and partake in the few riches. She even set out on a second journey, bringing supplies, equipment and everything to Sarnoi a second and a third time. Traveling different routes to get there and find the quickest.
Once she had the proper route each time coming back with more ships, bursting to the seams with treasures, with gold, silver, gems, crystals, aurodium, precious metals, wheats, grains, rice, meats, exotic animals, technologies that had been discovered or invented, traded to them. The Tiantai themselves bringing religion and medical supplies to some fo the dangerous parasites and sicknesses.
Boats and boats would return over the twenty years the unification wars had been going on, the wreckless captain of a ship who had joined a woman with ambition had changed to a renowned and dangerous one. Fashioning lightweight armor for her men, making weapons they could wield in combat and protect themselves with but it wouldn't weigh them down if they were in the water.
The Crimson Kracken pushed further as well working with the naval fleets to overwhelm and send their forces up as many rivers, portage techniques to move boats and keep that dominence of a river or lake. They might become locked but the ships were being made with different techniques to do just that and lightweight so they could move them quickly.
THere were also new models of ships, iron and steel clad with abilities to bring lots of supplies and cargo for developing and assembling forts quickly. Piecing them together in the night so in the morning they would have protection and a dock while suddenly everyone was wondering how an enemy emplacement had gotten built so quickly. She had found her purpose and sailed across the sea bringing back allies with tales of more further out where maps didn't reach or extend.
15. THE INCENSE GAME:
Intrigue was not just an exclusive notion outside of the Empire, in Jar'lai the Sosoka-Sama. Investigator of events, situations and people had their hands full. Several died in an incident, fire bombings dangers carried by plague and the first problems with slaves being incited to rebel against their masters. It was leading to something but the investigator was stretched thin.
That was when they were given leave to create their own force, of non soldiers who were charged with keeping the peace and enforcing laws and edicts. Matsudaria was key to this, finding purpose in the laws and changing them as needed. FOunding the first unified police force and more regulating the laws of the empire after calling a great council.
The work that they would be doing here, was getting the laws from all fo the villages and clans... combining the ones that were similar and the more obscure ones would be given to situational case by case basis. Other laws that needed to be sorted out would be open to incorporate and be changed with the inclusion of new locations. The kuramagi fortress clans were still holding out.
There were other dangers as the investigation into the deaths came about, one fo them was revealed to have been a keisei brought to court by one fo the nobles. THeir order was ancient and new to their knowledge in some cases. The real danger was that they weren't demanding placation like many others would have done. This endeared in some cases and made him send what they could spare to pay for the funeral costs.
The investigation itself brought them some attention and interest. They were learning more of the secrets of the five generals then thought possible. From the danger that the brutes of the mountain clans could do. Drunken oxen who would cause fights to test themselves and their strength against it. Worked in other villages but in a city it would be more dangerous.
To the village of Sno where they werre living big off the wealth being brought in from trade and taxes, a large portion going to the empire to build and establish itself but stil having their large portions. TO ancient criminal groups who had once sought to exploit the chaos caused as they were spreading A point of controlling them or managing them over trying to wipe them out.
The ancient bands had their purposes though if they could use them to manage and stop petty criminals around the area, on the roads then it would be used. If they could prevent major crimes and selling of drugs and dangers to children it was well worth it for now. So he established a set of rules and honor with shadowmarkings on the buildikng that would be immune to their forces.
All of these works helped in the big investigation of the killer, sending him to the frozen wastes to the north and the fortress of the Dusk, where the clan who was in charge oversaw raiders and exiled criminals. THey were coming back with a grudge though and using the cities unrest to do it. Taking advantage was one thing but the investigators could not allow this to continue.
They descended upon them, smashing their defenses and the Massacre at Dusk came to be known across the empire. Ga-In herself had told him to do all that was needed to quell uprisings and while she was popular those who dissented needed to be made an example of. She could be kind and was very rewarding to those who were loyal but also cold and able to be cruel.
While the Incense Game was played and criminal groups built their empire offering up tribute to the forces themselves. There was more, the young pearl prince and his brother came to stay with their sisters. He was working to meet and court several of the more influential ladies at court as his uncle suggested to strengthen alliances for his mother.
His sisters were already being planned to be married off to lords. To ensure their loyalties but also because they had gained the Empress respect in the battlefield. She had several daughters and a handful of sons who served at various positions within the court. Her children were being given over to military service, one having shown talent to a keisei who was in chambers and taken away with her to their citadel.
Another was being sent across the sea to a land no one knew much about, their eldest brother had contacted them. A member of the Tiantai who had been given freely. He was not returnign to his family nor laying claim but with passing his trials and being brought before the gates of Sarnoi he was allowed to contact them and explain. The Tiantai had seen much, had many ways to offer advice to the empress.
The advice when it came was on religion, Kital Phard their home had thousands of godsa nd each clan had a variation of the religions. It was chosen and recommended to have primaries and pitting the other religions against each other. To keep them from getting on the same track, stroking the competition that might be betweent hem and the differences.
It would work, it could be used to keep them divided instead of united while the gods of their more religious supporters were worshiped. It wasn't needed but could serve its purpose. Where Ga-In wanted to build them up was what their dominion ofit. Boats gave them the seas, horses and elephants the land but the sky was important it would give them dominion over all.
The best science and metal workers were being used to make dirgables, something they could use to go over oceans, mountains and the rivers. It would speed up their traveling capabilities as they could set the course and a few men could lead and guide them while an army slept. Attacking from the air and exploring was a big advantage.
Her generals were working with it, the scientists creating a prototype they could use to travel around and it gave them a means to scout, make more detailed maps and spread faster communications as the shadows the the empire closed in around their enemies. Able to drop bombs and release bot water or oil onto enemy emplacements. THeir arrows could only be so effective in the end against them.
16. WAY OF THE TRAITOR:
Her Generals were not immune in the end to deception, Lu Bai spurned in his advances sought at first to conquer her with riches, then by giving strong armies... His failure to win the heart fo the Empress from another led him to sell out the city of Jar'kai bringing in foreign soldiers and relinquishing the city to them for the hand of the daughter of Kami No Chujo emperor of the Isle of Ants.
Ga-In was away in the mountains of Waru meeting with the Keisei, as they were taking in one of her daughters for their training she wanted to see her off. Another child had gone to the faith. Religions were needed so supporting the Tiantai and letting one learn about the gods from her first borne would be helpful. THe new of Lu Bai's betrayal though struck her hard but they could return quickly.
THe first step was not recalling her armies, they had the city surrounded, Jar'Kai was meant to be a fortress itself but operating from Seito Palace in the mountains she was able to b reak them. His armies now couldn't stand against her cities and villages, where there once had been dirt and wood stood stone and soldiers. Farmers with pitchforks trained to defend their homes.
Ga-In returned to court with her other generals marching in. Lu Bai seeing them around Jar'Kai sought to escape in the night before dirgables were overhead dropping soldiers itno the courtyards. His loyal men unsure of what to do as they had fought for years alongside the ones they were going against and had been brought inot the empire since the beginning.
His men were conflicted and Ga-In gave understanding to them. THey had served their master there was no greater display of their character or honor but now they were being asked to fight the ones who he had trained, who he had served and turned on without their input. He was forcing them to kill others. She offered them a chance to walk away under the cover of night with safe passage from their friends.
Many of them left with arrow cover to protect them as they fled and prostated themselves before the empress. THey had fought and killed some but they had been following orders. Following their master, Ga-In wasn't going to dishonor their actions by condemning them but she couldn't dishonor the memory fo the fallen. So she gave it to her men and the families.
THe decision that was given and what they could do was a trial by combat, five champions on each side. The fight was not made to be grand but they could choose their means of battling and even the field. One of them fearful of what might come played a game of the mind against another of her generals. The tower of hanoi styled challenge lasted for an entire year.
It was not something that had been expected but it did provide a means for him to meet others, for him to conversate while contemplating the moves to try and redeem himself for each of his fellow soldiers he had killed. His wife was able to escape and pledge herself to one of the religious orders, his children taken in by some to be raised with honor and to redeem themselves.
The others who were fighting though had become mixed a few showed their skills and what had made them dangerous fighters. Fierce and powerful but they knew how to conduct and fight with honor. Two of them fell to blades one of them mortally wounding his opponent and both were buried with honor. A third fought with his brother who had remained loyal.
In the end the fourth had been the most troublesome. He won his fight after protest. Wanting to face one who had more skill as the young boy to had demanded this be his chance to prove it had been the first to come forward. He was allowed to live but chose to instead aid the family of the man he had killed. A young wife with child who he took in to provide for. Adopting the family crest and colors instead of his own.
Things were beginning to heat up and become dangerous, with Lu Bai still in the city the army would need to go after them with somethignt o break the siege there. Seito would easily hold out and the army was well provisioned but Jar'kai itself was made to last and hold out for years. Ga-in didn't want to have that long of a distraction as the remaining four generals worked to formulate a plan.
THey would assault the city with units at the gates and with dirgables to distract while another team led by the empress was leading the way through the sewers. The attack was her and a small team who would handle all of them when the empress herself donned her blue black armor. Changed over the years but no less impressive with the jeweled metal itself.
IN the morning the assault began and they moved in going through the sewers quickly to not alert and seeing the small reports about the naval forces that had been brought in. The Crimson Kracken returning with some of the long boats they could use on the river and move around as needed. It allowed a few of their more quick moving scout units to get into areas usually less defended.
THey were all moving into the castle itself, the fortress and making a display of it. THe smaller numbers could be cut through and sending her mountain to the gates meant being without his protection but he broke the stalemate. Smashing through the locks of the gate and allowing it to be opened. After a year Jar'kai was being opened to the armies and her others continued.
Uncovering other places to liberate, her closest friend going after what captives there were from their loyal men and women. The Onna-Bugeisha female warriors whose husbands and children were at battle had been garrisoned to protect the city. They had fallen and were captured being locked into a vault under the city but once with swords in their hands they remembered who they were and joined the assault.
The main three that smashed into the castle itself taking the throne room found Lu Bai gone... he had fled and left behind only a handful. The edict was passed and his men executed who hadn't given up. Ga-In returning where they could so that they might rebuild and work on the city itself. With new means or preventing such things like this in the future.
17. THE TURNING POINT:
With Jar'kai retaken there was a massive turning in momentum. Her armies were larger and now Ga-in focused on what would be needed to prevent such things like this again. Contentment, appeasement.. making it so that whatever was being offered was better then what anyone else could offer. The first thing would be an improvement to the world itself.
They were bringing the best minds themselves together for how they could improve. With stone cut roads, fencing and new methods for getting around. Shipping lanes where the boats were able to move around. A mint to make more uniform the currency within the empire, her banners and standards, villages with fences and walls where needed for protection.
They were working on other parts of it as well. The sewer systems in the cities needed to be modernized to reduce the dangers, no more in the streets. Water reserves sectioned off, management of the different areas depending on the time fo the year was a must as well when they started to develop parts of it. Offices to help the people, organize the farming and manufacturing.
The same advancements they were setting up in Sno, along the coast to have ports and watchtowers. THey had been working on more of it though as early warning areas of the coast led itno fotresses and military garrisons. Farmers in the fields were being set up with land as it was divided to what could be managed. The promises and money from the empire going to ensure people were hired and fed.
Industrialization came with the dirgable and manufacturing buildings to get out armor and standard weapons. her men still had their own equipment they could get but now the common soldiers who signed up for hot meals and a bed instead of the streets would have a chance. They also turned to education, advanced learning and everything they could use.
The continued construction of universities brought them to the attention of a few others, improving upon designs and ideas. With secured borders, new areas they could go and her military units being more organized. More focused with some using different weapons, utilizing what they could find and while they had encountered the kensei they also needed some to be their own force users.
They needed to be something different then beauties in the mountains, half naked warriors who killed and religious ones. No force users who could work for them was dedicated. FInding a region of the mountains around jar'kai they started building a citadel and the inquisition was being made. Force hunters who would seek out the empresses enemies and ensure no more betrayal.
Ga-In was also working on what would become greater reforms. Exchange programs to intermix several of the larger clans. To create a sense of unity as the seven arranged marriages were set to take place. New positions at her court for different ones as with a mint and standard currency across the realm brought a need for someone to oversee the coin.
There was also animals to raise, crops, ships to build. Her generals were in the field so for them there were appointed vassals who would run the highest positions within the empire. Even her own had a second... someone who would at the office of chamberlain. Clan Ike and Tagashi were the strongest, most loyal and they had given her strong service.
The two clans though weren't pitted against each other for sport or pposition. They would be a waste of resources and their abilities. They were both her strong hands the left and the right. One taking the position as her minister of coin and the other would work to ensure everything ran when she wasn't in the capital.Ga-In had many more things that were going to need to be handled.
There was Kansai province that still needed to be unified under her rule, parts of it were resisting still but she knew how to fight them. Their long standing fueds were important, their loyal service something that was impressive to everyone and as she worked on a few other parts of it the empress herself was moving around the regions of her empire to ensure everything was being built.
The twenty first year of the unification wars brought a harsh winter to many, outside of the empire where they didn't have what everyone within her borders had been developing. FOr some they thought this was going to be quick but taking an entire planet takes time... people resist and with her children she did have to raise well.. the ones who had managed to stay around.
Her other children who were not in different orders to tie them tot he empire and ensure their loyalty. THe Pearl Prince as they called him was her pride and joy. He was growing into a man now and with that came the prospect of marriage or at least a child. She was still young and able to defend and had a drive with the vision of a united planet.
The pricne himself didn't marry he couldn't find any as interesting... learning from his mothers generals about warfare he went to sea with the crimson kracken and they sailed for a full year while Kansai was under seige to unify it and bring it into the empire. Sailing the coasts until they could some placesrich with plunder to send back or more islands where they could start a garrison to observe.
Several of the islands they found were more mysterious, a former slave colony that had been set up to house and break them but the slaves revolted and turned it into a community since they were isolated. Their help with some of the maps of the sea and some places where wrecks had happened. The mysterious island of ants, the dangerous isle of toads and basilisks.
The Rei as they called themselves had migrated through several of their islands as they moved around. Learning about a handful fo the other islands that had been settled. The isle of tears and an isle of women... marked as one fo the more dangerous as the serpents on the islands. It was full of other things, spiders, insects, eels, things with a hundred different poisons.
18. STAREYES:
Legends are powerful on Atrisia, ancient stories of yovshin thousands of years before there were yovshin, stories of leaders being in charge of ancient empires that seemed impossibly advanced while being tens of thousands of years old. Stories of wonder that seem almost impossible, of ancient ghosts, gods, demons, monsters.... all of them seem to factor in.
Old tales of the Rei, legends really of where they had come from before they were slaves. Living in the northern waters that would freeze over, children of stranded ships that had resorted to eating the other ships when they got trapped. The strange tales of them from the Isle of women that they consorted with mermaids and mermen to produce the oil skinned Rei with their filed teeth.
Tales of the Oni the original beings of Kital Phard. THe older cities support something was there, roads, caves, the remains of ports and statues that seem impossible to move on their own... but no one has been able to figure out what happened to them. Perhaps the sicknesses and dangers of the continent were the real downfall and what might have been an attempt was reclaimed by the jungle.
Tales like Kirie Stareyes who followed a falling star in the night. Her sister Unaga founded her house on the island but Kirie took from the ship that had crashed. THe crystals bing used to replace her missing eyes and she could see horrible things. Visions it is said of white clas soldiers, silver enemies, different armies marching across the surface of Atrisia.
There are the ancient tales of the five forts. Dawn, Dusk, Dragon's Gate, Tiger's Claw and Okiya originally called the Serpents Tail. All fo them are filled with horrible lends, tales of what had happened to them. Slaying, mysterious creatures... the stories of corpses shambling, the dead rising, legends of ghosts and spirits being trapped within.
Memorable tales from around the empire. The forty seven yovshin a story of great honor, the thing that came in the night. A tale of warning and of something more dangerous. Stories about emperors and empresses the descendants of the Jade Empress that met untimely and unfortunate ends.. other who seemed more clever and skilled to live long lives but there were others in between.
So many legends, some that sprouted from the beginnings of the jade empire, Ga-In herself worked to ensure some things would be done and worked on. She didn't want to overblow it all but she did want to have some fo the more fantastical elements there. Her Oni were legendary as tall and flesh eaters. She never dissuaded this rumor allowing them to work as officials who could scare others into following.
THere were the ones from the mountain under ZHang who proved much more then brutes, they had their own laws at one point and society based around their horses. The Ruby Kracken was much the same. Seen as simple and small on land in the sea her ship unleashed cannons and archers able to tear down entire fleets. All fo them were great friends and that is what made it so sad their fates.
The men of the mountains eventually succeeded ZHang, his strength and power had kept them in line for nearly forty years... serving the Empress and before that holding them all together. FOr honor they stayed with them and continued to fight but without him they had lost that edge they had in combat and attacks. THeir riding and archery was weaker then many had expected.
Ga-In quickly moved with Ko Kami Fu, child of ZHang and herself one of the few she had acknowledged the father of. THe girl was a beast of a woman. Tall with broad shoulders and thick muscles. She knew how to fight and had proven that in battle gaining acclaim with her father and mother. She was placed in front of the different riders and proved her worth.
Ga-In herself stayed there and celebrated afterwards, the challenge had been to ride and fight with many of the others and the more dangerous aspects of it. One required that she fend of suitors. A challenge as their moondancers invoked the munin ancient memories of the past. To ascend she had to be able to survive invoking the spirits.
That had been the bigger challenge as she was large and powerful, skilled with sword, axe, bow and with her mother she had learned to ride some of the tigers. A thickly muscled one that was more fierce and loyal to her then anything else. The tiger tore into the horses, into the riders to keep them away from her and Ko Kami Fu managed to protect herself from the usual end result fo the challenge.
Ga-In seeing the power of her daughter was noted as being proud, the first streaks of silver within her hair showing as they drank but she had all of her children. Chiyo the bastard daughter of Ko Kami Fu and someone from the village of Sno. She never revealed who was acknowledged and given status within the mountain tribes. Learning her place as a screamer.
Others within the mountain clans were assembled and brought riches, brought horses and blades. The finest among them, statues, crowns, dresses... everything from enemy kingdoms that they had sacked. Dragging their men and women back to be used as needed. Adopting their children and using them to replace the numbers who might have been lost.
One of the things brought to them was a singer... well a sundancer. Strange beings who were said to see the future. Ko Kami Fu asked her to reveal what she saw in the future for them and if the empire would achieve its goal. She said yes.... but the empress would not live to see the ultimate goal.... she would have a dozen chikdren but the one who would rule all would have gold as his shroud.
Ko Kami Fu did not like this but there was more, predicitons... fancies any number of things could be said about it. A drowned kracken on a bridge that sway and swung, shadow warriors descending upon them and dawn breaking with the strong. Other predictions, some about the lines that would come.... Ga-In was said to have stopped drinking and more listened but Ko Kami Fu had the woman executed for threatening her mother.
The celebration went long into the night, with Chiyo being married by the end of it, a dull wedding though for the history books as only a single person died by most standards. Ga-In left in the morning with her honor guard and the soldiers but she wasn't leaving behind ruins at least. A wedding, a new clan leader who would serve as her general. The line would continue with Chiyo who had given most of the riches rbrought to her grandmother.
19. THE DROWNED KRACKEN:
There were as many victories as defeat, this humble tale shows many of the times when the empress succeeded but there were hardships. One does not unite a planet, a world by being soft no do they manage to do it by being so rigid they cannot accept others. Ga-In had surrounded herself with generals and friends, lovers and others who would play to aspects of her personality.
One that she was fond of was The Ruby Kracken, betwen the two krackens crimson and Ruby the seas were seen as the domain of the Empire. Raiding, tarriffs, pirates and naval fleets of ships that could set out from Sno. Using the power of them both went a long way but they were also turned away at times on the sea. There was the sleeper.
Ancient and dangerous, a ship of legend in many ways that was seen as a death omen, there was the thing that came. A ghost ship where the Ruby Kracken lost five hundred men on a small fleet. All hands disappeared as a month later the ships came into port but there was no signs of battle or sickness. Just the words 'It Came' scratched into the wood.
Then there was something else that came, while off the coast of Kansei province the kracken herself came under cannon fire and was forced to for the moment go through the heart of a storm. The ship being thrown onto rocks and her crew ended up on one fo the thousand islands. THere they worked to send word and get back to the fleets but there was a danger.
On the sea she had dominion, she had power and the pale skinned beauty despite how long she was in the sun had never been seen with a tan or even her hair being afflicted by the sun. Ethereal and beautiful it was no wonder she was sometimes the companion of the empress. Her affections known as she was reputed to have a lover in every port and brothel within access of the sea her true love.
Fighting their way across the island they came to the Tiger's Claw, a fortress that was considered impenetrable because of how remote it was, garrisoned with some of the more dangerous beings. Dark assassins and their dark rings. She surged using what archers remained to try and break the fortress before it had a chance to lock itself down. THey were in disarray from the storm as well.
TO Li the clan head this came as partially a surprise it was said he had fasted and given himself visions of the future. To see know the outcome of his clan fighting the empress who was overtaking the planet. From the reports there the vision had been of the empress putting them all to the sword and suddenly now he was under attack by one of her fiercest generals who had snuck to the island in the storm.
He had seen the actions as brave but such a woman he regarded with disdain not because she was a woman but that she would try and best him on land with a sword instead of her ship with her bow.... he felt insulted that she would think so little of him then to fight him at full strength and as they fought on the bridge it swayed and swung in the rising storm.
Fierceness was one thing to call it as the two of them went at it, as her men unleashed volley's of arrows and used sword, axe or whatever they could find they came to the end. The Kracken fell off the bridge onto the rocks below. Getting washed away with the receding tides and the dark clan claimed a victory. Putting all but one who had witnessed it to the sword and making a plan.
THey would have to go to the capitol it seemed, bring what proof they had and let the witness explain before trying to assassinate the empress and anyone who could pose a threat. THey would have to work on it as he revealed the silent sister. His clans ship. Black sails, muffled oars and a hull of ebony wood that made little light. THey traveled under the cover of night and stayed out of sight.
Infiltrating the city of Jar'kai proved more difficult as it was within the mountains and surrounded. THe river leading upt ot it patrolled and connecting to the sea but the Kracken's had worked to cover it. So they improvised and stole uniforms. By now the one soldier would have returned and spread the news of her death... of their coming and it would be on alert but nothing seemed different.
The clan was uncertain about what to do as they came into the city through the mud gates, at the river they were barred and used mostly to collect aste before it went into the river and sea or to keep things from trying to slip into the city. THe gaps of it could be bypassed with a little elbow grease as it were and had been proven but it was not easy and the Shining Star had anticipated it.
The new shining star, a teenager but he had been given the appointed title because of his honor and dedication to his grandmother. THe pearl prince seducing and having a child with but because of their stations and that they didn't love each other they were just lonely. The bastard daughter often called the Dark Secret wasn't much of one. The empress doted on her, the people loved her.
And she knew how to fight with a strong tactical mind in this case as she fought through the assassins with their leader escaping. He moved towards the palace to try and cut the head off of the empress and save his clan but was confronted by another of her generals. The Sosokan Sama himself who had been investigating the claims of the krackens death and would protect his empress while avenging his friend.
the two of them fought and while he had become older and slower he still managed to injure the assassin dealing a mortal wound that would eventually claim him life... however he was also killed and died in his oldest friends arms. In his anger at seeing a man he regarded as an uncle fall the Pearl Prince demanded that something more be made. Something that could uphold their will and would mirror the honor and dedication that had been shown by their family.
20. DAWN OF THE YOVSHIN:
The latest assassination attempt wasn't going to be the last but it was the most brutal, two of her friends dead, two generals. Age was something she could not defeat and Ga-In brooded over it. THe death of the Ruby Kracken was something she had mourned like all of the others but these were the ones who had started with her and so she resolved to finish the war in their honor to bring everything under her rule.
The two clans though brought it to her attention, the royal guard was not enough, her own soldiers were stretched across the empire bringing it all under her piece by piece and ensuring that rebellion or the modernization of the empire would not be interrupted. Progress required sacrifice and it had come in the form of leaving her vulnerable. So something was formed.
The Yova were the finest soldiers, most loyal to their master her granddaughter, the Shin clan was who recommended it and served as a small but proud clan. Renowned for their moxie and skills with diplomatic talks. They proposed to her soemthing new, something that would serve her better then just taking hostages and wards to train them as loyal vassals.
One child from each clans, great or small, not the heir. The second son, the one who might not have anything waiting for them once their brother or sister took over. They were to be taken and trained. Given purpose as an elite fighting force to the Empress herself. THey were given their own status, their own caste that could be seen as different to the clan leaders.
This would also ensure the loyalty, they would not dishonor themselves by turning against their own caste and status. THey were not fighting for scraps and could be given forts, castles, wealth of their own... their own houses if they wanted it or they could be there in the palace district. Everything made to entice and show how special this new position was.... but there was more.
It would need something, a name that showed the skills and Ga-In in a moment of boredom some say while she was melancholy about the deaths of her generals still said to just combine the names. The Yovshin of Jar'kai were formed, intricately detailed.. strong with armor that set them apart from the standard soldiers, duel swords, the finest horses and servants.
Fortresses were raised with grounds to train them, the Yovshin themselves were highly skilled being trained in all forms but they would also need to be taught poetry, mathematics, navigation, painting, armor crafting, smithing, hair care, medical skills for the battlefield. THe list of skills that were being taught to these fighters went on and on as they also had other things.
Those other things were one of the perks as the second child was brought from each clan and taught, different ones but all of them united under the empress herself who had from some the first borne child serving her in the palace of Jar'kai, the second child of these families was defending her. The clan district where they were housed was a layer around the palace district.
The Yovshin stayed in the first and third district, their training rooms and castles within the city itself on the small rung but they were also taught and trained to move without the massive army at their backs. THink more for themselves and as a reward the pleasure quarters were just a small river ride away for them when they had the off hours. The riches flowed into their estates.
Their weapons, their armor became legendary across atrisia as well as their service and loyalty, in battle Ga-In herself was seen with no less then two hundred Yovshin and as they quickly gained renowned in the twenty fifth year of the unification wars her reputation changed. Her armor was a slightly improved look to make her look like their commander, the jeweled steel of their twin blades and the power of their horses.
THeir numbers swelled as they took inch by inch lesser clans, bringing them into upraised status, one child to serve, one to protect. The ranks of the Yovshin grew and grew until it was its own unit on the battlefield, until it was used to crash the gates of the Fortress of Dusk with their men swarming in. The legends say no one was killed but it was a slaughter for the clan who resisted.
Ga-In herself would no longer be denied as the deaths had hardened her heart and made her dangerous. She marched more and more to the reaches of the continents, near and far until only the hold out kingdoms resisted that had managed to be in some fo the most fortified location. Kuramagi would come but they were still withstanding siege and even being cut off.
There were other places that they would have to go for as Jar'Kai itself continued to be worked on, to make it into a place others couldn't touch. The districts were simple, you had districts for merchants, warriors, teachers, and scholars, monks and religions, yovshin, the larger growing pleasure quarter, the palace district, the clans district, the warf with fishers and farmer bringing trade from the rivers.
Jar'kai flourished under the new districts, with Jei destroyed it was considered the place to go for getting whatever you wanted. Ceremony became important, tea houses and market squares became something large. Entertainment in the mountains and travelers were big, areas provided where new police forces could defend. Outposts along the roads and the beginnings of watchtowers across the empire.
THeir communication was still important and within the Yovshin this was important as some fo the clans brought other skills, their ingenuity for situations led to beacon fires that could be seen and activated quickly across the empire. Different dusts and materials that could change the smoke would allow them to communicate simple ideas and purposes across the empire within messengers and time. It changed the situation of warfare allowing armies to move and assemble quickly.
Koremitsu one fo the retainers of the Empress worked with the dangerous Lady Aoi, a renowned warlord in her time but she had become old and no less dangerous. Now unable to fully swing her sword without tiring herself she had joined the empress in her twilight years and brought with her one of the most dangerous elements. LOng range archers with bows of a special wood or so the story goes.
Koremitsu himself though mostly had the archers there and set up to defend sections fo the river, where they were on the borders and with the more impressive range the longer bows got, with the different poisons and materials they could put onto them including night soil to infect and ensure death of the enemy. THey were set to fire across the small valley pass at another fort. Raining down arrows for three days and nights until the ground was littered with them and the Yovshin horses could charge through leaving a trail.
The pass was easily taken, the clan within were infected from the arrows and sickness around them and dying. Their family had resisted for so long that there would be nothing left as the twin children were the only surviving members. Ga-In was fair and took them as her adopted grandchildren. Iyo and Myobu were often seen at court playing afterwards not knowing their families original fate and it became forbidden to speak of the clan or their mother and father.
Some suspect it was became of their relationship to the Empress and there is some talk.. small details. Asugao the wife of Uron was of a similar appearance to a young Ga-In... her father unknown but the first and major claim is that she was one of the bastards of Ga-In's father who was known for his vices... his family having suffered for it. IF she had fathered her before he died then this hold out was her own sister if even by half blood.
The Yovshin continued to rise in status and acclaim for two years bringing into the twenty eighth year of the Unification wars a new invigoration as the armies of the Jade Empress started to go after the ones who wouldn't break or bend the knee with deadlier tactics. THey had years to consider and reconsider their stance.. it was time to root them out and end the wars by ending them.
The second decade of the war was preparing to begin, thicker, heavier and more and more the violence against clans who didn't decide where they wanted to be was increasing. THe larger kingdoms were still not as strong or as vast as Ga-In's as the Empire of Jade as some fo them called it but they were getting there in terms of population.
THe real tricks were being how they managed it and them, where Ga-In worked to improve and modernize cities or villages to make them better places to live, give her men full training. She was looking at what they did, others were betraying each other, fighting against one another to try and scramble for any little piece of territory that could make them feel stronger.
Ga-In stoked this fire, working with the metsuka or what would become her spynetwork. THey were infiltrators, farmers of dissent and propoganda who would work for them. She had them stoking the desires for conquest and riches across these rival kingdoms, inciting the villagers to rise up in revolt and offering deals and riches to them to sell their goods to her instead.
THe army itself was moving and sweeping across the continents and to places where few had been. There were still considered holdouts close to home though that she would need to turn her attention to eventually but the mountains themselves and where they had come from before... She needed to be able to move an army around them and not just through them.
Ga-In's reports from some of the regions they were headed and discovered Sancha, an ancient citadel of magical users. They were like the legends from Unaga who had returned from the stars with stories.... and Ga-I wanted them to be a part of her empire. She tried to figure out what they wanted, what they desired and that was difficult.
Their skills with these magics were impressive and it seemed like one fo them could decimate their armies. She surrounded the citadel but it seemed they didn't go out often and trade, they didn't seem to do much of anything unless directly threatened and if she could at lest not let others curry their favor then she would have to accept that.
There were other things, more feral beings, ones who sought to exploit the riches of the mountains and regions she had taken. Funeral processions that would heading into the mountains. Near Seito as the head of the IKe clan passed away in battle. Ga-In attended to honor them and got to see the place and how dangerous and powerful it really was.
This would be a powerful fortress for a battle and she hatched a plan with the new head of the clan. His ambition was there and he wanted to really move up in the army now. He also had a slew of ideas that would put them ahead the least of which was testing out the fortifications of this fortress. Ga-In had her soldiers get into positions and fill it to the brim.
They had filled it, they had prepared it and everything else. Luring several enemy armies in with news that Ga-In herself would be attending to this small village in private for reasons. Two of the rival warlords came after her, ten thousand men being brought in on horses, thousands of archers. She had armored soldiers in alcoves blocking the way and they could hold the passes.
The lure worked as they came after them first encountering and breaking their initial charge against the wall. The sounds of creatures being used as they let loose tigers and great apes against the warlords armies went a long ay to sending them down into the canyons around them. Screams and with the mountains protecting their archers they fired back.
It was a slaughter as one of the people with her was the prince. Her heir and he was old enough to start learning military tactics, he couldn't lead the armies but he could work with the people here. Her generals doted on the boy teaching him everything that they could, her handmaidens ensured her was skilled and as they watched a second charge come in the gates held.
Several more charges came and the different clans under her command sounded the drums, nothing was breaking the gates and with the excavation the Ike clan had done the scouts would find no other means to get through. Her soldiers were sent out onto to clear the path with the new Shining Star using the deads equipment but leaving the bodies for a pyre.
The utmost respect was shown to the soldiers as they entrapped them within the canyon. Boxing them in and proceeding to move like a glacier from the back so they wouldn't notice until it was to late. The seventeenth charge was the last one coming as a final act of fight before they were held back to be killed. Their generals put in chains and killed.
She was looking at it but sending armies across the sea to claim their provinces was going to prove the real test. This close to home she had some better plans though while her best generals were heading out to conquer. Orys had proven most effective and with his ancient line they were working on becoming a high standing house among the court.
They were all seeking favor and more were coming from across the sea to fofer tribute, fealty or any number of things they could do get protection and help. Most were being pushed into her empire now because she offered the best alternative compared to the others. Where brutality and domination were important and all they offered she would offer gold and jewels.
Ga-In sent out more envoys as she arrived on the eastern coast. Where before she had places to work out of this one they were quickly assembling within the port of Dagger Mouth. A white walled fortress around one of the ancient groves. They could protect the mines and sources of food as well as fresh water here. She was setting it up and the older areas would give them a route around the mountains.
12. BLEEDING PEARL:
The battle through the mountains themselves were something. Few had been on the far side since the ten thousand clans had passed. ROunding them brought all of Ga-In's forces into conflict with the horse lords... compared to the ones she knew these ones were savage and had sacked cities. Burned villages left behind, dragged their riches and warriors behind their horses. Taken the women and children to be their own.
THey were dangerous, they were powerful and as Ga-In was watching them in a fight against her riders it was clear they had trained in techniques few others could. Small shields on their arm to deflect arrows, saddles that allowed them to comfortably shoot from nearly any angle and blades designed to be used from hors back to run down and slash their enemies.
She would have called it impressive and with spearmen in charge they managed to turn back one of the hordes that descended upon them. The regions west of the mountains were going to prove to be the most difficult she could find and she would have to take them to make sure her own continent was secured. The fortresses and regions in the east near jar'kai were supplied to last for years she needed to cut off potential supply lines.
She was movign in and with some better ideas of how to outride them brought herself into the battle against one of their leaders. Wearing thicker armor, using a slower but more sturdy horse that would carry her weight and outlast most of the other horses around her. The Jade Empress entered battle taking a sword blow to the shoulder as she delivered a slash to the mans face.
THe blade dug deep and she wasn't disputed as the winner while she limped away, taking her prize which was his wives and slaves. Children were something she would have to find a use for and the ones he trained and taught himself were just children. She couldn't kill them but they were violent and dangerous as she sent them to the first fortress in this region. An old outpost from the times before that they were operating out of.
That was also the beginning when she started to learn about their culture, observing the Sundancers, beautiful oracles who could see into the magics of the universe and predict sometimes the outcome of a raid or battle. They were not always accurate but as one said the future was always shifting and it was a better alternative then what was the Keisei or the Hana.
These names interested her and Ga-In discovered there were other places, some ruined cities they could fix up, establishments to rework and with trade routes being worked on to connect to her other fortresses and villages in the east. The Jade Empire was expanding into the Nhai mountains crating a secondary location in the corpse city itself to show they didn't have fear. She was working with them and the Hana were something she had found to be dangerous.
Strange being they were, tattooed, naked generally even in the cold with piercing of their bodies, body modifications such as longer necks, hooped ears or filed teeth to make them look more fierce. THey said the power of the universe gave them the will power to withstand the most bitter colds or sweltering heats. Looking at them with their spears and polearms they were clearly highly skilled. Coming out of the Cannibal Wastes, a harsh area full of razor sharp sands that cut the flesh.
Their main habits involved raids against others, they would strip it of resources, anything that was valuable and then they would disappear. For each kill they got a new tattoo, for each clan they had a dragon's head who reported and paid tribute to an Daimyo a leader back in their city. THey gave the orders and were a long standing tradition of sending the females of their cities to fight. Those captured by them were enslaved and made to serve or fight in the arena
The brutal nature of their arena's where the warriors fought for entertainment and glory, to settle disputes and prove their status for a mate. Was legendary for its blood shed, exotic creatures from across the world could be procured for it, warriors seeking the riches of the city itself were welcomed if they could survive the trek and being attacked by raiding bands of Hana themselves.
They also proved dangerous in other ways, they were constantly at war with the Keisei, another group within the mountains who was renowned in the world beyond. Famed as a place where you sent your children fi they were special they took no wives or husbands although they were a family. Sister, brother, mother, father was considered their designation within the walls. They had no attachments, they were living art. Painted, masked at times wearing robes and kimono's, trained to sing, dance, recite, pour tea.
THey were a special breed to the Jade Empress who brought soem fo them to her court to understand these beings.. to understand what they did and she learned. They were masters of oral traditions. THey could recall tales from before the clans, before when the old ones battled the gods, when fire rained from the skies causing the exodus of Taito and her ten thousand clans.
They also knew tales of her, of her deeds and actions for what they also had was a communications net. Powerful and using magics she had not seen before they could enter into a state and communicate with each other becoming a messanger that would allow for near instant communications. The Keisei though wouldn't fight for Ga-In and neither would the Hana... that was fine she didn't need them to fight just do what she wanted. One to communicate and one to be let loose and soften up her enemies.
To gain their loyalties she had to fight, the arena of the Hana where even the Keisei rarely went because of their society. Women were the raiders who were sent out and bring in riches but the males controlled everything and they were allowed to be as cruel as they wanted to their women. Something that she might have to change if she took them by force. Ga-In had to fight though.
And fight she did being called the bleeding pearl of the arena as she sliced and carved into the flesh of the Hana who faced her with her katana. The pearl hilt shaped and carved to be a dragons head. With her progression through the arena the Hana began to take notice and the Keisei were taking part of it composing ballads that they could sing and preform for her. Their songs echoing and resonating throughout to inspire as well as tell those who didn't go what was happening.
13. HOUSE OF GOLD:
The House of Jing, in the West was ancient and renowned the work they had done proved that. Legendary in their tastes they had filtered into Ga-In's knowledge fot he region and stories from others. The heart of this was that they controlled the jungles and had built a city of gold. The Youngest being something of a cruel and humorless man who had increased the gold they took out of the mines.
Those mines were the most important part, they could compete with a number of others and served as a danger. At first though Jing sought to entice Ga-In when they heard she was within reach of them with riches. Sending her tribute, gold, silver, aurodium, crystals, gemstones, animals, servants, exotic girls and pretty boys. Raided from islands, taken and trained in the lost arts now of Jei.
They made her statues for each of her cities, smaller ones for villages and a titan of a statue for her capitol. The beauty was beyond reproach and it was said to take a hundred slaves a hundred days to haul the golden statue through the distance fro the city to her camp to show her. Such was its weight and power but she felt insulted and melted it down.
Sending back the gold to them as a dowry gift along with one of her daughter, Ga-In knew many of the political games needed in some cases and Jing was not something to be sacked and taken. They would have to be enticed to join her and bring themselves willingly into the fold. Not exactly the thing of legends but what happened to her daughter was something that made the Jade Empress take notice.
The warlord of Jing with his men, his riches and his wives didn't accept the proposal for a union to make this an alliance. He took her daughter and tossed her into a mine shaft. Sealing it away and sending a bard who had been made to watch it. To relay the tale in song that he had been forced to compose.
Ga-In was said to have gone silent and the humor dying from her eyes for that instant as she finally spoke. Demanding her armies assemble they were going to make a song for the ages and she sent from the corners of her empire. For mystics, for spellweavers, for those who knew how to use this power the Keisei spoke of to alter reality.
She was summoning all of them and wanted options, her soldiers could lay siege but she couldn't wait that long. Such an insult required swift action and she was going to get that as they worked. Her empire was built on fire and blood as much as it was built upon her leadership, she would show just how dangerousn she could be as she put them to work.
The legends and rumors say for a thousand days they worked magics and spell weaving, that they sacrificed a thousand captured soldiers, even more of their own who agreed to do it. The willingness of it made the spells strong as rains came to the world. As the seas rose up and began to flood the city, earth quakes rocked it and broke the ground until it was being pulled into the ocean.
The region didn't recover, whole sections of mountain fell into the sea, tens of thousands of those loyal to house Jing perished in the event and even more were put to the swords for it. The house had only one surviving heir a child to pretended to be a boy and was within Ga-In's army, they had disagreed with their brothers and family. Been cast out and now they stood as the sole heir.
Not for long though the dangers of being in it were taking a toll on them. The girl tried to assassinate Ga-In at one of the meetings. Rushing her with a sword while her guards stopped. The vendetta was there and while she seemed to hate them she wasn't cruel enough to just kill the girl for her honor. Instead locking her away in a tower with food and respect but she was a hostage in a gilded cage.
That cage would serve to hold her and eventually a few others. Becoming the black brides as it were with their husbands dead. Ga-in Kept them there until she could decide what to do with them... until she could figure out what might become of them. Her main focus was on what she could do now to get the main vestiges of the planet. There were holdouts and she couldn't break Kuramagi yet.
They continued to press to the western reaches, searching it out and coming to the coast. From there it was a small channel leading to other lands, an unknown continent that had largely been unexplored by the scholars as she was learning. They could go there but sending larger resources would prove difficult as she moved. The provinces, the riches and the territory could also bring conflicts with an unknown enemy.
So she made a decision, sending expeditions at the world, two small fleets of ships to map the coastline of it, one into the lands itself. Bamboo forests, steep mountains and great rivers that she could see. They would have to get all of the information they could while moving along the coast and enclosing it to the mountains. The North would still prove cold while the south led to smaller islands.
THose small islands as she was discovering were a mixture, some were populated, some were small enough to walk across within an hour. Others were vast with volcano's and mountains. Exotic creatures like monkeys, spiders, fish and great sea creatures. The natives of them had never seen other people before traveling from island to island for food and to live then moving on.
One of them she learned was a penal colony that had been developed, a large island surrounded by cliffs and a city that was on the waters of a lagoon. Everything had eben set up and the island proved to be beautiful with soldiers who didn't know who she was having long ago been killed and replaced. The criminals were a dangerous sort but they had also been there for two hundred years alone.
They agreed to join her for boats and their freedom, so with promises and ships she sent them to travel up river in the lands they had not explored. THey were criminals or at least the children of criminals, they could be dangerous and such they needed a goal so if there were things that needed to be met and attacked or would prove a threat they should be able to handle it.
14. THE PILLOW HOUSE:
There was more going on int he world then just what was happening with the Jade Empress however, kingdoms were rising and falling, clans uniting, children grew older, took titles, mantles, become heirs and exiles. Gen of the kingdom of Ji was one such. Pining for his lost love he had spent a considerable amount of time trying to court the daughter of a warlord.
He did so for a number of reasons, seeing her in the night when he had been escaping raiders on the coast as she played her flute in the moonlight. The animal she had called off from him brought his attention around and he learned that she was from a rival clan.. a dangerous clan who had been exiled. Her skilsl with a blade had made her a fierce killer in their lands and her black hair was beautiful with her pale skin.
THe clan itself had been moving around and raiding nearby villages, proving themselves dangerous but he had not risked it... He had not found her, had not followed her and loved her to give up. As they were all moving around the young prince Gan finally managed to convince her to leave with him. THey would abandon everyone and flee to the furthest reaches of the world and then go beyond.
THey were looking to protect themselves... they were looking to live and love each other but their families were at war. The two of them were prepared to flee, they would meet up but something happened and their clans both discovered them. The raiders killing Gen's father as he in anger cursed her and her family. In her sorrow she became cold, hair becoming white, eyes silver.
She was a dangerous being before and it was rumored afterwards she became a demon of ice and pain. So tore into them and fleeing to the mountains was taken to the floating world. A realm of our land where the Keisei visit and reflect the beauty of them all. The clans themselves were wiped away bringing destruction to some of the vilages as other warlords moved in.
The kingdom of Ji itself was at risk, it was endangered and smashed without the aid and protection of its people. The servants of Akiko who came from the ancient fortress of the DUsk had swept into the northern wastes. Great stretches of ice and snow, mountains and the shallow sea. A region where boats could go through and then would be stuck as the waters froze entrapping them.
Legends of the kingdoms and what they were doing, tales of love, hate and wars going across the continents. One group had formed and managed to become fairly large. Led by Tua No Gi and his armored soldiers. Trained since their birth and used as child soldiers to surprise and attack others. No one wanted to kill children or fight with them.
THose children were marched into the heart of Waru and faced something nasty. Raiders descending and stealing away the children while they were attacked. Turning them into slaves that would be used to defend their attempts to revive the temples and religions of Jei. The slave soldiers didn't do much though as the slaves were not as talented in their skills.
Ga-In sitting in her throne heard of these claims and these tales from her spymasters and the Crimson Kracken who traveled around the world and was bringing ships with her soldiers. Returning with all fo the infomration about the riches of some fo the far off lands she was convinced about the dangers of religions, the dangers of not having something enticing.
The great pillow house a structure where prostitution and vices, degenerate acts not fitting to honorable men and women was set to be created. A place she could not go and didn't want to go but she knew a number of her men and women wanted something to ease the stress from their lives. The Five rings, the five dark rings... legendary texts and ideas.
The Red Kracken was another, Sno her village had greatly improved since she joined the empress. Using barely a third of one fo the near hundred treasure ships she had returned with to build up the city. It had gone from small village with deep ports to almost an assembly line. Instead of one ship being built at a time they built the pieces uniform and interchangable.
THis alowed Sno to produce faster ships, with their method of interlocking the woods and working in metals that made them able to take hits and deflect cannons or blasts. The triple reinforced hulls, interlocking parts so no need of nails and screws, the platforms for their archers and even ways of transporting warriors at sea. The Kracken had proven she knew what she was doing.
The village also expanded first into a small port and dock then into a city and the main trading hub of the Jad Empess. Where all fo the ships came to get their wares and partake in the few riches. She even set out on a second journey, bringing supplies, equipment and everything to Sarnoi a second and a third time. Traveling different routes to get there and find the quickest.
Once she had the proper route each time coming back with more ships, bursting to the seams with treasures, with gold, silver, gems, crystals, aurodium, precious metals, wheats, grains, rice, meats, exotic animals, technologies that had been discovered or invented, traded to them. The Tiantai themselves bringing religion and medical supplies to some fo the dangerous parasites and sicknesses.
Boats and boats would return over the twenty years the unification wars had been going on, the wreckless captain of a ship who had joined a woman with ambition had changed to a renowned and dangerous one. Fashioning lightweight armor for her men, making weapons they could wield in combat and protect themselves with but it wouldn't weigh them down if they were in the water.
The Crimson Kracken pushed further as well working with the naval fleets to overwhelm and send their forces up as many rivers, portage techniques to move boats and keep that dominence of a river or lake. They might become locked but the ships were being made with different techniques to do just that and lightweight so they could move them quickly.
THere were also new models of ships, iron and steel clad with abilities to bring lots of supplies and cargo for developing and assembling forts quickly. Piecing them together in the night so in the morning they would have protection and a dock while suddenly everyone was wondering how an enemy emplacement had gotten built so quickly. She had found her purpose and sailed across the sea bringing back allies with tales of more further out where maps didn't reach or extend.
15. THE INCENSE GAME:
Intrigue was not just an exclusive notion outside of the Empire, in Jar'lai the Sosoka-Sama. Investigator of events, situations and people had their hands full. Several died in an incident, fire bombings dangers carried by plague and the first problems with slaves being incited to rebel against their masters. It was leading to something but the investigator was stretched thin.
That was when they were given leave to create their own force, of non soldiers who were charged with keeping the peace and enforcing laws and edicts. Matsudaria was key to this, finding purpose in the laws and changing them as needed. FOunding the first unified police force and more regulating the laws of the empire after calling a great council.
The work that they would be doing here, was getting the laws from all fo the villages and clans... combining the ones that were similar and the more obscure ones would be given to situational case by case basis. Other laws that needed to be sorted out would be open to incorporate and be changed with the inclusion of new locations. The kuramagi fortress clans were still holding out.
There were other dangers as the investigation into the deaths came about, one fo them was revealed to have been a keisei brought to court by one fo the nobles. THeir order was ancient and new to their knowledge in some cases. The real danger was that they weren't demanding placation like many others would have done. This endeared in some cases and made him send what they could spare to pay for the funeral costs.
The investigation itself brought them some attention and interest. They were learning more of the secrets of the five generals then thought possible. From the danger that the brutes of the mountain clans could do. Drunken oxen who would cause fights to test themselves and their strength against it. Worked in other villages but in a city it would be more dangerous.
To the village of Sno where they werre living big off the wealth being brought in from trade and taxes, a large portion going to the empire to build and establish itself but stil having their large portions. TO ancient criminal groups who had once sought to exploit the chaos caused as they were spreading A point of controlling them or managing them over trying to wipe them out.
The ancient bands had their purposes though if they could use them to manage and stop petty criminals around the area, on the roads then it would be used. If they could prevent major crimes and selling of drugs and dangers to children it was well worth it for now. So he established a set of rules and honor with shadowmarkings on the buildikng that would be immune to their forces.
All of these works helped in the big investigation of the killer, sending him to the frozen wastes to the north and the fortress of the Dusk, where the clan who was in charge oversaw raiders and exiled criminals. THey were coming back with a grudge though and using the cities unrest to do it. Taking advantage was one thing but the investigators could not allow this to continue.
They descended upon them, smashing their defenses and the Massacre at Dusk came to be known across the empire. Ga-In herself had told him to do all that was needed to quell uprisings and while she was popular those who dissented needed to be made an example of. She could be kind and was very rewarding to those who were loyal but also cold and able to be cruel.
While the Incense Game was played and criminal groups built their empire offering up tribute to the forces themselves. There was more, the young pearl prince and his brother came to stay with their sisters. He was working to meet and court several of the more influential ladies at court as his uncle suggested to strengthen alliances for his mother.
His sisters were already being planned to be married off to lords. To ensure their loyalties but also because they had gained the Empress respect in the battlefield. She had several daughters and a handful of sons who served at various positions within the court. Her children were being given over to military service, one having shown talent to a keisei who was in chambers and taken away with her to their citadel.
Another was being sent across the sea to a land no one knew much about, their eldest brother had contacted them. A member of the Tiantai who had been given freely. He was not returnign to his family nor laying claim but with passing his trials and being brought before the gates of Sarnoi he was allowed to contact them and explain. The Tiantai had seen much, had many ways to offer advice to the empress.
The advice when it came was on religion, Kital Phard their home had thousands of godsa nd each clan had a variation of the religions. It was chosen and recommended to have primaries and pitting the other religions against each other. To keep them from getting on the same track, stroking the competition that might be betweent hem and the differences.
It would work, it could be used to keep them divided instead of united while the gods of their more religious supporters were worshiped. It wasn't needed but could serve its purpose. Where Ga-In wanted to build them up was what their dominion ofit. Boats gave them the seas, horses and elephants the land but the sky was important it would give them dominion over all.
The best science and metal workers were being used to make dirgables, something they could use to go over oceans, mountains and the rivers. It would speed up their traveling capabilities as they could set the course and a few men could lead and guide them while an army slept. Attacking from the air and exploring was a big advantage.
Her generals were working with it, the scientists creating a prototype they could use to travel around and it gave them a means to scout, make more detailed maps and spread faster communications as the shadows the the empire closed in around their enemies. Able to drop bombs and release bot water or oil onto enemy emplacements. THeir arrows could only be so effective in the end against them.
16. WAY OF THE TRAITOR:
Her Generals were not immune in the end to deception, Lu Bai spurned in his advances sought at first to conquer her with riches, then by giving strong armies... His failure to win the heart fo the Empress from another led him to sell out the city of Jar'kai bringing in foreign soldiers and relinquishing the city to them for the hand of the daughter of Kami No Chujo emperor of the Isle of Ants.
Ga-In was away in the mountains of Waru meeting with the Keisei, as they were taking in one of her daughters for their training she wanted to see her off. Another child had gone to the faith. Religions were needed so supporting the Tiantai and letting one learn about the gods from her first borne would be helpful. THe new of Lu Bai's betrayal though struck her hard but they could return quickly.
THe first step was not recalling her armies, they had the city surrounded, Jar'Kai was meant to be a fortress itself but operating from Seito Palace in the mountains she was able to b reak them. His armies now couldn't stand against her cities and villages, where there once had been dirt and wood stood stone and soldiers. Farmers with pitchforks trained to defend their homes.
Ga-In returned to court with her other generals marching in. Lu Bai seeing them around Jar'Kai sought to escape in the night before dirgables were overhead dropping soldiers itno the courtyards. His loyal men unsure of what to do as they had fought for years alongside the ones they were going against and had been brought inot the empire since the beginning.
His men were conflicted and Ga-In gave understanding to them. THey had served their master there was no greater display of their character or honor but now they were being asked to fight the ones who he had trained, who he had served and turned on without their input. He was forcing them to kill others. She offered them a chance to walk away under the cover of night with safe passage from their friends.
Many of them left with arrow cover to protect them as they fled and prostated themselves before the empress. THey had fought and killed some but they had been following orders. Following their master, Ga-In wasn't going to dishonor their actions by condemning them but she couldn't dishonor the memory fo the fallen. So she gave it to her men and the families.
THe decision that was given and what they could do was a trial by combat, five champions on each side. The fight was not made to be grand but they could choose their means of battling and even the field. One of them fearful of what might come played a game of the mind against another of her generals. The tower of hanoi styled challenge lasted for an entire year.
It was not something that had been expected but it did provide a means for him to meet others, for him to conversate while contemplating the moves to try and redeem himself for each of his fellow soldiers he had killed. His wife was able to escape and pledge herself to one of the religious orders, his children taken in by some to be raised with honor and to redeem themselves.
The others who were fighting though had become mixed a few showed their skills and what had made them dangerous fighters. Fierce and powerful but they knew how to conduct and fight with honor. Two of them fell to blades one of them mortally wounding his opponent and both were buried with honor. A third fought with his brother who had remained loyal.
In the end the fourth had been the most troublesome. He won his fight after protest. Wanting to face one who had more skill as the young boy to had demanded this be his chance to prove it had been the first to come forward. He was allowed to live but chose to instead aid the family of the man he had killed. A young wife with child who he took in to provide for. Adopting the family crest and colors instead of his own.
Things were beginning to heat up and become dangerous, with Lu Bai still in the city the army would need to go after them with somethignt o break the siege there. Seito would easily hold out and the army was well provisioned but Jar'kai itself was made to last and hold out for years. Ga-in didn't want to have that long of a distraction as the remaining four generals worked to formulate a plan.
THey would assault the city with units at the gates and with dirgables to distract while another team led by the empress was leading the way through the sewers. The attack was her and a small team who would handle all of them when the empress herself donned her blue black armor. Changed over the years but no less impressive with the jeweled metal itself.
IN the morning the assault began and they moved in going through the sewers quickly to not alert and seeing the small reports about the naval forces that had been brought in. The Crimson Kracken returning with some of the long boats they could use on the river and move around as needed. It allowed a few of their more quick moving scout units to get into areas usually less defended.
THey were all moving into the castle itself, the fortress and making a display of it. THe smaller numbers could be cut through and sending her mountain to the gates meant being without his protection but he broke the stalemate. Smashing through the locks of the gate and allowing it to be opened. After a year Jar'kai was being opened to the armies and her others continued.
Uncovering other places to liberate, her closest friend going after what captives there were from their loyal men and women. The Onna-Bugeisha female warriors whose husbands and children were at battle had been garrisoned to protect the city. They had fallen and were captured being locked into a vault under the city but once with swords in their hands they remembered who they were and joined the assault.
The main three that smashed into the castle itself taking the throne room found Lu Bai gone... he had fled and left behind only a handful. The edict was passed and his men executed who hadn't given up. Ga-In returning where they could so that they might rebuild and work on the city itself. With new means or preventing such things like this in the future.
17. THE TURNING POINT:
With Jar'kai retaken there was a massive turning in momentum. Her armies were larger and now Ga-in focused on what would be needed to prevent such things like this again. Contentment, appeasement.. making it so that whatever was being offered was better then what anyone else could offer. The first thing would be an improvement to the world itself.
They were bringing the best minds themselves together for how they could improve. With stone cut roads, fencing and new methods for getting around. Shipping lanes where the boats were able to move around. A mint to make more uniform the currency within the empire, her banners and standards, villages with fences and walls where needed for protection.
They were working on other parts of it as well. The sewer systems in the cities needed to be modernized to reduce the dangers, no more in the streets. Water reserves sectioned off, management of the different areas depending on the time fo the year was a must as well when they started to develop parts of it. Offices to help the people, organize the farming and manufacturing.
The same advancements they were setting up in Sno, along the coast to have ports and watchtowers. THey had been working on more of it though as early warning areas of the coast led itno fotresses and military garrisons. Farmers in the fields were being set up with land as it was divided to what could be managed. The promises and money from the empire going to ensure people were hired and fed.
Industrialization came with the dirgable and manufacturing buildings to get out armor and standard weapons. her men still had their own equipment they could get but now the common soldiers who signed up for hot meals and a bed instead of the streets would have a chance. They also turned to education, advanced learning and everything they could use.
The continued construction of universities brought them to the attention of a few others, improving upon designs and ideas. With secured borders, new areas they could go and her military units being more organized. More focused with some using different weapons, utilizing what they could find and while they had encountered the kensei they also needed some to be their own force users.
They needed to be something different then beauties in the mountains, half naked warriors who killed and religious ones. No force users who could work for them was dedicated. FInding a region of the mountains around jar'kai they started building a citadel and the inquisition was being made. Force hunters who would seek out the empresses enemies and ensure no more betrayal.
Ga-In was also working on what would become greater reforms. Exchange programs to intermix several of the larger clans. To create a sense of unity as the seven arranged marriages were set to take place. New positions at her court for different ones as with a mint and standard currency across the realm brought a need for someone to oversee the coin.
There was also animals to raise, crops, ships to build. Her generals were in the field so for them there were appointed vassals who would run the highest positions within the empire. Even her own had a second... someone who would at the office of chamberlain. Clan Ike and Tagashi were the strongest, most loyal and they had given her strong service.
The two clans though weren't pitted against each other for sport or pposition. They would be a waste of resources and their abilities. They were both her strong hands the left and the right. One taking the position as her minister of coin and the other would work to ensure everything ran when she wasn't in the capital.Ga-In had many more things that were going to need to be handled.
There was Kansai province that still needed to be unified under her rule, parts of it were resisting still but she knew how to fight them. Their long standing fueds were important, their loyal service something that was impressive to everyone and as she worked on a few other parts of it the empress herself was moving around the regions of her empire to ensure everything was being built.
The twenty first year of the unification wars brought a harsh winter to many, outside of the empire where they didn't have what everyone within her borders had been developing. FOr some they thought this was going to be quick but taking an entire planet takes time... people resist and with her children she did have to raise well.. the ones who had managed to stay around.
Her other children who were not in different orders to tie them tot he empire and ensure their loyalty. THe Pearl Prince as they called him was her pride and joy. He was growing into a man now and with that came the prospect of marriage or at least a child. She was still young and able to defend and had a drive with the vision of a united planet.
The pricne himself didn't marry he couldn't find any as interesting... learning from his mothers generals about warfare he went to sea with the crimson kracken and they sailed for a full year while Kansai was under seige to unify it and bring it into the empire. Sailing the coasts until they could some placesrich with plunder to send back or more islands where they could start a garrison to observe.
Several of the islands they found were more mysterious, a former slave colony that had been set up to house and break them but the slaves revolted and turned it into a community since they were isolated. Their help with some of the maps of the sea and some places where wrecks had happened. The mysterious island of ants, the dangerous isle of toads and basilisks.
The Rei as they called themselves had migrated through several of their islands as they moved around. Learning about a handful fo the other islands that had been settled. The isle of tears and an isle of women... marked as one fo the more dangerous as the serpents on the islands. It was full of other things, spiders, insects, eels, things with a hundred different poisons.
18. STAREYES:
Legends are powerful on Atrisia, ancient stories of yovshin thousands of years before there were yovshin, stories of leaders being in charge of ancient empires that seemed impossibly advanced while being tens of thousands of years old. Stories of wonder that seem almost impossible, of ancient ghosts, gods, demons, monsters.... all of them seem to factor in.
Old tales of the Rei, legends really of where they had come from before they were slaves. Living in the northern waters that would freeze over, children of stranded ships that had resorted to eating the other ships when they got trapped. The strange tales of them from the Isle of women that they consorted with mermaids and mermen to produce the oil skinned Rei with their filed teeth.
Tales of the Oni the original beings of Kital Phard. THe older cities support something was there, roads, caves, the remains of ports and statues that seem impossible to move on their own... but no one has been able to figure out what happened to them. Perhaps the sicknesses and dangers of the continent were the real downfall and what might have been an attempt was reclaimed by the jungle.
Tales like Kirie Stareyes who followed a falling star in the night. Her sister Unaga founded her house on the island but Kirie took from the ship that had crashed. THe crystals bing used to replace her missing eyes and she could see horrible things. Visions it is said of white clas soldiers, silver enemies, different armies marching across the surface of Atrisia.
There are the ancient tales of the five forts. Dawn, Dusk, Dragon's Gate, Tiger's Claw and Okiya originally called the Serpents Tail. All fo them are filled with horrible lends, tales of what had happened to them. Slaying, mysterious creatures... the stories of corpses shambling, the dead rising, legends of ghosts and spirits being trapped within.
Memorable tales from around the empire. The forty seven yovshin a story of great honor, the thing that came in the night. A tale of warning and of something more dangerous. Stories about emperors and empresses the descendants of the Jade Empress that met untimely and unfortunate ends.. other who seemed more clever and skilled to live long lives but there were others in between.
So many legends, some that sprouted from the beginnings of the jade empire, Ga-In herself worked to ensure some things would be done and worked on. She didn't want to overblow it all but she did want to have some fo the more fantastical elements there. Her Oni were legendary as tall and flesh eaters. She never dissuaded this rumor allowing them to work as officials who could scare others into following.
THere were the ones from the mountain under ZHang who proved much more then brutes, they had their own laws at one point and society based around their horses. The Ruby Kracken was much the same. Seen as simple and small on land in the sea her ship unleashed cannons and archers able to tear down entire fleets. All fo them were great friends and that is what made it so sad their fates.
The men of the mountains eventually succeeded ZHang, his strength and power had kept them in line for nearly forty years... serving the Empress and before that holding them all together. FOr honor they stayed with them and continued to fight but without him they had lost that edge they had in combat and attacks. THeir riding and archery was weaker then many had expected.
Ga-In quickly moved with Ko Kami Fu, child of ZHang and herself one of the few she had acknowledged the father of. THe girl was a beast of a woman. Tall with broad shoulders and thick muscles. She knew how to fight and had proven that in battle gaining acclaim with her father and mother. She was placed in front of the different riders and proved her worth.
Ga-In herself stayed there and celebrated afterwards, the challenge had been to ride and fight with many of the others and the more dangerous aspects of it. One required that she fend of suitors. A challenge as their moondancers invoked the munin ancient memories of the past. To ascend she had to be able to survive invoking the spirits.
That had been the bigger challenge as she was large and powerful, skilled with sword, axe, bow and with her mother she had learned to ride some of the tigers. A thickly muscled one that was more fierce and loyal to her then anything else. The tiger tore into the horses, into the riders to keep them away from her and Ko Kami Fu managed to protect herself from the usual end result fo the challenge.
Ga-In seeing the power of her daughter was noted as being proud, the first streaks of silver within her hair showing as they drank but she had all of her children. Chiyo the bastard daughter of Ko Kami Fu and someone from the village of Sno. She never revealed who was acknowledged and given status within the mountain tribes. Learning her place as a screamer.
Others within the mountain clans were assembled and brought riches, brought horses and blades. The finest among them, statues, crowns, dresses... everything from enemy kingdoms that they had sacked. Dragging their men and women back to be used as needed. Adopting their children and using them to replace the numbers who might have been lost.
One of the things brought to them was a singer... well a sundancer. Strange beings who were said to see the future. Ko Kami Fu asked her to reveal what she saw in the future for them and if the empire would achieve its goal. She said yes.... but the empress would not live to see the ultimate goal.... she would have a dozen chikdren but the one who would rule all would have gold as his shroud.
Ko Kami Fu did not like this but there was more, predicitons... fancies any number of things could be said about it. A drowned kracken on a bridge that sway and swung, shadow warriors descending upon them and dawn breaking with the strong. Other predictions, some about the lines that would come.... Ga-In was said to have stopped drinking and more listened but Ko Kami Fu had the woman executed for threatening her mother.
The celebration went long into the night, with Chiyo being married by the end of it, a dull wedding though for the history books as only a single person died by most standards. Ga-In left in the morning with her honor guard and the soldiers but she wasn't leaving behind ruins at least. A wedding, a new clan leader who would serve as her general. The line would continue with Chiyo who had given most of the riches rbrought to her grandmother.
19. THE DROWNED KRACKEN:
There were as many victories as defeat, this humble tale shows many of the times when the empress succeeded but there were hardships. One does not unite a planet, a world by being soft no do they manage to do it by being so rigid they cannot accept others. Ga-In had surrounded herself with generals and friends, lovers and others who would play to aspects of her personality.
One that she was fond of was The Ruby Kracken, betwen the two krackens crimson and Ruby the seas were seen as the domain of the Empire. Raiding, tarriffs, pirates and naval fleets of ships that could set out from Sno. Using the power of them both went a long way but they were also turned away at times on the sea. There was the sleeper.
Ancient and dangerous, a ship of legend in many ways that was seen as a death omen, there was the thing that came. A ghost ship where the Ruby Kracken lost five hundred men on a small fleet. All hands disappeared as a month later the ships came into port but there was no signs of battle or sickness. Just the words 'It Came' scratched into the wood.
Then there was something else that came, while off the coast of Kansei province the kracken herself came under cannon fire and was forced to for the moment go through the heart of a storm. The ship being thrown onto rocks and her crew ended up on one fo the thousand islands. THere they worked to send word and get back to the fleets but there was a danger.
On the sea she had dominion, she had power and the pale skinned beauty despite how long she was in the sun had never been seen with a tan or even her hair being afflicted by the sun. Ethereal and beautiful it was no wonder she was sometimes the companion of the empress. Her affections known as she was reputed to have a lover in every port and brothel within access of the sea her true love.
Fighting their way across the island they came to the Tiger's Claw, a fortress that was considered impenetrable because of how remote it was, garrisoned with some of the more dangerous beings. Dark assassins and their dark rings. She surged using what archers remained to try and break the fortress before it had a chance to lock itself down. THey were in disarray from the storm as well.
TO Li the clan head this came as partially a surprise it was said he had fasted and given himself visions of the future. To see know the outcome of his clan fighting the empress who was overtaking the planet. From the reports there the vision had been of the empress putting them all to the sword and suddenly now he was under attack by one of her fiercest generals who had snuck to the island in the storm.
He had seen the actions as brave but such a woman he regarded with disdain not because she was a woman but that she would try and best him on land with a sword instead of her ship with her bow.... he felt insulted that she would think so little of him then to fight him at full strength and as they fought on the bridge it swayed and swung in the rising storm.
Fierceness was one thing to call it as the two of them went at it, as her men unleashed volley's of arrows and used sword, axe or whatever they could find they came to the end. The Kracken fell off the bridge onto the rocks below. Getting washed away with the receding tides and the dark clan claimed a victory. Putting all but one who had witnessed it to the sword and making a plan.
THey would have to go to the capitol it seemed, bring what proof they had and let the witness explain before trying to assassinate the empress and anyone who could pose a threat. THey would have to work on it as he revealed the silent sister. His clans ship. Black sails, muffled oars and a hull of ebony wood that made little light. THey traveled under the cover of night and stayed out of sight.
Infiltrating the city of Jar'kai proved more difficult as it was within the mountains and surrounded. THe river leading upt ot it patrolled and connecting to the sea but the Kracken's had worked to cover it. So they improvised and stole uniforms. By now the one soldier would have returned and spread the news of her death... of their coming and it would be on alert but nothing seemed different.
The clan was uncertain about what to do as they came into the city through the mud gates, at the river they were barred and used mostly to collect aste before it went into the river and sea or to keep things from trying to slip into the city. THe gaps of it could be bypassed with a little elbow grease as it were and had been proven but it was not easy and the Shining Star had anticipated it.
The new shining star, a teenager but he had been given the appointed title because of his honor and dedication to his grandmother. THe pearl prince seducing and having a child with but because of their stations and that they didn't love each other they were just lonely. The bastard daughter often called the Dark Secret wasn't much of one. The empress doted on her, the people loved her.
And she knew how to fight with a strong tactical mind in this case as she fought through the assassins with their leader escaping. He moved towards the palace to try and cut the head off of the empress and save his clan but was confronted by another of her generals. The Sosokan Sama himself who had been investigating the claims of the krackens death and would protect his empress while avenging his friend.
the two of them fought and while he had become older and slower he still managed to injure the assassin dealing a mortal wound that would eventually claim him life... however he was also killed and died in his oldest friends arms. In his anger at seeing a man he regarded as an uncle fall the Pearl Prince demanded that something more be made. Something that could uphold their will and would mirror the honor and dedication that had been shown by their family.
20. DAWN OF THE YOVSHIN:
The latest assassination attempt wasn't going to be the last but it was the most brutal, two of her friends dead, two generals. Age was something she could not defeat and Ga-In brooded over it. THe death of the Ruby Kracken was something she had mourned like all of the others but these were the ones who had started with her and so she resolved to finish the war in their honor to bring everything under her rule.
The two clans though brought it to her attention, the royal guard was not enough, her own soldiers were stretched across the empire bringing it all under her piece by piece and ensuring that rebellion or the modernization of the empire would not be interrupted. Progress required sacrifice and it had come in the form of leaving her vulnerable. So something was formed.
The Yova were the finest soldiers, most loyal to their master her granddaughter, the Shin clan was who recommended it and served as a small but proud clan. Renowned for their moxie and skills with diplomatic talks. They proposed to her soemthing new, something that would serve her better then just taking hostages and wards to train them as loyal vassals.
One child from each clans, great or small, not the heir. The second son, the one who might not have anything waiting for them once their brother or sister took over. They were to be taken and trained. Given purpose as an elite fighting force to the Empress herself. THey were given their own status, their own caste that could be seen as different to the clan leaders.
This would also ensure the loyalty, they would not dishonor themselves by turning against their own caste and status. THey were not fighting for scraps and could be given forts, castles, wealth of their own... their own houses if they wanted it or they could be there in the palace district. Everything made to entice and show how special this new position was.... but there was more.
It would need something, a name that showed the skills and Ga-In in a moment of boredom some say while she was melancholy about the deaths of her generals still said to just combine the names. The Yovshin of Jar'kai were formed, intricately detailed.. strong with armor that set them apart from the standard soldiers, duel swords, the finest horses and servants.
Fortresses were raised with grounds to train them, the Yovshin themselves were highly skilled being trained in all forms but they would also need to be taught poetry, mathematics, navigation, painting, armor crafting, smithing, hair care, medical skills for the battlefield. THe list of skills that were being taught to these fighters went on and on as they also had other things.
Those other things were one of the perks as the second child was brought from each clan and taught, different ones but all of them united under the empress herself who had from some the first borne child serving her in the palace of Jar'kai, the second child of these families was defending her. The clan district where they were housed was a layer around the palace district.
The Yovshin stayed in the first and third district, their training rooms and castles within the city itself on the small rung but they were also taught and trained to move without the massive army at their backs. THink more for themselves and as a reward the pleasure quarters were just a small river ride away for them when they had the off hours. The riches flowed into their estates.
Their weapons, their armor became legendary across atrisia as well as their service and loyalty, in battle Ga-In herself was seen with no less then two hundred Yovshin and as they quickly gained renowned in the twenty fifth year of the unification wars her reputation changed. Her armor was a slightly improved look to make her look like their commander, the jeweled steel of their twin blades and the power of their horses.
THeir numbers swelled as they took inch by inch lesser clans, bringing them into upraised status, one child to serve, one to protect. The ranks of the Yovshin grew and grew until it was its own unit on the battlefield, until it was used to crash the gates of the Fortress of Dusk with their men swarming in. The legends say no one was killed but it was a slaughter for the clan who resisted.
Ga-In herself would no longer be denied as the deaths had hardened her heart and made her dangerous. She marched more and more to the reaches of the continents, near and far until only the hold out kingdoms resisted that had managed to be in some fo the most fortified location. Kuramagi would come but they were still withstanding siege and even being cut off.
There were other places that they would have to go for as Jar'Kai itself continued to be worked on, to make it into a place others couldn't touch. The districts were simple, you had districts for merchants, warriors, teachers, and scholars, monks and religions, yovshin, the larger growing pleasure quarter, the palace district, the clans district, the warf with fishers and farmer bringing trade from the rivers.
Jar'kai flourished under the new districts, with Jei destroyed it was considered the place to go for getting whatever you wanted. Ceremony became important, tea houses and market squares became something large. Entertainment in the mountains and travelers were big, areas provided where new police forces could defend. Outposts along the roads and the beginnings of watchtowers across the empire.
THeir communication was still important and within the Yovshin this was important as some fo the clans brought other skills, their ingenuity for situations led to beacon fires that could be seen and activated quickly across the empire. Different dusts and materials that could change the smoke would allow them to communicate simple ideas and purposes across the empire within messengers and time. It changed the situation of warfare allowing armies to move and assemble quickly.
Koremitsu one fo the retainers of the Empress worked with the dangerous Lady Aoi, a renowned warlord in her time but she had become old and no less dangerous. Now unable to fully swing her sword without tiring herself she had joined the empress in her twilight years and brought with her one of the most dangerous elements. LOng range archers with bows of a special wood or so the story goes.
Koremitsu himself though mostly had the archers there and set up to defend sections fo the river, where they were on the borders and with the more impressive range the longer bows got, with the different poisons and materials they could put onto them including night soil to infect and ensure death of the enemy. THey were set to fire across the small valley pass at another fort. Raining down arrows for three days and nights until the ground was littered with them and the Yovshin horses could charge through leaving a trail.
The pass was easily taken, the clan within were infected from the arrows and sickness around them and dying. Their family had resisted for so long that there would be nothing left as the twin children were the only surviving members. Ga-In was fair and took them as her adopted grandchildren. Iyo and Myobu were often seen at court playing afterwards not knowing their families original fate and it became forbidden to speak of the clan or their mother and father.
Some suspect it was became of their relationship to the Empress and there is some talk.. small details. Asugao the wife of Uron was of a similar appearance to a young Ga-In... her father unknown but the first and major claim is that she was one of the bastards of Ga-In's father who was known for his vices... his family having suffered for it. IF she had fathered her before he died then this hold out was her own sister if even by half blood.
The Yovshin continued to rise in status and acclaim for two years bringing into the twenty eighth year of the Unification wars a new invigoration as the armies of the Jade Empress started to go after the ones who wouldn't break or bend the knee with deadlier tactics. THey had years to consider and reconsider their stance.. it was time to root them out and end the wars by ending them.
