A R C H I V I S T
[SIZE=26pt]Tiantang[/SIZE]
Region: Unknown
System: Tiantang
Suns: Single yellow dwarf star, locally named Taiyang.
Orbital Position: 4th Planet in the system, within the habitable zone.
Moons: Tsukino
System Features: Including Tiantang, there are 11 celestial bodies that can be classified as planets. Five are considered terrestrial, while the remaining six are gaseous planets. The Jin have colonized four of the terrestrial world, while have begun to mine minerals from the gaseous planets’ natural satellites.
Coordinates: North of Solovarna, along the upper right edge of the hexagon.
Rotational Period: 30 hours per “day”.
Orbital Period: 400 local days per Orbital Period.
Class: Terrestrial
Diameter: About 13,000 km, comparable to Earth's
Atmosphere: Type I, Breathable.
Climate: Temperate
Gravity: Standard
Primary Terrain: One is most likely to find temperate forests and plains on Tiantang. In the region near the poles of the world, there are tundra and artic biomes. The planet is mostly of a mild climate, shifting between cold winters and warm summers during the responding times in Tiantang’s orbital period.
Native Species:
Jin
Keun-Yong
Immigrated Species:
Humans- Archaic, ancestors of the local Near-Human Jin species. No population present at the moment.
Primary Languages: Yuyan (Traditional Jin Language), Galactic Standard (Adopted), regional dialects descended from Yuyan.
Government: Constitutional Monarchy, with Emperor acting as Head of State.
Population: 6 billion
Demonym: Tianese
Major Imports: From the Jin Empire's extraterrestrial colonies, there are largely imports of minerals from mining. There seems to be a great market at the moment for steel-base alloys from the system's 6th planet (a ringed gas planet ala Saturn).
Major Exports: Between Tiantang and the Jin Empire’s colonies, there is a healthy trade of agricultural goods and mechanical resources. Particularly, there is booming market for various teas.
Affiliation: The Jin Empire, the local interplanetary government headquartered on Tiantang.
Major Locations:
The Imperial Palace – The home of the Emperor and his immediate family. It has been the center of power in the Empire for many millennia, going back to the First Emperor commissioning to build it. Within it are at least thirty incomplete skeletal specimens of Keun-Yong, all remnants of kills done by previous Jin Emperors. It also serves as the main station of tutelage for the Emperor’s children.
The Fangshi-Da Temple – The leading monastery of the Fangshi order of monks. Contained within it is the ancient silver egg, an archaic starship that brought the Jin’s human ancestors to Tiantang. It serves as the home of both the Grand Master of the Order and most elderly monks who have brought good service to their Order.
Culture:
The overall culture of the Jin is one dictated by one’s honor and discipline. All Jin races believe in honoring your family, self, and your guests. Any perceived insult usually met with a need for apology or, in the most rare and severe cases, death. The Jin are very disciplinarian, believing that having regimented and ordered lives helps stave off foolishness and behavioral problems. All Jin within the Empire fall under the rule of the ruling Emperor.
Most Jin follow the Fangshi religion, also known as “The Way”. Fangshi is appears to be a local Force-driven faith, with monks of its order appearing to have an almost Gray Jedi philosophy on balance in the Force. However, unlike the Jedi, Fangshi monks do not practice offensive martial arts like swordsmanship, instead opting to meditate and use defensive hand-to-hand combat to subdue attackers. The Grand Master of the monks is also tasked with teaching the Emperor’s heir apparent, especially in controlling their Force powers, as the Imperial family appears to have a strong connectivity in the Force.
With the Riben-Jin, honor is taken more strictly than the other Jin races. Most honor disputes end with one-on-one combat, a severe apology in the form of servitude, or a ritualistic self-execution if one feels the insult was grave enough. Riben-Jin are well known for their blacksmiths, known to be among the best blade-makers in the Empire.
The Kagans are the most dissimilar in comparison to the other two Jin races. They are less industrialized, living in mostly tribal conditions. Tribes keep to themselves, raising agriculture. Particularly, Kagan-Jin are proficient in equestrian arts, as they are descendants of great barbarian conquerors known for their mounted combat. Also unlike their Yu or Riben cousins, Kagans follow shamanist religion.
Concerning government, the Jin follow a constitutional monarchy, with the Emperor acting as Head of State, and regional governors taking input from locals on laws. Recent generations have also seen equality for women as well, allowing them to apply for the same positions as men and not be treated differently or paid differently. As such, the Emperor’s current heir apparent is his eldest daughter.
The Jin military is very minute, with most of it being applied to act as guardsmen to royals and officials, or as the policing body of Imperial law. Jin are also known for a passionate for creative arts, with a cultural disposition to stage plays based on myth, and written poetry.
Technology: Most Jin technology appears to be on par with that of the rest of the tech savvy parts of the Galaxy. They certainly make use of droids, blasters, holo-tech, and interplanetary star-craft. However, it has only been recently that the Jin have been able to create a functioning hyperdrive / FTL engine.
History:
According to Jin manuscripts, their history begins when their ancestors fell from the stars on to Tiantang in a silver egg. From there, the first Jin stepped upon their new world, the egg unable to take them back to the stars. However, broader galactic history would clarify the Jin’s fables as the crash landing of an Old Republic expeditionary ship on the planet now known as Tiantang while exploring the Unknown Regions. The majority of the ship’s inhabitants were humans, among which were a few Jedi. There, the ancient Jin defended themselves for generations from the natural apex predator of Tiantang, the Keun-Yong. Savage dragon-like beasts that could harness the Force in ways other animals could not.
Yet, the ancient Jin prevailed against these ferocious creatures, creating a tradition among the later Emperors. Most of Jin history saw civil war after civil war among its people, tribes against tribes. However, one leader from the Yu-Jin people brought about peace between the tribes. This leader later became recorded in Jin history as the First Emperor. The First Emperor was known to wield a strange, burning blade that was claimed to belong to his clans’ ancestors. The same or similar weapon has since become the weapon of Emperor’s heir. Once in every few generations, there would be dissatisfaction among the people, causing one ruler to be disposed of before putting a new dynasty on the throne. With each emperor of a new dynasty, they had to prove themselves worthy by slaying a Keun-Yong.
In the past 1000 standard years, the Jin have made great strides in technology. Most of it was reverse-engineered from the silver egg of the ancestors, contained within a holy site from its landing point. Within the last 200 years, however, communications constructs across both Tiantang and the rest of the Empire have been picking up stray messages from beyond their native solar system. It took many years to translate the messages, leading to the adoption of Basic as spoken language, and the creation of a successful hyperdrive system. However, there have been strange occurrences have occurred on Tiantang as a result of greater influences in the galaxy. Firstly, during an early FTL mission test, the crew returned with a sickness unknown to the Jin Empire (the rest of the Galaxy knows is as Gulag). Because of protocols put into place for space travel, the infected crew were isolated from general population and the virus was studied it. Because of the isolation of the infected, only the crew of around three-thousand individuals and some of their handlers. Secondly, around 844 ABY in the standard calendar, a large number of people, most of them Fangshi Monks, disappeared in a phenomena that no one was able to explain. The Fangshi Elders postulated the idea that these individuals were randomly ascended in the Force. Now, the Jin’s first FTL craft has been sent on an ambassadorial mission to introduce the fledgling Jin Empire to the rest of the known galaxy.
Notable PCs: None Yet
Intent: To create a homeworld for the future, playable, Asiatic-themed Jin species, and the respective Jin Empire faction.
