In the days after Caledor the Great created the magical Vortex to stem the tide of Chaos, Ulthuan enjoyed times of prosperity. Prince Malekith travelled far and wide across the globe accruing fame and renown for himself, and the Asur through him. Caledor still held prominence in the kingdoms of the elves, for their dragons did not slumber as they do today. The genesis of perhaps the oldest human civilization bar ancient Nekehara lies here, for upon one summer's eve in those times an ancient dragon, heavy-hearted and world-weary, left the shores of Ulthuan. He was old enough that none remembered his name save for the most learned dragon-sages of Caledor and the elf he deigned to let ride him, Cathan, who had been killed in the Great War ended such a short time ago. Claiming a desire to see the world his friend had sacrificed her life to save, he flew away from Ulthuan, and no one challenged him, for it was a time of peace for the Asur, and dragonhosts were not needed. There was some concern when the ancient did not return after some decades had passed, but before an expedition could be mounted to find the star dragon Malekith launched his ill-fated coup, and there was no time to search. In the years after the black-hearted whores-son had been driven from Ulthuan's shores, the absence of the ancient was gradually forgotten - the elves had other matters to attend to.
The dragon winged across the world, exploring the place he had helped to save. He fought his way across several continents, feasting on the flesh of exotic creatures, and eventually ending up in a series of great flat and fertile lands. Here he made a lair, and tired of the world made to sleep for a millennium or so. Here he would've slumbered uninterrupted until an enterprising dragon ogre stuck a sword into his brain, but for a chieftain's daughter from a tribe called the Huan. Knowing of the beast inhabiting the mountainous lair, she had travelled there in hopes of taking a magical weapon from his hoard, for her tribe was threatened by sure annihilation - the Hung at that time were united under a great leader who retained the blessings of Chaos he had earned in the first incursion, and were but days from annihilating the Huan and swallowing their lands. The girl expected the dragon to be slumbering when she entered his lair, but was not paralyzed by fear upon being beheld by the ancient - instead, having nothing to lose, she asked the dragon to aid her tribe against their aggressors, and offered their everlasting fealty in return. Perhaps her boldness amused the dragon, or perhaps he saw in her a measure of his long-dead friend. Whatever the reason, he accepted the girl's terms, and flew her back to her tribe's lands which were under assault by a branch of the Hung army, perhaps five thousand strong. The dragon obliterated nearly half of them with fire and fang, and those who routed in panic were rounded up by the tribe's forces and killed to the last. In that field of scorched earth and burned corpses, the Huan knelt to the dragon after hearing his terms from their chieftain's daughter, naming him Shen Huanglong, roughly translating to Dragon-Emperor of the Huan.
Over the next decade or so, great change came to the Huan and all who shared the continent with them. Formerly armed with bronze, they were instructed in the making of steel, 'proper' architecture, and various other topics of civilization that Shen Huanglong recalled from his days in Ulthuan. He took command of the tribe's forces and marshalled them into a military unlike anything else on the continent, and with him at their head they crushed and absorbed every petty group around them. Within three years the Huan had grown to such an extent that they were able to meet the Hung horde in battle and crush them utterly, the Dragon-Emperor clashing with their Khan on his manticore mount in the skies above the duelling armies. After that battle, many tribes and clans were quick to pledge their fealty to the growing power. The strange and mystical monastic orders in the mountains and hidden valleys were convinced to lend their aid to the developing nation, and soon Shen Huanglong's nation became one of the preeminent civilizations on the fertile plains, matched only by Nippon, a conglomeration of several powerful feudal monarchies that had long entrenched themselves on the east coast of the continent as opposed to the Huan, who had established a powerbase in the east, near the Mountains of Mourne.
War was inevitable; Shen was too avaricious to allow a rival nation so close to his own and the Nipponese culture was hostile to outsiders. A tenuous peace held for perhaps ten years as tensions grew, and then hostilities broke out over some prefabricated excuse or other. The clash, when it happened, was an explosive series of battlegrounds the like of which would not be seen in the world again until much later, armies of humans grinding each other to the dirt. It was a vast and costly conflict for both sides, but one Nippon was destined to lose. For while the warrior culture of Nippon granted its fighters great prowess, it was little help against the advanced armies the Dragon Emperor fielded - armoured in sophisticated designs of metal, wielding weapons unheard of by the Nipponese, dredged up from Shen's deep memory, and supported by clades of monks that wielded martial arts so deadly and refined they could cut down a score of men in an eyeblink. Nippon lost first one battle, then another, then more, Shen Huanglong's mind proving to have a keen aptitude for strategy, until Nippon as it was had been destroyed entirely, with only great exodus fleets of the nobility evacuating towards the east. These the Dragon-Emperor let flee, for he had been to the islands the Nipponese now ran to, and had judged them of little consequence. Instead he turned his efforts towards unifying the continent under his rule, setting down a strict code of law, worship, and all other such aspects of a civilized society, all set up for his benefit. When at last he judged his work adequate and felt the long sleep drawing him in temporarily again, he named the girl who had found him, now middle-aged, Interim Secretary-Emperor. His last decree before entering his slumber atop the Peak of Heaven's Abode was to name his newly forged nation - Great Cathay, so that a remnant of his long-dead friend would endure for eternity.
The Nipponese, meanwhile, did as men do, and survived. Their fleets eventually landed on an island chain to the east, which they named Nippon, after the land which had been stolen from them. Despite the presence of a population of ogres which had somehow made their way over there, they did well, and eventually built a harsh society over the years to reflect their harsh outlook on life. They never forgave Shen Huanglong for taking their ancestral lands from them.
The Nipponese are a harsh people - they retain both the feudal culture and warrior-like nature from so long ago, and have developed a culture of strict focus and controlled anger. Their feudal lords, called shogun, each control a portion of land and those who live upon it. They enforce their authority with warriors roughly equivalent to Imperial knights, called senshi. The training and equipment of the senshi typically depends on each individual shogun, but their code of honor compels them to hold themselves to a high standard. Additionally, they're near-universally trained in dragon-killing tactics.
These are not the only notable forces in Nippon, however. Mastery of fighting is widespread, with even peasants who farm rice for a living being proficient in unarmed and armed combat. Attempting to sack a Nipponese village is often dangerous to the unwary, like chopping down a tree only to find it is made of iron. Additionally, there is a good number of magic users present in the country, for their strict culture and mannerisms aids with preventing daemonic possession. Often those mages in the employ of the shoguns use their skills to make darkly enchanted gear for the senshi, preferring not to fight on the battlefield themselves. It is not known what powers they wield, but judging from the artifacts high-ranking senshi bear, they are both strange and deadly. There are also a significant population of woods witches, wild druids who live in the forests to the interior of the islands. They are rarely seen but often heard of, able to transform themselves into strange creatures such as foxes with many tails. They are rarely seen even by Nipponese eyes, much less outsiders, and little is known about them.
The gods of Nippon are not like those of the Empire or other nations in the Old World. Instead of a fixed pantheon of mighty gods the Nipponese worship what they call the ka, the gods that exist in everything. They are innumerable spirits that are usually tied to a specific location or object rather than a process or concept like 'conventional' gods. Nipponese myth says that the ka may be of greater or lesser strength depending on what they are ka of - the ka of one tree will be subservient to that of the whole forest - but all must be treated with respect or misfortune will come to those who dare to disrespect them. This ties into Nippon's culture of discipline and respect, for if one even uses a tool carelessly it may not cooperate or even injure them, and a field will not grow crops if not properly beseeched beforehand. It is unclear the level of strength the ka exert upon the world, and whether they truly exist or are just the Nipponese way of justifying patience and diligence, for the ka do not choose champions or bless men like other gods do. Instead, those men who seemingly enjoy supernatural blessings actually fight with their gods on their side - a swordsman who diligently maintains his sword every day and uses it properly and justly will see his blade stay sharp and cut down his enemies with greater ease for so long as he maintains his respect toward its ka. Thus the Nipponese ideal is someone who pleases and respects the ka in all aspects of life, for by proper conduct do the good ka prosper, and as they prosper, so do men. On occasion, however, when disrespected, a ka may grow bitter towards the humans who live within its domain, and begin to wish them ill. If not averted, the ka becomes dark and twisted, a malevolent thing seeking to upset the natural order of all it comes across. Fortunately, there exist priest analogues in Nippon, who act more as spiritual diplomats than appeasers like priests of the Old World. They travel across the land seeking out sources of discord, and negotiate with the unhappy spirit in the center of its domain, convincing it to forgive the trespasses of the humans in its domain by offering it appropriate recompense. Thus is balance kept in Nippon's spiritual landscape, and it is an arrangement both men and ka benefit from.
Lastly there are the Night Clans, or Yami as they are sometimes known. They are Nippon's best kept secret, elusive, deadly, and utterly mysterious. They live in hidden enclaves far from the eyes of civilization where they hone their deadly arts and offer the faces of their victims to their secret lord who they speak not of. No one knows where they truly came from, only that their faces, when they deign to show them, are Nipponese. If it were not for that, some would question if they were truly mortal, or a race of demons. They occasionally take a child, it matters not where from, be it a shogun's son or a merchant's daughter, and take them to raise in their way. They have power over the night and shadow, and can kill with seemingly a flick of the finger. Their acolytes often spend years masquerading as beggars in the streets of villages and cities, which has lead to a custom of being unfailingly polite to any beggar that crosses one's path in Nippon, no matter how filthy, obnoxious, or bedraggled. The shoguns often contract them for assassinations against each other and unruly subjects, which they carry out without fail, always for an obscene amount of wealth or other compensation. The only target they have ever failed to kill, and the only one they will make an attempt on with no charge, is the Dragon Emperor of hated Cathay.
AN: My apologies to anyone who speaks Japanese and reads this, the vaguely Japan-ish words were pretty much entirely taken from google translate.
