OH BOY OH BOY IT'S TIME!
It's time for the talk about Emerald Seas Identity!
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Let's talk about the Celestial Empire first for some context. The Celestial Empire was founded by an orphaned child of great talent, who was adopted by a dragon so that she could assert her own dominance of the spirit court at the height of Heavenly Peaks. She would change through this bond, but she would also influence the human culture of Heavenly Peaks in return. The Draconic influence is palpable throughout the Empire, in that nearly every connection is one of competition in a dominance hierarchy. Dragons have no equals, only those beneath them and those above them. The strongest rule, and are absolutely dominant over the weak. Everything is a hierarchy. You can see a similar influence in the Bai region, as Grandmother Serpent is the daughter of a Dragon. The Bai are different in their expression of Draconic Hierarchy, yet have many similarities with the Peaks. The Zheng's spirit of competitiveness and their "Rule of the Strong" was also able to integrate with Draconic Hierarchy. Despite the differences between their cultures so long as the Emperors were the Strongest and came to prove themselves in competitions, they would be able to acquiesce to Draconic Rule.
Where the Bai and the Zheng had a number of similarities to Draconic Hierarchy, the Weilu were something else entirely.
The Emerald Seas were ruled by Beast Kings. Humans were used as slaves because they were not fit for eating, and were the lowest rung of the Dominance Hierarchy of the Beast Kings. Tsu was a human who grew up in such an Emerald Seas, and spent his time listening and observing the Heavens and the Land. Tsu would develop a system of agriculture that focused on working with the harmonies of the Heavens and the Land to increase yield and reduce the required upkeep. At some point in his explorations of harmony, he found a way to cultivate much strength in himself. To prove his strength, he wrestled The Horned Lord (who was not one of the Beast Kings) and earned the respect needed to become Blood-Brothers with him. Together, Tsu the Diviner and The Horned Lord would challenge all of the tyrannical Beast Kings to a battle in the shadow of Xiangmen (which housed a sizeable human settlement).
There's something fundamentally different about the Emerald Seas in comparison to all other known provinces. The strongest being in the Emerald Seas is Xiangmen, and Xiangmen does not dominate.
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In the battle between The Beast Kings and the Horned brothers, the Beast Kings would be slain by the intervention of Xiangmen. It may surprise you to know that the Beast Kings still exist in the Emerald Seas. We've actually already seen them. Their bent and broken corpses still serve the Emerald Seas as the thrones of the Court of Xiangmen. Just as Xiangmen is able to shelter and nurture multitudes of weaker beings with their great Strength, now the Beast Kings serve weaker beings in perpetuity. Their bodies will forever raise up those they sought to dominate, serving their erstwhile subjects in a way more aligned with Xiangmen than the petty Dominance of Beasts that came before.
The root of the issue in Emerald Seas is the integration of Imperial and Weilu cultures that has never quite succeeded. The deeply inter-Connected Weilu tore themselves asunder in the Dominance War that was the Masons' War. The only survivors of that conflict were the most Isolated of the Weilu, and their connection to the Horned Lord became lost in that Isolation. While the increased Isolation allowed them to succeed for a time, they would ultimately disappear entirely for the same reason that they survived the Masons' War.
The Xi used their Connections with the rest of the Empire to dominate the succession crisis that occurred after the Weilu disappearance, and embraced the violent expansionism and domination ideas of the Empire. Those same connections would prove to be their undoing, as they committed so much to Golden Fields that the near-total destruction of that province struck them low enough to be challenged for their throne. The many powerful vassals they had sewn during their massive expansions had already begun to strain the limits of the Xi's ability to dominate, and after the crippling losses in Golden Fields one of those vassals would take the risk and assassinate the ruling Xi. Thus began another succession crisis.
The Hui, the vassals that had assassinated the last Xi to rule, would end up at the top of the heap in the crisis that followed. The Hui spun webs of Connection across the province that were based on Individualism. The success of individuals in the various Dominance Games of Clan and Country was their favored domain. So long as those competing in these Dominance Competitions were virtuous, the province would benefit by the strength of strong individuals. This would, of course, fall apart completely when rigid virtuousness made one a less flexible competitor. Over time the system would devolve in a similar way to other systems that favor the Victory of Individuals over the Collective Good. Selfishness and self-centered ambition would create a weak ability to achieve collective goals, and various collective crises would further and further challenge the corruption until something broke it. In this case it was the coming of Ogodei, and the actions of the Argent Heroes that defeated him. I could next talk about the duchess Cai, but I think there's something more interesting to say of the Argent Heroes.
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The Argent Heroes were from all over the Empire. They were individuals that, for one reason or another, wanted to escape the struggles of their homeland and indulge in their own passions without needing to worry about Dominance Games that were often crippling or lethal. Connections were forged between these friends, as they lived and grew in the Sect that they all called "Home". The various individual differences and the ways they found to work together using those differences would culminate into what are now known as the Argent Arts. These are Arts that make use of elements that seem conflicting to perform powerful feats that neither alone could succeed at.
Ogodei would come to the Argent Sect and kill the mighty Dragon that ruled the Thunder Palace. This was the act that convinced that dragon's son to bond with Yuan He, and galvanized the Argent Heroes into intervening against Ogodei. They would spend some time training further, gathering strength and coordinating with Crown Prince An and Sima Jiao in their efforts. The Empire was vital in making sure that the Argent Heroes had their chance to slay Ogodei, but the actual slaying was all the product of the Emerald Seas. That's important, because some of the Heroes that fell in that battle weren't originally of the Emerald Seas. Instead, they were willing to fight and die for their adopted homeland even as the Hui and others refused to. The Family made of Choice stronger than any of those relying only on Blood.
Inspired by this moment, some of the earliest reforms of Emperor An would be the establishment of Imperial Support for a "Great Sect Program" as well as a "Noble Writ for Talent" that would combine into a significantly more Meritocratic System for Nobility. Something that was outside the ability for local Nobles to Dominate, and would be able to advance those that were talented not just those of the right bloodline or loyalty. One of the first commoners to receive that Noble Writ would be named Cai, and he would send his daughter to the Argent Sect when she came of age.
It is in that Sect that Cai Shenhua was forged. This Sect, whose heroes had inspired the reforms that allowed Shenhua's Father to succeed, would lay the foundations of the next Ducal Clan of Emerald Seas.
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The unions and Connections facilitated by the Empire are an excellent thing. The efficacy of their styles and ideas is generally quite good. The major issue with the Empire overall is that of Dominance. The dominance struggle between the Twilight King and his younger brother ruined the majority of Golden Fields and slew the Purifying Sun. The dominance struggles during dynastic changes have ruined large regions of the Heavenly Peaks. The dominance struggles led to the puppet emperors and the massive corruption (and weakness) which An had to attempt to set-aright. The dominance struggle got the Sage Emperor trapped and killed in Red Garden, and the child of that violence still rules to this day.
The Argent Sect better embodies Imperial Unity than any other group we know of including the Heavenly Peaks. Cai Shenhua comes from it, and is certainly the highest cultivation active proponent of Imperial Unity in the Empire. This sort of unity was important in the time of Tsu the Diviner, yet has been absent in the Emerald Seas for unknown millennia. This is the root of a cohesive Emerald Seas Identity, in my opinion. Let me quote In the Shadow of Xiangmen here, with a vision of what I see:
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"
The wind died, the light faded.
Then it burned again. O how it burned.
Pink and gold, white and orange a hundred hundred colors washed out, shining through the web. And it did not just shine down. Where men and women fought, it shown, where friends died at the feet of friends it shone, where warriors raged it shone, where tears filled eyes it shone.
And it redoubled again and again. The Heavenly King's shone, the tattered and dying marsh Mist shone, the wounded Wolf shone, the Prince of the Earth Shone, even the meanest soldier shone. And with each person's mind which was cast in its rays, the Ideal burned brighter, shot through now with color.
They could not look upon it. The Ideal, the radiance, was not something for the hearts and minds of humans could withstand. It was not something which could be reached and held, but only fought for and sought.
But it burned in the hearts of each one all the same now, a spark born of the second sun in the sky, leaving no shadows under Xiangmen. For one day at least, the Ideal burned in every heart, and even the most primal of terrors held no purchase.
The net of spiritual filth burned away in a light no longer colorless, and it its core were two in embrace.
As the light shone on kilometers thick bark and leaves larger than sails, their was a shift in the air, no more than a rustling of leaves.
Defenses older than the Empire thrummed thoughtfully, and shut down.
Four hands brought down a sword of light, and the Thrones of Heaven crumbled.
"
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The individual Ideal is what unifies, but it's the collection of colors and interpretations of such that Empower it. The Ideal, alone, is trapped and strangled by webs of spiritual filth. It's through Connection and Understanding that the Ideal is made strong enough to overcome that filth, and embody strength enough for even mighty Xiangmen to consider them.
I believe the empathy and interconnections of the Emerald Seas are unique among Imperial Provinces, and that the embrace of such in a Provincial Identity will be able to spill over and positively affect the other provinces in a similar way that Tsu's Agricultural Revolution was able to help others. Strong Kingdoms only strengthen the Empire, so long as they're virtuous. One of the virtues is loyalty, is it not?
[X] Encourage and lean into this strange thinking about the Emerald Seas. (+1 Community XP, ???)
