Post by brownholio on Mar 16, 2019 16:43:10 GMT -5
History
Four-thousand years ago, the Hylotl were little more than fledgeling primitives living in the shallows of the ocean and the tropical coast on their home world of Kyasekai. Bottom-feeders which grew light-dependent crops to survive, they bred their own culture and society over thousands of years. Hierarchy was dependent on han, the domains of which a large concentration of farms owned by one family resided. These han were ruled by daimyos, usually the eldest male of the ruling family.
The han attracted masses of population which, for food, board, and protection from the daimyo, tended the fields and performed other jobs within the han. Villages, towns, and eventually cities formed in these han, usually centric around the daimyo’s residence, which evolved from large huts to quaint manors and eventually to grandiose castles and fortresses.
And with these grand hans and castles, contempt was sown outside. For hundreds of years, it was unheard of for anyone but raiders sworn to no daimyo to attempt to attack and pillage hans, necessitating only a small amount of peasant retainers and seasonal draftees, called ashiga
to swiftly repel raiders. However, the rules of combat were swiftly rewritten in the new age of which, for the first time, han were attacked by other daimyos with their ashigaru levies.
A new caste rose from this. The seasonal drafting of ashigaru required them to be released to tend to their farms and other duties during the warmer seasons, making a constant-dependable army impossible to maintain. Some ashigaru that were well-known for combat prowess, especially those ashigaru with noble blood (being related to a daimyo directly or otherwise a member of a daimyo’s court), elevated to a level in which they were relinquished their peasant duties and were full-time practitioners of combat, known only as samurai.
Armed with tempered blades, armor, and fair amounts of wealth, these samurai formed the solid, dependable core of a daimyo’s army in year-round endeavors. While ashigaru were the meat of the force, the samurai were the bone. Competent in both the defense of hans and the assault on the hans of enemy daimyos, these samurai were often awarded positions of aristocracy in the large hans which occupied massive swathes of coastline.
One daimyo of a particular powerful and wealthy han central to the blocs of han which encompassed the pangea-like continent on Kyasekai, named Ishikura Iesada, was a particularly staunch believer in that which was divine, holding true to the religion of the Hylotl people. His belief was that of which he had a divine right to unite the han into a union, an empire, with him as ruler.
Indoctrinating his samurai and peasants, he led a crusade of six decades upon which many daimyos had either submitted or allied to the Iesada clan, and he declared himself Emperor of the Hylotl. However, his rule lasted only seven years before death of illness. His son had died in battle during the campaigns and in his later years he had left no heir.
Samurai and daimyo vied for the now divinely mandated throne. Demagogues rallied peasants and revered daimyos expanded their units of samurai. Nearly two centuries of fighting with small lulls ensued, ending with the utter exhaustion of manpower and will to fight. When the final hans conceded, the daimyo Inao Eshige of the Inao clan came out on top.
Fearful of being usurped, and now a fervent pacifist (as were many Hylotl) after the massive bloodshed witnessed, the new emperor confiscated the weaponry of all but the daimyos and immediate aristocracy, and reorganized the territories of each han to allow for the fair and effective governance of the peasantry. An era of peace dawned over Kyasekai.
This lasted through nearly two millennia, falling short at 1,700 years of peace. During this period, the arts boomed and society thrived. Music and painting replaced war and bloodshed. But the art of combat had not entirely disappeared. Controlled fights for the entertainment of the masses were held often. The contestants used dulled blades and padded armor, a pure test of combat prowess which almost never resulted in bloodshed or death.
The same imperial family ruled for the entire time, and ushered in new reforms. The samurai, through the absence of war, were replaced by politicians and artisans. The practice of mandatory ashigaru levies were abolished. As technology evolved, cities grew, and the super continent on Kyasekai massed into a continent of continuous skyline, and cities extended even out into the oceans.
They took to the stars in 2155, using a primitive form of erchius drive to occupy their home system and the immediate area. They had awakened a power far worse than they could’ve prepared for. Florans, the vile and savage plant race, attacked en masse. A massive tribe led by a Greenfinger, the name for a great tribe leader in Floran culture (akin to a Khan), took the pacifistic Union of Clans by storm.
They burned whole worlds, but, in a seeming genius tactic from their Greenfinger, did not infest the razed worlds, but kept the Hylotl on the defensive, on a path straight to Kyasekai. As the war raged, the Hylotl warriors returned, modern samurai and ashigaru, officers and volunteers which wielded energy weapons and blades, made their stand. The defenses of Kyasekai were tested for three years, until the Greenfinger abandoned his attempt, limping all the way out of Hylotl space.
The war ended in 2246, and since then, the Hylotl have maintained relative peace, even through interactions with all races, though they have not made their mistake again, and maintain a capable defense force including naval and ground assets. Their current ruler is Empress Iano Yumao, the 34th in the Iano dynasty, though the current Imperial family has no real sway, the Union being governed by a democratically elected Shusho, or Prime Minister, and a single-house legislative body.
(More to come soon!)
Four-thousand years ago, the Hylotl were little more than fledgeling primitives living in the shallows of the ocean and the tropical coast on their home world of Kyasekai. Bottom-feeders which grew light-dependent crops to survive, they bred their own culture and society over thousands of years. Hierarchy was dependent on han, the domains of which a large concentration of farms owned by one family resided. These han were ruled by daimyos, usually the eldest male of the ruling family.
The han attracted masses of population which, for food, board, and protection from the daimyo, tended the fields and performed other jobs within the han. Villages, towns, and eventually cities formed in these han, usually centric around the daimyo’s residence, which evolved from large huts to quaint manors and eventually to grandiose castles and fortresses.
And with these grand hans and castles, contempt was sown outside. For hundreds of years, it was unheard of for anyone but raiders sworn to no daimyo to attempt to attack and pillage hans, necessitating only a small amount of peasant retainers and seasonal draftees, called ashiga
to swiftly repel raiders. However, the rules of combat were swiftly rewritten in the new age of which, for the first time, han were attacked by other daimyos with their ashigaru levies.
A new caste rose from this. The seasonal drafting of ashigaru required them to be released to tend to their farms and other duties during the warmer seasons, making a constant-dependable army impossible to maintain. Some ashigaru that were well-known for combat prowess, especially those ashigaru with noble blood (being related to a daimyo directly or otherwise a member of a daimyo’s court), elevated to a level in which they were relinquished their peasant duties and were full-time practitioners of combat, known only as samurai.
Armed with tempered blades, armor, and fair amounts of wealth, these samurai formed the solid, dependable core of a daimyo’s army in year-round endeavors. While ashigaru were the meat of the force, the samurai were the bone. Competent in both the defense of hans and the assault on the hans of enemy daimyos, these samurai were often awarded positions of aristocracy in the large hans which occupied massive swathes of coastline.
One daimyo of a particular powerful and wealthy han central to the blocs of han which encompassed the pangea-like continent on Kyasekai, named Ishikura Iesada, was a particularly staunch believer in that which was divine, holding true to the religion of the Hylotl people. His belief was that of which he had a divine right to unite the han into a union, an empire, with him as ruler.
Indoctrinating his samurai and peasants, he led a crusade of six decades upon which many daimyos had either submitted or allied to the Iesada clan, and he declared himself Emperor of the Hylotl. However, his rule lasted only seven years before death of illness. His son had died in battle during the campaigns and in his later years he had left no heir.
Samurai and daimyo vied for the now divinely mandated throne. Demagogues rallied peasants and revered daimyos expanded their units of samurai. Nearly two centuries of fighting with small lulls ensued, ending with the utter exhaustion of manpower and will to fight. When the final hans conceded, the daimyo Inao Eshige of the Inao clan came out on top.
Fearful of being usurped, and now a fervent pacifist (as were many Hylotl) after the massive bloodshed witnessed, the new emperor confiscated the weaponry of all but the daimyos and immediate aristocracy, and reorganized the territories of each han to allow for the fair and effective governance of the peasantry. An era of peace dawned over Kyasekai.
This lasted through nearly two millennia, falling short at 1,700 years of peace. During this period, the arts boomed and society thrived. Music and painting replaced war and bloodshed. But the art of combat had not entirely disappeared. Controlled fights for the entertainment of the masses were held often. The contestants used dulled blades and padded armor, a pure test of combat prowess which almost never resulted in bloodshed or death.
The same imperial family ruled for the entire time, and ushered in new reforms. The samurai, through the absence of war, were replaced by politicians and artisans. The practice of mandatory ashigaru levies were abolished. As technology evolved, cities grew, and the super continent on Kyasekai massed into a continent of continuous skyline, and cities extended even out into the oceans.
They took to the stars in 2155, using a primitive form of erchius drive to occupy their home system and the immediate area. They had awakened a power far worse than they could’ve prepared for. Florans, the vile and savage plant race, attacked en masse. A massive tribe led by a Greenfinger, the name for a great tribe leader in Floran culture (akin to a Khan), took the pacifistic Union of Clans by storm.
They burned whole worlds, but, in a seeming genius tactic from their Greenfinger, did not infest the razed worlds, but kept the Hylotl on the defensive, on a path straight to Kyasekai. As the war raged, the Hylotl warriors returned, modern samurai and ashigaru, officers and volunteers which wielded energy weapons and blades, made their stand. The defenses of Kyasekai were tested for three years, until the Greenfinger abandoned his attempt, limping all the way out of Hylotl space.
The war ended in 2246, and since then, the Hylotl have maintained relative peace, even through interactions with all races, though they have not made their mistake again, and maintain a capable defense force including naval and ground assets. Their current ruler is Empress Iano Yumao, the 34th in the Iano dynasty, though the current Imperial family has no real sway, the Union being governed by a democratically elected Shusho, or Prime Minister, and a single-house legislative body.
(More to come soon!)