The Shogunate Period

The Shogunate period refers to the period lasting roughly six centuries between the fall of the Realm Before and the coming of the Thousand Tragedies. Modern scholars regard this period as the foundation of the 8th-century modern Realm; the populace generally regards it as a time of heroes, garden romances, assassins, and other frivolities befitting historical fiction.

The Shogunate period can be roughly divided into the Early Shogunate and the Late Shogunate. The Early Shogunate was characterized by the development of the refinery economy, the spread of Immaculacy, and the codification and prevalence of diplomatic, economic, and cultural norms under the shared banner of the Shogun. The Late Shogunate, by contrast, was characterized by the decay of those very same norms, the decline of shared identity, and the rise of warfare between former allies.

The Refinery Economy

One of the defining traits of the early Shogunate was the refinery economy, a model focused on export to subsidiary states. Under the refinery economy, the Shogunate states can be divided into two categories: the allodial-states, located on the Isle, and the marcher-states, located in the periphery.

The refinery economy model codified jade as the most valuable currency in Creation, surpassing silver within the early years of the Shogunate. Under this paradigm, the primary duty of the allodial-states is the mining, production, and export of jade to their subsidiaries, the marcher-states. The marcher-states produce tangible goods which flow back to their allodial-state superiors as the price of jade, which is then used by the marcher-states in assembling jade goods or held as reserve.

The refinery economy was only really possible because of the unique threats of the Shogunate period – massive fair folk invasions, raids by the Anathema who escaped the Usurpation, unruly gods defying the spread of Immaculacy – that mandated the widespread production of jade goods like weaponry and defensive towers. The marcher-states were thus rendered fully dependent on the allodial-states for their security, and the allodial-states accrued tangible wealth by collecting goods from their client marcher-states abroad.

Political, Economic, and Military Norms

The Shogunate was nominally united under the authority of a shogun, the supreme military authority of the state. Beneath the Shogun were many daimyo, who wielded authority over individual Legions or collections of Legions. All daimyo technically answered back to the shogun, who held supreme authority.

In reality, the position of shogun weakened drastically with each year that passed after the death of the first shogun. During the IInd century, the position of shogun was stripped of most effective authority, and essentially rendered a gold stamp on the authority of the individual daimyos. At times, and for almost the entirety of the IVth century, the position of Shogun was empty, and a Regent (the most powerful daimyo, naturally) ruled in her place.

Although the position of the shogun was quickly reduced in authority, the shogun was nonetheless a vital fiction that united the Shogunate states and lead to the development of a shared set of political, economic, and military norms. The support of the Immaculate Faith’s lineages for the singular authority of the shogun ensured that the position remained; and since the position remained, so too did a vague sense of unity betwen the states.

Throughout the Shogunate, even during the decline of norms in the later centuries, the daimyos sent representatives from their courts to the courts of their fellows to engage in diplomacy. The states traded amongst themselves, even paying a small tribute to the shogun in the form of weapons and service. The states made war among themselves, but in a very formal manner, involving a competitive marshaling of troops and the application of a strict set of tactics and agreed-upon stratagems, more like a game than actual war.

The Gentes

The foundational unit of family in the Shogunate was not the Great House, like in the Realm, but instead the gens (plural gentes). Unlike the Great Houses, which incorporate dozens of families and bloodlines and permit endogamy, the gentes were mostly composed of singular bloodlines (and, thus, strictly exogamous with one another).

The gentes are in many ways prototypes of the Great Houses, but more specialized and smaller. Where the Empress has only raised, at most, eleven simultaneous houses, there were dozens of active gentes competing for status within the Shogunate, often a dozen or more in the larger states like Shian and P’okku.

The head of each individual gens was known as the imperator, and the daimyo of a given state was usually the imperator of the most powerful gens within that state. In addition to the political, economic, and military norms of the period, a complicated ritual environment arose for marriage and children. Negotiations for marriages could take decades for Dragon-Blooded scions; in many ways, the Shogunate period’s marriages are much like the Realm’s today, but even more obtuse and complex.

The gentes are a frequent subject of popular fiction in the Realm, often depicting heroic gentes like the Sakeraha and the Unumuu, and famous villains like the corrupt and merciless demon-cult gens Ykral. The resemblance of these stereotypes to reality is tenuous at best (although, to be fair, gens Ykral was actually destroyed by its neighbors for their illicit worship of demons, so that part is accurate). Popular fiction often depicts starcrossed lovers from rival gens, or heroic and honorable knights struggling to find a balance between their filial piety and their personal ambition.

The Rise of Immaculacy

The Immaculate Faith was codified during the early centuries of the Shogunate, and reigned supreme as state faith of the Shogunate states from their very beginning. Inspired by the leadership of Mela during the war, and eagerly recording the words of Pasiap, the Early Shogunate was focused heavily on proselytizing their religion and subjugating divinity to their new order wherever possible.

Immaculate missionaries spread out quickly on the Isle, establishing religious standards with the backing of the military daimyos. Once the Isle was firmly converted, they spread out to the marcher-states and focused on spreading the holy word as far as their legs could carry them. To this day, the resonance of the fierce devotion of the Shogunate can be felt as far as the deep Southern deserts and frozen tundras north of the White Sea, where scattered monasteries still, to this day, practice the teachings originally brought by these valorous missionaries.

In some cases, especially in foreign states with cruel or callous local gods, the Immaculates found great success in converting the local populace. In many other cases, they were chased out of the state with pitchforks or hunted by Anathema who were eager to violently defend their worship. The spread of Immaculacy was accomplished by jade swords and warding towers, as well as by sermons and readings.

Outside Conflicts

The Shogunate was hounded constantly by raids on the marcher-states. Raksha and other eldritch Wyld things from outside the borders of the world would appear in dark places and crawl into the sunlight, slaughtering civilians. These periodic invasions were dealt with by talented raksha-hunters, who quickly became known as the Wyld Hunt. The network of jade defense towers, some of which remain standing today, was established in the marcher-states to push back raksha invasions.

The Wyld Hunt gradually expanded beyond hunting just raksha to hunting and killing all threats to the Shogunate. Trained by monks and Legionnaires alike, the shikari of the Wyld Hunt were a theomilitary barrier between the Shogunate and those who would see it destroyed. These shikari often collaborated with other soldiers, like the famed yamabushi scouts of Pneuma, to hunt their prey as quickly and effectively as possible.

Most famous of these enemies were, of course, the Anathema, who did not relent in seeking revenge for their loss in the War of Liberation. Shapeshifting ogres infiltrated marcher-states and even onto the Blessed Isle, spreading heresy, schisms, and sometimes committing wholesale slaughter on anything and everything in their way. Shikari who succeeded in killing established Anathema were lauded with praise and wealth. Some went on to found successful gentes, others retired to focus on spirituality, and yet more chose another path entirely.

The Late Shogunate and Decline

As the Shogunate period reached the later centuries, the continued decline in prominence of the Shogun, the rising wealth of allodial-states from the refinery economy, and the increasing frequency of raids and attacks from Anathema lead to a decline in the norms of the Shogunate and a growing internal divide. Scholars generally point to the IVth century as the turning point when the Shogunate began to lose its path.

During the Late Shogunate, the states began to break away, many spinning off to create independent nations with new titles for their rulers, to emphasize their rejection of the Shogun’s (by this point mostly fictitious) authority and unifying force. Arjuf was the first to strike its own course, electing one of their own as their first Triumphant, Heron I.

During the Late Shogunate, the formalized game-like warfare between the states disappeared and was replaced by all-out warfare, designed not to showcase martial excellence but to decimate the opponent. Ancient cities burned in these wars, and the Shogun was forced back into her western capital at Karaleshen (modern Lord’s Crossing) to avoid the fighting during a war between Shian and Luho.

Many marcher-states began rebellions, which were put down with wanton force when soldiers were available to do so. The flow of jade began to dry up, the allodial-states demanding higher and higher tribute in exchange for the jade they produced.

Modern scholars point to the wars of the Vth and VIth centuries as concrete proof that the Shogunate had strayed from its true path and become decadent and arrogant just like the Anathema before them. The internecine strife of the period is generally regarded as the source of the karmic retribution of the Thousand Tragedies.

The Fall of the Shogunate

Despite the shift in warfare, the Late Shogunate was still the Shogunate. Many of the states still traded, many of the norms persisted (especially in marriage), and jade still flowed from allodial-state to marcher-state. The Late period is generally looked upon unfavorably by the modern era, but the Late Shogunate was by no means fallen – though it probably was in the act of falling.

That changed suddenly and abruptly with the Great Contagion and the arrival of the Thousand Tragedies period.