Fu Dao Empire

Fu Dao Guo (or the Fu Dao Empire in common) is an independant kingdom that claims the lands East of The Divide. With the Divide being difficult to traverse, the people of Fu Dao has been able to develop and expand independantely of the rest of the continent and consequently, its culture is quite different than the western countries.
Geopolitically, the Fu Dao Empire is the main rival of the Allied Dukedoms of Camdyn. Each maintain fortresses to deter any traversal over the Divide, and are building thier military for future conquest. Ironically, the two peoples because of thier mutual worship of Imix, have more in common than with other continental nations.
The Empire is ruled from the Phoenix Throne located in the captial city of Jin Haijing.

Structure

The Empire of Fu Dao is ruled by the Pheonix Empress who by tradition has always been a woman. She is considered to be a conduit of the Gods Imix and Balaam and her power in governemnt absolute and final. She rules from the capital and only handles affairs of the state.
Below her exists a large buerocratic apparatus that executes the decrees of the Empress and governs the various queendoms, provinces, counties, and municipalites. At each civil level there is a duplucate set of government offices each overseeing various functions of the Imperial governement. The principle officers of government are:

• Magistrate of the Crown
• Justice
• Security
• Infrastructure
• Commerce
• Agriculture and Mining
• Education
• Worship
• Auditor

In general, only those who demonstate great skill courage are selected work in government.
Laws are degreed down from the Phoenix Empress and it is up to the magistrates at every governement level to execute them. Performance is audited by the Empress's vast army of auditors who double-check all administrative work. The Empress has supreme power in all levels of governement, and her status as a God-queen makes her had to defy.
To execute the degrees of the queen a very large buerocratic system has been established. The Empire is divided into queendoms which are divided further into provences, counties, and municipaliteis and each level is staffed with magistrates and support staff. Each of the magistrates are audited by a duplicate set of auditors that have thier own report structuce back to the Empress. The execution of decrees therefore is a painstakingly slow and costly operation.
A large system of judges have been established at every level of governement with a sophisticated system of appeals in place. These Magistrates of Justice preside over civil disputes and criminal cases and pass rulings and judgements as needed. The most supreme judge in the land is the Empress herself, although how much she injects herself in criminal and civil of cases varies from monarch to monarch. Often she relegates her power to the Imperial Magistrate of Justice.

Culture

The culture of the Daoish people are heavily influenced by thier worship of the gods Imix and Balaam and also the founding legend of the Empire's founding. 

Cultural Values

Valor and Harmony: The Daoish deeply respect martial prowess, physical perfection, and courage due to their reverence of Imix, while also valuing spiritual harmony, balance, and adaptability from Balaam's teachings.
Typically, the Daoish favor decisions that benefit a group as a whole over those of the individual - owing to the belief that communal harmony should be maintained as much as possible. In general, the Daoish frown upon wonton individualism and tend to stick with established norms and traditions.
Art and Expression: Religious artistic works combine motifs of fire and air, symbolizing transformation, dynamism, and balance. Music, poetry, and storytelling are also very prominent, reflecting the airy nature of communication and the fiery passion of expression. The Daoish have a fourishing Bardic culture.

Public Agenda

Publiclly, the Daoish government tries to advance the will and teachings of Imix and Balaam; however, they use the dogma to ethically justify the government's colonial ambitions.

History

Fu Dao Guo is the oldest continously running govenement on the continent of Aasha.

Founding Legend

According to legend, when Jin Haijing was just a small fishing village barbarian invaders came from the Sea. The fishermen and thier spears were no match for the monsters that came from the sea and dozens were slaughtered. At the heart of the defense was a young woman who's bravery and prowess with the fishing spear defeated many of the invadors and saved many lives, but after hours of battle she was finally defeated. When the situation was the the most dire a phoenix was sent by the gods Imix and Balaam. The phoenix decended upon the young woman and revivified and empowered her with its power. Now empowered by the gods, the young woman defeated every single invador.
After the invasion, using the wisdom of Balaam and the strength of Imix the the woman was crowned the Holy Empress and forged the beginnings of the Fu Dao Empire.

Recent History

Recently, the Fu Dao Empire have been making incursions into the Ghostmist Isles with the goal of establishing a permanent colony there. However, due to the islands unusal properties and geography colonization efforts have been slow.

Demography and Population

The Fu Dao Guo Empire is a vast and racially diverse kingdom with a long history with the first Daoish peoples primarily human. Throughout its 4000-year-old history, the empire has slowly assimilated nation after nation into thier domain and have adopted useful parts of thier individual cultures and viciously supressed anything else. Now there are regions of Fu Dao that are majority Dwarvish, Elvish, Orc, Gnomish and more.

Foreign Relations

Because of the age and size Fu Dao Guo, they have almost no more peers and neighbors. The Empire has conquered all the available land east of the Divide and functionally the only geopolitical neighbors it has are the Allied Dukedoms of Camdyn. The Empire has an icy relationship with the alliance as both nations fear invasion from the other have have gone to great lengths that any attempts are quickly thwarted.

Capital

Jin Haijing

Government System

Monarchy, Absolute

Economic System

Market economy

Currency

Daoish Yuan

Official Languages

• Fu Dao Hua (language)

Neighboring Nations

• Allied Dukedoms of Camdyn
• Gnomastra