Jiji
The Capital city of the Bale-Fire clan, the cats or neko, of the Crane Basin is one of the few large scale constructions within their realm. It scales the whole of Mount Jiji, the sumit crowned by the Great Brazier, which holds the largest Bale Fire in the whole of the Basin. The city climbs to the summit in a series of ring-like terraces, eached walled in and quartered by wide stone steps leading directly to the summit. It sits near the banks of a bend in the myriad rivers and hosts a number of barges for both commercial and private use. Around it expands farmland and the rolling Monutains of the Star, hosting its string of singal fires that ignite when the Star is said to pass them. It is a proud monument to their long-lived history.
Demographics
The city of Jiji is populated entirely of fellow clansmen, cats of the Basin. In many respects, the city is seen as sacred ground and so outsiders visiting the city are allowed to do so under strict guidelines and curfews to be out of the city by a designated time. For this reason, the denizens of the city are always intrigued by those outsiders who walk through their streets.
Because of the sanctity in which they observe their capital, a shanty town has built up over time to accomidate travelers and outsiders in their journey to the city. This shanty town does not dwarf the city by any sense, but does boast a handful of taverns, inns, tea houses, brothels, artisan shoppes, so forth. One tea house in particular is well regarfded as the place for travelers seeking entrance into the city to come and seek patronage from citizens of Jiji.
Government
Jiji is ruled by a royal bloodline, at the head of which sits the Lord of Enchanted Flames. The current ruler is a cat by the name of Shirokiba, the Aloof. Shirokiba is surrounded by a court of quasai noblemen and women who assist in the regulation and decision making of governence of the city and the territory of the clan as a whole. Small assigned positions of civic sercive are delegated as needed.
Defences
Jiji hosts a series of five ring walls surrounding the city's terraces. Each wall is stone and wood construction with roofed parapets and tall crenalations for archers to conceal themselves behind. Each gate sports a causeway flanked by defensive walls, these do not have rooves.. Above each gate are murderholes for archers, falling stones and boiling oil.
The city is garrisoned by a standing malitia force of 200 soldiers. This malitia is trained to a competent level, enough to support order within the city and its defence if needed. Within the greater lands and holdings of Jiji can be called a force of 500 other soldiers, including samurai to join the malitia's 200.
Industry & Trade
Jiji's main source of trade comes from the river harbor, where barges from all over the Basin arrive to trade goods for river prawns and crustaceans, finely crafted metal trinkets from the city's smiths, sweet wines and liquors, and dyes of many hues and sorts. The good often imported include silks, livestock, and agricultural goods from elsewhere in the Basin.
Merchant caravans do not often go inside the city, so a sort of market shanty town sits between the harbor and the gates of the city. Here there will be a populous of many persons from all over the Basin vending their weares from behind wooden, often mobile stalls.
Districts
Jiji is divided into four districs of ascending circular terraces. The quadrants are split by the four grand stone stairways leading to the summit and the Temple of Enchanted Flames and designated by their cardinal direction; North, South, East, and West Wards. Within these quadrants there is little organization to say the artisans are here, the nobility is there, etc. In line with their emphasis in community, artisans live beside aristocrats, tradesmen live beside samurai. The only notable distinction in the organization of the terraces is that samurai or military centric families tend to live closer to the gates and in the middle terraces, while the more noble families live somewhere in between the stair ways, in the middle of the quadrants.
Guilds and Factions
The city of Jiji is not a bustling metropolis, nor does it suffer from the fatigue of quarrelling competative guilds. Within the city, there are a handful of guilds that work collectively to ensure the prosperity of the city. The city does host a motley of artisan guilds; smiths, woodworkers, tanners, so forth, as well as fisher guilds, hunting guilds, shipping guilds, and farming guilds. The most notable group within the city is the esteemed Keepers of the Enchanted Flames.
The Keepers are something of a clerical order that primarily oversees the tending of the Bale Fires in the city and throughout the Basin. Jiji is considered their base of operations as the leader of the order, The Keeper of the Enchanted Flames resides here alongsider the Lord of the city. The order can be seen on a nightly task of lighting the street lights or within the walls of the Temple to the Star, where the Great Brazier stands ever blazing.
Points of interest
The Palace of the neko royal bloodline sits on the terrace lower than the summit within the Southern Ward. The palace sports two teired towers with rooves and balconies at every floor. The keep itself is fortified by stone walls and a crisscrossing pathway between four interior gates. Stairs are carved into the slope to reach the front gate, which sports similar defenses to the rest of the city. Within the palace, the court is wide and open on the throne's side into a series of gardens, which the current Lord, Shirokiba, tends with great care. There are otherwise many open pavillions within the palace, adorned with cushions and quaint scenery to encourage respit among those hallowed stones.
The Temple of Enchanted Flames sits unpon the summit of Mount Jiji and the city of the same name. It is not circularly ringed in walls, like the rest of the city, instead it sits within tall rectangular walls. The gates and their gatehouses are the only portions of the temple that sports any defensive structures in the form of fortified gates and defensive towers. Near the northern slope sits the shrine to the Star where citizens and Keepers can daily seek prayer. Near the western slope sits the dormatories of the Keepers, which is a plain square building of stone foundatiions and three wooden stories. Near the eastern slop sits the Kindling House, or House of Kindling, where the keepers hold their own private ceremonies as well as prepare and store materials for ceremonial rituals observed throughout the year. The summit is adorned with many sakura blossom trees and butterfly gardens, which are tended by the Keepers and play host to citizens daily. Upon the peak of the summit sits the Great Brazier, a massive structure of stone and metal that burns with a pale green light of the Great Bale Fire day and night. There is one flight of stone steps leading up to thebrazier's base, which stands about a full story in the air, the rest of the brazier rising higher than that. At the top of the flight of steps there is a doorway etched into the side of the brazier. There is no door, but the Keepers say that only the Star may reveal the door and only his chosen may use the door.
Founders
Alternative Name(s)
City of Starry-eyed Cats
Type
Capital
Population
1,800
Location under
Owner/Ruler
