The Eastern Dragon Empire
One of the Twin Dragon Empires, The Eastern Dragon Empire is the smaller of the two, but its population is highly urbanized in large industrialized cities and can boast a military that is roughly the same strength as its western counterpart.
The empire was once part of the ancient Dragon Empire, but when the Dragon Emperor died his two older children, The Immortal Dragon Empress and The Wise Dragon Emperor fought over their inheritance splitting the empire into The Twin Dragon Empires, peace was never brokered between the two empires leading to perpetual war. The Twins are not the only children of the Ancient Dragon Emperor but are the oldest, and each claims primogeniture rights. The Ancient Dragon Emperor had 6 children with mortal women, the first were the Twin Emperors, fraternal twins, The Immortal Dragon Empress masters the element of Tǔ or Earth, The Wise Dragon Emperor is master over the element of Jīn or Metal, then came The Strong Dragon King master over Huǒ or Fire, then The Beautifull Dragon Queen master over Mù or Wood, and finally the identical twin Dragons of Shuǐor Water are The Kind Dragon Queen and The Merciful Dragon Queen unlike all other dragons they co-ruled over the same kingdom until The Kind Dragon Queen was tragically slain in battle trying to stop hel older siblings from fighting, each emperor blames the other for the incident, now only The Merciful Dragon Queen rules over the Kingdom, all Dragon Kings and Queens hold a kingdom inside The Western Dragon Empire even after numerous attempt by The Wise Dragon Emperor to convince them to join him in his Empire.
Army
The Eastern Dragon Empire relies primarily on organized well trained and equipped forces of samurai commanded by a daimyo, a local ruler, a shogun is chosen by The Wise Dragon Emperor after a period of wars between the daimyo to lead a grand army to invade The Western Dragon Empire, this shogun is usually the daimyo that impressed the emperor the most. If the invasion fails the shogun and the more prominent daimyo commit seppuku, ritual suicide, for having disappointed The Wise Dragon Emperor. A secondary presence in the army is occupied by the ashigaru, conscripted peasants, only males ages 20 to 54 are conscripted, women can become part of the army only if they belong to the bushi class. Samurais are well-armed, well-equipped, and enjoy a higher social status, part of the bushi (warrior) class, they collocate just below the dragon-blooded nobles. Weapons a samurai might use are various types of katana, naginata, and yari as well as well-made custom matchlock guns called samurai-zutsu, traditionally samurai used bows as ranged weapons but the rapid development of firearms has erased such weapons from the Eastern Dragon Empire battlefields, although samurai are still expected to learn kyujutsu (the martial art of archery). Armor for the samurai is made of relatively large iron plates or platy leather. The armor is not flexible, a hinge is installed to make it easier to put on and take off. The simple structure of the armor makes it easy to manufacture, allowing armor makers to focus on design, and increasing the variety of armor looks. Samurai armors are developed to be bullet resistant allowing samurai to continue wearing their armor despite the use of firearms. Samurai study martial arts all their lives primarily Kenjutsu the art of the sword, naginata jutsu the art of the polearm, kyujutsu the martial art of archery, jujutsu an unarmed martial art focused on grappling, and Hojutsu the art of the gun. Ashigaru are primarily armed with short katanas and ban-zutsu, cheap reliable matchlocks loaned to the ashigaru. Ban-zutsu are numbered and registered so that once the ashigaru service is no longer required the gun can be returned to the proper daimyo, the Empire does not see favorably pressed peasants with guns. Ashigaru wear cheap armor usually consisting of conical hats called jingasa made from iron, copper, wood, paper, bamboo, or leather, and tatami armor was made from small rectangular or hexagonal iron plates that were usually connected by mail and sewn to a cloth backing. Women in the army are called onna-musha they are part of the bushi class and although equipped the same as samurai are not called samurai.Government
The Wise Dragon Emperor resides in Kōtetsu, the capital, and wields absolute power, each daimyo is the ruler of a city or a major town and its surrounding area, the Empire is small but densely populated, daimyo, while technically subjugated by the Emperor, have mostly complete autonomy in how they govern their region, this has created vast differences of laws and customs region to region. The bushi class technically has no political power, but since they are the warrior class they hold great political pressure on their daimyo, although not individually but collectively. The peasants are mostly oppressed, sometimes violently. Unlike in the Western Dragon Empire is not necessary to be dragon-blooded to be a noble, although most nobles are dragon-blooded.Economy
The Eastern Dragon Empire has an isolationist policy so almost no trade is made with other countries, the exception is the most northern region of the empire which was forced to open trade after a brief naval skirmish with the Serene navy resulted in a score of 4/0 in ship sunk by the free city's navy. The Eastern Empire has large quantities of electrum, fish, rice, and sulfur.
Related Species
Related Ethnicities
