The Shogunate of Buwan
Structure
The Hierarchy of the Shogunate is as Follows:
Figurehead and Nominal Ruling Court
- Emperor
- Aristocracy
Military Leadership and Actual Ruling Body
- Shogun
- Samurai
General Populace
- Peasantry
- Craftsmen
- Merchants
History
Buwan has known several different styles of governance in the last few generations from a traditional dynasty, to a criminal empire to its current form.
Imperial Dynasty
The history of Buwan began during the Age of Creation, circa 2,000 years ago, when rafts carrying settlers from Edane landed on the shores of the Muratagi Peninsula in what would become southwestern Buwan. Over the next few centuries, with the budding nation's remote location it would be spare fromo most of the calamities of the Age of Blood and grow to be a powerful connection of provinces rules under an Emperor of the Tchuwan Dynasty.
The Tchuwan Dynasty would prosper well into the age of heroes before, resulting from infighting from the some of the wealthy land owners, the nation would fall into economic ruin and the emperor's weakness laid bare for all his people to see. It was then, about 200 years later that Buwan's government would go through its first of many changes.
Post Imperialistic Buwan
With the empire sinking into economic ruin, the most unlikely of saviors would step into the ring of contenders for reform: Kawahara Tenzin. Tenzin was the the leader of the Kawahara crime syndicate, the foremost crime family in the continent and quite possibly the world. The economic crisis at that point was caused by the result of the former Tchuwan emperors allowying each province within its rule to manage their own economic systems. When those provinces began to bicker and fight among each other (an inevitability given the circumstances) it lead to an end of trade (the only true commerce in the country) and the disaster that Tenzin wished to avoid. In stunning act of violence and brutality, he killed the emperor and named the Kawahara ccrime family the new inheritors of the empire. He reformed the economy of the nation, dictating the prices of commodities himself.
At first, the nations of the world felt a country owned and operated by a criminal empire was unacceptable and a threat to their peace. But with their hands full with the ongoing war against Maferath the various other nationalities simply didn't have the spare manpower to contest Tenzin's rule, a fact he counted on before he ever took over. Still, he nations of the world kept their eyes on Buwan and were surprised to see the turmoil of the region stabilized and the economic decline the nation had experience begin to flourish.
The Kawahara crime family would prosper for dozens of generations and bring the nation's captial of Jedo slowly become the largest trading port in the world. With trans-oceanic trade still in the making on the Equikoran Land Bridge, Buwan's location was ideal for shipping between the Human's of Edane and the Elves of North Equikora. A position that the Crime family leveraged through bribes and political intrigue until 9 out of 10 of ever ship cross The Saukasi Ocean was passing through Jedo.
However, good things never last and this was double true for the Kawahara crime family. Like the empire before it, their downfall would come from within. Two brothers, one set to inherit the empire, the other believing they should instead, split the country in two with the help of their deranged father who though that a little competition fueled between the two boys would end the weaker of the two and establish the strongest ruler on the proverbial throne. Instead, it drove the nation into a civil war as one of them rose an army in the south and the other in the north. Buwan was primed for a change, and change was going to come at the end of a sword.
The Age of the Samurai
The beginning of the Kawahara Dynasty reformed the wasy Buwan saw nobility forever. Many of the more powerful families is the country began seeing the Kawahara family as a kind of inspiration. After all, if one family with enough balls and money could become royalty, virtually anyone could become nobility. This sparked a shift if the traditional aristocracy of the former and failed Tchuwan Dynasty. Families of all social classes began joining together through political and marital alliances and forming disjointed clans to protect themselves from desperate and bitter remnants of the former regime. As part of defending themselves a new caste was created of highly trained, well equipped and elite warriors who were sword to values of loyalty to one's master, honor and self discipline. They were called Samurai.
Eventually these clans, through continued political intrigue and alliances would grow to surpass the traditional aristocracy and the Samurai were known throughout the world as some of the finest warriors in Unorrea. Several of these clans would even send their Samurai overseas to fight in the various battles of the Age of War. Only to return even more legendary and renown than they had been before.
In time the clans grew powerful enough to challenge the central government and after years of decline from the Kawahara civil war, the three most powerful clans, Nagamatsu, Kashiwa and Ishida, did exactly that.
After forcefully ending the Kawahara civil war, the three different clans went to battle each other over dominance of the nation. Nagamatsu clan proved victorious under the leadership of Nagamatsu Kazunori who set one of the remaining members of the Kawahara family as a puppet ruler whilst he named himself the first Shogun and declared the Samurai the unofficial ruling class of Buwan.
The Time of Shadow
The Samurai would rule the provinces of Buwan for the next 700 years to present day. However, its a little unclear the current state of affairs in Buwan at this time.
Buwan has changed since then, although it what way no one really knows. It was reported first by some Imperial merchant sailors who were heading to Buwan on a routine trading voyage some 80 years ago. It is recorded in the captain’s log that the sky suddenly turned black, and a darkness settled over the sea insomuch as neither he nor any member of his crew could see any source of light, not even their own lanterns. They reported hearing strange sounds coming from the sea, whispers of dark things and distant screams. The captain was unsure how long this darkness persisted, but the nightmarish darkness eventually receded and his log reports that as the darkness withdrew it seemed to have been centered around Buwan. They continued their voyage and as they arrive on the nation a day later the captain reports the following:
We arrived in Buwan this morning, calm winds North by Northeast. We knew right away that something was wrong. It had seemed as if the entire nation had changed in the darkness. No, the physical shape and appearance of the land had not changed, but the entire feeling of the nation had. No more where the docks teeming with sailors arriving or departing on numerous tall ship with their rigging drawn. No more were the colorful characters that called this strange place home there to greet us. The sky was dark, not such like we had experienced before on our voyage, nor like unto a storm. There were no clouds to be seen, and yet no sun. Indeed, it was as if the light of the sun itself had been swallowed up entirely. We knew not if this was a phenomenon exclusive to Buwan, or if the entire world had been captured in this bleak, colorless quasi-light.
We were greeted on the docks by two figures, and two alone which we found odd considering the number of ships still moored in Jedo's harbor. These two figures were cloaked head to toe in black robes, which must have been magical in nature for the wind did not stir their vestments even a little. They covered their faces and heads with cloth so that we could only see yellow predatory eyes and pale skin. It was unnerving to say the least, but by far not the most eerie thing of the experience. Instead what chilled the very blood in my veins and stole my courage was the realization as we approached that the city was quiet. And I do not mean to say the regular quiet of a city asleep, where little sound is heard, but the occasional tickering of a hammer or clunking of a horse's hooves. No, Jedo was deathly silent, as if some magical spell had ripped the sound from the air…
As if the city was suddenly and violently devoid of life.
We never found out what attributed to that deathly silence as our voyage was never carried to completion. Aside from the eeriness of what lay before us, we were there on imperial business and the empire comes before our petty fears or concerns. As we made harbor, these two figures that awaited us so silently and without movement on the docks, descended into our vessel without warning or advisement. They spoke to no one as they glided across the deck to me and addressed me by name as if we had met before. They informed us that the ports of Buwan were no longer open to outsiders and we were to return from whence we came immediately or be considered invaders from a foreign land. I began to protest, to inform them that we were carrying imperial goods bound for the trade floors of Sargasso Hall and should we return empty handed it would mean destitution and bankruptcy for our employers. They then repeated the exact same message, word for word, as if I had neither heard it before nor said anything in response. Their voices spoke in unison and though they betrayed no emotion I could sense some power behind their words, some presence of will that made me want nothing more than to turn and run.
I intended to raise my concerns one more time, if only to be able to honestly report to my masters that we had attempted to assuage them when, from somewhere in the depths of the great city before us, came a shrill and terrible scream of fear and pain. The sound was so bizarre, so sudden and unexpected in the bleak silence that permeated the city that every member of my crew and myself jumped with a start. Several men began to wail in terror and three of my crew, borne by some primeval instinct to flee, dove from the deck into the water never to be seen again. Through all this the two figures before me never moved, never flinched nor even did they blink. Instead, their eyes remained locked on me as if nothing out of the ordinary has transpired.
It was at this time, much to the agreement of my crew, that I thanked these two figures for their hospitality and bid them and Buwan farewell. We have headed East by Southeast heading for Port Hathor in Aldir in hopes to sell our cargo for some little profit if possible.
The darkness has cleared some fifty miles from Buwan’s shores. Winds favorable.
- Excerpt from the Captain's Log of the Solar Ray
While this account of first contact with the changed Buwan is not the only one of its kind, nor was it even the first, it is by far the most famous being published widely in the Edane and Ibesh as part of a collection of paranormal encounters collected and notated by Sir Jaime Ewald. For the nearly the last 100 years or so not a single living soul has been given passage into Buwan, nobody knows what’s become of it or its citizens and dozens of ships go missing near its borders each year.
What actually happened is a lot more terrifying than the magic of the night described above. In point of fact, little known by the first settlers of Buwan the mountains of the continent were in fact the home to a large population of Vampires brought from a darker world during the Convergence. For the past few centuries the Vampires have been watching the wars of the Buwanese people with disgust.So much precious blood had been wasted in their frivolous wars, and at length the leader of the High Vampires decided to do something about it. Slaving their more bestial brethren to their control, and raising an army of blood suckers for nearly two hundred years the Vampires finally lashed out in rage unleashing magic they had been pooling for decades to shroud the entire continent in magical darkness while they wages war on the Shogunate. Eventually they killed all the nobility, placing their own aristocracy in their place and forced the Samurai to serve them. They then closed the borders of Buwan to foreigners and made attempting to leave the country punishable by death. At length the Vampires ended up adopting the Buwanese culture as their own, and the mortals and Vampires learned to live in peace. Rumor has it the knew Vampiric Shogun is even planning on opening the borders to foreigners once more.
Demography and Population
As previously noted, the majority of the continent of Buwan is rugged, mountainous landscape. While not uninhabitable by definition, the lower, temperate flatlands along the southern coasts are far more preferable, and as such 98% of the population has made it's home along these flatlands while a mere two percent have chosen to live within the mountains. Of the population centers along the coasts, nearly 80% of that population is located in the southwest along the Muratagi Peninsula. in an around the capital city of Jedo, with the population centers becoming more rural the more notheast along the coasts one travels.
Foreign Relations
At present, there are no foreign relations between Buwan and any other nation.
Agriculture & Industry
With very little flat land for agricultural industry, and that which there is already being used to feed their own people, Buwan is agreeably an industrial power. Most of the major urban centers along the Peninsula are dedication to this activity, with large sections of the cities being manufacturing plants and factories of various kinds. Before the border closure, Apex Industries, one of the Shogunate's most successful manufacturing companies had attained rights for producing Dwarven Ornithopters and had been doing so for many years providing them for dwarven colonies that did not have the manufacturing capability themselves such as Kaer-Duval before the border closure.
Education
Buwanese education paralleled the militarism of the times. With the rise to power of the samurai and the shogun, education in the cities and countryside added skills for warfare to the religious training. A departure from the aesthetics of the Imperial Period, the education for warriors included training in weaponry and horseback riding—while still teaching young samurai the importance of good manners and knowledge of their culture. Schooling revolved around the warrior's home, the estate of his lord, and the local temples. As for the shogunate and the ruling families, there continued to be educational opportunities unavailable to commoners.
Rather than start new schools, however, the shogunate established several major learning centers that contained libraries open to scholars and members of the priesthood. A famous one called the Wazanaka Library opened in Jedo and remains open. Another medieval Japanese educational center, the Kagashi School, offered curricula in military science. Thus even schools and libraries for the ruling class focused on traditional values and on military education, matching the cultural themes of the age.
Infrastructure
Roads
At a time when walking was the main form of transportation, roads were a key part of the infrastructure. When the Tokugawa government came to power, it wasted no time in improving the two highways connecting Jedo with the Nakashihoro area, which had been the cultural and economic center of Buwan as well as the seat of government. The terminus for these and three other highways was in the center of Jedo. Starting with these principal highways, Jedo's road network developed in a radial pattern with Jedo Castle at the center. Next, roads linking these arterials were built. Jedo's strategic weak point was the western side of Jedo Castle, and the roads on that side were built with many curves and T intersections designed to foil attackers armed with arrows. The townspeople's residential district in and around Jedo were divided into rectangular blocks by four-way crossroads.
Waterways
Ships and boats were used mainly to transport cargo; people used them primarily as a supplemental means of transportation for such purposes as river crossing.
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