The Jade Pillar Dynasty – “Our Rule is Eternal”

Not all of the lands of the Sea of Stars welcome visitors, some are quite happy to be left alone in their ways.  One such place is:

The Jade Pillar Dynasty

For more than seventy generations, since before the Sundering, the Jade Pillar Dynasty has ruled the Middle Kingdom of Yu.  Order, structure, duty and eternity are the watchwords of the Dynasty.  No detail is too small to escape the eye, and law, of the Dynasty.  Following the path of the Most Proper Sage, everything in the Empire has its place and everything is expected to be in that place.  Adjusting to rule by the Jade Dragon was easier than any had expected and the Dynasty has continued to survive and prosper.

The Seventy-Seven Books of Just and Proper Behaviour regulate all aspects of life and culture within the Dynasty, with the Sublime Commentaries of the Jade Emperor clarifying as needed.  Within the Dynastic Bureaucracy advancement is by seniority and mastery of the Seventy-Seven Books and Commentaries alone.  Everything is keep in perfect order not even natural disasters are allowed to disrupt the harmonious functioning of the Dynasty.

The Kingdom of Yu has been divided by the Sundering into two roughly equal sections, North and South Yu, each is ruled by a separate branch of the Jade Emperor’s family.  The immortal Jade Emperor watches all from his place in the Forbidden City which floats majestically over the boundary of the two halves of the Kingdom, though it can be moved as needed.  Members of the Dynasty supported by the Bureaucracy rule the provinces, those that prove themselves are promoted to larger provinces and may, with much effort, be allowed a ministerial post in the Forbidden City itself.

The people of Yu are hard working and traditional, honouring family and country.  Most never see their rulers but only know the benevolent hand of the Bureaucracy.  Those of the Dynasty itself are blessed with strong minds and bodies and long life, they are easily recognized by their jade green eyes.

The Sundering has cut the Lands of Yu, and the Dynasty, off from many of the destabilizing influences of the past allowing them the luxury of being introspective and self-absorbed.  Trade, and indeed any contact, with the outside world is highly regulated and monitored by the Bureaucracy and the army.

The Jade Pillar Dynasty is obviously modeled on China at its most isolationist, made even more secure by the fact that they are now on huge islands (no horse riding nomad hordes overrunning this empire).  It is designed as a place where traditional adventurers (if that term even makes sense) would be out of place.  Luckily the Dynasty has a use for such ‘disruptive elements’ they sent them to deal with other disruptive elements like bandits or rogue alchemist or ghost plagues, this the bureaucracy will not or can not deal with.