An-Teng

Geography

The Principalities of An-Teng can be found in the Southwestern Threshold, running from the coastal plains of the Western Ocean inland into jungle terrain as the climate becomes more humid before its ascent into the Fire Mountains.

An-Teng is an expansive land, stretching long and thin along the length of the mighty River of Queens which flows into the Great Western Ocean through a branching estuary at the end of Great Dragon Bay. It is bordered to the north by the River of Ever-Flowing Blood, whose upper length is the land of Blood River and whose mouth at the northern end of Great Dragon Bay marks a clear border with the Land of Crushing Fragrance. Directly East are the Fire Mountains, home to the minor Theocracy of the Jade-Souled, the Pinnacle of Mercy, and the Domain of the Silver-Crowned. To the South, across the River of Queens, the jungles are home to the Dwelling of Serpents who Walk like Men, and the wet shoreward swamps host the Shadowland known as the City of Dead Flowers.

Ancient maps and records speak of a much larger An-Teng, including many of the states now considered its neighbours… some Tengese nationalists spin tales using such maps, failing to note that they date from a time when administrative divisions were often divorced from cultural ones and communications were complex enough to unify vast expanses in manners impossible today… at least, without the aid of the Exalted.

The land is divided into three principalities: The Shore Land, the Middle Land , and the High Land , each ruled over by a prince. In addition, between the Shore and Middle Lands can be found the capital of the country itself, the City of the Steel Lotus.

The Shore Land

The Shore Land is a thin strip along the coast, a floodplain for the many rivers of An-Teng. While in ancient times dykes and weather control kept the land here fertile and productive, these systems collapsed throughout the Shogunate, and now much of the principality is mangrove swamps and bayous, with some patches supporting fruit orchards and alchemically- or medically-useful flowers.

Nevertheless, the Shore Land prospers due to their coastal position, as the goods of the other principalities… and other realms further up An-Teng’s many rivers… must do their buying, selling, and bartering in the settlements of the Shore Lands.

Salt-Founded Glory – The capital of the Shore Land and seat of its Prince, Salt-Founded Glory is an ancient city which sits on the southern edge of the River of Queens estuary, where it becomes Great Dragon Bay . The city is home to most of An-Teng’s wealthy families, serving as a sort of financial capital, though the bulk of actual cargo flows to Dragon’s Jaw to the north. Its most spectacular buildings are the Palace of the Shore Prince and the Temple of Dragons Encircling , a huge Immaculate temple which overshadows the nearby temple of the Golden Lord.

Dragon's Jaw – A new and chaotic port town which sits on the southern edge of the River of Queens estuary, where it becomes Great Dragon Bay . While the Realm visitors dwell in Steel Lotus and the local nobility in Salt-Founded Glory, the warehouses and docks which move cargo in and out of An-Teng are in Dragon’s Jaw, as are the rough and impoverished folk who labour upon the docks and man the ships. Dragon’s Jaw is also home to the headquarters of the 15th Imperial Legion under House Ragara.

Northerly Repose - A township on the southern banks of the Blood River, as it aproaches the coast. Northerly Repose has traditionally served as a mustering point for Tengese patrols against raiders from the Land of Crushing Fragrance and a site where the Shore Prince can engage in private ventures... though the current Prince considers it too full of spies for such a thing.

Cormorant Isles - The Cormorant Isles are a jumble of small jagged rocks that extend out from the peninsula which divides Great Dragon Bay at the mouth of the River of Queens from Serpent's Mouth Bay at the mouth of the River of Four Kings. It is a dangerous navigational hazard, the area wrapped in mists and foam, with many undersea rocks and strong currents sweeping ships to their doom... it is avoided save by the truly desperate. White Cormorants can be seen sometimes above the mists or diving in the surrounding oceans.

The Middle Land

The Middle Land is dominated by the expansive jungles known as the Forest of Compassion , through which cut several rivers including the River of Queens . Along these rivers, the jungle clears into open river valleys, which produce nearly all of An-Teng’s rice. Barges and elephants are key in moving goods from farm to table. Because of its productive agriculture, the Middle Land is the most populous of An-Teng’s Principalities.

Prosperous Garden – The capital of the Middle Lands, Prosperous Garden is a populous city, known for its huge numbers of gardens: they line every canal and adjoin every building, with nearly every resident maintaining one as a point of pride. In the land around the city, agriculture has been developing from rice to an increasing number of flowers… a cause of intense resentment from denizens of the Shore Land, as it drives down the prices of the only goods their own lands are capable of growing.

Adorned with Wisdom as a Sapphire – ‘Sapphire’ is a town located on a canal-riddled island in the middle of the River of Queens . It is not highly populated, but many of its buildings are of Old Realm construction, making it an impressive sight. Sapphire is a town of schools and scholars, including several schools for the wealthy of An-Teng as well as the Wisdom-Adorned College , a primary school for patricians and Dynasts of the Realm... some whisper it is meant for those who want to grant their children education only as an excuse to justify long and luxurious vacations in An-Teng. Sapphire also serves as headquarters for savants and Scavenger Lords studying and exploring the ruins scattered about An-Teng.

The High Land

The High Land , in the imaginations of most Tengese closer to the coast, is a land of mountain peaks and gems scattered amongst pebbles. The reality, known to those dwelling there, is far less spectacular. The High Land is a hilly region around Thousand Dragons Lake, from which the River of Queens flows towards the coast. The Lake is fed by streams descending from the Fire Mountains through a hilly spur of foothills, and it is amongst these foothills that the High Land sits. It is the least populous of the Principalities, and its economy has two pillars: one is mining, providing small amounts of silver, bronze, and iron ore. The Tengese pound these into simple jewellery, and most in the High Land have an earring or bracelet, though their work is nothing compared to the masterful castings of Blood River and most finished metal goods are imported. The second pillar is the Coca Bush, whose leaves are consumed across An-Teng and exported the length and breadth of Creation by The Guild and other traders.

Jade Plum Citadel – Jade Plum Citadel is built on the ruins of a First Age fortified city standing on the northern shore of Thousand Dragons Lake, where it is joined by the Plum Nectar Spring river descending from the mountains around the Pinnacle of Mercy. At its center, the building now known as the Palace of the High Prince remains in best condition, surrounded by more run-down apartment block towers which provide residences for most of the town’s inhabitants. Beyond these, the base of the Citadel has been cleared of uninhabitable ruins to make way for newer structures, mostly shops and warehouses for coca leaf.

Weather

The weather across much of An-Teng is hot and humid, slightly dryer and cooler in the High Land. The temperature varies little with the seasons, with the greatest changes during the year related to the quantity of water involved. The Wood and Fire seasons are considered the best vacation seasons as the weather tends to be calm and the rains short, with minimal flooding. The Air and Water seasons are more difficult, with storms occurring every few weeks in the coastal regions. The Water season also sees the arrival of heavy monsoon rains, which see the skies open up in short, intense bursts that can sometimes force grown men to their knees. These rains in turn swell rivers and waterways, causing them to flood through the Water and Earth seasons. Most towns have systems of dykes and canals to ensure rivers do not shift course during this time.

Economy

An-Teng is a stable satrapy of the Realm, and in addition to tax & tribute a great deal of trade occurs between it and the Blessed Isle. An-Teng supplies the Realm with Fragrant Rice, a variety highly regarded in the Realm (though not to the height of Glutinous Rice). It is also a source of other foodstuffs, such as fruits (including Eyefruit), local handicrafts, drinks such as Agwa Liqueur (which is incredibly popular domestically). Trade is not restricted to the Realm, and the leaves of the Coca Bush are harvested and consumed in large amounts domestically, and sod to The Guild, which is hungry to use them in the drug trade. Both Guild and Realm are massive consumers of Maiden Tea grown in the Shore Lands as well.

An-Teng also serves as a popular vacation spot for members of the Dynasty, and the wealthy scions of nobility from the Realm’s loyal satrapies.

History

In the long-forgotten time of the High First Age, An-Teng was a popular place for the Celestial Exalted to establish both homes and vacation estates, the land and population cultivated and shaped to suit this purpose. This meant that, with the coming of the Usurpation, the Sidereals and Dragonblooded had to take war directly against those Solars who were ensconced in An-Teng, in brutal battles which devastated the population and destroyed the geomancy of many powerful manse-estates. After the Terrestrial victory, the population was purged of Solar agents, and the very measures meant to make the locals suited to support Celestial vacationers turned out to make the pacification campaign far easier than it had been elsewhere… the population of An-Teng fell into line as they had been made to do, new Terrestrial-aligned noble lines appointed as princes to replace the executed chamberlains of the Solar Exalted.

During the Shogunate, An-Teng provided a useful tributary for daimyo of the South and West… quiet and distant from the major sites of conflict, with few valuable military resources, it was traded between daimyo as a result of distant battles, called on to feed armies but not militarized to a great extent itself.

An Teng survived the Contagion and the Shogunate better than other nations… while death was widespread, the fertile land was able to feed those who survived, and the Fae armies did not reach the country before the Scarlet Empress drove them from Creation. It was in the aftermath that the bulk of their suffering took place. August Steel Pheasant, a Shogunate lord and one of The Seven Tigers, moved his army into An-Teng and launched a ravaging campaign of mass conscription, where the whole population and every scrap of material was enslaved to the goal of invading the Blessed Isle. The forces raised might have been key to the invasion, but the Empress destroyed the Tigers before the army was ready. Pheasant’s viceroy attempted to take control as a warlord, but while the docile Tengese did not resist her increasing cruelties they were poor fighters by nature, and when a Realm naval task force out of Arjuf arrived, Tengese forces stood down from their barricades and cheered on their advance. Realm troops stormed the viceroyal palace, welcomed as liberators, and An-Teng accepted status as a tributary with little complaint… this docile acceptance has persisted into the present day.

Life has not been peaceful for An Teng, however… in RY 546, the neighboring state of Blood River marched into An-Teng. The Tengese had little organized resistance to offer, but the occupation was brief and restricted to the northern Middle Land, as the Realm soon pushed the attackers back in the Siege of High Spiral, asking for little military support from An-Teng.

Peace was brief, for in RY578 the Campaign against the Mountain began, and in RY581 the crack 9th Imperial Legion was withdrawn from An-Teng in favour of the understrength 15th Imperial Legion. In response to this, Sualin the Diamond Mandarin of the Land of Crushing Fragrance launched an invasion, which the 15th was hard-pressed to contain. An-Teng managed to muster its own forces, including a large force of elephants, which smashed the invaders asunder and drove them back across the Blood River, though the land to the north proved impossible to pacify and the Tengese soon retreated back to their own borders. This military victory remains a keystone of nationalistic sentiments amongst some of An-Teng’s nobility.

Society

Tengese respect three things: family, age, and social class.

The matriarchal extended family unit dominates Tengese society. Families often share in a single occupation, the young apprenticing to the old. Individual ownership is little understood, property instead owned by families. The family is also the conduit for resolving civil disputes… a matriarch judges disputes within families, and the matriarchs of involved families negotiate resolutions to disputes between members of different families. Inheritance is matrilineal and husbands join the family of their wives. Marriage is not understood to have any romantic element: it is a union for life with the goal of cementing a family relationship and producing children… though family matriarchs will rarely force two people who loathe each other into wedlock. Family is a prerequisite for children: a woman who bears a child outside of wedlock is shunned, and her family is expected to put her to death, along with the child and the father… families take this duty very seriously, and those who face such a fate often flee into the jungles or across borders in search of safer hideaways. The urban areas sometimes allow such unfortunates to lose themselves in the crowds, becoming prostitutes and servants without legal protections, who satiate the more extreme desires of vacationing Dynasts.

The class hierarchy in An-Teng is rigid… at the top are the three princely families, beneath them the nobility which holds much of the land and wealth, and below them the common folk. Marriages never take place across class, and family members who make friendships above or below their proper place are expected to be beaten harshly by their siblings… give nthe choice, a dead family member is thought far better than one who has a chum of a different social class. Within each class are gradations little understood by outsiders, based on the prestige of occupation and the ancient lineage of the family.

Religion

Despite the strong presence of the Realm, the Immaculate Faith in An-Teng remains restricted to a local level… the population continues to follow its ancient practices. In most ways, these mirror the religious attitudes of the Shogunate, highly pragmatic, worshiping local spirits to keep them friendly and various deities whose responses to prayer are found useful. Where they differ from the Shogunate is in acceptance of two deities considered patrons of An-Teng and its people, the Golden Lord and the Pale Mistress, who have stood atop the local pantheon for generations, since before the time of the Shogunate.

The Immaculate Faith is strongest where the Dragonblooded or their close allies hold sway, and fund the Order’s work, or where monks have made a practical difference. To a peasant, the prayer calendar of the Immaculate Faith is a far better thing than the greedy extortion of a local spirit, but if there is no Exalted monk to beat that spirit into line, there is no value in spouting quotations from the Immaculate Texts.

Ancestor worship is common, though its importance can vary by family: after all, a ghost is old, and it is family, it should by all rights continue to serve as matriarch over its living kin, should it not? Even where Immaculate teachings are not readily accepted, many families reject this view, holding that the dead deserve respect but are no longer truly part of the family hierarchy... the fact that if this was not done the elder living women of the families (most likely to promulgate such a view) would be eternally barred from taking control themselves is not often mentioned. Alongside this approach, a minority of families DO recognize ghosts as matriarchs, though they rarely do so openly as a matter of propriety. On the other side, a minority completely rejects ghosts: death marks final separation from the family, and ancestors who have passed on are not worshipped.

Some say that the Tengese are born to worship, and this can be seen in their readiness to worship powerful beings who pass through their lives. Vacationing Dragonblooded who brave the countryside find villagers often respond to their power with beseeching prayer... a temptation to form a Threshold cult, though these cults rarely persist once the individual Exalt has left the area.

An-Teng is also home to a secretive cult, which has remained beneath the notice of the Realm and the local government: the Seven-Stranded Vine. The Vine traces its origins to escaped descendants of An-Teng's original nobility, who continue to work to restore their rule and cast out the 'Usurpers' in the name of the Yozi She-Who-Lives-in-Her-Name.

Government

An-Teng is governed by three princes. Each one has their own capital, army, and power to administer their domain as they see fit… though any of their actions can be overturned by a united veto from the other two, or a veto from the Imperial Satrap, whose role is at once to represent the Realm and to coordinate between the three princes… often a difficult task.

- Prince of the Shore Land: Laxhander of the Glorious Reign. The most Realm-loyal of the Princes, almost sycophantic towards the Dynasty and an adherent of the Immaculate Faith. The Panoply of Office of the Shore Prince are the secret texts of thaumaturgic Shadow Puppet Murder, legible only to the family of the Shore Prince.

- Prince of the Middle Land: Kiotaran of Upward View. A traditionalist, favouring worship of the Golden Lord and Pale Mistress over the Immaculate Faith. He has been driving economic changes to convert lands from rice to cash crops, resulting in economic tensions with the Shore Land, and is the most nationalistic of the princes. The Panoply of Office of the Middle Prince are the five Sacred Ancestor Sashes.

- Prince of the High Land: Josei of Notable Genius. A scholar and capable administrator, with little interest in either sycophantic support of the Realm, nor nationalistic rebellion against it. The Panoply of Office of the High Prince are the Animal-Commanding Masks.

- Imperial Satrap: Ragara Jor. Jor is a water-aspected Dynast of the Soras line. A veteran of the Thousand Scales, capable at business and intrigue, Jor seems to devote himself to ensuring that the Realm maintains maximum profit, and secure control, of An-Teng… it does not escape notice that he also ensures maximum profit and control for House Ragara, to the detriment of other Great Houses.

- Chief Collector: Ragara Ishralae. Ishralae is an unExalted daughter of Satrap Jor, and head of the Humble and Upright Collectors of Taxes and Tribute in An-Teng (a division of the Humble And Honest Assessors Of The Imperial Tax). Her position overseeing tax collection in An-Teng assures Jor has a firm hand on matters.

- Chief Auditor: Tepet Denile. An air-aspected scion of the Berel line, and ostensibly head of the Honorable and Precise Division of Auditing and Accountability in An-Teng, a division of the Imperial Treasury. Denile's appointment decades ago was a political move to secure himself an excuse to live on permanent vacation rathert han a sign of particular devotion to bureaucracy... he spends little time on his Thousand Scales duties, instead operating as the social lion of An-Teng, hosting the finest parties and gatherings for those Dynasts residing in Steel Lotus.

- Chief Officer of Native Affairs: Ledaal Ceris. Ceris is a wood-aspected Dynast of the Catala line, currrently serving as head of An-Teng's Benevolent and Knowledgeable Office of Native Affairs, the Scales department assigned with studying native culture and politics to advise Imperial authorities. Ceris is a poet and a scholar, who studies the classical forms of Tengese poetry in addition to serving as well-liked liaison between the Scales and local noble families.

- Just Arbiter of Distant Blessings: Tender Rose. Rose is a fire-aspected outcaste, representative of the Splendid and Just Arbiters of Purpose in An-Teng. While the Arbiters normally work only on the Blessed Isle, because of the sheer quantity of sexual liaisons undertaken by Dynastic men vacationing in the satrapy the Empress authorized a special mandate to direct those whose descent could be traced to the Dynasty back to the Isle as Lost Eggs, and those whose descent was unknown to cadet House Trung. Tender Rose takes her duty seriously, and earned a reputation for toughness during her service in the Vermillion Legion... she has so far avoided subversion by the various Great Houses.

- Commander of the Imperial Garrison: Strategoi Ragara Shuri of the 15th Imperial Legion

The Lintha Treaty: The Tengese possess one diplomatic connection that is entirely against the policies of the Realm to which they are beholden: an agreement with the Lintha pirates. This agreement allows Lintha vessels to dock, resupply, and trade cargoes in the ports of An-Teng, and in exchange the Lintha will not engage in any acts of piracy within Tengese waters, and will launch raids against naval forces which seek to invade An-Teng. In deference to the Realm, the Lintha do not operate openly in An-Teng... they sheathe weapons and enter port under plain sale, never divulging their identities, ensuring deals are done quietly by darkness and goods sent to market have some pretence of legitimizing documentation (which the Tengese often provide to them). The Realm sometimes attempts to crack down on the Lintha, but rarely meets much more than temporary success, and Tengese authorities simply choose not to enforce their own laws where the Lintha are concerned.

Military

An-Teng is not highly militarized, but it has the power to bring some forces to bear. Each of the three princely families can call upon a full Dragon of 500 soldiers, though these are trained in ceremonial and parade rather than drilled for mass combat. Lesser noble families also field bodyguard troops, between a Fang (5) and a Talon (125) depending on their station and influence. Each prince can draft the bodyguards of nobles in his principality to form an army, a practice used against bandits and peasant uprisings. No mechanism exists for unification of these three armies, save when they are ordered to serve as auxiliaries under Realm command, and outside of that framework the princes often argue over objectives and authority… though sometimes threats loom large enough to force agreement.

An-Teng can also muster a force of elephant cavalry from amongst its beasts of burden, though these forest elephants are smaller than those seen in Varang and more skittish on the field. Against the invasion of Sualin, the land mustered over one thousand elephants, a crushingly powerful force, though the exact methods or replicability of the feat remain a mystery. Tengese elephant cavalry fight with bows from the backs of the elephants, eschewing use of howdahs.