Gens Anatae
The line of Anatae is a Dragonblooded family whose origins date to the time of the early Shogunate. They take as their founding figure and namesake the Dragonblooded hero Anatae, who it is said was so filled with the blessings of great Pasiap that when his feet were planted upon the ground no force in Creation or beyond could hope to move him. It is said that he slew and entombed many dread Anathema as he lead a Wyld Hunt across the breadth of the West. Family histories (not officially accepted by the Immaculate Order) state that Anatae was amongst the first Dragonblooded to master the Earth Dragon Style of Martial Arts, and that the Leaden Pyramids scattered about the West are tomb-prisons he built to bind the ghosts of the Anathema he slew. In more recent centuries, the favoured legend is the tale that Anatae wrestled a great tentacled Behemoth, which attempted to break his connection to Pasiap by lifting him from the ground: so great was Anatae’s aspect that when this was done the very tendrils which grasped him were petrified, becoming earth and stone upon which his feet could stand firm.
The truth of such myths is questioned by many, and surviving Shogunate records place the Anatae as one of the Dragonblooded Gentes based in the far West, their line aspected primarily towards Earth. Though they were never a contender for the Shogunal seat at Meru, they maintained powerful land forces, often bound in alliance with ambitious navally-potent daimyo in their incessant feuds. As with most of the Dragonblooded, the vast bulk of the Gens perished in the Great Contagion. A handful of survivors, from a Water-aspected line of the family, were amongst the refugees flowing into the emptied port of Wu Jian, and they quickly emerged dominant over the mortal population, establishing themselves as rulers of the place.
When the Scarlet Empress emerged dominant, the Anatae accepted Her power but declined to swear fealty. Though some within the early Scarlet Empire thought that the strategic point between the Isle and the West needed to be taken, the attention of the Realm was pointed eastward to the militant resistance of the Scavenger Lands. To take a well-defended island would have required military forces and resources needed elsewhere, and should the port be damaged in the conflict, trade routes and connections with the West would be disrupted. The Throne chose not to press the matter at the time, and the Anatae of Wu Jian were allowed their independence undisputed, establishing their domain as a Free Port.
Some have whispered that the Empress had other reasons for allowing this independent entity to persist between the Blessed Isle and the valuable satrapies of the West. Wu Jian is known to some as the ‘isle of expatriates’, for it is here that many of those Dynasts who are sent into exile choose to take up residence, close enough for some comforts of home but not under the legal aegis of the Realm’s government. Such proximity, go the whispers, allowed the Empress to keep a finger on the pulse of those she had cast out.
Though politically independent, over the years the Anatae have developed ties to the Scarlet Dynasty: ties of blood. As rulers the favoured refuge of expatriate Dynasts, condemned to exile or abandoning the Realm voluntarily, the Anatae have been well-placed to take lovers and spouses from Dragonblooded stock normally out of reach for an Outcaste family. For a Dynast to wed an Anatae, not even a Cadet line and resistant to the Empress’ rule, is as wedding an outcaste or worse, but for exiles loss of social standing in the Scarlet Empire is often low on the list of pressing concerns. One of the most successful coups for the line was the snapping up of several Dynasts of House Iselsi dwelling in the West when the Empress declared their Great House dissolved. On the other foot, Anatae spouses, with the promise of Water-aspected Exalted children, is much sought by the royal families of the West, allowing the family to build connections across the Direction which can counterbalance Dynastic blood and preserve its independent status.
The Anatae today continue to rule over Wu Jian, balancing the influences of the Realm, The Guild, and the powers of the Category:The West. Though the family oft trumpets its legends, it does not hold fast to the traditional forms of the Shogunate and the ancient Gens, even in self-reference terming itself the family or line of Anatae, nor does it ape Dynastic conventions as do the Cadet Houses. Nominally, the family embraces Immaculate teachings, but the Immaculate Order and particularly the Palace Sublime do not find widespread support: family histories and Immaculate orthodoxy find themselves mismatched. Instead, the family’s religious life (and the teaching of Earth Dragon Style martial arts) are in the hands of family members who devote part of their lives to the regulation of local spirits and moral teachings without taking up monastic vows.
At present, the Anatae family numbers nearly one hundred Exalts, mostly aspected to Water, and as many mortal family members.
