The Yesha Empire

[Lord Dick Tim]

What we know

Modeled after china
Symbol is the crane
Ruled by a triumvirate
Dedicated to spreading its culture and enlightenment by any means necessary.


This sounds a lot like aggressive confuscian philosophy, bring your ways to the barbarian and change him with your culture first before resorting to swords.

I can imagine Yeshan missionaries pushing out from their empire bringing with them the "Glory of a better way".  It's a dangerous and subversive kind of attack that undermines the soviergnty of a nation by making the lower classes question the authority of those over them.
That being established I imagine caste societies, like the Fjorlands would be completely opposed to the Yeshans, as would the Angleans, the alter likely seen as crude thoughtless barbarians by the Empire.

The Arashi might have been seen as the people who need the Yeshans help the most, yet the Arashi want nothing to do with the Empire, or it's laws, seeing them simply as foreign invaders just like the guild with only their own interests at heart.

As china itself is very diverse, with several ethnic and cultural groups, languages and religions forming its makeup I suspect the same will be true to s degree in Yesha.  We could see cultural differences from one city to the next, yet there would always be that unified idea that they are all Yeshans regardless of whatever else they may be.

[Lord Dick Tim]

Just to spread a little Yesha and Arashi hate mongering.

A Yeshan and Arashi are sitting at a bar, the Arashi turns to the Yeshan and asks him, "why do you fly, glory, money, or honor?"
Without pause the Yeshan replies, "For honor, of course!  And you?"
"Money" says the Arashi, "But I guess we all do fight for what we don't have enough of."

[Gato Blanco]

Baller, after we do the nations, we might have to go after independant towns :p

First I'm going to add to what you've already said.

Their colours are blue and black (should we make flags for these nations?), and I believe that the triumvirate is advised by more philosopers than military advisors, which may make them formidible adversaries in global campaigns for their unconventional tactics, or make them weak foes due to their higher ups making novice mistakes.  I'm leaning more towards the former.

I can see them being friendliest with the Guild, while constantly battling with the Republic. 
-The Guild represents structure, everything for the allmighty currency (What is the currency in this world anyway?), making them predictable, as well as alleviating pressure fom the League by constantly warring with it. 
-I agree that the Empire is old foes with the Baronies, but are separated by the desert, and thus rarely see conflict on their borders. 
-I would think that their relationship with the Order would be pleasant, but they might be warry of them; they're a nation with  strong scientific background, and may not be easily converted.  Also, the Order's philanthropic tendancies might make the Empire suspicious, believing that the Order is playing the same game as them. 
-The general populaiton of the Arashi would see the Empire as being exactly the same as the Guild.  The leaders of the Arashi see through this; although they prefer the Empire to the Guild, they don't believe that "The Better Way" would be any better for them, in fact they see it as being worse, as they would probably have to pay tithe to the Empire regularly, while still living in an inhospitiable desert, as well as loosing (guessing) a third of their income from scavenging and raiding.

-The Angleans....the Empire reeeeeeeeally hates.  Barbarians, isolationists, raiders, they spit in the face of everything that the Empire stands for.  It wouldn't be so bad if they wern't right on their doorstep!  The southern Republic towns constntly raid the northern coast by ways other than the usual trade routes, mostly raiding for food and luxury goods, but not adverse to taking thralls.  In response to this, I can see the Empire building "Enlightenment Institutions", or something similarly sinister sounding, just for Anglens.  These are little more than hard labor camps with terrible conditions for raiders and those who will not immediately convert.

China is pretty diverse, but (thanks wikipedia) 92% of the population is of the Han ethnic group, and they pretty much just speak one language, Mandarin (I've yet to meet a mainlander who can speak Cantonese, which is sad since I'm part Cantonese).  Of the other 8%, I've heard there are about 50 minority ethnic groups.  There are local dialects, and some words are noticibly different depending on where you go (In the north, the word for 10 and 4 are distinctly different to my ears, sounding like "Shuh" and "Seu", but on the middle all the way to the coast, 10 and 4 sound the same in spoken language by the locals, "Seu").  In any case, I hope the Yeshan Empire is a bit more diverse, it would be neat and a pain in the butt to have to learn different languages.

I can see the Empire really hating anything that opposes their idea that their way isn't the right way, using very drastic measures, especially if those that oppose their ideals are Yeshan themselves.  They would have to be, to keep a diverse population from splitting into independant nations.

Also: I LOVE that joke!

[Sgt. Spoon]

A Yeshan and Arashi are sitting at a bar, the Arashi turns to the Yeshan and asks him, "why do you fly, glory, money, or honor?"
Without pause the Yeshan replies, "For honor, of course!  And you?"
"Money" says the Arashi, "But I guess we all do fight for what we don't have enough of."

[Kyren]

The independant town idea would allow some internal struggle, I'd say. Having a highly educated population, or at least giving that population acess to education surely gives rise to seperatist tendencies. At least I'd imagine them well educated given their culture.

Not every scholar might see the Empires aggressive way of spreading their ideas as a good thing to do, and some towns might dedicate none of their ships to that cause.

[Clara Skyborn]

Just to spread a little Yesha and Arashi hate mongering.

A Yeshan and Arashi are sitting at a bar, the Arashi turns to the Yeshan and asks him, "why do you fly, glory, money, or honor?"
Without pause the Yeshan replies, "For honor, of course!  And you?"
"Money" says the Arashi, "But I guess we all do fight for what we don't have enough of."

Salute for that. Nice.

Yesha is first up for the upcoming feature series on the factions, so look for more lore on the Empire soon. I'm enjoying these discussions very much.

[Ofiach]

Is it a bad thing that all I can think of for the Yesha empire is a bunch of pain in the ass know it alls with a holier than thou chip on their shoulder?

OR am I picturing these guys the wrong way?

[HamsterIV]

"Money" says the Arashi, "But I guess we all do fight for what we don't have enough of."

Oooooo burn. That earned you another salute.

[Helios.]

the yesha as i imagine them are ideologues, leading an ideological campaign of conquest to spread the good news of yeshan empiredom. the advantages of the yesha are that their hierarchy is meritocratic (which makes the baronies leery id imagine) and their rulers are not only their best for this reason, but they have a emphasis on philosophy and education, like the greek philosopher kings.  as a result, the yeshans are committed to the idea that they can rise and hold power by virtue of their ability, and so are motivated to learn and cultivate their unique talents: a brave warrior might become a general, a hard working farmer might become the owner of a huge plantation, the clever student might become an adviser to even the triumverate themselves. this encourages all citizens in yesha to have a real stake in acting for the benefit of the whole, as it is rewarded on every level.
because all citizens feel enfranchised by Yeshan society, they see it as the best society to live in.

the baronies' caste system is too rigid and elitist: true freedom, the freedom succeed, should be for everyone.

The angleans are greedy and cruel: they should think of the world as a whole rather than themselves.

the arashi are half starving and full of desperate arrogance: if they would only abandon that sandy desolation they could live far better, less hungry, lives.

the mercantile guild are too concerned with their profits, and don't care enough about actual people: in yesha the people are the most important resource, their success and thriving activity creates the prosperity, not the bean-counting.

the chaledonians are too concerned with nature and their technology makes them a bit lazy: through hard work, fulfillment comes.

thats how i imagine the yesha anyway. feel free to disagree; how do you see them?

[Carn]

Hmm sounds pretentious enough. I see them more as rapid expansionists with the arrogance to think only their way is right.

(Note, the Empire is my least favorite.)