Baifa Monü Zhuan
- Intent: To detail a small lore inclusion
- Image Credit:
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: My Subs
- Links: N/A
- Media Name: Amber Empress
- Format: History entry
- Distribution: Planetary
- Length: Short
- Description: Created by Io to detail the Amber empress a semi-mysterious ruler from Atrisian history who is often considered more myth then fact.
- Author: Io Murasaki
- Publisher: Atrisian Commonwealth
- Reception: Received well
Presented and distributed much like bounty pucks projecting a hologram of Io explaining for people as part of historical records what was done and how the Daughters came to be part of Atrisian society.
CONTENT INFORMATION
Foreword: The tales of the Amber empress are contradictory... fantastical and largely unknown... the truth is we only know there was a person who existed but whether what they did, how they came to be and how they passed on.. we have not been able to find factual proof of anything. There are several origin stories, tales of how she came to be and even more of things she did in her life that led up to her becoming the empress. Then her death and legacy.
Birth: There are several tales of how she was born... from the god Wapoe finding a maiden so pure and beautiful that he had to have her. So on her wedding night he disguised himself as a swan to her being born fully grown from a seashell in the southern isles. Emerging where a great battle had raged between the gods, the seafoam that was created making a seashell rise and from it emerged the woman who would become the Amber empress. She joined many being coveted for her beauty but was assigned by the emperor of scarlet to his chamberlain. How many are not certain.
Wife: Her time as the wife of the chamberlain was no uneventful, she saw many projects mostly involving art and beauty... taking an interest in aiding the development of minds and schooling. Temples to the old gods were raised but Keidushi was where she mostly went to try and recover what was there. Being considered a rival in beauty to the forbidden goddess of love and lust. It is said the goddess manifested to the daughter of Wapoe. The slight she saw as a challenge... bringing the emperor and the chamberlain before them.
The goddess asked them who was more beautiful and if they answered truthfully then she would reward them with their greatest desires. the woman couldn't compete and was beaten after the offer of bribes ensured the goddess won but in doing so sowed her husbands downfall as he chose the goddess who in her own amusement punished him for being unfaithful to his bride. To save her husband the woman asked the goddess a question.
The question was simple... "what is in the box?" SHe said it and presented a black lacquered box with gold trim. A wedding gift from the emperor. With it the goddess was arrogant, spiteful and answered a red petal. Thinking quick and with deft hands the woman opened the box and revealed there was nothing. THe goddess enraged at what was seen disappeared. Later that night the woman's husband died in his sleep with a single petal being found in his mouth.
Empress: With the death of her husband she was a widow and young. She dallied in the court but eventually found her way to the side of the empress herself... not one to spurn the attentions of men she was married when the scarlet emperor passed away to the empress... the vow of the empress being that she would never wed another man and to ensure it she wed a court lady. It was a loophole... a means for the two of them to avoid many of the others and the new Empress of Amber was to many a prize to be claimed even by the empress.
The Daughters of Inosuke: One of her first trials as the new empress to many was to quell a lord... Inosuke was renowned for his lavish parties, for his distrust of the gods but also for his daughters... each one beautiful and skilled. The Empress of Amber went to meet them and offer her aid in matchmaking efforts... until each one was married off Inosuke would not rest or stop threatening war.
Forth fifty days the empress of Amber handled things... finding each one a wife, a husband or convent to dedicate themselves to. For fifty nights she was assailed with dreams of sneaking shadows and sound but always awoke to the cold night air. In the end after it was all done... only the first daughter she had met remained her match in the time since having disappeared at the behest of her father.
The empress tried to consul her but in her anger she used cursed blood from a demon who crashed on the world. Red skinned with protrusions on their face aand a blade of red light. That cleaved Yovshin easily... their blood they said could be used to empower one. Believing the falsehood the daughter soaked her kimono in it and donned it wanting revenge. Her kimono clung to her as it seared and boiled her flesh... making her run around the palace until she passed.
The Palace of Roses: THe fire and death within the palace cursed it to many and a new palace was commissioned to be made. The empresses never shared one... with the EMpress of Scarlet residing in Moonshadow, the palace of the Mūnshingā of the Umanushi. The Empress of Amber was within the Palace of Roses... deep in the mountains where no one could find her. Secluded away she was rumored to entertain the daughters of lords.
SHe would appear from time to time in the capital for festivals or to dedicate and meet the others but the Scarlet empress was ruling... only duty saw the AMber empress reurning and then she would just as quickly return to the mountains lost to many. More rumors would come and it s only through efforts and archeological endeavors that recently information was discovered. The Palace of Roses in the norther province was filled with art and statues.
Death: The tomb in the palace was the other major find, carved marble of the Amber empress in detail laid to rest with her handmaidens who remained and details from guards letters that had been held there showed much more. The empress had fallen for a mysterious woman she had seen one night from the window of her palace. With skin like snow and eyes as black as the space between the stars.
She brought her to the palace and slowly became more reclusive, falling into a state of isolation until only her most loyal handmaidens and guards remained behind to serve her. THey were bound to her and slowly the empress wasted away with no talk of the mysterious woman if she could have even been called one. The guards suspected that she was a ghost sent to punish the empress or a rival of what was believed to be her father sending her to the underworld.
All we have been able to find and discover so far is that the empress died suddenly and was buried with the p[alace sealed from the inside and lost in the mountains. Its secretive location lost to time and its design of being inside of the mountain and cave meaning that it wouldn't be able to be seen until it was discovered by miners searching for metal and ores deep in the snow capped mountains.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Fairly new, the collection of information has only recently been released to the public in its none redacted records. Details about what went into the Alliance for the time with the QUeen Mother and princess of the Commonwealth.
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