Meili Feng
Character
Shuiqui seen from space
- Intent: To submit a planet with a unique culture for roleplay and to further the development of Locke and Key Mechanics
- Image Credit:
- Flag: Vectorstock (Photoshop by me)
- Shuiqui seen from space: New Scientist (Photoshop by me)
- Sunrise on the port of Shagang: Deviantart | Flaviobolla
- Approaching the mining camp of Nuliying: Creative Uncut | Blade and Soul
- Rainstorm over Haigang: Artstation | Timothy Rodriguez
- View from a courtyard of the Imperial Palace: Artstation | Chen Ziyi
- Snowfall on Qiangda City: Artstation | Ling Xiang
- Nighttime lights of Shoudu: Artstation | Klaus Pillion
- The Silent Entrance of Mergamus Natura: CGSociety | dlestudio
- Title art made by me
- Canon: N/a
- Permissions: N/a
- Links:
- Planet Name: Shuiqiu
- Demonym: Shuiqian
- Region: Outer Rim Territories
- System Name: Taiyang
- System Features:
- Relang- Barren planet close to the sun
- Biological Military base
- Rongyuan Juren - Massive “Mega-earth” type planet, the mass of the planet is so heavy that a stable solid crust can’t form leaving (lava planet).
- Yanwang - Habitable planet
- Shuiqiu
- Xiwangmu Belt- Inner Asteroid Belt
- Asteroid Fortresses
- Yu Juren- A large green Gas Giant with multiple moons
- Erlang: Moon given to L&K
- Guanyin: Moon with an enclave of refugees
- Houyi- Red gas giant with moons
- Home base of the Shuiquian Navy
- Xuanwu: Habitable moon given over to mercenaries
- Chang’e Belt - Outer Asteroid Ring
- Bala- Small Barren Planet
- Scientific base
- Telescopes
- Relang- Barren planet close to the sun
- Location: Here
- Major Imports:
- Major Exports:
- Artisan goods (Primarily textile and pottery),
- Food and recipes
- Mercenaries,
- Ships and technologies from Locke and Key facilities,
- Phrik, Durasteel, Songsteel, Gold and Quadranium ore from the asteroid mining facilities.
- Unexploited Resources: N/a - the system is very well developed.
- Gravity: One and a half times standard
- Climate: Temperate
- Primary Terrain:
- Shuiqui is primarily a water world, with oceans covering much of the planet's surface.
- 5 large islands exist, dotted around the surface of the planet. The rest of the land on the planet consists of archipelagos of islands scattered across the planet.
- Atmosphere: Type I
- Capital City: Shoudu
- Planetary Features:
5 large islands dotted with large cities, combat schools and farming communities. Roads criss-cross the islands linking the cities, with trains running cargo and passengers between the major cities. The remains of old forts can be found dotted around the roads, remnants of the wars that once swept over the surface of the planet.
- Major Locations:
Island of Shamo:
A primarily desert Island set slightly off from the equator, the island of Shamo one of the major land masses on Shuiqui. Despite the size of the island it is the least populated of the five major islands, with the majority of the population gathered in cities and villages around the edge of the island. For much of Shuqui’s history the planet Shamo was the least inhabited of the major islands, but one with significant natural resources for the taking if you were willing to risk the inhospitable climate.
Shagang
Sunrise on the port of Shagang
The only major historical port on the island of Shamo, Shagang was a player on the planetary scene, focused on the naval aspects of warfare. Without any major competitors on the island they never had to worry about being attacked but instead were able to project their power across the seas. That naval history has continued to the present day with Shagang taking the lead in aerospace research and being the site of the headquarters of the military’s naval element.
Nuliying
Approaching the mining camp of Nuliying
One of many mining camps constructed across Shamo by expeditions hunting resources Nulying had more staying power than most. Founded on a deep vein, the camp eventually blossomed into a small outpost, attracting miners and those seeking to provide them services from all over the planet. Nulying rapidly evolved a reputation as a place you could buy or sell anything, stolen goods, drugs, people. For much of the planet’s history Nulying remained a centre of the black market, although as technology on the planet advanced the criminals were forced to become more technically capable and although Nuliying remained an important market, although the majority of crime and the criminal families shifted their focus to Haigang.
Haigang
Rainstorm over Haigang
Haigang started off as a small port on the other side of Shamo from Shagang, primarily created to supply the mining camps on the other side of the island. The port’s proximity to Nuliying made it an ideal location for criminals and slavers to move their goods to sell in the outpost. The use of Haigang as a criminal thoroughfare forced the criminal families who used it to invest in controlling the port, and forced the development of the port to be able to handle more and more traffic, letting it grow over time first into a hub for pirate activity around Shamo, and then into a commercial port that rivalled any on the planet. As technology and the planet developed Haigang became the site of one of the major spaceports of Shuiqui.
Island of Jiayuan:
The largest island on the planet, Jiayuan was the birthplace of the Qiangda Empire that eventually united the planet. The Island consists of a flat coast, surrounding the island where many of the island’s cities developed. The northern part of the island consisted primarily of fertile plains and lowlands, slowly becoming more hilly the further south you went. The south of the island was a series of mountains and plateaus cut through with basins and deep valleys.
Imperial Palace
View from a courtyard of the Imperial Palace
Built by the Qiangda dynasty as both a home for the Imperial Family and an administrative centre the palace is both an architectural and cultural wonder of the planet and the centre of the government for many years. Although no longer the administrative hub of the planet, that purpose being overtaken by the governmental offices in the capital, the civil service still maintains a strong presence on the planet to allow the Emperor to govern from home. The Imperial Palace is in effect a city within a palace and is set away from many other important hubs providing the Imperial Family with a semblance of privacy and security while allowing the Imperial Guard to control the flow of tourists and other officials visiting the residence.
The imperial palace contains gardens the highlight of any found in Shuiqui, bringing tourists and admirers from all over the world, and even from other star systems. A library and museum the envy of many and some of the most exquisite baths found anywhere in the known galaxy. More than that though, the Imperial Palace contains a school, a finishing school for the civil service. Any students or trainee members who are seen as having potential are sent there, to study and develop both the skills and connections they will need in later life.
Qiangda City
Snowfall on Qiangda City
The ancestral home of the Qiangda Empire, the city is set in the heart of the mountainous southern half of the island. Originally known for the horses it bred and the warriors who used them. Qiangda City has since become a tourist and cultural hub. Very much a city of two parts
The city is split between the historic district which is very much a tourist hub, with tourist draws like the grand market (a traditional market filled with colourful stalls and fresh produce/crafts often sold directly by farmers and artisans). The old city also contains a variety of traditional baths and teahouses. A place where you can get lost in the path if you so with.
The other side of the city is the modern administrative and educational centre. Qiangda City remains the local administrative capital and boasts a prestigious university which focuses on animal husbandry, genetics and medicine and administration degrees.
Shoudu - Capital City
Nighttime lights of Shoudu
Shoudu is not one of the ancient city-states that were involved in the war of control that stretched across the planet. Shoudu was constructed later, after the Qiangda dynasty had united the planet, the Emperors realised that making any city their new seat and capital would only generate a degree of unhappiness and bitterness from the other factions they’d conquered. Their ancestral city was just too far out of the way, and was not immune from the bad blood that had been spilt through the centuries.
Instead the Emperor opted for a new path, carving out a new Capital city on the coast of Jiayuan. Built to contemporary specifications and technologies Shoudu is an architectural masterpiece, full of rising skyscrapers and neatly planned city blocks. Modern in every sense of the word, Shoudu is a city that looks to the future, guiding Shuiqui along it’s next steps.
The administrative capital of the world, Shoudu is the home of the civil service, the vast network of administrators and imperial servants that ran the planet and enforced the Emperor’s will. Shendu is also the educational capital of the planet, home of the largest university and the premier military academy.
Mergamus Natura
The silent entrance of Mergamus Natura
A temple hidden deep within the mountains of Jiayuan, set high on the top of a mountain lies the temple Auksifas Kal’Evos set up on the planet when he first arrived on the planet. It was from this temple that he set about creating his sithspawn, his experiments. It was here that he created the super soldiers that he would use to save the Sith species. Not exactly hidden, the temple has passed into myth. Auksifas knew that his mission had failed, but was unwilling to just leave his creations to their fate he continued to watch over them from his temple, gathering acolytes and reaching out with the force to guide the course of the world.
- Native Species: Da Yuan
- Immigrated Species:
- Population: Heavy
- Demographics:The Zanshi are the dominant species on the planet, having supplanted the native Da Yuan early in their history. The Da Yuan still maintain a significant population on the planet having been completely assimilated into the Zanshi society. Perhaps surprisingly given their history and the intent behind the Zanshi have a society which is very open to outsiders and other species. The only people who they find themselves ostracizing and treating as outsiders are force users, of whom the Zanshi have a deep cultural dislike. The Huli, as force users, are forced to hide within society, disguising their abilities if they want to avoid being forced to the edges of society.
- Breakdown: Zanshi - 60% | Da Yuan - 25% | Huli - 10% | Other immigrated species - 5%
- Primary Languages: Galactic Basic | Zan (Native Language of the Zanshi) | Yuan (Native Language of the Da Yuan)
- Culture:
Honour and Obedience
The concept of honour is extremely important to the residents of Shuiqui and informs much of their actions and thoughts.
Honour can take many forms, but the concept is deeply ingrained into the very psyche of the inhabitants of the planet from an early age. Honour is the means by which they measure themselves and others and honourable actions don’t just reflect upon you but on your social and familial groups as well. A member of a combat school who is found to be cheating would bring shame not just on themselves but on their school. Such an individual may find themselves excommunicated from the school, and ostracised from many others unless they can find someone willing to give them a chance to regain their honour.
A dishonourable action however does not just affect your school, if we take the action described above, cheating in combat, that action will also have repercussions outside of the world of martial arts. Your parents and family are seen as responsible for your upbringing and so your actions would bring dishonour upon them as well. While your parents might not cut you off, they would be very displeased and your actions would affect how people see you and your family. The worse the action, the wider the ripples would spread.
That same honour dictates that you obey your superiors and elders, in all walks of life. The focus on honour can be found in the martial past of the planet, when each city state was fielding multiple armies spread out over the islands the focus on honour and obedience was of supreme importance, having a general turn on his ruler could easily result in a coup. By tying standing and someone’s situation into their honour and by letting it reflect on their family and place in society the culture retained it’s martial emphasis while at the same time preventing those combatants from stepping too far out of line.
In the modern age, that concept of honour became difficult to manage for a time. With the advent of ships, of weapons that could kill from miles away previous notions of honour became hard to equate with the modern face of combat. This was eventually handled by an emphasis on skill, to be skilled was to gain honour if that was skill with a sniper rifle, or skill piloting or commanding a warship. That said, society still prefers hand to hand combat over ranged.
Combat
Combat, both militarily and personally, has been a huge part of the history of Shuiqui, and this has left an indelible imprint on the population. The planet’s cultural focus on combat can be traced back to the warring cities period when each city needed to be able to field as many capable soldiers as possible. The martial arts were emphasised, both in terms of personal training and in military training, and soldiers and those who had served often received benefits from the state.
This emphasis on combat, on knowing how to fight and defend oneself permeated its way through all aspects of the planet’s culture. In order to emphasize the importance of combat ability, many cities created an additional branch to their laws dealing with trial by combat. Laws that are still in effect even to the modern-day, albeit with very strict controls. Battles to the death are rare, mostly only called on in the most extreme of circumstances, most fights are instead to first blood or to a set number of points.
Children on the planet start training almost as soon as they can walk, learning first from their parents and then the various combat schools across the planet. Families tended to either have their own styles, or send their children to a specific school of martial arts to learn.
There are two primary paths of martial arts on the planet, Baohu Zhe and Kong Zhi, the paths of the berserk and the controlled. These paths rose out of the red-eye, the Zanshi’s inherent connection to Force Rage, always waiting in the wings. The path of Baohu Zhe chose to embrace it and aim it, to lose themselves in the rage, using it to batter and overwhelm their opponents with their sheer ferocity. The path of Kong Zhi, on the other hand, chose a different path, seeking to control themselves and their rage, to channel it, releasing it in controlled bursts that allowed them to remain in control of themselves and their environment. Each of these paths had multiple schools of combat which formed a family beneath them.
The notion of combat, of martial arts was so ingrained into the culture of the planet that everyone was trained to fight. More than that, however, the emphasis on martial arts has sunk so far into the culture that the minutest shifts in weight and posture can be read and have profound implications. Control, the expressions of emotion and small motions became a language within its own right. In the truth of combat, it was impossible to hide those twitches that revealed the truth about a person.
Armour and Weapons
Given the importance of combat of all types to the citizens of Shuiqui it was inevitable that weapons and armour would come to carry significant weight and prestige. These were not just the tools of war, these were the emblems of the combat that was so central to the planet’s culture. The weapons and armour provided to you helped shaped how you would fight, your combat style.
In the past, while basic weaponry abounded, a lord might reward one of their subordinates with superior weaponry, shaped by a master smith or even a force imbued weapon crafted by one of the few capable of it on the planet. These weapons became family heirlooms, passed down through the generations, but they also helped shape a family’s combat style. If granted a spear or a sword it would shame the lord who gave it to you not to use it. The same with heavy or light armour. However, quick movement and attacks were not something that would be possible in heavy armour.
Many a cany lord would grant a follower a weapon that was at odds with their combat style. A warrior who wasn’t comfortable or happy using their weapons and armour would be less capable in a fight and accrue less honour. Other lords sought to aid their followers, figuring that the more honour they accrued the better it would reflect on them.
Even in the modern-day, receiving a weapon or armour from a superior is an honour. For a member of the military, even receiving their normal armour is an honour and a sign of the trust that your trainers have in you. While medals are handed out for deeds that deserve them, the gift of a knife or a gun from a superior often comes to mean more to a soldier. Many of the ancient weapons still have a symbolic meaning, and can even be used in combat. Many houses hold them in the highest regard and storied weapons can be traded for favours, or as a sign of a houses capitulation or submission to another. Those houses that still have ancient tokens hold them in the very highest esteem, seeing them as bringing great honour to their family. While modern weapons have yet to earn as esteemed a place, the gift of a weapon can carry with it significant honour as well.
Mercenary Work
After the Qiangda managed to unite the planet they were left with a problem, the people of Shuiqui were a martial people who had spent millenia at war. While for many the peace was welcome, the combat and martial arts that were such a part of their everyday lives enough to satisfy, there was a significant portion of the population that were unable to satisfy their need for combat through just those means. Rather than risk internal squabbles developing into more than just skirmishes, the Emperor created the Zhanshilang , a mercenary group based on a moon of Yu Juren. An ostensibly separate entity from the Imperial Military, the Zhanshilang acted as an auxiliary force, used to learn and judge tactics and weaponry used by the rest of the galaxy to allow Shuiqui to learn. It also provided hot-headed youths who more than system protection a chance at combat and honour, a pressure valve for Shuiqui society.
Family
The concept of family is very important to the citizens of Shuiqui, the centre of their social groupings and the underpinnings of the honour which is so important to them. Without your family you are nothing, they help define you and give you the opportunities and protection when you’re a child. You learn your morals from your parents and family, learn the meaning of honour, how to fight. Everything you do helps or hinders your family, and they and their standing and connections are what can open doors to you.
Everything you do reflects on your family and much of a Shuiqian’s adult life is spent around doing what’s best for their family unit. These are the people who always have your back, and you will always have theirs, in a culture where honour is absolute the family and its honour is held by most above all else.
Some see your family as your blood relations, others as the bonds you choose. However, no matter what family means to you, it’s protection and honour are paramount.
Social Hierarchy
Emperor
The Emperor stands at the apex of the social and political hierarchy on Shuiqui, the sole ruler of the planet with all the benefits and responsibilities that come with that position. The leader of the military, the bureaucracy and the social pinnacle of the planet. As honour on the planet is bound to obedience to your superiors, all honour flowed down from obeying the emperor, leaving the individual with the most individual power of any individual on the planet.
Nobility
The one time rulers of the city-states that dotted the planet and their courts, that that had held control of the planet. While they had lost much of their power to the emperor during the war of unification many of the governors and leaders of the cities were initially chosen from the nobility. A trend which has continued to the modern-day, creating political dynasties that can trade on their name and prestige as a commodity.
Military
On a planet consumed by combat, that had a history of continuous war between city-states it was inevitable that the military would come to have a prominent place within society. Certain families started to focus on combat, on the skills of combat and leading men, the families which officers and generals were drawn from. The families of the champions and greatest fighters were found. Although they lacked the prestige of the noble families, these families still carried a recognized name and honour. Even today, many leaders of the military and the Zhanshilang are drawn from these families.
While anyone could join the military, recognition as a military family required generations of service, and skilful services at that. Many of the established military families would marry upcoming stars into their family, ensuring their continuation and providing those new-blood stars with easier access to the old-boys network, making their path through the military that much easier.
Craftsmen
On a planet of warriors, your weapons and armour are bound to be of the utmost importance. It was the craftsmen who made them, who made the whole war possible. From the fletchers to the blacksmiths, engineers and artisans it was the craftsmen who made it all possible.
The craftsmen caste covered all the skilled labour positions, and skills as a craftsman could provide significant honour and income. It was easiest to become a member of the craftsmen, sufficient training or skill were the only barriers to entry to this class making it the easiest class to gain entry too. Most craftsmen were individuals though, though a few craftsmen families do exist.
Farmers/Merchants
The majority of the population fell into this caste, workers, unskilled labour. The workers who farmed, who ran the factories and formed the majority of the armies. The office workers and soldiers. These families were as obsessed with their honour and standing as the highest of the noble families, just had less prestige and less opportunity for advancement.
Bureaucrats
A class unto their own, the bureaucrats are the hidden power of the planet, the enforcers of the emperor’s will and the keepers of the long-term plan for the planet’s development. The bureaucrats have a hand in almost every pie, and every facet of life on the planet. They are a side caste unto themselves, separate from the hierarchy that everyone is aware of. Anyone can become a bureaucrat, it doesn’t matter where you came from previously. If you are able to pass the exams or receive a recommendation from a senior bureaucrat they will let you in.
Arts
When they were being designed the Zenshi were thought to be a species that would be obsessed with combat and very little else. No-one predicted the effect that the introduction of martial arts on the planet would have. The element of control introduced there allowed the planet to develop into more than a world of war, it allowed the arts and culture to thrive and flourish.
The arts on the planet took the emphasis on perception and control present in martial arts, stylising them. Delicate pottery and finely carved statues, detailed crafts and textiles. Paintings and clothing, the planet had them all, often handcrafted by artisans in the cities and country before being brought in for sale at the markets or shipment off-world.
Crime
No planet in the galaxy is without crime of some sort, from the gangs of Taris to the Hutts of Nar Shadaa. If there was an opportunity to make money through less than legal means, someone would take it. Shuiqui was no different from any other planet in this regard.
Some of the citizens of Shuiqui would choose a family, a social group outside of that they were born into. The military was one such group, the Zhanshilang another, the Zuiren was another. A family made of criminals, of those who banded together for support. Although they didn’t all relinquish their other family connections, to join the Zuiren was to agree to place this new family above others, the bonds formed here above all other bonds.
The Zuiren weren’t all bad, in fact, they started off as a benevolent organization made up of members of the lower classes looking out for one another. During the period before the planet was united almost all the power was in the hands of the nobility and their agents. While a bureaucracy appointed judge may pass through a region once every 6 months for the most part workers were subject to the whims of the lords. Those workers banded together to form the first Zuiren, collectives that could alleviate the stress from their lives, using the black market to acquire those necessities and luxuries people couldn’t get a hold of otherwise.
These growing criminal enterprises soon fell afoul of the local lords and their officials, resulting in a bitter war for profit and influence being held in the shadows. It was in this war that the Zuiren moved beyond being simple collectives into the fore-runners of the organizations they were today, becoming more militaristic in their own right, banding together to form larger groups with more resources.
Today the Zuiren can be found all over the planet, collected into roughly 6 families who exist in a perpetual state of skirmishing followed by peace as they test one another for weakness. In the place of local lords, the Zuiren find themselves being countered by the Imperial Bureaucracy and their agents. The war in the shadows taken to new heights. While the Zuiren do look out for the people under their influence, doing their best to protect the civilians in their territory they are now much more focused on the profit and prestige of their family.
The Force
A planet of sithspawn, created as soldiers in a grand war to be fought, the truth of their creation has never been hidden from the people of Shuiqui, although through the years it has been shrouded in myth. They are aware of the force, of the energy that connects all living things. However, despite the fact that many of their abilities are derived from it, the people of Shuiqui are distrustful of the force.
Few among the Zanshi themselves are capable of actively using the force, but many of the second and third generation sithspawn are. While the Zanshi are the dominant species on the planet, the abilities displayed by the “demons” have left them unwilling, or unable to accept this ability. For a people that pride themselves on combat, on fighting with honour, the ability to reach out to kill and maim across a distance is difficult to reconcile.
That isn’t to say that force users are banned or reviled, but there is an element of distrust even to the Jedi who might visit until they prove themselves. Being vouched for by someone of sufficient standing can go a long way to alleviating that distrust.
The Demons
Not truly demons, but evolved versions of Sithspawn created by Auksifas Kal’Evos as part of his experiments. They have always existed, in fewer numbers than the Zanshi, but more powerful. Although they knew that the creatures had been created in the same way they had, the origins lost in a creation myth that cast Auksifas as a god, what was known was these beings existed and roamed the world. The powers they exhibit have only furthered the mistrust of the force on the planet. The demons themselves are generally not welcomed by the rest of the population, forced to hide who they are and their abilities, to eke out a life where they know that those around them will turn on them if revealed. Recently the Emporer has been trying to find ways to better integrate the demons, although his plans are still cloaked in the utmost secrecy.
- Government: Imperial
The planet is led by an Emperor, the sole individual granted ultimate authority in all branches of the government. The Emperor, or Empress, is the head of the military and the civil service, all authority flows down from the emperor, appointments were Imperial and therefore had to be signed off on by the Emperor. Even an elected position such as a local politician had to travel to the Imperial palace to receive their position from the Emperor or be rejected by him.
- Affiliation: Not affiliated with any factions, although Locke and Key Mechanics does have a significant presence on the planet.
- Wealth: Wealthy
A developed and industrialized planet Shuiqui is replete with natural resources that have allowed the planet to establish a solid industrial base early on that carried them to the industrial age and beyond.
The industrial revolution on the planet began in the wake of the unification forced by the Qiangda family. The ending of the internecine wars that had plagued the planet allowed the population to turn their focus away from the focus on military technologies and wartime industries that had been their focus. This started with small crafters, villagers who had previously spun cloth for the military uniforms started playing with colours and fabrics. Blacksmiths who had previously made armour and weapons tried their hand at more intricate innovative builds. Slowly these village craftsmen started to band together into collectives, forming the planet’s first companies, a trend the imperial bureaucracy was only too keen to support. The more centralized and organized the craftsmen were, the easier it was for them to keep an eye on them.
Slowly these companies started to merge together to combat the economic power of the noble families in their cities. While some noble families recognized the changing face of the economy and joined with them, many others tried to fight, generally unsuccessfully. Under the auspices of Imperial oversight, it was these conglomerates that opened up the heavens, allowing the citizens of the planet to start to colonise and mine their surrounding system. It was the industry of these conglomerates that allowed the planet to maintain a positive trade with the surrounding galaxy.
- Stability: High
While at first glance it might appear that the stability of the planet is kept firm by the continuance of an Imperial Family at the apex of the planet’s social structure the truth is that this is only one of the causes of the planet’s stability. And a minor one at that. Rulers may come and go, but it is the bureaucracy which continues. The network of civil servants spread across the system that helps to keep the planet steady and stable.
It is the civil service that has crafted the grand scheme of the planet’s trajectory in galactic politics, but most importantly, they helped shape the planet’s culture. The civil service has their tendrils spread across the planet, employing public servants like teachers, medical professionals and engineers. Even the masters who ran the combat schools and the judges who refereed the fights were employed by the civil service. Their influence could be found everywhere, but it was the elite, the Civil Servants themselves who had the most power and influence in the planet’s stability.
- Freedom & Oppression:
Like any civilised planet, Shuiqui is bound by a system of laws, the rules and codes of law that define any society. Imperial systems tend to lean more heavily on the iron fist, on an authoritarian style of government that limits the freedom of its citizens in favour of the greater good. The Imperial State of Shuiqui was no different. Within the boundaries of the law and tradition, with the honour and obedience that was so central to the planet, there wasn’t a need to weigh in with a strong hand. The very nature of the culture of the planet saw to that.
For those who operated within the confines of the systems within the planet life on Shuiqui is much the same as on any other planet. They can live their lives as they wish, study, getting jobs, marrying and having families. They are even able to start their own business and expand it as they wish. As long as they remain within the laws and parameters set down by the state.
It is when someone wishes to step outside the social norm, to do something different, that’s when they run afoul of the situation.
Shuiqui doesn’t have an option for significant upward social mobility. While anyone is capable of opening a business and even amassing a fortune, becoming a billionaire and employing thousands across the system. However, that didn’t necessarily allow them the upward mobility that they might want, the prestige that they would have thought would have come with that.
Social standing isn’t based so much on your income as on your family's honour, and on the acts, both of the current generation and your ancestors. This is a limiting factor for many since it is your personal and family standing that can open many doors to you. The oldest families, those who have the highest standing, are able to get away with much that the newer families might not be able to and are still seen as leaders. A merchant might be able to find someone to bribe if he’s lucky, but an old noble family wouldn’t even need to go to that extent. Even the police would be unwilling to look into an old noble family’s proceedings.
It is for that very reason that the old family’s names and bloodlines are so in demand by upcoming families. The name of the nobility carried with it a weight and gravitas that would let the new industries and families do what they needed to do to expand both business and criminal enterprises. For those without those connections, expanding or making deals beyond a certain level become much harder, both because of the efforts of the community and the bureaucrats.
Despite this, there is no widespread fear of the Emperor or the government in general. This is simply the way things are and the people are satisfied with that, they are free to live their lives without the kind of problems they hear about n so many other worlds.
- Military:
A world where war and combat were a way of life it’s no surprise that the military is an important integral part of the nation’s identity. The military capability of Shuiqui is split into two parts, the Imperial Military (composed of the navy and army) and the mercenary group Zhanshilang (which in times of war can be called on to act as auxiliaries for the military. Shuiqui is a local power, capable of extending its military might through the local area. Although not a galactic power, the planet has an impressive military, and thanks to the workings of their mercenaries are upto date with most tactics employed by contemporary powers.
- Technology:
Slightly above galactic standard: The unification of the warring city-states into one unified whole allowed Shuiqui to develop technologies at an analogous pace to the rest of the galaxy rediscovering lost technology, allowing them to keep up with the curve of galactic standard tech. It wasn't until the Imperial family’s current deal with Locke and Key Mechanics that significant advances in technology were brought to the planet allowing them to start moving up the curve. These advances are still in the process of being integrated. Much of the technology on the planet is situated in the cities, slowly spreading into the countryside.
The history of Shuiqui has to start with the times sightly more than 2000 years ago, before the arrival of Auksifas Kal’Evos. At that time the planet was only inhabited by the Da Yuan, a race of evolved apes very similar to the Wookies of Kashyyyk. They lived in small villages, primarily focused on fishing and farming. It was an idyllic time, a peaceful one where the Da Yuan could slowly develop communities and the technologies they’d need to one day join the galactic community.
It was to this peaceful planet that Auksifas Kal’Evos arrived, a Sith Sorcerer who had seen the writing on the wall. He had seen the fall of the true Sith Empire, and knew that the new sith empire that he lived in would come under attack as well. He chose to find a way to defend them. Some looked to their own power, focusing on expanding their personal power, becoming beacons of the darkside. Auksifas had another thought though, while the Sith could become as individually powerful as they wanted, they would be vulnerable to attack until they had an army that could reflect their power and meet the threats in the galaxy. An army that could match any other out there and defeat them. While some of his peers had made sithspawn before, creatures moulded by the darkside to their purpose. That would not serve his purpose though. Auksifas wanted to create a sithspawn that had the ability to fight as part of an army, that was not just moulded to fight by the force but by their very culture.
So he came to the as yet unnamed planet that came to be known as Shuqui, building a temple in the depth of the mountains and setting to work. His first creation, the Zanshi, took him years to perfect, a near human-looking Sithspawn that he released into the planet. Starting with a small village they slowly started to spread across the planet, sweeping over the planet, quickly supplanting the Da Yuan as the dominant species due to their numbers and aggression. Where Auksifas had expected the Zanshi to kill off and replace the Da Yuan, they surprised him by integrating with the native species, absorbing them into their culture and developing communities. This was only the first time the Zanshi would come to surprise their creator.
Over the next few centuries, Auksifas kept working in his lab, creating new, more specialised forms of Sithspawn, releasing them into the wild. Over this time the Zanshi had spread over the planet, establishing villages and communities across all the land available. Slowly those villages started to coalesce into larger communities. It started with trade and defence as it always does, communities near to one another had been developing social connections through marriage and trade for years, so when one was attacked or fell on hard times, it made a certain amount of sense to aid them. Within these social bonds, one community tended to gain predominance, growing in size as people flocked to these hubs. Within the growing cities, families fought for influence until one gained control, establishing the political structure that would last through the next period.
Although the cities each controlled territory, there was no incentive for them to coalesce further into nations, at least not yet. What instead existed was a series of ever-changing alliances and connections, a tapestry of shifting politics that prevented anyone city from achieving a hegemony. Instead, armies rampaged across the land, raiding and defending in equal measure, a never-ending war that swept across the entire planet. It was in this crucible that the culture of the planet was forged, their focus on combat and their sense of honour. It was a survival mechanism more than anything, if a lord could trust his generals then he didn’t need to worry about being stabbed in the back. If someone surrendered or gave their word their actions and the actions of their enemies could be safely predicted.
This was exactly the plan that Auksifas had hoped for, his weapons sharpening themselves in war, honing themselves to a perfect peak till the point he could unleash them on the enemies of the Sith. Even the treatment of his second and third-generation sith spawn was perfect, by forcing them to rely on stealth and their ability to hide he was sharpening and refining their abilities. Only he hadn’t accounted for two things, the passage of time and the need for people to band together. As he’d been hard at work on the planet and his species time in the galaxy had passed him by. The empire he’d been so intent on protecting had retreated and fallen itself leaving his plans in ruins. Auksifas should have left then, gone to find the remainder of the sith and tried to reconstruct the empire. Only, he’d come to care about his creations too much, if the Sith had fallen, then he could still act as a shepherd for them.
While the galaxy around them shifted, the Republic falling to the empire, the gulag plague devastating the galaxy, Shuiqui was left alone. The Empire saw the planet as one of human primitives, barely worth their time to establish an outpost with. It was around this time, however, that the first major social changes on the planet for a millennia were occurring. The history of the planet turned on the events occurring in the small mountain city of Qiangda. The city had never really been one which had much influence on planetary politics, it’s location meant that they had a limited population and so couldn’t generate the armies of some of the larger cities located on the plains. What Qiangda did do well was cavalry, fielding fast and capable units that were often hired by other cities as mercenaries.
It was this small city that was destined to change the face of the planet, and it all began with a coup. No-one could respect a king who didn’t fight with his men, and though often nobles were captured and ransomed that wasn’t the case in this case. As the body of the king was borne back to the city, his brother was already taking advantage of this opportunity, arguing that the king’s young son wouldn’t be able to rule successfully. The young prince barely managed to escape the blades sent by his uncle, forced to escape to a nearby monastery where he placed himself under the protection of the monks there who disguised him as a novice. No-one could imagine a teenage prince hiding as a manual labourer, and the searching soldiers failed to check for him.
It was this time spent with the monks that had a profound effect on the young prince, no noble had ever really spent much time living as a commoner, breaking bread and working alongside the lowest elements in society. He could see how they were not so different from the nobles he’d grown up with, in fact, many of them were more capable. But, by the circumstances of birth, they were unable to raise themselves beyond their current place in society. Due to the luck of the draw, they were reduced to scrabbling to survive, a constant victim to raids from bandits and other nobles. He might no longer be a prince, no longer able to command the armies he’d been trained to, but at the least, he could protect the monastery and the surrounding villages.
It wasn’t something he could do alone, not against a party of bandits or a raiding force, even a trained fighter couldn’t always win against numbers, but a group of them? Well, that was different. The prince started with a small group of local villagers, hunters and brawlers who might never have amounted to anything left alone, farmers who might have worked the fields or soldiers who might have died out on a battlefield somewhere. He gave them training though, a purpose, the skills and tricks on the nobles who made war. From the villagers, he created the first professional military on the planet, dedicated to the art of war.
It started off small, a gang, no different from the gangs that roamed the country picking on the villagers, only the prince and his men didn’t seek to prey on the unfortunate but rather protect them from predation. Guerilla tactics and formation practised again and again gave them an advantage that their opponents lacked. The prince was able to pick off gangs of bandits and military raiders with ease, slowly creating an area of safety in the area around the monastery. They would fight and train by day and spend nights discussing tactics and their experiences, moulding themselves into fighters without peer in the area. Slowly word spread and more and more of the farmers who wanted to be able to protect themselves started to find their way to the monastery until the Prince wasn’t just fielding one band nor two but 5, slowly expanding the area under his protection.
Of course, his uncle couldn’t let the young upstart who was spreading influence over his territory alone. Not even knowing who it was the Qiangda military mobilised, but found themselves no match for the superior tactics and training of the prince’s warband. The war between to two of them lasted just over a year and resulted with the prince sitting back on the throne that had been stolen from him, secure in his position with a head full of new ideas. He knew that he couldn’t just upend the social structure, but also that there were those capable who were not born into the higher classes who needed an opportunity to prove themselves.
To this end, he created the two additional branches of society, the bureaucracy and the military, giving those not born into the nobility a chance to rise and gain power based on their merits alone. Of course, with a permanent military came bored soldiers, and so Qiangda started to wage war on its neighbours. In the past wars had been carried out strictly for influence and profit, large scale raids for resources were common. But no city had the means to establish long term control over another’s territory. Only that had changed. The professional military meant that the soldiers weren’t needed back home, and the bureaucracy allowed for a structure of governance and logistics to be established over a distance. The emperor himself played into this policy,
Over the next few years he waged a war across the island, bringing more and more cities under his thrall, welding them into one union. Unlike the alliances of the past there was no risk of the union separating, so resources and manpower could be better shifted to where it was needed. It was during this time the bureaucracy truly found it’s footing allowing Qiangda to manage and maintain it’s burgeoning empire.
The solidification of this Imperial block forced the hardening of alliances across the planet, but it was too late for the other residents of Jiayuan as the Emperor’s forced swept over the land, bringing the last city into the fold 10 years after he had begun his war of conquest. 10 years of constant, unforgiving war as he beat the nobility into submission had left the island a shell of its former self. Yet now, without the threat of raids, of the nobles playing games the machinery of the empire went to work. Over the next 15 years, the infrastructure was rebuilt and upgraded and the Empire waited, ships were built and naval supremacy achieved.
It wasn’t until almost 40 years after his uncle forced him to flee that the Emperor enacted stage two of his plan, an Armada bearing down on the next island. They’d drawn up their armies, prepared to face the military might of the Imperial Armies, but they didn’t expect what they faced. The Emperor hadn’t been idle over the last 15 years, training and developing a new kind of cavalry. The large Cats that made homes of the mountains around Qiangda city had been tamed, turned into a heavy cavalry the likes of which no-one had seen. As the gigantic armour cats bore down on the lines of soldiers, their lack of training showed and they broke.
That single battle set the stage for the rest of the war of unification, no military on the planet could hope to match the training and adaptability of the Qiangda. City after city, island after Island fell to the encroaching forces. Some barely put up a fight, others banded together to hold them off. It took 3 generations of war, the most horrific war that the planet had ever seen. The other nations just couldn’t stand up to the machine Qiangda had created.
It was around this time that the gulag plague swept across the galaxy, barely affecting the planet of Shuiqui which had been passed over by others as not worth their time. Still stuck in the pre-industrial state, the war of unification had finally given the planet what it needed to start to develop their sciences and technology. They were still developing when the Gulag Plague rocked the galaxy, passing them over as the planet built up its technology while the rest of the galaxy rebuilt theirs allowing the planet to achieve parity with their neighbours while their culture and learning flourished.
Auksifas had never expected this, never expected to find his creation uniting in this way but, how could he turn his back on them now? The soldiers had evolved to become a culture in their own right. With the absence of constant conflict arts and technology boomed on the planet, but there were always flare-ups. Although combat was almost a way of life, with training and martial arts, sometimes that wasn’t enough and the planet was subjected to rebellion after rebellion. Often it was easily squashed, but sometimes, once in a while, the rebellions caused more trouble than expected. This left the Imperial family with a problem, how do you handle the constant need for combat and conflict in some of your citizens.
The answer to this was to create a mercenary company, those who felt the need for adventure or conflict could sign up to swerve as a mercenary for a tour, creating a pressure valve for society while allowing the military to examine new tactics and technologies in preparation for any conflict that might sweep over the planet in the future. For a time, small groups of mercenaries could be found in hotspots across the galaxy. Gaining a reputation as Mercenaries with honour they rarely worked for Hutts or other criminals but generally could be found fighting what they felt was the honourable fight. Dealing with pirates and helping those down on their luck was a much more attractive offer due to the honour and prestige they could win. Gradually the Mercenary group grew, developing a navy and an army of its own.
This led the Imperial Family to run into a conundrum, while their technology was more or less capable of keeping up with the galactic standard, it was both recognizable theirs, and he wanted to give his people every chance they could to survive in the cruel galaxy out there. To that end he started looking at the technology and companies in the galaxy, making a deal with the rising tech company Locke and Key Mechanics. The company would equip the mercenary company with the latest gear, and help the planet develop and increase its technologies in return for an exclusive contract and preferential deals allowing the company to develop a foothold in the area and a secure base.
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