A Brief History of Amahara

Sengoku Amahara
Steampunk Amahara
Wartime Amahara
Student Council Amahara

The following is the historic narrative of Amahara from the prehistoric Age of Myth into the Age of Steam. Naturally, Sengoku Amahara should disregard any history beyond the downfall of the Azuma Shogunate as history can be averted or changed by the players.

Mythic Era

Long ago, at the beginning of time, the three creator goddesses summoned life, the universe, and everything into being in a fit of yuri. During this Mythic Era, gods and celestials toyed with the world freely and divine beasts struck terror in heart of all humans. The common people hid behind fire during the night and could scarcely carry on with their lives during the day. Tiring of their small place in the workings of the world, the greatest of all humans, Tatehaya, slew the monsters of the realm and upended the barbaric and self-destructive rule of the shaman kings. He gained the love of the moon princess Kaguya by accomplishing her five impossible requests, and then went on to conquer the world. His final, most hubristic campaign was a war against the homeland of his wife, a war by the humans of the Earth against the celestials who dwelt on the Moon. The war saw him killed, the celestials extinguished, and the world shattered. The Great Flood washed all trace of civilisation away, leaving humanity a long age of rebuilding. In the end, the great land of Yamato was submerged beneath the seas and cut off from the rest of the world, leaving only the lands closest to Heaven - Amahara.

Even into the Age of Steam, this creation and foundation myth is believed by Amaharans to explain why their nation is superior to the rest of the world. Various places in Lotus Asia such as Ryunan, Silla and parts of the Middle Kingdom are thought to have been the outermost parts of Yamato that escaped the Great Flood. The legend of its founding couple has also informed Amaharan religion and societal structure throughout history. Samurai, for example, consider Tatehaya to be the first samurai and the first shogun and thus the patron deity of the warrior class. His rule over the legendary realm of Yamato and all of the world during the Mythic Era lended precedence to the preeminent political and military position of the Shogunate despite the superior holiness of the priestesses. Unlike Kaguya however, his final fate is interpreted in different ways by various sects of Shinto or Buddhism, from having been consigned to the Netherworld for his hubris at the end of his life to being elevated as a god or buddha with dominion over heroes, wars and kings.

The moon princess Kaguya is considered the foundational teacher or deity who brought many knowledges and building blocks of civilisation to the world. Many prehistoric inventions such as agriculture, the wheel and the Shinto religion are credited to her as well as many fantastical things subsequently "lost" such as infinite fire and the means of flight. She is thought of as the first priestess, the first doctor and even the first ninja, though the latter is only the view within the Izayoi ninja clan. Kaguya is considered to be enshrined within the Grand Shrine of Amahara (which is in fact the shrine of Kaguya), with the body of the Apostle herself being the vessel. Unlike her male counterpart, Kaguya is a reasonably common name, being comparable in spirit to western names like Joshua or Mary.

Classical Era

The Classical Era of Amahara begins immediately with a divine light appointing Apostle Miko, "the descendent of Kaguyahime" as the first Apostle supposedly in 660 BC. In this era, the shrine maidens led the people of Amahara in quelling the remaining dangers of the world by pacifying the restless spirits left in the wake of the Great Flood, vanquishing ghosts and demons, and sealing away dangerous artifacts and doors to otherworlds. Along the way, they suppressed the wrong, old ways and superstitions of shamanism to unify the realm under correct practice: the religion of Shinto revealed by Kaguya. Where the old beliefs held gods and demons as awesome and ineffable natural phenomena that mortals could only hope to appease, Shinto came to both revere and understand them - they could be guides or protectors and could also be petitioned for aide. The two sides were to coexist and interact through rituals and ceremonies. Amahara came to be ruled in succession by the Apostles, a matriarchal line of holy priestesses who claim descent from Kaguya and to personally enshrine her as a kami. Even though actual power came to be held by the Grand Chamberlain, then the shoguns of the Shogunate Era, and then shared amongst the participants of the Serene Government with the Grand Chamberlain at its head, the Apostle has always remained the ultimate religious leader of the realm. Her authority on religious matters is final and her word could not be publicly opposed even by the Shogun.

The art of writing is thought to have been lost until its (re)introduction from the Middle Kingdom around the 4th century AD which heralded the Late Classical Era. A general importation of Middle Kingdom culture continued throughout the period, resulting in Aki mimicking the great capitals of the Middle Kingdom during its middle age dynasties. Along with culture came the methods and morals of civil governance and the alternative religion of Buddhism which came to be popular among the rising fighting middle class. Having grown in power steadily throughout the period, especially as the wars with the Ainyuu of Ezo escalated, and already being the clans which produced most of the shrine maidens, the warriors eventually overthrew the clerical government with the leading Watatsuki Clan establishing the Shogunate.

Shogunate Era

Amahara was overthrown by warlords and the line of Apostles was broken and subsequently followed a sequential selection by the shrine maidens of the apostolic court instead. This allowed the clerics to more closely control the throne in the face of samurai encroachment and thus retain religious and moral leadership even as strongmen took over other aspects of administration. Buddhism was imported, which penetrated into a niche alongside Shinto. Both belief systems became allies of the ruling samurai class. They gained wealth, built vast fortified temples and shrines and acquired military power in their own right.

A series of five shogunates ruled Amahara from 1033 to 1853, interspersed with long periods of fighting and civil wars. The transitions between the third and fifth shogunates proved especially violent and destructive. Amahara Shinto evolved from this militarism, leading to the conquest of Ryunan during the relatively shortlived Toyotomi Shogunate. Despite all efforts of preservation however, the last of the divine beasts retreated into the deepest of wildernesses and most gods fell silent in ever longer periods of slumber.

The Yanari Shogunate became the fifth and last shogun dynasty to rule Amahara, lasting the final 199 years of the shogunate era. Amahara and the rest of the east fell behind Rose Europe during those last two centuries.

Rouran Invasions

The Rouran Invasions of Amahara occurred roughly two centuries ago. Amahara was ruled at the time by the Takamachi Shogunate, the second of the shogun dynasties since the overthrow of direct rule by the Apostles of Amahara. The military strength of the buddhist sects had reduced and the Grand Shrine of Amahara, while still nominally the spiritual leader over all of the domain, was at the nadir of its power. Prior to the invasions, the Rouran Empire had never been defeated and had conquered half the known world. The crown jewel of their empire was the supposedly invincible Middle Kingdom, the conquest of which shook civilisation itself to its foundations. Despite this fearsome reputation, the Takamachi shogun elected not to negotiate and mustered all available military forces to repel the invasion.

Rouran armies fought in a vastly different way compared to traditional Amaharan warfare, where individual samurai call out a worthy opponent by name and engage in single combat. Though heroism retained a place on the battlefield, the Amaharan military paradigm was irrevocably changed by contact with the Rouran hordes, introducing conscripted ashigaru to make up the numbers and the use of signals and tactics in the Rouran fashion. True generalship became vital alongside courage and a sharp sword. As the samurai clans were whittled away, both the Shinto sects centered around the Grand Shrine of Amahara and the various Buddhist sects remilitarised and played a greater role in the affairs of the domain. In the end, phenomenal storms blew away the Great Khan's fleets, mass death befell his armies, and the invasions were extinguished.

The invasions had great importance to the subsequent history of Amahara. Although ultimately victorious, the Takamachi clan suffered irreparable damage and its leadership received most of the blame for the early losses. They were replaced by the war hero Azuma Hatsunari, one of their own former subordinates, who received much of the credit for the later victories. More than just the Azuma clan advanced from the conflict; an entire generation of "young" clans consider themselves to have been founded during the war. Amahara's ruling class also became much more aware that an outside world existed beyond the peaceful trade relations and importation of Middle Kingdom culture that had taken place for centuries.

The other half of the credit for the victories went to the gods and the Shinto sects who interceded with them on behalf of the people of Amahara. The spiritual supremacy of the Amaharan domain and of the Apostle herself were confirmed. The shrine maidens of the various sects gained a greater share of temporal power throughout the realm, though the shogunate remained supreme. Along with awareness of the outside world came the awareness of outside gods as well, which Shinto had an obligation to recognise. Shinto emerged from the war with a militaristic spirit and already the spirit of expansion. Over the next two centuries, shrine maidens would trickle overseas on trading ships, establishing shrines in distant lands and sometimes bringing back tales of foreign places. The Buddhist sects also benefitted from increased prestige, wealth and power as its teachings of Zen and the esoteric arts spread, gaining particular traction amongst the samurai who sought personal enlightenment and martial supremacy.

Steam Era

Bakumatsu

In 1853, the New Britannian Pacific Fleet swept into Kaikyo Harbor with invincible warships clad in black iron and coal smoke to demand the right to trade with the Yanari Shogunate, which had enforced a policy of isolationism for two centuries. The government's inability to respond to this threat and subsequent capitulation to the foreigners' demands led to widespread dissatisfaction and economic turmoil as specie base of the Shogunate economy collapsed. Conditions were exacerbated by a series of natural disasters which seemed to indicate that the gods themselves had also been seriously displeased. As they did long ago during the Rouran Invasions, the people of Amahara looked to the shrine maidens for answers.

The long dormant clans over which the Yanari Shogunate had lorded for two centuries suddenly smelled blood and raised their level of assertiveness through the 1850's as the central government struggled. Violence became common in the countryside as peasant uprisings grew seasonally. As an extension of their traditional roles as mediators between humanity and the spirits, the Grand Chamberlain obtained a carefully calculated holy edict from the Apostle, which thereafter triggered official statements of dissent from many of the most powerful clans across the Home Islands. A brief civil war followed, but seeing the balance of forces the remainder of the loyalists collectively negotiated peace after just a few battles. The last Yanari Shogun 'put his prerogatives at the Apostle's disposal', thus ushering in the Serene Restoration.