Sairiku

Sairiku

Capital	Hakuto
Head of State	O Shigure no Sairiku
Government Type	Feudal Monarchy
Cultures	>90% Sairikian
Religions	No census data
Population Density	Medium
Population	17 million (Counting the dead)

Sairiku is a state founded by Nekomatas, youkais who has a natural affinity for necromancy, in the western part of the Panguean Continent. Its name, Sairiku, means "Western Land". While originally part of the Youkai's state, the Nekomatas held enough sway that they have became all but independent from the other Youkais interference, and consider themselves an independent state. Sairiku is situated in the Sairiku Plateau, an area of raised, hilly and arid land in Panguea.

Sairiku is chiefly noted for its mastery and open usage of necromancy - specifically reanimation to perform labor and warfare for their state. Its relatively open attitude to necromancy means it also attract magicians and scholars from all over the worlds to its capital of Hakuto.

History & General Synopsis

Early History

To the west of the the land of Koya - a wide, broad, fertile plains, lies the arid highland named by the Koyan the Sairiku - or the Western Land. These land were mostly inhabited by "barbarians" as the Koyan described them. As Koya itself became increasingly densely populated, the Koyan started moving west and introduced agriculture, adopting them to the harsh environment and assimilate the local population - eventually creating the local subculture known as Sairikian - a distinctive, related, and somewhat mutually intelligible version of the Koyan language.

The region got its first boost in population after mass migration from Koya when the local Koyan chiefdoms went to war with the encroaching Oni Empires, and the native population were rapidly assimilated as the Koyan moved en masse. Still, the territories of Sairiku was sparsely populated due to its aridness and the prevalence of malevolent youkais.

The Nekomatas of Koya practised necromancy - being naturally inclined to such arts. This was largely tolerated even during the era of Oni Rule, as they were just one of many types of Youkais in the land. However, when the Oni Empire's rule were overthrown, the coalition of youkais perceived to be "benevolent" grew in power - as they were able to co-exists with their Kemonomimi subjects and ensure mutual prosperity. Though the Nekomatas of Koya were somewhat harmless - their tendency for reanimation necromancy meant they were ostracized and subject to increasing amount of pogroms and exiles directed at them. Many of them fled west to Sairiku where the power of the ruling Youkai coalition were weak, some of them concentrating in the area around the present day city known as Hakuto - the White Capital.

Official History

According to the official history of Sairiku, their history began around Year 612, with their state's legendary founder Maya no Hakuto creating the foundation for their state:

In Year 612, a red Nekomata by the name of Maya would appear before the settlers of the village that would become known as Hakuto in later time. She proclaimed that she possessed great power to raise the dead to do work for the locals, tilltheir field, if only the locals would construct a shrine to her. And so the local constructed a shrine, which Maya specified to be less of a place of worship than a cat's playground, and proceeded to turn into a cat and laze around all day. The locals were displeased, but soon were rewarded for their faithful worship when spirits appeared alongside them to help them with menial labors - though that certainly spooked a few locals.

A year later, when the village came under attack by the native people of the land, Maya would summon an army of spirits and mobilize them to fight them off, and after their defeat, the natives would submit to the rule of the Koyan and Maya, and became civilized and learned to grow rice in the hilly land around them, and learned the language and rites of the Koyan.

The worship of Nekomatas would spread out through the land as the natural right thing to do - the Nekomatas were worshipped, binded to the land as Earthbound Youkais and raised the dead to work for the living and defend them - mostly in spiritual form, or skeletal form covered entirely in armor - the Sairikian were not so open-minded that they love seeing walking dead bodies. The "rule" of the Nekomata spread out through the land, and soon most of Sairiku would be under the rule of benevolent Nekomata based spirits - many of whom escaped persecution in the east to find a populace who welcomed their aid.

Nekomatas were prone to wandering off on their own whether they were bound or not - but by Year 700 the problem were so severe that many of these Nekomatas founded state faced collapse as the dead stopped tilling the field or defending them against the still hostile and numerous unassimilated native populace. The Nekomatas that wandered off included the famous Maya no Hakuto, whom left her shrine by 671 declaring her desires to eat all the fishes in the world, taking away with her a large amount of the city's treasury. Once again, it fell to newcomer Nekomatas from the east to solve this problem. This time, a Nekomata by the name of Shigure would appear, claiming to have wandered half of the continent to the land of Hanuel and Runra, and have brought with her the techniques of freeing the Youkais from being bound to their land. She would order the inhabitants of the land to construct a series of binding stones or Kekkai-seki, stones that would allow earthbound Youkais whom linked to it to wander around the land, effectively "sharing" their domains with another willing Youkai. These stones were incorporated into the shrines of the local Nekomatas, and soon formed an array of sort - an area where earthbound Nekomata could wander off where they want without the undead they commanded falling into pieces or disappearing.

Under the rule of Shigure, these connected shrines would soon coalesce into a state of their own, forming into a state known as Sairiku. The nekomatas formed their own government over the youkais, regulating and passing on the practice of nekomancy. As the flow of Nekomatas cut off from the east, they would form governmental departments to ensure their own prosperity.

Shigure continue to rule the Nekomata's state to today.

Government

Sairiku is a monarchy with corporate like characteristics. Their ruler, Shigure no Sairiku, proclaims herself the King of Sairiku.

When Shigure centralized the state of Sairiku and conquered other competing states, she assigned various professions to different Nekomatas and their followers to serve in her newly formed court, forming what is known as the Uji - or the clans. These aristocratic clans were formed by Nekomatas whom in turn adopted other newly born Nekomatas into their clan, and taught them the common necromantic magic alongside their clan specific magic. Soon these clans would increase in size exponentially and many of their members would no longer serve the specialized role they were meant for - instead becoming local lords, rulers and deities. Only in the court of Shigure does those clans still mostly serve their functions. The major clans includes:

• Kaji - Responsible for forging weapons and armors for the court
• Umi - Responsible for handling anything related to the ocean, trade, or fishermen, which most Nekomatas fear for some instinctive reasons, but many Nekomatas who show no fear of water would instead be adopted by the Umi clan
• Kusuri - Responsible for healing and taking care of anyone sick or injured
• Tamayori - Responsible for dealing with non-Nekomata youkais and spiritual affairs and rituals in general, especially in the court
• Mitsuke - Responsible for wandering around the land to look for cats that could become future Nekomatas, and also in theory for enforcing cat worship.
• Shiryo - Responsible for record keeping and eating the locals food in the name of record keeping. This clan has somehow managed to work themselves into lording over many locals, but serve a very much tertiary role in the Nekomatas court.
• Arashi - One of the clan created to handle martial affairs and raising of the dead for war. Generally seen as the more conservative of the two martial clans and favors doing the fighting with necromantic construct more.
• Kurogane - Another clan created to handle martial affairs. Favors fighting themselves more than using necromantic constructs, and seen as the more progressive and more welcoming of foreign elements.

As Nekomatas do not have familial relationship with each other, Nekomatas are instead adopted into these clan and consider their adopter their actual biological parent(s), and take on the clan name in the form of "no [Clan Name]", or of clan Name.

Feudal Rule

Most of these Nekomata clan also holds feudal, "hereditary" titles that were assigned specifically to these clans as fiefs, but due to the wandering, playful nature of Nekomatas, these territories can sometime change. Multiple centuries of rule over the more humanlike Kemonomimi means that clan and land ownership are becoming increasingly static and less fluid, often only changed by internal warfare. A clan whom rule over a land would assign Nekomatas to local shrine to be worshipped and to maintain the dead and provide services to the local in exchange for offerings and worship. Whenever a Nekomata wanders off or passes away for whatever reason, newly adopted Nekomatas would be selected to replace their role, but given their whimsical nature, sometime a Nekomata from a rival clan would squat on the shrine instead or even a no name Nekomata would do the same. When that happens, either open, brutal internal warfare results or nothing happen, often with nothing in between.

Adoption & Clan Membership

Only Nekomatas are considered "true" member of the clan, but many of the Kemonomimis underneath them are also adopted into the clan and take on their last name but more commonly - a variation of their last name to symbolize their loyalty to the clan. Kemonomimis with great magical power are often taken in and allowed to learn the clan's magic and become part of their retainer, and while a non-Nekomata would never be allowed to head a clan, Kemonomimi descended from a clansmember is allowed to fulfill nearly any other role in them. In modern time, most clans are made up of over 90% Kemonomimis with Nekomatas consisting of the rest - usually a mixture of idle, content playful local Nekomata and ambitious, energetic Nekomatas whom are several times more powerful than ordinary members and play an outsized role in politics.

Nekomatas only counts cat youkai with two tails - no more, no less, as a Neko amongst them. Kemonomimi lucky enough to be born with two tails are considered Nekomatas by blood. In the territories of Sairiku, cats whom become cat youkais have a very high chance of being a Nekomata.

Necromancy & Magic

Necromancy is the thing that distinguishes Sairiku from many other states. The society of Sairiku can be described in the roles each group is supposed to fulfill:

• The living (Kemonomimis), farm, work, and provide offerings and worship
• The dead toil, creates surpluses with their work, and fight for the living
• The Nekomatas rule, get worshipped, and maintain the undead, and eat the surplus, like, a lot of surplus.

Reanimation Necromancy

Reanimation Necromancy is the chief type of Necromancy that the Nekomatas are known for - they are naturally inclined to it and have a much easier time learning it compared to most humanoids, to the point that nearly all of the Nekomatas born in Sairiku would know it by the type they reach adulthood. Like regular spiritbinding magic, they are fueled by mana supply, which are generally taken from the living who lives in a Nekomata's domain. Many Nekomatas would choose to become earthbound, defining their domain as a piece of land and tying their own magical power to that of the locals and their worship. With sufficient worship and offerings of food and mana, an earthbound Nekomata could gain sustained magical power many times that of an ordinary being - way beyond say, the level of a Level 6 player character - though it doesn't really reflect on combat prowess, but in the amount of undeads they can summon and sustain.

These Nekomatas uses the power to raise the dead. In modern times, two forms of undead are the most commonly raised one due to their utility and efficiency, also known as the black and white combinations:

• Shirogane Construct: These constructs consists of the pristine, repaired bones of the dead, encased in a shell that covers up their terrifying feature, often with funeral masks on top of them - more often than not, an intricately crafted one made by none other than their relative in an imitation of their face when they are living. The body are carefully prepared, stripped of the flesh and washed thrice over by the Nekomatas and then blessed before being raised in a suit created with cooperation of their family. Then, their spirit would be summoned to inhabit the body and serve them in life. These undeads usually serve the same family or extended clan they were from in life, and sometime offers wisdom of olden times, but undead's nature and incomplete memories can often lead to them offering hilariously outdated advices. They are also more stubborn than typical old man and cannot be relied on to learn new tricks. Shirogane undeads are the vast vast majority of uindeads in the land of Sairiku.
• Kurogami Construct: These constructs are taken from the dead whom were warriors in life, and then their flesh would be removed, grafted and mixed in with flesh of magical beasts, and strengthened, before being reapplied to the body. In unarmored form, they represents frankenstein-like monster with darkened muscles. Then, to protect them from damage, lamellar armor would be embedded and sewed directly into the body - though importation of foreign techniques means that "Nanban" style armor - or full on plate armor would be incorporated into some of those Kurogami construct. These armor are usually blackened and surrounded with a life draining aura. They are usually kept in a tomb or a catacomb and only a few of those Kurogami constructs would be active at a time, as their presence is terrifying and quite literally drains life from around themselves, though the Nekomatas and experienced necromancers are immune to such effects. Regular policing are handled by the living instead. In time of wars, those Kurogami constructs are mobilized en masse to serve as disposable shock troops, inhabited by random spirits called upon to temporarily inhabit those bodies - usually with no relation with the original body's owner, as they would've long since passed on somewhere else.

Shirogane constructs are generally only raised for dumb labor whereas the livings would do most of the smart labor - and also dumb labor themselves. Shirogane construct are likely to compose of around half of Sairiku's population, and contribute greatly to their economy - resulting in Sairiku having a huge food surplus despite its infertile land. The Nekomata's rule are sustained by their benevolent rule and manipulation of necromancy, tempered by the fact they tends to eat more than their fair share of food. While their necromantic magic requires them to eat anywhere between two to a hundred time that of a normal human, it is well known that Nekomatas would often eat more than even that just out of greed, and that their stomach is known to be endless. This, alongside Sairiku's less fertile land, stops Sairiku from becoming a utopia where food is always abundant, but for the most part, the people of Sairiku put up with those quirks.

Bounding Stone Network

The bounding stone network is what allows the earthbound Nekomatas of Sairiku to move freely amongst their land while retaining their massive magical power - which solved the governmental crisis caused by the Nekomatas wandering off once in a while whenever they like - alongside developing sea trade so that the Nekomatas could get any seafood or entertainment they like provided they have the money to purchase for it.

It consists of magical stone of shrine built around 2 - 3 miles apart, usually within an existing shrine by secret techniques that is passed on by magic. Only Nekomatas know how to build it, and the method is sealed with magic such that the Nekomatas cannot speak of nor record them - ensuring that this distinctive advantage is retained only by the Nekomatas. The bounding stone network is also only usable by Nekomatas, other earthbound spirits cannot share its power - in addition, the network will fail should the hosting Nekomata decides to disconnect it from the network for whatever reason - ensuring that other Nekomatas cannot replicate their power in their own domain.

Foreign Relation

Kihara generally has hostile or neutral relationship with most of its land neighbors, whom are to be covered in a future lore expansion.

It maintains friendly relation with Empire of Runra, one of its biggest trade partner.

It currently has a friendly relation with Hanuel but its relation with Hanuel is noted to change quite often.

For all of the major powers, Kihara has tried to act friendly or as a neutral ground for all of them to negotiate, leading to them serving a role as an intermediary between some of the major powers of Panguea - when they wants to talk to eachother, that is.

Locations

Sairiku is home to many many scattered hill villages and small hamlets, and few cities of significance. Only its capital, Hakuto, located in the middle of the Natsukawa river, is a city of significance.

Hakuto

Hakuto is the capital of Sairiku and is home to approximately 200,000 people, a massive population for a city located in middle of a less inhabitable land. It is where Shigure's court is located, numerous shrines are located, and is noted for its white architecture - hence its name of Hakuto - the White Capital. The place is also home to a flourishing academic community with a large amount of foreigners here to study the Nekomata's necromantic magic.

Culture

Uses Japanese name for Sairikian.

The Sairikian speaks a variety of the Koyan language to the east. Due to the mandate laid out by Shigure to ensure the continuance of Nekomata youkais, all households that can afford to do so is required to keep one or more cats under the threat of financial fines if they do not do so - and so Sairikian are known as cat lovers. As competing domestic pets, dog ownership are very much discouraged.

Sairikian are overwhelmingly (90%+) Neko Kemonomimi.

Religion

Asides from their Nekomata worship, Sairikian practices worship and offerings to ancestors and local deities, as much of the rest of Panguea does.

Military

Nothing special, except Sairiku is noted for having relatively incompetent navy no matter how hard they try.