OOC: Hello! This thread shall serve as the general worldbuilding storage thread for my new secondary nation, the Empire of Seinoku! Please enjoy!
Seinoku is an old land - a nation in which modernity and tradition have learned to live together. Ancient noble clans dating back over two millennia still hold some sway in politics. Seinokan youth, meanwhile, enjoy the luxuries of a democratic say in their government as well as the pop culture and consumer goods of the wider world beyond the Sacred Empire.
A strong martial tradition is one of Seinoku's most well-known characteristics, with heavy adherence to a strict code of warrior conduct centered around honor and discipline. Seinoku's legendary Samurai warrior nobles, though not nearly as influential as they were in their golden days, still remain, many of whom study to become leading officers in the Imperial Seinokan Armed Forces at the Sacred Empire's finest military academies. They are the strictest adherents to the Seinokan warrior code - known as Shinseina.
The Sacred Empire's path to the present has not always been one of positive nature. The nation's history is one of blood and war at many times. Though the traditions of old and the ways of the modern era exist together today, it was not always this way. In the past, modernity and tradition have clashed, and much like in nations across Eras, these clashes have killed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands.
But the Sacred Empire endures. It adapts. It has thrived, it is thriving today, and by the will of the Sacred Emperor, it shall thrive ten thousand years yet.
THE EMPIRE OF SEINOKU SEINOKU TEIKOKU
FLAG
CAPTIAL: Kyugo LARGEST CITY: Okutari ANTHEM:Sacred Empire, Seinoku POPULATION (2022): 57.1M DENSITY: wip AREA (KM2): wip AREA (SQKM): wip DEMONYMS: Seinokan (noun, adj.), Seinokans (plural) OFFICIAL LANGUAGE: Iziku OTHER RECOGNIZED LANGUAGES: wip RELIGIOUS DEMOGRAPHICS: wip GOVERNMENT SYSTEM: Unitary parliamentary social-feudalist constitutional monarchy HEAD of STATE: Emperor Abuhito HEAD of GOVERNMENT: Minister-President Akibara Ieyoshi LEGISLATURE: The Imperial Diet JUDICIARY: The Imperial High Court CURRENCY: Seinokan Imperial Yu
SACRED EMPIRE, SEINOKU THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF THE EMPIRE OF SEINOKU
(MERCANTI LYRICS)
Sacred Emperor, may he long reign!
Ten thousand years may Seinoku yet thrive!
From the white blanketed peaks to the glistening rivers below,
May the sun forever shine upon the Sacred Empire!
Seinoku, our Empire, our Sacred Homeland,
May the Gods smile upon thee for all time!
Sacred Empire, Seinoku, your light is eternal!
Sacred Emperor, may he long reign!
The Imperial Naval Academy (海軍兵学校, Kaigunheigakkō), also known as the Hayabiro Naval Academy, the Hayabiro Academy, or the Tsukiyama Sukejuro Naval Academy, is the national, four-year university-level service academy aimed at training and educating students to serve as commissioned officers in the Imperial Seinokan Navy. It is located in Hayabiro, Kinnosuna Imperial Prefecture.
HISTORY
The Imperial Naval Academy was founded in 1732 by Tsukiyama Sukejuro, a prominent Seinokan military strategist and samurai of the Tsukiyama Clan. A veteran of one of a number of wars between Seinoku and the nation’s Skandan cousins which was fought between 1712 and 1713 and ended in a pyrrhic Seinokan victory, Sukejuro was disappointed in the poor quality of the Imperial Navy’s officers. In his memoirs, an entry dated around mid-August of 1714, he advocates for an officer selection system based on merit, remarking that,
“They [the officers] were certainly well disciplined, proper adherents to Shinseina, but many, save a few, lacked the strategic and tactical understanding to properly command their ships in such a way as to deliver defeat upon our foes on the waters… the officers of His Imperial Majesty, the Sacred Emperor’s Imperial Navy must be properly educated and selected, not by birth, but by mastery of his command, to lead the Imperial Navy against the enemies of our Sacred Empire…”
Sukejuro continued to serve as an officer in the Imperial Seinokan Navy until 1727 when he retired with honor after twenty-two years of service. After his retirement to Kinnosuna, a land under the Tsukiyama Clan’s feudal rule, the strategic incompetence plaguing the officers of the Imperial Navy persisted within his mind. In 1729, he finally decided to do something about it.
In January of 1729, Sukejuro began sharing his concerns and ideas with his old Imperial Navy colleagues, all of whom had fought alongside him against the Skandan invaders during the previous war. They, like him, understood that it was a problem in need of a solution if Seinoku’s long-term defense was to be secured. The Skandans were known for their sailing tradition, and the Imperial Seinokan Navy had only just barely been able to hold back the Skandan navy during the last war thanks to bold and daring Seinokan naval commanders such as Sukejuro. Together, these Seinokan navy men began drawing up plans and ideas for an imperial naval officers’ school to solve the incompetence problem.
Later that year, Sukejuro, having gained the support of many retired and serving Imperial Navy officers, petitioned for an audience with the Sacred Emperor himself.
Sukejuro and two of his colleagues presented themselves before the Sacred Emperor, adhering strictly to all of the customs and traditions necessary to perform in the presence of His Imperial Majesty. The Emperor at the time, Emperor Rifōmā, was also concerned with the competence issues among not just naval officers, but those of the Imperial Seinokan Army as well. Emperor Rifōmā took an immediate liking to Sukejuro’s plan for an imperial academy and granted it his seal of approval.
Sukejuro and his colleagues worked vigorously to bring their vision to life. The academy itself was planned and constructed over the following three years, meanwhile, foreign and domestic naval officers were hired as instructors - naval men from all over the world, as far away as Imperial Arcanstotska, were hired and brought to Hayabiro to serve as teachers for the aspiring officers of the Imperial Navy. Even a cousin of the Arcanstotskan Tsarina, Ekaterina II, came to teach at the new Imperial Naval Academy. The completion of the project did not come as quickly as Sukejuro had hoped, as resources and personnel were diverted to construct a similar academy for the Imperial Army during this same time.
On July 5, 1732, the project was finally completed and Emperor Rifōmā personally cut the opening ribbon at the front doors of the new Imperial Naval Academy in Hayabiro.
Ever since, the Imperial Naval Academy has been forging generation after generation of competent, capable commissioned officers for the Imperial Seinokan Navy. Tsukiyama Sukejuro served as head of the school until his death in 1748. Following his passing, the aging Emperor Rifōmā personally requested that a statue of Sukejuro be erected in the academy’s courtyard -- a statue which stands to this day.
The Imperial Governance Committee (帝国統治委員会, Teikoku tōchi iinkai) is the ruling political organization within the Empire of Seinoku. The Committee was established by former Minister-President Matsuoka Hisanobu and former Imperial Army Chief-of-Staff Sunada Hideo in 1998 following Seinoku’s disastrous defeat in the Second Crescent Islands War. The stated purpose of the supposedly temporary Committee was to “satisfy the national effort for the eventual reclamation of the Makitsuki Archipelago by ensuring material, financial, and popular support.” In practice, Seinoku has become an authoritarian oligarchic stratocracy obsessed with retaking and holding the Crescent Islands currently controlled by Skanda.
Since the Committee’s inception in 1998, the Seinokan government has effectively been in the hands of the Imperial Armed Forces. No elections have been held since 1994, with civil authorities appointed by the Committee’s members; all of whom are senior military officers. Government surveillance and crackdowns on deviant political gatherings have become commonplace. Groups deemed as “sympathetic to hostile foreign elements,” mostly leftwing and pro-Skanda political organizations and persons, have been forcibly shut down or arrested. Independent media organizations and publications have come under increasing threat of being shut down as well.
The Committee is, in theory, only temporary and intended to be dissolved following the “eventual reclamation” of the Makitsuki Archipelago in favor of a return to democratic governance. The Committee, according to independent sources, is immensely unpopular with the Seinokan people; especially the youth of the Empire.
Though the late-Emperor Yasuhito (r. 1979 — 2022) supported the Committee following the Second Crescent Islands War, it remains to be seen whether the newly coronated Emperor Abuhito will support or announce the dissolution of the Committee.
The People’s Liberation Front (人民解放戦線, Jinmin kaihō sensen) is a Seinokan left-wing militant organization and armed guerilla movement largely operating out of the Urin rainforest to the south and the Takai mountains to the west. The stated goal of the PLF has varied over the years, ranging from social, political, and economic reforms to establishing a Seinokan socialist republic, to forging a dream of lasting peace with Skanda. The organization’s methods have also varied over the years, ranging from peaceful protests to agitating riots, to outright anti-government terrorism.
The PLF is believed to have been founded following Skanda’s socialist revolution following the Fascist Wars. For millennium after millennium throughout the ages, Seinoku and Skanda – cultural kin – had been locked in a seemingly endless series of wars. Cousin set against cousin more times than could ever hope to be counted. As the 20th Century dragged on through the muck and blood that was Seinokan-Skandan relations, socialists assumed control in Skanda and overthrew the old Skandan monarchy. In the summer of 1977, hoping to achieve a lasting peace with Skanda after ages of constant war, Seinokan university students from across the Empire left their dorms to protest for peace and political reform. The Imperial Army, however, cracked down on the students. It is believed that the earliest foundations for the PLF were laid down when many of the more left-wing-minded protestors fled into hiding in western Seinoku.
Following Seinoku’s defeat in the Second Crescent Islands War and the subsequent establishment of the Imperial Governance Committee, the PLF has only seemed to gain popularity with younger generations as a means of standing against what they increasingly view as an unjust military government that is hellbent on avenging past defeats.
The original ideology of the PLF was a blend of revolutionary socialism and Picardism-Balandovism with pan-Sinniticism. Inspired by the socialist revolutions in Skanda from decades prior, the PLF at first hoped to achieve the same in Seinoku as Skandan socialists had in their own country – a revolutionary socialist republic. Gradually, since the 1980s, the PLF has become more and more moderate. Most of what remains of the movement has shifted towards advocating for social, economic, and political reforms. However, the so-called “Old Guard” of the PLF, while by now reduced to a radical minority, has maintained the old dream of a Seinokan socialist republic, believing the ancient imperial monarchy to be too reactionary to be allowed to continue.
The PLF is considered a terrorist organization by the Seinokan government. Association with the PLF is considered a criminal act. There is an ongoing attempt by the Seinokan imperial military to root out members of the PLF in the western reaches of Seinoku.
With the coronation of the new emperor, Abuhito, in 2022, it is unclear what the future holds in store for the PLF and whether this new, young sovereign will embrace reform and peace - or, as his father did, pursue glory through victory in warfare.
