Kibonoji
"Honor rots when left in the rain, but here, it rains every day."
Kibonoji is a land both conquered and never tamed, where ancestral memory hangs thick as mist over dragon-scorched cliffs and jungle-shrouded shrines. Splintered by feuding clans and imperial ambition, this place of magick, honor, and betrayal houses the remnants of the banished Elfese, who in a period of immense desperation were forced to carve a civilization into this land of tigers and rainfall. The Elfese were beaten in ancient days, forced to retreat here during The Great Schism, by the alliance of Humans and Dwarfish after a century-long blood-feud for the lands that would become Everwealth as we know them today; The lands Elfese knew as their own for generations, many of these Elfs still alive today, ageless warriors with memory of homes they cannot return to still haunting their every waking moment. In the present day, Five great clans vie for dominance beneath the gaze of an Emperor who remembers the golden age and would see it reborn in fire. Here, duels determine truth, monsters serve as beasts of burden, and tradition masks the blade’s edge of vengeance. Step into Kibonoji, and you step into a battlefield of beauty and blood.
Structure
Kibonoji is ruled by a dynastic imperial structure, though one tempered by the ever-looming threat of clan warfare. The Emperor sits at the center of power, both spiritual and political, a living symbol of unity chosen through force, lineage, or divine mandate. Beneath him are the Five Great Clans, each headed by a Clan Daimyo, who control vast swathes of land, warriors, and resources. Though all clans swear fealty to the Emperor, their loyalty waxes and wanes with ambition. Below the daimyo are Retainer Lords, Magistrates, and Sword-Scribes, each charged with governance, taxation, justice, and temple oversight within their territory. The imperial bureaucracy is small but influential, with certain positions appointed directly by the Emperor, such as Keeper of Ancestral Decrees, or Marshal of the Horned Road, roles that enforce traditional law or protect key trade routes. In wartime, elite military command lies with General-Wardens, drawn from the most accomplished martial families.
Culture
Kibonoji’s culture is steeped in rigid tradition, inherited trauma, and reverent beauty. The Elfese, exiled from their former homelands, shaped the land through ancestral discipline and ruthless adaptation, replacing much of the goblin cultures they erased. Here, honor is a blade and duty its hilt, whether expressed in calligraphy, combat, or death. Ancestral worship, structured dueling customs, and ceremonial magick pervade daily life. Even the arts are militant: poems serve as coded messages; dances mimic the slaying of beasts. While life is structured and stratified, those who defy expectation through excellence may still rise, a trait that sees Kibonoji produce some of the most fearsome generals, assassins, and strategists in Gaiatia. Death is not feared, but dishonor is. And beneath the surface lies a spiritual tension, dragons, ghosts, and the restless legacy of what was stolen from the land.
Public Agenda
The Empire’s outward goals shift depending on which clan holds power, but a consistent undercurrent remains: to preserve the sanctity of Elfese blood, rebuild their former glory, and secure Kibonoji’s place in the Three Lands. Under Emperor Kaito Masamune and the Red Dragon Clan, this vision has grown more militant and revanchist. No longer content with mere survival, the Red Dragon doctrine seeks to reclaim lost Elfese territories, specifically the heartlands of Everwealth once known as Chikara. Whether this goal is framed as restoring balance or conquering the forgetful, it reflects the Empire’s central belief: that the Elfese, refined by tragedy and tempered by exile, must shape the world anew through their suffering-born strength. Every shrine, scroll, and soldier now bends toward this momentum.
Assets
Kibonoji boasts a wealth of resources, both traditional and arcane. These include:
- Ancestral forges producing finely crafted weapons, some dating back to the Lost Ages.
- Magickally infused rice fields and healing springs, tended by shrinekeepers and spellwrights.
- Captured dragons and wyverns, bound to imperial service through ancient rites and brutal alchemy.
- The Five Dragon Roads, a series of interlinked fortified highways that connect the clans, temples, and trade hubs.
- Lost Goblin ruins, repurposed into cities, tombs, and watchforts, some of which still harbor secrets the Empire exploits or conceals.
- A deep cultural weapon: faith, unity, and story, wielded to bind the people as tightly as steel.
History
Kibonoji was once part of the vast Halash jungles, a land of untamed magic, draconic power, and ancient goblin sovereignty. When the Great Schism ruptured the world, the Elfese, shattered and exiled, fled here, carving civilization from the bones of beasts and the ashes of their enemies. Their conquest was not clean. Goblin cultures were annihilated or driven into hiding, and even the jungle itself recoiled, birthing monsters and storms in protest. Over centuries, the Elfese built strongholds, bloodlines, and sacred customs, surviving not through dominance but through calculated, generational endurance. The rise of the Five Clans brought both stability and internal conflict, a cycle of unity under emperors and rivalry beneath them. The recent rise of Emperor Kaito Masamune, a survivor of the Pre-Schism era, marked a shift. Under his rule, Kibonoji sheds its patience. The Red Dragon Clan has awoken from its dormancy, and with it, the dream of a reconquest long spoken of only in whispers.
Demography and Population
Kibonoji's population is predominantly Elfese, descendants of those exiled during the Schism. Other groups include the Minotauri, Whogi, and remnants of the Goblin tribes. The society is structured hierarchically, with the noble clans at the top, followed by warrior classes, artisans, farmers, and merchants. Birth rates are stable, with a cultural emphasis on family lineage and ancestral honor. Urban centers like Shirogane are densely populated, while rural areas maintain traditional lifestyles.
Territories
The Empire of Kibonoji encompasses the eastern regions of the former Halash rainforest, now transformed into a landscape of cultivated fields, fortified cities, and sacred sites. While the land is considered ancestral by the Elfese, it was acquired through conquest and assimilation, particularly at the expense of the Goblin tribes. The territory is divided among the five major clans, each governing their domain under the Emperor's oversight.
Military
Kibonoji's military is a formidable force, structured around the five clans, each maintaining their own armies loyal to the Emperor. Elite units include the Dragon Guard, personal protectors of the Emperor, and the Crimson Blades, shock troops known for their discipline and ferocity. The military employs a combination of traditional warfare, magickal arts, and strategic use of terrain. Dragons and other mythical creatures are occasionally utilized in battle, bound by ancient pacts.
Technological Level
Kibonoji straddles a delicate line between ancient magick and fallen progress. Much of its modern science is either salvaged from pre-Schism ruins or mimicked from older, more refined Elfese designs. Adamantine metallurgy stands as its crowning scientific advancement, weaponry forged with this meteoric metal resists spells, shatters conventional armor, and hums with kinetic heat.
Clans experiment with:
Clans experiment with:
- Soul-binding lanterns (to trap or reveal spirits).
- Rune-tattoo grafting (precise body-enhancing enchantments akin to those used by the Knights of the Horns).
- Jungle resonance maps, tools that predict beast migrations through vibrational echoes.
- Blood-ink tattoos that serve as family registries, contracts, or clan inheritance.
- Despite this, Kibonoji has no unified “scientific class.” Instead, knowledge is controlled by clan sages, beastmasters, and battle-priests, with breakthroughs treated as divine blessings, hoarded until they can be weaponized or immortalized in blood.
Religion
The spiritual life of Kibonoji is deeply intertwined with ancestor worship, nature spirits, and the reverence of dragons. Temples and shrines dot the landscape, serving as centers of worship and community gatherings. Religious practices are overseen by the Order of the Celestial Flame, a priesthood that guides spiritual matters and maintains the sacred rituals. While the state religion is predominant, localized beliefs and traditions are respected, provided they do not conflict with imperial doctrine.
Foreign Relations
Kibonoji’s diplomacy is a web of silence, ritual, and surveillance. The Empire extends courtesy without trust, mercy without invitation. Every alliance is measured by omen, every treaty by blood already shed. Though its ports gleam with commerce, its heart remains wary, the Emperor’s will is to watch, to endure, and to strike only when the current turns.
- Drazahar - To the Kibonese, Drazahar’s chaos is blasphemy incarnate, proof that nature unruled is sinful. Missionaries once came bearing fire and scripture, none returned. Kibonoji now forbids even cartographers from marking the continent, naming it a scar the gods will not heal. The Chitinians hum their names into the soil until even the worms recoil.
- Everwealth - Once a vital trading partner, now its bitterest enemy. The war they recently began to wage against it burns bright along their shared borders, born from Everwealth’s conquest of their ancestral lands in The Schism; The Emperor and his legions, Elfs old enough to remember they once dwelled there, wish to return and reclaim what was lost to them. To the Empire, Everwealth embodies corruption, a realm where coin replaced covenant. Raids across the east continue every day, treated as a ritual act of balance rather than conquest. Peace is spoken of only as a convenient lie.
- Naumos - Relations are rare but reverent. Both civilizations value silence, structure, and sacred law, and recognize each other as ancient reflections, one above the tide, one below. Diplomacy is conducted through glass envoys, pressure-warded embassies that exchange pearls, medicines, and sanctioned knowledge. Kibonese monks describe the Aquians as “the sea’s memory given form,” a people too patient to provoke and too dangerous to offend.
- Arcryo - The Empire marks the frozen continent as cursed and forbidden. Expeditions have vanished beneath its blizzards, their ghosts said to march through ice caverns still bearing imperial banners.
- Malabash - A wasteland of storms and shattered magick, left unapproached by any sane crown. The Kibonese call it “The Sky’s Wound.” Forbidden to all but the Priesthood of Silent Ash, who monitor its weather patterns for signs of resurgence. The Empire’s scholars believe the devastation of Malabash was self-inflicted, the natural end of empire unrestrained by order, much like the fate they predict awaits Everwealth.
- Kathar - A land of commerce and little-to-no empathy, Kathar is viewed with cautious fascination. Its scholars once studied alongside Kibonese mystics before the Great Schism, and remnants of shared scripture persist between them. Officially, relations remain neutral, but covert exchanges of relics and forbidden texts continue through intermediaries along the eastern front. The Emperor regards Kathar as a necessary ambiguity, a rival in faith, but a potential ally against Everwealth’s unchecked magicks.
Laws
Kibonoji's legal system is a blend of imperial edicts, clan traditions, and ancestral codes. Laws emphasize honor, duty, and social harmony. Crimes such as treason, murder, and theft are met with severe penalties, including execution or exile. Disputes are often resolved through formal duels or mediated by clan elders. The legal code is documented in the Scrolls of Harmony, maintained in the imperial archives.
Agriculture & Industry
Kibonoji's economy is sustained by a robust agricultural sector, producing rice, tea, and silk. The land's fertile plains and advanced irrigation systems support high yields. Industries include metallurgy, particularly the forging of renowned blades, and the crafting of ceramics and textiles. Artisan guilds play a significant role in maintaining quality and tradition in production.
Trade & Transport
Trade in Kibonoji flows like blood through the veins of a fractured beast. The five clans control key routes both overland and along ancient waterways carved through the jungles of Halash long before the Fall. Armored caravans, dinosaur-drawn wagons, and vine-hung riverboats ferry exotic wares through tangled rainforest and misty foothills, pausing only at fortified gates for inspection, or extortion. While the clans squabble over territory, they unite in protecting the Great Serpent Roads, a system of cobbled jungle causeways and mossy bridges dating to the Lost Ages. Each clan maintains its own checkpoints, toll stations, and sigil-marked safehouses. Trade agreements are made and broken like breath, but those traveling with official clan tokens or blessed clan banners are generally left unmolested, unless they’re worth the risk. Seafaring is common along Kibonoji’s storm-churned coasts, where dark-sailed junks and sleek coral-plated ships bring goods in and out through the Bay of Blades. As overland travel remains perilous due to ancient beasts, undead ruins, and tribal skirmishes, aerial couriers using trained Lanternwings (light-emitting sky serpents) have become prized for speed, despite their rarity. Rumors also persist of pre-Schism magickal tunnel routes hidden beneath the jungle, but no one alive claims to know how to use them without consequence.
Education
Education in Kibonoji reflects the rigid structure of its feudal society, privilege determines potential. The noble class and their favored vassals receive comprehensive instruction in history, magickal theory, etiquette, swordplay, and poetry through dojo-monasteries and clan schools, often tutored by scribes of the Scholar's Guild or descendants of Elfese pre-Schism scholars. Here, learning is treated as a weapon, a sharp tongue is as prized as a swift blade. Commoners, however, learn by trade, struggle, or necessity. Farmers and beast-trainers pass down knowledge orally, with some villages hosting wandering lorekeepers or ink-priests who teach reading and counting to those who can offer coin or service. In the poorest provinces, illiteracy remains widespread, replaced by symbolic systems carved on wood or bone. In war camps and among the Whogi and Minotaur, education is survival-based: map-reading, poison identification, and weapon maintenance trump classical schooling. Clan defectors or wilderness enclaves often hold secret libraries or forbidden scrolls, stolen from the nobility and hidden from imperial purge.
Infrastructure
Kibonoji’s infrastructure is a contradiction of glory and decay. Lost-Age aqueducts still run beneath its largest cities, bringing cool water to imperial baths and shrine-laden gardens. Castles hewn from blackened stone stand on ridges like fossilized gods, ringed by fortified rice terraces and burning orchards. The jungle has reclaimed much, roads sink into moss, bridges crumble into mist, but what remains is fiercely maintained by the five clans.
Key features include:
Key features include:
- Serpent Roads: Stone causeways linking clan capitals, often defended by toll fortresses.
- Moon Gates: Towering archways carved with spells that flare when blood is spilled nearby.
- Jungle tramways: Rope-bridges and vine lifts allow movement through canopies for scouts and light couriers.
- Dreadwells: Ancient vertical shafts descending into deep ruins, sealed with magic or treachery.
- Silent Keeps: Abandoned goblin strongholds repurposed into war camps, archives, or vaults.
Mythology & Lore
Kibonoji's mythology speaks of a primordial realm where gods and spirits once walked among mortals. Legends tell of the celestial dragon Ryujin, who descended from the heavens to bestow wisdom upon the first emperors, and of the sacred tree Yggdrasil, whose roots connect the mortal world to the divine. These myths serve as allegories for the eternal struggle between order and chaos, and the importance of maintaining balance in all things.
“Order Before Breath.”
Founding Date
Year 1 of the Civil Age,
Alternative Names
'The Empire of Quiet Suns', 'The Jade Dominion', 'The Land of Greed' (used by Everwealth propaganda). Among its own citizens, simply “The Empire,” as no other is considered legitimate.
Demonym
Kibonese. Used for both individuals and culture (e.g., “Kibonese steel,” “Kibonese discipline”).
Gazetteer
Kibonoji's landscape is a tapestry of ancient ruins, fortified cities, and sacred sites, each bearing the weight of history and the scars of conquest. Key locations include:
- Shirogane: The imperial capital, a city of towering pagodas and ancestral halls, where the Emperor's palace overlooks the convergence of the Five Dragon Roads.
- Kuroi Mori: A vast, dense forest believed to be the remnants of the original Halash rainforest, now a place of both reverence and fear, home to ancient spirits and hidden monasteries.
- Tetsu no Kabe: A massive wall of black stone and iron, marking the boundary between Kibonoji and the territories of Everwealth, symbolizing both protection and the desire for reclamation.
- Hinode Port: A bustling harbor city on the eastern coast, serving as Kibonoji's primary gateway for trade and cultural exchange with distant lands.
Currency
The economy of Kibonoji operates on a currency known as Koban, oval gold coins stamped with the imperial seal. Silver Ichibuban and copper Mon serve as smaller denominations. In rural areas and among certain clans, bartering with rice, silk, or crafted goods remains common, reflecting the land's agrarian roots and the value placed on tangible resources.
Major Exports
Kibonoji is revered and feared for its exports, which include:
- Adamantine, mined from meteorites deep in the jungle, gleaming red and deadly sharp, found nowhere else in such abundance.
- Trained dinosaur and drake mounts, especially swiftfooted runners and swamp-bred siege beasts.
- Lanternwing hatchlings, sold as status symbols or message-bearers, despite clan disapproval.
- Exotic poisons and alchemical resins, including tranquilizers and war-hallucinogens made from jungle flora.
- Red-forged blades, made with jungle flame-magic and adamantine alloy, each bearing a faint glow and unique clan rune.
- Jungle spices and black orchid tea, rare delicacies prized across the Three Lands.
Major Imports
Despite its wealth of resources, Kibonoji is hungry for stability and scarcity. The clans import:
- Refined grains and Everwealthy drought-resistant crops for cities too overgrown or scorched for farming.
- Medical elixirs and antidotes not easily replicated by their own jungle-based apothecaries.
- Refined metals like cold iron and steel for tools and mass armor (as native resources are often diverted toward elite crafts like adamantine forging).
- Luxury textiles from Everwealth and Kathar, especially those that can withstand high humidity or bear enchantments.
- Entertainment troupes, courtesans, and foreign books of poetry and strategy, especially favored in courtly circles.
Legislative Body
Laws in Kibonoji are decreed by the Emperor and codified by the Council of Five, comprising representatives from each of the major clans. This council convenes in Shirogane to debate and draft legislation, balancing the Emperor's will with the interests of the clans. While the Emperor holds ultimate authority, the council's influence ensures that laws reflect the complex tapestry of Kibonoji's society.
Judicial Body
The interpretation and application of laws fall to the Magistrates of the Jade Court, a body of learned judges appointed from various clans. These magistrates preside over legal disputes, criminal cases, and civil matters, often traveling the realm to administer justice. Their rulings are guided by imperial law, clan customs, and the principles of honor and duty.
Executive Body
Law enforcement and the execution of judicial decisions are carried out by the Shinsengumi, an elite corps of warriors loyal to the Emperor. Trained in both martial arts and legal procedures, they ensure the Emperor's laws are upheld across Kibonoji. In times of unrest, they act swiftly to quell rebellion and maintain order, embodying the state's authority.
Location
Neighboring Nations
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