On Meikugan's Tail
It is claimed that Meikugan has never been conquered, and this is both true and misleading. The modern imperial state of Meikugan has never been defeated in war, but it has only truly existed for a century or so. Before that, the cultural region of Meikugan was divided up into various feudal clan-holdings that owed nominal fealty to the largely symbolic imperial family. Across history many of these holdings have been occupied and absorbed by foreign powers; indeed, this explains the proliferation of personal names of Middle Rauman origin across the empire today. Two things however are certainly true: The imperial city of Orugari has never fallen, and neither has the Tail.
Excluding its imperial holdings, Meikugan proper is divided into two regions; the Heartland, which is mostly mountainous highland, and the Tail, a peninsula to its north that trails off into a chain of volcanic islands.
It is said that Orugari is the place of origin of the Meikuganese people, that the gods plucked an island from the sea and placed it high in the mountains, like a crown upon the head of the world. Some of these people were unsuited to the thin mountain air and descended to the lowlands to the north. They still see themselves as one people, but there is a division between the mountain dwellers and the coastal folk. Tailfolk tend to be shorter and darker, their hair skewing blue rather than the purple that is common in the Heartland. Their overlords and representatives at court are the Mizu clan.
The Tail is seen as something of a soft country by the heartlanders; its volcanic soil and warm ocean currents make it lush and easy to farm. Geography has historically protected it from invasion by other countries; Mizuho once acted as a buffer between Meikugan and Xhonghua, and the northern states of Raum have no navies of any reputation, while the waters around Meikugan are heavily militarized.
In truth, however, the tailfolk are no less martial than the mountainfolk. While they don't worry about foreign invasion, the tail is a vast land, largely unexplored. There are pirates in the northernmost islands who have formed their own semblances of society, and unique monsters that rise from the ocean to ravage the coasts. Furthermore, there is something of the feudal atmosphere left over from before the unification; local daimyos mostly keep to themselves, aside from paying taxes and levies to the emperor, and at times go to war with one another. Tailfolk have a unique martial tradition that adapts the tools of fishing and agriculture into weapons; the trident, the net, the hooked knife, the weighted rope.
Hidden in the island are portals to the Ryukyuan isles and Senkai.
Every summer, the tail is hit by monsoons. They often come as a gentle rain on the peninsula, especially close to the mountains, but in the northern islands they can be monstrously strong. The rare art of weathershaping is prized in the Tail, and every major city has at least a master and apprentice shaper. Every ten to twelve years or so, when the monsoons are strongest, a trading fleet from Anganasy arrives at the port of Nanzo, the farthest north port under true imperial rule.
