History of Senria

While humans arrived in the Senrian archipelago more than 30,000 years ago, historiography typically marks the beginning of the history of Senria with the emergence of the Seidou culture in 14,000 BCE. The Seidou culture was succeeded by the Sugawara culture, who migrated to Senria from the Kaoming Peninsula and brought a variety of new technologies and an expansion of agriculture to the archipelago with them; the modern Senrian people are a genetic admixture of the the Sugawara people and the remnants of the Seidou people.

Traditional Senrian historiography claims that the Senrian Empire was established by the Emperor Kousou in 710 BCE; however, modern historians regard these stories as myths, and regard the written record of Senrian history as unreliable until the start of the Sunzuu period in 240. During the Sunzuu period, what would become the Senrian Empire unified central Kousuu and began expanding across Kousuu into Tousuu and Yuusuu, incorporating local clan leaders into the nascent empire over the course of two centuries. Imperial power was further centralized during the subsequent Kaihou Period, culminating in the Seitenhou Reforms of the Empress Genmei; this period also saw the arrival of Zohism and Taoshi in Senria. Strengthened central authority, meritocratic administration, and mercantile contact with the rest of Coius enabled a flourishing of classical Senrian culture.

While Senria's cultural flourishing continued during the subsequent Kingen period, during which Badi arrived in Senria and Gyousuu was brought under Senrian control, central authority steadily degraded, with power passing from the imperial court to monks, then to civilian aristocrats, then to military nobility. The Zakkoku and Tigoku periods were marked by internal turmoil as local potentates vied for power, the nominal annexation of Tousuu by the Tao dynasty for roughly a century following the Toukou War, a string of large-scale peasant revolts (the largest and most famous being the Kyoutoku Rebellion), the spread of apocalyptic Zohist sects, and the arrival of Sotirianity & matchlock firearms alongside Euclean merchants.

The 1667 Kamakura Accord imposed a fragile peace upon Senria, beginning the Suikoku Period. To uphold this peace, a balance of power was maintained between the most powerful daimyou and a rigid caste system based on Neo-Taoshi principles was imposed upon the population. Initial efforts to revert Senrian technological stagnation and prevent Euclean imperial interference in the country paved the way for the Keiou Restoration in 1869, but these modernization efforts stalled after Keiou's death. The Senrian monarchy was overthrown by the 1918-1923 Senrian Revolution, but the country was only given a brief period to recover before the Shangean invasion of Senria in 1927 began the Great War; during the Great War, Shangean occupation forces spearheaded the Senrian Genocide.

Following the Great War, power was centralized in the hands of General Katurou Imahara and his political party, the Aikokutou. During the 20th century, the country enjoyed extremely rapid economic growth and high global stature both politically and culturally; however, its economic growth has slowed during the last two decades.

Prehistoric Senria

Reconstructed buildings at the Seidou Archaeological Site.

The first archaeological evidence of human habitation in what is now Senria are a series of human fossils found on the island of Iezima, believed to be roughly 32,000 years old. Paleolithic archaeological sites in Senria are often small and fragmentary; the comparative acidity of Senrian soil creates adverse conditions for fossilization, and many sites consist mostly or only of stone tools. Additionally, changes in sea level between the Pleistocene and Holocene likely mean that many early Paleolithic sites are now underwater. However, some remarkable findings have been uncovered; notably, ground stone tools, normally not found until the Mesolithic or Neolithic, appear in Senria during the Paleolithic, far earlier than in most other places. It is unclear why this technique appeared so early in Senria.

Seidou period

The Seidou culture, a sedentary hunter-gatherer culture emerged in Senria circa 14,000 BCE. The culture, named for the village of Seidou, where artifacts from the period were discovered in 1878, is known for its "cord-marked" pottery, ornate earthenware figurines known as doguu, and the construction of pit dwellings. While there is evidence that the Seidou culture engaged in limited horticulture and arboriculture - including the cultivation of Senrian chestnuts, calabashes, adzuki beans, and lacquer trees - it appears that hunting and gathering remained more important overall, enabled by the favorable conditions of the Holocene climatic optimum. Middens from the period suggest a heavy reliance on fish, shellfish, and wild game. Climatic cooling disrupted this lifestyle and caused a rapid population decline, however, and the Seidou archaeological sites largely disappear by 1,000 BCE.

Sugawara period

The Seidou culture was succeeded by the Sugawara culture. The advent of the Sugawara period, which lasted from roughly 1,000 BCE to 240 CE, brought a slate of transformations to the Senrian archipelago. Silk making, glass making, bronzeworking, and, towards the end of the period, ironworking all first appear in Senria during this timeframe, as do new methods of making pottery, textiles, and lacquerware. Agriculture also expanded significantly, with the cultivation of rice, barley, buckwheat, soy, and millet becoming widespread; in particular, the arrival of wet-field agriculture allowed for intensive rice farming and corresponding population growth. The Sugawara period is also marked by the advent of increasingly complex settlements and the construction of ceremonial bronze bells known as doutaku. Most archaeologists agree that the modern Senrian people are the result of genetic admixture between remnants of the Seidou people and the Sugawara people, who are thought to have migrated to the archipelago from an original Senric urheimat on the Kaoming Peninsula, bringing continental technologies with them in the process.

Eiken period

Within traditional Senrian historiography, the period from 710 BCE to 240 CE is typically referred to as the Eiken period (Kokumon: 에껀, Gyoumon: 栄剣). Traditional records claim that Senria was unified by the Emperor Kousou, with the backing of the kami Pairyuu, in 710 BCE, and that Kousou and his successors established several important Senrian political and cultural traditions over the next five centuries; however, most historians regard these claims as myths largely unrelated to historical and archaeological fact. Similarly, some Shangean works from this period - most notably the Histories of Wu Biao, written in the 100s CE - mention "lands to the west" or "islands of the sunset", ruled by shaman-monarchs and home to the elixir of life, but are regarded as too mythical to be reliable sources by most modern historians.

Tumuli known as kohun are emblematic of the Sunzuu period.

Ancient Senria

Sunzuu period

While the archaeological record remains an important source of information, the first reliable written sources detailing Senrian history - including the Yiguoji, which contains the first confirmed reference to Senria - appear during the Sunzuu period (Kokumon: 쑨수우, Gyoumon: 春秋), which lasted from 240 to 558. During this period, the Senrian Empire - whatever the exact nature of its origin - cemented its rule over central Kousuu and expanded across Kousuu into Tousuu and Yuusuu, securing its rule over the three largest islands in the Senrian archipelago by the end of the 400s. These early Senrian monarchs extended their rule both through warfare and by offering the leaders of local clans positions of authority in exchange for their vassalage, incorporating them into the imperial system.

Characteristic to the Sunzuu period are kohun, megalithic tumuli (some up to 400 meters long) which served as monumental aristocratic tombs for the clans who reaped the benefits of the early growth of the nascent Senrian state. The emperors, meanwhile, demonstrated their growing authority by reconstructing Senria's capital, Heikyou, on a grid pattern resembling the one used by the Sun dynasty capital Fuzhou. Growing contact between Senria and its neighbors was also a feature of the Sunzuu period. Much of this contact was mercantile or cultural in nature; however, the period also saw the Seikou War, in which the 496-503 Qing kingdom - one of the major kingdoms of Shangea's Four Kingdoms Period - launched an invasion of Senria hoping to take advantage of an ongoing dynastic dispute, only to be repelled after the dispute was resolved while the Qing army was in transit, with Senrian forces launching their own incursions into the Kaoming Peninsula in the final years of the war.

Genmei is remembered for the sweeping Seitenhou Reforms.

Kaihou period

The Kaihou period (Kokumon: 깨호우, Gyoumon: 改法) lasted from 558 to 774 and saw the rising Senrian state further centralize and reshape itself. Zohism and Taoshi both arrived in Senria in the 500s and, despite initial aristocratic resistance, gained widespread acceptance due to their active promotion by figures including the Emperor Ninmyou; they would come to syncretize heavily with Tenkyou and influence Senrian law, philosophy, and theology for centuries. In the 600s, the Empress Genmei - after successfully defending her claim to the throne in the Genmei War - oversaw a sweeping series of reforms referred to as the Seitenhou Reforms. These reforms, which included equal field-style land reform, the development of a family registry system as part of tax reform, the creation of a council of state and subordinate ministries to oversee administration, and the implementation of the rituryou legal code, greatly enhanced central authority by weakening (though not fully sidelining) the noble clans in favor of a meritocratic imperial court which was able to effectively raise taxes & levies and impose its laws across the country.

The dividends of these reforms manifested in what has traditionally been considered a golden age for Senria. The increased ability of the Senrian state to raise taxes and levies allowed it to conquer Kisima and Rousima, and to begin extending its influence into Gyousuu and the Isotama Islands. Stronger administration bolstered trade, which further increased revenue and in turn enabled patronage of the arts, resulting in an explosion of visual art, architecture, music, and literature & poetry. This flourishing became the foundation of what is now regarded as classical Senrian culture.

The administrative system created by the Seitenhou Reforms remained in place in some form, at least nominally, for roughly six hundred years; the first noteworthy changes occurred only a few decades after the original implementation of the Seitenhou system, during the reign of the Emperor Kenryaku. Notably, Kenryaku's changes included a provision permitting Tenkyou temples and Zohist shrines to avoid taxation entirely, which would have substantial impacts in the centuries to come.

Senrian culture flourished during the Kingen period.

Feudal Senria

Kingen period

Senria's feudal period is typically held to begin with the Kingen period (Kokumon: 낀건, Gyoumon: 金絹), which lasted from 774 to 1113. During this period, the cultural golden age which began during the Kaihou period intensified, enabled by extensive patronage from the nobility. In particular, the art of the Kingen period shows an increased willingness to diverge from Shangean forms in favor of uniquely Senrian styles and techniques, influenced by a contemporaneous blossoming of vernacular culture, and the period is therefore regarded as essential in shaping the maturation of Senria's national culture. The period also saw the arrival of Badi in the 800s; while Badi did not receive official backing in the way that Zohism and Taoshi had, and therefore did not ingrain itself as widely, it nonetheless firmly established its presence within the country.

Politically, however, the Kingen period saw centralized authority begin to degrade. Amendments to the Seitenhou Reforms which entirely exempted temples and shrines from taxation enabled monks to establish large estates known as souen; this empowered monks to begin seeking key government roles, akin to the sengshui system which emerged in Shangea and the Svai Empire, during the first century of the period. The rising power of the monastic class was derailed, however, once secular nobles figured out how to obtain souen recognition for their own manors; these nobles then used the wealth they obtained from their tax-free estates to purchase hereditary positions for themselves. This reduced government tax revenue and hamstrung any efforts at meritocracy. The degradation of central power was worsened by the imperial court's preoccupation with artistic pursuits, which led to the neglect of government affairs. The administration of Heikyou itself (increasingly known as Keisi by this point) increasingly became the domain of regents known as sessou, while the governance of the rest of the country became the de facto prerogative of the now-hereditary noble magnates, referred to as daimyou. While Senria, through the daimyou, was able to establish its control over Gyousuu by the end of the 9th century, the country lost control of the Isotamas and was defeated by the Tao dynasty in the 1104-1112 Toukou War, nominally ceding control of Tousuu to Shangea for roughly a century.

Zakkoku period

Samurai, hereditary military nobles, held vast power in feudal Senria.

The degradation of central authority worsened during the subsequent Zakkoku period (Kokumon: 삮꼬꾸, Gyoumon: 弱国), which began in 1113 and ended in 1339. With imperial power collapsing and the specter of domestic & foreign threats looming, the daimyou began to turn their small private retinues into large armies of military nobles known as samurai, who were in turn bound by a moral code known as busidou. In conflicts like the 1165-1169 Zensinen War and 1244-1250 Gorokunen War, the new military aristocracy asserted its power, defeating the Keisi gentry who had monopolized power through the regency and formally entrenching their own power with a treaty known as the Golden Oath. While improvements to irrigation and double-cropping permitted increased agricultural yields and some population growth, rising instability blunted any positive developments, and efforts to reassert imperial authority - most notably the 1336-1339 Kouei War, which ended the period - were ultimately unsuccessful and only emphasized the position's powerlessness.

Tigoku period

The abdication of the Emperor Kouei in 1339 is generally regarded as marking the start of the Tigoku period (Kokumon: 띠고꾸, Gyoumon: 血国), which lasted until 1667 and was marked by a total collapse of central authority. A string of wars between daimyou, ranging from small clashes to nationwide conflicts, caused regular turmoil, with the movement of pillaging armies leading to periodic outbreaks of famine and disease. The position of sessou was reestablished, this time as a means for daimyou to assert symbolic authority by controlling the emperor, and the Hibotu Islands were brought under Senrian control. The power of the samurai was further expanded as a result of their central importance to daimyou armies; the perpetual instability of the period and the glorification of martial life also resulted in the rise of the tankenhei, adventurers and conquerors who performed mercenary work across southern Coius. The endemic turbulence resulted in, and was exacerbated by, the spread of apocalyptic strains of Zohism among the peasantry, and was further worsened by the arrival of Sotirianity alongside Euclean merchants in the 1500s.

The peace established by the Kamakura Accord permitted economic and cultural growth.

Anger among the peasantry at the misrule, destruction, and famine emerging from such perpetual bloodshed led to outbreak of the Kyoutoku Rebellion in 1425, the largest such revolt in Senrian history; while the revolt is typically considered to have ended in 1434 with the death of many of its leaders, most famously the rounin Hyouzaemon Nabesima, scattered groups of rebels persisted for decades. The country was invaded by the Jiao dynasty in the 1651-1655 Soukou War, with the war ending inconclusively due to the outbreak of the Red Orchid Rebellion within Shangea. An attempt by the Emperor Ninpei to revoke the Golden Oath instead plunged Senria into chaos, leading to Ninpei's forced abdication and the 1660-1667 Toukei War. At the end of the Toukei War, after more than three centuries of severe instability, the leading daimyou came to an agreement known as the Kamakura Accord, which established a balance of power between the major daimyou, replaced the regency with a body known as the Council of Seven, and banned Sotirianity.

Suikoku period

The Kamakura Accord allowed for the restoration of peace to a fractured Senria, and marked the start of the Suikoku period (Kokumon: 쒸꼬꾸, Gyoumon: 睡国), which lasted from 1667 to 1869. In the name of keeping this fragile peace together, the daimyou rigidly maintained the balance of power among themselves and stringently suppressed social unrest and Sotirianity through the application of grievous punishments and the imposition of Neo-Taoshi thought alongside a strict caste system. Nonetheless, the return of some form of peace to the country enabled rapid agricultural, commercial, and population growth, all of which were aided by the construction of infrastructure and standardization of currency under the auspices of the Council of Seven, and by significant improvements in Senrian literacy and numeracy due to the construction of schools by the daimyou and by urban elites. Returning prosperity also enabled a renewed cultural flourishing in the fields of art, literature, poetry, and theater; these cultural developments both reshaped Senrian culture and influenced how it was perceived by Euclea over the next three centuries. Additionally, while large amounts of power remained dispersed among the daimyou, renewed internal stability allowed Senria to begin exerting some external influence again, bringing the Isotamas back into the Senrian sphere in the 1700s and formally annexing them after a brief conflict in 1820.

However, Senria - like the rest of Coius - continued to fall behind Euclea technologically during this timeframe, and was forced to accept increasing Euclean imposition in its affairs. The country was forced to cede the Far Isotamas to Estmere in 1852 and accept the establishment of a legation quarter in Keisi in 1860. To try and counter these developments, the Emperor Youzei worked to formally promote gaigaku (the study of Euclean technology and medicine) and kokugaku (the study of Senrian history and culture) with the aim of fostering Senrian unity and constructing the foundation for the country's modernization. These efforts were constrained by his limited authority and interference by the daimyou; in spite of this, by the time Youzei died in 1869 he had succesfully established a framework for the country's modernization.

Modern Senria

Senria sought to modernize, with mixed results, following the Keiou Restoration.

Kaisei period

In 1869, the Emperor Youzei was succeeded by his son, the Emperor Keiou, marking the start of the Kaisei period (Kokumon: 깨쎄, Gyoumon: 回生), which lasted from 1869 to 1923. Almost immediately upon taking the throne, Keiou exploited divisions among the leading daimyou between those who opposed any Euclean influence, those who sought to preserve the status quo, and those who sought rapid Northernization to launch the Keiou Restoration. Backed by certain daimyou, and receiving military and financial assistance from Estmere and Werania, Keiou used modernized military forces to reassert imperial authority and break the power of the daimyou, establishing a renewed Senrian Empire under a semi-constitutional monarchy in which almost all power was held by the emperor, who was in turn to be advised by an elected Deliberative Assembly.

Keiou and his allies subsequently undertook a series of reforms aimed at strengthening and modernizing the country, including weakening the Suikoku-period caste system; undertaking land reform to enable private ownership and leasing; standardizing the Senrian language; permitting freedom of religion while simultaneously giving state backing to Tenkyou; modernizing the country's infrastructure, economy, government, and military; and adopting Northern clothing, science, cultural forms, and education. While these reforms were initially undertaken with great vigor, they were halted after Keiou's death by his brother, the Emperor Suizei, who was aligned more closely with traditionalists. Suizei's successor, the Emperor Tenmei, restarted the country's military reforms, but was wary of efforts at economic and social Northernization; this weakened Senria's modernization efforts and left it deeply susceptible to the negative consequences of the 1913 Great Collapse. Additionally, the loss of Sakata to Shangea in the 1909 First Sakata Incident weakened faith in the government, and Tenmei's authoritarian tendencies led him to try realigning the country towards Gaullica, which angered Estmere and Werania.

Senrian Revolution

Public anger at the protracted economic crisis and political repression led to the outbreak of the Senrian Revolution in 1918. While republican revolutionaries, led by Ryuunosuke Miyamoto politically and Souzirou Okada militarily, were able to take control of much of the country's west, imperial forces were better-trained and better-equipped than their republican counterparts, and won several victories during the initial year of the war. The imperial position weakened substantially following the assassination of the Emperor Tenmei, however, as his successor Souhou interfered in military affairs and mismanaged the war effort. The 1923 Great Kinkeidou Earthquake devastated Keisi and further weakened the imperial position, and as republican forces - now led by Miyamoto's protégé Isao Isiyama and receiving assistance from Estmere and Werania - gained the upper hand, dissent grew in the armed forces. A group of generals and admirals, known as the Gang of Six and led by Katurou Imahara, launched a military coup against the Emperor Souhou in November 1923, capturing him and forcing the abolition of the monarchy; a subsequent power-sharing agreement between Isiyama and Imahara ended the revolution shortly thereafter.

Kyouwa period

Early republic

The overthrow of the monarchy began what is sometimes known as the Kyouwa period (Kokumon: 꾜우외, Gyoumon: 共和), which continues into the present. The period immediately following the Senrian Revolution saw a remarkable cultural renaissance and several efforts by Isiyama's government to effect social reforms, most notably its successful abolition of the remnants of Senria's caste system.

Senrian soldiers engaging in combat during the Great War.

Great War

This brief flourishing was brought to a halt by the 1927 Shangean invasion of Senria, which marked the beginning of the Great War. Shangean forces, aided by monarchist & functionalist collaborators, sought to force Senria under Shangean rule and conducted the Senrian Genocide, in which 9.5 million Senrians were murdered as part of a campaign of systemic extermination. Katurou Imahara used the crisis to establish himself as the head of a "government of national preservation", assuring Isiyama that he would relinquish dictatorial power after the Shangean invasion was repelled.

Imahara implemented a three-point program of "mass production, mass industrialization, and mass mobilization" to build up Senria's industry and military for total war, which in turn allowed Senrian forces to halt the advance of Shangean forces; the Government of National Preservation also aided the Senrian Resistance, which conducted sabotage and guerrilla operations against Shangean and collaborationist forces to great effect. The Ukyou Uprising ended any Shangean hopes of launching further offensives in Senria, and Shangean forces were expelled from the Senrian archipelago on June 16, 1932; Senria launched its own invasion of Shangea, marked by a brutality regarded as "retaliation" for the Senrian Genocide, the following year. While Senria initially sought Shangea's total surrender and dismemberment, domestic war-weariness and pressure from its Euclean allies forced Senria to end the conflict on February 12, 1935, with the Treaty of Keisi being signed that April.

Post-war republic

While Imahara did concede absolute power as promised and include Isiyama and the Kyouwakai in the negotiations which led to the country's current constitution, which de jure established Senria as a parliamentary republic, Imahara used his public popularity and his control over the military to centralize power in himself, the Aikokutou, and the Senrian Republican Armed Forces. As Prime Minister, Imahara implemented his personal ideology as state doctrine and oversaw a series of sweeping reforms, continuing the country's military modernization, overseeing a period of rapid economic development known as the Keizaikiseki, expanding rights for women and burakumin, ending the concessions granted to Euclean powers, replacing Gyoumon characters with the Kokumon script, bolstering Senrian nationalism, and stringently controlling political dissent. He also sought to secure Senria's position as a world power and as the leading nation in Coius, providing extensive support to the Community of Nations.

Imahara was succeeded by Hatirou Nakayama, who was in turn quickly replaced by Tokiyasu Kitamura. Kitamura sought to shift the center of power in Senria's government from the military towards the Aikokutou, and oversaw an economic and cultural flourishing, as well as efforts to establish a détente with Shangea. Assassinated by a councilist in 1964, he was succeeded by Takesi Takahata, who restored military primacy, cracked down on dissent, and oversaw a more aggressive foreign policy in the name of maintaining Senrian preeminence in Coius; Senria developed nuclear weapons during Takahata's premiership, and the country nearly went to war with Shangea in the 1975 Coastal Crisis. After Takahata was assassinated by Shangea in 1979, he was succeeded by Imahara's adopted son Kitirou, who was forced from power himself due to his inability to handle the fallout of the 1979 Coian economic crisis.

Kitirou Imahara was replaced by Kiyosi Haruna in 1983. Haruna successfully addressed the country's economic crisis by brokering an agreement between the major keiretu and depoliticized the country's military, firmly shifting power to the bureaucracy and Aikokutou. He also ended government censorship of the media, loosened restrictions on opposition groups and civil society (but guaranteed the continued preeminence of the Aikokutou), responded to the 1995 Kinkeidou Earthquake, engaged in both hardline and pragmatic diplomacy with an increasingly resurgent Shangea, and oversaw the start of a global popularization of Senrian culture known as the Senrian Wave; Haruna left office in 2003 as Senria's longest-serving prime minister. In the decades since, Senria has remained a dominant-party Southern democracy, and while its growth has slowed, it continues to be a leading economic, cultural, and military power within both Coius and the world.