Yang the Thirteenth
Yang the Thirteenth | |
|---|---|
 17th-century painting of Yang | |
| Other names | Yong the Thirteenth |
| Personal | |
| Born | Yong Fam 楊凡 1184 |
| Died | 1265 |
| Religion | Aussian religion |
| Spouse | Enoshima Junko |
| Children | Unknown |
| Known for | Founder of the Axial Empire Creator of objective law |
| Other names | Yong the Thirteenth |
| Senior posting | |
| Successor | Kimsen |
Yang the Thirteenth (Nonnic: 楊十三), born Yong Fam (Nonnic: 楊凡, 1184–1265), was an Aussian prophet, philosopher, and statesman who was active in the 13th century. Yang created objective law and the philosophy surrounding it, and engineered the formation of the Axial Empire. He is known as the 'Thirteenth', as there were 12 other prophets born to the Yang surname preceding him in Nonnic history.
Yang was born in 1184 to a moderately affluent Kajun family, that was part of a merchant class that had burgeoned in the Nonnic lands as a social as well as economic force since the 11th century. As per Nonnic tradition, he was sent away from his home at the age of 17 to seek a career for himself as a craftsman, however he was socially disgraced when he was revealed to have been in an affair with a daughter of a much more powerful family. He was expelled from his home city and became a 'worldly ascetic' who travelled closely within society to intuit and comprehend higher principles, which was not uncommon at the time. Apocryphal records suggest he actually worked as an enforcer for organized crime until 1217.
In 1220 Yang declared he had been 'enlightened' and produced a series of writings that laid out the principles of objective law. He then preached his ideas in the 1220s, and by the 1230s gained support from various merchant associations and local rulers who saw opportunity in his cause. Yang was able to rally a massive force of supporters known as the Army of Creation (創軍), which from 1232 to 1251 conquered much of Aussia in the Axis-Birthing Campaigns (大鬧生極). Yang declared the establishment of the Axial Empire in 1236, and married Enoshima Junko, the 16-year-old daughter of a powerful Ashiharan daimyo who declared support for objective law, in 1240.
By 1251 Yang notionally ruled over much of Aussia, though not as a powerful monarch, but rather as a 'supreme jurist' whose teachings were nominally respected by various rulers and social forces as a political focal point. His campaigns only instituted a common customary legal system, commercial standards, and other political practices across the Aussian states, rather than creating a centralized empire, and the majority of the wars were just the violent resolution of long-standing local conflicts in favor of the merchant class, aided by the Army of Creation. Nevertheless a genuine divine reverence of Yang was present by the 1240s, and upon his death in 1265 he attained apotheosis, entering the Aussian religion's pantheon. Today he is still worshipped as the 'revelator' of objective law and as a patron of jurists.