Now that the dust of celebrations has landed, I thank everyone who has been patient enough with me to actually wait for an update! A few posts prior, I talked about the spiritualistic aspects of the game, followed by the short concept and history of the fox spirit Nae. This time, I thought I’d work off the tangent of these two, and enlighten you a bit of my vision for the royal court located in the capital city of Ôkyô (王京).

In Ôkyô, the court nobles consists of 6 noble houses, which have a firm hold over the seat of power in the court, right under the royal family. The main noble houses are then further served by 24 aristocratic families, which are subservient (compared) to the higher court, and take care of the more menial tasks. In essence, the upper house decrees the course the empire is to take, and the aristocrats do their bidding. It is worth noting however, that the royal family is joined by a Hizoku seeress, who answers only to the Emperor himself. The Hizoku’s purpose in the royal family is to divine the correct path for the empire, and convey portents of possibilites to come.

Currently in the seat of power, lies Tengan no Eisai (天冠の栄斎), who during his lifetime of 72 years, has ruled the empire for fifty-six years in succession. Having unified the land, he is now a sovereign ruler of the continent, and has thus been able to focus his efforts towards repressing other conceived threats towards his country.

Concept for Emperor Tengan & Hizoku Seeress Iasu

The emperor has been expected to retire to a monastery for many years now, thus withdrawing from the tiring imperial lifestyle. Alas, so far Tengan has held his iron grip on the throne, keeping the balance of power inside the court, much to the dismay of his son, and the noble households vying for power. Perhaps, this too, is an influence of the Hizoku working in close tandem with the Emperor?

I’ll let you off with this much for today, as an added bonus, I’ll throw in a concept art of the crown prince to boot. Cheeky little anklebiter he is!

“Gramps!”