Zhu Religion

An explanation of the religion of characters such as Li Hua and Xing Yi


The dominant Religion of the Zhu Empire has no unique name in its but is referred to under the umbrella term of Zhu by most outsiders and in conversation with outsiders.  As old as the society itself it focuses on a set way of life and virtues that are to be followed and interpreted in a way that benefits both yourself and society.  In terms of Deities it is a monotheistic faith but with various lesser beings of power and prophets within the cosmology that are revered or of great power but not really worshiped.   It is a somewhat ethnocentric religion but it is more than accepting of others who follow similar codes of ethics.

Name

For most of the Empire's history their system of beliefs was completely nameless, it being so ingrained in to them and simply how they lived that the notion of it needing a name was strange to them and even offensive to some.  It wasn't something labeled or really discussed it simply was just as they just were, what more was there to it? It was only when they began having more and more communication with other cultures that the need for labels and names become more important for explanations and reference purposes.  They settled on the name Zhu as a collective term for the people, the language, and their faith/philosophy.  Zhu was them in all of their aspects so why differentiate?

In Society

The Religion is as mentioned, completely inseparable from the Empire as it is the foundation of it.   Priestesses and such are important members of government, ethics are shaped by what the teachings of it dictate, and the belief is the primary thing that binds each race to one another and makes them so loyal.   There are temples in every neighborhood and attendance is mandatory for Zhu at least once a week, though more encouraged.   The Temples are important community centers and how the religious community sees someone has a large baring on how the rest of society sees them.  Religious stories and aspects are taught in all schools and whole castes of society are devoted to areas of it.  Blasphemy is regarded as a serious crime for Zhu, and a moderate crime for non Zhu.  

Beliefs

The System

The Zhu refer to Existence as The System, a sort of incomprehensible Cosmic machine  with mechanisms that span all of time and space running concurrently across all dimensions and realms simultaneously at all points in time.  Given the vastness and age of the System there is no definite religious answer to who if anything created it, and what exists beyond it.  The system is conscious to an unknown degree, somewhat aware of what goes on inside of it.  Creating what could only be described as antibodies to cleanse the Universes that form inside of it, purging them after a while and leaving no trace of them behind while the new one forms. 

It's callous disregard for what spawns within itself creates an endless cycle of universal creation and destruction; a Pattern of death and rebirth stretching across infinity on an unimaginable scale.  Some believe the system seeks perfection and destroys all that doesn't fit it's unknown definition of it.  Others believe the System is simply unaware of what is born within it, and destroys it out of fear once it finds out that more exists beyond it.  Others still feel the System was formed to monitor and contain something else.  All are theories that are debated by religious scholars and will likely continue to be far into the future.  

The Great Mother

The Deity of the Zhu Religion is a being known as the Great Mother, a powerful woman who came from the prior Universe.  Over the course of time she brought the various predecessor races of the Zhu people onto Kios before began to alter them into what would become their current forms in order to fit the landscape of the land she had made for the planet.  She is worshiped as a warm of loving creator, with people referring to death as returning to her loving embrace.  All religious activities are done in her honor as they hope to one day appease her enough for her to return to them, and make everything the way it was supposed to be.  Speaking ill of her is a criminal offense within the Empire, especially if the speaker is Zhu.  

After Life

There are three areas of life that the Zhu take note of: The Body, the Chi, and the Soul. When a Zhu dies they aren't buried but laid out somewhere away from wildlife with a sheet over their body, over the next few hours their chi converts their body into base nutrients and returns it to the ground (Though people with unstable Chi will literally burn up instantly upon death).  Both the Soul and the chi are brought into the Sea of Chi a mystical realm within the planets center where a vast sea of all the Empire's chi flows, seeping through the land and across space itself to the other areas. 

There the person's essence is processed by systems left in place by The Great Mother.  If a person was honorable their soul is moved on to be joined with her in a state of bliss and enlightenment their chi recycled and sent out into the world on its own, helping keep the land and people healthy (or stored for them to later return as divine warriors).  If they were a dishonorable in life both their soul and chi are kept together and recycled into a new life, that will have certain aspects and a vague memory kept over in hopes their soul can learn and have a more honorable life. 

Five Tenets of Faith

Strength: Weakness in all of its forms is to be challenged and overcome and not allowed to fester within one's body, mind, or soul. To accept the weakness within is to fail the Great mother and accept dishonor.

Courage: Never allow fear to take hold of your mind, one must fight through it and continue on with whatever causes them distress. To follow Zhu is never whimper in the face of fear, but to bear your fangs and destroy it.

Loyalty: Blood may be thicker than water but Loyalty is stronger than blood. Your loyalty must be the most sacred bond you have no matter who it may be too. When you swear loyalty you must stay true to it as long as it stays honorable, the faith and those who you are loyal to must take precedence over any others.

Honor: The most important of all tenets is to be an honorable person at all times. To disregard Honor is to forsake the Great mother and be a blight on society and those above you. Even in the face of certain death, Honor must be maintained for the integrity of one's soul is more important than the vessel of flesh

Discipline: Having control over ones life, keeping yourself balanced in the aspects that form a proper Zhu. You must be able to control your emotions and reign yourself in when needed, or have the strength of will to force yourself to learn how.  You don't abandon tasks of import and force yourself to see them through to the end.  You must be in complete control and no instincts or circumstances should win over your mind unless you want them to.   

Institutions

Temples

Temples are the primary location of worship in the Zhu religion, one in every neighborhood they vary from modest home sized buildings to massive castles. Much like the size the contents vary based on location and need but some things are universal. There are always areas designated for both prayer and meditation, normally a specially marked section of the floor covered in mats or special seals.  There is seating areas in various parts of most temples, or a somewhat large section of the smaller ones.  An altar and statues of whatever patron prophet or various ones if a larger temple, religious texts, and various private rooms for when people need to be more isolated for whatever reason.   

Religious services are usually done on either and individual level or in small groups, only in very special occasions with a large group at one time.  More normally an individual or small group is assisted by a priestess who aids in prayer, consul, meditation and various rituals.  Depending on the size of the temple there are anywhere from 5 to hundreds of priestesses, either security golems or warriors hired as guards, and some have dragons of their own which help watch over the place and take supplies back and forth places.  The Temples are open all day and night never without at least a few people on staff and always willing to aid whoever needs shelter, help, or just wants to get closer to the Great Mother.  If one has nowhere else to turn they'll always find a reassuring shoulder, a warm meal, and a place to sleep regardless of their race or actual religion for honor compels them to help any who need it. 

Priestesses

The primary and most common job regarding the religion is the all female staff that are the public's guide and aid to the faith.  They are government employees that work at the temples closest to their home, aiding in prayer, teaching religious tales and lessons, group meditation, consoling,  and general work within the community.  Priestess are required to always be willing to help those who are in need, and if a dishonorable person seeks redemption they are required to aid them in the task and speak on their behalf in regards to any trouble they've got in.  This isn't a get out of jail free card for the criminal since the priestess has to actually believe they want to change, and even then it only reduces the sentence and not actually removes it all together.  They are well respected in the community and serve as sort of community mother and big sister figures to many people of all ages for how much they assist others and their warm friendly attitude.

To become a priestess one has to go through a year of classes which take place every day at the temple, and once they prove they have learned the basics and concepts they are made a priestess in training where they shadow a more experienced Priestess for several years learning more and more of the practices as well privately studying with them to ensure they become as dedicated and understanding as the job requires.  As time goes on they are allowed to do more and more things on their own until they are allowed to take a final test to prove they are ready.  The test involves memorization of several legends and holy texts, at least a basic understanding of how to do magic, consoling a person in need while the Head Priestess observes, explaining how the Five Tenets of Faith apply to  them on a personal level, and the sacrifice of their great accomplishment (if it's not a physical object then a symbolic sacrifice of it) on an altar to the Great Mother.  

Xing Yi Profile (1st timeline)

Image by Sara & Gi

Xing Yi Qiao is the youngest member of the head Zhu royal family, the daughter of the current Empress. As she has two older siblings she is unlikely to become Empress herself and as such isn't treated like an heir, instead being free to take her pick of any appropriate number of jobs for a Zhuni royal. Despite that she really has little interest in any of the politics or official positions expected off her, instead drawn to the combat arts of their allies the Fah Family.  Getting in close with the legendary family, they began to teach her some of their art specifically a Dim Mak technique way more advanced then someone of her mental maturity level should know. Not fully understanding how easy it was to slip up and how hard to reverse, she while playing around sought to joking use it on a friend.  Before she could though, she was stopped by a woman named Hirara and her life was changed forever.

Hirara had built quite a reputation for herself by that point in time, and when she offered to train Xing Yi the Empress had no issues with it.  Both of the teens parents had assumed training with Hirara would give her discipline and insight to fully appreciate her place in life and move forward in society.  Now with their blessing she lives with Hirara, training with and following the older woman in her personal quest.  All the while Xing Yi remaining blissfully unaware of the darkness that taints her soul and the path that lies waiting for her to stumble down it. 

Xing Yi Concept

Image by Sara and Gi. You can commission them here http://stkstarbullet.deviantart.com/

The character Xing Yi is one of the central characters of the first timeline, and supporting character in the 2nd timeline.  She came about when I was trying to flesh out the empress more and decided to try and create some other family members.  I needed someone who could give context to Li Hua's rule, someone that the Empress would always be compared to no matter what she did.  So I came up with Xing Yi Qiao, Li Hua's grandmother and the most honored empress of the modern age.  

The sketch above is actually her as a princess still, which is what the game I'm working on will feature.  The lead up to her becoming Empress which will serve as some what of a parallel to what happened to Li Hua and how they two are almost variations of the same person/idea. Not really too much to say beyond that of the idea behind her, except that with her as a character I wanted something to bring a greater sense of power than Li Hua does.  By the time Li Hua's reign comes around Xing Yi as a person fully represents the might of Zhu tradition and as such is the greatest obstacle to overcome in actually bringing about a new era.

Project Eras

Figured I should explain the timeline talk mentioned in the Li Ling profile.  Essentially the Zhu project (which really needs a title. So if anyone has a name idea, give it to me), is actually several different works that take place in one of two different generations of the Zhu Empire.  These two timelines of events focus on different characters and situations but are both linked and together weave the narrative of the setting. 

The first time line focuses on the era of Princess Xing Yi Qiao up until she becomes Empress herself. (she will get a post about her soon) So everything taking place during the time she was growing up and up until the first few years of her rule is the first timeline.  

The second is during that period of time around Li Ling who is the granddaughter of Xing Yi (the age's aren't as far apart as you may think, due most Zhu being teen mothers.). This is the more extensive timeline, covering a broader range of time as well as location but much of the backdrop needs the first to truly be understood.  Going forward each thing I write here will have something saying which timeline it's for/from. 

Zhu (species)

Image of the Empress and her Adviser.  Any with this sort of coloring is done by Henry

Slight change from my character or concept specific posts to put some stuff on a species itself, just a brief bit on what they are like.  Just still showing what sort of stuff I'm working with.



Zhu is a general term for the collective of species and are the descendants of the final creatures created by the Great Mother.  They are natives of the Zhu Empire, a space faring highly militaristic society that originated on the planet Kios.  A diverse species made up of 4 very distinct races and many more sub-races, they are all largely humanoid in shape though with various non human traits.  Outside of their military they are a race most known for their natural attunement with energy and their intense love for nature.



While there are differences between the various Zhu races they all share certain key biological traits as well as certain things programmed into their minds.  Most notably is their chi, the backbone of all Zhu life.  Unlike most other creatures their chi isn't some passive energy that flows through all life forms, instead a unique living energy; their true selves in a sense.  It is housed in their dantian like with humans but it is made up of an unknown energy type, theorized to have been brought into the Universe with the Great Mother.   This energy is naturally drawn to others for the purposes of absorbing, granting every Zhu the ability to absorb energy and perceive all forms of it. These sense of energy perception is their strongest allowing them to fully navigate their environment through it as well as communicate with one another and other chi based creatures.  Their ability to absorb energy is very powerful and can be used as a substitute for actually eating if the individual has strengthened the ability enough.

As they are at their core, energy beings, their physical shell is moldable to a degree making the Zhu populace latent shape shifters.  Some speculate they were meant to have full control over their forms but the process wasn't fully developed, and others say it was a quirk that developed randomly through evolution.  Regardless of how and why it is known that Zhu are capable of altering their bodies to a degree, most commonly in things such as forming claws, fangs, and in rare cases extra sets of arms.  So far all instances of shape shifting are known to be additions to the body such as that, though it is possible more advanced techniques exist and are kept hidden from most people.

While all Zhu have free will, their minds are inclined to certain ways of thinking most notably towards preferring balance with one another and the environment, leading to them being very strict conservationists.  Each Zhu race taking the minimum amount from the environment and leaving the vast majority as it was initially created by The Great Mother.  Great care being taken to ensure everything is and every creature is kept in stable numbers and in as close to the proper condition as is possible.   A large example of how such a thing consistently is shown is through every Zhu being born with an innate connection to their dragons.  If a baby Zhu sees a baby dragon the two will instantly be comfortable around each other and even communicate through altering the wavelength of their chi.  Similar innate interaction exist with other intelligent lifeforms in Zhu, leading to a deep understanding with every related race around them.

The Evolution of Zhu (Concept)

When I first came up with the setting that Empress Li Hua lived in, it was more or less just a means to an end.  It was little more than "here's a place where they do martial arts" but soon after I decided to really look at it and began to take inspiration from things like Jade empire and kung fu flicks to slowly but surely add on to it.  It was a large island on some world that was vaguely described, but really outside of the fact that it had the standard martial arts mystic power going on it was basically just another china stand in.  That didn't really change until I started to change the Empress herself, feeling no need to even hold on to former limitations.

The Zhu people became their own distinct species, with various races of their own as well as a fleshed out origin and explanation for their similarity to humanity.  The island of Zhu Shang Qiao ceased to be their whole nation and was changed to be merely the capitol kingdom of a much larger Empire.  That Empire itself fitting into my new way of handling things as it went from a straight fantasy setting into what I'd consider an even mix of fantasy and science fiction.  Zhu retained their mostly magical roots but now they were part of a larger universe filled with races and groups of all tech magic levels.  As time went on it progressed more and more into it's current state the people and Empire they live in no longer being just a place to have martial arts fights and a unique world all their own with those inspirations and the concept of chi merely a fundamental building block instead of the entire thing.

Empress Bio

Art once again by Henry

The Empress is as the name suggests the ruler of a place known as the Zhu Empire, the main setting of my current projects.  She serves as the main protagonist of the second time line, representing a leader caught between the traditions of her society and the increasing need to modernize in a more complex world.   

Li Ling is the daughter of the one of the more loved Empresses of recent times, her parents teaching her some degree of duty and responsibility but mostly allowing her to learn on her own.  As such her youth was mostly spent trying to find new ways to have fun and throwing parties, even the skills she gained from training were mostly applied for tricks.  She had numerous misadventures that will stick with her for the rest of her life, but her story really begins at age 18.  A few weeks past her birthday a demon mostly known through legend mysteriously got into the palace him and his minions assaulting the place from within suddenly and without warning.  Despite their best efforts, her mother was killed and her gravely injured, her father having to give his life to destroy the demon.  Unable to handle what had occurred the now Empress left with her grandmother, leaving the Empire to fall upon it's back up government measures as she left her nation behind.

Several years later she returned, finding herself mentally ready to take the throne.  It was a long journey of her traveling around and working to muster up enough support to claim the throne of her various family members vying for the Imperial seat above the other kings and queens, but eventually she carved out her true place at the head. Since then her rule has been a very controversial one her policies moving more and more into an area many find uncomfortable as she seems to regard less and less of tradition as the years go by.  She is loved for her strong dislike of bureaucracy and focus on defending and helping even the smallest part of society, but the massive love for her is becoming more and more towards her as a person and less as a leader as time goes on.  With already major internal conflict under her belt, only time will tell where her rule will lead and if the martial strength she possesses will be enough to face the next coup.  

Empress Concept

This particular image was drawn by Henry, you should all give him your money http://mahenbu.deviantart.com/

While she wasn't the first character made for the universe, her creation is the one that sparked the project in it's current form and pushed me back into world-building and is generally what most people are familiar with. The idea for her started in a role play, one taking place in the marvel universe actually.  I had made a martial arts based character and wanted a canon to tie her into, eventually leading me to Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, a newer character who really wasn't explored much at the time.  When it came to time to write on and use her, I had to make up  most things given the limited info eventually it began to drift so far away I just decided to make a whole new character.  I keep part of the name, Making it Li Ling Qiao (the marvel character is Li Hua)

From there I began the basis of what became the current project on the Zhu setting, giving it a name and beginning to map out the sort of society that would create her.  Both it and her went through several early drafts but I settled on the design you see above for her, her story and personality being based on my take on the moral grayness of a traditional military leader and the disconnect that it causes between her home country and those around it.  There is a lot of focus on her in various projects, mostly going forward she'll be referred to as The Empress though sometimes it'll be by her name or Zhu Princess in some stories. My next entry will likely be some in universe background on her.

What is this?

So basically my fans (all 3 of them) wanted a place where they could have easy access to my updates and info while I work on things. So on the off chance that some people I don't know stumble across this blog I guess I'll do a brief explanation.

I'm Lekkuen and I've dabbled in various things for a while, some of which is scattered around the internet.  Right now I have been developing a setting for me and others to use in various projects, a universe that is what I'd call an even mix between sci fi and fantasy.  Most of the attention is being focused on one specific area of the setting as that is where my current projects will take place in, but every now and then I'll provide info on other areas and aspects.  One thing about the setting though is it's made to be pretty open and I would love if others made things within it, something that has my full support as long as it's not completely changing established aspects.