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Description

  This project is a product of cooperation with a close friend of mine Alisher.
  The presented map is illustrative material for mostly Asian-inspired fantasy setting picturing the heart of it - Land-that-underneath-the-Heaven considered as an ecumene by its inhabitants. Here you may observe the main actors of this universe - The two Great Realms which are given by many different names but the most common are Eastern and Western Empires or The Great State of Gold and Radiant and The Great State of White and Lofty.
  The first one marked by yellow and situated mostly to the East from the Heart Sea, its cities denoted by hieroglyphs inscribed in an oval, it's capital - Solar Capital - flagged by Banner of Golden Sovereign. To the right, you see the Great Sun - insignia of a Sun Dynasty which reigns on the East.
  Western Empire designated by gray-blue and lays to the West of the Heart Sea. Its cities are marked by hieroglyphs inscribed in a rectangle, it's capital - Lunar Capital - flagged by Banner of Silver Sovereign. To the left emblem of a ruling on the West, Lunar Dynasty is situated - the Great Moon Sky.
  Painted by brown color territories are states-satellites of the two empires - their might is so significant that every polity in a known world currently included in the sphere of influence of either West or East. Every small state is circled by a bilateral line colored into the color of the realm to the sphere of influence it belongs.
  Both of the empires split into provinces according to their administrative division.
  To the North you can see the land marked by the red line - this is The Great Border, poorly controlled by both states' area, split into numerous feods and principalities, free cities, tribes, and monasteries. Most of them maneuvering between Eastern and Western Empires, trying to keep their independence, use resources of hegemons against each other, and avoid a war of two realms on their soil - what already happened before. On the top, in the square frame, there's a solar character meaning “The Borderline”. Solar and Moon Domains both claim the whole Great Border as an integral part of theirs.
  Center of the known world, this map and probably of a whole creation is Heavenly Isle - mysterious prohibited land considered by many as a home of God himself.
  Given map manufactured by the Geography Department of Inner Court Ministry of The Great State of Gold and Radiant, so it's using solar (eastern) hieroglyphs. The map decorated with sacred symbols (shared by both nations) and holy texts, near the bottom left corner you can see a note about the way the name of The Great State of White and Lofty writes by western lunar characters.
  Thank you for your attention, in case if I managed to interest you I may offer some more lore below. But first some clarifications:
To display solar and lunar scripts we are using traditional Chinese and Tangut characters respectively, but it is made just to give you an idea how they might look like, it doesn't mean nor that it is possible to translate them as Tangut or Chinese, nor that Lunar and Solar official imperial languages work in the way how their prototypes work real life. There might be a similarity of translation or might be not.
We are deeply respecting East Asian (and all others) cultures, and are thankful to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Thai, and many many others for inspiration. Hoping our interpretation wouldn't offend anyone, please keep in mind that this is just a fantasy world, and feel free to give us any feedback which we are happy to receive.
Of course, we scooped our inspiration from other cultures all over the world (there are even western-based civilizations in our universe) and other fantasy settings as well. We were especially heavily influenced by our own culture which we love a lot.
Introduction to lore

    According to the so-called First-ever Myth, Heavenly Lord created and then broke the mystical mirror, so shards of it fell to created by Him soil. Thus, all of the creation become full of small reflections of the Great Lord. Then He breathed life into the biggest fragments first, and so saint deities appeared in the world. They were ordered to take their own part of the creation and arrange it. Hereby, every land, sea, river, mountain, forest, and so forth has its divine aspect which is an emanation of The Holy Creator. By the nature of these beings, their supreme will directed first of all to advance their material side: the deity of the river will be making it as long and wide as possible, and the only thing that restricts him is the will of spirit of the mountain to be as high as possible, the volition of the daemon of the land to be as spacious as possible and aspiration of sea-god to be fed by river water. Settled by such a clash of volitions, creation achieved Great Balance.
    After that human race — the smallest shreds of The Great Mirror — were brought to the world and were ordered to continue the work of settling Land-that-underneath-the-Heaven: to build cities, to dig channels, and plow fields.
    In different forms, this Myth is known by all peoples of the known world.

  As interhuman relationships became more and more complex and first hierarchies were formed those who took the top places in them gained ascendency upon men comparable to the power of gods upon the natural matter. Thus, social order maintained not only through political practices but by rituals and application of will as well. The wider authority relationships got, the more mystical aspects of the reign of sovereigns were discovered. This process ended up by proclaiming the First Great Order Sovereignty by Shan Princes from the shores of the Great Black Dragon River. As a result of almost a thousand years of domination, close to every land acknowledged the power of Golden Eyed rulers. Their might was so powerful that they were able to change social order through their imperious will. But the strong desire of Shan People to gain immortality and the power of deities, numerous crises, and the wish of conquered peoples to free themselves led first to the War of Eastern and Western Coalitions and then to the War of Devout Ones in which under the leadership of Solar and Lunar Kingdoms and with help of holy deities anti-shan union crashed First Order. At least this is what official chronicles of Eastern and Western Empires would tell you.
The ensuing interregnum lusted for approximately five hundred years. But from the point of view of Lunar and Solar Dynasties, their domination already started at that point as they both proclaimed era names, as Shan Emperors did this before. In the next five centuries, The Great State of Gold and Radiant and The Great State of White and Lofty were expanding their borders, until they met on the South, and three hundred years later on the North at the core lands of former First Order State. This resulted in several wars one ended up a stalemate, two gave the victory to each side once and numerous ones led to insignificant changes not worth mentioning. But as all of them were interrupted by internal unrest, exhaustion of both sides, e.t.c. affiliation of a lot of territories left undefined. Now, despite the fact that both States passed through civil wars, uprisings, and catastrophes, West and East are stronger they were ever before and who knows what the next clash for hegemony would bring.

  Notwithstanding mutual antagonism, the two empires have a lot in common. Both of them borrowed the main institutions from Shan and were heavily influenced by its culture, philosophy, and science, through two millennia-long coexistence East and West were constantly borrowing each other's technologies and practices, trade between Solar and Lunar states was never stopped sometimes even in times of war. That`s why they are considered as an embodiment of the Yes-No principle - a sacral concept that often pictured as a white-black sphere describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the world.
Now then, while both emperors having divine powers and practicing their authority through policies and by rituals and will, there`s still a number of differences in the design of monarchy on the West and the East which must be mentioned here. On the East there`s a Sacral Drapery around the Emperor - it`s very rare for Him to be seen by many, this is an extraordinary honor which must be earned, either by your deeds or by your nobility. His palaces have a strict admission regime, and there is a prohibition to rise your eyes on Him without permission while kneeling. Sometimes common people can`t even define when the reign of one Emperor ended and a new one started - continuity extraordinary important value in the Sun Empire. On the contrary, Western sovereigns prefer Mantle of Openness maintaining an illusion of accessibility by every subject of theirs.
There`re dozens of nations living across the world but either Sun and Moon have their core peoples - first ones, which went all way through with their monarchs - from nothingness to unimaginable greatness. One Thousand of Old families is the main nation of the East. They went to the shores of the Nephritis and Pearl rivers where, according to the legend, found a woman walled up into nephrite stone pregnant with a child of the Sun Lord. They made this child their ruler and served his dynasty thousands of years more and were rewarded by prosperity - now Old Thousand making from 50 to 60 percents of the total population of The Great State of Gold and Radiant and considering as their own wide lands from a middle course of Coldwater river on the North to the deep rain forests on the South and from Eastern Shore to the Western Snow Keep mountains. Core folk of The Great State of White and Lofty is Westernborn clans. This militant nation came across the Outter Ocean from long-forgotten Isles somewhere on the Far West. As the story told they were following the falling star, which appeared to be a scrap of the Moon itself and led them to the Great Blue Dragon River mouth. When they reached their destination they found the crater with meteor remnants and a woman of indescribable beauty. Thus, Westernborns made the land around crater their new homeland, Moon Lady wife of the king, and turned Moon metal from a meteor into crown and sword - holy regalia of the monarchs. Through bloody wars, they assert domination on the West which lasts many and many centuries even despite them being only a relative majority in the Empire of theirs. As a nation of sea-comers, they are still unsurpassed sailors almost undefeatable in the sea, while the Thousand Families' impetuous cavalry and persistent infantry usually getting an upper hand on the land.

Description

  This project is a product of cooperation with a close friend of mine Alisher.
  The presented map is illustrative material for mostly Asian-inspired fantasy setting picturing the heart of it - Land-that-underneath-the-Heaven considered as an ecumene by its inhabitants. Here you may observe the main actors of this universe - The two Great Realms which are given by many different names but the most common are Eastern and Western Empires or The Great State of Gold and Radiant and The Great State of White and Lofty.
  The first one marked by yellow and situated mostly to the East from the Heart Sea, its cities denoted by hieroglyphs inscribed in an oval, it's capital - Solar Capital - flagged by Banner of Golden Sovereign. To the right, you see the Great Sun - insignia of a Sun Dynasty which reigns on the East.
  Western Empire designated by gray-blue and lays to the West of the Heart Sea. Its cities are marked by hieroglyphs inscribed in a rectangle, it's capital - Lunar Capital - flagged by Banner of Silver Sovereign. To the left emblem of a ruling on the West, Lunar Dynasty is situated - the Great Moon Sky.
  Painted by brown color territories are states-satellites of the two empires - their might is so significant that every polity in a known world currently included in the sphere of influence of either West or East. Every small state is circled by a bilateral line colored into the color of the realm to the sphere of influence it belongs.
  Both of the empires split into provinces according to their administrative division.
  To the North you can see the land marked by the red line - this is The Great Border, poorly controlled by both states' area, split into numerous feods and principalities, free cities, tribes, and monasteries. Most of them maneuvering between Eastern and Western Empires, trying to keep their independence, use resources of hegemons against each other, and avoid a war of two realms on their soil - what already happened before. On the top, in the square frame, there's a solar character meaning “The Borderline”. Solar and Moon Domains both claim the whole Great Border as an integral part of theirs.
  Center of the known world, this map and probably of a whole creation is Heavenly Isle - mysterious prohibited land considered by many as a home of God himself.
  Given map manufactured by the Geography Department of Inner Court Ministry of The Great State of Gold and Radiant, so it's using solar (eastern) hieroglyphs. The map decorated with sacred symbols (shared by both nations) and holy texts, near the bottom left corner you can see a note about the way the name of The Great State of White and Lofty writes by western lunar characters.
  Thank you for your attention, in case if I managed to interest you I may offer some more lore below. But first some clarifications:
To display solar and lunar scripts we are using traditional Chinese and Tangut characters respectively, but it is made just to give you an idea how they might look like, it doesn't mean nor that it is possible to translate them as Tangut or Chinese, nor that Lunar and Solar official imperial languages work in the way how their prototypes work real life. There might be a similarity of translation or might be not.
We are deeply respecting East Asian (and all others) cultures, and are thankful to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian, Vietnamese, Thai, and many many others for inspiration. Hoping our interpretation wouldn't offend anyone, please keep in mind that this is just a fantasy world, and feel free to give us any feedback which we are happy to receive.
Of course, we scooped our inspiration from other cultures all over the world (there are even western-based civilizations in our universe) and other fantasy settings as well. We were especially heavily influenced by our own culture which we love a lot.
Introduction to lore

    According to the so-called First-ever Myth, Heavenly Lord created and then broke the mystical mirror, so shards of it fell to created by Him soil. Thus, all of the creation become full of small reflections of the Great Lord. Then He breathed life into the biggest fragments first, and so saint deities appeared in the world. They were ordered to take their own part of the creation and arrange it. Hereby, every land, sea, river, mountain, forest, and so forth has its divine aspect which is an emanation of The Holy Creator. By the nature of these beings, their supreme will directed first of all to advance their material side: the deity of the river will be making it as long and wide as possible, and the only thing that restricts him is the will of spirit of the mountain to be as high as possible, the volition of the daemon of the land to be as spacious as possible and aspiration of sea-god to be fed by river water. Settled by such a clash of volitions, creation achieved Great Balance.
    After that human race — the smallest shreds of The Great Mirror — were brought to the world and were ordered to continue the work of settling Land-that-underneath-the-Heaven: to build cities, to dig channels, and plow fields.
    In different forms, this Myth is known by all peoples of the known world.

  As interhuman relationships became more and more complex and first hierarchies were formed those who took the top places in them gained ascendency upon men comparable to the power of gods upon the natural matter. Thus, social order maintained not only through political practices but by rituals and application of will as well. The wider authority relationships got, the more mystical aspects of the reign of sovereigns were discovered. This process ended up by proclaiming the First Great Order Sovereignty by Shan Princes from the shores of the Great Black Dragon River. As a result of almost a thousand years of domination, close to every land acknowledged the power of Golden Eyed rulers. Their might was so powerful that they were able to change social order through their imperious will. But the strong desire of Shan People to gain immortality and the power of deities, numerous crises, and the wish of conquered peoples to free themselves led first to the War of Eastern and Western Coalitions and then to the War of Devout Ones in which under the leadership of Solar and Lunar Kingdoms and with help of holy deities anti-shan union crashed First Order. At least this is what official chronicles of Eastern and Western Empires would tell you.
The ensuing interregnum lusted for approximately five hundred years. But from the point of view of Lunar and Solar Dynasties, their domination already started at that point as they both proclaimed era names, as Shan Emperors did this before. In the next five centuries, The Great State of Gold and Radiant and The Great State of White and Lofty were expanding their borders, until they met on the South, and three hundred years later on the North at the core lands of former First Order State. This resulted in several wars one ended up a stalemate, two gave the victory to each side once and numerous ones led to insignificant changes not worth mentioning. But as all of them were interrupted by internal unrest, exhaustion of both sides, e.t.c. affiliation of a lot of territories left undefined. Now, despite the fact that both States passed through civil wars, uprisings, and catastrophes, West and East are stronger they were ever before and who knows what the next clash for hegemony would bring.

  Notwithstanding mutual antagonism, the two empires have a lot in common. Both of them borrowed the main institutions from Shan and were heavily influenced by its culture, philosophy, and science, through two millennia-long coexistence East and West were constantly borrowing each other's technologies and practices, trade between Solar and Lunar states was never stopped sometimes even in times of war. That`s why they are considered as an embodiment of the Yes-No principle - a sacral concept that often pictured as a white-black sphere describing how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the world.
Now then, while both emperors having divine powers and practicing their authority through policies and by rituals and will, there`s still a number of differences in the design of monarchy on the West and the East which must be mentioned here. On the East there`s a Sacral Drapery around the Emperor - it`s very rare for Him to be seen by many, this is an extraordinary honor which must be earned, either by your deeds or by your nobility. His palaces have a strict admission regime, and there is a prohibition to rise your eyes on Him without permission while kneeling. Sometimes common people can`t even define when the reign of one Emperor ended and a new one started - continuity extraordinary important value in the Sun Empire. On the contrary, Western sovereigns prefer Mantle of Openness maintaining an illusion of accessibility by every subject of theirs.
There`re dozens of nations living across the world but either Sun and Moon have their core peoples - first ones, which went all way through with their monarchs - from nothingness to unimaginable greatness. One Thousand of Old families is the main nation of the East. They went to the shores of the Nephritis and Pearl rivers where, according to the legend, found a woman walled up into nephrite stone pregnant with a child of the Sun Lord. They made this child their ruler and served his dynasty thousands of years more and were rewarded by prosperity - now Old Thousand making from 50 to 60 percents of the total population of The Great State of Gold and Radiant and considering as their own wide lands from a middle course of Coldwater river on the North to the deep rain forests on the South and from Eastern Shore to the Western Snow Keep mountains. Core folk of The Great State of White and Lofty is Westernborn clans. This militant nation came across the Outter Ocean from long-forgotten Isles somewhere on the Far West. As the story told they were following the falling star, which appeared to be a scrap of the Moon itself and led them to the Great Blue Dragon River mouth. When they reached their destination they found the crater with meteor remnants and a woman of indescribable beauty. Thus, Westernborns made the land around crater their new homeland, Moon Lady wife of the king, and turned Moon metal from a meteor into crown and sword - holy regalia of the monarchs. Through bloody wars, they assert domination on the West which lasts many and many centuries even despite them being only a relative majority in the Empire of theirs. As a nation of sea-comers, they are still unsurpassed sailors almost undefeatable in the sea, while the Thousand Families' impetuous cavalry and persistent infantry usually getting an upper hand on the land.