The Tsung Empire
(See Culture: Tsung Empire) The Tsung Empire is the largest nation in Asia, ruled by a dynasty that stretches back 1,000 years. The Empire is largely insular, and the Emperor and his family are never seen outside of the Forbidden City.
In 1839, the First Opium War began between the British Dominion and the Tsung Empire. As part of the concessions as the war concluded in 1842, the Dominion gained control of Hong Kong. Between 1850 and 1860, a number of failed rebellions and the Second Opium War left millions dead. In 1852, a significant number of Tsung workers fled the country to answer the promise of work in the Federated States of America.
In the 1860s, emigration to America increased due to the building of the Transcontinental Railroads. Post Calamity, emigration has been drastically curtailed and it is more difficult for Tsung to leave the country. Those that do must often pay heavy fees to the Tong, an ancient criminal society, to be smuggled into Hong Kong and from there to foreign ports. The Tsung Famine started in 1876 and rumors say that between 10 and 12 million have died.
Tsung Immigrants are numerous in the Americas and have a strongly developed sub-culture. Please refer to Tsung Empire in our Setting section for more details.
Nihon
A small island nation that exerts significant influence in the region, Nihon is perceived as closed off and isolationist. Nonetheless, Nihon embraced limited trade with Europe and America long before the neighboring Tsung, gaining access to firearms and other western influences.
This ultimately led to a change in the traditional order, and the modernization of the country has left the Samurai ruling class dissatisfied. Recently this has blown up into a civil war, called the Satsuma Rebellion, led by Saigo Takamori against the Meiji government.
Before the Calamity, a number of cities in California and Baja Mexico had small communities of Nihonjin immigrants.
India
The early 16th century saw the rise of the Mughal Empire in India. The relative peace maintained by the empire during much of the 17th century was a factor in India's economic expansion, resulting in greater appreciation of painting, literary forms, textiles, and architecture. Expanding commerce during Mughal rule gave rise to new Indian commercial and political elites.
By the early 18th century, with the lines between commercial and political dominance blurred, a number of European trading companies had established trading outposts. The East India Company's control of the seas, greater resources, and more advanced military training and technology led it to increasingly flex its military muscle and caused it to become attractive to the Indian elite; both of these factors were crucial in allowing the Company to gain control over the Bharata region by 1765 and sideline the other European companies. Its access to the riches of Bharata and the subsequent increased strength and size of its army enabled it to annex or subdue most of India by the 1820s. India was reduced to supplying the British Dominion with raw materials.
The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company led to changes essential to a modern state, including the introduction of railways, canals, and the telegraph. Disaffection with the Company also grew during this time, and set off the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The rebellion was suppressed by 1858, however it led to the direct administration of India by the British government. Many of the princes and landed gentry who had enjoyed wealth and power through their alliance with the East India Company fled and found positions of power in the Republic of Bharata, which remained under Company control.
Since 1874, famine has plagued India with some 5.5 million having died of starvation to date. Poverty and strict control by the British Dominion mean few are able to leave this land, and typically only by purchasing passage from disreputable smugglers.
The Republic of Bharata
Prior to the rise of the Mughal Empire, the Bharata Sultanate was a major diplomatic, economic, and military power in the subcontinent. It developed the subcontinent's relations with the Tsung Empire, Egypt, and East Africa. After its conquest in the 16th century, Bharata remained the wealthiest state in the subcontinent. Bharata's trade and wealth impressed the Mughals so much that it was described as the Paradise of the Nations by the Mughal Emperors. The region was also notable for its powerful semi-independent aristocracy, known as the Twelve Maharajas of Bharata.
Since the 16th century, European traders traversed the sea routes to Bharata. In the 18th century, the Mughal control disintegrated due to internal rebellions, allowing European colonial powers to set up trading posts across Bharata. The British East India Company eventually emerged as the foremost military power in the region and either defeated or bought control over the Twelve Maharajas.
The East India Company found that they could import opium from Bharata and sell it in the Tsung Empire at a considerable profit. By 1773, they were the leading suppliers of the Tsung market. They established a monopoly on opium cultivation in Bharata, where they developed a method of growing opium poppies cheaply and abundantly.
The British Dominion and other European countries undertook the opium trade because of their chronic trade imbalance with the Tsung Empire. There was tremendous demand in Europe for Tsung tea, silks, and porcelain pottery, but there was correspondingly little demand for Europe’s manufactured goods and other trade items. Consequently, Europeans had to pay for Tsung products with gold or silver. The opium trade, which created a steady demand among Tsung addicts for opium imported by the West, solved this chronic trade imbalance.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 led several of the political elite from India to flee to Bharata where they were established as Maharajas, but in all actuality were controlled by the Company. The dissolution of the East India Company in 1874 made the Maharajas the some of the richest and most powerful people as the country remains the primary source of opium to the world.
The Union of Pyu
The Union of Pyu consists of a number of countries that span southeast Asia. Originally made up of individual city states, each expanded its influence to incorporate the surrounding lands and islands. Much of this area is dense rainforests and jungles and remains largely untouched and unexplored by the outside world.
Paigan, the largest state in the northwest, neighbors on Bharata and has seen greater exposure to the western world through trade with the East India Company.
As diverse as the cultures that makeup the Union, each has a similar myth that the people of this region once dwelled in the land of Mu, a great continent that existed to the east, that at one time connected Asia and South America.
Some citizens from the Union have made their way to the Americas. In the early years of the Civil War, the King of Bangkok offered to send President Lincoln a battalion of war elephants to aid in his fight against the rebel states. President Lincoln politely refused the gift, but a pair of elephants were sent and are used during military parades.
