KUSAN
KUSAN
(Small Kingdom) -- The westernmost Khitan Kingdom, culturally advanced
Kusan relies upon her excellent ambassadors and diplomats (easily the
most adept politicians of the age) at least as much as upon her armies.
Considered the most challenging position to rule, Kusan must expand
its tiny size in the dwindling vacuum between great Khitai in the east
and the Hyrkanian hordes to the west.
NATIONAL HISTORY
Listen, most tender branch of the noble tree of Kusan, of thy heritage,
of thy people, and in all things of thyself. We are Khitaian, our own
royal family of the same descent as the emperors in Paikang, Shu-Chen,
and Ruo-Gen. We trace our history to the very beginnings of Khitai,
more than five thousands of years in the past.
Kusan but was a farflung outpost when Khitai's fate brought a furious Lemurian revolution. Kusan alone survived the bloody,
senseless, revolution intact, and accepted many refugees from the
broken empire. We lived in cultured peace for hundreds of years until
the savage Lemurians, newly renamed Hyrkanians, clashed with our armies
on their migratory path to the west. For thousands of years we were
beset by this inhuman tide, beating it back somtimes as far as the
Kusan Desert and Steppes and sometimes only as far as the other side of
our capitol Kusan City's walls.
At last they passed us by, and some of our kinsmen recaptured their
ancient Khitai homeland. Powerful once again, theys eek to command us,
their benefactors. If not their betters, we are at least their peers,
we of the oldest intact culture on the earth today.
We know the hand which wields the sword must have the will to drive it.
Age has given us this wisdom, and so we negotiate, and spy, and bribe
where other younger, more foolish realms would invade, battle, and - -
for but a fleeting moment in history's reckoning - - conquer. Now lend
thy wisdom to hearing my report of the present state of thy treasured
land.