The Great Bowl (Setting)

A setting post inspired by Sekiro, the Three Kingdoms, and Japanese and Chinese mythology.

Sit down, my son. You are now of age, and I must tell you what my mother told me, and her mother told her, and so on until the first days when we arrived in the great bowl. Your mother passed early defending our village, so it falls to me. I hope I will do her story justice, as she did for me so many times.

The world in which we live is the great bowl (太元). Our village elders believe it was an ancient lake created by the gods in their strife, which has dried up in the ages that have passed since the years of the wise emperors. In those days gods and men were not so different, and one could know the histories of things merely by asking the divinities within them. Now the gods are remote, and rule by onerous written laws and vast celestial courts. It is known that they define our fates by actuarial tables and arithmetic. It is hard to talk to them, and harder still to plead your case. The merciful listener goddess who keeps the west safe for the lotus-path followers has herself been placed under divine arrest. She cannot help us now.

So, what is in this great bowl? You have seen most of it. There are villages, built along the old Yi River (易江) which runs from west to east, starting above the rim of the bowl and running down into the cavernous courts of hell which pull the land into shadow around them. You would do well to stay away from those parts of the valley, for they are where the echoes come at night.

In this bowl the greatest monuments are four sacred cardinal temples (四象廟). They are larger than our houses and halls. They are larger than anything we could build today. The story goes that they were built by great emperor Shengzu of the Li dynasty (立聖祖), the last of the good and wise kings, who sought to leave the bowl and forge a great empire. He built them to honour the many gods and the cardinal divinities, and they in turn gave him four sacred treasures with which he killed his rivals and conquered the land. They are as follows, remember them well:

To the north, the Black Turtle-snake Xuanwu (玄武), who gave Shengzu his sword after Shengzu made the correct offerings. The pale snakeblade, it is said, grants the wielder invincibility in battle, but only while they are holding it.

To the east, the Azure dragon Qinglong (青龍), who gave Shengzu his crown after Shengzu presented a great speech. The dragon-blessed mianguan has sixteen braided cords made of dragon whispers and pearls from the sea-king's palace, and gives the bearer total knowledge of the past and future.

To the south, the Ruby phoenix Zhujue (朱雀), who wrote Shengzu's writ of kingship after Shengzu wooed them with song and archery. On the writ it is written that he who bears this scroll will claim all eight corners of the world under a single roof, and thereby make the whole realm his abode. For it is well known that beyond our bowl the realm is a square.

To the west, the White tiger Baihu (白虎), who never yielded to Shengzu's bribery, martial prowess, and flattering words. They say that the frustrated Shengzu used the pale snakeblade to slice off one of Baihu's marble paws, and crafted the first imperial seal out of it. This ancient wrong - and it is a wrong, even though Shengzu won the fight - is why the tigers in the west still hunt us.

The temples still stand today, protected by the divine laws and ancient rites, but they are old and out of repair. Perhaps in our time there will be a great storm, and then the final protections of Shengzu will fail and we too will die.

What did you say? Yes, we once were a mighty people, who ruled lands far beyond this tiny bowl. We had a great and mighty empire that united many tribes, and we marched across the desert to find rival empires which we engaged in trade and war. But our emperors were unwise and capricious, and in time they squandered the riches the generations past gave us. Our fertile fields they desecrated with war and famine, our great archives they desecrated with lies, our noble people they desecrated with rapacious taxes, and our great gods they desecrated with foul and unspeakable deeds. Till at last the heavens turned against us, and the last of the emperors was incinerated by lighting in a great storm, and the great lords arose in revolt. That was when we fled the royal city and returned to the bowl from whence we came. 

Alas... Yes, alas for fate, which brings time and decay. Still, my son, it is hard for a heart to escape the dictates of fate. And to speak the truth, I am sparing you many stories of the imperial days, and they are not glorious ones. Perhaps it was for the best that what was united by evil forces came to divide once more.

And for you? Well, if you wish to stay in the bowl, there is much for you to do. We hold back echoes and ghosts from the caverns of hell at night. By day we negotiate with the other villages for food and other necessities. Every now and then someone gets it in their head to become the next Shengzu, and we have to beat them back. Every year we must undertake a pilgrimage to all four of the cardinal temples, to complete annual rites and remember the past. But I sense that your heart lies beyond these walls.

The outside world is dangerous, my son. If you could find some vestige of the old blessings from the cardinal temples, perhaps you could leave. What is outside the bowl? To the west is a vast desert, beyond which they say strange and foreign peoples live. To the south is the ruins of our old capital, a vast and impenetrable maze of walls and gates. To the north a storm has raged for the last twenty years and more. And to the east after many miles of walking is the sea, where the mighty dragon they call the eastern sea-king sits.

It's best that you stay in the bowl. It is safer here. But if your heart is set, I have only one piece of advice for you: Forge your own path. Do not repeat the mistakes of the past.