Celestial Empire

The Celestial Empire is the central setting and civilization in Forge of Destiny, home to multiple Provinces which due to Pre-Imperial history and the formation of the Empire are often host to significant cultural differences and ethnicities. The world the Empire exists in is made of the flesh and bones of an ancient demiurge/deity animated by the spirit of another. The currently accepted age for the Empire is twenty five thousand years, with it's oldest individual provincial components being at least five thousand years older than that. During the time in which the quest takes place the provinces consist of three inner and five outer provinces.

Emerald Seas - A heavily wooded province located on the southern borders of the Celestial Empire. To its south, there is the Wall, a range of jagged and near impassible mountains that is home to many nomadic sky raider tribes known as the Cloud Nomads. Currently ruled with a stylishly flamboyant iron fist by Duchess Cai Shenhua after she deposed the previously ruling Hui in a coup.

Ebon Rivers - A river filled inner province to the east of the Heavenly Peaks with sacred rules of hospitality and story telling, it is the seat of the Zheng Clan and their hollow mountain home. Due to his nature, fragments of the Reveler are known to roam the Province while his body sleeps below the Zheng's mountain home. Little else is known of this province.

Golden Fields - The easternmost province of the empire beyond Ebon Rivers, it is most famously known as the Grave of the Sun due to the story Lu Guanxi, one of the Celestial Empire's greatest heroes, and his final stand. Currently in large part a wasteland due to a catastrophic war 14,000 years ago between the Ducal Lu family and the Twilight King's undead hordes and the final sacrifice of the Lu's ancestor spirit The Purifying Sun.

Thousand Lakes - The seat of the Bai Clan, a province of marshes and lakes that lies in the west of the empire. An ancient province with equally ancient traditions, its ruling clan is so numerous it is more akin to an ethnicity. It possesses many trade connections to the Alabaster Sands and a very profitable bay port made from the battle sight between the Sage Emperor and the Grandmother Serpent when the Sage was courting one of Grandmother Serpent's daughters.

Western Territories - A relatively recent addition to the Empire as it was conquered by Sun Shao under the reign of the current Empress' grandfather, it lies beyond Thousand Lakes as the western border of the Empire. The territory is comprised of a truly hellish jungle environment where cities are constantly under siege from a strong barbarian presence and the jungle itself. By all accounts nothing can live outside the walled enclaves unless it is a barbarian. The western lords are still loyal to the Empire, but there are indications this may be breaking down as they go native.

Savage Seas - A province of islands and storm wracked seas to the far north of the Empire, it is the seat of the Xuan and their massive Xuan Wu. Patrolled by a large fleet of ships built using wood from the Emerald Seas and other places in the Empire, it fights off many eldritch sea spirits and half-human pirates. It was the site of one of the few times in the Empire's history where a Sublime Ancestor gave battle to the Empire's enemies. Savage Seas is kinda remote so they don't get stuck in with court politics much. It consists of a dozen or so rocky little islands

Alabaster Sands - Very little is known of this northern inner province which borders the Savage Seas. The Jin rule it, though this is uncertain. All that is known otherwise is that the sands are spiritually active and strengthen metals to which they are added.

Heavenly Peaks - The central mountainous province of the empire around which all other lands extend, home of the Imperial Seat, and the Mount Tai Spirit Stone mines. These mines provide one of the foundation pillars for the Mu Dynasty's control of the Empire as Emperor's and Empresses.

The Dragon Throne
The dragon throne incinerates false claimants. There's all sorts of stories of wicked and scheming nobles destroyed for daring to touch the throne, but most upper nobility are descended from the Sage Emperor by the time Forge of Destiny begins.

Because of this, the clan holding the imperial seat is chosen by who can hold it, and nothing else. The current, third, dynasty, the Mu, maintains their hold with their control of the supply of spirit stones through the great mines in Mount Tai.

One isn't nominated for the throne without being quite talented.

One of the known and hard limits of the Dragon Throne is that it won't accept anyone below indigo, flat out. It usually involves bloodshed. Allowing an obviously weak emperor is just asking for trouble.

Those who try to mess about with the throne have bad days.

Emperors are expected to eventually become White.

Clans
The Celestial Empire was first formed from disparate tribes, villages, and petty kingdoms by the actions of the Sage Emperor. Over time the different and conflicting power structures of these polities changed and stream-lined into the modern Noble Clan structure. Each clan posses a degree rank, territory, and power within the Empire's complex legal system. In general the degree of these privileges can be determined by the size of the clan and the strength of its cultivators, although exceptions to the rules do exist.

Founding Families
When the Empire was first founded, there were several families powerful and old enough to retain most of their independence, despite having joined the Celestial Empire in some manner. These families would go on to be the first Ducal Clans, and retain much of their prestige and veneration, even though several have died with the passing of time.

Still Extant Founders
Bai

Arguably the oldest of the Founding Families, the Bai clan are the rulers of the Thousand Lakes province, one of the three central territories that, in the modern day, have no foreign border. Descended from the Sublime Ancestor Grandmother Serpent, they are a cold and calculating family that measures time in centuries. There are dozens of branch families scattered throughout their territory, and regarded by most of the wider Empire as being inscrutable, isolationist, and untrustworthy.

Recent times have seen a downturn in their fortunes, and while they are still a powerful, mighty, and feared clan, they don't command the respect they once did. They are currently without an Eight Realm cultivator, have had to make several political concessions to the wider empire, and large parts of their territory has been abandoned by the vassal clans who originally steward them. Opportunistic clans scavenged what they could get away with from the fringes of the Bai, and subjected the great clan to a number of indignities. Most notably, one of their esteemed members was accused of assassinating an imperial prince and was executed for it, a punishment that the clan would normally have had the influence to avert, regardless of the individual's culpability.

This is not to say that the Bai are weak. They still number in the hundreds, possess a potent wealth of cultivators, resources, and artifacts. The implicit threat of waking Grandmother Serpent, a spirit so powerful that her dreams incite storms, kept off the worst scavengers. Now the clan is starting to recover, strengthening old ties and forming new ones, coming out of their isolationist ways and taking a more active interest in Empire politics. They are even close to once again achieving a White level cultivator. While many of the insults dealt to them have yet to be punished, many opportunists now worry about future reprisal.

Zheng

They are strict in following hospitality laws and are good at brewing alcohol. For some reason, they haven't allowed the building of Sects in Ebon Rivers. The uncapped stat of their purer members is strength. Their Ancestral Beast is a black furred ape.

They are a competitor with the Bai for the oldest family in the Empire, but most agree that the Bai are older.

Mu

They are a surviving branch clan of a founding family.

Xuan

When added to the empire their Ancestor was a prism level beast. They are the Dukes of the Savage Seas Province, a stormy archipelago set off the northern coast of the continent, and constantly beset by the Sea Folk Tribes. The clan themselves are closely related to xuan wu, serpent tortoises that typically favor earth and water elements, thanks to their Ancestor. They also seem to have a penchant for poeticism and formations.

Extinct Founders
Lu- Lu Guanxi was a hero who saved the empire from The Twilight King, a pretender to the imperial throne who used forbidden arts to craft abominations of his slain foes. The Gu family is a surviving branch house of the extinct Lu family. Their Ancestral Beast was a phoenix known as the Purifying Sun, she expended herself destroying the Twilight King who was a white along with his army, but in the process burned much of Golden Fields to ash. Phoenixes are also now extinct,

Weilu- They once ruled over Emerald Seas and were known as The Horned Lords of the South. They were the first of the founding families to fall. Their Ancestral Spirit was the Horned Lord, it is said that disgusted with his craven descendants he vanished into the depths of Emerald Seas. The Weilu were considered isolationist and arrogant by even the Bai.

The overwhelming pride and isolationist nature of the Weilu was well known, few were sad to see them fall.

They worshiped the Sun and Moon. Sixiang implied that they were less human than spirit.

They were succeeded by the Xi who were then succeeded by the Hui who were overthrown in turn by the Cai who currently rule Emerald Seas.