The Book of Five Rings
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| Flag of The Book of Five Rings | |
| Motto: No Design. No Conception. | |
| click here to see map | |
| Region | Wysteria |
|---|---|
| Capital | The Way |
| Official Language(s) | Wysterian, Eigo |
| Leader | Sovereign Shogun Yamato Hagakure (大和 葉隱) |
| Population | see here |
| Currency | Niten Ichiryuu |
| NS Sunset XML | |
<OOC> Read the real-life Book of Five Rings here.
Note: in Five Rings tradition, people's surnames are invoked before given names.
Contents
Historical Overview
Thousands of years ago, a little known piece of land came to be populated by a mix of militaristic shogunate-like nation-states that maintained dynamic (and occasionally hostile) relations with each other. Eventually, conflicts for power catapulted the nation-states into the Warring States period, which ended when the forces of Miyazaki Ichi, a man of unknown origins (although he is believed to have come from the territorial proximities of the shogunate-nations) brought all of the nation-states under his rule at approximately 1,000 BCE (exact date unknown).
The land ruled by Miyazaki Ichi had since been known as the nation called The Book of Five Rings, frequently called Five Rings in shorthand <OOC> (it would've been more convenient to name it "Five Rings" instead but almost every variant of "Five Rings" or "Go Rin No Sho" was taken on the NationStates world! incredible!) </OOC> . The nation is named after the Book of Five Rings, a military treatise written by Miyazaki, and is widely studied for its historical value and relevance in modern times. It is required reading for as early as first year high school.
Administrative Divisions
The Book of Five Rings is divided into five provinces. Each province is then divided into six prefectures. Below the prefectures are the municipalities, i.e. towns, cities, etc. The following are the overall summaries of the provinces, their respective prefectures, and some of the major cities in the country:
Government
The Sovereign Shogun acts as the head of state and head of government. Each province is then governed by a Premier Shogun, and each prefecture by a Governor Shogun. Each Shogun responds to a popularly elected bicameral legislature, consisting of a (Federal / Provincial / Prefectural) House of Councilors and a (Federal / Provincial / Prefectural) House of Magistrates, as well as a popularly elected (Federal / Provincial / Prefectural) Supreme Court. Each legislature holds elections every five years.
In the past, the Premier and Governor Shoguns were appointed by the Sovereign Shogun, and there were no legislatures or courts for any level of government in the country. Today, the Premier and Governor Shoguns are elected by their corresponding legislatures. Each Provincial or Prefectural House of Councilors can use a simple majority to nominate a candidate for Premier or Governor Shogun, and each corresponding House of Magistrates can use a simple majority to accept or veto said nominations. Premier and Governor Shoguns do not have to be sitting members of either chamber of their corresponding legislatures, and this is a concern for some people. The size and constituency placements of each House of Councilors depend on the population size and movements of their respective jurisdictions, while the same are fixed for each House of Magistrates.
Each province has its own capital city, but prefectures do not have their own capitals. Rather, prefectural affairs are convened in their corresponding provincial capital cities. Each Supreme Court consists of nine judges. Each legislature holds some checks and balances against their corresponding Shogun, although Sovereign Shoguns traditionally enjoy more freedom from the federal legislature than their provincial / prefectural counterparts.
The Sovereign Shogun, however, is not elected. Every five years, the Sovereign Shogun Trials (SST) will be held in one of the areas of the Fire Province under the highest level of security (in the past, SSTs were only held when a Sovereign Shogun voluntarily vacated his or her position, which could take place in several ways, or died while in office). All who have been approved by the office of their local municipality is eligible to participate. Historically, acquiring such approvals was not considered to be difficult. The contest consists of two events: the Trial of Wits and the Trial of Arms. Each contestant's performance is graded by a panel of judges whose identities have never been made available for the highly speculative public. The one contestant with the best scores will come out as the next Sovereign Shogun. The SST of any given year is never the same as the previous one.
Other contestants who survived the contest usually have many stories to tell: humorous failures, gruesome deaths, emotional moments, etc. If a Sovereign Shogun decides to write about his or her ordeals in the SST, the resultant publication usually becomes a national bestseller for some time. The current Sovereign Shogun, Yamato Hagakure, has currently decided against writing about his particular SST. Although, in retrospect, Five Ringers have not always considered all the Sovereign Shoguns to be equally competent, every Sovereign Shogun commanded tremendous prestige in the nation in their times. In the more recent eras, it has become a long-running tradition for civilians to push for a more democratically transparent system for the Sovereign Shogun or joke about turning the SST into a reality TV program. Neither of these initiatives are considered to have any chance of happening.
The Sovereign Shogun also has access to communication with the Five Rings Intelligence Service (FRIS).
Five Rings Intelligence Service (FRIS)
The FRIS, or more commonly known as the "ninjas", is the government body responsible for everything that requires intelligence gathering, and many jurisdictions having to do with it. They have no known headquarters or any known physical establishments. Currently, there are exactly three ways to contact them:
1. Through the office of the Sovereign Shogun.
2. By becoming a Sovereign Shogun.
3. By having one or more ninjas approach you.
In the entire history of The Book of Five Rings, the ninjas were never known to have approached any outsider on their own. Traditionally, only close associates of the Sovereign Shogun can use the office of the Sovereign Shogun to contact the ninjas.
Economic Landscape
Although provincial and prefectural government budgets tend to vary, the federal government has openly stated, on several occasions, that it will strive to keep approximately (if not exactly) 5% of the budget on environmental spending <OOC> because, you can't have a good quasi-samurai country without some clean and untamed wilderness to have a deathmatch in, amirite?! hur hur hur </OOC>. Aside from that, the government has stated that it wants to keep the defense budget as large as possible. The government has also announced, on several occasions, that it does not intend to compete for high rankings in the economic reports of the United Nations.
The government also intends to foster an intelligent population. The official government strategy towards this end is to boost education spending whenever possible, and also encourage the growth of high-tech jobs. Among other things, the government routinely experiments with artificial intelligence systems to deal with cyber-crimes, mass manufactures special drugs to deal with outbreaks of diseases, launches waste into space to subsidize high-tech aerospace industries, and supplies disproportionate amounts of money to the development of high-tech systems and weapons for the military.
Even though the government is interested in maintaining an intelligent population, The Book of Five Rings regularly appears on the bottom part of the list when it comes to such UN (United Nations) rankings as the size of a nation's health care sector or welfare program, or a nation's income equality. It appears that the government is not interested in improving their poor records in this area.
The government has also announced, on several occasions, that it does not intend to compete for UN economic rankings.
The government uses NSTracker data for its official budgetary publications.
Currency
The currency of The Book of Five Rings is the Niten Ichiryuu, named after Miyazaki Ichi's personal style of melee combat. During the ancient and medieval eras, its physical representation was essentially a shuriken-like medallion made of gold or silver, depicting a cross formed by a katana and a wakizashi, which was how Miyazaki Ichi fought in melee: a blade in each hand. These medallions were frequently sharpened to be used as covert throwing stars or otherwise cause accidental injuries. Now the same katana-and-wakizashi symbol is featured on copper coins or paper money to serve as legal tender. Occasionally, the Five Rings Central Bank (FRCB), the top government agency that administers monetary policy, still mints the medallions in their original form with various types of metals (precious or common) to celebrate the cultural heritage of the nation. The medallions minted by the FRCB also have legal tender powers. But they are more often found in luxurious display cases than cash registers.
The FRCB uses Retrograde for the official exchange rate data of the Niten Ichiryuu.
Languages
Currently, the official languages in The Book of Five Rings are Wysterian and Eigo, the predominant indigenous language of The Book of Five Rings. There are several dialectic variants of Eigo in different regions of The Book of Five Rings. Eigo had undergone numerous transformations over the ages, much like how English was inherited from Old English and Middle English. Although Eigo may seem similar to Japanese, they are not entirely the same. <OOC> this is to subtly say that i'm not entirely literate in Japanese. so if you are, please don't take me to task for it in an RP or something. thank you! hur hur hur. </OOC>
The country receives a small amount of immigrants every now and then, so other languages may be spoken.
Capital City
The capital city of The Book of Five Rings was originally called Murayama, but after renaming the national animal, the government decided to rename the capital city with the original name of the national animal: The Way. The name is simply to invoke the aspiration for the city and the country itself to become a path to knowledge and power, which was much of what the original Book of Five Rings was written for. The government believes it is more appropriate for the name of the capital city as opposed to the name of the national animal to reflect these ideas. Legislative matters and many governmental affairs are convened here. Sovereign Shoguns tend to not frequently make themselves available for the public.
National Animal
The national animal of the Book of Five Rings is the Red Leaf. It is a bird whose size, shape, feathers, and way of gliding in the air while flying make it resemble a drifting reddened leaf in the autumn season. Miyazaki Ichi, an ancient swordsman at the time, was believed to have developed a striking technique with the sword to disarm his opponents of their melee weapons based on his studies of this bird. This technique was named the Red Leaf Cut in honor of the bird. It was originally named The Way, but the government later decided to use the more descriptive name, Red Leaf.
Since its modernization, The Book of Five Rings has lifted the government ban on eating Red Leafs. Eating them, although not unknown, is still considered bad form by most, however.
