HUOHUThe Crimson Spear Jungle
On the eastern end of the Shijie Empire sits a land teeming with life. Hot, dense jungles choke the landscapes, with red-barked trees pushing ever higher to reach the sunlight. Beneath this canopy is a plethora of different plant and animal species, each one more brightly colored than the next. It's very hard to keep one's bearings, and even harder still to keep a careful watch for the predators that linger in the undergrowth.
The Huohu-ren who live in this wild and dangerous place have learned to become dangerous themselves. Theirs is a highly militaristic society, relying on the mutual ability to fight off all that would threaten them. Their antlers are far shorter than any of their imperial kin, short and curved backwards more like goat horns than actual antlers. This has helped them not get tangled in the many twisting, living vines of the jungle, many of which linger in wait for someone foolish enough to step in their snare.
The opposite of their southern cousins, the Huohu-ren have adapted to the jungle climate by becoming impervious to higher temperatures, able to withstand the worst heats the jungle can throw at them. This has made them far more susceptible to cold, and they will develop hypothermia rapidly at temperatures of 50 degrees or less without proper insulation. Travel to other climates, especially in the winter months, requires that the Huohu-ren utilize warming oils and multiple layers on their clothing to prevent freezing.
Providing the bulk of the imperial army, the Huohu-ren value glory, strength, and martial prowess. They keep their hair relatively short and often pulled back into tight buns to prevent it from getting in their face. Their clothing style is loose and unisex, with all genders sporting pleated, wide bottomed shorts that only pass their knees, with wide-necked short sleeve tunics and brightly colored sashes tied around their midsection. For personal decoration, the Huohu-ren favor strings of brightly colored beads, matching the vibrancy of the jungle life around them. These beads serve a dual purpose, as they also are used as meditation tools, allowing the Huohu-ren to calm their minds and ease their tempers, and for a very good reason.
Though capable and proud warriors, the fear that lurks in the back of each Huohu-ren's mind is the fear of becoming too bloodthirsty. Warmongers, those filled with so much rage and fury that they can't help but start conflict after conflict, are twisted by the magic of the land upon their (often bloody) deaths. The corpses reanimate, twisting into fearsome tigers with blood-red stripes and snarled, thorny antlers. These tigers roam the jungles, killing everything that moves - not for food or survival, but for the sheer thrill of it.
Pronunciation: hw'OH-hoo
Capital: Xialing (sh'YAH-ling)
Demonym: Huohu-ren
Kingdom Colors: Fuschia, orange and yellow
Huoyan
Sitting alone on an island separate from the main continent is the massive fortress-temple of Huoyan. Rather than being a singularly Huohu stronghold, Huoyan is instead the meetingplace for all four Provinces of the Shijie Empire. The main road connecting Huoyan to the mainland only goes so far onto the island itself, stopping at an impressive, impenetrable cliff-face. Instead, there are four tunnels that lead deeper into the cliffs and up to the fortress itself.
This tunnel is known as the Path of Mirrors. Only the leader of each land is permitted to enter the Path, and only their specific one as marked on the tunnel entrance. So, the King of Gushui would enter the path marked for Gushui, the High Judge the path for Songtu, the Lord General the path for Huohu, and the Emperor himself the path for Sheng-gu. Inside the Path is a semi-winding road lined with glassy, motionless pools of water, which reflect a person's past deeds and future aspirations. The unworthy are known to go mad in these tunnels, haunted by their own ambitions and former actions, while the worthy emerge out the end to a set of stairs that lead up to the fortress proper.
At the very top of this fortress is an open circle with a dome in the center. Each leader is considered equal in this space, and may approach the center to speak to their fellows, granting everyone the right to state their concerns as necessary. Bloodshed is expressly forbidden here, as any physical violence turns the holy site against those within it, and their path back out the tunnels becomes filled with monstrous, hungry eels.
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