OOC: For some reason, when ever I see the word Darkening I think of a fish...
Heaven Speaks
As the stately procession marched past, the rows of mourners in white joined the entourage and followed the procession. Thousands upon thousands followed the body of Emperor Han to his cremation. An ornate ceremony in all respects, for a great Emperor, whom in fifty years of reign had brought great prosperity to Guangfei. Guangfei had expanded greatly during his reign in all directions of peaceful conquest, assimilation. The power of her culture was simply, too great to resist. The temptations of a better life, a prosperous and long life was something that few people could ever refuse for their children.
Of course, in any group you have your radicals. People who value their independence in name so much, that even though they spoke like us, did business like us, prayed like us, farmed like us and are essentially us they still refuse to be assimilated. To deal with such nations and people, their government structure must be ruined, their stability destroyed. Their livelihood must become so terrible that they will throw off the shackles of any independence to embrace the greatness of our nation.
A bit cold blooded of course, but politics and statesmanship usually involved a lot of dirty hands. The honorable Emperor Han, a forthright and righteous man to all eyes had more fingers in the pot of intrigue then many could ever believe. That shrewd man, had been the cause for the instability of Shangei for the long period of instability. Though to the uniformed, this manliest of man as he appeared on the outside, reveling in wine, women and sports, his wife, the conniving Empress Si had been behind all the intrigues.
Of course, not that the said Emperor was the Dowager Empress people had decided discretion was the best policy. The new Emperor, Emperor Xian, former Prince Liu An, was relatively inexperienced in the management of the Empire despite his long career in administrating new peoples which had petitioned the Dragon Throne to become part of Guangfei.
Though by now stability was guaranteed as no one wanted a civil war of course, civil wars were terrible things. It probably is a good thing to dislike the Crown Prince because his political views are different, but to actively plot with another Prince against him? Unspeakable! And bring an end to the century long peace? Everyone loved peace, even though there was a small fraction of officials who called for war with Shangei to Bring all under Heaven, under Heaven.
Of course, there was the matter of the small city state to the west of the greatness of Guangfei, a small blot on the horizon that was completely assimilated only holding out for unknown reasons. Of course, pretty much no one cared. People never complain or congratulate the government when things are going well though theyre the first to point fingers when things go bad. Of course, the fact that everyone was obsessed with the new sushi thing could be another reason. The idea of raising fish in the irrigation ditches was a great success and peasants now had access to a greater variety of diet then they had ever before.
And the fact that the reading of the stars was highly popular among all people giving them great joy in hypothetically seeing the future. Palm readers had also become popular, being able to see ones future by reading the lines upon the palm as well as feeling the hand. A smooth soft hand symbolizes a soft and comfortable life while a hard muscular hand symbolizes a hard life with much work.
Lines on the palm also determined ones life span as well as fortunes in life. Heaven was prone to whimsy
Beautiful women are so dangerous indeed 
Terrible that thlayli was defeated, but I suppose you can blame everything on people that have to go find a scrapegoat...
(That's not really funni...)
