Khitai

Khitai is the largest and mightiest nation of Jambu, made up of four provinces: Okok, Pan P'o, Hwang and Okamchak. Legend says the land, once called the Land of the Yellow Earth, was all jungle ruled by great monsters until heroic early kings drove them out and made it holy. The present emperor descends directly from them and is regarded as a demigod. Conquered by Atlantis in the First Age, Khitai won back its freedom soon after the Great Cataclysm and blended Atlantean learning with its own lore to rebuild. Still largely agricultural, it now equals any western land in arts and sciences.

Below the emperor come the hereditary Mandarins, open only rarely to exceptional warriors or scholars. Warriors rank next in theory, though only great generals and heroes truly earn that honor, and the Scholars, mostly alchemists, astrologers and sorcerers, are sometimes respected more. Then come the Bonzes, holy men free of state control, some of them rich enough to build lavish temples, and the merchants, wealthy from the spice trade and kept few by heavy taxes, yet the least esteemed. Laborers and peasants are over 80 percent of the people; mostly poor, they are kept loyal with low taxes, land ownership and firmly protected rights.

Justice is fair but harsh: the accused are held without abuse and tried by officials who give every chance to prove innocence, and the wrongly accused may be compensated. Most offenses earn bamboo beatings, thieves wear a heavy wooden yoke, murderers are strangled or beheaded, and crimes against the emperor bring kiao, a lingering death by flaying and slow dismemberment. The navy guards the coasts well but is doubtful on the open sea, and the army is the world's largest, its officers and elite troops wearing frightening masks. Khitans are short and sallow with long, elaborately styled hair; the rich wear silk, others light cotton.