Empire of the Setting Moon

Map of Kojima after the Great Kojiman War.

The Empire of the Setting Moon was a civilization in Dimension T-2022. Not much is known about their ancient history, but its involvement in the colonization of Orwald and the collapse of T-2022 is relatively well documented.

## History

### Scramble for Orwald

Located on a chain of islands in Kojima, the Empire of the Setting Moon is characterized by a militaristic society heavily dependent on notions of honor and harmony. Feared for its Masourai knights, the Empire of the Setting Moon was able to control a large section of the western coast of Orwald during the Scramble for Orwald. The Empire of the Setting Moon was the first nation to discover Orwald, arriving with a small exploration party in 1392 at Cape Callous on the western part of the continent. Establishing a small settlement, the colonization of Orwald had begun. However, with the arrival of the Kojimans, new diseases also arrived. Most devastating was the arrival of what we know today as the virus Z-5, or more commonly called the zombie plague. The zombie plague wreaked havoc among the natives of Orwald, reducing the population to a 10th of pre-colonial numbers.

The Empire's main colonies were situated around the Campian Basin, but extended all the way into mainland Orwald, into the areas formerly occupied by the Perian Empire, and into the Noctian Lowlands to the north. Under the Empire of the Setting Moon, a strong local aristocracy was put in place to both appease the locals and increase the Empire's hold on them.

Around 1750, the industrial revolution erupted in the Empire of the Setting Moon and soon spread across Kojima and parts of Orwald. New tools allowed people to dig deeper than ever before. As a result, many new mining towns, characterized by the typical water towers, sprung up across Orwald. Gold, diamond and emerald rushes gave rise to a large wave of immigration from Kojima, further solidifying the local presence of the colonizers. However, bad working conditions in combination with almost absent political rights for colonists gave rise to discontent in the colonies.

### Great Kojiman War

In 1831, the Great Kojiman War broke out between the Empire and the Dailing Dynasty. The war itself began after a border incident between soldiers from the Empire of the Setting Moon and the Dailing Dynasty. Pretty early on in the conflict, it became clear that the war was devolving into a stalemate. The industrial capacity of both nations allowed them to sustain a prolonged conflict and war enthousiasm led to an increase in military volunteers to send to the front. In addition, every 8 years, the war would essentially be put on hold during the 2 year period of Winter. This further allowed both nations to recover while the front was literally frozen. However, the loss of the Orwald colonies and eventual war exhaustion in both nations led to several breakthroughs in the 1840s. Most of these breakthroughs benefitted the Empire of the Setting Moon and by 1850, they had advanced as far as the capital of the Dailing Dynasty. As the Dailing capital was besieged by the Imperial General Tamoto and his forces, the Dailing royal family refused to surrender as important buildings such as the library containing thousands of sacred texts went up in flames. Eventually, the monarch decided to give up the capital and use the remaining Dailing forces to evacuate the city's elite. Using a ship containing an experimental steam engine, the royal family managed to escape. However, a storm threw them off course and an outbreak of the zombification virus killed everyone on board. The fall of the Dailing Dynasty ended the war in favor of the Empire of the Setting Moon.

The Great Kojiman War had far-reaching ramifications for Orwald and led to the independence of multiple nations. Unrest had already been present before the war, as the result of economic malaise, the lack of political representation and abhorrent working conditions. As soon as the conflict broke out in Kojima in 1831, the Republic of Balenj and the Kingdom of Duyn declared their independence and began a war of independence against the Empire of the Setting Moon. They were aided in their efforts by the Kingdom of Corellia, which provided both with the necessary resources to wage war against the Empire. Meanwhile, the Crimson Dynasty had also declared its independence from the Dailing Dynasty, but had done so with permission from the Dailings. They hoped to avoid an invasion by the Empire by declaring independence and neutrality, while continuing to provide the Dailing Dynasty with resources from Orwald. The last colony to declare its independence was the Principality of Inner Peria, who did so only after it became apparent that Duyn and Balenj were winning the fight for independence.

In the aftermath of the Great Kojiman War, the Dailing Dynasty was replaced by a puppet regime of the Empire of the Setting Moon, known as the Dailing Autonomous Government. This government quickly drew out resistance, partly funded by the Crimson Dynasty. This resistance became a full on rebellion by the end of 1850 and led to a civil war and military coup which brought General Pyuying to power. Using his new position, Pyuying renegotiated the peace treaty with the Empire. In return for giving up the border province of Taimin, the Empire would recognize the new government and would retreat its troops from Dailing. The DAG was essentially disbanded and transformed into the Dailing Junta. Despite all its efforts, the Crimson Dynasty was unable to enforce its claims upon the Dailing throne.

### Post-War conflict with Orwald

After the Great Kojiman War, the nations of Orwald rapidly developped and began to compete with the nations of Kojima. Industrial espionage in particular became a favored tactic of the Orwald nations to catch up to Kojima's technological headstart. Multiple nations conducted secret missions into the Empire to obtain steam engines in order to reverse engineer them and kickstart an industrial revolution at home. The first to do so was the Kingdom of Corellia, who in 1850 employed a foreign spy to smuggle a working steam engine out of the Empire. However, this spy was detected and was ably to only deliver a partial steam engine to Corellia. As a result, relations between Corellia and the Empire soured.

In 1851, the Golden Archipelago conducted a similar operation, relying on the services of the secret organization known as Levin of Valhir, which sent an operative to Edoma, a large provincial city in the Empire where industrialization had only just begun. Archipelagan intel decyphered that security was weak in Edoma and stealing a steam engine undetected would be much easier here. Characterized by its long history of textile industry, the city’s wealthy business owners had begun the process of replacing old weaving machines operated by manpower with new machines powered by steam. After doing a quick recon tour of the city’s industrial district, the spy found two potential targets:

1. The first one was an abandoned factory owned by a local industrialist who has gone bankrupt. His machinery was stuck in the factory, waiting to be confiscated by the local authorities. The spy could easily pose as the local authorities and make it out of the city with a steam engine before they found out he was an impostor.
2. The second one was a little bit riskier; a depot used for storing brand new steam engines. The engines might be brand new, but getting one out without being detected would be a difficult job.

Choosing to hit the depot, the spy prepared to execute his plan. He rigorously documented the routine of workers going in and out. He watched closely as a man in a green uniform ordered men in a blue uniform to load one of the steam engines onto a horse-driven cart. He made careful note of every little detail in the routine, but also in their outfits. At night, the spy broke into one of the houses in the worker village nearby and acquired a green uniform. He stashed his stuff in a nearby abandoned house. The next day, he rode into the complex on a cart driven by two horses. He went to one of the depots and found some men in blue uniforms waiting for him. He gave them the same orders and they complied. None of them seemed suspicious of him as they loaded a brand new steam engine on the spy’s cart. As the steam engine was being tied into place, the spy saw another cart approaching. The cart was driven by a man in green uniform and was heading his way. The spy was worried that he had taken the approaching man’s spot. The spy waited until the workers finished their job of tying the steam engine safely onto your cart. However, they took a while and were not done before another driver came up to the same spot to pick up a steam engine. The driver on the other cart, a man wearing the same green uniform as the spy was wearing, albeit a more worn out version, took a close look at the spy. “Hey I don’t recognize you!”, the other driver shouted. “I’m new here”, the spy said back. “Yeah I didn’t think so,” the other driver replied, “that’s my uniform you’re wearing! You didn’t even bother replacing the nametag.” “Shit”, the spy mumbled to himself before shouting: “Full steam ahead”, kicking his horses into action. “Stop that thief!”, the driver shouted. In the chase that followed, the cart rocked to all sides. The decision to wait until the workers tied the steam engine safely to the cart turned out to be vitally important to keep the engine in one piece. However, it came at the cost of being discovered. Relations between the Empire and the Archipelago visibly soured as a result.

Later that year, Corellia funded another spy mission into the Empire of the Setting Moon, this time to the annexed Dailing territories and employing a Dailing spy. Formerly known as Taimin, the Imperial Dailing Territories were ceded to the Empire after a military coup in the Dailing Autonomous Government. As soon as the Empire took over these lands, they started importing their industrial machines to replace the outdated production centers. Taimin is a province rich in coal and iron ore, so the best bet to find a complete steam engine would be a mine where they are used to pump groundwater out of caves. The spy decided to steal the parts from a less guarded workshop. The workshop is located within a walled-off part of the city. But once in the walled-off part, the spy will have almost free range. He has drawn up a plan to get the parts from the workshop. On the fateful day the spy disguised himself as a worker and entered the walled off district on a transport cart, hidden among the other workers. By keeping a low profile, the spy was able to make it into the workshop and get away with some parts. The spy decided to take the easiest route and entered the sewer system. The water was waste-high and the spy had to do his best to not lose any machine parts while wading and swimming through the water/human waste. Near the edge of the walled off district, the spy entered a large intersection where all the sewers from the district combined to link up with the rest of the city’s sewers. The spy was close now, but he suddenly saw a ray of light pointed at him as the spy ends up on the wrong end of a Guardian's laser beam. The water was muddy and the spy had trouble finding the Guardian. Again, a ray appears from the corner of the intersection. Starting out purple, fading to yellow, the spy was hit again, this time he dropped some of the parts into the water. The spy quickly swam towards the exit, trying to use some pillars to break the Guardian’s line of vision. He made it out, but he lost some parts along the way. Once he returned to the safety of his home country, the Dailing spy shipped the remaining parts to Orwald. The Kingdom of Corellia consequently was able to reverse engineer a steam engine and the Dailing rebels in occupied Taimin could begin preparing their uprising.

Elsewhere in the Empire of the Setting Moon, unrest also began to grow. Industrialization had many effects, good and bad. Increased production allowed industrial societies to expand and trade more, but the working classes do not reap the benefits of this new society as much as the wealthy factory owners. Oba Kobo, an exiled activist from the Empire of the Setting Moon, published a new book titled The Worker’s Manifesto. In the book, he describes the deplorable situation of the workers in the industrial cities of Kojima. Kobo calls capitalism thievery of the workers’ labor by wealthy capitalists. He calls for a workers revolution to overthrow capitalism and to install a new regime, led by the workers themselves. He paints a picture of this new regime, which would see to an equal distribution of resources among all its people to end class struggle. Kobo’s book quickly gained traction in intellectual leftist circles across Kojima to the point where his book spawned ‘Koboist’ parties in several different countries, including in the Empire of the Setting Moon.

In 1852, the Kingdom of Duyn, a former colony of the Empire, was the latest in line to conduct industrial espionage against the Empire to obtain a working steam engine. The Duyn Parliament voted to send a professional spy to the Empire of the Setting Moon to retrieve a steam engine. Once the spy arrived in Kojima, he immediately began working on a plan. An important oligarch was moving some steam engines by train to a new factory being constructed near the border with the Dailing Junta, in Imperial Dailing occupied territory. The spy planned to hijack the train and divert it into the Dailing Junta. The spy made a deal with the Dailing authorities across the border to ensure the train could safely cross into the Dailing Junta without being shot at. As part of the deal, all but one steam engine would be handed over to the Junta. On the day of the train heist, the spy was putting the final pieces of his plan into motion. Since he didn't have the support of the local Dailing rebels, he would be unable to capture the train using overwhelming numbers. Instead, the spy would have to divert the train towards the border and hijack it on his own. To do this, he set up explosives at a point where the track diverges into two. One way goes to the border, the other to the new factory being constructed. As soon as the train was in sight, the spy blew up the track towards the factory, forcing the train on the track towards the border. Now the hardest part of the mission came: hijacking the train. With no backup the spy had a difficult task ahead of him. Luckily, he received some information about the composition of the train. The train was pulled by a steam engine, followed by a coal cart. After that, there were 3 carts each with a steam engine on them. Then there was a mobile barracks cart, where the train’s defenses were located, followed by another three carts carrying steam engines. The spy decided not to decouple any carts and put all his eggs into one basket. He got on his horse and approached the train. Further up ahead, he could see some guards coming out of the barracks cart. They had not noticed him yet. He stood up on his horse, ready to jump onto the train. One wrong step and the entire mission could end right there. He jumped and slipped. His horse panicked and disappeared underneath the train. Absolute horror ensued. The guards were alerted to the awful noises coming from the back of the train. The spy, who was dangling on the side of one of the train carts in the back, was completely covered in horse blood. He had to improvise and change his plans now. The biggest obstacle between him and his end goal was the barracks cart located in the middle of the train. Guards were already making their way towards him. As the guards approached him, the spy pretended he’s one of them and explained what happened at the explosion site. Although some of them were suspicious of him, they didn’t hesitate to take him to the barracks cart to check for injuries. As soon as they had turned their backs on him, the spy made a run for it and got in between the barracks cart and the front of the train. He decoupled it and watched as the angry guards got further and further away from him. Without hesitation, he went to the engine room at the front and threw out the surprised conductor. After a while, the border with the Junta was in sight. He flashed the signal and was welcomed by his allies. As part of the deal, the spy gave two steam engines to the Dailing Junta and shipped the third one to Duynburg. However, the Empire of the Setting Moon was alerted of his actions and relations with the Kingdom of Duyn soured dramatically.

### Kojiman sabotage of the Device

During the Winter of Discontent of 1856-1858, the Council of Aristocrats of Inner Peria became disillusioned with the Principe. His plans to construct a floating city on Lake Peria, ambitious as they may have been, distracted too much from the issues of Inner Peria's already existing towns and cities. In addition, by allowing Duyn and Corellia to construct a railroad through Inner Peria, the Principe had bowed down to international pressure. Conservative members of the Council of Aristocrats feared that Inner Peria was slowly fading away in importance under the leadership of Principe Tom. As a result, they funded spies from the Empire of the Setting Moon to sabotage the efforts of Duyn and Corellia to find Professor Prevost in the End Dimension by tampering with the Device. This eventually caused the collapse of Dimension T-2022 and the transportation of Orwald to Dimension S-2012.