Hundred Years of Blood

The Hundred Years of Blood refers to a series of mainly military but also political and socio-cultural conflicts taking place in Zajiang from the late 63rd to the early 65th century. Traditionally, the Hundred Years, as ithey are commonly referred to, have been viewed as a historical era which saw the rise of clear establishment of Zajiang's identity as a unique political and cultural region within the Kensalan world. However, many modern-day scholars also consider Zajiang to have been a direct result overall Kensalan struggle between traditionalism and modernism, which in Zajiang was expressed through the conflict between and within the Daikyotei and Dele classes.

Following the decline and political destabalization of Cedarin during the First Age of Rebellion and the Age of Interlude, the development of a native form of Aidisese-style liberalism, as well as the rise of the affluent and powerful Dele class, many in Zajiang were calling for an independent state along Aidisese lines by the early 63rd century. While the first attempts at revolt were crushed in the mid 6200s, continuing discontent, political chaos in the core of Cedarin, along with Tianmei's liberal reforms, led to an outbreak of conflict between the Dele and liberal Daikyotei against the conservative Daikyotei in 6309, which is the official starting date of the Hundred Years.

The Hundred Years is typically divided into three phases or eras. Traditionally, these were interpreted as three phases separated by tenuous truces between the warring factions: the Zajiangese War of Independence (6288 - 6345), when Zajiang gained its independence proper; the Zajiangese Civil War (6367 - 6380), when the liberal Zajiangese Daikyotei attempted a revolution against the Dele; and the Second Zajiangese War of Independence (6383 - 6430), also known as the Cedarin-Zajiang Wars proper, which was a multi-conflict war initiated by Cedarinian attempts to take advantage of political instability in Zajiang. In more recent historiogrpahy, historians have instead divided the Hundred Years into three eras based not on sharply defined conflicts but on general trends. As such, the Hundred Years is divided into three stages: the Early Stage (6258 - 6339), where Zajiang attempted to assert its sovereignity and political, economic, and cultural position on the world stage as a result of instability within Cedarin and the wars of Tianmei; the Middle Stage (6339 - 6392), where Zajiang, led by the liberal heirs of Tianmei, attempted to organize itself in the aftermath of independence; and the Late Stage (6392 - 6458), where Zajiang reasserted its independence and proved itself as a rising regional power.

The "war" owes its historical significance to a number of factors. Politically, although primarily and originally a local variation of Cedarinian political anarchy that manifested as a conflict between rival social groups, the war was one of the global turning points from the Age of Dawn to the Age of Manifest; it firmly proved the political unachievability of the Pan-Kensalan union and identity that was promoted by the neo-Cedarinian Empire, guaranteeing the political and cultural autonomy and/or independence of other Kensalan ethnicities such as the Genaisese and the Tercusese. Economically, the war - one of the first to rely on solar based energy sources - saw a massive growth in industry unprecedented since the Age of Industrialization; international involvement also saw the re-establishment of several key maritime trade routes, as well as the first aerial trade routes. Militarily, the war is considered the first true Total War of the modern era, as it relied on combined arms tactics and large-scale guerilla warfare; military technology saw the development of the first post-coal war machines, as well as massive strides in firearms technology, where, by the end stages of the Hundred Years, gun-resistant armor was providing increasingly obsolete in the face of better firearms. Finally, the war is seen as the consummate conflict between Kensalan and Aidisic forces, an antagonism of which had been ongoing since the mid-5th millennium.

The Eastern Frontier
The background to the Hundred Years of Blood can be found a millennia and a half previously during the middle and late stages of the Great Wars, the early years of the Daikyotei. Originally the Daikyotei were founded as a religious order, due to the chaotic nature of the eastern front (including parts of Greater Zajiang), their eastern branch took increasingly secular roles as political administrators, order-keepers, and de facto social elites, supplanting the Cedarinian gentry whose numbers had sharply declined in the wake of invasions by the Aidisese and their allies. While the ideology of the eastern Daikyotei were undoubtedly shrouded and expressed through a Kanzoist worldview, it was decidedly less orthodox and absolutist than their Western brethren. In the final stages of the war, as well as the subsequent breakup of the Cedarinian Empire, these Daikyotei sufficed as military administrators for the imperial government(s), a position made official once they were given official titles by the government and the usual formalities of the civil service examination system was overlooked. This overlooking, in fact, served as one of the first instances of a separation between Zajiangese and Cedarinian culture.

Regardless, while the gentry were able to regain their power in many parts of the former eastern front during the Ages of Diplomacy and Industrialism, the frontier status of Zajiang allowed the semi-militarized ex-warrior class of Daikyotei to retain power. For the next few centuries, it served as a sort of Kensalan political and military buffer and cultural border between their Podulan colonies, as well as Podula itself, as well as Trolic regimes of Keintapa and Elisuvest. This unpredictable and chaotic region demanded a responsive, militaristic administration, which the usual argument-prone and multifarious bureaucracy could not produce: the Daikyotei, in contrast, were (nominally) bound by (erroneously labeled) codes of chivalry that, in fact, were guidelines to social and political behavior much stricter - or perceived to be much stricter - than in typical Kensalan culture.

This difference (or perceived difference) between the eastern Daikyotei and contemporary mainstream Kensalan culture served as the first step in creating a unique Zajiangese identity. As the Daikyotei became less and less militarized, their culture established itself as different - yet still part of - Cedarin. They were a close-knit class, divided into a small number of clans purportedly descended from the most famous of the Daikyotei soldiers in the Great Wars, and in this they distinguished themselves also from the local populace, who were made up of native Kensalans, Keintapans, and Podulans; they saw themselves as superior to these groups. As such, there was little intermarriage between the Daikyotei and the natives, whom the Daikyotei perceived as not part of the Kensalan cultural sphere - even though many of these natives had, at the least partial. Kensalan ancestry. The natives, in return, saw the Daikyotei as the embodiment of arrogant elitism displayed by the corrupt sections of the imperial bureaucracy. These attitude remained intact well past the Age of Industrialism and only dissapated with the crises of the First Age of Rebellion, when the natives and Daikyotei saw each other relatively more favorably in comparison to the pure-blooded Trolic and Podulan states. Even then, hostility remained in some subdivisions of both groups, hostility of which would play a key catalyst in the Hundred Years.

Calm Before the Storm
The Daikyotei remained as the main social and political of elites in Zajiang well past the Age of Diplomacy and the early years of the Age of Industrialism; the uncertain nature of the eastern frontier ensured their survival. However, a century or two into the Age of Industrialism, the rebirth of Pan-Kensalan ideals led to the reorganization of Cedarin into the imperialistic state it was a millennia previous. New conquests and annexations were conducted by the regimes. The new imperialistic impulse of Cedarin reduced the relevance of the Daikyotei class; there was no longer a frontier to expand, and thus no need for a draconian style of rule.

The new imperialism also led to the establishment of the Dele class in Zajiang who settled in the area after the War of the Northern Mountains. They presented the first true societal and political challenge to the Daikyotei. Most of the Dele were middle or upper-middle class clans with various backgrounds: merchants, intellectual gentry, military elites, financially stable artisans and craftsmen, landowners, and lower ranking nobles. As such, they were of a much more cosmopolitan origin than the Daikyotei. Because of this, the Dele easily intermarried into the local natives within a few generations, leading to the development of a wholly unique class and sub-ethnic group in eastern Kensalus. However, the power of the Dele could not become absolute, even as they gained economic and cultural force, due to the long-standing power of the Daikyotei. Even as they declined, the Daikyotei still held onto effective power, having held it for so long. Several Dele insurrections against perceived Daikyotei tyranny were quickly crushed, with support from the imperial government.

The first ruptures in this system occurred with Genais' permanent break-off from Cedarin and its attempt at becoming the new leader of the Kensalan region during the War of the Two Emperors. While Genais' independence served as the first de jure instance of a successful revolution within Kensalus, it was not a cultural and social revolution like that of Zajiang's Hundred Years. In Genais, the gentry and, to a lesser extent, the Yuhanese Daikyotei still wielded much power, and would continue to do so well into the Age of Manifest. Still, Genais' example served to destablize what regions the new Cedarinian Empire kept; the then An Dynasty, and elites in other regions had not expected such a major and successful rebellion. A number of Dele saw Genais' example as an opportunity to rebel against the Daikyotei, whom they associated with the Imperial government; some Daikyotei, likewise, saw the revolution as an indicator that it was their time to break free of imperial rule. The Zajiangese Daikyotei ancestry of the An, however, played a key role in ensuring that the still-ruling Daikyotei of Zajiang would not rebel initially. The de facto Confederation that Cedarin had evolved into encouraged seccession, yet it also discouraged it at the same time.

However, in 6103, the An Dynasty collapsed with a successful Genaisese capture of Kubai, ending the War of the Two Emperors. Although the Genaisese were ousted by several An loyalists a decade later, the generals leading the attack fought amongst themselves and split into two camps, the Hegemonists (who wished to centralize Kensalan rule and reinstate an imperial state) and the Reformists (who wished to adopt a more decentralized Aidisese-styled state). The resulting civil war, known as the War of the An Succession (6115 - 6155), completely destablized Cedarin including Zajiang, as the Daikyotei split into two camps - one camp, led by the Josho clan and having some Dele support, supported the Reformists; the other camp, more numerous in number and led by the Neshon clan, supported the Hegemonists. Zajiang served as a key battleground between Reformists and Hegemonists, and while the partial Dele support for the Josho allowed them something of an economic advantage, their land territory was separate from Reformists's main base in southern Kensalus, rendering such advantage useless, especially considering the power of Hegemonist's navy. This, along with constant infighting within the Josho faction and their Dele supporters, paved the way for Hegemonist victory in Zajiang by 6152 and throughout Cedarin by 6155. Because of the decentralization of Reformist organization, the Reformists had, in fact, more or less been on the losing end of the conflict by the 6130s, and only their resistance in Zajiang ensured their survival. In fact, the conflict was all but assumed to be within Hegemonist hands, and they assumed de facto control over Cedarin's international relations.

All in all, however, the War of the An Succession served to define the divide in Zajiangese society between the more conservative, Kensalan and Keintapan aligned Daikyotei clans, and the more liberal, Aidisese aligned Daikyotei clans and their Dele allies.

The Dele-Daikyotei Dichotomy (Or Lack Thereof)
The Hegemonists ushered one of their own, Mu Zonkai, as Emperor Jinli I. The Huozhu Dynasty claimed a victory over the Genaisese invaders in the Century War in 6165 and the reunification of Cedarin. However, in reality the victory was a stalemate. For instance, the last major battle of the war, at the Battle of Xiangchi, was essentially a pyrrhic victory for the Houzhu and a successful retreat on part of the Genaisese. The Century War was an overextension of Genaisese resources and ability, and overall it weakened Kensalus, greatly damaging the economy, leading to millions of civilian deaths, and ruining the agriculture and infrastructure of much of the region. Nevertheless, the choice of Jinli as Emperor made sense; a moderate Hegemonist, he was known as a sensible pragmatist and mediator who could hold Cedarin together. Unfortunately, although an intelligent and capable leader militarily and administratively, he was not as charismatic, or, at the least, he was unable to restrain the more conservative elements of his court.