Exalted: The Flaming Scarab Daimyos

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The Shogunate
During the reign of the Shogunate influential, wealthy or otherwise powerful families would be installed as the Daimyo of areas in need of more direct control. Typically these wold be the hot-zones of the ongoing war against the remaining Anathema after the Usurpation, as well as other threats to the stability of the region whether mundane or supernatural.

The Local Daimyo
At some point around 500 years before the founding of the Realm - judging by the age of the fortifications that were built (see below) - one such family was installed as the rulers of what is now the Wreckers Coast, founding the Moeru Yōna Kabutomushi Bakufu, or Flaming Scarab Dynasty. Seemingly originating in the East, as the Scarab-beetle is not native to the swamps of the Southwest, it is not clear why this family did to earn such a title, and the truth of the matter may now be lost to time.

Architecture
The most lasting achievement of the local Daimyos is undoubtedly the palace and sea fortifications around which the modern city-states of Baruntulga have formed.

The Palace
An impressive example of middle-period Shogunate architecture, which places its construction somewhere between -480 and -450 RY, the palace of the Daimyos contains a large garden estate home to ornamental deer and ocelots imported from other islands, and was built in part to accommodate a squadron of Warstriders (see below). This is now known as the Ekklesiasterion, the palace of the Senate of the City-States of the Bay.

The Sea-forts and Harbour Cannons
At the mouth of the bay are two fortresses - their current occupants have named them Petros and Erasmia - and about 4 miles out to see are four towers, each holding a Harbour Cannon, though it has been many centuries since these saw any use.

Other Shogunate-era Architecture
During their adventures further inland, the Circle came across a Watchtower stood in a circle of Twelve Pillars that now houses a tribe of beastmen of various sorts and a small clan of Djala. There may well be other remnants of the Daimyos' military infrastructure - and perhaps more besides - languishing in ruins in the depths of the swamps.

The Rainbow Lords Warstriders
A central hallway in the palace is what used to be known as the Chapel of the Rainbow Lords. These "lords" were a squadron of Shogunate-design Warstriders - 30ft tall mechanical warriors piloted by a Dragonblood or other mortal to wage war. Seemingly an elite, decorated unit, the Rainbow Lords were long since departed from the palace for whatever reason, but the bays they used to occupy indicated their names:


 * Excellent Ruby Rainbow Master - kneeling on a plinth at the head of the chapel, this was seemingly the leader
 * Amber Rainbow Brigandine
 * Topaz Rainbow Labrys
 * Emerald Rainbow Pavis
 * Sapphire Rainbow Yumi
 * Amethyst Rainbow Spatha
 * Iolite Rainbow Hasta

Excellent Ruby Rainbow Master's Cloak
Hanging on the wall behind his plinth, the ceremonial cloak of Excellent Ruby Rainbow Master is now preserved as a tapestry, as it depicts a tableau of the warriors standing proud against what seem to have been the forces they fought against. From the sky, strange metallic-silver birds led by one labelled "Radhika the Sky-Breaker", from the land White Wolves (perhaps the ones depicted in the stone mural of Ostia that destroyed Njorlona?) and beastmen of both Elephant and Panda lineage, and from below some bizarre aquatic race labelled with the word "Niobrara".

Historical Implications
It is worth noting that the age of the palace hints as to when the much older structure Njorlona would have been destroyed, as the fortifications were clearly built after the cataclysm that tore the area into what is now the Northwestern Cinder Isles. And the depictions of the creatures the Rainbow Lords fought - both beastman and giant sentient animals - would indicate some powerful Lunar presence in the area that the Flaming Scarab Dynasty may have been installed in the area to combat, and some other race that may have come from the ocean.

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