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Overview

The State of Lancang is a constituent polity of the Earth Kingdom, governed by an indigenous prince with a nominal allegiance to the Earth King in Ba Sing Se. It is named for the great river system running down its Western valley, which arises in the highlands of Boshan and Lancang and empties into the gulf of Gaoling. The geography is mostly mountainous. Its indigenous inhabitants are the Mountain-Air Villagers, an earth nation who practice a form of the Air Nomad religion taught to them by missionaries in late antiquity. They were historically the majority of the population, but their numbers have diminished since the beginning of the war. The economy is mostly agrarian and autarkic, with modest agricultural exports to the cities on the gulf and some textile production in the settlements.

History

Antiquity

In prehistory, the highlands were sparsely inhabited by nomadic pastoralists of what anthropologists call the Carding Bow Culture, after a distinctive artifact of their material culture (a tool used to process the wool of their goatmarmot herds.) Little is known of the Carding Bow Culture, and they were assimilated by a different group of earthbending nomadic pastoralists migrating from the north of the Boshan plateau before literacy reached the region. The recorded history of the Lancang Valley, in the West of the state's present territory, dates to the time of the Di dynasty, though it had no connection to the North or Omashu and was rather part of the cultural sphere of Gaoling. The Lancang valley, in those days, was controlled by small city-states; they had little contact with those highland people they called "mountain barbarians."

The coming of Air Nomad missionaries occurred in late antiquity. The Air Nomads introduced literacy to the highlands and actively, though peacefully, promoted their religion, as their restrained attitudes toward proselytism were yet to develop. Deciding that the highlands, though sparsely inhabited, could not pasture large sky bison herds sustainably, only a few Air Nomads actually stayed on the Boshan Plateau themselves, but they continued to have extensive cultural contact. The highland people came to be known as Shanqi (Mountain-Air) villagers, and began to develop more trade and cultural links with the Valley with the availability of sky bison and the introduction of the Gaoling shallowboat in the 1600s BG.

Before the War

In 1548 BG, the Kingdom of Zou invaded the Boshan plateau during a war with Gaoling over conflicting interests on the Southern coast. The highland peoples confederated to resist the invasion, electing the first Prince of Boshan, Mipham Tenzin, to organize the defense. The invasion was repelled, and the plateau thereafter cast off the suzerainty of Gaoling, which had been weakened by the war; the Boshan Principality even came to control the Lancang valley and its urban population.

For the next several hundred hundred years, the Principality of Boshan, which extended into the present-day polities of Boshan, Lancang, and the Kingdom of Zou, remained independent, though at times paying tribute to Gaoling or Omashu, mostly the latter. Power was divided between the secular Prince, whose base of power was in the Lancang Valley, and the abbots of the great monasteries, who received tithes and corvee from the Shanqi in the highlands. Over time, the Shanqi adopted more of a settled way of life, as they pivoted from subsistance agriculture to trading goatmarmot wool to the valley folk for food. The Principality was divided into roughly the modern states of Boshan and Lancang, mostly bloodlessly, over a theological dispute between the great monasteries, who disagreed about the obligation for laypeople to be vegetarian. In Boshan, vegetarianism remained optional; in Lancang, it became obligatory except for visitors. When the armies of the Ting dynasty invaded the South and united most of the modern Earth Kingdom, both of the principalities of Boshan and Lancang submitted to the Earth King without violent resistance.

Since the War

When the Fire Nation attacked the Air Nomads, and began their systematic extermination, many survivors fled to Lancang and Boshan. This was a natural choice as both of these regions had large numbers of sympathetic coreligionists who were, at least theoretically, protected by the Earth Kingdom as its subjects. Unfortunately, this protection was not effective; the Fire Nation began raids into the plateau to target the surviving Air Nomads and anyone harboring them. Even Shanqi with no connection to the situation were sometimes suspected of being Air Nomads and killed by the raiders. Although the geography of the highlands provided some protection, the unwarlike Shanqi were unable to resist the Fire Nation. Earth Kingdom garrisons were understaffed and mostly concentrated in the Lancang valley; they only sporadically resisted the Fire Nation. The Prince of Lancang of the time, Gongzim Tenzin, turned collaborationist despite his nominal allegiance to the Earth Kingdom, and sent his own forces to find Air Nomads and turn them over to the Fire Nation in exchange for avoiding further devastating raids and the slaughter of those whose only connection to the Air Nomads was religious affinity.

As a result of the Fire Nation raids and economic damage due to the loss of sky bison transport links, the population of Lancang has declined since its peak before the war, and become more urban. Many Mountain Air villagers have assimilated into the urban Lancang valley. Some of the great monasteries remain closed to this day. These institutions, targeted by the Fire Nation for their role in sheltering the refugees, were heavily damaged; many monastics fled or were martyred.

Climate, Geography and Biology

Most of the modern state of Lancang is occupied by the southern third of the Boshan plateau, a highland region with an average elevation over 3km above sea level. The Lancang river valley runs North to South in the West of the state, and its westernmost extremity contains part of the Gaoling mountains

Economy

Agriculture

Industry

Trade

Transportation

River transport is of critical importance to the Lancang valley; in the highlands most rivers are not navigable or large and overland transport with beasts of burden is the norm.

There were formerly locks on the Lancang river and the Thundering Rapids. The building of these locks were initiated under General Ji, subordinate of Qin the Conqueror, and stood incomplete until the reign of the 41st Earth King, who ordered their completion with the intention of building greater trade and cultural links between the coast and interior. The locks were destroyed in a Fire Nation attack in 2 AG, and as yet have not been repaired; a fort built to protect them was not garrisoned at the time of the attack but nowadays is an outpost of the Princely Guard of Lancang.

Culture and Anthropology

Ethnic Composition

Languages Spoken

Cultural and Religious Institutions

Arts, Fashion and Cuisine

Subdivisions and Politics

Lancang State is divided into 22 urban prefectures (府), all but one of which are in the Lancang valley), which stand independently of its counties (縣), of which there are 36. The state remains nominally loyal to the Earth Kingdom, though these days only the two forts guarding the Lancang river in the south are garrisoned, each by a company of about 150 soldiers of the Royal Earth Army. There is also a small detachment of about a dozen soldiers in Deyadrang, but they function as little more than an personal guard for the Plenipotentiary to the Azure Court, a Rank III official of the Hao-Ting who represents the interests of the Earth Kingdom to the Prince and, in theory, might command the court on the authority of the Earth King. In the past, this power was very much operative, but nowadays, Lancang is de facto independent and this official is once more mainly a diplomat. Except for the pro forma ratification of princely succession, no Earth King has even attempted to issue an outright edict to the Prince since before the outbreak of the hundred years war, and it is probable that any such edict not already in line with the political will of the court would be "lost" before being read in court.

The Fire Nation raids around 1-2 AG broke the political power of the great monasteries; those that remain have limited influence outside their endowments. Large parts of the highland counties, previously administrated by monk-officials of the defunct monasteries, have returned to decentralized village governance under prominent locals. The region remains surprisingly peaceful, though there is some bandit activity in the East.

Capital

The capital is the city of Deyadrang in the Lancang valley, about 20 km south of the border with Boshan. The palace of Prince Tsondul Tenzin II (44AG-present) is located there. The throne of the Prince, inlaid with lapis lazuli, is known as the Azure Throne, with his court being metonymically known as the Azure Court. The capital is the second-largest city, with a population of 38,500 and has been negatively affected by rapid urbanization in the last fifty years, which has overwhelmed sanitary infrastructure.

Major Cities

The largest city is Dongga, in the south of the Lancang valley, with a population of 62,200. It is the principle hub of external trade via the Gulf of Gaoling. Other major cities are north of the Leilan (雷澜) rapids, which large boats could not pass until the construction of the locks during the reign of the 41st Earth King; their fortunes have declined since the locks' destruction.

Governance

The State of Lancang is ruled by its prince Tsondul Tenzin II (44AG-present), grandson of Gongzim Tenzin (54BG-10AG). The prince is leader of a counsel of members of the princely family (particularly the incumbent prince's mother), important urban leaders, and representatives of the remaining great monasteries. Nominal allegiance is to the Earth King in Ba Sing Se, and the central government is represented by a scholar-official appointed to the princely court, but the state is de facto independent and this official now only acts as an advisor or diplomat with minimal coercive power.

The Princely Guard of Lancang is approximately 2000 strong, divided into fifteen companies, and is supplemented by two companies of the Royal Earth Army in a pair of forts guarding the Lancang River in the south. Formerly, there were a number of Royal garrisons in the Lancang valley, but they have been abandoned by the Earth Kingdom for many decades. The Princely Guard conduct patrols of the valley and highlands to keep order. Recruitment from among the relatively pacifistic Shanqi is difficult, so most recruits are from the people of the valley or are immigrants from Gaoling and the coast.