<<Card: execution failed [local variable 'page' referenced before assignment] (see also the log)>>
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 who are an earth nation who practice a form of the Air Nomad religion taught to them by missionaries in late antiquity, but their numbers have diminished and they are nowadays no longer a majority in the country. The economy is mostly agrarian and autarkic, with modest agricultural exports to the cities on the gulf.
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 used to process the wool of their goatmarmot herds. Little is known of them, and they were assimilated by a different group of 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 valley, in those days, was controlled by small city-states and their dependent countryside; 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 on proselytism were yet to develop. Deciding that the highlands, though sparsely inhabited, could not pasture large sky bison herds sustainably, few Air Nomads actually settled 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 interests on the Southern coast. The highland peoples confederated to resist the invasion, electing the first Prince of Boshan, Mipham Tenzin. The invasion was repelled, and the plateau 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. The Principality was divided into roughly the modern states of Boshan and Lancang, mostly bloodlessly, over a theological dispute between the great monasteries. 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 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, with both of these regions having large numbers of sympathetic coreligionists who were, at least theoretically, protected by the Earth Kingdom as its subjects. Unfortunately, this protection was not effective, as the Fire Nation began raids into the plateau to target the surviving Air Nomads and anyone harboring them, or suspected of being them. Although the geography of the highlands provided some protection, the unwarlike Shanqi were unable to resist the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom garrisons were understaffed and mostly concentrated in the Lancang valley. In time, 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.
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, where opportunities were more abundant, and many of the great monasteries were abandoned after being damaged by the Fire Nation.
Climate, Geography and Biology
Economy
Agriculture
Industry
Trade
Transportation
Culture and Anthropology
Ethnic Composition
Languages Spoken
Cultural and Religious Institutions
Arts, Fashion and Cuisine
Subdivisions and Politics
Capital