## page was renamed from Bryce/Scratch/Ri Dynasty
The Great Ri Dynasty (alt. Great Nara Dynasty) was an [[Avatar/Dynastic History of the Earth Kingdom|Earth Kingdom dynasty]] ruling from Ba Sing Se after supplanting the 15th Earth Monarch and his Hao dynasty in 789 BG. It was a conquest dynasty founded by Northern semi-nomadic people under the rule of the Yonggan khagans. The Great Ri expanded the boundaries of the Earth Kingdom to their modern extent and ruled as emperors of a multi-ethnic empire rather than adopting the title of Earth King. However, they were ultimately overthrown by their own indigenous officials and replaced with the native Hao-Ting dynasty in 620 BG. 

== Origins ==

The Yonggan are one of two originally steppe-dwelling semi-nomadic pastoralist peoples inhabiting regions to the northwest of Ba Sing Se, along with the Abka people. Their reputation in the Central Earth Kingdom was as bellicose barbarians; the frequent raids of steppe-dwellers were certainly one of the reasons for building the walls of Ba Sing Se. Over time, the Yonggan grew more sedentary and and some of their tribes even quit the steppe for the rolling foothills and mountains of the North. By contrast, the Abka continued to be nomads. 

In the mountains, the Yonggan harvested, and then cultivated, ginseng. They also grew sorghum and raised badgermoles as working animals. They gradually became more friendly with the Central Earth Kingdom, developing either trade relations with the Central Earth Kingdom, either via traveling merchants, Gan Jin intermediaries, or, in times when the power of the Earth Kingdom waxed strong, under the tribute system. At times, the Yonggan took payments and gifts from the Earth Monarch to defend the northern frontier against the raids of "wild" Abka tribes. 

== Unification of the Yonggan ==

The Nara clan of the Yonggan gradually rose to prominence in the 10-9th centuries BG. The Nara antagonized the Jala Khagan by independently sending tribute missions to Ba Sing Se and thus presuming to conduct diplomatic relations independently of the khaganate. This was a stratagem; however, by which the Jala were successfully provoked into attacking the Nara in their home territory. The Jala discovered too late that the Nara had been preparing for the war for years. The Nara armies were swollen with allied Abka cavalry and Zhang mercenaries, their peasant levies were well-drilled, and the land itself was prepared with numerous traps and obstacles ready to be deployed by Nara earthbenders. After the Jala invasion was crushed, the Nara pushed back into Jala territory, and forced the surrender of the Jala Khagan in 835 BG to the Nara Khan. The the first Nara khagan, Boosi (納喇·寶實) was acclaimed by the Great Council of the Yonggan in 833 BG. Boosi consolidated power and received the submission of all the Yonggan clans, before fighting several victorious campaigns against non-allied Abka nomads. His victories continued to be buoyed by technological exchange and money from the Earth King. He ended his reign with power uncontested in the North.

== Relations with the Earth Kingdom ==

The Yonggan Khagan continued to be a nominal vassal of the Earth King, with tribute missions being sent to Ba Sing Se on a regular basis. Although the tribute goods (jade and metals from mountain mines, cultivated and wild ginseng, and most especially trained badgermoles) the Yonggan clans sent were indeed valuable, the amount of silver and treasure sent North substantially exceeded it in value, and in return the Yonggan and allied Abka guarded the Northern Frontier.

== Founding a Conquest Dynasty ==
in 790 BG, The Yonggan khagan, NARA Jaikan (納喇·界堪), a nominal vassal of the 15th Earth King, was asked by the king to help suppress a peasant uprising in Ba Sing Se. This involved letting the Yonggan armies into the city to suppress the rebellion. The King was not naive to the risk this posed to his dynasty (The Hao), but his diviners assured him that neither Jaikan nor any of his heirs would ever be Earth King. At first, this plan seemed to be successful as the well-trained Yonggan armies swiftly crushed the rebels. However, they were reluctant to leave Ba Sing Se despite the King's increasingly explicit insinuations that now would be an appropriate time for them to return to their own lands. in 789, the 15th Earth King was assassinated (very definitely by the a surviving peasant rebel, according to the ''Veritable Records of the Great Ri'') and Jaikan declared a regency under himself. This offended the Ba Sing Se elite, despite the affirmation of diviners that Jaikan would not ascend the Badgermole Throne. An attempted palace coup tried to overthrow the Yonggan regency and install the teenage son of the 15th Earth King as 16th Earth King, but it was defeated and the plotters were killed; the son of the Earth King and several of his brothers were taken to Yonggan lands "for their protection." Jaikan installed his eldest son, Niohuru (鈕祜祿) as ''Emperor'' of the Greater Nara State in 788; the Hao royal family in exile in Yonggan lands were treated comfortably but imprisoned and ultimately died out.

Unsurprisingly, many polities of the Earth Kingdom did not approve of the regime change; Jaikan and his sons (Niohuru, Aisin, Yulu and Ayin) fought them in the Nara-Hao campaigns under the banner of the "Great Nara," later translated as the "Great Ri," the name by which the dynasty is mostly known to history.

When Jaikan died in 761 BG, Niohuru, now the Jìanēn (建恩, ''Establishing Grace'') Emperor, became khagan as well and consolidated the offices. He completed the conquest of the Earth Kingdom in 755 BG, directly incorporating many polities that had previously only been tributaries or vassals of the Earth Monarch. He enfeoffed his brothers, one of his sisters, and many of his generals as a new feudal aristocracy, replacing the native Earth Kingdom elite in the regions that had opposed him; in areas that had submitted peacefully, he left the indigenous aristocracy and structures of power largely intact. The Jianen emperor also organized the Yonggan, their Abka allies from the West, and the lineages of some Central Earth Kingdom supporters into a banner army system, to promote the continuing development of martial skills and a separate "Great Ri" cultural identity. 

== The Great Ri ==

Earth Kingdom historiographers admit that early in the dynastic cycle, the people prospered under the Ri dynasty. The boundaries of their Empire were expanded under the first two Ri emperors who reigned in Ba Sing Se, and the Renxian reign is considered the golden age of the dynasty. However, it declined under the Shenxing and Huowang emperors, who were more focused on other pursuits than statecraft; the Jianshun reign was a brief interlude that could not reverse the trend. The Taigai emperor made a stronger attempt at reinvigorating the Great Ri, greatly improving the economic conditions of the empire and radically reducing corruption in the administration. Ultimately, however, when he turned his attention to affairs in the capital, he alienated the indigenous bureaucracy of the Earth Kingdom and this led to his downfall.

||||||||'''Emperors of the Great Ri'''||
||''Personal Name''||''Era Name''||''Lived''||''Reigned''||
||[[Avatar/Nara Jaikan|納喇·界堪]] NARA Jaikan|| 武業 ''Wǔyè'' "Martial Endeavor"||840 - 761 BG|| N/A ||
||||||||Note: Posthumously given an era name and declared to have been an emperor by his son.||
||[[Avatar/Nara Niohuru|納喇·鈕祜祿]] NARA Niohuru||16. 建恩 ''Jìanēn'' "Establishing Grace"|| 822-745 BG|| 788-745 BG||
||||||||Completed the conquest of the Earth Kingdom and established widely recognized suzerainty.||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Arjin|鈕祜祿納喇·阿尔津]] NIOHURU-NARA Arjin||17. 仁顯 ''Rénxiǎn'' "Benevolent Intent"|| 799 - 712 BG || 745 - 712 BG ||
||||||||Reformed criminal justice, expanded the borders of the Greater Ri state to their maximum extent, patronized exploration.||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Tuhai|鈕祜祿納喇·圖海]] NIOHURU-NARA Tuhai ||18. 永光 ''Yǒngguāng'' "Perpetual Light"|| 761 - 710 BG || 712 - 710 BG ||
||||||||Reigned only two years before dying in a hunting accident; he had no children so the crown went to his younger brother.||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Gagai|鈕祜祿納喇·噶蓋]] NIOHURU-NARA Gagai||19. 神興 ''Shénxīng'' "Godly Flourishing"|| 759 - 691 BG || 710 - 691 BG ||
||||||||Established close religious relations with the Air Nomads and patronized temple-building and reformed the writing system; was dominated by his scholar-officials.||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Isangga|鈕祜祿納喇·伊桑阿]] NIOHURU-NARA Isangga||20. 建順 ''Jìanshùn'' "Establishing Obedience"|| 741 - 661 BG || 691 - 685 BG ||
||||||||Restored order to secular affairs while continuing religious toleration, a strong emperor who controlled the bureaucracy, but was disabled by a head injury sustained in a hunting accident.||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Kuazha|鈕祜祿納喇·夸札]] NIOHURU-NARA Kuazha||21. 活王 ''Huówáng'' "Lively ruler"|| 701 - 640 BG || 685 - 640 BG ||
||||||||Came to power as a teenager; more interested in the harem than statecraft, he mostly left government to indigenous scholar-officials.||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Turusi|鈕祜祿納喇·圖魯什]] NIOHURU-NARA Turusi||22. 太改 ''Tàigǎi'' "Grand Correction"|| 679 - 620 BG || 640 - 620 BG ||
||||||||Attempted to reform the bureaucracy and elevate the power of the throne and imperial bondservants at the expense of the indigenous scholarly elite, which eventually provoked a coup and civil war.||

== Collapse of the Dynasty ==

The Ri were ultimately overthrown in 620 BG in a coup orchestrated by native Earth Kingdom officials, who installed a descendant of a cadet branch of the former Ting dynasty (the Hao-Ting) as the 23rd Earth Monarch. The Taigai emperor was killed by a treacherous general; as he lay dying in the palace, he entrusted the imperial seals to the Prince of Jin, AISIN-NARA Bugan, expecting that his grandson would become the next emperor and that the Prince of Jin would be regent. (The emperor's two adult sons had both died earlier in the coup.) However, the rebel forces had already overcome the banner guards at the Crown Prince's mansion, and murdered the imperial grandchildren. When Bugan learned of this, he abandoned the fight in the capital and took the Azure Banner forces back to his fief, ostensibly with the intent of raising a large Yonggan / Abka army and returning to siege the inner city of Ba Sing Se. 

This did not transpire according to plan, in any case; Ri forces lost control of the outer wall, and the rebels solidified their control of the capital, executing any Yonggan and banner families that did not escape. The Prince of Jin (AISIN-NARA Bugan) and Prince of Wa (YULU-NARA Asan) disagreed on the course of action; Bugan ultimately made peace with the Hao-Ting and kept control of the Western Yonggan lands; although he gave up most of the actual principality of Jin, he officially retained the title and part of his demesne there. On the other hand, Asan was married to an imperial princess, NIOHURU-NARA Jinglian, a daughter of the late Taigai emperor. The Prince of Wa, and the Grand Duke of Lei (AIYIN-NARA Jinšun) enthroned Jinglian as the Tiansheng empress in the imperial hunting lodge, beginning the "Northern Ri." 

== The Northern Ri - The Nara Empire after the loss of Ba Sing Se ==

The Tiansheng empress and her supporters fought the Hao Ting and their allies for years, taking advantage of the mountainous terrain and tepid support by the Hao Ting's nominal allies in the region (various Abka tribes and the Western Yonggan.) The Aisin Nara Princes of Jin played off their Hao-Ting overlords against the Northern Ri, gaining advantages from both though remaining nominally loyal to the Hao-Ting dynasty and part of the Earth Kingdom. 

||||||||'''Emperors of the Northern Ri'''||
||''Personal Name''||''Era Name''||''Lived''||''Reigned''||
||[[Avatar/Niohuru-Nara Jinglian|鈕祜祿納喇·静兰]] NIOHURU-NARA Jinglian ||天聲 ''Tiānshēng'' "Statement of Heaven"|| 654-587 BG|| 619-587 BG||
||||||||Initially controlled Yonggan and Abka lands but was gradually defeated by the Hao Ting armies until only the mountain redoubts of the Nara remained under her control.||
||[[Avatar/Yulu-Nara Gaishan|玉鲁納喇·盖山]] YULU-NARA Gaishan ||改南 ''Gǎinán'' "Correcting the South"|| 634-579 BG|| 587-579 BG||
||||||||Allegedly killed in the burning of his palace, some say he fled, disguised as an Air Nomad monk.||

After the fall of the last mountain redoubts, the Hao-Ting state made a concerted effort to exterminate the Niohuru Nara and all descendants of Jinglian, sparing only a few members who had turned against the erstwhile imperial family early on and renounced perpetually their claims to the throne. The political axis within the Nara clan shifted to the Aisin Nara family.

== The Earth Kingdom Civil War ==

The Nara, either under the Prince of Jin or under direct Earth Kingdom rule in the case of their eastern lands, continued to be preeminent among the Yonggan after the fall of their dynasty. However, in time, the resentment of the Yonggan against the Earth Kingdom grew, thanks to a succession of corrupt and brutal governors. The Hao Ting state was beset by rebellions and unrest, as the corrupt administration of the North was hardly unique. In time, Chin the Great rose against the Hao Ting, beginning the Earth Kingdom civil war. The incumbent Prince of Jin also rebelled against the rule of Ba Sing Se, swiftly moving Nara forces into the other Yonggan lands and defeating the provincial governments while the Hao Ting were occupied with Qin. As his movement grew and he achieved control of all the provinces surrounding Ba Sing Se, the Aisin Nara threw in their lot with Qin the Great, sending armies to support his side in the civil war. 

Qin's death in his confrontation with Avatar Kyoshi led to a stunning and unprecedented reversal, and the Hao Ting regained power. The "Northern Khaganate" regime of Yonggan, Abka and Ganjinese potentates led by the Prince of Jin continued to control the territories it had seized in the civil war for some time, but eventually it was one of the the last holdouts against the resurgent Hao Ting and was subdued after being internally weakened by the defection of eastern Yonggan khans incited by Hao Ting diplomats.

== The Nara in Exile ==

The holdings of the Principality of Jin in the North (i.e. in the Nemuland) were officially disestablished in the eyes of the Earth Kingdom and its lands were divided up, some being given to Central and Southern Earth Kingdom settlers, and others going toward the expansion of the territories of Yonggan and Abka polities that had never supported the Northern Khaganate (or at least had turned against it in advance of the final months of the campaign when the conclusion was foregone.)

Some of the Aisin Nara nobility, believed to be the key proponents of Yonggan support for Qin, were taken to Ba Sing Se and executed by the Hao Ting. The rest were sent into exile in the Hanwang desert, along with their retainers, supporters, and the remnants of the (disarmed) banner armies. Many perished in a grueling forced march; many more died due to the harsh climate, lack of food, or conflict with the indigenous sandbender tribes and Beetle-helmet People. The Nara are forbidden (down to the present day) from leaving the "Nara pale of banishment," which consists of the Hanwang desert and some adjacent badlands.