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Overview

Gaishan was the final emperor of the Ri Dynasty, though as he never ruled in Ba Sing Se, he is considered a pretender to the Earth Monarchy like his mother the Tiansheng Empress before him. Unlike his mother, who ruled substantial territories in the North and West at the beginning of her reign, Gaishan's authority as Ri Emperor was only acknowledged by the scattered mountain strongholds holding out against the Royal Earth Army of the Hao Ting at the time of his succession. He reigned for only two years before the last of these was overrun, and the Hao Ting announced that he had been killed in the burning of his palace along with his family members there. Rumors persisted for years afterward that Gaishan had survived, fleeing with visiting Air Nomads into exile and living out the rest of his years as a cloistered monk in the Southern Air Temple.

Early Life

In 634, Jinglian gave birth to a son, Gaishan. Like his mother, he was not expected to ascend the Badgermole throne, as he had older uncles with children of their own. Nonetheless, his father was the Yulu-Nara Prince of Wa, an important member of the Yonggan conquest elite, hereditary commander of the Speckled Yellow Banner. As the direct male-preference-primogeniture heir apparent of Yulu Nara (a younger brother of the dynastic founder), he was an Imperial Granite Prince from birth. Because of his anticipated future military responsibilities, he was given a vigorous martial education by his parents.

Gaishan, like many of the Nara clan, was a fairly talented Earthbender. He also excelled at riding the ostrich-horse and learned mounted Earthbending from a skillful but hot-tempered Nogai retainer who was deputy veterinarian (弼馬溫) of the princely stables of Wa.

In 620, while the young prince was away at his father's fief, the reign of his grandfather NIOHURU-NARA Turusi, the Taigai Emperor and twenty-second Earth Monarch, was overthrown by a coup orchestrated by the native officials of the Empire, who were threatened by the Emperor's reforms and attempts to centralize power with the throne and Yonggan elite. A counter-coup failed and the supporters of the Niohuru-Nara established a rump dynasty in the North and West, still describing themselves as the Great Ri but generally known to historians as the Northern Ri. With no surviving male heir - Turusi's adult sons and their nuclear families were killed in the coup - the supporters of the Ri enthroned Gaishan's mother Jinglian as Tiansheng Empress in the Imperial Hunting Lodge after a brief interregnum, in 619 BG.

As Jinglian's oldest son, Gaishen was then groomed as her Imperial Crown Prince as well as the heir to the principality of Wa.

Marriage

In 610 BG, Gaishen was married to Niohuru-Nara Tabai (630-579?), from among his mother's surviving kinfolk; she was a distant cousin. It is likely that this marriage was arranged so that Gaishen's successor would be a member of the Niohuru-Nara clan, and the intention was that he would later take a secondary wife from the Yulu-Nara to be mother to the future Prince of Wa - the Imperial Succession Council considered it improper for the offices of Prince of Wa and Emperor to be consolidated if it could be avoided. However, this never came to pass.

The War of the Dynastic Transition

After some years of dealing with Ri partisans and loyalists in the Southern and Central Earth Kingdom, in 610, the Hao-Ting began a serious campaign to conquer the Northern Ri. Gaishan's father, the Prince of Wa, died in battle in 607. Gaishan himself had grown into an able military commander, coming of age fighting the Royal Earth Army of the Hao Ting, but his efforts were doomed by the vastly superior base of personnel and supplies available to the rival dynasty ruling in Ba Sing Se.

Over time, the Hao Ting chipped away at the territory of the Northern Ri, until there only remained fortified mountain redoubts of the Nara Clan and their supporters. The Royal Army was able to overcome the superior defenses and earthbending with force of numbers and, as the tide of the war became clear, superior discipline - many opportunists of the Western Yonggan defected or attempted to take a neutral position when neither retaking Ba Sing Se nor establishing an independent khaganate in West seemed viable.

Ascension to the Throne

Gaishan's mother Jinglian died of a stroke in 587, and was succeeded by her son as the Gainan Emperor, pretender 24th Earth Monarch and the last of the Northern Ri.

Later Life and Death

Gaishan disappeared after the last of the mountain redoubts of the Northern Ri was conquered by the Hao Ting in 579.

Historical Appraisal and Legacy