Federation

Biodata

History

Foundation and Expansion

The Federation’s founders unified the Divine Land after a century of strife. Through successive foreign wars, they rebuilt a tributary system and expanded from a limited territorial base into a state receiving tribute from numerous nations 19.

It initially stood alongside Fourth Rome, France, and the Northern Commonwealth as one of four major powers. Wars in the Far East eventually established it as the undisputed hegemon. Its industrial productivity supported transcendents in numbers and at levels of strength that earlier dynasties could not match 11.

Great Cataclysm and Restructuring

The Great Cataclysm occurred twelve years before the opening of the story. Despite its subsequent decline, the Federation retained most of its core territory and remained stronger than the former Ming dynasty 1 11.

Before the catastrophe, official ideology promoted Eastern unity and equality between the Hua people and the populations of the outer dependencies. The Federation initially accepted refugees, but abandoned that promise of equality once its leaders concluded that a counteroffensive was impossible 19.

Internal struggles produced a new system of restricted household registration, unequal legal status, and resource allocation based on survival priorities. Imperial Capital students were explicitly taught that this Second Federation was an “empire without an emperor,” whose benefits did not have to extend to the outer dependencies 19.

The War of National Defense left lasting wounds. Lu Zhao’s family lost two generations in the fighting, while postwar society faced growing regional power, violent crime, ethnic conflict, and threats from demonic beasts 32 43 44.

Government and Administration

Central and Regional Authority

The circuits retain considerable autonomy. After the Great Cataclysm, their power became so entrenched that circuits are compared to vassal states and their bureau chiefs to vassal kings 38.

Many departments use a dual-leadership system. At Ant Ridge Border Station, Chen Hongtao and Lü Jinshan hold leadership positions of equal rank, although Chen’s practical authority is limited by the station’s small size and Lü’s political backing 34 35.

Administrative Ranks

Chapter 37 gives the following eight-rank hierarchy, from lowest to highest:

Martial Marquises and Political Families

• Seventy-two Martial Marquises exist in the Federation. Zhang Like states that, in its more than two hundred years of history, Martial Marquises have retired but none has fallen 35.
• Family connections accelerate advancement, but cannot replace the Life Development and service record required for higher office 24 43.
• Entry into core decision-making requires a clean record. Procedural irregularities that normally go unchallenged can become liabilities in struggles between equally powerful patrons 24.
• “Nobility lasts no more than three generations.” A Martial Marquis’s descendants may hold progressively lower offices because authority ultimately depends on their own development and accomplishments 43.

Territory and Population

Circuit counts vary: one description gives “one capital and twelve circuits,” while later passages refer to thirteen circuits, including “one capital and thirteen circuits” 26 27 38.

The Federation does not recognize the Miye Three Rivers powers as a nation. Its stated reasons include their lack of an organized military, restoration of slavery, and provision of sanctuary to terrorist organizations such as Greenwood 15.

Citizenship and Society

Household Registration

• Only Hua people appear on Federation household registers. Racial superiority is not explicitly written into law, but registration determines access to recognized civic status and protection 15 19.
• People without registration fall under a separate administration. Their deaths receive substantially less investigative attention than those of registered residents 15.
• Non-Hua labor remains economically necessary, while the state avoids assuming comparable governing and welfare costs for those workers 15.
• Official propaganda obscures the extent of the division, despite the post-Cataclysm system’s departure from earlier promises of equality 19.

Foreign Districts

• Foreign District food allocations are fixed. Population growth without increased supply contributes to famine 47.
• Access to Chinese District employment is restricted. A circuit directive proposes easing those restrictions, becoming a point of political conflict in Fang City 47.
• Kabuki Streets are common entertainment districts, generally operated by people from Fusang. Although the Federation prohibits the sex trade, enforcement has been largely absent since the Great Cataclysm 45.

Reform and the Surrender Faction

Some political figures advocate restoring universal household registration and integrating Hua and foreign populations. Lin Zhiyan and Lu Zhao interpret these proposals as part of a deeper surrender faction seeking to abandon resistance to the Ancient Gods 43.

In their assessment, surrender would not necessarily extinguish humanity, but would dissolve the Federation and return society to fragmented city-states. Lin identifies a Martial Marquis surnamed Chen as a prominent advocate of integration policies 43.

Divine Abilities and Life Development

National Power System

Divine abilities form the foundation of the Federation. They are broadly classified as five-element, mental, and physical, with six grades: minuscule, weak, moderate, potent, powerful, and great 3.

• Fate Bones transmit divine abilities from deceased wielders to later users, generally with a reduction of one grade 3.
• Advancing a Life Development stage permits further strengthening by absorbing Fate Bones of the same type 11.
• Important Fate Bones are nationally controlled items. The theft of one from Lin City triggers a nationwide investigation 13 16.
• Mental-type transcendents are rare, numbering only a few thousand across the Federation 44.

Development and Military Eligibility

Officer promotion primarily depends on Life Development and meritorious service. A second-tier extraordinary qualifies for field-grade promotion after meeting the minimum time-in-grade requirement 33.

Education

• Imperial Capital Academy is the Federation’s highest Life Development institution. Its admission threshold of twenty vitality by age eighteen excludes ninety-eight percent of applicants 10.
• Imperial Capital and Red Water dominate elite education. A common saying associates Imperial Capital with the Hall of Martial Virtue and Red Water with generals 6.
• High-school education divides attention equally between academic subjects and vitality development. University training adds lethal martial techniques and specialized divine-ability development 4.
• Limited social mobility remains possible. Lu Zhao argues that ordinary people can enter the elite academy without clan backing or influential patrons, although only a few dozen do so each year 28.

Armed Forces and Public Security

Agencies and Jurisdiction

Ant Ridge Border Station has four companies and heavier weapons than local public security or Special Response. Its forces nevertheless cannot enter the city on their own authority; their jurisdiction ends at Ant Ridge 48.

Task forces and border stations belong to separate systems. Routine task-force requests cannot bypass the station chief’s deployment authority, although Liang Chengyun uses a level-one emergency order to deploy Lu Zhao during the Fang City ambush 17 20 24.

Combat Methods

• Firearms remain the primary weapons of most lower-tier transcendents. Divine abilities commonly support shooting rather than replace it 43.
• Earth-attribute Fate Bones are the most widely inherited. Their Petrified Body ability combines with modern body armor to resist automatic-rifle fire 22.
• Special Response assault teams use shields and drum-fed shotguns for close-range entry operations 22.
• The standard police sniper rifle is a high-precision 7.62 mm weapon 15.

Frontier Protection

The Federation regularly clears demonic beasts from its interior. At Ant Ridge, July floods can sweep water beasts from the lawless Miye Three Rivers region into Federation territory 31.

Border personnel provide early warning, intercept what they can, and report beasts that penetrate inland to local police. Ant Ridge’s reinforced platoon receives twice the pay and life-supplement quota of ordinary station soldiers because its frontline duties demand standards comparable to regular troops 31 32.

Economy and Technology

Income and Rationing

Internal rationing makes access and coupons more important than money alone. Some institutional prices fall below production cost, while scarce secret medicines command extremely high black-market prices 36.

Technological Development

• The Great Cataclysm accelerated life-supplement production and fostered giant corporations, while delaying many other technologies 26.
• Computers are only beginning to spread, and the public internet remains rudimentary and reliant on dial-up connections 8.
• The government database was the first internet system established, giving authorized personnel access to an internal information network 8.
• Computerized administration requires valid documents to be recorded, preserving records that might otherwise disappear from physical archives 26.
• The Federation has not landed on the moon 26.

Internal Politics and Security

Formal discipline and patronage operate side by side. Officials must respect jurisdiction, procedure, promotion rules, and service records, but powerful families can obstruct careers and mobilize local institutions against rivals 24 30 38 48.

• “Fight, but do not break” governs internal struggles. Open defiance of higher authority is uncommon; delay and noncooperation are safer methods of obstruction 48.
• Both procedure and results matter. Lü Jinshan faces suspension despite having followed deployment procedure, because his obstruction nearly causes an operation to fail 35.
• Central order does not eliminate underground disorder. After the Cataclysm, criminal and official networks increasingly overlap 37.
• Lin Zhiyan attributes gangs and Greenwood to internal patrons, arguing that ostensibly external organizations are extensions of people within the Federation 46.
• Regional autonomy threatens cohesion. Lu Zhao fears that growing local powers may cause the Federation to fragment before he can rise high enough to influence its future 44.

Role in the Story

• Lu Zhao’s loyalty — He distinguishes the Federation that educated him from the officials who harmed his career, insisting that he can eventually attain the authority needed to confront them 28.
• The Fate Bone investigation — A nationally controlled relic’s theft brings Lin Zhiyan’s task force to Ant Ridge and exposes jurisdictional disputes, operational failures, and suspected smuggling connections 13 16 20 26.
• The Ant Ridge power struggle — Lu Zhao’s promotion, Lü Jinshan’s suspension, and Chen Hongtao’s acting appointment demonstrate how formal rules and political backing interact within Federation institutions 30 34 35.
• The Fang City conflict — Local officials obstruct a circuit-authorized investigation because cooperation could expose politically damaging information. Lin Zhiyan uses the border station as her available source of personnel and leverage 47 48.