Hiduan

This article is part of the Silken Sky canon.

Hyduan (Hlan: Hy Duan), also known as the Empire of Hyduan (Hlan: Hy Duan Quo) or the Duan dynasty (Hlan: Dai Duan), is a political entity located within the bounds of the namesake Hyduan Region of the galaxy. Classified as an interstellar empire, it spans several star systems and contains a population of ~45 billion (stc) sapients.

Names

Hy translates to "great". Variant spellings include hi and hiye. Duan is the name of the ancient founding dynasty. Variant spellings include Duen and Doan. Though the precise etymology is unknown, it is believed to have come from a person's surname. Compositely, the name Hy Duan means Great Duan.

The empire is sometimes known as Haiduan or Haeduan. While seemingly a mispronunciation of Hy Duan, this unique variation took on a romantic meaning after the empire's expansion into new dimensions of space, from interpreting the word hai/hae as meaning "beyond", "farther", "persistent" or "everlasting". This was also the logic behind the naming of the city Duanhai.

Nowadays, the name Duan has been adopted by the nation as a whole, and it no longer refers to a specific dynasty. In fact, the current ruling family of the Duan dynasty is the House of Murao.

Historians sometimes refer to the state as the Akian Empire or Empire of Aki, after its homeworld.

History

"Centuries from now, what will they think of the domination? Will they see it as we do, as the end of the world? Or the beginning?"

—Guin Fai, after the rise of Hyduan

The Duan state first appeared in the land of Kadan on the planet Aki during the post-medial period of that world's history. Founded by a Hlan nobleman, it became the thirtieth dynasty of Kadanquo according to traditional chronology, taking the name Hy Duan ("Great Duan"). Following their rise to power, the Duan were never permanently unseated, and eventually came to rule over the whole earth. Though the empire has been broken up in the past by civil wars, political fragmentation and a century of republican regimes, the Duan dynasty claims a continuous thousand-year lineage via the houses of Kina and Murao.

Expansion Age

The age of expansion came on the heels of two successive climate disasters which threatened the stability of the Akian ecosystem and the continued existence of human life on its surface. The first was a period of creeping global warming caused by human activities like heavy industry, transportation and power generation, followed by a dramatic global cooling resulting from overcompensation in combatting the warming. A world war ensued for Earth's dwindling resources, and Hyduan ended up the victor, left to rebuild what had been lost. Hyduan emerged from war as the most powerful nation on Earth, and quickly united all the shattered states into unity under one empire. Over the next few centuries, they set to work at moving outward from their native planet.

Demographics

Races and ethnic groups

Humans have inhabited Aki, the Hyduanese homeworld, since time immemorial. Society was entirely homogenous (one hundred percent human) before stellar expansion, with little more than superficial differences between people living in different parts of the world. Despite this, a number of distinct ethnic groups existed, some of which are still around today. The Hlan people are the largest ethnic group, comprising 1/5 of the total population on Aki.

As the empire grew, some non-human races were integrated successfully, while others were persecuted. The concept of supra-national Hyduanese citizenship was introduced. With an abundance of extraterrestrial traffic making it difficult to effectively police the borders, the government relaxed its policies somewhat and focused on increasing security in the home sector. As a result, the empire became more ethnically and racially diverse. Also, developments in computing gave rise to artificial intelligence that could be called "sentient", while bioengineering advances led to human modifications, creating the first transhumans.

The government of Hyduan recognizes 13 distinct races. It also grants those with implants or modifications a special status, but does not consider them a separate species. Nationalities (differing cultures within the same species) are not represented by law, as the government wishes to keep a neutral stance on internal affairs, but they were in the past. However, there have been attempts by activists to get them recognized again. Artificial intelligence is acknowledged but underrepresented.