Hiduan

This article is part of the Silken Sky canon.

The Empire of Hiduan (Hlan: Hy Duan Quo), also known as simply Hiduan (Hlan: Hy Duan), was a political entity arising in the region of Kadan on the planet Aki in that planet's medial period. It grew to become the most powerful state in its world, and was the direct predecessor to the interplanetary and interstellar Akian Empire.

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 Duanhae.

In later history, the name Duan came to refer to the nation as a whole, even when it was ruled by other dynasties such as the House of Murao.

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 Hiduan

The Duan state first appeared in the land of Kadan on the planet Aki during the medial period of that world's history. Founded by a Hlan nobleman, it became the thirteenth dynasty of Kadanquo according to traditional chronology, taking the name Hy Duan ("Great Duan"). The empire eventually came to rule over the whole earth. Its successor, the Akian Empire, claims a continuous thousand-year lineage via the houses of Kina and Murao.