Emperor Ni

Emperor Ni (སེནགཝོ ནི Sengwō Nī; 1 August 251 - 31 July 311), born Ath Engshu (ཨཱཋ ཨེཉཤུ Ath Eňshū) was a Citrang dai of the Domain of Sengor who in 286 A.W. unified the nine Citrang domains into the Crescent Empire (Sengwōlī), becoming the first Crescent Emperor and creating one of the oldest uninterrupted dynasties of the world, the Clan of Ath, which remains in the Crescent Throne to this day.

Early life
Emperor Ni was born with the given name of Engshu, it's traditionally accepted that he was born on the first night of the eighth month, when the moon was a crescent over the royal city of Sennui. He was born into a minor cadet branch of the Ath clan, the ruling clan of the Sengor Kingdom. His father was Ath Buyai, second cousin once removed of Ath Naigru, Dai of Sengor, and his mother was Ath Panglai, another distant cousin of the Dai. Although the Dai had numerous sons and daughters that could have easily become heirs, Dai Naigru throughly enjoyed the company of Buyai and decided to make him his heir. However, out of jealousy, one of the Dai's sons murdered Buyai when Engshu was a ten year old boy. Engshu, who had inherited his father's charisma and had been closely watched by the Dai, was then proclaimed heir. The Dai went on to live long enough to have Engshu's position secured while the heir studied the arts of war, poetry, painting, music, dancing and the martial arts, which were the common fields in which aristocratic children were educated.

Dai of Sengor and campaign of unification
In 275 Dai Naigru died aged 87, when Engshu was 24. As expected, three of the Dai's sons, Lord Yaw, Lord Grushi and Lord Faing opposed Engshu's ascent to the throne and attempted a coup against his forces. However the military force backing both Engshu and the deceased Dai's wishes were larger and the three princes were executed. He became Dai of Sengor in April of 275. During the previous Dai's reign, the domain had extended considerably to the point it had absorbed three minor neighbouring kingdoms. Out of the Citrang states, Sengor was the wealthiest and most capacitated military-wise. Trade routes had been opened through the port cities of Shiasha and Awngcu, and Engshu made use of the prosperous times to travel through the Citrang states. He embarked a journey through the entire west of the Septentrion and in 279 he returned to Sengor with an idea.

The same year he formed an army of ten thousand and marched west, to the Domain of Wath and conquered the capital of Qaing. After securing his position in Wath, he executed the Dai and the entire main branch of his clan. Then he marched forth to Nagaw, Saiwang, Pawsai, Amgwai and Fawlai. By 284 the only Citrang territories that were not under Sengor's domain were Reshan and Amqi. Reshan, the second wealthiest Citrang kingdom, was arguably the only domain that could have truly put up a fight against the Sengor invaders, but Wecwi, Dai of Reshan surrendered after Engshu led his armies to the gates of Pawle, the capital of Reshan. The two Dai exchanged dugwo, a common practice among important lords denoting friendship and mutual trust, and it was agreed the two Dai's children would marry, though it's often said Dai Wecwi didn't really want his children to mingle with the Ath clan.

In 286 Engshu and his army marched to Amqi, where the resistance was small and unprepared. The small domain fell in January of 286 when the capital of Mowmutraw was conquered. Having conquered all of the Citrang kingdoms, Engshu returned once more to Sennui where he crowned himself Lord of the Nine Provinces, witnessed by all of his clan and representatives of all the domains. He was named Crescent Emperor, after the crescent moon that represented the Ath clan, and took the reigning name of Ni ("first").

Emperor of the Nine Provinces
Even after the conquest of the nine domains, many, especially in Reshan and Amgwai opposed the Crescent Emperor's rule. Several plots to depose him were made and during his reign the Emperor survived at least seven assassination attempts. During his rule he implemented several reforms to standarize the whole Empire so it would fit Bagwa's court lifestyle better. He made the pawan the official currency of the Empire and attempted to subject the Trangru temples to his rule, though he failed in this matter and the Trangru orders would not plead allegiance to the Crescent throne until two centuries later during the rule of the 13th Crescent Emperor.

Family
Ath Engshu was the only child of Ath Buyai and Ath Panglai, members of the Ath clan though by minor branches only distantly related to the main branch of the Dai. Buyai was the only son of Ath Qebai, descendant of the founder of the Ath clan Dai Sen through Ath Meng, younger son of Ath Faw, Sen's older son. On the other hand, Panglai was the only daughter of Ath Aqo, only son of Ath Yulang, eldest daughter of Ath Saiyu, only daughter of Ath Nim, younger brother of Ath Faw and a son of Dai Sen. In this sense, Engshu was a minor member of the clan, preceded in order of significance by at least sixteen people at the time of his birth.

Throughout his life, the 1st Crescent Emperor had a number of lovers, in addition to his two wives, and by the time of his death in 311 he had twelve recognized children, of which seven were legitimate as per aristocratic Citrang traditions. He however changed many of this traditions to fit the hereditary laws that he intended for his newly created Empire.

He married his first wife, Nawni, before becoming Dai of Sengor in 268, when he was 17 and she was 16. She was a member of the Ath clan and a distant cousin of his. Nawni was often described as being homely and devoid of much grace, but many accounts assure the young Engshu was very much in love with her. Many passages and love letters have been found, written by Engshu and directed to Nawni. Engshu had two children with Nawni, a daughter and a son, the latter of which died shortly after his birth. Their surviving daughter, Mowru, was born with many mental complications and was described as having the "mind of a child" even in adulthood. Engshu was said to love her profoundly, but her presence was deemed as "inappropriate" for the royal court of the Dai, so she was sent to live in a modest palace in Ulawngcu. Mowru would later become an acolyte at the Ulawngcu temple. Nawni died in 274 under unknown circumstances while Engshu was hunting off to the Ri forest to the north of Sennui. For a long time he suspected one of the Dai's sons had poisoned her. He was in deep sorrow for a long time, and refused to see anyone romatically for the following years.

He met his second wife, Bowu, in 279 while returning to Sengor from Fawlai. He was travelling incognito, accompained only by two guards who posed as his travel companions. Bowu was the daughter of a local land owner who had given Engshu and his guards permission to stay the night in his farm. He was instantly awestuck by the young woman, and the next morning he asked her father for permission to take her to the capital and marry her, but the farmer refused. Bowu however didn't want to follow her father's wishes so she ran off with Engshu to Sennui anyway. There Engshu revealed his true identity to her, and proposed. The couple returned shortly after to Bowu's father's farm, this time in a carriage accompained by the Dai's entourage, Engshu dressed in full regalia. Engshu told Bowu's father he would "have him willingly allow his daughter to marry, or order him to do so". Finally the farmer agreed, and the couple married in the Dai's palace in Sennui in August 279. Engshu and Bowu had five children, the first, a boy named Pawn, born in 280, would succeed his father upon his death in 311 as Emperor Thaw, but would die childless in 224. His fifth child with Bowu, daughter Ninfi, succeeded his brother as Empress Fawsing.

Lovers and paramours
In addition to his wives, Ni had numerous lovers and favorites during his reign as Crescent Emperor. In contrast, the Empress Consort also had affairs of her own, most of which Ni knew of and consented to. Of their polyamorous relationship, Lady Bowu was quoted saying "when we cannot understand each other's love, there are others who must fill the void left by our misunderstandings".

Lady Cilong
One of the Emperor's most favored paramours was Lady Cilong of the Sawyul clan of Sennui. Ni first met Lady Cilong shortly after the unification of his Empire. The young woman was but 19, and she was the eldest daughter of Sawyul Gwuzi, head of the Sawyul clan. Though her clan was small and not very prestigious among the capital city's aristocracy, it had provided a great number of men in the campaign of unification since the beginning, and it had an old and strong friendship with the Ath clan. Cilong was, as an act of gratitude towards Gwuzi, selected to be a court lady in the Crescent Emperor's newly formed Imperial Court. She first attended the Empress Consort's needs, but with the time she became more close to the Emperor himself. It is unknown exactly when or how their relationship escalated into a romantic one, but there is a poem dated spring of 287 written by Ni, expressing his affection towards Cilong.

That same year Cilong gave birth to a boy, whom Ni publicly recognized as his son, and whom he would give the name of Wezi. To the surprise of many, the Empress Consort was not particularly resentful of Lady Cilong or her newborn son. In fact, the two women spent even more time together after the birth of Wezi. Cilong would go on to give birth to another boy the next year, also a son of Ni. Her youngest, who was given the name of Ren by the Emperor, and his brother, would often spend time with Prince Awlyul, who was two years older than Wezi. Lady Cilong and the Empress Consort had a strong friendship, and it was often said in the palace Cilong was the "other Empress Consort", a nickname that at times even Bowu used in good light.

Eventually, Cilong was required to actually marry. Despite already having two sons, she was still considered a "good match" and had many suitors. Reluctantly, Ni agreed to let her leave the Imperial City to carry on with her family duties. She married Thawcwa Yiwru, a minor noble from western Sengor. Originally Wezi and Ren lived with their mother and her new husband, but once she became pregnant again, Yiwru asked for the two illegitimate children to leave his household. Thenceforth they lived at the Imperial City, and would be often visited by the Emperor and the Empress. Wezi became a general and rose to prominence applacating Qojj invasions in the north and a small revolt in Saiwang, while Ren became a Trangruist acolyte and then the Trangfiwl of the Imperial City, supreme representative of the faith within palace grounds.

Lady Besash
Another of the Emperor's favourites was Lady Besash, who like Lady Cilong belonged to a minor clan, the Awyung clan of Amgwai. He met her while he was visiting Amgwai for talks with the Dai of the eastern province in 290. She was a lady-in-waiting of the Dai's wife. The two took a liking to each other instantly, and they spent the four nights the Emperor stayed in Amgwai together. A couple of months after returning to Bagwa, the Emperor received a message that Besash had given birth to a child that could only be his. Inmediately Ni and his imperial guard rode to Mengcu. Upon arriving, Ni visited Besash and saw the child, a frail girl whom he named Themyel. He agreed that it was his daughter, and like his previous children with Cilong the girl received the surname of Sencwi, since she could neither be called an Ath or an Awyung. Besash and Themyel were taken back to the Imperial City in Bagwa to live close to the Emperor and his family. Unlike Cilong before her, Besash didn't have a very positive relationship with the Empress Consort, and the two would often clash even at court. Because of this Ni decided to alocate Besash and Themyel at the Dingawginu residence, at the eastern side of the Imperial City, far from the Hususen residence where the Emperor and the Empress resided. After this Besash attempted to mend her relationship with the Empress, and although Bowu remained uncertain of his husband's paramour, the two never fought publicly again. Themyel became the youngest lady in waiting of Princess Gorsow, and she accompained the Princess when she was sent off to marry the Dai of Amgwai's heir, Lord Wemengseng. After this Besash entered a period of deep depression, and in winter of 299 she decided to return home to be near her daughter.

Anggu
Anggu was a young bungci (of mixed Citrang and Boyyin blood) dugwo (swordsman) at the Dai of Reshan's private guard. The Emperor originally met Anggu during the annexation of Reshan, before he was Emperor and while his name was still Engshu. At the time, Anggu was no older than 20, but he was relatively experienced having trained in the art of swordfighting from a young age. Engshu had given the Dai of Reshan the advantage of 24 hours to decide whether he would pacifically allow the annexation of the domain or whether there would be a battle. Lord Wecwi of Trawden, Dai of Reshan, chose the peaceful annexation of his domain after realizing Engshu's army was no match for Pawle's defences. As part of the negotiations, Engshu and Wecwi decided to exchange dugwo, a practice common among important lords that represented mutual friendship and trust. Engshu offered his cousin Thaw, the only of Dai Naigru's sons to remain faithful to him. Since Thaw was an Ath, it was seen as an honourable and prestigious offer. In exchange, Wecwi offered one of his own sons, Goryu. However, Engshu looked more interested in Anggu, the youngest of the Dai's dugwo. Wecwi originally declined, as he believed a bungci would bring shame to the Trawden clan and the domain of Reshan in the Imperial Court. However, Engshu explained bungci were rare and precious in the coast of Sengor, since there weren't many Boyyin people in the south. Still unconvinced, Engshu offered Wecwi another of his dugwo, a young man slightly older than Anggu that belonged to a minor clan, that way, the bargain would be fair. Wecwi accepted, and Anggu became part of Engshu's personal guard.

Engshu and Anggu established a close friendship over time. Anggu helped the Dai in the conquest of Amqi, and saved him from an assassination attempt in 286, and the dugwo saw Engshu rise victorious as Emperor of the Nine Domains. After this, their relationship escalated to the point Anggu became Ni's engbaifiwl. Their romantic relationship was public to the Imperial Court, and this caused hardships between Anggu and the rest of the Emperor's imperial guard. In 289 Anggu was ambushed while returning to his living quarters from the Emperor's residence by other of the Emperor's dugwo. He was pierced with a sword through his stomach, and left to die in the palace gardens. Anggu managed to crawl to the Emperor's residence, where he whispered his last words to Ni:


 * My brothers, they have betrayed me, blinded by the light of our love. May the Great Mother have me in her mercy, for I now return to my ancestors. My Lord, forgive me. I have not the strength to serve you anymore. Of me, remember not the blood coating your fine robes, but the sword I have used to protect you well. Long live the First Great Crescent Emperor!


 * པཱཋརུ ཨོརཤིཁིཉ, གིཝཱ པཱཋཚཱདཽ, རཽལཡུ ཌྷཱམ པཱཋཽརུབཱཥིསེ. ཚཱམཻ པཱཋཋེརཽ གིཝརུསཱམགུནི, ཊིན པཱཋ གོཤུརཽ པཱཋརུཨཽཋུལཝཱསོཝ. པཱཋརུདཻ, སཱམགུཡུཝོ, པཱཋསཽཡིཉཽ, པཱཋཋེརཽཊེ ཡཽརུཨེ ཚཱདེཕིཝལཽསོཝ ཊིན. པཱཋརུ, ཝུལཽཊེ ཊི ཚཱདེཥིཨུལིཉསཱརིནི, ཝུལཽ དུ པཱཋཌྷུཤཽ ཚཱདེཨུལིཉཨཻཋུདཽསོཝསེཉཊིཝ. མུགཡེཋ ཚཱནིསེནགཝོསོཝ!

Offspring
With Lady Nawni (married 268 - 274, her death)
 * Unnamed boy (Spring 269), died in infancy.
 * Lady Mowru (September 271 - November 207), became an acolyte at the Aibiginu Temple. Died without offspring.

With Lady Bowu (married 279 - 311, his death)
 * Prince Pawn (180 - 224), reigned Emperor Gwuthaw (311-324). Died without offspring.
 * Princess Ercwi (181 - 239), married Yiwru of Trawden, Dai of Reshan. Had offspring.
 * Princess Gorsow (183 - 223), married Wemengseng of Dawsang, Dai of Amgwai. Had offspring.
 * Prince Awlyul (185 - 225), married Cawl of Rinui, Dai of Pawsai. Had offspring.
 * Princess Ninfi (191 - 237), reigned as Empress Fawsing (324-337). Had offspring.

Illegitimate children:
 * Sencwi Wezi (287 - 338), son of Lady Cilong. Became an important military general.
 * Sencwi Ren (288 - 375), son of Lady Cilong. Became a Trangruist monk, and later the Trangfiwl of the Imperial Palace.
 * Sencwi Themyel (290 - 310), daughter of Lady Besash. Became a lady-in-waiting of Princess Gorsow; married General Dawsang Ginucaw (younger brother of Dai Wemengseng and brother-in-law of Princess Gorsow), died aged 23.
 * Sencwi Haiyi (294 - 341), daughter of a court lady by the name of Riyang. Married a fisherman from Bagwasow.
 * Sencwi Sunggi (299 - 361), daughter of Suwitrowng Qebai, the youngest daughter of Suwitrowng Yelzi, Ni's Master of Coins (secretary of the imperial arks). Sunggi lived in the Cifiyawle Residence alongside her mother. She never married, and became a teacher in Buyaicu.

It's rumored the Emperor had many other sons and daughters, but he never officially recognized any of them. This can be chiefly due to their mothers being commoners or women that were outside the Emperor's social sphere, which could have resulted in controversies the new monarch preferred to avoid. He did pay allowance to some of his children, it's said, as the Emperor was reported often sending money to women outside the palace grounds.

Illegitimate children of the Emperor bore the surname Sencwī (སེནཊཝི lit. "Child of the Crescent"), created especially for illegitimate children of the Crescent Sovereign. The surname remains in use even today; the last Crescent Emperor to have an illegitimate child was Emperor Wamshishuw in 781. However, other illegitimate children born into the Imperial Family have used Sencwī as their surnames in more recent times, to avoid using the Ath name which would be customary, but would also be considered an offense against the Imperial Family.

Titles

 * 251 - 279: Lord Engshu of Ath.
 * 279 - 286: Lord Dai of Sengor.
 * 286 - 311: His Imperial Majesty the 1st Crescent Emperor.