Higara, the Opal Empire, is a temperate sliver of land on the easternmost edge of Orden. To the west lies Khemhara, the Infinite Desert. To the east, the Great Sea.
The men of the Opal Empire are known as the Jō-yoi. Theirs is a highly feudal society in many ways a mirror of Vasloria. Their society is more rigid and more highly caste-based than any other in Orden. The noblemen never giving the peasants even a glance.
They dress ornately in long flowing robes, and take as much care and practice in waging war, as writing poetry, as forging steel. As a result, theirs in the strongest steel in Orden. They have the greatest duelists in Orden, and because their land is so narrow, and their livelihood as a people intertwined with the sea, they are the second-best sailors, after the Riojans.
The Empress[]
A knight/samurai of one of the Great Houses.
Their queen is the Immortal Empress who rules the Seven Great Houses across the centuries. Under her palace, the source of her power; the Emperor Naga, progenitor and sleeping god of all Naga. She is anointed by its acolytes and their ministrations give her immortality. She keeps the great houses scheming and plotting against each other.
The Four Elements[]
In meditation, each man attempts to embody one of the four elements of Jō-yoi philosophy, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.
There exists also an elusive fifth element, similar to the Vanir concept of Wyrd, which the Higaran call Ukiyo – "It is what makes things alive. And at the same time, it is the fact that all life feeds on death. It is death within living, and the destiny of the living to die."