Qilinia



Qilinia (Qilinian: Qilingok, meaning "Qilin country") is a country in southern Pyrisia. Its capital is the city of Cantonlot.

Its population is primarily made up of Qilins.

Demographics
Rural Qilinian lands have shacks built atop of trees, connected by rope bridges, as well as shacks at the bottom of trees as well.

Urban Qilinian lands are very different though. They have rows of narrow tenements with shops at the ground level as well as balconies. The window frames, fences and railings are famed for their ornate designs.

Stilt houses at coastal urban Qilinian lands are also a thing, specially in algae and pearl farming areas as well as near ports and shipyards. These houses may only have one floor and are typically built out of wood.

Society
Traditionally, Qilinian society has been divided into four classes: farmers, merchants, artisans and scholars. The scholar class is made up of government officials, philosophers and professors.

Industrialization has seen the rise of a new class of "low scholars" who aren't as educated as the "high scholars" but perform jobs that require an education and require more workers than the scholar class can provide.

Politics


The current leader of Qilinia is Empress Eternal Spring, who succeeded Emperor Winter Breeze.

Eternal Spring is prophesized to bring a period of growth and blossoming.

Government
Qilinia is an absolute monarchy where emperors design an heir to succeed them. Other government positions are filled by a strict system of examinations which all potential candidates are required to pass.

The examinations measure the skills and knowledge of candidates on philosophy, history, literature, art, music, magic, geometry and calligraphy.

Because of the examinations, Qilinia has been sometimes described as a noocracy, although common criticisms of the system include the lack of flexibility of the content of the examinations to adapt to new knowledge, or the lack of relevance of some examination subjects to the jobs that are fulfilled by them.

Qilinia's political factions include a traditionalist one that defends the current system and a reformist or technocratic one that advocates for changing the examination system to focus only on matters related to the role the candidate aims to fulfill. Other factions include a democratic one which aims for the creation of institutions to put imperial power in check.

Diplomacy
Qilinia's relations with Equestria have been considered strained since the Equestrian-Qilinian war.

Military


Qilins are notoriously pacifist. The Qilinian army is small and mostly ceremonial and it sees little use in actual battle besides fending off invasions.

Qilins have a mastery of passive defenses as well as incendiary and explosive weapons. Pole arms and crossbows are common features in their army.

Qilinian armies have a helmet and a blanket that covers the back and drapes over to the side made of iron and bronze plates riveted together.

An important feature of the Qilinian navy is tarasque ships. Those ships are built to look like tarasques, covered in metal plates with spikes and with a metallic tarasque head in the front with holes for the eyes, nostrils and mouth which is used to shoot fire.

Tarasque ships are efficient in naval combat against wooden ships. They're hard to board due to the plates and can shoot cannons and fire in most directions.

Currency
The modern currency used in Qilinia is called Bi (币).

Historically, Qilins used bronze tools as currency. As iron replaced bronze as tool material, bronze continued being used for minting coins, being still established as a valuable metal.

However, the demand for tin outstripped supply and the tin percentage of the coins went down until it was decided to mint net coins in copper instead. Eventually, silver coins were introduced as well.

Later on, "paper coins" were introduced as a convenience, which represented an amount of money stored in the coffers of the empire and were given out as a pay to state employees to be cashed in coins whenever. This not only made paying more convenient, but also made it so that the state could pay its employees even if it didn't have all the money right away.

These paper coins were the predecessor of the paper bill.

Units
See Units of measurement

Culture
Traditional Qilinian crafts include works with lacquer, jade and porcelain.

Qilinian cuisine is largely based on rice, soy and algae. Qilinians are opposed to keeping livestock and consuming animal products.

Due to proximity to Dragon lands, Qilinians have a close relationship with the dragons and Dragons are commonly featured in their art.

Qilinian names are often based on meteorology, such as weather events and seasons.

Qilinian philosophy values peace, social order, work and virtue.

The practice of leyfielding is common in Qilinia.

The Great Wall
The Great Wall is a long tall wall built across the Qilin isthmus northeast of the country.

It was built after an invasion from the Silver Horde to fend off future land invasions from the country which usually fares worse at naval invasions.

The Stone Army
The Stone Army consists of a large amount of Qilinian soldiers petrified with a petrification spell to eternally guard the tomb of emperor Golden Autumn.

Ancient Qilinians hoped that if a way of reversing magical petrification was discovered in the future, the army could be resurrected and defend the emperor's place of eternal rest from would-be tomb looters.

History
See also Timeline.