All this week, I've been showcasing the aristocratic background lenses that came in second. Today, I can show you what came in first: the Shinjurai Royal Family.
You can check them out here.
I was pleasantly surprised to see them top the list, though doubtless Mina Shinjurai (who appeared in Tinker Titan Rebel Spy) and the artwork for the Shinjurai Princess helped feed interest. To me, most of the other aristocrats are fairly obvious outgrowths of what we already know about the setting: we know there is nobility and maradonian aristocracy, and we know there are imperials, and we know there are Ranathim (who presumably have their own aristocracy), but I don't talk too much about the Shinjurai except to discuss them in passing in Neo-Rationalism, so it was interesting to have a chance to explore this fairly unique element of the setting.
One feedback I got early from the Disciples was "Why so much detail?" The argument wasn't that it was "too much" (when I came back with even more detail, nobody shot it down), rather, why have the Shinjurai
at all? They're just the royalty of a single planet, on par with the Pelian nobility or some Asrathi lord. Why go into so much detail?
Well, there's a few reasons. First, as I discussed in my
setting design manifesto, settings should be fractal, and doing at least three of every fractal thing creates a real sense of choice. And so, humanity has been split into three: the Maradonian branch, who act as "space fantasy" and act as the
de facto rulers of the setting, the Westerly branch, who act as the "space Westerns" with their cowboys and their "Native Americans," their asteroid miners and their ancient tribal practices. Together, we can see "high society" and "barbaric hinterlands." The Shinjurai represent the "Third way," the "space as science fiction" element of the setting. The Westerly are too fragmented to offer a single, cohesive aristocracy; if they "ruled the Galaxy," they would do it as a thousand little domains. The Shinjurai, by contrast, represent a real alternative to the Maradonian way for galaxy-spanning dominion, as they ruled the Galaxy once before Alexus Rex, and the modern Valorian Empire, who at least gives lip service to their philosophies.
The Shinjurai royal family represent one linchpin for this sense of unity. They are a single thing that all Shinjurai across the Galaxy can point to and say "We believe in that," similar to how Australians, Canadians, and all other members of the British Commonwealth can point to the British Royal Family. They're a symbol of unity among a disunited people, and a symbol of hope that, perhaps, in the future, they could rise to their former place.
This gives them, to me at least, an interesting tension. They are, in the eyes of many, the people who should be the most powerful people in the Galaxy, but they are some of the least powerful of all the aristocrats shown thus far. They don't have secret occult oaths, or the legacy of a millennia of psychic engineering. They have only
tradition and
knowledge. They use their soft power to achieve their ends, while being held hostage by the Maradonian nobility and their own people. They represent a repudiation of Maradonian aristocracy that, themselves, attend the courts and senates of the Maradonian Alliance. They are chained kings, or bound princesses, if you will.
I also think it's important to have a "dark horse" in your setting. A setting should have obvious high-points. In Psi-Wars, that's the Empire vs the Alliance, Templars vs Tyrants. You know about princesses and space knights and commandos and fighter aces, and that's fine. A setting should have these. But there should also be something that rewards the player that digs a little deeper, something that's not actually part of the primary struggle of the setting, but still very interesting. In Star Wars, this might be the Mandalorians or the Nightsisters; in Warhammer 40k, that might be the Tau. In Psi-Wars, this is exemplified by the Shinjurai, who bring an entirely different vibe with them, but one that still fits in the larger themes of the setting. So, if you want to play as something a little different in Psi-Wars, the Shinjurai offer an interesting option for it.
