Seishen Kingdom

The Seishen Kingdom is a vassal state to the Akura Family. It is located directly across the southern border of the Blackflame Empire. Characters from the Seishen Kingdom play a key role in book 6 Underlord and book 8, Wintersteel. They also play a small role at the beginning of 9, Bloodline

Location

The Seishen Kingdom is just over the southern border of the Blackflame Empire. The southern jungles and a river serve to separate the two lands. Emperor Naru Huan and his uncle Naru Gwei of the Skysworn Force know that the Seishen king is covetous of Blackflame lands. They worry about the safety of the entire empire.

The attacks from the Trackless Sea up north had intensified, the wall that defended them broken by the Dreadgod’s rampage. To the east, the Wastelanders were having a difficult time holding back the dragons, and beyond the southern jungles, the Seishen Kingdom eyed his lands. The Empire his mother had saved from the Blackflame family was now webbed with cracks. One firm tap could send it all crumbling to pieces. Over a hundred million people would divide into a thousand splinter kingdoms, all at war with one another. (Underlord ch 3)

Key Characters

Details lifted from Underlord, ch 5

• King Dakata — “The King had united this kingdom through the force of his own personal sword, and he looked like it: he was built like a castle wall and reminded Kiro of an aging bear.”
• Prince Seishen Kiro — Underlord. First-born, heir to the throne. “He had inherited his father's size, but fortunately he had a somewhat more graceful appearance. He thought so, at least.”
• Prince Seishen Daji — Truegold. The spare hier, two years younger than Kiro. He looked more like a wolf than a bear. A bad-tempered wolf. Ambitious. Reckless. Prideful. More than anything else, Daji craved combat, and he never did anything to hide that. Jealous and competitive regarding his older brother. He was two years younger than Kiro, but the fact that he was only Truegold burned him.
• Riyusai Meira - Underlady. Twenty years old. “The real strongest young Underlord in the Kingdom—and maybe among all the Akura’s vassal states—stood behind him, tending to the trees.” She is the gardener, an unexpectedly powerful sacred artist born into a servant family. She’s in love with Prince Kiro.

Path

The royal Seishen family follows the Path of the Steel Guardian. It uses earth/force madra. Artists develop the Mountainroot Iron body . The family Goldsign is a Silver Breastplate.

Tournament Selection

With the upcoming worldwide Uncrowned King Tournament in mind, Akura Charity invited the Blackflame Emperor Naru Huan and the Seishen King Dakata to send their best possible tournament contenders to compete for sacred treasures at Night Wheel Valley. This is her own training grounds, rich in vital aura, where advancement is more likely to occur.

“As the two weakest vassal states under our protection, you will compete with each other for the valley’s bounty. By the time summer comes, I will select the three young Lords and Ladies that will serve us in this tournament. (Underlord ch 3)

Charity’s Dark Plot

Charity set up the competition to help her select tournament contenders, but also with darker intentions. She encouraged the Seishen contenders to single out Wei Shi Lindon (Arelius) because she thought he deserved it, because he was involved in the death of Akura Harmony on Ghostwater.

Charity said, tone dry. “In fact, there is a young man—a Truegold—who was recently involved in the death of my own grand-nephew.” (Underlord, ch 5)

Spoilers Below!!! ⚠️ Spoiled!

SPOILERS at Night Wheel Valley

See book 6, Underlord. SPOILERS!!

As a result of Charity’s manipulations, Wei Shi Lindon Arelius, only a Truegold, had to defend himself against several serious attacks by the Seishen contenders. It was Lindon versus two Underlords and one Truegold. He did get some help from his friends, but they weren’t Lords yet either.

In the end, Lindon advanced to Underlord, as did Akura Mercy. Eventually, so did Yerin, whose life-line had been cut.

Prince Kiro died in Night Wheel Valley. King Dakata and Underlady Meira deeply mourn his loss. Prince Daji seeks vengeance at any cost.

Prince Daji hates Lindon and Akura Mercy and Yerin Arelius for their involvement in his brother’s death. More, he hates them for his own conceited reasons — for outclassing and upstaging him in Night Wheel Valley. He hates the entire Akura Family — especially the scheming Sage — for her role in events, and for selecting zero tournament contestants from his clan.

SPOILERS at Sky’s Edge

See book 8, Wintersteel.

Prince Daji tries to kill Lindon at Sky’s Edge, a wintersteel mining community west of Sacred Valley. Underlady Meira stops him. Still mourning Kiro, she tries to protect his father from shame to the Seishen kingdom.

Finally, Daji conspires with the scheming lion Monarch Reigan Shen, who arranges for Dreadgod cult Lords to ambush the young generation of the Akura Family. So Daji opens a portal and zaps Mercy, Pride, and others in her family to a secluded murder scene. Young Akura Grace and several cousins die. While Eithan Arelius holds off the Blood Sage, Mercy’s younger brother Akura Pride and Underlady Naru Saeya are badly injured. Lindon arrives in time to save their lives, and to kill their attackers. He also kills dragon Overlady Sopharanatoth before she can finish killing Mercy. He manifests a Sage Icon during the battle with the gold dragon. He also takes her void key to the Dawn Sky palace.

Consequences SPOILER

After the ambush, Prince Daji went into hiding, but the Akura family found him. They brought him to trial, with his father and Meira. Akura Mercy presided over the trial. Lindon testified that he saw Daji open the portal for the ambush. Daji lied, protesting innocence. He said Lindon lied to shame him, so Mercy called for a duel between them. Lindon beat him to a pulp. Daji was carted away to some dark Akuran prison. (See Bloodline)