Eastern Association

The Eastern Association was a vast, comparatively isolated political formation whose communities joined the West when a threat from the heavens demanded cooperation, yet preserved distinctive regional institutions after the War of the Landing. Its history traces a gradual, uneven incorporation into the Aishidi’tat: the East remained outside the mainland’s general guild system, even as its Assassins’ Guild maintained a limited affiliation with Shejidan, until Ilisidi’s marriage to the ruler in Shejidan brought the territory into the larger polity.

Territory and Formation

Headed by Malguri from the time of the War of the Landing, the Eastern Association occupied a vast territory separated from the West by the continental divide and the storms of the Eastern Ocean. Its small clans and three cultures united with the West for the first time in response to the threat from the heavens. That alliance did not erase the East’s distinct character: after the Treaty of the Landing, as before it, Easterners continued to hunt, fish, and practice crafts.

The Association belonged to a wider political landscape built from regional alliances. Such associations could gather clans around shared interests, but historically they were often temporary arrangements that broke apart in bitter conflict. The East’s wartime unity was therefore a significant act of cooperation, although the evidence emphasizes the region’s continued separateness rather than a complete merger of its institutions with those of the West.

A Regional Exception to the Guild System

Unlike the rest of the Aishidi’tat, the East had not developed the guilds that organized much of mainland society. The Assassins’ Guild was the exception, taking root there during the War of the Landing. Eastern members established their own training, guild hall, and operations, rather than relying on the West to build or direct the organization for them.

The Eastern Assassins’ Guild affiliated with the Guild in Shejidan on restricted terms. It permitted certain of its own members to be assigned by the Shejidan Guild, but did not allow outsiders to enter. Its members were described as capable and impeccably honest, and their reputation made them much sought after. Recruitment was easy in the East because of widespread poverty. This selective connection gave the Eastern organization access to the larger Guild’s assignments without surrendering control over its own membership or admitting outside personnel.

Incorporation into the Aishidi’tat

The Association remained otherwise separate from the Aishidi’tat’s guild system until Ilisidi, aiji in Malguri, was courted by the aiji in Shejidan. Through the marriage, Ilisidi brought the vast eastern territory into the Aishidi’tat. Political incorporation thus came through a personal and dynastic alliance, not through the prior spread of the West’s guild institutions across the region.

Ilisidi continued to voice her own positions after joining the larger polity. Among the causes she supported were opposition to human presence and industrial encroachment, environmental protection, and concern over the unresolved situation on the west coast facing Mospheira. Her independent agenda marked the limits of any simple account of the East’s absorption: joining the Aishidi’tat did not make its influential eastern ruler politically interchangeable with the powers of Shejidan.

Independence and Political Significance

After being widowed, Ilisidi maintained a considerable bodyguard, larger than that of any other lord in either the East or the West. She refused to give up her young son to the aiji’s maternal grandfather, retained control of the Bujavid, and made herself aiji-regent after failing to win acceptance as aiji in fact. She also refused to leave Shejidan while keeping an iron hold on Malguri. Her authority and large guard continued well into her son’s majority, extending her influence across the East and preserving her independence despite opposition from powers in Shejidan.

The Eastern Association therefore represents both a regional exception and an expanding political connection. Its distinct cultures and lack of general guild institutions persisted alongside its wartime alliance and eventual membership in the Aishidi’tat. The Eastern Assassins’ Guild shows how that relationship could be selective, allowing cooperation across the divide while keeping outsiders out; Ilisidi’s incorporation of the East made the wider polity larger without dissolving the region’s separate political weight.