Foundation of the Four Houses

[AstroNerdBoy]

I was reading something someone wrote whereby they stated that the four Houses of Jurai were at war at some point. This is the first I'm hearing about this. So is this correct in the canon?

Also, don't all proper Juraians belong to one of the four Houses?

[WaitoKon]

Your guess is good as anyone's, as it was expanded upon in the True Tenchi novels. However, there is a slim chance that the fleets attacking the Choushin during OVA 3 were ancient Jurain back from the brink of exile, but they were using vastly different tech.

[Eff Efferson]

so far out of cannon that one could almost asume it was shot out of one. the base assumption behind this is a falacy inherently adressed in cannon. the falacy being that the royal family of jurai have any power of their own other then their individual combat skills. they do not. the trees have the power and are the actual rulers the royal family is just their friends and this is why despite being proven a traitor syuzan is still considered family and royalty because the trees pick whose royalty not the family. so the family can't go to war with one another in any capacity other then personal hand to hand combat and espionage. the trees would potentially cease their backing of them entirely if they did don't you think?

[WaitoKon]

    How / why would the Jurains cultivate intelligent super-trees if it meant all political / diplomatic matters were relegated to them, that is, something with an entirely different nervous system?

[antvasima]

Because Jurai would be almost powerless without them, or at least not anywhere near the dominant power in the universe.

[WaitoKon]

There has to be more to it than just 'oh the trees have Sith powers now' and we just do janitorial work around the base of them.

[antvasima]

Well, the trees are also generally friendly as far as I have understood.

[Nonsuch Ned]

The Amame/ Kazuki story seems to support that even "Regular" Juraians are powerful on their own. Just some drunk on the street taking the GP officer out.

And isn't Kanamitsu Hirata "just a regular Juraian?" Smart, capable, fleet commander (in his wife's place)... but there's no mention of him being paired with a tree or having an Amaki or Kamiki Jurai name (the most likely).

[takahata]

The House of Amaki did have  a bitter rivalry with the House of Masaki.  The bitter rivalry between the two Houses can considered to be a feud.  By the time of War of Geminar, the rivalry between the House of Amaki and the House is no longer bitter. The rivalry is a friendly one.  There is a chance that a marriage arrangement between the House of Amaki and the House of Masaki has help to end the bitter rivalry between the two houses.  There is a mior problem with the marriage arrangement.

[Nonsuch Ned]

... this is why despite being proven a traitor syuzan is still considered family and royalty because the trees pick whose royalty not the family...

How was he proven a traitor? Skeevy, probably should be punished for not properly defending against Ryoko, but why a traitor?

I recently removed the bits in the wiki about him  being Mitsuki's father and being the traitor taking her info and causing the assassination attempt. The official translation clearly says that her father was a foreign born spy (with a slight plot hole about never explaining what happened to him) and that Shuzan was her nephew and kept in the dark about what really happened and believes she really did conspire with Azusa's uncle. (Actually a pretty good reason for hating the Masakis). That one-shot Doujin with the house info shows he was just a kid when she was apparently a teenager.

If he was a traitor, he certainly would have been exiled, like Amame's brother was. Like Mitsuki was going to be if her life wasn't dependent on the trees. Being exiled seems to be a pretty common punishment even for those with trees.


But yeah, being at "war" seems far-fetched. I wouldn't be surprised if there was conflict in their pirate days and would be interested in more foundation stories.
Why are there even four houses? The First Emperor found Tsunami alone, apparently.
Why bring in the other pirate factions on your find? (Well, other than the Masakis not really enjoying the responsibility and wanting someone to take it from them)
How ARE they even related in the first place?
I'd guess the Jurai pirates were made of smaller pirate groups, with the four houses being the largest.
...Actually, come to think of it, Paradise War may actually be based off Jurai's founding. A nation made of pirate groups, with 4 groups being the most powerful and leading the smaller ones. Neat.

[Eff Efferson]

i really dropped the ball there the grammer of that section got me.

[Nonsuch Ned]

More musings. We're working on the Family Tree on the wiki.
Both of the old family trees have the 4 houses SEPARATING from the first emperor. AS if he were the origin of all of them. I work more on the premise that there were always four houses from the beginning. That, while The First Emperor was from the Masaki family, the Jurai pirates that colonized the planet were from 4.
...I may be very wrong. I kind of base it off the fact that the Emperor's sister was Masaki Jurai... but I guess The Masaki House could be one of four that took her name as their family name.
I also like how Paradise War seems to be an analogy for how I imagine Jurai was founded.

Other related question... why did Masaki have a Treeship? She left BEFORE her brother found Jurai. Did she find it first and cut and run with a treeship?

I've also held a sneaking suspicion (completely a theory) that Earth has an unknown connection to Jurai that predates Masaki settling there. Like the reason it copied Dual's Earth so completely is that a seed from the precursor powered the transformation or something.

[WaitoKon]

Sounds about right. Given the four houses that broke off from a singular primordial imperial dynasty of a sort, I wonder if Kajishima-san has allocated a bulk of the 4 most recent GXP light novels to developing this further. Considering, in particular, Barigru's explanation of the origin of magic as prehistoric (vol 17); then obviously there is Kiriko's heritage skirted upon (vol 16); the Dual! insert ZINV (vol 15); lastly Washu's explanation to Seina about a staggering long line of ancestors (vol 14). I look forward to seeing where volume 18 picks up.