Editing Tales of Perpetual Peace/JianghuLoresheets (section)

===The Great Clans===
The Xin are not, and never have been, a monolithic power in Shen Zhou; they have long depended upon the support of several Clans from different regions to support their reign, and often to act as their proxies in matters of local administration.  The Clans who have given their support to the Dynasty most unsparingly have been rewarded for it -- their daughters are taken in as Imperial Consorts (none can remember the last Empress who was not of one of the Great Clans), their younger sons are given choice assignments in the military or the bureaucracy, and, as long as taxes are paid, storehouses are filled, and laborers delivered, they are mostly left alone in their own territory to do as they wish.<br>
<br>
But these Clans are not only forces in the halls of government, but in the world of the Jianghu, as well.  In addition to the two listed above (the Yun and the Yue), the following are the five most prominent of the Great Clans.  
====Bei Clan====
Lords of the Northern Marches, the Bei are often derided for customs and bloodlines that have been shaped by the Steppes they patrol.  They nevertheless are the most reliable sources of horseflesh in the Empire, and few cavalry units in Shen Zhou don't feature a Bei Clan officer.
====Li Clan====
The current Great Clans are not the only ones the Xin era has seen; old Clans have fallen away, and new ones arise.  One of the original Clans to enjoy the favor of the Xin, the Li are in danger of falling into irrelevance.  These days they have little but their names and an honorable history to support them.
====Shu Clan====
The Shu are the rising star to the waning Li.  They have gone from a minor clan of the southern hills to a major force in the halls of power thanks to mineral-rich mines and a shrewd and ambitious patriarch.  Few know what to make of them, but none ignore them any longer.
====Wei Clan====
Merchants have always occupied the lowest strata of society in Shen Zhou; they neither produce, nor protect, nor rule, but instead profit by the work of others.  That's the ideology, anyway.  The Wei, whose power rests entirely on their shrewd mercantile investments and operations, give the lie to that theory. 
====Zhao Clan====
The Zhao were only a generation ago the greatest of the Great Clans, but what appeared at the time to be a crowning glory -- the Fifteenth Emperor's choice of one of their young princesses as Empress, followed by her Regency in the wake of the Emperor's suicide  -- turned into ruin in the reaction to the Dowager Empress's Regency.  The Zhao retain the formal rights of their station, but they are virtual pariahs among high society.