Sacred Eight
The Sacred Eight were eight war leaders during Sun Dynasty Laeral who were gifted deeds of land and feudal lordships by Emperor Sun Liang along the Sun Empire's southeastern border to guard it from incursions by enemy warlords. Initially proclaimed by Emperor Sun Liang in 1548, on the 20th anniversary of his rule, the system of border fortification by the descendants of the Sacred Eight would persist until the 1620s, when Emperor Sun Zhan brought the Cheyu "barbarians" to heel in the Cheyu Conquest.
History
During the early decades following the establishment of Sun Dynasty Laeral, the empire faced threats of foreign invasion from numerous directions. While Emperor Sun Liang's conquests subdued the Haemin satrapies to the north and the rival Hejun kingdom to the southwest (notably through the Conquest of Miaoshi in 1538), the territory known as Cheyu (modern-day Corday, Sarene, and Felliere provinces) was inhabited by hostile Cheyu nomads, referred to as barbarians in contemporary texts. From the Cheyu territory, clans of nomadic raiders would threaten the farmlands around Jinyu and even the outskirts of Miaoshi, which held immense significance as the home of the Minjian Faith. They would typically seek to steal herds of grazing livestock, food, and portable valuables.
As the territory's low-lying and marshy terrain favored the agile Cheyu raiders while rendering it unprofitable for farming, the emperor sought instead to neutralize the threat of Cheyu raids by constructing defenses along the western bank of the Espoir River.
Aging after twenty years on the throne, Emperor Sun Liang, on the occasion of his birthday in 1548, named eight of his trusted generals as feudal lord of eight baronies along the Espoir River's western bank and the plains to the south, in the "Sacred Eight" Proclamation. In return for title and the right to rule these territories as feudal lords, these 'Sacred Eight' would maintain fortified strongholds and cohorts of at least 80 mounted soldiers apiece.
The eight sacred baronies (namely: Far Eastern Qiuhuan, Eastern Qiuhuan, Central Qiuhuan, Northern Qiuhuan, Western Qiuhuan, Eastern Fudong, Central Fudong, and Western Fudong) served as an effective method of deterring Cheyu raids.