Twelve Kingdoms: Interview with the Translator, The Kirin or Taiho

Kate: The Kizan/Kirin seem to be rather like Shakespeare’s court jesters—the oddballs who are allowed to speak “truth to power.” 

It is never stated but it is implied that the kirin’s personality may have something to do with who gets chosen as emperor/empress for a kingdom. So the kirin for Kei has a tendency to pick self-effacing women, which is a mistake with the previous empress but a goldmine with Youko. The kirin of En has a penchant for rogues/outside-the-box thinkers. The kirin of Sai is completely taken in by the idealism of the emperor who eventually abdicates.

Is this possibility (kirin’s personality=choice) ever addressed? Is it a chicken-egg issue? Kirin speaks the Divine Will, and the Divine Will wishes a certain kingdom to have a certain type of leader, so the kirin who is born is the kind of kirin who will chose that type of person; however, should the chosen emperor/empress fail to live up to the Divine Will, either mutual death ensues or the kirin has to start over and do better the next time?

Eugene: It depends on the kirin. I've been struck as well by the idea that a kirin tends to pick a particular kind of emperor or empress. Keiki essentially kept marrying the same woman until he found Youko. Hills of Silver Ruins goes into this in greater depth. Heaven is doing the nudging, but Taiki takes it upon himself to see how far he can push back against those nudges, as does Rousan, who turns into a kind of Q character (with the immortality but not the omnipotence). She can't resist experimenting with the limits and conditions that Heaven imposes.

Taiki discovers that he can ignore those nudges, even when they are as subtle as a punch in the nose. Of course, if he goes too far, he'll get the shitsudou and die. Up to that point, aside from violating the Prime Directive, kirin and emperors have a considerable amount of leeway.

The kirin is the province lord (governor) of the capital province, and as such, commander of the Provincial Guard of that province, which constitutes half of the Imperial Army. 

Again, what the kirin actually does depends on his personality. Keiki is very hands on, a Gladstone to Youko's Victoria. Enki, on the other hand, delegates most of his responsibilities, as does Shouryuu. Enki seems more interested in running the equivalent of MI6, while Taiki spends much of Hills of Silvers Ruins taking back his political powers as province lord.

Gladstone was known as "The People's William" because of his popularity amongst the working class. The kirin are by nature said to represent the commoners, something Taiki is well-nigh obsessed with.