The Races of Chan-la

by Jeff Crook
January 15, 2001

The Fong:

The Fong are a vigorous people, superb horsemen and fierce warriors, skilled in the arts of war. Their armies were trained to fight as one, to obey without question the commands of their celestial generals, and to give their lives without fear. No army could stand before them, for they alone knew the secret of gunpowder. Their armies employed the flintlock musket and the bronze cannon, and only members of the Fong military classes or the elite Fong social classes could own these terrible weapons.

The Fong are lovers of technology and crafts, being great admirers of ingenious devices. They are forgers of armor and swords, builders of siege engines, and of course, the inventors of the musket, the pistol, and the cannon. But they never till the soil and farm; Fong are herdsmen and hunters.

Though they were conquerors, the Fong were not necessarily unjust. The Ling emperor held supreme power, with various generals, governors and prelates keeping regional order. Fong justice was swift, cruel, and for the most part blind. In the imperial court, a Fong was just as likely to be beheaded for an offense as a Chan or a Xao, though racial prejudice and favoritism was not uncommon in the provinces. However, the rulership of what remains of the empire is now in doubt.

Individually, the Fong are the shortest of the three races of Chan-la, both males and females averaging from four-and-a-half to five feet tall. In general, males possess more body and facial hair than their Chan or Xao counterparts, and they have skin even darker than the Xao. They dress in reds and blacks of whatever material is common to the area. Most Fong also wear a pon - a type of leather vest which is worn by both sexes, and the djer - a round crown-shaped hat of black felt with a tassel of horsehair. Many Fong males also sport long mustaches which droop to either side of the mouth.

A subpopulation of the Fong is the Shinta - the knightly aristocracy. They are the Fong nobility and are the only people who could legally ride horses before the Cataclysm. Few, if any horses, survived. Only a full-blooded Fong can inherit the title of Shinta warrior, though most Fong can claim, at the very least, ancestral ties to the Shinta. Before the Cataclysm, even those who could not ride horses themselves often kept and revered horses belonging to the family lineage. The emperor encouraged this, as it kept a large number of cavalry mounts readily available for his armies, but at no expense to himself.

The other military class of the Fong is the Kang - the imperial army. The Kang was once the military might of the Chan, and the Imperial city, Kangdao, was first a Kang fortress. Chan-la was conquered by the Fong horse-warriors, led by the Shinta. A Fong-controlled Kang was rebuilt after Chan-la was won.

Other than the Shinta, only a Kang could own a firearm of any sort. Any non-noble found in possession of firearms or gunpowder who could not prove his membership in the Kang was subject to arrest and execution. The secret of making gunpowder was a closely-guarded imperial secret, known only to a select few. It is feared that the those in possession of the secret may not have survived the Cataclysm, so complete was the destruction. In the past, the Kang maintained total control of the traffic in firearms and gunpowder. Suriving weapon and gunpowder stores may yet be discovered, but who will ultimately control them remains to be seen.

The Chan:

For two thousand years, the Chan ruled Chan-la virtually unchallenged. The dynasty gave its name both to the land (Chan-la, Land of the Chan) and to its people. Their civilization, built on the ruins of ancient Xao, grew to spectacular heights. The pottery of Ying, the philosophy of Dhao, the poetry of Sun - all are regarded as the highest achievements in the arts, even by the Fong.

The Chan represent a wide range in appearance and body type, distinguishable from region to region. The northern Chan tend to be smaller and thinner, while the southern Chan, though no taller than their northern relatives, average as much as 40 pounds heavier. The mountain Chan of the eastern provinces are the tallest of all the Chan. On average, Chan range from five to five-and-a-half feet tall. Styles of clothing, hairstyles, footwear, and jewelry vary from province to province. Among the Chan, provincial pride runs deep and is taken very seriously by most.

Regional differences often determine physical appearance, style of dress, spiritual preferences, and even the types of food they prefer to eat. Though in most cases the Fong and Xao remain culturally much the same no matter where they originate, some of these regional influences have crept into their own racial cultures, marking them as belonging to a region almost as surely as it does a Chan.

Long ago, the Chan perfected the principles of qigung. In the centuries following their victory over the Xao, many Chan began to study the qigung techniques used by Xao sorcerers to power their magic spells. At one monastery at the village of Lohan in Shiquan province, a Xao sorcerer named Ginhai developed what would become the foundation of qigung. Qigung is a system of meditation, breathing, and physical exercises whereby the qi, or life force, is developed and stored within the body, to be focused through the body and directed to certain purposes, such as magic. The physical movements used by Ginhai to focus his qi were expanded into the first boxing system or style, called Shiquan boxing, from which all subsequent boxing styles were developed.

Before the Cataclysm, only a full-blooded Chan was allowed to join the monastery at Lohan, or for that matter any of the other monasteries where boxing was taught. Today, all the monasteries are called Lohan monasteries or temples, though each has its regional name, like Huwai Lohan Temple. The monks are called Lohan monks or priests, or simply Lohan. Lohan is not the only place to learn boxing, but it is considered by many to be the source of true boxing. Still, almost every city and village had at least one boxing school, while many cities could boast numerous schools. Some provinces specialize in certain boxing styles, some even have styles named after them, like Hwonuar Golden Eagle Style.

Many Chan long for the return of their dynasty. Before the coming of the dark sun Zhi, they sought to overthrow the Fong emperor and return their hereditary emperor to the Phoenix Throne of Kangdao. The descendants of the Chan emperor live on an island in the western sea, awaiting their return to power, and many mainland Chan continue to secretly revere their emperor as the Son of Heaven.

The Xao:

Once upon a time, the Xao ruled supreme in the river valleys of Chan-la. Each city was an independent state, ruled by its sorcerer-king or witch-queen. The cities were dark, mysterious places, where strange rites to demons were practiced, while the fumes of altar-fires and incense hung perpetually above the rooftops, and spires of temples dedicated to bestial gods challenged the stars for supremacy of the night sky. Eventually, the Xao were conquered by the barbarian Chan from the east. Many Xao fled into the southern jungles, some to perish at the hands of dark tribes, some to carve new realms from the wilderness and enslave the tribes with their magic. When, two thousand years later, the Fong swept down from the eastern steppes, the Xao reemerged from their jungle towers to exact their revenge upon those who had conquered them. They were rewarded by the Fong emperor by being given control of some of their southern cities, but only as vassals of the empire of the Fong.

The Xao are quite different than any of the other races of Chan-la. They are tall, averaging a foot taller than most Chan and Fong people, ranging anywhere from five-and-a-half to six-and-a-half feet in height. Their skin is quite dark, though not as dark as the Fong, and their eyes are almost round, bearing little resemblance to the pronounced almond-shaped eyes of the Chan and Fong. Their hair ranges from light brown to black (black being the most common), but it is often quite curly, in stark contrast to the straight-haired Chan and Fong. Males wear long robes of silk dyed darkest brown or black, and sandals (when they wear any shoes at all), while women wear silks of gold.

The Xao are masters of magic. It was they who first learned to control and direct qi, the life force of the world, channeling it through specially-prepared objects, called talismans, to create their magical spells. The methods of creating talismans, which range from rings, wands, amulets, and potions to armor, swords, and other weapons, are carefully guarded secrets, passed down from master to pupil over the generations. Some of these items are thousands of years old, priceless relics of power hoarded by sorcerers and witches. Every item is specifically designed to create one particular magical effect, so for the mage to cast a particular spell, he must have the time-tested amulet (or other object) needed to focus the qi into the spell.

Although most Xao magicians have learned to control and direct their body's own qi into their spellcasting, some still practice the ancient magic of Xao. Before the great mage Ginhai discovered how to summon and direct the body's own qi, mages of Xao drew upon the qi surrounding them. This was done in a variety of ways, though the most common method required that the life force of another living being be drawn out and channeled to create the spell. Others learned to draw life force directly from their immediate surroundings, but this often led to the devastation of large areas. Both older methods were much more effective than the current method of directing the body's qi into magic, but today the ancient practices are forbidden. Only the newer, internal qi-magic, or true magic, as it is called, is allowed. Still, in remote places and in the decadent cities of the south, one could still find Xao sorcerers practicing the ancient spells.

Only a full-blooded Xao may formally study the deepest mysteries of Xao sorcery, though schools of magic are open to all who wish to learn. These schools teach minor spells and charms. To learn the truly awesome magics of ancient Xao from the revered Xao sorcerers, one must be able to trace one's Xao lineage in an unbroken line from pre-Chan times. This is not as difficult a task as one might suspect, for the Xao are above all a secretive race. Blood relations dominate their society and their affairs. They learn from a very early age to recite the names of their grandfathers and grandfathers' fathers back to the glory of ancient Xao.