A Brief History of Empire

by Jeff Crook
December 18, 2000

In the last episode of The Book of the East Wind – "A Chill Wind Blows" – I pretty much reversed my entire philosophy of how the Qigung world will be revealed to the players. Before, I wanted to limit knowledge about the world of Chan-la in order for the game (and its designer) to survive. My ability to fill the ‘goodies quotient,’ in other words, a constant flow of nifty new things for the players, would be severely tested in a world where everybody comes into the game with OOC knowledge of every spell and boxing style available.

Also, in a world where everyday life is just everyday life, one without any large plots looming like storm clouds on the horizon, players would soon start spending every moment searching out all those spells and styles that they learned about in their Player’s Handbooks. I even addressed this in an internal email – how do you prevent a player from seeking knowledge about the Spell of Massive Slaying, if the knowledge about the spell comes from OOC experience? It seems that such limitations are too difficult to attempt. It needs to be handled in-game, and my solution at the time was to limit all OOC knowledge about the game.

The beauty of the new game scenario is that limited OOC knowledge is now part of the storyline. The world has largely been destroyed, and with it all the people who know how to cast the Spell of Massive Slaying. The survivors of the cataclysm represent the average of human knowledge. I had already instituted a system whereby a skill was rated as common, uncommon, rare, or legendary. At the beginning of Qigung: the Ring of Fire, most characters will only have access to common skills. These include craft and other mundane skills, plus a few boxing and weapons skills. There may be a few characters who know some minor spells.

Over the next few days, and in future articles, I plan to begin to detail some of the more interesting of those skills and how they can be used in game play. The exact mechanical manner in which skills are used is still a bit up in the air, so things are subject to change. But I hope the core concept will remain true.

In any case, it is time to begin revealing the world of Chan-la. The first step is its history. In brief:

This information is general knowledge, often taught to small children by grandparents, priests, or teachers. It is condensed from the introductory chapter of The Book of the East Wind.

The first born of the Tao (the earth) were the titans, who fought with the dragons who came after them. This was before the first people saw the sun, or the eight moons circled the sky. Then gods walked the Tao, the third born. Then came demons, the fourth. Fifth were the devils, sixth the Ancients. Seventh born was the black sun Zhi, harbinger of doom, who was sent spinning into the cosmos when he tried to devour the Tao. Eighth born was man; he arose in the jungles of the south, in the days after Zhi was defeated.

Many ages of man have passed since then. Great civilizations have arisen and fallen, and many of their ways are lost. It is said that in the earliest times, during the first great civilization of man, there was a war between the children of the Tao. The gods stood alone against titans and dragons, demons and devils and ancients. Alone among the children of the Tao, Hing of the dragons sided with the gods, as well as Eru of the ancients. Kirien the demon of bones also cast his lot with the gods. Some men, mighty warriors, fought beside the gods, some against them, but the gods were mightiest and they overcame their enemies. The titans and dragons they locked in the bowels of the Tao, the demons they cast into hell for their lot. Of the ancients and devils, many were slain and many more driven from the land, while those men who had sided against the gods were cast out to wander the steppes as barbarians. And for ten thousand years, the children of the Tao enjoyed peace, a time which is called the reign of the Jade Emperor.

In the latter days of the reign of the Jade Emperor, there arose in the southern jungles a great nation known as the Xao. Mighty were their sorcerers, and their armies had weapons of bronze. Being children of the outcast men who had fought against the gods, they worshipped demons and from them learned much of what has since been lost. They rose up and sent their armies against the Jade Emperor and the men of the golden age. At this time also, the black sun Zhi returned and helped the Xao in their wars against the children of the Tao. At last, the Xao were victorious, but they did not rise up against the gods. Instead, they made peace with them and promised to worship the gods in their proper times and places, and in this the gods were pleased, for they were weary of the world, and they still had yet to drive off their brother, Zhi. So the gods went up into the heavens and there battled Zhi and drove him away at last, and there they remained, circling the Tao as great orbs of light.

The civilization of the Xao waxed mighty. They laid their hands upon all the lands and made the waters their own, from the Shang River in the south to the headwaters of the Wa in the northeast. Their towers rose, sable and vermilion, and in their cities demons stalked.

But in time even they grew lax, secure in their cities, mighty in sorcery. From the tribes of the steppes beyond Tien Shan there came a great hero. His name was Li Chan. It was he who united his people into one nation when the power of the Xao was at its height. His sons and grandchildren strove against the Xao for mastery, while Li Chan was taken into heaven and made a god. When next Zhi darkened the skies, the Chan came with war, and the Xao were defeated. Their cities burned, and the Xao fled into the jungles, back to their barbarian roots.

In time, the empire of the Chan grew greater than any before it, even greater than that of the Jade Emperor. Still, wars tore the land, and dynasties rose and fell. Barbarians harried the borders, and monsters wreaked havoc. In the east, a new great barbarian nation arose, the mighty Fong, the horse warriors. They had discovered the secret of thunder, and with their new weapons they conquered all the tribes of the steppes. Next they turned west and looked with lust upon the endless wealth of the Chan. Generation after generation, the Fong swept through the eastern provinces, but always the Chan drove them back. But in the end the Chan could not withstand the might of the Fong weapons. The Fong thundered in their hordes from the eastern steppes, while the Xao arose from their jungles with their ancient hatreds and great magics. The Chan armies were defeated, their emperor fled to the western islands, and the Fong emperor took his place on the Phoenix throne of Kangdao.

For almost two hundred years, the Fong have ruled through two dynasties. The empire is at peace and its people are prospering. But a shadow hangs over the lands. The black sun Zhi is due to return. Every 2,222 years he darkens the skies over Chan-la, bringing ruin and destruction and heralding the fall of empires. In 629CE, the count of years was lost, and now no one knows when Zhi will return, or what his arrival will bring. All that is known is that the time is soon.

And as we have seen, that time has come.