[center][img]http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Battle-of-Changping.jpg[/img][/center]
[center][sup][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlP30gGCR8w]“The empire long united must divide, long divided must unite; this is how it has always been.”[/url]
~ [i]Luo Guanzhong, [b]Romance of the Three Kingdoms[/b][/i][/sup][/center]


[sub][sub][h3][color=00FF7F]P R E M I S E[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr]
[indent][indent][i]C[/i]hasing the great winds of change our story begins. For four hundred years the Kiu Dynasty has ruled the Imperial Kingdom. Yet even the greatest mountain will fall with time and so to did the Kiu. The great dynasty falling to inbreeding, failed harvests, corruption, and devastating plagues. All giving their many advisers clear signs that they had lost the Celestial Mandate of divine will. The last of the Kiu Emperors would be found dead in his resting chamber, poison having leeched away his strength. As debates of succession continued between the many Imperial Vassals, centralized rule would not hold and soon the Imperial Kingdom shattered turning inward as it devoured itself. 

As the conflict persisted four great kingdoms would pull themselves aloft from the sea of blood. In the rugged steppes and plateaus of the East rose the [i]Zhen[/i] controlled by General Zhen Ba, a living folk-hero that had pacified the nomadic clans of the East underneath his rule some thirty years previously. To the West lay the former heartland of the Imperial Kingdom and home to Jade City with it's imperial palace at its center. This economically prosperous and bountiful land came under the rule of the [i]Sum[/i] and the head of their clan Sum Min. The last in a long line of Sum adviser to the Kiu, ruling in the stead of the Kiu's only surviving child, a only boy that had survived the bloodshed that had consumed has family on account of being tutored far away from the capital at the Sum's summer estate. In the North and its thick forest and soaring cliffs that meet the lashing ocean was sworn to the [i]Fan[/i] and their ruler Fan Yi. Fan Yi another General and a former ally of the Kiu, he claims that the last Emperor had past the title onto [i]his[/i] house and so the Imperial throne was his by right. In the cold swamps, towering mountains, and grand harbors of the North was home of the Tseng and their leader, the grand matron of the Tseng, Tseng Xia the last to be conquered by the Kiu, their people have a distinct cultural and spiritual identity and aim to break away entirely from the Kingdom. 

The spiritual discourse created by the constant clashing of these four titans has shaken not only the living world but the celestial one. With no Emperor to serve as the bridge between this world and the next, the two have begun to bleed into one another. Demons, undead and other monstrosity kept at bay through the combined cooperation of the Emperor and the gods would find their way into this world. They would find their homes in caves, the wilderness, and the darken corners of cities tempting, snatching, and devouring all those that stood in their path. This combining of the two worlds also saw a rise of the Tongji, the spiritual mediums who have extensive knowledge of such creatures and whose magics used primarily through scrolls and other such means have begun to grow once more giving them great power beyond the imagination of man. Magics that would be shared and spread creating a new type of Cultural Renaissance despite the continued bloodshed. 

Admit this time of resurgent magics and innumerable bloodshed we focus upon the province of Guijiang. Situated on the border between the Fan and the Zhen, the land has been completely ravaged by the war. Here among ancient wood and crumbling ruins of a dynasty lost long ago lay a rabble collection of souls. The woods originally home to deserters from the Imperial Army, nothing more than common bandits would soon find themselves in conflict with both the Fan and the Zhen. This would cast them into a lighter view of the local peasantry who were constantly at the mercy of the two ravenous armies, with many soon fleeing into the woods for protection. 

Our story begins with this rabble collection of bandits, deserters, and common peasants heading towards uncertainty as open conflict with both the Zhen and Fan seems inevitable. Yet if they are able to secure the safety of Guijiang then hopes of something greater may lay on the horizon. 

The task itself may seem impossible but there have been reports of sightings of a Dragon to the south. The first seen in over one thousand years. A strong omen to hopeful eyes of change to come. For the forest grows from the burnt ashes of its predecessor. [/indent][/indent] 

[sub][sub][h3][color=00FF7F]I N T R O D U C T I O N[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr]
[indent][indent]Welcome one and all to 朝代循環. Named after the concept of the dynastic cycle, core to the heart of Chinese philosophy, history, and politics. 朝代循環 is what happens when you mix Water Margin, several Wuxia films, with some Fire Emblem, and a little bit of the a Song of Ice and Fire for taste. Heavily inspired by both Chinese Mythology and classical literature, the aim is to do for Chinese Mythology what something like the Witcher did for Slavic Mythology. Take the ideas, tropes and themes and ground them into a believable and livable world. 

It tells the story of a ragtag peasant rebellion more or less in a backwater province of a Three Kingdoms inspired China, currently in the middle of a magical resurgence on account of the constant warfare altering the relation between the spiritual world and the living world. At the best these people are deserters from the army with limited military experience, but most are bandits and common peasants that have never held a spear in formation let alone fought a large scale battle. And somehow these common peasants are supposed to fight not one but four warring states and somehow unify them or whatever. Their success is wholly debate on player action and decision. Yet to that end the idea of this is for the war and monsters and such to be the catalyst that drives the plot forward but not the main point of the story. The main point of the story is rather the interaction between the characters and stories that you folks all come up with. A dozen tiny stories inside the scope of one giant story if you get my drift. All being kept more centralized by isolating the story upon a singular group of people from a small province. 

I present to you an open canvas for you to paint your ideas open, to expand upon this worlds history, and the people and the creatures that dwell inside of it. You want to be a common peasant that rises to become a war hero? Cool. You want to be a Tongji able to bend the forces of nature and spirits to your will? Sounds great. You want to be a snarky bandit with a heart of gold? That works as well.  The nature of the story presents a large level of freedom for you to pick and choose from. So if a spanning epic of intrigue, warfare  sounds like your cup of tea, or if you really like world building and morally ambiguous conflicts... Why don't you stop in and say hi? [/indent][/indent]