[hider=Mai Mei of Liang​]

[center][h2][color=df0808]Mai Mei of Liang[/color][/h2]
[img]https://data.whicdn.com/images/250657835/large.png[/img]

[color=df0808][i]"Even the most beautiful of roses have thorns."[/i] -[b]Unknown[/b][/color][/center] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓝𝓪𝓶𝓮[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Mai Mei; also known as the Rose of Liang, Meimei (妹妹) by her cousin Zhou as an inside joke (it means 'little sister' in Liangii; Zhou calls her that even though she's older just to be a cheeky little shit), a variety of flowery and over-the-top nicknames given to her by Prince Alejandro of the Kingdom of Castilya ("my darlingest ruby", my dearest Mai, etc, etc, etc)[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓣𝓲𝓽𝓵𝓮[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Princess of Liang[/INDENT]

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓐𝓰𝓮[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]24[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓖𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Female[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓢𝓮𝔁𝓾𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓽𝔂[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Asexual[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓐𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Mai is taller than average, standing at five feet and eight inches. She is on the slimmer side, with thick, wavy, midnight-black hair that goes down to her waist and relatively pale skin. Her eyes are a chocolate brown color, framed with a set of eyelashes that she makes longer using mascara. She has a heart-shaped face and long, thin fingers. Mai has rosebud lips that are usually painted a deep red color, and she has a sort of delicate and dainty look to her, despite the fact that she's practically six feet if you factor in her borderline-impractical high heels. Mai likes dressing up and takes great pride in her appearance.

Mai typically sports some sort of dress (she likes them because there is plenty of space to hide something under the skirts, plus they are just so goddamn [i]pretty[/i]) and does almost everything in a pair of heels. Her preferred color scheme is red, black, and gold, although she does like to experiment every now and then. Mai absolutely adores traditional Oriental-themed fans and parasols. In terms of cosmetics, Mai is an avid fan of eyeliner, mascara, and even kohl on the occasion. She also absolutely adores lipsticks, though she wouldn't be caught dead in public wearing something as outrageously garish as neon green lipstick (but shh-she does indeed own a tube of neon green lipstick). Mai tends to go rather heavy on the make-up, just as a general rule.

Most people who see Mai describe her as elegant, alluring, and in some cases, doll-like (thanks to the layers of make-up she wears, most likely). She moves with a practiced and fluid grace, each step and each movement measured and precise. Her features are usually carefully arranged in an expression of polite interest, and pleasant smiles fall easily across her lips, though those who are more keen will notice that they rarely ever reach her eyes-they remain as sharp as ever, even when she laughs. [/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓽𝔂[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Mai has always been a people person. There is something about her that seems to draw others to her-whether it's her carefree laugh, her twinkling eyes, or her bright smiles, no one can say. She can be a sultry, intoxicating temptress, capable of charming the secrets right out of others with a coy glance and a flutter of her long eyelashes, or an innocent, demure young lady who has absolutely nothing to hide but plenty of gossip to share. She thinks with her heart when she needs to, but uses her brain at the same time.

Behind brown eyes sparkling with mirth and delicate lips curved up in a half-flirtatious, half-demure smile is a woman made of steel who is keenly aware of her surroundings. Mai processes vast amounts of information all at once, taking in people's actions, words, and emotions at the same time and forming a conclusion based on what she sees and what she knows. She's always been especially good at reading people like an open book. Sharply observant, perceptive, and brutally analytical, Mai is able to detect even the most subtle shifts of emotion, assess entire [i]situations[/i] with one inconspicuous sweep of her wide brown eyes, and kill a man in a dozen different ways while dancing the waltz. Mai is constantly listening, though she’ll rarely tell the world what she's thinking.

Enigmatically charismatic and exuding an air of elegant refinement, Mai puts up a playful and coquettish front all while maintaining a certain air of mystery that makes her that much more attractive. Depending on the people around her, Mai is either a charming, polite young lady of considerable wealth and status or a deadly and alluring seductress of equally considerable wealth and status. Mai is not “smart” in the traditional sense of the word-complicated mathematics and the latest developments in quantum physics all go straight over her head, though she is able to hold her own in conversations about a wide variety of “sophisticated” topics. When around others, Mai hides her true nature behind expensive gowns and designer heels, pretending that she is nothing more than another pretty face. She has mastered the right combination of sugary sweetness and sharp wit to detract attention from her real intentions as she shrewdly advances her own agenda.

Mai is ferociously loyal to her family. Mai believes that family is everything, and she is fiercely protective of people that she considers part of her family, and of the Liangii in general. She is scarily manipulative, and she isn’t afraid of resorting to less savory methods to achieve her goals. Mai is calm and collected in times of crisis, and she rarely allows herself to panic. She is truly afraid of very, very few people, and she holds no qualms against playing others like a violin to get what she wants, all while smiling prettily and sipping tea from a dainty porcelain tea cup. Sly, shrewd, and cunning, Mai is a ruthless politician dressed in silk and stilettos.

If one is able to see past the many, many layers and intricacies of Mai Mei, one would come face-to-face with an intensely driven yet extremely insecure woman who has been bottling up her emotions for much too long. Mai may be willing to sacrifice everything for her family, but she doesn’t know what it is that she truly wants. Mai does not know who she actually is, and it makes her wonder-is there anything to her besides the mask that she wears in front of others?

(Though, she realizes, what she wants and who she perceives herself as do not truly matter. Still, she cannot help but wonder)[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓛𝓲𝓴𝓮𝓼 + 𝓓𝓲𝓼𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮𝓼[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]𝓛𝓲𝓴𝓮𝓼: Liang, the people of Liang, elegant, expensive gowns (her preferred shade would be a deep crimson red), accessories that are both beautiful and deadly (bladed fans and parasols, dagger-like hairpins, pointy boots and spiky heels, and the like), lipstick, lipstick, [i]lipstick[/i], red wine (on occasion), her family and those loyal to her family, cherries, dark chocolate, cherries with dark chocolate, vengeance against those who have wronged her family and Liang in the past, not being viewed as a threat (or being viewed as a threat, depending on the situation), power, information, classical Liangii poetry, classical Liangii art, classical Liangii anything, really (besides traditional Liangii views on women and society), calligraphy, politeness and propriety, make-up (she's the [i]queen[/i] of the smokey-eye look), bokchoy and tofu, ginger (just...added to her food. It tastes good!), the smell of cinnamon and cardamom, tea with no milk added to it, subtlety, roses and all things red, Zhou, her uncle, Prince Alejandro and Castilya, winged eyeliner and mascara, impractically high heels, the crisp mountaintop air, the blue poppies that grew almost everywhere in the village she was raised in

𝓓𝓲𝓼𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮𝓼: sloppiness and messiness, drunkards, incompetence, useless, meaningless violence and destruction, cheap, tasteless beer, people who genuinely believe that women should stay out of business, politics, and science, sexist people in general, anybody who would bring harm to her family, her people, or her country, people who can’t for the life of them think something through before they dive head-first into the endeavor, being blunt, crude manners, meat, overly sweet desserts (in true Liangii fashion), direct confrontations (Mai prefers to be as discreet as possible), excessively frilly accessories and gowns, being completely, totally helpless, being reminded of her past and the things that she's seen, a number of the Liangii officials/courtiers/nobles (some dead, most alive), has an instinctive distrust of Western soldiers and military due to some pretty angsty past experiences, not a big fan of seafood (or most meat, in general), the extra-ness that is Western cutlery (she doesn't see the need for 25 different spoons and forks, when one could just use chopsticks. Nevertheless, she still knows the ins and outs of Western meal-time etiquette because, well, that's what she's supposed to know)[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓑𝓲𝓸𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓹𝓱𝔂[/b]
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]When Mai was born, the Liangii royalty was on the brink of disintegration. Several distinct factions of varying beliefs and ideologies had risen to power, but all of them agreed on one thing-it was time for the imperial dynasties to go. Liang was technologically behind most major world powers, and although it was large and had plentiful natural resources, the military was stretched far too thin and its techniques were totally backwards. Liang's dire situation came to light about a decade before Mai was born with the invasion of a neighboring nation that caught everybody by surprise. Within a year, Liang was forced to give major trading concessions to a dozen different countries that all wanted to get their hands on the silk, porcelain, and other luxuries that the country was famous for. In response to foreigners taking over their land, jobs, and positions, the people of Liang began to grow more discontent, and the unrest finally broke out in violence when Mai was just half a year old.

The first wave of revolts came from the countryside, where impoverished peasants were suffering from sky-high taxes with no opportunity to better their station in society. Mai's father was not a particularly effective ruler, and her other family members were too stuck in tradition and the days of the old. All of them refused to do anything about the feudal system that was obviously tearing the country apart. And so the violence escalated and people grew angrier and angrier until they eventually stormed the capital city of Xiajing and killed off the entire royal family-all but Mai, who was sent away to be protected by her father's younger brother. 

After the royal family was ousted, Liang erupted into an all-out civil war. Each separate faction refused to tolerate the others, and widespread warfare gripped the nation. To make matters worse, the neighboring island-nation (known as the Empire of Nippon) decided to take advantage of the turmoil and invade Liang. However, Mai lived safely in isolation. Her uncle, Ming Mei, was believed to be dead after he fled from court. Mai's father was the only one to know that Ming had done so because he wanted to pursue a life other than that of a member of the royal family. In his small home near a stretch of imposing mountains known as the Black Mountains, Ming spent his days learning multiple fighting styles and indulging in the arts. He taught Mai everything he knew, and by the time she was fifteen Mai could knock someone out in ten different ways and wield a variety of blades, all while reciting a piece of classical Liangii poetry.

Mai knew from an early age that she was royalty. Ming told her everything as soon as she was old enough to understand it, and Mai has always known, on some level, that she would give up everything for Liang. As she grew up, Ming began to come out of isolation, getting in contact with old friends and allies, most of whom were shocked to find him alive and breathing. The faction in power changed over a dozen times before Mai was ten, and most of the common people were sick and tired of all the fighting. Some even began to wish that the royal family had never been killed, as there were times of prosperity during the reign of Mai's parents despite the fact that they were completely ineffective rulers. Ming used the political instability to his advantage, and formed his own distinct faction-a faction that would support the reinstatement of a monarchical rule. 

His efforts finally paid off when Mai was about thirteen years old. With most of the other factions dissolved or falling apart, there was only one more faction to eliminate: the socialists. This group generated widespread support with its ideas of social equality and sharing all property, something which greatly appealed to those that remembered the huge wealth gap present when Mai's parents were in power. However, the socialists were intent on purging Liang on all traditional influences, and they alienated the upper and middle class by actively persecuting them just because they happened to have more money. Ming managed to win the support of the wealthy, and after he secured an alliance with Krieg-Königreich by promising extensive natural resources in exchange for military aid (and using Mai's hand-in-marriage to seal the deal), the rest was history. With more funds than the socialists could ever imagine to accrue, Ming was able to raise a considerable army and buy firepower from foreign nations, while the socialists were stuck using crossbows and outdated artillery. After defeating the socialists in a series of battles that were concentrated on the socialist strongholds, Ming was finally able to take power-albeit reluctantly-and bring about the revival of the monarchy.

Due to the nature of his activities, Ming was usually forced to bring Mai along with him for security reasons. Ming firmly believed that Mai was the safest at his side, no matter what anybody else said. Mai grew up seeing how the poor lived and experiencing it herself, and vowed that she would be a better ruler than any of the faction leaders or her parents. She also encountered many people who would undermine her uncle and everything he stood for if they could, and learned not to judge a book by its cover, so to speak. Mai has seen more than her fair share of violence and destruction in her day, and she has an instinctive mistrust of the military due to the brutal acts carried out by the soldiers of the competing factions and the army of the Empire of Nippon. She remembers it all, though she wishes she didn't-the northern grasslands turned into graveyards, the imperial capital reduced to nothing but ashes, the towns and villages they passed through, all the names and identities she took, how [i]careful[/i] they had to be to avoid being recognized...but most of all, she remembers being thirteen or fourteen and being scared, being [i]terrified[/i], and she remembers the hands, the hands in her hair, crawling up her chest, holding her shoulders, on her throat...

When he became emperor, Ming lived frugally, which got the common people on his side. He abolished feudalism, redistributed the wealth, and modernized the country with help from a few foreign allies. Since the socialists had pretty much killed off all of the landed gentry, Ming was able to give the vacated land to the public and encourage industrialization. He began establishing foreign relations with friendly countries to help this industrialization come into fruition. Mai's teenage years were spent living in a beautiful palace with courtiers and officials running every which way. A few years later, Ming began looking to secure an heir when he took power, because although he was a spry old man, he still was old and wouldn't live forever-plus he never married, nor did he ever have children (or so he thought; more on that later). And through it all, Mai knew that she would be married off to the crown prince of a kingdom she'd never visited. Mai didn't like it, but she recognized that she would have to go through with the marriage in order to ensure the survival of her uncle's precarious reign. And if that was all it took, then she would do it in a heartbeat.

A couple years ago, Zhou (who has since been recognized as the crown prince of Liang), kicked down the doors (quite literally) and demanded an audience with Emperor Ming. Mai's uncle obliged, of course, and suddenly, Mai had a cousin. Mai was initially very suspicious of him due to the possibility that he could have been working for one of her uncle's enemies, but she has grown fond of him over time and now does not think that he has any ulterior motives at all. Mai does her best to keep him from messing up too much in front of other royalty, although that is a task that is [i]much[/i] easier said than done.[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓕𝓒 + 𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓸𝓻 𝓒𝓸𝓭𝓮[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Face claim=Fan Bingbing
Color code=df0808[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓣𝓱𝓮𝓶𝓮 𝓢𝓸𝓷𝓰[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rfSHisyHdc]"Castle" - Halsey[/url]
[sub][i] I'm headed straight for the castle
They wanna make me their queen
And there's an old man sitting on the throne that's saying that I probably shouldn't be so mean
I'm headed straight for the castle
They've got the kingdom locked up
And there's an old man sitting on the throne that's saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut[/i][/sub][/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓑𝓮𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓭 𝓣𝓸[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Prince Leonard "Leon" Ford of Krieg-Königreich[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓞𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Pinterest Board: https://www.pinterest.com/ayzrules/rose-red-wrc/

[hider=Aesthetics b/c I am extra AF]
"Do you think I have forgotten how it felt to be afraid?"
[img]https://66.media.tumblr.com/75ee363d75bf3f3148cac237b5b913dc/tumblr_pafg8nQXh91ttcpv6o1_500.png [/img]

"Some roses have steel thorns"
[img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c2/8e/d0/c28ed0cd371031d2b08a86f65fc893e1.jpg[/img]

"Rose-red"
[img]https://66.media.tumblr.com/831ac840c96e6d6afa775f8a6b80a171/tumblr_pibg0pSgTc1ttcpv6o1_r1_500.png[/img]

"Not a saint, but do I have to be?"
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[/hider]

[/INDENT] 

[/hider]

[hider=Character Dynamics for Mai Mei][center][h2][color=df0808]Mai Mei of Liang[/color][/h2]
[img]https://i.pinimg.com/564x/d6/0b/18/d60b18c54edc876258f146d71c09fd21.jpg[/img]

[color=df0808]{[i]"My skin has turned to porcelain, to ivory, to steel."[/i]}[/color]

[color=palevioletred][b]Lea Lynton of Aciras[/b][/color]
[i]"Heavens above. If she is to be Zhou's bride...the two of them are going to give my uncle SUCH a headache. Zhou already has way too much energy to be humanly possible. But now we are adding Princess Lea to the mix???"[/i]
Relation Details

[color=ff8c00][b]Alejandro Aguíla de Agustín[/b][/color]
[i]"Alejandro if one of the most amusing people that I have ever met. Though one must wonder how much he truly knows...and how much of this knowledge he hides from the rest of the world."[/i]
Alejandro and Mai hit it off when she and her uncle, along with Zhou, visited Castilya in order to negotiate a trade deal. Both of them share an ardent love for fashion and make-up, as well as a mutual exasperation for Zhou's sloppiness.

[color=skyblue][b]Isabella del Reyes[/b][/color]
[i]"I heard what happened with her sister, mmm. Evalusia does not seem like a fun place to be."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=6bb8cf][b]Talya Burnley[/b][/color]
[i]"She reminds me of Zhou, right down to the part about sharing too much on social media."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=royalblue][b]Edelessa/Valentine Blanchefleur[/b][/color]
[i] "Mmm, poor girl. Though if her complete, utter lack of a media presence is any indication of what she is like as a person, I do not think she would make a very good queen."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=tomato][b]Rhia Cadfael[/b][/color]
[i]"She seems nice enough. I wonder how she gets along with Prince Edwin."[/i]
Relations Details

[color=f2aed3][b]Liv Viriatus[/b][/color]
[i]"Truth be told, I know very little about her. But growing up as a girl in Lusitania surely could not have been easy."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=c2e2a7][b]Dom Viriatus[/b][/color]
[i]"Lusitania and Evalusia are remarkably alike in their backwardness, now that I think about it. I wish Dom the best of luck in getting the hell out of there, especially after that incident with the twin brother."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=F2e9ac][b]Anton Telesphorides[/b][/color]
[i]"He reminds me of the generals and politicians who defected to my uncle's side after he made the alliance with Krieg-Konigreich. Not to be trusted, at the very least."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=white][b]Ivy Burnley[/b][/color]
[i]"I've no opinion of her, to be quite honest. She's...nice, I guess."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=skyblue][b]Alexandra Bonnisseau[/b][/color]
[i]"It seems like she had quite an eventful 'rebellious teenage phase'."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=royalblue][b]Leon Ford[/b][/color]
[i]"Prince Leonard...I do not know how to feel about him. He seems to take after his father in some respects, and that, coupled with his kingdom's military prowess, makes me wary. Nevertheless, I will marry him and be the wife that he wants me to be. There simply is no other option-not if Liang is to survive through my uncle's regime without another war breaking out."[/i]
Leon and Mai have been betrothed for a little over ten years, as part of an alliance between their respective kingdoms. They have never interacted with each other outside of a formal capacity. When they first met, Mai was 16 and Leon was 11. Needless to say, it was a bit awkward.

[color=440e62][b]Elijah Rothchester[/b][/color]
[i]"He reminds me of Zhou. Both are too reckless for their own good."[/i]  
Relation Details

[color=799c82][b]Yu Song[/b][/color]
[i]"I don't know how good of a ruler he will be, but he seems nice enough, I guess."[/i]  
Relation Details

[color=48B8B5][b]Gen Anders[/b][/color]
[i]"I do very much like her hair color. Other than that, I suppose I have nothing else to say."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=skyblue][b]Erik Rothschild[/b][/color]
[i]"Angering his grandmother would not be the best idea."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=fa2600][b]Han Hyeri[/b][/color]
[i]"She's nice enough. There is part of me that envies her peaceful upbringing, I suppose; neither Zhou nor I were afforded that kind of...luxury."[/i]
Relations between Liang and Haneul improved dramatically after Emperor Ming took the throne. The two countries are on friendly terms, and Mai, Zhou, and Hye-ri have visited each other before.

[color=C1D6C8][b]Dirk Isidor[/b][/color]
[i]"The rumors about his mother are of a mild interest. But other than that, I have yet to form a concrete opinion abou thim."[/i]
Relation Details

[b]Venera Nikolayevna[/b]
[i]"The dynamic in between her mother and father are...interesting, to say the least. Though I do commend her mother; she is a bolder person than I would ever be."[/i]
Rustavya and Liang are on friendly terms.

[color=B0C4DE][b]Anastasiy Romanova[/b][/color]
[i]"I can only hope that the coming years are as peaceful for Liang as they were for Glavnya, sixty years ago. Alas, that remains to be seen."[/i]
Relation Details

[color=DAA520][b]Elias Kokinos][/b][/color]
[i]"His people seem rather warmongering, no?"[/i]
Relation Details

[color=662d91][b]Amaranthine Loveridge[/b][/color]
[i]"A land of tarot cards and fantasy stories? How is that...practical?"[/i]
Relation Details

[color=FFA500][b]Mila Ford[/b][/color]
[i]"She is nice enough, I suppose, though she seems...naive, and perhaps a bit spoiled, mmm. I suppose that I cannot expect so much out of a sixteen-year-old."[/i]
Mila is the younger sister of the prince Mai is betrothed to. Although they have met on a few occasions, they have never really interacted outside of a formal setting.

[color=red][b]Edwin Drakewine[/b][/color]
[i]"Not one to be trifled with, if only because of his kingdom's massive reach."[/i]
Relation Details

[/center][/hider]

[hider=Liang][center][h2][color=df0808]Liang[/color][/h2]

[img]https://st.focusedcollection.com/16008260/i/650/focused_189619390-Courtyard-tower-buddhist-incense-summer.jpg [/img]

[color=df0808][i]A courtyard in the ancient Liangii imperial palace, located in the capital city of Xiajing[/i][/color][/center]

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓭𝓸𝓶 𝓝𝓪𝓶𝓮[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Liang[/INDENT] 

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓠𝓾𝓮𝓮𝓷[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Emperor Ming Mei (FC: Jackie Chan) is Mai's uncle and the current ruler of Liang. Ming is a pragmatic and rational man, unlike his older brother, who had his head in the clouds. He can be brutally honest, and thinks that he's too old for the petty games that the younger members of court like to play. He would much rather go back to his home in the mountains and live out the rest of his days in peace than rule a country, but he does his duty for Mai and Zhou's sake. 

Ming always had a strained relationship with the rest of his family besides his older brother (Mai's father). He has come to love both his niece and son dearly, and he loves his country just as much. Despite his age, Ming has a quick intellect and a sharp tongue. He exudes an aura of authority and dignity, even though Liang isn't exactly the most powerful of nations at the moment. Ming is known to make practical laws and reforms that benefit all. [/INDENT]

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓭𝓸𝓶 𝓒𝓸𝓵𝓸𝓻𝓼[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Red and gold[/INDENT]

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓦𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓭𝓸𝓶 𝓲𝓼 𝓚𝓷𝓸𝔀𝓷 𝓕𝓸𝓻[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]Liang has always been one of the largest nations in the world. Its vast territory includes deserts and mountain ranges and grasslands and rivers, and along banks of the Yellow River was where one of the first ancient civilizations developed.

Liangii luxury goods have been especially coveted all throughout history. From the earliest traders to the industrialists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, everyone wanted Liangii silk, Liangii porcelain, Liangii scented wood...and although factories and industrialization have made silk and porcelain widely available to all, Liangii still retains its status as the original producer of these valuable goods.

Liangii contributions to science and academia are well noted; from the invention of paper to compasses and gunpowder, Liang’s role in shaping the world as we know it today cannot be underestimated.

Finally, Liang is known for its significant cultural and political contributions. Western forms of government can trace some of its roots back to the Confucius and the civil service exams; and centralized bureaucracies have become all the rage. Culturally, Liang is known for its vibrant and ancient customs and traditions, from elaborate hairpieces to martial arts to stone lions, as well as its cuisine. 

In the modern day, Liang is notorious for its runaway population growth and environmental problems, some of which have been present since the days of the first emperors. Liangii culture has begun to permeate pop culture around the world, too; some of its period dramas have begun to gain popularity in Western pop culture, and martial arts films have gained quite a following.[/INDENT]

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓡𝓮𝓬𝓮𝓷𝓽/𝓡𝓮𝓵𝓮𝓿𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓭𝓸𝓶 𝓗𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]
Liang is an ancient kingdom, and one of the first human civilizations in existence sprang up on the banks of one of their major rivers. During the age of the imperial dynasties (circa 1500 BCE-1950 CE), Liangii society developed and flourished, and the Liangii are attributed with some of the most important inventions of the modern day, including paper and gunpowder. 

The Liangii emperors pursued a heavily isolationist policy as Europe came out of the Dark Ages, and they were technologically (and, some argue, culturally) backwards when westerners showed up on their doorstep, demanding trading rights and concessions. What followed as a long period of turmoil as the Liangii ridded themselves of  the millennia-old dynastic cycle and began to reshape the kingdom socially, culturally, and politically. As Liangii society splintered into several distinct factions, an ambitious self-made man-Li Mei-married into the royal family, and when he died, his son (Mai's father and Emperor Ming's older brother) took power. However, he was an ineffectual ruler, and war broke out throughout Liang as the royal family was executed.

What followed were ten years of internal strife and turmoil, and during this period, Ming Mei came out of hiding and reached out to old friends and allies. Approximately fourteen years after the revolt that sent Liang spiraling into chaos, Ming was able to re-take the throne by defeating the last faction remaining, the socialists. He went on to instate himself as emperor, and his regime, although much more liberal and much more [i]modern[/i] than those of the twentieth-century emperors, remains precarious as politicians and courtiers hold onto past grudges and probe at each other for any sign of weakness. To this day, Liangii politics are very cutthroat, both literally and metaphorically.

[hider=In-depth]» Liang is a country with a long, rich history that spans from the dawn of civilization to the modern times. One of the first centers of civilization developed on the banks of the Yellow River, and it flourished at the same time that other river valley civilizations such as Mesopotamia and the city-states of the Indus River valley were developing and prospering and declining.

» By 1500 BCE, the first Liangii dynasty was in power. For the next three thousand or so years, Liang would go through approximately ten major dynasties, interspersed by periods of warfare and internal strife. In this time, three major philosophies that influence Liangii and some western thought to this day arose, as well as a myriad of achievements in science, art, literature, warfare, et cetera. 

» Throughout Liang's long and complicated history, it had been relatively isolated from the rest of the world. Early centralization and skill in bronze work had launched their science and technology to arguably the best in the world, rivaling that of the most advanced civilizations of the time. Paper, printing presses, gunpowder, seismographs, silk, porcelain...they all originated from Liang. 

» Like the Western powers, Liang had done some exploration-and found nothing that they wanted. Liang generally had a very isolationist policy; and why not? They had everything they needed in their own country, and held a favorable balance of trade with the Europeans that wanted to get their hands on Liang silk and porcelain and luxury goods. 

» However, developments that were occurring outside of Liang would change the course of its history. European nations underwent their Renaissance and Age of Exploration, as well as the Enlightenment period and industrialization. All of these developments effectively propelled Western technology to far above anything found in Liang. 

» During the nineteenth century, European countries began to put pressure on Liang to open up their country to foreign trade. Eventually, this led to a series of skirmishes, in which the Qing armies were flat-out crushed.

» Liang entered a period of turmoil that spanned from the late 1800's to the 1950's that featured growing internal unrest and external pressures, and it seemed like the dynastic system would collapse onto itself. During this period, a family of relatively humble origins sought to influence politics enough with cunning diplomacy and well-placed threats to keep the nation together while distinct factions of varying ideologies began to form, the most prominent of them being the nationalists and the socialists. 

» In a bold and daring move that defied all of Liang's traditions, a man named Li Mei married into the imperial family in hopes of pacifying the common people, as Li himself was regarded as the self-made common man. For a while, it seemed like this ambitious ploy had worked out. Liang lapsed into peace for a couple of years, but the shortcomings of the plan soon became apparent. Li Mei was a better military leader than a ruler, and he ruled too much with his emotions and not enough with his head. To make matters worse, the Empress was extremely conservative, stuck in the ways of the past and refusing to allow for much-needed reforms. Li Mei was assassinated by a group of nobles who were discontent with his policies, and the second-oldest brother of the Mei family-Mai's father-was given the throne at the tender age of fifteen.

» Mai's father was in power for about twenty years, and during these twenty years, the imperial dynasty's power steadily began to wan as the Empress and other nobles pulled the strings behind the scenes. During this time, the nearby island-nation known as the Empire of Nippon-allied with a couple Western powers-launched a renewed invasion, which forced Liang to give out even more trading concessions than it already had. Slowly but surely, the emperor’s power eroded.

» Six months after Mai Mei was born and sent away to live with Ming Mei (the youngest brother of the Mei family) in the Black Mountains, peasants stormed the capital city of Xiajing and slaughtered the royal family and the nobility. An all-out civil war erupted, with a score of distinct factions that possessed different political ideologies that had been biding their time since the beginning of the twentieth century. The separate factions fought and fought and fought, and eventually there was only one left: the socialists. During the bloody civil war, Ming Mei came out of isolation, getting back in touch with old allies and friends, and creating his own faction to oppose the socialists (who had generated widespread support with its ideas of social equality and sharing all property).

» However, the socialists were intent on purging Liang on all traditional influences, and they alienated the upper and middle class by actively persecuting them just because they happened to have more money. Ming managed to win the support of the wealthy as well as a couple foreign nations. After defeating the socialists in a series of battles that were concentrated on socialist strongholds, Ming was finally able to take power-albeit reluctantly-and bring about the revival of the monarchy.[/hider]

[/INDENT]

[color=df0808][b]🌹𝓞𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻[/b] 
――――――――――[/color] [INDENT]When he became king, Ming lived frugally, which got the common people on his side. Ming abolished feudalism, redistributed the wealth, and modernized the country with help from a few foreign allies. Since the socialists had pretty much killed off all of the landed gentry, Ming was able to give the vacated land to the public and encourage industrialization. He began establishing foreign relations with friendly countries to help this industrialization into fruition. This industrialization, however, came at a price, one that the Liangii are able to see first-hand in the polluted rivers and hazy air.

The capital city of Liang is known as Xiajing. [/INDENT] 

[/hider]