Oh, excellent. I'm glad it's gotten some interest. To further expand on the idea and my background with the genre - I'm most familiar with Jin Yong's works - Especially the [i]Legend of the Condor Heroes; Return of the Condor Heroes; Heaven Sword, Dragon Saber; The Smiling, Proud Wanderer;[/i] and [i]The Deer and the Cauldron[/i]. 

Thus, the Dragon Empire will take most of its cues from his work - there aren't any giant monsters that hunt humans, the rule of the strong is not absolute (looking at you, xianxia/xuanhuan works), and virtue is key to a [i]xia's[/i] identity - Not that there aren't exceptions to the rule.

I've already worked a fair amount on the setting, so I'll update the OP with some additional information.