Far to the east of the Old World, beyond the Mountains of Mourn and the Dark Lands, lies the oldest and vastest empire of men in all the world: Grand Cathay, the Celestial Kingdom, the Dragon Empire of the east. It is a realm of staggering scale and antiquity, a civilization that was old and ordered when the ancestors of the Empire were still painting themselves for war, its history reaching back into ages the western kingdoms cannot even name. To the men of the Old World it is a place of rumour and wonder, known only through the silk, jade, and tea that trickle west along the caravan roads.
Cathay is ruled from the Celestial City by the Dragon-Emperor, an immortal being of vast power who is part man and part dragon, and by his family: the dragon children of the Celestial Court, who take both human and serpentine form and govern the great provinces of the realm in their father's name. Beneath them a disciplined society labours in ordered harmony: jade-armoured soldiers drill in their thousands, astromancers read the turning heavens, and a mandarin bureaucracy keeps the whole colossal machine in balance. For balance is the soul of Cathay (the harmony of opposites, of yin and yang, of the two great winds of magic), and it is upon that harmony that the empire's survival depends.
The Celestial Court[edit]
At the heart of Cathay stands the Dragon-Emperor, who has ruled since before living memory and will, the Cathayans believe, rule until the world's end. He is the Son of Heaven, the keystone of the empire and the mediator of its harmony, and at his side reigns the Moon Empress, his consort and equal. Their children are the dragons of the Celestial Court, immortal and mighty, who shed their human shapes to become storms and thunder on the wing. It is these dragon-children who lead Cathay's armies and govern its provinces (the Storm Dragon in the north, the Iron Dragon in the west, and their many kin), each a demigod in the eyes of the people they protect.
The Great Bastion[edit]
Cathay's northern frontier is the front line of a war without end. There runs the Great Bastion: a wall of such colossal scale that it dwarfs any fortification the west has ever conceived, garrisoned by countless soldiers and watched over by the dragons themselves. Beyond it lie the Chaos Wastes and the endless hordes of daemons, marauders, and monsters that pour south whenever the Dark Gods stir. For thousands of years the Bastion has held, its beacon-towers blazing warning along its length, its jade legions marching to plug each breach. Should it ever fall, the Cathayans know, it is not only their empire that ends but the eastern world entire.
Harmony and the Winds[edit]
The Cathayans wage war as they order everything else: through balance. Their sorcery draws upon the two great streams of magic they name the Yang and the Yin, the fierce and the subtle, and their astromancers plot the constellations to divine the fortunes of battle before a blade is drawn. Their armies reflect the same philosophy: unbreakable jade-clad infantry to hold the centre, thundering cavalry and gunpowder weapons to strike, disciplined masses of peasant levy to bleed and pin the foe, all moving to the ordered rhythm of drum and banner. To fight Cathay is to fight not a horde but a machine: ancient, patient, and balanced upon the harmony that has kept it standing since the dawn of the world.
Units
Celestial Dragon GuardSpecial · Heavy InfantryThe Dragon Emperor's elite household warriors, halberd-armed veterans in dragon-worked armour who anchor the line against any horde.
Crane GunnersSpecial · InfantryElite marksmen of the empire, whose long-barrelled handguns strike with the patient precision of the crane for which they are named.
Fire Rain RocketRare · War MachineA battery of screaming war-rockets that loose a swarm of fire-tailed missiles to fall like burning rain across the massed hordes below.
Grand CannonRare · War MachineThe heaviest artillery of the Celestial Empire, a dragon-graven bronze gun that hurls an enormous ball to shatter ranks, engines, and monsters.
Great Longma RidersSpecial · Monstrous CavalryElite riders mounted on longma, the fierce dragon-horses of Cathay, who charge from the sky on beating wings.
Iron Hail GunnersSpecial · Missile InfantryElite gunners armed with repeating firearms that loose a rattling storm of shot, smothering whole regiments beneath a withering hail of lead.
Jade LancersSpecial · Heavy CavalryThe noble heavy horse of Cathay, jade-armoured lancers whose thunderous charge shatters the enemy line in a single ordered stroke.
Jade WarriorsCore · InfantryThe professional heart of Cathay's armies, disciplined soldiers in jade-lacquered armour whose ranked halberds form an unbreakable wall.
Jet LancersSpecial · Light CavalrySwift cavalry on coal-black steeds who sweep the flanks in flowing formations, spitting the foe on slender lances before wheeling away.
Peasant Long-SpearsCore · InfantryLevied commoners armed with long spears, whose vast disciplined blocks blunt the enemy charge and buy the jade legions their time.
Sky-JunkRare · War MachineA wondrous flying warship of the Celestial fleet, drifting above the battle to rain gunpowder and fire down upon the foe.
Terracotta SentinelsRare · Monstrous ConstructTowering animated statues of baked clay and jade, ancient guardians roused from the tombs of Cathay to march in the empire's defence.
Characters
Miao YingThe Storm DragonThe eldest dragon-daughter of the Celestial Court, guardian of the Great Bastion, whose storms have broken the hordes of Chaos for a thousand years.
The Dragon-EmperorThe Son of HeavenThe immortal ruler of Grand Cathay, part man and part dragon, whose harmony holds the vast empire together and whose reign has no remembered beginning.
Zhao MingThe Iron DragonThe pragmatic dragon-son who guards Cathay's western marches, master of the Ivory Road's east and a delver into the perilous arts of warpstone.
Subfactions
The Ivory Road CaravansThe great caravans that carry Cathay's silk and jade west across the world, guarded by mercenaries and merchant-princes along the longest road on the map.
The Northern ProvincesThe storm-lashed northern marches under the Storm Dragon Miao Ying, whose people man the Great Bastion and stand the endless watch against Chaos.
The Western ProvincesThe harsh western marches under the Iron Dragon Zhao Ming, a land of deserts, mountains, and warpstone where the Ivory Road begins and pragmatism rules.
Discussion
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