Thank you for your kind comment! I’ll try to update soon hehe
As someone who is fascinated with Chinese history and culture, I am really into this. Will our mother, being an outsider, have any affect on our standing in the royal court? Alliances with other people? Just curious if it will help or hurt us in anyway.
Anyway, I’m excited to see where this goes.
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To be fair, when it comes to comedy, those that weren’t intentional are always the best kind of comedy lol
It likely depends on how politically active your mother is. Assuming that the foreign mothers are on equal standing with a native mother (this may not be the case, depending on how faithful ohmyvalar decides to be to Chinese racism during that period), they have the potential to gain immense power. Note that the two most powerful women in Imperial Chinese history, Wu Zetian and Dowager Empress Cixi, began their lives as essentially commoners (albeit well-to-do ones), which is also the lowest standing your native mother can start from.
Of course, being the heir to the throne, your actual prestige and status will not largely be dependent on your mother’s, but if your mother is politically powerful your relationship with her will definitely affect the people you can ally with, make enemies of, or get to do favors for you
I must reiterate that if ohmyvalar decides to include racism into the story, then the aforementioned scenario will probably be quite different for a foreign mother.
Chinese here,I’m curious 
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Hi! Well my main purpose in including possible background choices for the Empress is to facilitate at least biracial choices for players to maximise inclusivity despite the ancient Chinese setting.
As mentioned in the A/N, this obviously goes against history bc even when the time lines of ancient civilizations matched up, the technology back then was in no way sufficient to allow direct contact between them (at least in the earliest days of ancient china), much less establish marriage alliances. But hey, this is fantasy! W magic anything is possible 
Thus in this setting the Empress, regardless of her cultural background, will by characterisation be a strong political player set on putting MC on the throne (although MC’s own feelings regarding this can vary). Since her main political rival in the harem, the Imperial Consort, isn’t ethnically Chinese either, I don’t think I will be engaging the race factor here.
There will be two biracial ROs that would be historically impossible, but hey that’s why this is fantasy.
BTW, MC is not the (official) heir to the throne - that’s Long Qing, the Crown Prince and the Emperor’s son by the Imperial Consort!
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Hi! I hope I haven’t made any glaring errors regarding culture haha
Btw, I hope I haven’t given too much false advertising for this game 
Politics will definitely play a huge part throughout the entire narrative, but the game will include elements of travelling, adventure and politics in non-court context (but I guess that’s still considered politics?!
).
It will be a more non-conventional(?) politicking game if u choose to play as an aspiring Emperor/Empress/Ruler, as you travel the land along the narrative to forge alliances that will benefit u in your rise to power, instead of manipulating from court.
But you can also play it as the tale of a reluctant noble who humbly wants their brother to become Emperor/only wants to play around/or even supports the Uprising against the Dragon Emperor! There will be multiple endings for diff personality type MCs/RO endings.
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Why is Long Qing the Crown Prince? Was it because he was born first or is it for some other reason? What is age difference between Long Qing and the MC? And because the MC is the child of the Emperor by the Empress do they technically have a better claim to throne? Like how in the Byzantine Empire the children born the reigning Basileus and Basileia have better claim to throne then their older siblings born before their parents came to the Throne, due to being born in the purple (Porphyrogenitus).
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Ooh, that’s a cool tidbit about the byzantine empire! Well regarding the Crown Prince… Gimme a sec I may as well post a list of info about major characters up first!
Long Juan 龙鄄, Elder Prince Juan 鄄王爷
- The Emperor’s younger brother. Became lovers with Imperial Consort Nefertari when he was tasked by his brother to bring her to him, before the Emperor claimed her as a concubine, torn between his love for her and his brother, wants to put her son on the throne, determined to eliminate Empress and MC as threats.
Chen Mudan 陈牡丹, The Empress Consort 龙后 (39) (adopted name if MC is biracial)
- Warm, well-spoken, virtuous, graceful: she is all the peasants want and love. But beneath the veneer the facade has been slowly breaking since the denouncement of her child - and though she has only ever given you her favor, you may not like what you see under the perfect mask…
Long Qing 龙卿, Crown Prince Qing 长太子 (24)
- The eldest of the Emperor’s children, he has been groomed to be the future Emperor since childhood. Proud and brilliant, he is supported by the military but less by the peasantry. That he takes after the Emperor is easy to see - except for that peculiar shade of his well-groomed hair…
Chen Kun 陈琨, Personal Guard 贴身侍卫 (20)
- Empress’ brother’s biracial adopted son under her instruction on the condition that he would become your personal guard, grew up together with you, secretly part of the hidden magic community he is influential amongst, conflicted between loyalty to Empress and affection for you
- Since youth he has been trained in magic by the Empress and become a prominent figure in the magic community under a different name and mask, though few know of his true identity.
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As the eldest child of the Emperor your brother has a prior claim, but there are those whom support you instead bc u r the only ‘legitimate’ child. In ancient China trueborn children (born from the wife) were considered to be of nobler birth than illegitimate(?) children (born from concubines). Ofc in the royal family this succession argument often depended more on the political power that the child’s family holds, or - in rarer cases - the Emperor’s own favor.
In the context of this game the Empress supports your claim, but her main rival the Imperial Consort supports her own child’s. However due to some royal secrets hint hint wink wink and your own politicking u will be able to sway support in or against your favor throughout the game.
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Technically, ohmyvalar, you have contradicted yourself. If the MC was truly
then they would by default be the heir. A child of the Emperor and a consort or a concubine is still considered legitimate.
The way the succession worked is that the oldest male child of the Empress is the heir by default, unless the Emperor designates some other male child as Crown Prince.
Long Qing would indeed be the heir if he was a legitimate child, which, contrary to your first post in this thread, he is, as he is legitimate by virtue of his mother and father being married. Although he is not the biological son of the Empress, all the Emperor’s children were traditionally also considered children of the Empress, so as the official oldest son of the Empress he is therefore the heir.
It’s rather more complicated than European royal succession in some ways, especially due the the fact that the Emperor is allowed to have multiple legitimate wives.
Also, I’m assuming that in the game setting the succession rules are not limited to males only.
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Qin Lan 秦兰, Priestess of Duolin Temple (20)
- Dowager’s (Emperor’s mother) brother’s granddaughter, dedicated priestess to the gods, influential among the religious
- Once a noble lady of the Qins, she shorn her hair (now has a pixie cut!?) and chose to adopt the celibate (at least publicly…) life of the Priest and Priestesses of Duolin Temple instead of being forced into a political marriage with the Chens, a choice the Dowager has rewarded her for in secret.
Fang Yun 方韵, Lady Yun (23)
- Scion of the noble Fang family, whose ancestor was one of the most loyal and influential allies and subordinates of the First Dragon Emperor. She has risen swiftly through the ranks - though her detractors pin it on her powerful background - to become an influential member of imperial administration
- The eldest of the Fang children of this generation, she was raised with the expectation of betrothal as soon as she reached her name day. But this stubborn, intelligent lady destroyed all the plans of matchmaking, until the Emperor himself took interest and held a Grand Competition in which the man who could match her intellect would become her husband - none could. And ever since then, she has remained resolved not to marry on anyone else’s orders
Jin 金 (21)
- Young, baby faced Leader of the simmering Uprising against the royal family’s ancestry-driven rather than meritocratic governing system. Porcelain skin taking after their mother, strongly supported by peasantry. Their deceptive appearance hides a steel will and strong skill at influence.
- Having lost their mother to a local governor’s senseless abuse of power, they gathered the masses and began an underground rebellion that has since become an uprising. By nature or nurture, they are friendly and have a ready smile for anyone, making them a favorite of the peasantry.
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Something else I’d like to add is that the Empress was never referred to as Empress Consort. There was simply no point as there was only one instance in history where the Empress reigned in her own right (Wu Zetian) as opposed to being the Empress by virtue of marriage to the Emperor.
Huh, I always thought Empress Consort referred to an Empress by grace of marriage to a patriarch not the other way around:joy:, but at any rate you’re right! The Consort thing was a remnant of old drafts bc I copied this directly from my notes lol. In the actual game now as in the intro she’s referred to as Empress only.
You should probably also get rid of the stipulation regarding the MC being the only legitimate child in the first post, if you’re worried about
Hmm, as I mentioned before, I use legitimate as a non-exact translation for the word 嫡出 and illegitimate for 庶出(which google translate tells me is concubines LOL) to differentiate between concubine-born and Empress-born without sounding strange haha. Any suggestions?
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If you’re going for historical accuracy, I’d just call them all legitimate, because officially Long Qing would be considered Empress-born anyway. Not to mention that legitimate/illegitimate is going to give people familiar with European succession systems huge misconceptions.
In fact, if you’re going for any kind of accuracy, I recommend you not rely on Google Translate. I entered those words into Translate and it didn’t give me anything resembling English, let alone ‘concubine’.
Hmm, I think I’ll be using trueborn instead of legitimate from here on out. Thanks for the advice!