神龍之土 Land of the Dragon [WIP] (09/07/20 Update! The Uprising Appears!)

Not to be dramatic, but I would die for Chen Kun.

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First of all, I am quite excited about this setting. Imperial politics was absolutely wicked, in all sense of that word.

There’s quite a few run-on sentances: consider rephrasing, or breaking them up? For example, " the dragon became the symbol of and lent its name to" could be rephrased as “the dragon became the namesake of”

Typos: “untrimmed vegetarian” should be “untrimmed vegetation”.

Questions:
What, exactly, is the cause for the uprising? You can’t have the Emperor and the rebels both be popular. While individuals may rave against the “ancestry-driven” succession system, a uprising would require thousands to willingly abandon their livelihood and throw away their life; that’s not something that can be ignited with ideals alone.
Also, what does the chain of inheritance look like at this moment? (LongQing -> MC -> the uncle)? Does the Emperor have any other children (because if not, somebody must have been very, very ruthless)?

unrelevent(because Fantasy!) trivia:
While I see your point in racial inclusivity, it would be highly uncommon in ancient China for a foreigner to become the Empress, unless that foreign land was so powerful that the country absolutely had to kiss their ass. It’s not racism: a foreigner married to the Emperor to cement an alliance would still be viewed as someone of divided loyalties; worse, her child would be the somewhat rightful heir, creating the risk that the next emperor would hold loyalty to a foreign land. She wouldn’t last long in that position; the native nobility, public opinion, and top concubines would all tear her apart.
Realistically, there is no way the two most powerful wives would both be foreigners. If they bore children first, the native runner-ups would force some sort of abortion as soon as they were known to be pregnant.

Namesakes and symbols are different things, though, so the symbol part would still have to come in somewhere.

Perhaps the field was filled with many vegetarian eunuchs-to-be?

Technically, it was stated that the Consort is of a different ethnic group. That’s not the same as being foreign, and could plausibly have happened in actual Imperial China. Not that I’m saying it did, I haven’t memorized the list of all Chinese Consorts and Concubines throughout history, but I could see it happening.

True, ohmyvalar did say she was not ethnically ‘Chinese’, but using Chinese as an ethnic group is from a technical standpoint rather dubious in the first place and to be fair, this project has not so far been distinguished by clear language and terminology, to say the least.

The foreigner-as-Empress thing, though, is much more improbable, you’re right. As far as I know that never happened.

Although I must disagree about the abortion scenario. Even allowing for this hypothetical two-head-wives-as-foreigners situation to occur during a period where reliable abortion techniques had been developed and made safe enough that the Emperor would permit the use of them on his favored wives, it is more likely there would be extreme political pressure on the Emperor to name a purely-native child as his heir and failing that a massive succession conflict upon his death.

Ah, I didn’t notice that difference. There are lots of ethically un-Chinese concubines, though they would need some pretty solid support to rise to that level of power.

By “abortion”, I meant a “have them pushed down the stairs and then silence the lackey who did it” sort of technique.

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I really enjoy your work so far, it’s interestingly fresh and new.

Oh, you meant that kind of abortion. Still, if a foreigner had the skill to work herself up to the level of Empress or Favored Consort, she wouldn’t exactly be an easily target either.

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Will our mage-boy childhood friend be one of the ro’s?

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HE BETTER BE
he. better. be.

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@ohmyvalar

I would suggest putting the characters and their description in the first post for easy access. You could use the function:
[detail=“Characters”] insert details here. [/detail] without the apostrophe

in order to avoid the wall of text in the first post.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of this. Since I’m partially Chinese so it’s nice to see something relating to Chinese culture and mythology.

Fortunately, he is indeed an RO :wink: And he’s the first one you’ll meet, maybe in the next update(?) Be prepared tho, he’ll be around a lot as your personal Guard haha

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Done! Thanks for the tip, and I’m glad u enjoyed it :slight_smile:

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Thank you for your kind comment :slight_smile:

I’m ready. If he shares every single scene with MC I’ll die a happy woman lol
The bodyguard torn between his duty and his heart, aaahhh yes, yes, I support this wholeheartedly.

When do you expect the next update?

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:flushed: I’ve been found out jkjk thanks for pointing it out!

It’ll need fleshing out and incorporation to make it less info dump, but here’s the gist of it: due to magical advancements in the recent generations, greater contact between various ancient lands has been established. As such, rulers have taken to arranging marriages of state. However this privilege of portal traveling & marriages is mostly limited to royals, so there is a sudden boom in ethnic diversity among the uppermost echelons of society, causing frictions in society at large. Thus the Uprising made up of two major camps (one which wants to integrate foreigners into the land especially in administrative positions and and another which is taking the chance to rise in social status bc the Emperor’s traditionalist stance in policies despite having married foreign wives to solidify alliances restricts meritocratic social mobility) which have joined forces to achieve the common goal of gathering the masses to change society has been becoming increasingly prominent in the Land in near generations. However there have been no outrightly treasonous activity although both Imperial royalists and Uprising forces have been crossing swords in secret each seeking to discredit the other, although that is soon to change…

Oh god it’s late I’m tired if any of ye kind souls would be willing to proofread this then thanks friends :sweat_smile:

Yup, in the original outline there were to be 4 siblings in total, but I decided to value characterization over realism (evidently lmao) bc I wouldn’t have had the space to develop both ROs and royal siblings as established characters. But yes, feel free to think that both the Empress and the Imperial Consort were v v good at persuading their fellow concubines against conception.

Ahaha I hope he doesn’t disappoint! If I continue my current writing pace, I’ll probably have enough to do weekly updates!

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The bodyguard :heart_eyes:

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I feel like Consort Nefertari should probably have been compelled to adopt a Chinese name and be referred to as such. After all, there were many concubines and consorts of foreign ethnicity in Chinese history, but they are never referred to by their native names, only their new Chinese titles. The same applies to other empires such as the Ottomans. Hurrem Sultan is never Roxelana, and Kosem Sultan is never Anastasia.

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Yesss!! Another WIP in an Asian setting! I’ve only seen two other Asian WIPs: Yugen and Tale of Two Cranes. Anyway, this is great. More representation for my fellows :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes::star2: Though hopefully, someone will post a WIP based in SEA, South Asia, or Middle East too…

I haven’t started yet but I’ll probably enjoy this because I really dig court intrigue heh

edit: Finished the demo thrice now! The writing style is detailed and immersive. Demo is still too short but I’m intrigued. I’m excited for future updates :slight_smile:

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So, going by the logic of “whoever profits the most did it”, the rebels are consisted of foreigners and low level/prospective governmental officials, maybe the upper merchant class, respected scholars and the like?

Still, they would need a reason to eventually preach to the masses. If I were a native commoner, neither of these reasons would be enough to persuade me into open revolt against a standing army, which will likely result in a horrible death. Is there anything worse the current rulers have done (or can be framed for)? Taxed my family into starvation? Drafted twenty years of my life to build them a pleasure palace? Dragged my kids to become sacrifices in some major spell (because magic is a thing here)?

A rebellion need not necessarily be a rebellion of the peasant masses. If it is initiated at the higher levels of society by disgruntled nobles, officials and the like, the organizers will have their own personal millitary forces and provincial peasants (that can be organized into militia) that are ultimately more loyal to their direct rulers and superiors than the Emperor. It’s possible to launch an uprising with such forces, without the need to preach a cause to get the masses to join you.

The nature of the Imperial Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven would mean that should the uprising succeed in deposing and replacing the Emperor, the divine right to rule would then transfer to the new Emperor and his descendants.

The majority of the common populace would likely continue with their lives without too much fanfare, aside from those who more directly affected, which, assuming that the uprising was directed at the Emperor, would likely be largely limited to those in the capital and whichever provinces the rebellious nobles and officials drew their forces from.

Peasants from other provinces who were pressed into service as forces to defend the Emperor or overtaxed to fuel the war effort might also be affected, but that just gives them all the more reason to be favorably disposed towards the rebels attempting to overthrow the Emperor whose rule exacted such tolls on them. Even then, though, life will not substantially change for the majority of the agrarian masses, so they would have no incentive to take action one way or another.

Of course, I’m not saying that a classic, nationwide-popular-rebellion scenario isn’t also possible, but it doesn’t have to be the only option for a story about/involving an uprising.