Guan Dynasty
One man to rule ten rings. Ten rings to rule the horizon.
~ Shuixuede ~
~ Shuixuede ~
The Guan Dynasty (255 PC - 185 AC) was the first uniform state over the lands of Dachi, which had previously been made up of smaller individual kingdoms. It was an imperial dynasty established by Guan Yishe, the Unifier, and ruled by the house of Guan. It is considered Dachi's greatest dynasty, given most of its culture, tradition, and innovation comes from this period, including the fabled Ten Imperial Rings. It ultimately came to a fall when its latest emperor, Guan Guan, was assassinated. A year later, Dong Bao, the warlord responsible for his death officially dissolved the dynasty in his declaration as its new emperor.
But, a wandering hermit from the Xing Mountains by the name of Guan Yishe changed everything in the period when he came to its capital, Jiangjiang. A self-proclaimed priest and scholar of the dragon god, Guan repeatedly denounced the actions of He Fang in the streets day after day, eventually leading to his arrest and trial before the king himself. Yishe mentioned multiple times the Dragon of Order was infuriated and standing against the king, but Fang, laughing about, was ready to have him executed.
To stop him, Yishe predicted three miracles which would occur to prove what he said was true. First, a terrible tremor would strike the city that would topple all his temples to the ground. Second, Guan would escape from any bondage He Fang forced him into. And third, on the following day, all his rice houses would be emptied, down to the last grain. Still laughing about, He Fang had Yishe subdued and sealed away deep below the city in the Hunyu Dungeon.
The next day, a terrible earthquake ruptured the entire city as it is said a god of the Cosmic War met its death and fell to the earth. The quake crumbled the temples of the capital to the ground. Nothing else was affected, and not a single temple was left standing. He Fang was left surprised and ordered a force to follow him into the dungeon later on that day so that he could execute the soothsayer. But, when Fang arrived, he found the cell empty, the shackles still locked tight. He Fang grew afraid, for he remembered Yishe's second prophecy.
Mustering over a thousand crack troops, He Fang stationed one-hundred guards at each of his rice houses. Fang himself personally stood guard at the one deep inside his palace, for he thought a force of raiders would surely come to sack them. But, the next day, He Fang still saw no sign of such a thing. Growing hungry, he was about to relax his troops as he turned inside to take some of his food, and there he saw the entire place was empty. Not a single grain of rice could be found, and the same news suddenly came from everywhere else.
Then, it began to rain throughout the land, and when He Fang looked up, he saw the rain was the very rice itself he had grown. All the Zhi took bowls, cups and baskets to catch all that they could, but whatever rice Fang ate was tasteless and dry. He Fang's advisors, nobles, and other officials were astonished at what they saw, and news of the man named Guan Yishe and the miracles he performed began to spiral through the land until they all chanted his name as king. The people rallied behind him as he called that the will of Bahamut was on his heart, and the Xinjiang Rebellion began.
Yishe led the people against He Fang, eventually executing him. Afterward, Yishe took this power to the other fifteen kingdoms, proclaiming the same thing over and over, and offering unification that could withstand the tragedy of the Cosmic War. Seven of the lands listened and abdicated, and the other eight that didn't were conquered. On the day when the sixteenth kingdom was brought into Yishe's domain, it is said the Dragon of Order himself appeared before Guan Yishe and the people of Jiangjiang. The dragon, out of a show of respect and support for Yishe's feat, forged ten mighty and powerful rings, one for each of Yishe's ruling fingers, worn like crowns. This very moment was when Guan Yishe became the first emperor of a united Dachi, and when the Guan Dynasty began.
In a personal tour through each of them, Yishe even renamed several natural regions to match the former kingdom's name, so it's name might not be forgotten. Examples are the Momai Grassland, the Jinzi River, and the Ta Karsts.
Yishe grew to be a widely respected emperor over his new administration which, admittedly was strong enough to even withstand the danger of the Cosmic War. He took the elven woman Xincen as his wife (later known as Guan Xincen or Lady Xin). Together they had two daughters, each named Guanli and Guanjia, and a son named Guan Lao.
Yishe's death came in the harvest season of 194 PC when a growing insurrection that had originated from the Mufong Steppes reached even Jiangjiang and attacked it, compelling the emperor himself to take action. The man in charge was an orc named Mang Tufei. Tufei was cornered at the banks of the Laba River, captured, and executed, however Yishe was struck in the back by a stray poison arrow during the resolution and rushed back to the capital. He was bedded for days after to heal, often only seeing his family and healers, but died soon after. His only son, Guan Lao was shortly after raised into his father's throne as the next emperor, and the land wept for a long time. Guan Lao was an elf and was 71 years old when he became emperor.
the grandmother and heals her before finally returning. His advisors, outraged upon his return, tell him of all his duties that had piled up since he'd been gone, before Lao proceeds to settle all the matters in a single afternoon, to everyone's surprise.
Guan Lao was also responsible for the institution of Chuiism as the land's official religion. One day, the emperor was walking the streams outside the city to no one's knowledge when he saw a young woman praying up ahead. She was a Yuan-Ti named Menji, and when Lao asked who she was praying to, she began speaking to him not only of the Infinite Serpent, Shui but its brother and sister, Tilesh and Sirakya, who altogether governed and maintained the balance of a mortal's life three ways. Lao was fascinated by her speech and philosophy and learned more of it day by day, writing it down into what is now the Book of Chuilao.
The book slowly circulated the palace, then the city, then the commanderies and became an applauded work of philosophy. In 181 PC, Lao decreed the book as holy text and instituted the state religion of Chuiism to the land. Bahamut's worship waned in time to come.
Not long after, he took the woman Menji as his wife (later known as Guan Menji or Lady Men). Together they had a daughter named Samin, and two sons named Guan Feng and Guan Wu. Guan Lao died in 160 PC when he was stricken with a sudden illness, but denied medical care, declaring it the will of heaven that his life might end. But, before he went, he named his eldest son Guan Wu the heir to the throne. Guan Wu was half elf, half yuan-ti and was 41 years old when he became emperor.
During his reign, the imperial colors, which had always been a pear green, shifted to a dark red since Wu believed it the proper color for any ruling class. He was also responsible for the construction of both Yu Pass and Cheng Pass, which guards the capital from its north and south. Yu first began construction in 134 PC in response to rumored Tufei raiders lingering in the north, and Cheng years after in 123 PC to stop elephants from entering the valley.
In 25 PC, war from the west came to Dachi's doorstep when the dwarven thanedom of Tomo led forces on an age of conquest, beginning in the Chuan and Kong commanderies, killing the vassal kings of them both and most of their princes. Spearheading this invasion was a dwarven general named Tenten Shiba. The emperor sent many officers and crack troops to fight back the invasion, but in a record number of fifteen different battles against Shiba, Wu's forces lost every single one. People in the capital began to grow afraid, however Wu, having learned from his mistakes, proposed a new strategy. He mobilized to drive a wedge between Shiba and the rulership of Tomo through a combination of false letters, gifts to the general, and clever engagements which kept Shiba isolated from Tomo.
Thinking Shiba to be a vagabond turncoat, Tomo, tricked, banished Shiba and his forces to his utter surprise, and sued for peace not long after. But, Wu, seeing great talent with Shiba, thought it a waste to kill him, and offered not only forgiveness but a prominent role as a Vassal King over the Ta commandery. Humiliated, without a clan, and with nowhere else to go, the general accepted the offer.
Guan Wu was married to the woman Koshen (later known as Guan Koshen or Lady Ko). Together, they had a single son named Guan Guan. In 3 PC, while Guan Wu was visiting the city of Wuliao on diplomatic affairs, a freak meteor shower struck the city, killing him and many others. The imperial rings were the only things caught in the shower left unscarred, and his son took up the throne after him. Guan Guan was an elf and was 104 years old when he became emperor.
long become gluttonous and abusive of the mounting power they wielded “in the name of the emperor”. For them, they were more intent on living luxurious days rather than ruling Dachi. Ostensive connections also gave them the power to do so, which upset the balance between the emperor and his ruling officials. This abuse continued for several decades until the consequences of it came to bear in 183 AC when starvation, poverty, and pestilence filled the land. This period of time is known as the Grand Collapse.
The people, driven to the extreme, united under a healer named Zhang Chu and rose en masse in a landwide uprising. The Golden Ring Rebellion. Emperor Guan, appalled at the state his land had become, sought to bring these unworthy leaders to justice and work to return stability to the land. However, a deceitful and ambitious warlord, Dong Bao, framed and led a coup against the emperor and slew him in an attempt to usurp power through an iron fist. Guan Guan was 290 years old when he was killed. He did not have a wife nor an heir.
But, in his dying breath to keep the imperial rings out of the hands of a tyrant such as Bao, Guan dispersed the rings throughout the land, praying heaven would save the land and crown a new worthy leader. A few months later, as new heavenstates began to rise seeking to either begin a new dynasty or preserve the former, it began the Warring Heavenstates Period.
At its onset, Dong Bao, holding unopposed power in the capital and one of the imperial rings he'd managed to snag, dissolved the Guan Dynasty.
Origins
Before the Guan Dynasty, the lands of Dachi (literally meaning "many lands") were said to make up sixteen different individual kingdoms. Not only had they been ravaged continuously by the ongoing Cosmic War since its beginning, but their hardship gave way to heated relationships and bad rivalries between one another. Each of the lands were reduced to fighting and stealing to horde the basic necessities for survival, namely food in the form of rice. It was an endless cycle of desperation that lasted for over two centuries, approximately starting from the year 500 PC.The worst of these kingdoms were the Zhi Kingdom, ruled by a terrible and selfish despot named He Fang. The Zhi people were the richest farmers of the sixteen lands and worshipped the Dragon of Order, Bahamut. But, they were the most violently oppressed. The food they grew, the despot stored away for himself and those in his inner circles. The temples the people depended upon, He Fang disparaged through heavy taxes, including to enter them, how they prayed, what their tribute was, and whether water would be provided for ceremonial washing of hands.
Rule of Guan Yishe
Guan Yishe ruled as Dachi's first emperor from 255 - 194 PC. Ruling over the former sixteen kingdoms, most were ill-content with the prospect they would lose their autonomy, especially those which Yishe had been forced to subdue militarily, which were the Yang, Mai, Mu, Yan, Xiong, Lu, Ta, and Kong kingdoms. To counteract this, Guan Yishe established these kingdoms as independent commanderies, with each their own appointed princes and vassal king. This not only appeased the empire, but helped Yishe to govern the land.
Rule of Guan Lao
Guan Lao ruled as Dachi's emperor from 194 - 160 PC. Lao was certainly not cut from the same edge as his father, and where Yishe commanded authority, Lao had a much more frivolous personality. During this time is when the story of the Grandmother and the Elixir is said to have taken place: when Lao one day hears of a prince's grandmother out west who is sick and in need of aid, after being denied by his advisors to do anything about it lest the other princes should come making demands, sneaks out of the capital disguised as a commoner. He is found missing from the capital for the next month as he visits
Rule of Guan Wu
Guan Wu ruled as Dachi's emperor from 160 - 3 PC. Wu was ruled by his mother as much as the land was ruled by him. Much of it came from the fact Lady Men felt an obligation to ensure her son was the best leader he could be. However, this resulted in complex diplomatic and familial affairs on several occasions due to their differences regarding judicial punishment. Wu was much less lenient than his mother and late father, and often styled himself as a militant strategist, because of his interests in innovative weaponry and organized warfare.
Rule of Guan Guan
Guan Guan ruled as Dachi's emperor from 3 PC - 184 AC. He was a timid and quiet scholar who studied all of his family's history, including his grandfather's teachings in the Book of Chuilao. During this time, he reverted the empire's official colors back to the pear green they'd originally been, claiming his father's obsession to have been him "straying from the path".
Dachi during Guan's rule is considered to be the dark age of the land. Though his young self was honorable and virtuous, the other court nobles, such as the vassal kings and the princes had
Those who stand in the way of virtue can win battles. But, those who uphold integrity win the war.
~ Guan Guan ~
~ Guan Guan ~
Type
Geopolitical, Empire
Capital
Government System
Despotism
Power Structure
Unitary state
Economic System
Market economy
Official State Religion
Official Languages
Shuixuede, the Infinite
Emoguiji, Son of Ugeroth
Bahamut, the Dragon of Order
Tiamat, the Dragon of Chaos
Tilesh, Serpent of Vice
Sirakya, the Grey Serpent
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