Queen of the Mountains
A New Chinese Warlord AAR
"As we ascended further still into the lower Himalayas, we had the distinct impression that our party was being watched. Where from, we could not say. There were many local rumors and supersitions about the people who called these mountains home, all of them to us inconceivable. Some said the passes were guarded by small mountainous apes, notorious for their viciousness. Others claimed to have seen cauldrons of flame atop some of the peaks. Still more local tales imagined a lost civilization in the mountains, resplendent in wealth and evicting all outsiders on pain of death.
None of these stories did we hold to be truth. What little evidence we had been able to gather suggested that those people who inhabited the region were of Chinese origin. On the fourth night of our expedition, we encountered them for the first time... a group of no less than eight, dressed in furs against the cold climate of the mountains and armed with a large array of weaponry the likes of which had not been used in Europe for countless decades. Their words, though a strange dialect thereof, were unmistakably Chinese. Most alarmingly to us was that these soldiers - for, armed as they were they could be nothing else - were all women. Not one male warrior, let alone leader, stood amongst them..." - Entry from the Memoirs of Sir Johnathan W. Fergusson, leader of the first British expedition into the Western Kingdom, dated February 10, 1843.
The civilization Sir Jonathan encountered just north of India in 1843 was unlike any other in modern recorded history. Female soldiers were merely the tip of the iceberg, and upon his second attempt to enter the country (in June of 1844) he found the remnants of a forgotten dynasty. While the cultural norms were not unlike those found in the Qing empire, they were in fact older. Everywhere Fergusson went, he found that those with the most influence in decision-making at every level were the land's women. All of the people he encountered referenced a 'Great Queen' as their leader.
This Great Queen sat upon a throne near the Tibetan border, attended to by a court consisting of entirely women. She was said to have carried herself with great importance and confidence, and was annoyed at the intrusion into her land by pale skinned barbarians. Yet their technology intrigued her, and set the Western Kingdom upon a dangerous path towards modernization.
To truly understand the vast difference between the Western Kingdom's society and that of nearby China, not to mention the west, one has to delve further into the past. In imperial China, changes in dynastic rule were always accompanied by the Mandate of Heaven's transferrance from a last corrupt Emperor to a new, good founding Emperor. Such a shift in power brought about the downfall of the Sung Dynasty, replaced by the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Many of the loyalists of the old dynsaty were captured and killed. Some, however, escaped far to the west, plotting revenge and a return to power.
Of these, a goodly number of courtiers fled far from Yuan China through Tibet, seeking a safe haven. While there were many male soldiers and attendants present, the vast majority of those people of importance were women. Beyond that, many of these noble women had only daughters, whom they were fiercely determined to protect from harm. The key to their hopes of a return to power lay with a young imperial concubine, pregnant with the emperor's child. After several clashes with the locals, the Sung set up a permanent settlement and plotted.
Born in 1282, Wu Mei-Fan became the first, if unofficial, ruler of the Western Kingdom. Her mother, who had picked up on many of the nuances of imperial courtly politics, served as regent until 1298. It took many years for the small kingdom to become self-sufficient, and cultural exchanges with neighbors were as common as trading goods. The ladies of the kingdom felt it a duty as Chinese nobility and scholars (or as close as they had to scholars) to spread Chinese beliefs, education and culture to the local barbarians, making them Chinese in the long run. If they could not immediately reclaim the throne, they would carve out a piece of civilization in their new homeland.
Word of the Yuan's overthrow reached the Western Kingdom a year after the event, and the kingdom had not the power to challenge the Ming. Even still, their influence had spread to many parts of the land. Due to the original composition of the nobility, society in the kingdom had taken on a distinctly matriarchal nature. The court ladies' nearly unmatched talent for manipulation and courtly politics eventually won them control of a large area of land (once Chinese their teachings had been spread over a few generations).
Power passed from one eldest daughter to the next, continuing on even when the Ming dynasty was overthrown. Court ladies from Ming, much in the same situation as the Sung had been centuries before, fled with their families away from the empire. No safe haven was presented in Indochina, so they fled to the Western Kingdom, where they'd heard some form of imperial society was flourishing. After weeks of negotiation and deliberation, the Ming refugees were allowed to settle in the kingdom, so long as they respected the authority of the reigning queen.
Adding to the intrigue of courtly politics were ties the royal line had not only to the Sung emperors, but also to a foreign court as well. Her family had once dwelled on the eastern coast of China, and had taken in refugees of a courtly coup in Japan. The Japanese nobles who had fled were no more than servants to her estate, but there was considerable interbreeding between the families. As the Japanese family had previously married daughters to their emperor to gain influence, this gave the Wu family distant ties to two imperial lines.
With the establishment of the expansive Qing Empire, the Western Kingdom decided that the only option to preserve their culture was to isolate themselves. The growing number of western ventures into the Far East was just further encouragement to the state to close themselves off. From 1540 until Sir Johnathan's expedition in 1843, the Western Kingdom enforced its self-imposed isolation to every extent possible. By this time, the kingdom had grown to include both Nepal and the original territory settled by the Sung refugees.
Culture flourished during the isolation years, while trade was carried out clandestinely with India and the Qing. The matriarchal society continued to develop, women being granted status as heads of household, scholars, administrators and soldiers. Men came to accept roles as laborers, farmers, and other tasks that women became too busy to take on. All in the name of the Great Queens, all of whom shared a long-standing desire to reclaim the empire that had been lost to them.
Wu Mei-Lin, in the 17th year of her reign, was the ruler who met with Sir Johnathan in 1844. She had received reports from her border troops of the Englishman's first incursion into the kingdom, finding them deeply troubling. News from the Qing had indicated that the west was taking advantage of Chinese technological backwardness. Deciding that the Western Kingdom would not suffer this fate, she set about learning all she could about the pale-skinned intruders. Their technology astounded her, and after a meeting with her Imperial Council in August decided that the nation must modernize to survive. Thus begins the modern history of the Western Kingdom, full of what Sir Johnathan described as, "Chinese Amazons"...
A New Chinese Warlord AAR
"As we ascended further still into the lower Himalayas, we had the distinct impression that our party was being watched. Where from, we could not say. There were many local rumors and supersitions about the people who called these mountains home, all of them to us inconceivable. Some said the passes were guarded by small mountainous apes, notorious for their viciousness. Others claimed to have seen cauldrons of flame atop some of the peaks. Still more local tales imagined a lost civilization in the mountains, resplendent in wealth and evicting all outsiders on pain of death.
None of these stories did we hold to be truth. What little evidence we had been able to gather suggested that those people who inhabited the region were of Chinese origin. On the fourth night of our expedition, we encountered them for the first time... a group of no less than eight, dressed in furs against the cold climate of the mountains and armed with a large array of weaponry the likes of which had not been used in Europe for countless decades. Their words, though a strange dialect thereof, were unmistakably Chinese. Most alarmingly to us was that these soldiers - for, armed as they were they could be nothing else - were all women. Not one male warrior, let alone leader, stood amongst them..." - Entry from the Memoirs of Sir Johnathan W. Fergusson, leader of the first British expedition into the Western Kingdom, dated February 10, 1843.
The civilization Sir Jonathan encountered just north of India in 1843 was unlike any other in modern recorded history. Female soldiers were merely the tip of the iceberg, and upon his second attempt to enter the country (in June of 1844) he found the remnants of a forgotten dynasty. While the cultural norms were not unlike those found in the Qing empire, they were in fact older. Everywhere Fergusson went, he found that those with the most influence in decision-making at every level were the land's women. All of the people he encountered referenced a 'Great Queen' as their leader.
This Great Queen sat upon a throne near the Tibetan border, attended to by a court consisting of entirely women. She was said to have carried herself with great importance and confidence, and was annoyed at the intrusion into her land by pale skinned barbarians. Yet their technology intrigued her, and set the Western Kingdom upon a dangerous path towards modernization.
To truly understand the vast difference between the Western Kingdom's society and that of nearby China, not to mention the west, one has to delve further into the past. In imperial China, changes in dynastic rule were always accompanied by the Mandate of Heaven's transferrance from a last corrupt Emperor to a new, good founding Emperor. Such a shift in power brought about the downfall of the Sung Dynasty, replaced by the Mongol Yuan dynasty. Many of the loyalists of the old dynsaty were captured and killed. Some, however, escaped far to the west, plotting revenge and a return to power.
Of these, a goodly number of courtiers fled far from Yuan China through Tibet, seeking a safe haven. While there were many male soldiers and attendants present, the vast majority of those people of importance were women. Beyond that, many of these noble women had only daughters, whom they were fiercely determined to protect from harm. The key to their hopes of a return to power lay with a young imperial concubine, pregnant with the emperor's child. After several clashes with the locals, the Sung set up a permanent settlement and plotted.
Born in 1282, Wu Mei-Fan became the first, if unofficial, ruler of the Western Kingdom. Her mother, who had picked up on many of the nuances of imperial courtly politics, served as regent until 1298. It took many years for the small kingdom to become self-sufficient, and cultural exchanges with neighbors were as common as trading goods. The ladies of the kingdom felt it a duty as Chinese nobility and scholars (or as close as they had to scholars) to spread Chinese beliefs, education and culture to the local barbarians, making them Chinese in the long run. If they could not immediately reclaim the throne, they would carve out a piece of civilization in their new homeland.
Word of the Yuan's overthrow reached the Western Kingdom a year after the event, and the kingdom had not the power to challenge the Ming. Even still, their influence had spread to many parts of the land. Due to the original composition of the nobility, society in the kingdom had taken on a distinctly matriarchal nature. The court ladies' nearly unmatched talent for manipulation and courtly politics eventually won them control of a large area of land (once Chinese their teachings had been spread over a few generations).
Power passed from one eldest daughter to the next, continuing on even when the Ming dynasty was overthrown. Court ladies from Ming, much in the same situation as the Sung had been centuries before, fled with their families away from the empire. No safe haven was presented in Indochina, so they fled to the Western Kingdom, where they'd heard some form of imperial society was flourishing. After weeks of negotiation and deliberation, the Ming refugees were allowed to settle in the kingdom, so long as they respected the authority of the reigning queen.
Adding to the intrigue of courtly politics were ties the royal line had not only to the Sung emperors, but also to a foreign court as well. Her family had once dwelled on the eastern coast of China, and had taken in refugees of a courtly coup in Japan. The Japanese nobles who had fled were no more than servants to her estate, but there was considerable interbreeding between the families. As the Japanese family had previously married daughters to their emperor to gain influence, this gave the Wu family distant ties to two imperial lines.
With the establishment of the expansive Qing Empire, the Western Kingdom decided that the only option to preserve their culture was to isolate themselves. The growing number of western ventures into the Far East was just further encouragement to the state to close themselves off. From 1540 until Sir Johnathan's expedition in 1843, the Western Kingdom enforced its self-imposed isolation to every extent possible. By this time, the kingdom had grown to include both Nepal and the original territory settled by the Sung refugees.
Culture flourished during the isolation years, while trade was carried out clandestinely with India and the Qing. The matriarchal society continued to develop, women being granted status as heads of household, scholars, administrators and soldiers. Men came to accept roles as laborers, farmers, and other tasks that women became too busy to take on. All in the name of the Great Queens, all of whom shared a long-standing desire to reclaim the empire that had been lost to them.
Wu Mei-Lin, in the 17th year of her reign, was the ruler who met with Sir Johnathan in 1844. She had received reports from her border troops of the Englishman's first incursion into the kingdom, finding them deeply troubling. News from the Qing had indicated that the west was taking advantage of Chinese technological backwardness. Deciding that the Western Kingdom would not suffer this fate, she set about learning all she could about the pale-skinned intruders. Their technology astounded her, and after a meeting with her Imperial Council in August decided that the nation must modernize to survive. Thus begins the modern history of the Western Kingdom, full of what Sir Johnathan described as, "Chinese Amazons"...
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Welcome to yet another Cascadia AAR, the result of my decision to go with some suggestions other forum members have made. This will be a user-defined Chinese warlord faction AAR, one I've invested a good deal of time already into modding the game for. The history will unfold from here through the first world war, into the 1930s as the Western Kingdom develops into a semi-modern nation. I'd like suggestions on what to name the faction, since I don't speak Chinese myself.
Hopefully, this latest results of my madness will result in a story that is entertaining to you, the reader.
