ReignWulin:Dali

Company Stats

• Might: 4
• Treasure: 4
• Influence: 3
  • Entangling Alliance (Song Empire): +2 to Influence when dealing with the Song Empire; the Song Empire recieves +2 to Influence when dealing with Dali Kingdom.
• Territory: 4
  • Defensible Terrain: +2 to Might+Territory rolls to defend their land whenever attackers come in through the mountain passes.
• Sovereignty: 4

History

• 902: Overthrow of the Nanzhao Dynasty.
• 937: Dali Kingdom established by Duan Siping.
• 1064: Gao Zhisheng named "Grand Protector", given a hereditary Marquis position, for his military victory against a rebellion. The Gao family wields great influence as generals and advisors in Dali from this point forward.
• 1080: King Duan Lianyi is assassinated by the traitor official Yang Yizhen. Gao Zhisheng has Yang Yizhen killed. King Duan Linyi's son, Prince Yanqing, is missing, presumed killed by Yang Yizhen, so Gao Zhisheng instead has Duan Lianyi's nephew, Duan Shouhui, ascend to the throne.
• 1116: The Song Emperor recognizes the current Dali King, Duan Zhengyan, as "King of Dali".
• 1119: Several internal rebellions which the armies are not entirely successful in quelling.
• 1172: Duan Zhixing ascends the throne.
• 1200: Duan Zhixing abdicates from the throne in order to become a monk.
• 1205: Duan Zhixiang, the current King of Dali, ascends the throne.

Culture

The 11th king of Nanzhao established Buddhism as the state religion. Ten of the 22 kings of Dali gave up the throne and became monks.

The Dali Kingdom actively modeled its architecture, language, literature, mathematics, clothing, customs, and military equipment and tactics on the Song dynasty. The official written script was Chinese ('Han') characters, although numerous variant characters were used. Similarly, the standard spoken language of the elite was Chinese ('Han'), but with an accent and local variations in vocabulary.

They aren't very territorially invasive, and their national religion was Buddhism, which seemed to make their country not have any thoughts about snatching land from their neighbours. Unlike the Xia kings who called themselves emperors (huangdi) from 1038 onwards, Dali kings were content with the title of king (wang), and thus did not present a challenge to the Song ideology that there can only be one emperor in the world. Thus Dali was regarded as a vassal kingdom by the Song court, rather than a rival and competitor like Liao or Xia.

Erhai Lake is an important food source for the local people, who are famous for their fishing method: their trained cormorants catch fish and return them to fishmongers. The birds are prevented from swallowing their fish by rings fixed around their neck.

Dali is also famous for the many types of marble it produces, which are used primarily in construction and for decorative objects. In fact, Dali is so famous for the stone that the name of marble in Chinese is literally "Dali Stone"

Military

Despite their military prowess and superior numbers, the Mongols cannot breach the defences of the Erhai valley, which is so suited to defense that even just a few defenders can hold out for years.

High-ranking officers wear ceremonial rhino-hide armor.

Disciplines

Solitary Yang Finger

• "Wu Santong saw that she was heading into the kiln, and raised his right hand, and pointed a finger at one of her pressure points, and unleashed 'Solitary Yang Finger' at her. Though his 'Solitary Yang Finger' wasn’t fast enough to hit a pressure point, the move had many changes, and had to be avoided."
• The Duan family awed the martial arts world with their Yi Yang Finger（一阳指), a martial art which had evolved through the Duan family's own unique way of striking acupuncture points. The highest level of the Yi Yang Finger could emit lethal qi from one's fingers.
• The technique of sealing pressure points using the “Solitary Yang Finger” is completely different than conventional pressure point sealing; it is extremely difficult for others to unseal it so Zhu Ziliu went over to him and tapped his sides a few times, circulating his chi to unseal his pressure point.
• Yang Guo saw his index finger moving around and though it was coming at him at a fairly slow speed, all the major pressure points of his upper body were covered within the finger’s range leaving him guessing which pressure point was being targeted. As he was trying to figure it out, he realized all nine of his major pressure points were being threatened.
• Years ago, Reverend Yi Deng had used the “Divine One Yang Finger” to cure Huang Rong’s injury by circulating energy and clearing all her pressure points in pretty much the same way. The difference was that using the One Yang Finger to cure an illness ravenously consumed a lot of Reverend Yi Deng’s internal energy but hence lead to a quick recovery.
• Then he stepped forward and touched the sword blade with his finger. Heat shot through Yang Guo’s left arm, and his black iron sword was immediately brushed aside.

People

Diancang Yuyin

• The Wu brothers took the pair of metal oars that their Marshal Uncle used to him. Diancang Yuyin held them under his arms and went to the middle of the hall.
• Diancang Yuyin’s natural strength was already high; when he was serving Reverend Yideng he lived in secret in Xiangxi, he used his irons oars to row upstream against the current everyday, his arms became like steel.
• His natural ability was lacking, his internal energy couldn’t compare with Zhu Ziliu’s. However, his external hard skills were extremely powerful. Right now, the two were competing with their external hard skills, his strong point; his oars flew up and down as he attacked. Each metal oar was about fifty kilos (110+lbs) but he lifted them up as if they were light, he was as fluid as normal people with sabers or swords that weighed a few kilos.

Duan Zhixiang

As Zhixiang put increasing numbers of worthy and talented individuals in his administration, peace and prosperity grew.

Indian Dude

• Yang Guo looked at the person closely and saw that he was dark faced with a tall nose and deep set eyes; his appearance was similar to that of Nimoxing, and he had short, curly white hair, a man of old age. Yang Guo knew that Wu Santong was a disciple of the Reverend Yideng but he didn’t know that he also had an Indian Martial Uncle.
• Wu Santong said with joy, “My martial uncle is a great Indian sage; when it comes to healing wounds and curing poison, he’s probably the world’s best."
• The Indian monk did not understand what he was saying and went over to Yang Guo and checked his pulse. Wu Santong said, “Oh yes!” He quickly went to get Zhu Ziliu. Zhu Ziliu was well versed in Sanskrit and he was the only person who could communicate with the Indian monk.

Yideng

The Duan family were traditionally deeply devoted Buddhists and once Duan Zhixing realised what he had done he was shaken to the core of his being. He therefore tidied up his affairs and decided to follow an ancient tradition of the royal family - becoming a monk. His Buddhist name was Yideng, meaning Solitary Light, possibly an allusion to his art. For decades afterwards Yideng did not involve himself in any affairs outside of his monkish contemplation. His good friend Hong Qigong was present at his initiation so word was spread out to Jianghu not to disturb the Southern Emperor anymore.

Duan Zhixing inspired such devotion from his subjects that four of his most trusted ministers resigned their posts to become Duan's monkish disciples. They could thus continue protecting and serving the man who would always be their lord and master. Their former posts include Chancellor of State and Commander of the Royal Guard.

• Reverend Yideng of Dali has four disciples: ‘Fisherman, Woodsman, Farmer, and Scholar’.
• The ones that have arrived for the ‘Heroes Feast’ today are the Fisherman, Si Shuiyuyin and the Scholar, Zhu Ziliu.
• Whenever Huang Rong and Zhu Ziliu meet, they start to battle with their wits. They haven’t seen each other for over ten years and as soon as they saw each other, they were at it again.
• One had long white eyebrows, with a benign face.

Wu Santong

• Disciple of Yideng
• When he was younger, love wasn’t kind to him and because of this, every time he saw a handsome young man, he would feel a bit of revulsion towards them.

Zhu Ziliu

• The ones that have arrived for the ‘Heroes Feast’ today are the Fisherman, Si Shuiyuyin and the Scholar, Zhu Ziliu.
• Whenever Huang Rong and Zhu Ziliu meet, they start to battle with their wits. They haven’t seen each other for over ten years and as soon as they saw each other, they were at it again.
• Years ago, Zhu Ziliu had been a lawyer and a governor in Dali; he was an educated and intelligent man. The martial arts of the school of the Mu Li Duan’s rely on one’s understanding. When Zhu Ziliu first entered the tutelage of the Southern Emperor, his kung fu was the worst out of the four disciples ‘Fisherman, Woodsman, Farmer, Scholar’; ten years later he moved up to second place, now his martial arts were much higher than his three older apprentice brothers.
• Zhu Ziliu wrote the word ‘pen’ in the air and laughed as he said, “In my life I have always been associated with a pen; how would I know how to use other weapons?”
• Zhu Ziliu is the number one calligrapher of the northern sky, though he practices martial arts he hadn’t stopped studying literature, in the end, the more he practiced his kung fu the further refined it became and eventually the two arts became connected to each other. The “Solitary Yang Finger” and calligraphy became one. This kung fu was his own invention; if the opponent was stronger but didn’t have a background in literature, it would be extremely difficult for them to defend against this martial art. From literature and literature on martial arts came a kung fu where both literature and martial arts have reached an extremely advanced state.
• Zhu Ziliu’s “Solitary Yang Book Finger” uses a pen as the finger; every stance was measured and cautious, like a pen writing a book.
• Well versed in Sanskrit