Editing Tales of Perpetual Peace/ShanlinLoresheets

Back to [[Tales_of_Perpetual_Peace|Main Page]]
=The Xin Dynasty=
==A Brief History==
"All Under Heaven, when long divided, must unite; long united, it must divide."  Every first-year student knows these words, and principle they express apply to the Xin Dynasty just as they did to the Jin, the Han, the Qin, the Zhou, and the Xia before them.  The period of division from which the Xin arose was a particularly violent one.  Instead of the Warring States that preceded the noble Han, Shen Zhou was divided into a patchwork quilt of petty tyrannies and warlords' fiefs, each proclaiming himself the 'king' of this or that scrap of land.  The civil war that brought down the Jin had brought much misery to the black-haired people, and the Long Winter of the mad Yun King, Snow Leopard, that followed on its heels all but destroyed the civilizing bonds that kept the land together.<br>
<br>
It is here that the legend of the Xin founding begins.  It is said the Eight Mountain Sages, Daoist Immortals who dwell on the most sacred mountains of Shen Zhou, took notice of the suffering of the world and agreed to intervene.  They gathered together the sacred artifacts known as Pan Gu's Bones, entrusted them to their most benevolent acolyte, and charged him with renewing order in the land.  This acolyte, known to history only as the Lonely Apostle, descended from Mount Tai, and began his fateful task.<br>
*The Lonely Apostle
*Pan Gu's Bones
*The Fate of the Eight Mountain Sages
Making use of the Bones' potent divinatory power, the Apostle searched for one on earth who might be worthy of the title 'Son of Heaven'.  The self-styled kings were, to a man, power-hungry wolves, and those who claimed descent from great dynasties were either mountebanks or fools.  It was not until the Apostle came to the Four Gates Valley, the birthplace of civilization in Shen Zhou, that he found one worthy of Heaven's blessing.  The army of a local warlord had fallen upon a town under the protection of a rival (in which the Apostle happened to be staying); its men all conscripted, this town could offer no defense -- a fact which did not stop the head of this army from ordering wholesale slaughter.  Now, such was the cultivation of the Apostle that the town was in no real danger, but before the holy man could intervene a bright-eyed lieutenant of the invading army interposed himself and his followers between the army and the town.  Though outnumbered and outranked, this lieutenant shamed his superiors into righteousness, and the town was spared.  In gratitude, the elders of the town offered the lieutenant the only treasure they had: a musty old relic from the days of the Han Dynasty.  The unnamed lieutenant accepted with magnanmity; when he opened the box, he was shocked to see the Han Imperial Seal.<br>
<br>
The Lonely Apostle had found his Son of Heaven.<br>
*The Legend of the Brave Lieutenant
*The Han Imperial Seal
With the Seal in his possession, and the divinations of the Apostle to guide him, this lieutenant had united the Four Gates Valley under his own banner within the year.  By the end of the following, he had pacified the northern plains and the western basin.  The Clans that flocked to his banner in those early years have persisted to this day as the Great Clans of the Xin Dynasty; their loyalty was rewarded with wealth and authority in their native regions, and the Imperial Consorts are limited to women either from or sponsored by those Clans.  It soon became apparent that this once humble lieutenant, then conquering king, would be Emperor.<br>
*The Great Clans
*The Eight Mountain Sect Founding
(The Emperors, in Brief)<br>
*Yellow Ink Sect
<br>
(Presentiments of Decline)
*Xin Aidi (Fifteenth Emperor)
*The Dowager's Regency

==The Imperial Family==
*Xin Shiliu Huangdi
*Wei Chu'hua, Empress Dowager and former Regent

==The Imperial Bureaucracy==
===The Four Chambers===
*The Winter Chamber
*The Spring Chamber
*The Summer Chamber
*The Autumn Chamber
===The Astral Directorate===
On the one hand, the Astral Directorate is, in one form or another, the oldest part of the Xin bureaucracy.  From the very start of the reign of Xin Taizu, dedicated scholars have performed divinations about all matters of imperial policy, from the earth-shaking to the mundane.  On the other hand, however, the Astral Directorate in its current form is the most recent addition to the Imperial Bureaucracy (dating back to the reign of the Xin Yizong, the Eleventh Emperor), and its predominance over the Four Chambers is more recent still.  The more perspicacious observers of the bureaucracy note that the star of the Directorate has been in its ascendency just at the time when its efficacy seems to be waning.<br>
<br>
'''Bagua Tower'''<br>
<br>
'''The Codex Sidereal'''<br> 
The Codex regulates the practice of prediction-making across Shen Zhou.  The whole of the Codex covers eight large scrolls; perhaps a few handfuls of dedicated bureaucrats within the Directorate have read all of them, and perhaps one or two of them could be said to be really familiar with its laws as a whole.  This is not, as it might seem to outsiders, a flaw in the Codex.  To be sure, it has come over time to encompass a dizzyingly, almost impossibly wide array of specific circumstances and cases.  The proscriptions, though often preposterously narrow, are so voluminous, in fact, that almost no scholar or seer outside of the Directorate (members of which are exempted by Imperial decree) has not run afoul of at least a few of them at some point in time.  This is not accidental.  The aim of the laws of the Codex (with one exception) is not to distinguish the lawful from the unlawful, but rather to ensure that all scholars can, with a little digging, be found guilty of something.<br>
But there is one exception.  The first proscription of the Codex reads: "Make no predictions concerning the activities or nature of the Emperor and his State, neither in their essence nor in their perquisites, neither in matters domestic nor foreign, neither auspicious nor inauspicious."  To run afoul of this rule is to ensure a visit from the Guardians; to ensure a visit from the Guardians is tantamount to suicide.  Scholars must take great care to avoid rendering predictions about anything that might so much as enter the ambit of Imperial concerns; horror stories, perhaps untrue but nonetheless edifying, circulate about the poor scholars who accidentally make a prediction that bears on some obscure Imperial concern, and are never heard from again.
<br>
'''Pan Gu's Bones'''<br> 
The Han Imperial Seal may be the direct expression of the Xin's hold on the Mandate of Heaven, but it is the set of ancient artifacts known as Pan Gu's Bones that truly embody their reign.  Said to be held in the highest floor of the Tower, the Bones remain in use by the Purple Star Sages to manipulate the destiny of the Empire.

==The Dragon Legions==
=The City of Perpetual Peace=
==Layout and Geography==
==The Nine Districts==
===Nine Bells: Central District===
The Central District of Perpetual Peace is known for two things: the massive administrative complex in the exact center of the city (whose bell tower gives the district is nickname), and the Capital Colleges, the final stops on the long meritocratic path to the Imperial Bureaucracy.  The presence of so many students makes for a great number of low-cost tea-houses, drinking rooms, and entertainment pavilions. 
*Nine Bells Tower
*The Great Archive
*Shennong's Garden
*Sons of State Academy
*Other Notable Locations: the Weiqi Mall, Zhe Ruizong's Palace, Four Gates Academy, Heavenly Pattern Academy

===Imperial City: Northern District===
The Imperial City is divided into three sections. The smallest and easiest to access is the Temple of Law, where crimes against the Empire are adjudicated. Next is the Imperial Chambers, the complex of administrative buildings that is the nerve center of the Imperial government, including the Four Chambers and the infamous Bagua Tower. And finally, the largest and most exclusive is the 
Forbidden City, home to the grand Imperial Residence, the Temple of Heaven, and the Bridal Palaces.
*The Temple of Law
*The Imperial Chambers
*The Forbidden City

===Canaltown: Northeastern District===
In the shadow of the opalescent belvederes of the Imperial Residence, across the boulevard from the overwhelming wealth of the Silver Borough is the poorest district in the city. Connected to the man-made lake to the east of the city where cargo vessels end their trip along the Grand Canal by a smaller canal that terminates under the city, much of the activity in this district is taking in all the goods necessary to keep a city this size thriving. Notable locales include: Pan Gu's Gullet (a ward known for its raucous drinking houses and entertainments), the Sorrow Markets (where the unfortunates who are forced to sell themselves or their families into debt peonage go to find buyers), and the Mouth (the wide hole where an elaborate system of machinery is used to lift goods from the underground mini-canal).

===Silver Borough: Eastern District===
Perpetual Peace boasts two markets of such wealth and grandeur that if another city were to have just one, it would be enough to make that city one of the commercial centers of Shen Zhou. The Eastern Market, sometimes called the Tea Market, is the more restrained of the two; it lacks the wondrous & exotic goods featured at its western counterpart, but the deals made here can affect the lives of tens of thousands across Shen Zhou. The Temple of Inexhaustible Wealth, formerly a Buddhist temple 'secularized' during the Great Proscription that serves as one of the primary Imperial Treasuries, is here, as is the headquarters of the Imperial Post, a rapid message service that's said to double as the headquarters of the spies of the Thousand Eyes Division.

===Three Jade Pools: Southeastern District===
Many of the rich and the powerful make their homes in this district; each mansion is surpassed in grandeur and beauty by the next, while the shops, restaurants, theaters and parks here are as fine as any found in the city or beyond. One of the artificial lakes that gives the district its name is home to the Blushing Lily, where the finest courtesans in all Shen Zhou reside under the protection of the Resplendent Phoenix Society. On another lake sits a floating opera house, where the greatest works of the Xin era are performed by the few who can afford a ticket. This district is also home to the Futures Market, where many of the most highly reputed licensed Seers practice their craft for wealthy clients.

===Divine Gates: Southern District===
Custom (superstition, if you prefer) dictates that one should enter the city from the south; the southernmost district, named for the three elaborate gates through which the majority of (non-mercantile) travelers enter, is designed to impress upon the newcomer the majesty of the Xin Dynasty. The Lonely Apostle Shrine, chief temple of the Eight Mountain Sect in the city, is found here, and shrines to great heroes of the Dynasty can be found on nearly every street. The Shambalan Embassy, a temple of the Lamaist Buddhists that was permitted to be built in the humiliating Jade Gate Treaty, is a blemish on a district that is otherwise the face of the capital.

===Persiatown: Southwestern District===
For all its cosmopolitanism, the authorities of Perpetual Peace take great care to keep tabs on foreigners in their city. Most of the wards approved for alien residence are located in Persiatown -- though few Persians live here, as they're often wealthy enough to escape the more onerous restrictions -- and the constabulary here is unusually active, even as the police become stretched thin elsewhere in the city. Luscious Peach Quarter, (in)famous for brothels catering to every conceivable taste and for sheltering the city's gay and lesbian community, is found here. There is also the Endless Carnival, a complex of theaters, pavilions, and performance spaces that cater to popular taste -- which also doubles as the Beggar Fraternity's home base.

===Road's End: Western District===
The western district, the eastern terminus of the Silk Road, is unlike any other place in Shen Zhou. The only thing more exotic than the goods offered at the Western (or Jade) Market are the merchants and adventurers who come from farthest west to sell them. The Aerie, headquarters of the Eagle Talon Syndicate, is located here, as is the famous Xianlu Brewery -- only the bravest and strongest souls can handle their most potent products.

===Guan Yu's Barracks: Northwestern District===
So named for the complex of military buildings -- barracks, offices, drilling fields, and armories -- that abutt the Imperial City, the Barracks these days is better known for the sporting fields and betting parlors that attract rich and poor alike. Polo, football, and tennis are all popular, but martial arts exhibitions are most popular of all.

==The Catacombs==
==Outside the Walls==
*Imperial Park
*Dowager's Palace
*Uyghurtown
*Five Copper Road
==Life in Perpetual Peace==
*The City of a Million Souls
*The Merchant's City
*The City of Perpetual Delight
*The City of Endless Festivals
 
===The Warrior's Life===
'''Destiny Cost: 2''' (This Loresheet is free for Warriors) <br>
You may choose one of the following options, or work with your Sage to design a new one; additional options may be purchased for 2 Destiny each.
*'''Tournament Celebrity''': No entertainment in Perpetual Peace is more popular than the Martial Tournaments, and the fighters who make regular appearances quickly become famous across the city as either heroes or heels.  You've put your time in at the Tournaments, and have reaped the rewards -- and paid the costs.
**'''0 Bonus''' You may choose a '''Perform Specialty: Playing to the Crowd''' or '''Tactics Specialty: One-on-One''' for free.
**'''0 Bonus''' When fighting a single opponent in front of a crowd, you never Fear your opponent's kung fu.
**'''0/5 Disadvantage''' You're not just known among fighting afficiandos, you're a '''Tournament Superstar'''.  You can't go out in public without being accosted, and your comings and goings are public knowledge.  Gain 1 extra Destiny when your celebrity impedes your life in a significant way.
*'''Sword for Hire'''
*'''Ward Guardian'''
*'''Teahouse Tough'''

===The Doctor's Life===
'''Destiny Cost: 2''' (This Loresheet is free for Doctors) <br>
You may choose one of the following options, or work with your Sage to design a new one; additional options may be purchased for 2 Destiny each.
*'''Doctor without Borders''': Perpetual Peace is called the City of a Million Souls, and the bodies that go along with those souls are subject to a thousand different ailments and ills -- even the bodies of those who occupy the lowest strata of society.  You do your best to minister to those who, but for your benevolence, might have to choose between food and health, but there are always more who need you.
**'''0 Bonus''': Once per chapter, you may declare that the people to whom you tend help you in some small but significant way.  It is unlikely they can provide you with 10 gold taels, for instance, but they may be able to hide you from the police.
**'''0 Bonus''': Because you must make do without the best equipment and drugs, you have a '''Medicine Specialty: Improvised Medicine''' or a '''Survival Specialty: Urban Scavenging'''.
*'''Concierge Medicine''': The common folk trudge to hospitals, often distant from their residences, when they fall ill; the wealthy and the powerful, on the contrary, have doctors at their beck and call.  If the relative lack of virtue associated with this form of medicine bothers you, you've always got your prodigious pay and access to the highest strata of society to soothe comfort you.
**'''0 Bonus''': Working for the Great and the Good gives you access to the finest medicines and equipment in Perpetual Peace; once per chapter, you may gain a +5 Quality Tool bonus to any Medicine-related rolls for one scene or combat to reflect that access.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a '''Politics Specialty: High Society'''.
*'''Backroom Surgeon''':  Those who live by violence -- the constabulary, the tournament fighters, the gang members, to say nothing of the Wulin themselves! -- need a different, often more intensive form of medicine.  The sight of blood has never bothered you, and you've got the deft touch required to mend torn flesh.  You see a different side of the city in the back alley clinics and ring-side ORs; you know how thin, how easily torn, the skin of civility is. 
**'''0 Bonus''': You have connections among the Criminal Underworld; once per chapter, you may declare that someone in the Lulin owes you a small favor for services rendered.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a '''Medicine Specialty: Combat Wounds'''.
**'''0/5 Disadvantage''': You're not in this line of work by choice; you've been '''Blackmailed'''.  Work with your Sage to determine the details, but some unsavory operator knows something about you that you cannot bear to be made public.  Gain one extra Destiny in any Chapter where you're forced to do something to avoid exposure.
*'''The Cutting Edge of Medicine''': The Imperial capital, thanks to the presence of the Capital Schools, is a center of learning and erudition, and not merely power and wealth.  Though the least prestigious of them, the Bian Que Academy is nevertheless famous across Shen Zhou for its medical advances and for the famous doctors who were trained there.  As one who is affiliated with the Academy, you are at the forefront of the medical arts.
**'''0 Bonus''': Once per story, you may gain access to the famous Shennong's Garden, a veritable archive of every herb, flower, root, and leaf ever used for medicinal purposes in Shen Zhou.  This access will give you substantial aid in combating rare or powerful medical conditions.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have Devoted Students!  Though they are only just beginning the arduous road toward becoming competent doctors, they can nevertheless provide you valuable assistance with proper direction.  Once per chapter, you can call on them to significantly reduce the amount of time necessary to perform a Medical procedure, or to provide the equivalent of a +5 Quality Tool bonus.

===The Courtier's Life===
'''Destiny Cost: 2''' (This Loresheet is free for Courtiers) <br>
You may choose one of the following options, or work with your Sage to design a new one; additional options may be purchased for 2 Destiny each.
*'''Master Sophist'''
*'''Salon Regular'''
*'''Partisan Hack'''
*'''Tribune of the People'''

===The Scholar's Life===
'''Destiny Cost: 2''' (This Loresheet is free for Scholars) <br>
You may choose one of the following options, or work with your Sage to design a new one; additional options may be purchased for 2 Destiny each.
*'''Black Market Fortunes''': Sometimes people need predictions made, and they don't necessarily want word getting back to Bagua Tower about the subject matter.  That's where you come in.  Maybe you do a legitimate business as a front, or your 'back room' work is even just for special customers only, but you're on the wrong side of the Sidereal Codex regardless.
**'''0 Bonus''': Once per chapter, you can declare that an NPC has made use of your services, and this either gives you leverage over that NPC, or otherwise makes him or her inclined to help you out.  The Wulin Sage has final say over such a declaration in cases where it would be especially unlikely.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a '''Politics Specialty: Criminal Underworld''' or '''Confidence Specialty: Resist Interrogation''' for free.
**'''0/5 Disadvantage''': You're '''Marked by the Guardians'''.  While you haven't violated the Codex seriously enough to put you in mortal jeopardy, your infractions have come to the attention of Bagua Tower, and you could be hauled in at any time.  Gain 1 extra Destiny when this sticky situation gets you into trouble. 
*'''Licensed Diviner''': No one can manage to avoid running afoul of ''all'' the myriad proscriptions in the Codex, but you keep your license up to date, you file your reports, and generally do your best to stay on the good side of the Bagua Tower.  
**'''0 Bonus''': Being a law-abiding diviner has its benefits; once per story, you can trade on your good reputation to avoid trouble  (even serious trouble) with the Imperial authorities
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a -2 Destiny discount to one of the Three Arts expertises.
*'''Street Seer''': Businessmen and bureaucrats can afford to make use of the professional diviners (legit or otherwise), but just because the poor can't afford such services doesn't mean that they don't share the need to get a look into what's ahead.  You serve the underserved, working in the narrow streets of Pan Gu's Gullet, the Tangles, Uyghurtown, or some neighborhood like that.
**'''0 Bonus''': You are beloved and respected by the people who come to you; once per chapter, you can gain some small but significant favor from that community.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a -2 Destiny discount to the Story of the Old Ways.
*'''Scholar to the Stars''': The Great Clans, the largest mercantile concerns, the syndicates and the companies don't rely on independent operators for their divination needs; they do that work in-house, and none of it ever gets reported to the Tower.  Maybe you believe in your employer's cause, or maybe you just believe in the pay, but either way you enjoy a freedom from interference that few of your colleagues could imagine.
**'''0 Bonus''': Once per Story, you can declare that you have come across an important secret regarding your employer.  You and your Sage can work out the details, but it should be significant enough to give you significant leverage over your employers, or reveal something significant about their agenda.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a '''Politics Specialty''' relating to whomever it is employs you.
**'''0/5 Disadvantage''': You are a '''Double-Agent''' -- secretly employed by a rival of your nominal employer, you pass along whatever you learn about their operations, and perhaps even sabotage their forecasts!  Gain one extra Destiny in any Chapter that you are in danger of being caught out.

===The Priest's Life===
'''Destiny Cost: 2''' (This Loresheet is free for Priests) <br>
You may choose one of the following options, or work with your Sage to design a new one; additional options may be purchased for 2 Destiny each.

*'''Shepherd of a Flock''': Whether you are Buddhist, Daoist, or an adherent of a less common philosophy, you have a devoted group of followers who look to you for spiritual guidance.  
**'''0 Bonus''': You derive strength from the belief of those whom you serve.  While among them, you never Fear an opponent's attacks (including Secret Arts uses).
**'''0 Bonus''': You have either a '''Inspire Specialty: Comfort''' or a '''Politics Specialty''' appropriate to the area in which you tend to your flock.
**'''0/5 Disadvantage''': Whatever satisfaction you derive from your ministrations, your flock nevertheless has constant need of you.  You gain one extra Destiny in a Chapter in which the people you serve make demands on you that cause you serious trouble or interfere with your own agenda.
*'''In the World, But Not of the World''': You seek Enlightenment, however you conceive it, with single-minded focus; the endless pleasures and distractions the city has to offer are but shadows on the wall to you.
**'''0 Bonus''': Your meditations have inured you to the temptations of the world.  Once per chapter, you may treat a single Passion or Inspiration condition as one step less severe for a single scene or combat; this does not remove the condition, but does allow you to ignore its effects.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a +5 bonus to any Skill roll that involves physical self-denial.
*'''Prophet in the Desert''': There is something ''wrong'' in the city, an evil that transcends the personal and the political -- and only you (and those of like mind) can perceive it.  But you will convince them.  You ''must'' convince them.
**'''0 Bonus''': Once per chapter, you may declare that someone who hears your sermons is struck with a Trivial Passion or Inspiration (Recovery level: 40) appropriate to your message.  Your Sage will determine the details, but this condition may be manipulated as normal.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have either an '''Inspire Specialty: Jeremiads''' or a '''Wu Wei Specialty: Curses'''.
**'''0/5 Disadvantage''': The authorities have marked you as a trouble-maker, and you are routinely subject to harassment from the constabulary and even those who follow orthodox philosophies.  You gain an extra Destiny in any chapter where that harassment causes you significant problems.
*'''Local Shaman''': For most inhabitants of Perpetual Peace, the finer nuances of the various religions and philosophies are irrelevant; the favor and disfavor of spirits, ancestors, and gods is what matters.  As one intimately attuned to that world, you intercede on the common folk's behalf (perhaps for a modest fee).
**'''0 Bonus''': Once per chapter, you can declare someone to be afflicted by hostile spirits.  This counts as a Trivial Curse that can be manipulated as normal; your Sage will determine the exact details, but you may give the general outlines of the Curse.
**'''0 Bonus''': You have a '''Wu Wei Specialty: the Spirit World'''.

=Four Gates Valley=
*The Four Gates
*Little Orphan Mountain
**Celestial Path Abbey
*The Barrow Fields
**The Legend of Qin Shi Huangdi's Necropolis
*Dayu's Works
*The Grand Canal and the Mud Lake
**House of Penitence
*The Wei River
**River Pirates
*The Earth Spine Mountains
**Great Prosperity Mountain
**Seventh Hell Prison
=The Rest of Shen Zhou=
=Foreign Lands=
*Tsubo Empire
*The Garden Cities
*The Northern Tujue Confederacy
*Persia, Sogdiana, Bactria
*Bharata
=Philosophy in the Age of the Xin=
==Buddhism==
===Little Forest Buddhism===
===Diamond Vehicle Buddhism===
===Eccentric Buddhism===
==Daoism==
===Eight Mountain Daoism===
===Eccentric Daoism===
==Confucianism==
==Legalism==
==Mohism==
==Fatalism==
'''(Destiny Cost: 3)'''<br>
<br>
In a society where divination is as important to all elements of life -- matters of state, business, family, honor -- as it is in Xin-era Shen Zhou, a system of belief such as Fatalism was perhaps bound (fated?) to come into being.
*'''Secrets of Destiny: Fatalism'''
**'''5 Fortune''': Your rigorous commitment to the philosophical and practical demands of Fatalism has made you a favored interlocutor of one of the greatest Scholars in Shen Zhou -- one of the 64 Purple Star Sages.  You are regularly invited to the uppermost chambers of Bagua Tower to meet with your conversation partner.
**'''3 Secret''': If you already know the '''''Ultimate Prediction Technique''''', you only need to exceed the difficulty by 5 in order to create a Major Condition instead of rolling a critical success.
**'''4 Secret''': You have sublimated your own desires so thoroughly to the implacable demands of destiny that there is no longer a difference between those desires and your understanding of the demands of destiny.  Called the '''One With Fate Technique''', it merges your Benevolence and Individualism Virtues into a single Fatalism Virtue, summing the two values into a single Virtue score.  If this should take the merged score over 5, the excess Destiny is refunded as appropriate Entanglements as chosen by the Sage.  You gain Deeds in the Fatalism Virtue when you put aside your own motivations -- be they selfish or compassionate -- to act in accord with the predictions, divinations, and the whims of fate more generally.

==Blood Wind Animism==
==Brilliant Light Path==
==Other Philosophies==