Wei

Description
A world of rivers, lakes, mountains, monks, spirits, Martial Arts, and romance, all centered in the great region, the Sanhe Sheng.

History
A fairly young world, only 3,000 years old. However, it’s been fairly well charged out by now, and it’s hard to find places unknown. It’s tightly connected to it’s spiritual world, and the planar boundaries are fairly weak. The world is dominated by the Empire of Wei, founded by Emperor Shang, who is now treated more of less as a God.

Shang was awesome. He invented art, writing, math, magic and contacted the spirit realm and conversed with the Ancestral Spirits first. He achieved enlightenment and immortality and ruled benevolently for 100 years before leaving his empire to his son Xia. Xia ruled benevolently for one year before he was consumed by evil, becoming greedy, cruel and capricious. Shang saw that he son was irredeemable and ride out of the afterlife to strike him and his entourage down, but only succeeded in chasing Xia, now known as Devil Xia, into the darkest reaches of the Spirit World.

Once again Shang ruled benevolently for a century, remarrying the reincarnation of his first wife and conceiving with her divine child, the Aasimar. Xia was crafty though, and tricked Shang’s wife (his mother technically) into bed, and with her conceived the Tiefling race. Shang accepted his wife and accepted the Tieflings as his children, before riding into the afterlife to prevent Xia from ever returning to the Physical World. His eldest daughter ruled in Shang’s wake for 50 years.

Ever since the machinations of Shang and Xia have brought peace and war to Wei and the surrounding nations. For nearly 3000 years their conflict has spiraled our and driven conflicts across the Empire, as evil tyrants rose only to fall to pure hearted rebels while traitorous viziers and wild bandits harried benevolent kings and Queens. All, however, have coveted the jewel of Wei: the Sanhe Sheng.

The Sanhe Sheng, the Three Rivers Region, is known for it’s fertile soil, rich waters, mountains of iron and gold, and beautiful mountains. It’s a small region of the empire, barely one one hundredth the size of Wei, but it’s home to fully one tenth the people of the nation. As such, it’s always been granted a degree of autonomy and freedom, to best make certain that it does not go astray should it bee chafe under imperial rule.

Of course, it and all of Wei went astray 50 years ago. A great civil war erupted when the Emperor, who had sold his soul to Xia to “never die of old age” murdered all of his family members save for his youngest sister. When the local guard killed him, the nation fractured. In the far west the emperor’s sister gave birth to a young boy, named Zhou. Twenty years later (30 years ago) Zhou and his teacher Tengshi teamed up to take on the world and reconquer it. Zhou started in the Sanhe Sheng, and when he had fully brought it’s resources under his thumb he needed only a single year to retake all the lands of Wei and install himself as the rightful ruler of the nation.

Of course, all was not well forever. Three years ago a civil war nearly erupted in the Sanhe Sheng. Here, the Martial Lords of the cities of Shenzhen, Suzhou and Tianjin, along with Provincial Governor Li, plotted to revolt against Zhou. Tengshi, whom Zhou had made the Martial Lord of Xi’an in the Sanhe Sheng, heard of this rebellion and fled to the capital, telling Zhou of the impending attack. Zhou sent his eldest son, Martial Commander Yang, alongside his trusted teacher and the high ranking Generals Lao Shen, Chin and Hua, to the Sanhe Sheng with orders to pacify the region.

The five commanders with some thirty thousand warriors met the Provincial Governor and the Martial Lord of Shenzhen in the field outside of the great city, and together lead a great charge against the traitors. They smashed the rebellion, scattering it to the four winds. They secured Shenzhen, but before they could march to Suzhou a delegation, led by the Martial Lord’s son Hei, arrived in Shenzhen.

Hei revealed that his father had committed suicide by, and I’m quoting him here: “Stabbing himself in the back. Repeatedly.” He asked for lordship of Suzhou and was granted the recognition.

The Martial Lord of the waterborne city of Tianjin, realizing that he was in danger, tried to flee, only for his fleet to turn on him. The exact reason is unknown, but soon after his disappearance a Tianjin prostitute named Lady Cheng publicly took control of the Tianjin navy and declared herself the Martial Lord of Tianjin.

Soon after word arrived of the Battle at Shenzhen, the five Martial Lords (sans Cheng) met in Suzhou. It was here that Lord Qiang of Changsha, Lord Tengshi of Xi’an, Lord Bolin of Guilin, Lady Huifang of Jinan and Lord Hei of Suzhou publicly affirmed their loyalty to the Zhou Government, along with Lady Die, the daughter of the previous Provincial Governor. Die was granted her father’s title for her loyalty, and General Chin was granted the title of Martial Lord of Shenzhen by Die.

For two and a half years now, Martial Commander Yang has been fighting to restore order in the Sanhe Sheng. With Cheng’s pirates and the survivors of the rebellion wrecking havoc on local trade, he has been forced to work closely with the Martial Lords, even as he chafes at such a restriction. In the last year he has also called in a seasoned naval commander, Admiral Jin, to better prosecute the search for Lady Cheng. Complicating matters though is a young monk named Peng, who claims to have received a vision from God Shang, where Shang has declared that the enlightenment he achieved had been perfected and could now be taught, and that any soul could be elevated to that level if they perfected their mind, body and soul through exercise, meditation and benevolent acts... which also includes housing people suspected of being rebels.

Between the rebels, an army that has long overstayed it’s welcome, city lords that want their independence back, monks who preach actions that are directly counter to the edicts of the Empire and the constant annoyance of pirates plying the bay of Tonken and the Three Rivers, the Sanhe Sheng has become a powder keg, ready to explode.

Lands
The Sanhe Sheng is broken into three valleys that radiate out from the bay of Tonken: The Song Valley in the west, the Tai Valley in the middle, and the Emei Valley in the east.

There are seven great cities in the Sanhe Sheng: Jinan, Guilin, Xi’an, Changsha, Tianjin, Suzhou, and the Provincial Capital Shenzhen.