A Dynasty Divided

[Dystopianist]

Ok, here’s my rough pitch, two sentences, go:

Freeform character oriented fantasy nation building game, tentative Romance of the Three Kingdoms aesthetic but can be changed upon request. The ruling imperial dynasty has lost regional power to warlords like you, your party of heroes has to work hard to re-unite the nation and fend off rivals.

 

[LadyOfStars]

I am definitely interested

 

[wildkittyatheart]

I’m definitely interested

 

[Sylvio]

Lets do it chief

 

[Dystopianist]

K, before we all hop in, how much do you all know about Chinese history as opposed to Asian history in general?

Someone is requesting a more pan-Asian model, but... I kind of only know China and parts of Cambodia and Taiwan.

 

[Sylvio]

K, before we all hop in, how much do you all know about Chinese history as opposed to Asian history in general?

Someone is requesting a more pan-Asian model, but... I kind of only know China and parts of Cambodia and Taiwan.

I'm more or less familiar with the ROTK aesthetic in terms of ancient history

 

[LadyOfStars]

K, before we all hop in, how much do you all know about Chinese history as opposed to Asian history in general?

Someone is requesting a more pan-Asian model, but... I kind of only know China and parts of Cambodia and Taiwan.

I’m more knowledgeable of China and Japan than anywhere else but I’m not opposed to including more and learning on the go lol.

 

[Dystopianist]

Cool, thanks, I’ll just message them and let them know that it’s probably better if we keep to a Chinese aesthetic. I’ll provide a spoiler with some of the major cultural differences from Japan like courtesy names and social obeisance.

 

[Dystopianist]

OoC will be available tomorrow morning.

 

[Dystopianist]

OOC is up: Nation Building - A Dynasty Divided OOC

 

[Lord Bradorian]

Yoooo, yes!

 

[Lord Bradorian]

I know very little outside of watching the total war game about three kingdoms though

 

[Dystopianist]

Here, I’ll give a quick low-down on Romance of the Three Kingdoms for the uninitiated. Trigger warning, long.

Basically, it’s the last years of the Han Dynasty. The emperors are corrupt and listen to eunuchs, and disasters and famine and plague and all that nasty stuff riddles the nation. Everybody’s mad, so a Taoist sorcerer called Zhang Jue (Zhang Jiao in some records) begins the Yellow Scarves Rebellion to overthrow the emperor. Emperor Shang is... kinda weak, and the imperial capital at Luoyang isn’t much better, so they’re forced to give regional power to warlords to stop the Yellow Scarves.

Okay, so now this guy called He Jin is mad that good generals like Lu Zhi are being reprimanded and that the imperial bureaucracy is incompetent, so he goes to confront the eunuchs influencing the emperor. Coming with him are his two lieutenants, the wealthy noble Yuan Shao and the up-and-coming administrator Cao Cao. But then when he arrives at the capital... the eunuchs stab him and he dies. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are understandably upset so they tear up the city, and meanwhile the emperor has to escape.

In the countryside, the Emperor Shang and his brother Xian meet this insanely fat guy named Dong Zhuo, who picks them up and lets them carpool with him to the capital. But Dong Zhuo is cunning and crafty, so he‘s like, welp, I have the emperor, I’M IN CHARGE NOW. He also has this adopted son named Lu Bu who‘s insanely good at fighting.

In the meantime, Yuan Shao and Cao Cao form a coalition of warlords to oppose Dong Zhuo. Some of these warlords are Ma Teng, a Northern horselord, Teng’s friend Han Sui, the white-horse master Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao’s half brother and general powerhouse Yuan Shu, the descendant of Sun Tzu Sun Jian, and most importantly, the shoemaker Liu Bei. Now, Liu Bei is probably the only one you have to remember here- he has two sworn brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and he’s arguably the hero of the story.

Yuan Shao gathers a massive force of his noble retainers and petitioners in the east, while Cao Cao recruits followers Mostly from his biological family (he’s adopted), including generals that will accompany him for years like Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan. With this large coalition of warlords, they beat Dong Zhuo back from Luoyang and he’s forced to settle in Chang’an, where... Lu Bu betrays him because they over a hot girl, then the city falls into disarray because of bandits and eventually, Cao Cao takes the city but not without the nation having fractured into several dozen pieces.

Ok, now we get into the real complicated stuff. Pay attention.

Yuan Shu declares himself emperor, and it almost looks like his Zhong Dynasty is gonna make it.... but then Sun Jian breaks diplomatic ties with him and everybody beats him up. Sun Jian promptly dies, and his son Sun Ce becomes the predominant force in the region.

Meanwhile, some guy under the warlord Tao Qian and/or Kong Rong kills Cao Cao’s family, so Cao Cao goes attack Tao and/or Kong. He almost destroys them too, but Liu Bei inherits Tao Qian’s government position and Lu Bu reappears with a rebellion in Cao’s territory, so nope. Cao defeats Lu Bu, but then Lu Bu takes over Liu Bei’s territory, and Liu Bei and Cao Cao are forced to team up and beat up Lu Bu.

Okay, they beat up Lu Bu. Cao Cao promptly executes him but takes on his general Zhang Liao. Liu Bei doesn’t want to deal with Cao Cao so flees north to join up Yuan Shao, who just finished beating up Liu Bei’s childhood friend Gongsun Zan. But Cao Cao beats up Kong Rong and Zhang Lu, which gives him a ton of power. Liu Bei leaves Yuan Shao’s faction because Yuan Shao’s followers are all brown-nosers and sycophants, but he brings along two friends: Sun Qian and Zhao Yun.

Liu Bei goes south to join up with the warlord Liu Biao, who’s cool but old. His wife on the other hand, Lady Cai, is awful and demands them be killed. Lady Cai’s son Liu Cong is favored, but Liu Qi is better liked by his father, so Liu Bei teams up with Liu Qi and they take over the province when Liu Biao dies. Liu Bei also gets two new followers, the renowned strategists Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong.

Meanwhile, Cao Cao beats up Yuan Shao. Since his cousin Cao Ren is still busy hacking away at Ma Teng and Han Sui’s armies, he sends his guys Xiahou Yuan, Xu Chu and Li Dian down to see about taking over Liu Bei’s territory. Sun Ce was assassinated, so his brother Sun Quan is king now there.

Zhuge Liang gets Liu Bei to join up with Sun Quan, and together, they smash Cao Cao at the Battle of the Red Cliffs. So now we have three major factions: Liu Bei’s in the southwest, Cao Cao’s in the north, and Sun Quan’s in the southeast. Three Kingdoms.

Over the next few years which I’m less familiar with, Liu Bei beats up Shamoke, Meng Huo, Ha Xuan and Liu Zhang. Sun Quan takes out Liu Yao. Cao Cao finishes up the Xiongnu, the White Wave Bandits and Ma Teng and Han Sui’s forces. Teng’s son Ma Chao flees to Liu Bei, and Cao Cao also does some stupid stuff in Korea with the Gongsuns that I won’t get into.

Eventually though, the story ends with one of Cao Cao’s best generals, Sima Yi, taking power from his descendant Cao Rui, and replacing Cao‘s Wei Dynasty with the Jin Dynasty. At this point the leader of Liu Bei’s faction is his son and renowned moron Liu Shan, and Sun Quan’s grandson isn’t very good at his job either. So Sima Yi’s descendants are just like, yolo, and take over all of China.

There, Romance of the Three Kingdoms summarized. I ignored most of the real Three Kingdoms period, but nobody cares about that because it involves even more gnarly names like Jiang Wei and Wei Yan and Cao Pi.