China

Mysterious and large, China remains a thorn in the colonialist powers palm as one of the few great powers in the world that can fend off an direct attack. China has, over the year, employed both science and mysticism to keep itself from becoming just another Euro-Unity state. The Great Wall of Element Air keeps the Armée de l’Air’s finest from dominating the sky. The Great Wall of Element Air is both mad science and strategic brilliance, the former in the form of huge land based wind turbines that create dangerous amounts of turbulence and unrest in the sky, the latter in well placed battery guns and near endless rows of cheaply produced fighters.

The Great Wall of Element Air was also the final piece to Emperor Pao’s plans for the downfall of the People’s Republic and the rise of the Empire of Heaven. With his near unapproachable capital and the massive legion of loyal fighter pilots his span and control have increased so far as to take land from Russia’s old territory. Emperor Pao’s reign has also brought back many old traditions, including the belief in mystical powers and the consult of oracles and mystics.

Courted by Great Britain as a possible ally against Korean intrusion, the Chinese have so far declined to exert any major influence in global affairs, slowly expanding its interests in Tibet and solidifying its power against French incursions from French Indochina. Emperor Pao and his court evacuated Beijing after the disastrous Midnight Raid of Beijing in 1928 by Korean troops when Korean geomancers managed to exploit a weakness in the Great Wall of Element Air. With much of Beijing looted and in ruin, the court has been relocated to Nanjing, where the Qing Court is gradually being swamped by Han Chinese courtiers now that their homeland in Manchuria is largely cut off and devastated. Only through Emperor Pao’s adept political abilities has the Qing Dynasty survived their most recent tribulations.

Efforts to claim French Indochina in 1934 have failed catastrophically when the French and Korean forces entered an alliance of convenience that resulted not only in critical losses to the Chinese army but the loss of key possessions in the immediate area following the armistice. Border tensions between the French and the Chinese remain, with the Koreans seemingly entering a period of ‘imperial digestion’ and seeming to let the French deal with Chinese incursions into Indochina alone. The shifting desert of Manchuria reflect the nature of the Manchurian border - while an armistice is intact, the Chinese have sought to push back the Great Wall of Element Air back to Beijing, claimed by the Koreans but largely abandoned and under control of marauding Mongolian and Manchurian warlords no longer under the sway of the Qing court.

• Nanjing - The current capital of Imperial China. Emperor Pao holds court here.
• Shanghai - The sizable Korean population after the abdication of Emperor Gojong gives Shanghai a distinctive, modern, Westernized aesthetic. It is one of the industrial centers of China. It is also the base of operations for the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.

Korea

“Whomever holds Korea rules all of Asia. Korea is ruled by the Great Seal.”

• Soothsayer Goh Sung

• Ruler: Emperor Sunjong
• Head of State: Grand Regent Yoon Eun-Shik
• Imperial Capital: Hanseong (Seoul), Korea
• District Capital||= Bejing, China
• District Capital: Vladivostok, Russia
• District Capital: Nagasaki, Japan
• District Capital: Manila, Philippines
• District Capital : Haikou, Hainan

The Empire of the Han is an advanced industrial nation that is nominally a monarchy but effectively ruled by the Office of the Grand Regency. Highly regimented in a pervasive bureaucracy and a prominent military, it was originally a science-oriented society that is becoming increasingly interested in mysticism and the occult. Competing visions of the future of Korea has resulted in a bloody political purge, with many of the losers and more pacifist factions now in exile in Shanghai. It is currently allied with Germany, although there are growing voices in the Office of the Grand Regency, including the Grand Regent’s daughter Empress In-Seong, to restore the alliance with Britain, lest the British and Chinese flirtations into cooperation lead to a fullblown alliance that Korea is still not fully prepared to fight.

After the withdraw of Japanese forces in Korea in 1903, Emperor Gojong abdicated in favor of his son, the Emperor Sunjong, but de facto authority rests under the office of the Grand Regent. The first Grand Regent was Emperor Gojong’s chief-of-staff Yoon Un and the grandfather-in-law to Emperor Sunjong. After orchestrating the abdication of Emperor Gojong, Yoon Un was instrumental in securing his granddaughter as Empress In-Seong as the strong, sophisticated partner to the feeble Sunjong. After his death in 1909, the Grand Regency was passed onto Yoon Un’s son, Yoon Eun-Shik, who carried out massive efforts to modernize Korea, purging the literati in 1921 and replacing many of them with British advisors, importing a tremendous amount of technology from England and soon wielding one of the more modern airforces in Asia. In the meantime, he was secrely in contact with the German Grand Teutonic Order to remedy the virtual absence of mystic power in Korea after centuries of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy had robbed Korea of powerful shaman lineages.

By the time the second Japanese invasion began, Korea rivaled the lesser European nations in scientific progress, known for high precision watches, advanced cannons, and sophisticated rifles. With the help of the Grand Teutonic Order, Yoon Eun-Shik recovered a piece of the mysterious Great Seal, shifting the Mandate of Heaven back to the Korean peninsula and reactivating long-neglected leylines. At first, the untested military faltered against the Japanese forces, but emboldened by British air tactics and the deft manipulation of local leylines to maximize military tactical advantage, the Japanese were not only rapidly repulsed but savagely slaughtered in the Battle of Wonsan and the Battle of Busan. Korean forces, despite requests by the British to withdraw, scoured Daemado and began a vicious invasion of the Japanese islands.

Once the main islands were secure, the huge Korean flotilla moved over to China and Manchuria, seizing Port Arthur and the Liodong Peninsula. The British protested to no avail as Yoon Eun-Shik signed a treaty with the Germans and ejected the British - a bittersweet end to a once fruitful treaty. Everywhere they went, Koreans have been plunging metal rods deep into sacred mountains in China and Japan to ruin the feng shui (pung su) of the region and focus mystic power into the Baekdu-Taebaek leyline. The Chinese court mystics warn that this is going to result in terrible things, but no one quite knows exactly what. Meanwhile, the prevalence of mystic power in Korea is beginning to reawaken in full force, with sightings of dragons and phoenixes in the countryside and a growing rift between the Geomancers seeking a harmonious universe centered on Korea and the Korean mystics they derrogatorily call ‘sorcerors.’

Many of Gojong’s supporters have settled in Shanghai, holding a Court-in-Exile called the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, seeking to end what they see as the tyranny of the Yoon Clan and the Grand Regency. Gojong’s other son, Yi Suk, and the old Minister of Rites, Yoon Eun-Shik’s half-brother Yoon Eun-Gwa have banded together to find the rest of the Great Seal lost in Manchuria in hopes of restoring Korea as a peaceful, harmonious center of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy. The Grand Regency has rejected the cries of the the Provisional Government, dismissing them as the source of weakness in Korea that resulted in the humiliating wars fought on Korean soil in the early 1900s. Furthermore, they contend that the concentration of power into the Baekdu-Taebaek Leyline will allow Korean geomancers to reorder the world into a truly harmonious Neo-Confucian world.

Access to Korea is largely restricted to foreign ambassadors and their families. The Imperial family and the Grand Regency perform national rites where foreigners are invited at the port city of Incheon, one of only two ports where westerners are permitted on the Korean peninsula.

Hanseong (Seoul)

Hanseong is the capital of the Korean Empire and it has been nicknamed by foreign dignitaries as the ‘Never Ending Bloom.’ Through some sort of unknown artifice, Hanseong is in perpetual bloom, with vast gardens and beautiful streams. It is said that Hanseong today is ‘paradise on Earth,’ and several notable officials and ambassadors from other nations have ‘gone native’ during their assignment to the Korean capital. While the Korean Empire is frequently vilified as imperialist aggressors, Korean viceroys point to Hanseong as a sign that their actions are pleasing to the Heavens.

Suwon

Suwon is the de facto administrative capital where the Office of the Grand Regency holds court. Just south of Hanseong. It is said that the strange and wonderous miracles of Korea emanate from there.

Mariaveuax

Mariaveaux is a country with an interesting history, a state on a faultline of two empires, able to be devoured, but never quite digestible. It’s history started as a small territory taken from France by Catholic forces during the Thirty Years War, becoming a Principality following the Treaty of Westphalia thanks to an enterprising German nobleman looking to gain both land and prestige from the coming peace. The small country itself survived on minor exports of ore and crops, as well as an increasing balance of trade, until the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th Century. The current Prince, seemingly inheriting the cunning of his ancestors, quickly made peace with the advancing forces of Napoleon, whilst sending the nation’s tiny Army to rendezvous with the Prussians… sadly leading to their utter defeat. Nevertheless, it allowed them to survive relatively intact until the treaty was signed, restoring their autonomy.

The slight incurred by French occupation and the nation’s Germanic heritage had it gravitate toward Germany in the following years, at one time seriously considering becoming part of Bismarck’s Empire, before a controversial decision was made for trade interests between nations and, ultimately, continued independence. At the outbreak of the First World War, however, Mariaveaux stood fast with it’s father country and fought on the side of the Central Powers, giving it’s comparatively tiny Army and Flying Corps over to fight on the Western Front, under German command, in 1914. By 1917, it’s Army was reduced to scarcely one hundred men, and it’s planes, though winning great fame and success, were being winnowed down to a small flight of bi-planes. Such comparative loss of life led to grumblings at home about continued participation in the war, which were only barely ignored until the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and the Treaty of Breat-Litovsk.

Despite the good news this meant for the Central Powers as a whole, the current Prince wisely saw that continued, willful ignorance of the loss of life on the battlefield might mean that his small Principality might go the way of the Czars. After the German Summer Offensive of 1918 stalled and failed to restart, Mariaveaux sought a separate peace treaty with the Allied Powers, and subsequently declared themselves a neutral, open nation. Practically, this affected little. German trains and logistics still ran through Mariaveaux, and German pilots overflew it’s skies. The question of fighting in the nation was to be a moot point; the Armistice was signed before French troops could breach the German lines in front of it.

Politically, the early seeking of peace on paper has beneficially effects for Mariaveaux in the postwar. It was seen in the popular press as a tiny nation, bullied into war by Germany but not wishing much part in it, a view that was not argued by the nation’s rulers, who were looking forward to a lack of reparations and allied loans more than they were digging up the truth of the prewar years. The nation flourished, economically, and suffered less of a depression in mid-twenties than other countries, using aid funds to rebuild and upgrade it’s infrastructure. The growing tension between France and Germany, while making for a diplomatically tense time, has allowed an economic boom to start, the country catering to old, wealthy German nobility fleeing the Nazi’s, Frenchman who wish to buy German goods, and Germans who wish to buy French goods, as well as reaping all the rewards of international financial transactions that went with such trade.

While not militarily powerful, it’s Army is decently drilled and equipped, and its small Air Force is well-trained, with a core of old German and Mariaveaux Great War veterans, as well as top-notch aircraft purchased from the manufacturers of North America and Britain, in order to avoid angering either French or German manufacturing interests. The rising tensions between it’s big neighbors, however, may mean that such happy times could come to a swift and brutal end, and it’s choice in a side in any upcoming war is still in question.

Occupied Japan

Imperial Japan’s military ambitions in the Far East were severely set back in the Sino/Russian war of 1903. Prior to the collapse of the Imperial Russian State, it soundly defeated Imperial Japan in the battle of Port Arthur. The loss at this critical junction to a supposedly inferior, over stretched European power was a major blow to the image of the Emperor and many of his experienced, well trained officers committed seppuku as an act of contrition. This set the stage for younger, untested and untrained officers to assume command of the Imperial Military.

When the Emperor turned his sights upon Korea, to retake that long held slave-nation some years later, the lack of strategic foresight led to what is called the Burning Sky Era. Secure in the belief that battle ships would rule the seas for ages to come, the Admiralty of Japan ignored advances in aircraft, including anti-aircraft firepower, focusing almost exclusively on ships with massive guns meant to instill fear for the Japanese fleet, in the way of the British Fleet a decade before.

All to brutally, the Koreans, with Russian Mercenaries and American technology, showed the Japanese the error of their ways. In the first use of aircraft to sink ships at sea, a fleet of aircraft met the undefended Japanese fleet off the coast of Wonsan. This battle was decisive in the way that few battles are. Of the 80 ship Japanese fleet, no vessel escaped damage and over half were sunk. Many of the vessels exist today, their twisted superstructures poking above the shallow waters of the Wonsan Coast, in an area called ‘//Ippal//’, or ‘Teeth’.

Capitalizing on the Japanese disarray, the Korean forces launched wave after wave of Zeppelins armed with incendiary firebombs. Tokyo and Osaka burned, as did many outlying cities. The Emperor was killed in the attacks, when the Imperial Palace burned. His heir, Hirohito, fled to Hokkaido Island, where he established a new Capitol at Sapporo. The southern three islands however, shattered and rebelled against the Authority of the Emperor. They were later crushed by the Korean Invasion and remain subjugated to this day.

• Tokyo - Tokyo is rapidly being rebuilt under Korean design, with broad tree-lined avenues and meandering streams. It is showcased as a symbol of supreme Korean benevolence - while Japanese citizens are largely second-class in the Korean Empire, they are afforded living standards that put many impoverished parts of the wealthiest European nations to shame.

Occupied Manchuria

Largely occupied by the Korean Empire, Manchuria is undergoing rapid desertification due to a sudden shift in weather patterns along all of East Asia. Rich in minerals, it is a major flashpoint between Korean and Chinese troops. At the same time, a tenuous armistice that is poorly followed by both sides have resulted in Manchuria becoming a lawless frontier region. Manchuria is nominally under the authority of Manchurian Warlord, Zhang Xueliang married to Marquessa Yi Deok-On of Korea, second cousin of the Korean Emperor. Young warlord Feng Xiu, married to Emperor Pao’s niece, has launched several bold raids on what is left of Beijing in the name of the Qing Emperor.

The Trans-Manchurian Railroad has in fact flourished under the current armistice, as limited trade and a tremendous amount of smuggling has opened up in the area. Huge itinerant bazaars of Chinese, Korean, and Manchurian merchants sell practically everything and anything made under the sun. Adventurers also flock Port Arthur as a common departure point for hotly contested relics, artifacts, and treasure, as well as the home of Balhae Oil Corporation that is the primary source of oil in the Northeast Asia.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea is active in Manchuria, seeking to find new weapons and artifacts to fight the Grand Regency. While occupied by the Korean Empire, Port Arthur is a hotbed of resistance movement activities, and the difficulties in managing a relatively sparsely populated frontier region has so far impeded efforts by the Grand Regency to stamp out the activities of the Provisional Government.

• Port Arthur - Port Arthur is a bustling port city and the last bastion against the rapidly desertifying Manchuria.
• Beijing - The former capital of Imperial China. Now it is largely a militarized camp in the control of the Korean Empire.

Two Russias

For 22 years, the civil war has raged. Moscow is a husk of a city, burned to the ground by the Tsar to force the Bolsheviks out. Both sides practice scorched-earth tactics to deny their enemy any advantage. Millions have died in the fighting, while millions more have starved. Russia has managed to snatch obscurity from the jaws of Empire, becoming nothing more than pawns in the greater game of more stable empires.

The countryside is a patchwork of hardscrabble peasants, ruined towns and destroyed infrastructure all lorded over by military warlords. Russia is a land where the line between survival and starvation is how well you can hide your supplies from the next sweep by the local warlord.

St. Petersburg is a city of vast contrasts. From the pristine grandeur of the Imperial Palace to the filth and grime of the massive factory district, St. Petersburg is a city like few in the world. It is at once, a functioning cultural and royal center and also a war machine in constant production.

Kiev on the other hand, is a sprawling, banal and regimented city. It was razed in 1925, by the Communists and then rebuilt for functionality and efficiency. Factories here churn out tanks and planes and weapons at all hours of the night, but crushed among the machines is the soul of a people.

The Russian Far East has fallen on hard times, utterly ignored by both sides. The Trans-Siberian Railroad has long fallen in to disrepair and is now impassable, while Korea gobbles up what it can.

Scandinavia Nation

Startled by the sudden invasion of Denmark, the Scandinavian nations have made clear their neutrality in any conflict, forming a three-nation partnership for economic development. The Scandinavian Nations therefor, buy and sell from anyone, making it likely to find a Norse aircraft in the German Luftwaffe or a Norse rifle in the hands of a middle eastern nomad. Many fear that the Germany War Machine will consume the Norse Nations rather than trade with them, and the Royal Houses of Scandinavia are unsure what to do.

Posted on September 18 2010