*label tale_of_the_living_god
[i]Yang Chen, 6069 ME.[/i]

It is said, long before the Noble Houses and Celestial Empire, there were no kings and lords in the world. There were no slaves and no servants, only the men and the women who were free and equal. One day, however, in the city of Manyong — which now serves as both the realm's capital and Tang's ancestral seat — a man appeared. Giant in stature, strong beyond the mortal limits, and with abilities that transcended understanding he swept through Manyong like an avalanche. On the day now known as Martial Rebirth, he conquered the city with brute force alone. Without an army, without plots, he forced hundreds of thousands to submit. He slaughtered those who opposed him, enslaved those who didn't, and gathered reverence from people who worshiped his overwhelming power. After that, Tang Wei annexed the whole world, established his calendar, and started a new era — the era of Martial Arts. 

The latter one he did by spreading the source of his power throughout the Empire. He took nine wives, which bore him nine children. A son, who inherited the Celestial Throne, and eight daughters, who he married off to his most trusted generals. The Nine Children, although weaker than the invincible First Emperor, were heads and shoulders above mortal men. All of them could practice the teachings Tang Wei had left behind, gaining powers of supernatural nature. Therefore, the Nine Children became the Great Noble Clans, their nobility proved without a shadow of a doubt by their Divine Blood. 		
*set readbook_prologue true
*return

*label civil_war
[i]Yang Chen, 6132 ME.[/i]

North has always been rowdy. Before Tang Wei, it was a land of the freest spirits. Unable to survive through plowing of the land — their climate far too harsh — they resorted to trading and diplomacy. Northmen were the ones who invented money and the concept of selling goods for, otherwise, useless gold. They founded dozens of city-states that competed with each other, their rivalry sparking the fire of progress. 

Tang Wei put an end to their independence. He destroyed their cities and took away their liberty — but he could not crush their desire for freedom, that flowed in their veins the same way Divine Blood flowed in his. After Tang Wei mysteriously disappeared, the following monarchs were forced to make concessions in order to keep the North in check. A long distance from the capital, separated from the mainland by a turbulent sea, the North year after year gained more and more autonomy until the tipping point was reached.

In 2854 ME — of Martial Era — a new Celestial Emperor was crowned in Mayong, a celebratory event throughout the whole realm. The Tangs as usual hosted a tourney to honor their supreme ancestor. Granted a ceremonial audience with the emperor, the champion of then, Song Jiu, struck the newly appointed ruler with ruthless abandon. He, a peak Xiantian, an expert almost without match, struck a sixteen-year-old child without holding back. The ill-fated emperor died instantly, not giving his cohort of guards even a chance to react. Using the confusion to his advantage, Song Jiu escaped.

While an unprecedented provocation, the Celestial Empire could still recover: it was not so weak to crumble after a single assassination. Thing is, it was not a [i]single[/i] hit: at the same time Song Jiu murdered the Emperor, the Zhong, and the Zhao clans launched a coordinated assault on all suitable heirs of the Tang lineage. 

Every single one was killed. The realm thrown into a dynastic crisis, Song, Zhong, and Zhao declared independence, creating Three Kingdoms in the North. Clans of Wu, He, and Liu wanted to abide by their example, fracturing the Empire into pieces. After three thousand years, the Celestial Throne almost became a heavenly ruin. The key word, however, is almost. 

Yang and Su, two strongest families after the Tangs, quelled the growing rebellion in the cradle. Not only they possessed superior martial might — Wu, He and Liu might still have tried their luck — but also an undeniable legitimacy: they sheltered the last Tang heir, a baby who hasn't lived long enough to witness a full moon. 

Mainland might have been pacified, but the North was not — and would not be. Instead, the Three Kingdoms dragged the unstable Empire into a war that, at the point of me writing this, spans for more than three thousand years.
*return

*label martial_arts_1
[i]Yang Chen, 6200 ME.[/i]

Where do Martial Arts come from and why do they work? Both are good, valid questions — but a better one would be [i]what[/i] are Martial Arts?

No one knows, in truth. Scholars with a mind far greater and imagination far more vivid than mine spend millennia pondering upon this question, unable to reach a consensus. However, we are not completely clueless and as a Xiantian who both practiced and studied Martial Arts for over three hundred years, I believe myself competent enough to clarify some details.

First of all, despite a few blinded by the glory of their clan historians saying otherwise, martial arts did not exist before Tang Wei. Simple and plain as that: there is just no reasonable evidence to argue the opposite. All the Martial Arts we have are derived from the First Emperor. In some shape or form, they are either a variation of his sacred texts or a parody of the abilities he showed during his conquest. 

As of now, we cannot produce new Martial Arts by ourselves. We have to either rely on manuals left behind by our predecessors or hope for an Enlightenment. Enlightenment by itself is a topic broad enough to warrant its own book, so I'll glance it over. All you need to know is that you have a higher chance of stumbling upon an undiscovered ruin and finding a rare, never seen before Martial Art, than experiencing Enlightenment yourself. 

The manuals themselves are manuscripts, written on special paper with special ink. The paper is made of ancient, at least ten-thousand-year-old Knarch-trees, while only the Su and the Zhao clans can produce the Dao Ink according to a secret recipe. 

Manuals contain two parts: a training regiment that practitioners must follow and a short poem. It's exactly the poem that gives Martial Arts their magical nature and creates trouble for us, the academics. Cyphered behind symbols no one can read, yet everybody can, with various degrees of success, understand the poem connects ordinary mortals with the inner workings of the cosmos. 

[i]One with the Heaven, Transcend Mortality[/i].
*return