GM Notes: The Immortal Jin Emperor

Premise

The Emperor Jin is immortal. Some hundred years into his life he traveled across the western desert to the Sontaran lands and discovered a war hungry people bent on conquest. Jin returns to the 6 kingdoms on a 1000 year plan to ready humanity for the Sontaran invasion.

What wisdom and what foresight would an immortal ruler exercise? In the six kingdoms, the immortal Emperor Jin foresaw the Sontaran invasion over 1000 years in advance. This foresight motivated him to end the 100 years war in the year 0 ND. This foresight allowed him to accept the benefits of closer ties between the Shin and Uusam, and despite the overwhelming costs of the Generation Bridge, he saw that 200 years down the road the investment would be worthwhile. Finally, his foresight instructs him that the 6 kingdoms must be unified, and prosperous, if they are to fight a Sontaran invasion that looms some 100 years on the horizon. Thus he sets out to conquer the 6 kingdoms.

Thus, there is a dichotomy of morality. War in the here and now in exchange for unification and potentially fending off an evil foe generations into the future. How would the player characters react? Each has his own motivations to kill the emperor, be it greed, revenge, power, or pride. Will their motivations buckle in the face of the Emperor’s quest and will they turn on each other? I sure hope so!

Jin, the immortal emperor

Emperor Jin is currently traveling the countryside under the guise of the monk Wa Ren Tao, gathering intelligence and judging the mood of people in different countries. He has been out for 2 years and is now returning to the Forbidden City. Some of the characters may find that they have met the Emperor in disguise years ago.

The Forbidden City

Once a great Mecca of Shin governance, where the people could petition their beloved Emperor and be graced by his benevolence. Over the years, immortality forced Jin into secrecy and the Forbidden City became closed. Now it is all but abandoned, save for a complement of guards who are mostly present for show. The cult of personality that Jin has established continues through generations based on the proclamations of the emperor, which are distributed to every town and city in the empire. Progressive taxation and governance that favors the common man has kept the populace entranced with their ruler.

The secret tunnel

Jin comes and goes through a secret tunnel that was recently renovated by Mae Ten Jing. The emperor is benevolent, but can be ruthless when logic dictates; in order to keep the secret of the tunnel, Mae Ten Jing was executed. The emperor promised Jing to raise his children in exchange for any plans that may have been hidden, and appearing to concede, Mae Ten turned over a pile of documents. Lien Ten and his two sisters were taken and raised as loyalists.

Lo Ten, Lien’s twin, escaped with his mother. They hid in a secret room underneath the Jing household for several months, living off mushrooms, dried food and water from an underground spring. Then the headed to Uusam, where they found haven with relatives. Lo Ten. Lo Ten is later recruited to the assassins mission, but is replaced by his Shin loyalist brother Lien Ten. See Lo Ten and Lien Ten. I convinced Jason to play the traitor.

The non-human species

Ancient China was extremely xenophobic. That level of paranoia regarding non-native people cannot be replicated by imagining it in a RPG. Thus, to simulate the level of “alien-ness”, I made the foreigners actually “aliens” or non-humans.

The Sontarans

Emotionless and disdainful. Refer frequently to wars and battles. Sontarans are inspired by the Sontarans from Doctor Who [1]. In Doctor Who, the Sontarans reproduced by cloning. In this world, the Sontarans reproduce by laying eggs from asexual reproduction, so they are essentially clones. Sontarans are raised en masse in orphanage type settings run by the state. Thus, the state controls the birth rate. During war, they ramp up their birth rate significantly and train them all as soldiers. In fact, the invention of the orphanage as a social advance was what created the Sontaran Imperium. Before orphanages, Sontarans were tribal and warred with each other, similar to the Mung. Then one tribe began rearing children communally which cut the egg mortality from 95% to 0% and their population soared. The rapidly conquered the other Sontaran tribes. After a few centuries, their society solidified into an empire and their need for additional resources grew. They waged war on the Morlanders and beat them with superior numbers. The Morlanders became a subservient slave race. Centuries later the Sontarans went to war with the technologically superior Relbars. The war raged for hundreds of years, with horde upon horde of Sontaran warriors smashing against the walls and energy weapons of the Relba. Eventually, they were able to increase their birth rate so high as to supply an infinite army and the walls of Relba were breached by Sontaran warriors climbing upon dead Sontaran bodies. They captures many Relbars and in a decade reverse engineered energy weapons of Relba design. Star Sapphire imports from Konn fueled their war effort and the rest of Relba fell over the last few years of the war.

Advanced technology:
Energy weapons:
Lightning whip: 3 inch reach. 4d6 N NND Energy damage. Str min 15, can grab, duration 2 turns.
Lightning arc: 5d6 N NND Energy damage. Rmod +0, 5 Shots, str min 13
Energy Shield: -1 OCV 1 inch diameter and –3OCV vs range attacks. Duration 4 turns.
Plate Mail: Def 7, -4 DCV (-3 STR15; -2 STR18; -1 STR20; –0 STR22)

Shin Anti Solaran tech: This was an idea, and I decided not to implement it.
Energy Diffusor: Multiple sizes
Personal: Backpack weighing 40 lbs. Emits energy dampening field 3 inch radius that deactivates Lighning weapons and Energy Shields.
Lighting Arc, Primitive: 1d6 N NND Energy damage. Rmod –2, 5 shots, str min 15.
Lightning Bombardment: Launched from catapults. Area affect 3 inches 3d6 N NND Energy damage.

Timeline:
-150NZ to –20 NZ Sontaran Morland War
200ND to 700ND Sontaran Relba War

Morlanders

The Morlanders are a completely subservient slave race to the Sontarans after 800 years of slavery. Grey skinned, 7 feet tall, lanky. One eye. Suprisingly agile.

Relbars

Relba was recently subjugated within last 100 years and are more resistant. Short, 3 feet tall, covered in fur. Broad and slow. Intelligent and previously prosperous in economy and culture. Relbars actually had higher technology than the Sontarans. It was they who learned to harness the Star Sapphires to tap their energy. However, the Relbars used the energy for peaceful means and only after years of war with the Sontarans did they develop energy weapons. Eventually, the Sontaran numbers overran the Relbars and the Sontarans began to capture and reverse engineer their technology. Once they had energy weapons, the Sontarans easily took Relba.

Crag

The people form across the eastern sea. They are the only race that has ocean faring vessels. They are a jovial race, they trade profitably with humans in Uusam and Shin. They have one arm that is huge and strong, the other is thin, short but dexterous. One import of interest: iron silk is imported from another race that co-habitates the Crag continent across the sea.

Inspiration

The Jin Dynasty (aka assassinate the evil emperor) had two main inspirations: the movie Hero[2], and the character Shennong from Post Apocalypse.

In Hero, an assassin tries to kill the first emperor of China. He is the ruler of the most powerful of six warring states and the emperor to be’s goal is to unite all of China. Similarly, Emperor Jin XXVI has set out to unite the 6 kingdoms under his one rule.

The second inspiration was Shennong. Shennong was one of my favorite characters who addressed the question, “what would someone become if they lived forever?” Shennong, as it turns out, is immortal and was the first emperor of China, who united the lands of China under one rule.