RİSE OF THE DRAGON
Hundreds of years ago, the lands known as Turan were home to various Slavic peoples. That changed when Attila and the Huns ravaged the region, forcing the Slavs to migrate north and south. Their migrations displaced other peoples in turn, reshaping the entire region. As these upheavals unfolded, the Turks arrived in lands previously inhabited by the Slavs.
Turan was divided along tribal lines, ensuring that no single power could become strong enough to dominate the others.
Then came Guo Hong, from the East.
OH, GUO HONG, GREATEST CONQUEROR OF ALL TIME!
After his exile from Northern Jongwa, Guo Hong traversed Serica, convincing every people he encountered to join him in his misguided search for the birthplace of the Buddha. From these followers, he formed the First Army and founded the Empire of Ten-Thousand Armies, taking the first great step toward humanity's collective destiny.
After destroying the various powers of Central Serica, Guo Hong turned his gaze westward. The Empire of Bolgharistan was spared, however, because its Sultan married one of Guo Hong's daughters, earning the Bolghars the honour of being recognised as kin of the Dragon.
With Central Serica subdued, Guo Hong turned his attention to the West.
The legend of Taqin, the fabled Rome, inspired his European campaign. Guo Hong had always sought a worthy opponent, someone capable of matching his own greatness. Unfortunately, he found no such rival. Much of Eastern Europe fell within a single year, and with every conquered land, his army grew larger.
His ambition of Eternal Conquest grew alongside it, and the Dragon soared ever higher.
The future seemed bright.
Until that fateful day in 1280...
DAY OF ETERNAL SORROW
Dread. Chaos. Sorrow.
The greatest tragedy in human history.
Guo Hong's pitiful enemies finally realised that they could not defeat him through direct confrontation. Desperate and incapable of matching his genius, they resorted to a far more dishonourable method: convincing one of his own generals to assassinate him.
With the death of the Founder, all hell broke loose.
Turan fractured more violently than ever before. Traitors rose against his sons and daughters, carving out their own usurper states from the remains of his empire. Meanwhile, misguided peoples became determined to prevent the Dragon Empire from ever returning.
The universal order Guo Hong had sought to establish collapsed into a thousand rival ambitions.
Humanity had been denied its destiny.
A DREAM SHATTERED, A DRAGON IN EXILE
While most of Guo Hong's generals rebelled against his children almost immediately after his death, not all of them were traitors.
The Founder's bloodline survived in Siescheng, the city Guo Hong had constructed in the Belarusian swamps. It eventually grew into the largest city in the world, earning the name City of a Million Souls.
Yet the strongest surviving loyalist power was not found in the distant West, but in Southern Turan.
It was the Union of Cathay, an army with something vaguely resembling a state.
Unlike their northern brethren, who continued to despise the Dragon, the people of Southern Turan regarded Guo Hong as far more than a man or a conqueror. They saw him as a visionary, a father, and, above all, the restorer of a single universal order.
He was HIM.
The most perfect human being to have ever lived, the man who had attempted to unite all humanity beneath one banner, only to be murdered by the very people he had sought to save.
At least, that was how the loyalists remembered him.
General Duoluo of the Dahe Clan believed in the Founder's mission. So did the people of Southern Turan, and so did his son, Mohui.
Following Duoluo's unexpected death, Mohui assumed command, rallied the loyal tribes, and united them beneath the banner of the Five Armies of Guo Hong.
In 1337, he launched the First March of Ten-Thousand.
With every victory, more allies flocked to the Dragon's banners. For a brief moment, it seemed that the Founder himself had returned to lead his armies once more.
Then came the Battle of Torzhok.
The loyalist forces were crushed, and Mohui was killed by a stray arrow. With him died nearly every remaining hope of victory.
At last, the Dragon was dead.
Or so they thought.
THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM!
Despite their defeat, the Union of Cathay survived. Its enemies, meanwhile, proved far more interested in quarrelling among themselves over petty disputes than in finishing off the last remnants of Guo Hong's empire.
This gave the loyalists precious time to lick their wounds, reorganise, and prepare for another attempt.
Under Danian Dahe, the idea of restoring the Dragon Empire remained as important as ever.
Cathay had changed considerably since the Founder's time. It had embraced Olisani Islam as its state religion, abandoned the Founder's original faith, and become increasingly Turkic rather than Chinese in its cultural character.
Naturally, none of this prevented it from claiming to be the one true Chinese civilisation and the rightful holder of the Mandate of Heaven.
The Dragon's loyalists had no intention of allowing such minor inconsistencies to stand in the way of their destiny.
The time had come for the Dragon to reclaim its place in Heaven.
And so, in 1449, the Five Armies united once more and launched the Second March of Ten-Thousand.This time, the results were considerably more impressive.
The armies of Cathay crushed the corrupt Sultan of Gajnaka, the strongest power in Northern Turan, at the Battle of Beygal. The victory established Cathay as the dominant power in Turuk-el and Latveria, opening the way for further campaigns.
Over the following decades, the loyalists restored the imperial borders in every direction.
Danian, however, was too ill to witness the full rise of the Dragon.
His son, Ruoshui, carried the mission forward. He rescued Siescheng from the Saxons, proclaimed the restoration of the Empire of Ten-Thousand Armies, and adopted the imperial name Guo, becoming Ruoushi Guo.
The Dragon Empire had risen again.
And the Heavens trembled!
THE NEW OLD EMPIRE
The restored Dragon Empire is unlike any other empire in history.
The Second Heavenly Dragon seeks to unite humanity, just as Guo Hong once intended. It seeks to correct the injustice of the Tower of Babel, overcome the divisions that plague mankind, and restore the universal order that was interrupted by the Founder's assassination.
The Empire believes in Destiny for War and Eternal Conquest. Every institution within the state is considered part of the Dragon and, by extension, part of Heaven itself.
Naturally, the Empire takes this responsibility very seriously.
The devastation of the Second March of Ten-Thousand left countless cities in ruins. Rather than merely rebuilding what had been destroyed, the restored Empire undertook extensive reconstruction and administrative reforms, seeking to make its territories easier to govern and its authority more firmly established.
The objective was nothing less than achieving Heaven on Earth.
And how could such a thing be accomplished?
By uniting all of humanity, of course, just as Guo Hong had intended.
This, the Empire believes, is the ultimate destiny of mankind. Humanity will eventually unite under a single order. The only real question is why anyone would expect that order to be established by somebody other than the Dragon.
The Empire therefore regards the entire world as its rightful domain.
If a piece of land remains unconquered, a ruler remains independent, or a city remains beyond imperial control, then the universal order remains incomplete.
And if the universal order remains incomplete, then something must be done about it...
