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Warring States
Warring States
Location Info
Name Warring States
State(s) Chu
Han
Qi
Qin
Wei
Yan
Zhao
Location(s) China

The Warring States consist of the seven kingdoms within China since the start of Autumn and Spring Warring Period 500 years ago.

History[]

China was originally divided into more than a hundred small squabbling states, and after centuries of continued warfare, they merged into a small number of larger ones, who became the Warring States of current events.

Since the Warring States period is 500 years old, the geopolitical landscape of China changed considerably throughout this long age. For example, Jin was a superstate in the Central plains that was divided into three new states 200 years ago after a huge civil war : Zhao, Wei, and Han.

40 years ago, Qi was the most powerful state in the continent, and thanks to its expansionism, managed to conquer territories stretching from north to south in eastern China, leading to the other remaining states forming a massive Coalition against Qi, which led to a crushing victory over them. Since then, the state of Qi has lost a massive amount of territory, losing its status a superstate.

Status Quo[]

Since the start of the Warring States period, the different kingdoms have been in a constant struggle for supremacy in the continent, leading to countless battles and conflicts which would claim the lives of untold millions of people across China. Militarism is a common trait in all states, and countless warmongering kings and generals have seen the day over the course of the last centuries.

Because of the martial era the different peoples of China are trapped in, no country is able to have complete supremacy in the continent. Whenever a state decides to invade a neighbor, it faces the risk of being invaded by another neighbor, leading to a continuous status quo where the balance of power is never totally broken. Thus, most wars are restricted to border conflicts, with the borders constantly changing between the states. It is common for cities to change hands from state to state multiple times in a small period.

The state of Qin is currently the biggest threat to the 500-year-old status quo, with its open intent under Ei Sei to unify the continent of China under one single large state. Other Kings throughout the years have declared their intent for unification, but most were proven to be unserious or incompetent about it. Though in Qin, King Shou was extremely serious about it, which led to him personally command gigantic armies on the battlefield and attack multiple states at a time, leading to him being referred as the "God of War".

Even if the seven countries dividing China are called the Warring States, there exists differences in power between them. Not every state is at the same level in terms of military power and prowess. Throughout the last 500 years, the different states have gone up and down the ladder of the power scale multiple times in history. For example, Qi, who was only a couple decades ago a superstate eclipsing all the other kingdoms, is now a declining power that has lost most of the territory it possessed 40 years ago after a brutal Coalition led by Gaku Ki annihilated most of the country.

In the current events, Qin and Chu are the two most powerful states. Described by Ri Boku as being "Upper Tier", they possess the largest militaries and the most amount of land. Chu is consistently described as a superstate, with its territory being nearly half of all of China's landmass, while Qin has recently conquered numerous key cities and regions, after having successfully won against an entire Coalition formed by Ri Boku and Shun Shin Kun.

After these two, comes the "Middle Tier", such as Zhao, Wei, Qi and Yan. In terms of military capabilities, Zhao is the most powerful state between these four, even though it recently lost vast amounts of territories to the Qin.

The state of Han is known to be the smallest and weakest one between the seven, described as being "Low Tier", by Ri Boku, constantly being invaded and harassed by its larger neighbors, such as Wei, Qin, and Chu. Though Han is in a tough position, it serves as a buffer state between its neighbors due to its central position in China, and they have managed to survive in such a hostile martial era for so long thanks to its special status and the wisdom of its rulers.

The prominence of Great Generals[]

One of the phenomena that exemplifies this martial age is the importance that Great Generals have inside the Warring States. Due to the militarism adopted by all states, conflicts are fought in increasingly massive numbers, with multiple battles involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides across the continent.

With the most competent officers being at the head of such vast numbers of men on the battlefield, states gave the titles of Great Generals, who would rampage countless battlefields across China and become subject to legends and myths associated to their names due to their actions during war.

During the 28th Qin King Shou, the state of Qin created the system of the Six Great Generals. With the purpose of giving those Great Generals complete and total freedom to wage warfare, who went on to conquer hundreds of enemy cities from their neighboring states of Zhao, Wei, Han, and Chu for numerous years, Qin adopted an extremely expansionist policy even for this period, which led them expanding their borders to a significant degree. Their continuously massive victories spread fear throughout the enemy states, with some of the cities surrounding as soon as they heard that one of Qin's Six Generals were coming to attack them.

Seeing Qin's aggressions and expansionist policies while desiring to keep the balance of power in check, other states created their own systems of Great Generals in order to counter Qin, such as Zhao's Three Great Heavens and Wei's Seven Fire Dragons. These Great Generals went on to face the six from Qin on numerous occasions, in massive scale battles involving hundreds of thousands of men, that would become legendary across the continent.

While western China had Qin's Six Greats, and the Central plains had Zhao's Three Heavens and Wei's Seven Fire Dragons, eastern China had Gaku Ki, the "God of Military", who managed by himself to be able to keep the balance of power of the entirety of the continent in check. By himself, he was able to save the state of Yan from the brink of destruction and led a devastating Coalition that reduced the superstate of Qi to only two cities.

Rivalries[]

In such a martial age, bloodshed is normalized throughout the continent, with pillage, mass rape, torture, and the sacking of entire cities being considered as a normal way of waging war. These 500 years of constant warfare between the Warring States led to the development and intensification of multiple rivalries and national hatred between the different peoples of China, some rivalries being even more intense than others.

The states of Qin and Zhao have over the years developed an extremely intense hatred from each other. Qin's Six Great Generals and Zhao's Three Great Heavens met numerous times in intense and bloody battles which considerably fueled enmity between both states. The hatred is more intense from Zhao, who suffered Chouhei at the hands of one of Qin's Six Great Generals, Haku Ki, which shocked the entire continent like no other massacre has ever been able to do. 400,000 Zhao prisoners of war were buried alive after their defeat in Chouhei, which led to the creation of a fanatical hatred for Qin inside the people of Zhao. Remnants of the POWs who survived the massacre, and orphans from the victims of Chouhei banded together under General Man Goku's army, who lost his father and older brother there and miraculously survived the burying, and exteriorized their hatred towards the people of Qin by slaughtering more than 10,000 civilians and decimating entire villages in the Bayou region and during very early stages of the Coalition War. More recently, Kan Ki's decapitation of 100,000 captured soldiers from Ko Chou's army reinforced even more the already fanatical hatred the people of Zhao had for Qin, which then led to both Zhao soldiers and civilians exhibiting a zealous effort to wipe the Qin forces from their country by any means possible. Joyful celebrations erupted all throughout Zhao after the news of Kan Ki's death.

Another intense rivalry involving the state of Zhao, though less fanatical than the one with Qin, is the one they have with Yan. Since the two states also shared a long continuous border, they have fought against one another countless times in very bloodied battlefields. The Yan consider Zhao to be their greatest enemy, and it has been the case since a long time. They constantly monitor Zhao's movements in order to attack whenever the time is right according to them, such as when Ordo attacked by taking advantage of the long-entrenched war their neighbors were trapped in with Qin, before being stopped in its tracks by Seika's General Shi Ba Shou. On the other hand, Zhao went to the lengths of forming an alliance with their sworn enemies, Qin, only a year the Bayou War, so that they could concentrate on attacking Yan. This alliance led to the large battle involving Ri Boku's army and the one from Yan's Great General Geki Shin, leading to the latter's defeat and death, alongside the surrender of most of the Yan soldiers in that battle. Ko Chou is said by his own subordinates to have understood true pain while fighting a gigantic war for Zhao against Yan, demonstrating the extreme levels of suffering and carnage involved in the wars between the two states.

Qin and Wei have also been formidable adversaries for quite a long time, with Wei having been a thorn in Qin's plans of expansion, blocking the path towards eastern China for multiple generations now. Qin's Six Great Generals and Wei's Seven Fire Dragons have met on the battlefield countless times, in what was considered as a golden age for martial prowess. Recently, after the rise in power of Ei Sei, the two states have been involved in massive battles for very important regions: Sanyou and Chouyou.

Other rivalries involve different states throughout the continent. Qi and Yan were two major rivals decades ago, when the former was a superstate and the latter suffering the most amongst the neighboring states at the hands of Qi. The states of Chu and Qin also seem to possess an intense rivalry, with the two being currently the most powerful kingdoms in China, fighting each other for supremacy over the other states.

Due to Qin's open intent of unifying the continent by conquering all other states, a universal hatred for Qin arises and intensified in all six states, with their citizens desiring for the state of Qin to be annihilated. This fear and hatred of Qin led to the Coalition that they suffered after the conquest of Sanyou, and the numerous massacres the people of Qin have endured under the enemies' armies. The deaths of Qin Generals are openly celebrated in all other states, such as when Ou Ki and Kan Ki died while battling the armies of Zhao.

Minor states[]

Even to this day, there exist a considerable number of small states who still haven't been absorbed by the different Warring States, being the legacy of the era when China was divided into more than a hundred squabbling kingdoms. Due to their small size, these states are constantly harassed, conquered and annihilated by the larger ones.

These kinds of states are mostly common in the most remote areas of the continent, such as dense forests where greater civilization cannot reach or just barely. They manage to survive in such a hostile era by providing information to the different Warring States, which was the case for Jo. It is implied that there are multiple small states fall under the same exact category as Jo surviving by providing intel to the larger States.

The states whose fate isn't as positive live under the constant threat of one day being annihilated by the Warring State surrounding it, and there are multiple examples of such states suffering a horrible fate. For example, Jia was completely annihilated by Zhao, with Go Kei being the only survivor, as the prince of that state. Reki and Beki were two small kingdoms who managed to fight off Chu's aggression for numerous years, before finally surrendering and being forced to serve in their military. Kei, a small state that also resisted Chu, saw half of its entire population becoming enslaved after being defeated.

Other minor kingdoms received special treatment, such as the one formed by the Quanrong barbarians at Ryouyou, who were let off free by central Zhao for countless centuries, the royal family of Zhao not interfering in their affairs and letting them be independent.

Gallery[]

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