From Commoner to Emperor 4.2
The emergence of the Lan Clan shatters the balance of power and forever alters the face of war. When the Lan step forth, the old order crumbles, and this conflict will never be the same again. I am the Emperor.
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Your world takes shapeThe first horizons are coming into view.
World Description
The world of 1285 CE is not yet one of modern nation-states. Board cells use modern geographic boundaries purely for gameplay, but internal structures reflect 13th-century realities, deliberately employing composite labels where single cells encompass multiple historical polities. Most of China lies under Kublai Khan's Yuan Dynasty, while Kaidu and Duwa hold the Ögedei–Chagatai confederation across Central Asia; Goryeo preserves its institutions while bound as a Yuan son-in-law realm; Japan remains governed by the Kamakura shogunate in the wake of the 1281 Mongol invasions; Tran Dynasty Dai Viet faces the second Yuan invasion while Champa continues to resist Sogetu's forces. Southeast Asia is a mosaic of mandalas: Sukhothai, Ngoenyang, Phayao, Hariphunchai, Lavo, Tambralinga, the Khmer Empire, Muang Sua, Pagan, Wareru's realm, the Shan principalities, Singhasari, Melayu–Dharmasraya, Pasai, Malay port-states, and island chiefdoms contend within overlapping spheres of influence. India is divided among Balban's Delhi Sultanate, Bughra Khan's Bengal, the Yadavas of Devagiri, Rudramadevi's Kakatiyas, the Hoysalas, Pandyas, Eastern Gangas, Vaghelas, Rajputs, and numerous regional princes; Sri Lanka reels from the Pandyan sack of Yapahuwa and the seizure of the Sacred Tooth Relic in 1284. The Middle East is partitioned between Arghun's Ilkhanate, Qalawun's Mamluks, the vassal Sultanate of Rum, emerging Turkic beyliks, Georgia, Cilician Armenia, Rasulid Yemen, the Sharifate of Hejaz, the Usfurids, and Ormus; the Levantine coast retains the final Crusader enclaves of Acre and Tripoli. Western Europe features Edward I's England, Philip III's France, Castile–León, Aragon, Portugal, and sister Iberian realms; the Holy Roman Empire is a tapestry of princes and free cities under Rudolf I; Bohemia, Hungary, the fragmented duchies of Poland, Lithuania, the Teutonic Order, Scandinavia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Byzantium, Latin Greece, and Italian city-states pursue their own interests. The War of the Sicilian Vespers leaves Sicily under Aragonese rule while Naples remains Angevin. North Africa is held by the Marinids, Hafsids, Zayyanids, and Mamluks; the Sahel sees the rise of Mansa Sakura in Mali, alongside Kanem and trans-Saharan caravan routes; East Africa is anchored by Yekuno Amlak's Solomonic Ethiopia, Muslim sultanates of the Horn, and Swahili city-states, with Kilwa linking Great Zimbabwe's gold trade to the Indian Ocean. The Congo forests, Southern Africa, Australia, Papua, and the Pacific islands are dynamic regional societies defined by customary tenure, kinship, exchange, and environmental mastery. Recent archaeological evidence places early Polynesian settlement in New Zealand around 1250–1275 for the North Island and 1280–1295 for the South Island, making 1285 the earliest dawn of human history in Aotearoa. This world is bound together by caravan routes, steppe corridors, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the South China Sea, and major river arteries—yet information, prices, faith, language, and legitimacy do not move without friction; distance and seasons remain formidable barriers. Emperor Lan Tianlong, of the Lan Tianlong faction.