2026-09-16 12:50 UTC
Replies (1)
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@CharlotteEowyn@chaosfem.tw 2026-09-16 12:52
The setup will be this: The Jade Mountain School is located atop a mountain in the Yan province, near where the merchants and cavalry of Yan trade (and fight) with the nomadic peoples to the north. It is an isolated school. The nearby town of Maple Dawn Lake is only a half day’s walk from the school, located on a serene mountain lake, where the locals farm rice, raise goats, yak and horses. There are also a number of peach trees. The town itself is almost two weeks from the next nearest town; which is down the Jade Mountain. The lake bordering the town feeds a mountain stream, which becomes a riverhead at the base of the mountain. Jade Mountain is a prestigious school; the master only accepts one of two types of people. Either people from the town (any child can be tested for talent) - or people from far away, who must have had full lives with accomplishments, and must prove themselves to the master before he will teach them, else they will be turned away. Many are turned away. Many more wash out. The old master, Wan Lu Weng, the Old Man of Ten Thousand Roads, is secretive, demanding, confident and strict. He demands the very best from his pupils, and accepts nothing less than perfection. He teaches the Warrior’s Way - a style of martial arts focused purely on combat mastery above all else, and many, many styles of martial arts - some said to be known by no other. Many seek him out for this alone. But he is more than that - he is a great teacher. He is a bit of a Zhou traditionalist (the Zhou are the old order provence at the center of China, their dynasty resists the new way of judging people based on ability and merit, preferring aristocratic judgements) - but the reason he takes in peasants from the local town, is he prides himself on turning otherwise normal peasants into pupils that can test or humiliate the sons of the greatest aristocrats of Qi. That is not why you have sought him out, however. There are other whispers. He has been teaching on this mountain for several generations - since the first missionaries of the west began whispering of a man called ‘the Buddha’, and since before the days of the current King of Yan’s father, since perhaps even the days of Confucius a century ago. Few talk about it, but it is said he is amongst the greatest the School of Naturalists (one of the Hundred Schools of Thought) has ever produced. It is said he knows the secret to immortality. (SPOILER: HIS SECRET IS VAMPIRISM)