Tang Dynasty in Space

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So see that NorthWestern bit? That's what, I have to assume, is the colonization of the Uyghurs.

>I was also thinking of having a class of soldiers called the immortals
> The immortals can only be killed by getting pierced by a special substance

well then they're not immortal then?

>we'll call it jade, which is also super rare.

>he thinks dragon sperm is super rare

>well then they're not immortal then?
Well what would you call a dude that was just filled with six-dozen rounds of ammunition, laughed it off, and proceeded to wipe out your entire unit?

Granted not everything that's called immortal is actually immortal, I think the Persians did something similar and their versions could sure as shit die. But it's a name to fit in with the setting. And again, allows for wuxia shenanigans on a futurustic battlefield without being OP
>Dragon Sherman
Jade was just a quick placeholder name. It could be unobtainium for all I care. Point being it's too rare to fashion into a bullets, so you've got to stick with swords, spears, and other objects that turn into bitchin' legendary heirlooms

It's not just Jade, it's Jade alloyed with steel and fitted with special circuits derived from the Immortals. For extra BS, make it so that every piece that can kill an Immortal has to be handforged to properly purge impurities and make it spiritually aligned for its purpose.
Because that sort of shit really does fit with any asian-ish setting.

Going form the sperm thing, could the material actually be harvested from space dragons?not it's spunt but maybe some produced from it's digestive tract. They're gigantic ship-eating beasts (I figure their normal diet would be metal rich asteroids) That you basically need a well equipped fleet to take down. Maybe your Immortal serum is sourced from them as well, harvested from their spinal fluid?

Yes. Something that requires a constant power source (it doesn't have to be bulky -- just too big to fit in a bullet) makes this a little easier to explain.

Unless you plan to have some specialist assassins that have a single bullet, commissioned by the Emperor as a last resort, or something.

It needs space wizards.
I assume China had some sort of 'wizard' like thing you could build off of; be it shamanism or something else.

A power source too big for bullets but small enough for hand weapons also means legendary archers can be a thing.

I really, really like the idea of asteroid sized space dragons. Maybe there are all sizes of dragons, with the older ones being capital ships sized.
I always figured the elixir would be made from the fruit of a tree in the middle of a fuckhuge walled garden that only select priestessess could enter. But the dragon idea is interesting too

The name "immortals" of the persian unit is a bad translation of western scholars.
They were called "apple bearers" with the apple being a symbol of eternal life in mazdean faith.

Which as a unit they were, once a member fell in the line of duty or left service, a new one could join.

Agreed. You have your pick between daoist priests and Buddhist priests. I'm not sure on how they'd use magic though.

>priest running along tree limbs until he sails over a metal gear mech
>fast as lighting, the priest affixes a paper charm to the mechanic, then continues running
>mech turns into a thousand doves, John woo ensues

>Well what would you call a dude that was just filled with six-dozen rounds of ammunition, laughed it off, and proceeded to wipe out your entire unit?

bulletproof maybe but i'm not an expert on immortals

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In order to become an Immortal one must harvest the final ingredient of the elixir himself. This requires gathering a nodule from the organ behind the crest of a mighty sky dragon. The older and larger the dragon the more potent the elixir, increasing the strength and honor of the Immortal after his transformation.

While most dragons reside in the outer layers of gas giants the oldest and greatest lay claim to the outer layers of the stars themselves where they seek to feed on voidships as they refuel their fuel stores.

Only those that claim a nodule charged with the lifeblood of a star may ever reach the command ranks of the immortals.

He's also fireproof, bombproof, acidproof, and swordproof excepting a sword made out of one specific near-legendary substance. At that point, "Immortal" is easier to say.

See Capellan Confederation and House Liao in Battletech.

>He's also fireproof, bombproof, acidproof, and swordproof excepting a sword made out of one specific near-legendary substance. At that point, "Immortal" is easier to say.

mary sue would be even easier fampai

It's mary sue in the same way jedi or space marines are. The immortals are an extremely elite unit that's a vehicle for wuxia fun times on a futuristic battlefield

>House Laoi
Ma nigga

Free Tibe--the Capellans!

But the Cappies are COMMIES IN SPACE before Xin Sheng, and MODERN CHINA IN SPACE WITH MORE LEADER-CULT after.

No, it's Free Taiw... St Ives!

Thank you. I knew there was a meme regarding it, but I was too lazy to look up the exacts.

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House of Flying Daggers is good for the Tang Dynasty. You won't get any court life, but if you're going to add legendary assassins alongside legendary warriors it's good for ideas

Elementalists based off of the Five Elements.
Maybe work Yin and Yang in there as well.

Well, if OP wants crazy out there Immortals and wizards shit looking at what there do in some fantasy china kung fu movies would be a good start.
youtube.com/watch?v=1SObzfD9aVo

Uyghurs are basically white (and C-UTE)

Pic related

>Uyghurs
Wait I thought they went extinct?! You mean there are still some around where the Red Chinese didn't kill them all?

There's 10 million Uyghurs living in China living in harmony with Hans.

Han on left, famous and most beloved Uyghur on right.

(Include qt Uyghurs in your game OP)

Why specifically the Tang dynasty?

Peak empire. Come at me with another dynasty, doesn't hold a candle to the Tang. It controlled all of present day China but the gobi desert, and it lasted long enough to make great strides in medicine, the arts and sciences and warfare. I really want to translate their Imperial nature into a space opera setting

Explain the awesome of the Tang a bit more in-depth for those of us unfamiliar with Chinese history.

Any popular media that takes place in their era?

>Peak empire. Come at me with another dynasty, doesn't hold a candle to the Tang.

Three Kingdoms Period, bro. Tang Dynasty ain't got shit on epic warriors like Cao Cao or Lu Bu.

Objectively, the CCP dynasty is peak. Objectively.

One user mentioned House of Flying Daggers, but honestly to the untrained eye all the dynasties look the same in popular media. I started the thread hoping to learn more, especially the essence of the imperial aesthetic so I could translate it to a space opera, but I do know a little.
The Tang were a dynasty prone to infighting. Brothers murdered fathers murdered sons. But they managed to keep the empire strong. The mongols were doing what mongols do, and every five years a province would rebel because what else you gonna do when you're not farming rice. So military strategy evolved pretty quickly, and I bet that'd be fun for fleet inbetween planets

*fleet battles inbetween planets

>Tang Dynasty
>China
>Doing Space China at all
What the fuck OP. If you are going to do Space Asia, at least do Space Japan.

No, GTFO. Space Japan has been done to death. Space Japan came about because Japan was the boogeyman of the 1980s, the techno-aristocracy of the East. Now Japan is stagnant and weak and the Dragon rises.

Space japan definitely has a place alongside the interstellar versions of the northern Khanate and the western Caliphate. They're the small cluster of systems housing warlords who constantly fight. Their samurai will be like the immortals, but different. I'll figure it out. Maybe the samuria serve a different battlefield role

>implying there is 'only' 1 golden age for China

>China is strong
Ha. I'll see you when China is glassed in 20 years.

Why would that happen, user?

Make the samurai something akin to Capsuleers from EVE Online: immortals who die in their starships (that run on skeleton crews because max automation that's all connected to the Capsuleer's brain) but have their consciousness immediately transferred to a clone. Probably keep them to smaller starships, something that's basically all speed and gun; armor is wasted when that metal can just be used to create more starships for your elite clone warriors.

This allows them to do maximum banzai, and would also add an entirely new level to their infinite infighting. I also think it adds to the historical legacy of WW2 pilots being told they were effectively the "new samurai," with a bastardized Bushido code.

Update the Bushido code to include their new bodies, and how it only exemplefies how dying for your Lord is all important; if you're not dying, you're either the best around and you have slain many foes, or you're simply not fighting hard enough.

Like Turks (which they are related to) are basically 'white' right?

Light basically means "pale skin and round eyes," nowadays. Don't be a bitch about it.

White basically means*

Guess who's retarded.

>he doesn't know about the Senkaku Islands

So in this setting, are these the Death Moons? The celestial objects belong to the Space Tang, and therefore so does any Solar System they choose to inhabit?

This is the Empress of China

youtube.com/watch?v=LksRg4HZ3nc

it is about the end of the Tang Dynasty, the first Female Empress regent Wu Zeitan. as in.controlling the empire herself, not as Empress dowager or as a wife, as the Emperor.would.

This is the most expensive T.V. show China has ever produced. Prepare for a wild ride of court politics and backstabbing/poisoning/ bitches killing each-others children and pretending they didn't

fukken thank you user. This is exactly what I needed. I can use this to spin a space opera setting.
Tell me more about death moons. I've already got fuckhuge dragons that inhabit space and I'd love to add more

Your welcome. It amuses me to no end that the Chinese feminine form of 'your Majesty' makes them sound like they're saying meow-meow

Basically, just as it is. The Tang build massive "colony" ships full of their people to 'look' for new planets. They just so happen to pass through the systems of the other empires.

But all the buildings on it's surface look like this.

>The Tang build massive "colony" ships full of their people to 'look' for new planets. They just so happen to pass through the systems of the other empires.
Which reminds me... You might want to play the Hate VNs from Steam, they're about a Korean generation colony ship culturally regressing to the the times of the korean Goryeo dynasty, with confucianism. class divisions and stuff.
It's a great read if you like politics and personal drama mixed with scifi and there's a free demo.
store.steampowered.com/app/209370/
store.steampowered.com/app/239700/

The only Wuxia set in Tang Dynasty China that I've seen is Da Tang You Xia Zhuan/Paladins in Troubled Times, not exactly about court life so much as it is about "benevolence". For a more political show, it's not Tang Dynasty but Lang Ya Bang/Nirvana in Fire is pretty slow paced but is all about political machinations.

Also, it has cute AIfus.

The Tang is a very romanticized period due to a number of larger than life events surrounding women, like the whole usurpation of the kingdom by Wu Zeitan, a concubine to Emperor Taizong.

The other major incident involving a woman is intertwined with the events of the An Lushan rebellion, the tragic (and perhaps disturbing) story of Yang Guifei, who was a concubine to first the Prince of Shou, then after was fancied by his father, the Emperor Xuanzhong, and taken as a concubine. Eventually she was executed by the superstitious escorts of the Emperor as he fled the capital from the rebels. This got most recently adapted into a 2015 film called "Lady of the Dynasty".

House Liao is far more patterned after northern Khitan Liao China rather than the southern dynasties.

Not the OP, but the Tang represent in some sense the "golden age" of the ancient Chinese dynasties - only the Han dynasty is spoken of as reverentially.

There's a certain sort of tragic mystique to it as well due to a sort of recurrent theme in Tang history writing of a sense of impending rot from the inside, as unprecedented prosperity gives rise to greed and ambition (as to how much of this is an imposition by later historians is something for historiographers to debate)

In terms of legacy, the Tang was in some sense the last bastion of ethnic Han rule (although one could argue that this too is a construct of sorts). The following Song Dynasty would lose almost all of Northern China to the Khitan tribes (which in turn formed the Liao dynasty), and eventually both halves of China would be crushed by the Mongols who would set up the Yuan dynasty. The Ming would mark a brief resurgence of Han ethnic rule but this also gave way to the Manchu Qing.

The Tang are also very well known for their set of legal reforms resulting in the Tang Code, which was a major influence on subsequent dynasties as well as regional regimes trying to copy (and thus borrow the prestige of) Chinese institutions, as in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan.

The other major innovation in the Tang was the separation of the civil service examinations into two tiers - one, the mingjing, tested rote knowledge and generally favoured wealthy candidates; but the second category, the jinshi, tested aptitude by getting students to respond in written essays to common questions or problems of governance. It is this latter form of the service examination that could be considered the first "meritocratic examinations."

They say that only one was ever commisioned, during the reign of the fourth empire. It's crafter was immediately put to death after the first one. A bullet of jade.
Supposedly it was lost during a rebellion, or stolen by pirates, or destroyed, or used. Some believe that all these are only cover stories to hide the fact that it rests with one of the imperial assassin families. But if so, which clan holds that honour?
And yet whatever the truth, the story of this artefact is a thousand times more powerful than the item itself could ever be. If it does exist any immortal may be killed instantly by a single well placed sniper-assassin. Any lord that contemplates rebellion had best ask himself before all, not whether the jade bullet exists, but whether he is willing to take the risk that it might.

Many of the ideas in the Tang reforms were mainly to create a professional, highly educated, and capable administration of court officials that had less ties to the land and more ties to the court and Emperor. This of course however introduced another key set of players whose loyalty could be swayed and resulted in factionalism and infighting at court between highly influential court officials, members of the royal family, eunuchs, and nobility - from which the stuff of countless Chinese TV dramas are made.

Stability under the Tang also meant that China during this period slowly shifted from a predominantly agrarian economy to a cash-based economy with specialist labour. One consequence of this was that the Tang tax system, originally designed for collecting agricultural taxes in kind, proved to be a poor source of state revenue as cash came to dominate the economy. Aggravating the income situation was the fact that Tang armies were constantly expanding into Central Asia and clashing with the Tibetan Empire and even the Uighurs, representing a considerable state expense.

The regime compensated by selling monopolies on salt, but as is usually the case economic growth resulted in winners and losers and widening gaps between rich and poor.

Much as in the example of the Roman Empire, having charismatic and victorious leaders all alone on the frontier commanding large armies who are personally loyal to them and not the state is a bad idea - the An Lushan rebellion was a textbook example of this and the dynasty never really quite recovered afterward.

Anyway that's about all I can give as a summary of the Tang. You'd need to crack open a textbook for more detail. One pretty useful source for pre-Qing Chinese history in English is "The Open Empire: A History of China through 1600" by Valerie Hansen - although I would add some caution - it's very readable but the author does work very hard against the "conventional" narrative and not all historians agree.

But dieing in clone bodies is not true death no matter how you spin it. Bushido is all about embracing death, and capsuling is avoidance of it. Make them be unique in that they reject respawning. ie, where a tang general with a thousand years of life and experience would know when to back down and retreat, or die and respawn, the soldier who has specifically disabled his backup respawn and is still fighting to the death will push further, take bigger risks, and pull off more amazing stunts. Just think how terrifying it would be for a thousand year old warrior to face such a suicidal being in battle. What a moral loss it would be to face such a fanatical soldier.

Op, it sounds you want something between L5R and Exalted but with a strong Chinese favor and IN SPACE. I'm not sure what system you should use for the guts of the settling but a lot of frame work from Exalted and L5R could be use to do Tang empire in space.

That was supposed to be the reign of the fourth emperor

Here's a question you should answer for yourself OP.

Why in space? Aside from superficial reasons like aesthetics or because it's cool that is. What do you want to do in space that you can't do with the regular Tang? How will your stories benefit from being in space? How will your players know that they're in space aside from the descriptions you give?

You said you wanted Tang Dynasty in Space. Make sure you don't forget the space part.

>lol "immortals" was a bad translation guys
>it totally actually means "bearer of [eternal life]"
Are you dense?

Kuo Lung is a series of novels about space age china having taken over the world.

it could be that they're blessed by the celestial court

The Tang Dynasty is one of my favorite Chinese Dynasties. A couple things I remember about it is that the invention of gunpowder is traced to some point during this dynasty to some sort of Chinese monk. Of course it would be centuries later before anything significant came of this invention but its still a testament to the times.

For that matter, it can also be said that Buddhism reached its highest point of prosperity during this dynasty. There were many prosperous communities built around Buddhist monasteries during this period, so much so that toward the end of the Tang Dynasty the state saw fit to clamp down on them and limit their autonomy and influence.

Of course there's also the rebellion of An Lushan, which was a major factor in the Dynasty's decline. If the records are to be believed, it was such a devastating conflict that hundreds of thousands of people ended up dying. Apparently if not for An Lushan's defeat in one or two battles he could've very well seized control and become the new emperor.

Another thing to consider is I believe this is the point when Marco Polo and trade with the west began. If you want western culture to be... in trouble/extinct consider stating that the dragons were over hunted, being intelligent creatures with great power, they smashed the Sacred Empire and burned it's capital turning the people to salt and city to glass. The rest of the world was rent by toxic fumes from Volcanos and buried like Pompeii.

These refugees lead by the great trade master and explorer Marco came to the Dynasty seeking shelter and are being absorbed into the Dynasty. Their religion blending in with the local one forming a new faith for them. With them though they also brought a wealth of ideas, and some tech. One of these though had to be left behind let's say it was their Version of Mechs that were crafted from the bones of Dragons. Hence why they were mass butchering dragons.

There's no evidence that marco polo even existed.

>The Tang were a dynasty prone to infighting. Brothers murdered fathers murdered sons.

Not a Tang issue, but a steppe culture general issue. The Ottomans too had to find workaround that balanced the maintainance of an empire with their steppe culture mores.

Well the dates of his birth, death, and resting place of his remains all say there is evidence of his existence.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo

That's a good point. The reason I want to set it in space is for kind of the star wars feel, for lack of a better term. Imagine if you will.
Youve got the juxposition of visiting the emperor's palace. First it's the scale. Everything's opulent, majestic and huge. He or she's palace takes up a continent, full of walled gardens, astrology towers and libraries, not to mention his actual court. Fifty rows of advisors sitting with heads bowed as they wait on the word of the emperor. You approach him as courtiers pluck absent mindedly on their instruments.
Now the juxposition part. Outside of the court is full blown grimey sci fi. Waves of soldiers on the Frontier planets alongside mechs and airsupport getting destroyed by the Khanat's latest incursion. There are heroes, that's a big thing. Among the common soldiers and robots they're immortals leaping around performing godlike feats and trying their skill against the enemy's greatest warriors
So your point is valid, I can't forget the space part, but I love the duality of majestic empire with heroes and sci fi warfare. It's why I like the space opera genre so much. And the Chinese period in question is ripe for space adaptation. It's little less common then space Rome or space Krauts

So this is what I have so far, thank you most knowledgeable anons, and further input is appreciated.

(This is a homebrew system that'll be tailored to the style of play once I develop it further)

This party can choose to be loosely associated mercenaries, or an assassin group, or a political group, or a group of drunk warrior friends. Really it's up to their imaginations. They probably won't begin by meeting up with the emperor, but maybe a governor of a province on some backwater planet. Very peaceful planet though, surrounded by mountains and rivers, the Empire terraformed most planets to look like southern china if doable.
The governor asks them to check out a little something, I'll drum up a list of possibilities for the GM, and then the little something turns out to be a big something. Now comes the hard part.
>Classes
I've got a couple, I just need some help refining them.
>Martial Classes:
>1. Enhanced Ones
What, you thought you'd get to be an immortal? Not yet son, that's a hard journey and you've got to prove yourself before you get a taste of that sweet, sweet elixir. Almost nobody gets it, but that's where the private sector comes in.
Enhanced Ones are the corporate answer to the Empire's Immortals. You're chock full of nanites and other enhancements to make you stronger, faster and more durable. Hopefully you're not some uppity merchant's dog, because this procedure is not cheap. Maybe you escaped or paid off your debt or were banished from a Trade Guild. You're whole style is to get in the enemy's face and Kung Fu their exo-suit into scrap. You probably have a futuristic blade weapon, and maybe a gun. Though firearms are a waste when you can cover yards in a split-second leap.
>2.Assassin
This Martial Class focuses on stealth. While the Enhanced Ones are jumping around teabagging war-walker mechs, you're using active camo and Tang trickery to seriously fuck up someone's day. You can snipe, stab, gank and lay some wicked traps. Cont

Assassins can hold their own in combat too, but if you're in prolonged hand-to-hand you're doing it wrong.
>Priesthood
>1. Taoist Priest
You're a space wizard. You can shoot lighting from your fingers, fire from your mouth, and the wind answers your kicks. You know some charms too, just don't get caught up with an enemy. Stay back and pour down death.
>2. Buddhist Priest
You know magic and martial arts! A blend of the Enhanced Ones and the Taoist, you can stick charms on enemies and then buddha palm them into oblivion. Be careful though, you can dodge attacks like the wind, but if they land a hit you're not getting back up.
>More?
What other classes can I use? Have I covered my bases pretty well with all playstyles? I've got punch, sneak, magic, and magic/punch, but I bet their are other ways to play.
More so, in anons experience, do all classes have to be tailored to fighting? What if you want to be the chinese version of a geisha? Or a merchant? Maybe the geisha commands magic and the merchant has a robotic bodyguard who Tanks for him.

Then there's the other aspects of the game. I'll have to drum up a weapons chart, everything from plasma swords to vibro-spears to BFG's and LFG's. And gear, I almost want to incorporate Tang fashion of the period.
Then there's the actual space aspect.
Do you have a ship? How are you getting from planet to planet, system to system? What are you going to do when you're zipping along and you find a dragon curled lazily around a moon? Outside of the imperial governor and elite palaces, are there hive cities? Super Singapores that reach the outer atmosphere?

>this retard get his news only from /pol/ and school childrens there.
The issue is already done and resolved. Both Japan and China agreed to cooperate to gain the underwater resources.

China isn't the US and their foreign policy isn't to destroy or destabilize every country that have any resources they wanted.

You do realize China recently threw bombers over Japanese waters right? The Chinese want nothing more than to bully Japan because they can.

>a period of bloody civil war
>peak empire
Um

Japan and China have cooperated in a lot of economic, education and trade issues, more so than with the United States, considering their trade with each other.
This is also true in regards to China and India.

Only insecure retards who don't want to read anything other than tabloids believe China and Japan government dislike each other a lot when the opposite is proven true.

International waters as claimed by US. Deliberately done to flip a finger to the US forces stationed in Okinawa for doing the same to China forces.
Japanese government don't even care.

Don't forget that the Tang is also distinguished by being more open to other cultures- central Asian merchants, diplomatcs and dancing girls in the capital, a mix of religions, much less in the way of strait-laced Confucian orthodoxy and more in the way of partying.

>nuclear (or even large-scale conventional) war
>over uninhabited rocks
Hell no. Over Taiwan, maybe.

Then why have they errected defense systems and strengthened air patrols around the South China Sea and Sea of Japan? Why are they pushing for a stronger military presence in response to the Chinese actions? Why as the Chinese PM and MoD gone on record to say that China will retaliate in some way over these transgressions? You are fucking stupid.
Border disputes usually escalate into full-scale war senpai.

>Then why have they errected defense systems and strengthened air patrols around the South China Sea and Sea of Japan? Why are they pushing for a stronger military presence in response to the Chinese actions? Why as the Chinese PM and MoD gone on record to say that China will retaliate in some way over these transgressions? You are fucking stupid.

You are the retard here. If you take China tabloids regarding US as you take Western tabloids regarding China seriously, US already nuke the entire world three times over.