In an alternate warhammer reality, distorted by the last desperate gamble of Orikan the Diviner to thwart the rise of the New Devourer's most terrible form yet and the coming of the Winds of Magic from a reality shattered by the death of the world that was; there were Dragons. The ones that would become the guides of Cathay would be known as the Longs, who made pacts with the Baihu (White Tigers), Xuanwu (Black tortoises), and Fenghuang (Vermillion phoenixes) to understand and tap into the true source of power revealed by Xen Yang and Qiao Yin, who had seen many truths in the deeper warp as they fled from the destruction of their home.

Xen Yang and Qiao Yin had found a way to achieve a form of ascension beyond even their prior heights, as the Xian Tianshen. Immortal masters who had found means to survive the wrath of the Lords of Chaos and grow from the experience, rooting themselves in the metaphysical in a way akin to gods, but without having to surrender free will or be stuck in the warp. They would share this way of the Xian with others, giving rise to the Celestial Longs, Baihu, Xuanwu, Zhuque, Fenghuang and others who had achieved the appropriate understanding of the teachings that Xen Yang and Qiao Yin passed down.

In these ages past, the Elders and the Fey Spirits who would often be their allies and partners were the first to call the great celestial garden home, coming upon it when intelligent life was just able to form in a younger, more chaotic universe. They would help to guide the life that would arise, but never sought to shape it directly, while the Fey would seek to encourage the development of life and its health and vigour.

Under the wisdom of the two factions of ancients, the garden, the stars and galaxies visible from the Local Cluster and beyond, would flourish. It was the Dragon philosophy of guidance and tutelage to achieve harmony of the masses and the people that would formulate the system of the Celestial Realm and its many pupil species who have come and gone over the ages.

And so they, with the Fey spirits that arose from potent natural power radiating from worlds bearing life, would seek to build a culture based around, not ruling and dominating as Yang and Yin once did; but guiding and leading, at the behest of their children who had seen the old ways fail on Malus.

Theirs would be a society that was mighty and wise in equal measure, proud but humble, ancient yet inquisitive, knowledgeable yet curious. It would not be a perfect society, for no society is, and often they would misstep in arrogance, overzeal, or misunderstanding. But growing from mistakes was key to the path of Xian. And so life flourished, brilliant and free, a great Harmonic Collective of those powers devoted to Life itself, whether Fey or Dragon or whatever other sorts of primeval beasts simply labelled "Sprits" by an Imperium not due to form for many billions of years.

They were devoted to conquering death itself, to create a Cosmist paradise where all could be immortal, in flawless health, and none would ever be bereaved or left wanting. The universe was infinite, its bounty infinite, none needed to suffer, none needed to be left wanting. Such was their dream.

Such bounty however, would draw the attention of the wandering Old Ones, who came from parts unknown and declared it to be their garden. The conflicts between Dragons and Fey on one side, and the Old Ones and their Slann firstborn on the other would allow the Necrontyr to go from a mighty regional power to a peer who had mastered the material, and for the abominations of the lovecraftian Strangers to slide in from beyond.

As the Fey mediated a cooling of the initial conflicts into a cold war, the Old Ones found themselves attacked by the growing evil of the Strangers and their Army of the Starless Night. But more importantly, by the Necrontyr whom they deemed too corrupt, too weak, too ugly to be given the Old One secret of true immortality, enraging their Silent King into seeking war with them. Such would spiral into an apocalypse known as the war in heaven that would shatter time and space once the Necrontyr made contact with the C'tan.

A many sided conflict would destroy the cosmos as it was known then, allowing forth new evils such as Chaos, Undeath, Darkness, or Destruction to emerge from the powers unleashed by the warring combatants, or from the mistakes and trauma they had inflicted on existence itself.

Many were always there, lurking, but the destruction allowed them to rise to an endemic state. History would record this nightmare as beginning ten billion years ago, and ending some four billion years ago. In truth, time was so distorted, so broken, so ruined by the conflict that ideas of "length" had little meaning. This was merely the time that reality itself had been twisted to ensure it could continue no further.

Combatants went forward, backwards, sideways, diagonally through time, fate and causality were bent, twisted, and looped into broken and tortured ruin, and the warring powers sought to grab the reins of the very laws of reality itself, changing properties later societies would believe permanent fixtures. The universe itself would be a very different place by its end, with the breaking of the C'tan leading to the domination of Dark Energy over Matter and time itself made far more rigid to try and close avenues of altering history so that the war without winners could at the very least, end.

In the end, the Old Ones seemed to be slain and the C'tan were imprisoned by the Necrontyr. The Strangers were shut away, and the students of the dragons and cherished of the fey were largely slain, forcing the Spirits to look to the offspring of the souls of Malus and the new life that had emerged to find new pupils.

The Dawi, Eldar, and Slann and their aides such as the Runemen, the Psychotaumata, and the Itzecanl; the Lizardmen would then have to deal with those who had gone renegade as a result of the war, making allies out of old enemies and foes out of former friends, battling too against the crawling things that wriggled and writhed through the now tortured and broken warp.

These Aftermath Wars would call on many dire powers and tortured distortions of reality, the farce to the war in heaven's original tragedy, reality twisting and churning between the warring powers and great battles to define what the universe would truly be in the wake of the original catastrophe. Eventually, Order, Life, Creation and Light would triumph over Chaos, Death, Destruction, and Darkness, and the worse spawn of that war would be driven into the shadows for peace to at last take hold.

The Celestial Realm would not remain dead however. History would proceed, and the Dragons' many nations, the Harmonic Cooperation Collective would rebuild in different interpretations of the path to the conquest of death itself and the achievement of true, cosmic immortality for all things.

As eons passed, the scars of the War in Heaven and its Aftermath faded. New glories were achieved, new heights reached. Peace allowed for a renaissance to follow the darkness of the wars of Gods and Monsters, and times were bountiful. There was much to be rebuilt, much had been lost, but much could be relearned, many new things could be discovered and the hands that forged reality-shattering swords could beat them into dream-making ploughshares.

Resurrection was still a simple matter, tracing the paths of reincarnation and transmigration even easier, people lived immensely long lives with great power gained through the collected understanding of life itself. None wanted for anything, and when there was peril it would be smote to ruin in short order and a great League of States would help resolve disputes between the mighty powers.

It was not a time of perfect peace, but it was a time where war, true, existential-level warfare, was something of a rarity. Skirmishes yes, the occasional crisis in need of military action of course, and efforts to keep peace and integrate new peoples or newly reachable areas into their great system always ongoing, but more far more lived well than died hideously.

But the most prestigious families of the Eldar sought greater glories, to surpass the times of gods and went down a dark path, seeking audience with darker powers such as the Khrave who had stalked from the shadows and the entropic Hrud and broken Umbra. Meanwhile, a new species of the world of Terra, where many influences had by coincidence converged to birth a new, second humanity, not that of the Malus they had come from.

Terran Mankind would reach far, achieve much in the blink of an eye. It would create great thinking machines, enormous corporations, magnificent clone workers in the rough image of the Dawi (amidst others) great technologies from the whispers of Mars. As they spread their wings over the abyss of deep time, many of these humans would come to the lands of the Dragons where their Malusian kin resided, to be educated and receive wisdom away from the Men of Gold and their corporate demands.

Man would overthrow his chains of gold and build a mighty Commonwealth of Orion, an egalitarian Utopia where none wanted for anything and it was declared that the children of Terra had emerged from a brutish prehistory to form mankind's true, authentic path in time. They had even come to one day be recognised as a great power in a cosmos that while not perfectly peaceful, was a place dominated by free-willed nations and diplomacy, rather than programmed monsters and warfare.

All good things would come to an end in time, and the sundering of the Eldar brought with it the wars of Vengeance. The Cytharyani revealed their shocking (if entirely untrusting) alliance with the Dawi Zharr and waged a terrible war upon the Cadai loyalists who fought for the old, egalitarian ways in a new nightmare to tear apart the stars.

The Dawi and Slann sought to crush this threat and called in their own allies, including the Commonwealth of Orion, the Thyrrus Performance, and the Sarhuadin Grand Empire to face the Cytharites and their "helping hands" such as the Hrud, the Khrave, the Umbra, Vrykolaka, the Dawi Zharr, and the Skaven.

A new war in heaven, a cataclysm to bloody the stars worse than any prior crisis or conflict since the Aftermath Wars. It was a clash that would bring calamity to all and one whose excesses and sadistic frenzy would feed the birth of a dreadful deity being dreamed up by the Cytharyani as their war winning tool.

Even as man sought to war with the Ctyhari worshippers, the ancestors to the Drukhari and Druchii and their vassals and the powers of Chaos, Undeath, and more began to wax, more and more humans would come to the Celestial Realm for wisdom and protection; for even as the War of Vengeance consumed the stars and the Men of Iron acted on evil whispers to add to the woe of the universe; the Dragons could keep them safe, even as terrors old and new crept all throughout the garden; begetting the Galaxies of Darkness.

As the great bulk of mankind collapsed into darkness, those of the Celestial Realm of Tian'Chao would instead become a widespread presence in that great power as the dragons hunkered against yet another great dark age. While there was much lost and in need of reclamation to the spreading ruin, the realm had endured, and man would take his place as one of the great students of the wise Long.

They would exist in harmony with the other great creatures, the Vermillion Phoenixes (or the Zhuque), the Black Tortoises (or Xuanwu), and the White Tigers (or the Baihu) as the Imperium of Man's scholars would call them who helped to form Tian'Chao's eldest teachers in the great academy of the working masses; as well as with a great many xenos and abhumans.

Though the Imperium would ignorantly label some of them "Simians" or "Vulpinids" or any other number of reductive, conflative names for the innumerable non-human inhabitants of the Celestial realm, the great Celestial Realm always regarded all species as capable of being awakened to the revolutionary spirit, even if it required "emancipatory projects" to alter their nature to do so, as was a perennial obsession of theirs with the Orks.

But their plans to neatly fill the void left by the fall of the Eldar and the Age of Strife was not to be, as dark dragons who had been among the first to pass the teachings of necromancy returned, spreading a poisoned whisper of an easier, more selfish path to immortality than harmony. Tahkduin Falamaug Mirssax and Vlithra Ancalamat Dahraak; Lords of Death who had come with a horde fed by the slaughter of so many in the great collapses and their armies of duupes.

The Dragon-Break would be a cataclysm of titanic scale as Falamaug and Ancalamat's Prophets and Apostles spread apocalyptic destruction upon a people busy fighting the hordes pouring from the warp through the rifts opened by the uncontrolled and abusively weaponised psykers and wizards of Terran humanity. With their legions of the dead and the devils of the death gods of the warp, they waged a war that would see much knowledge, much infrastructure, and so many lives lost.

Though the Apostles and Prophets would be defeated and driven back, the damage had been done. The Undead had caused so much damage that countless technologies had to be forcibly downsized or abandoned for a lack of means and both Yin and Yang would have to enter a state of torpor to power their most vital celestial machines; joined by their fellow eldest god-children. The younger ones on the path would have to coordinate the rebuilding on their own, and they would not have the benefit of a prolonged peace to simply ride out until everything was back to its prior level of development.

The fall of the Eldar brought with it a reprieve from attacks by the Cythari worshippers and the endless hordes of warpspawn, but it also allowed a great race to fill the void to occur, a race that the Tien were not ready for, focused on internal matters and rebuilding themselves and their allies.

And one of these would seek to make itself its problem long before the planners' eyes could turn towards Terra. Tianchao would not encounter the so-called Imperium of Man until well into the great crusade, where the Imperial Diad's space marine legions under the Warmasters Horus and Edda would send waves of transhuman men and women crashing into the mighty defensive lines of the Realm.

The Imperials sought and failed to overcome the great bastion which twisted the warp in such a way as to render bypassing it all but impossible, but did strike at many outremer provinces, prefectures, and states within the Realm and its allies and did great damage. With the Emperor and Empress busy with their personal projects, the Warmasters were allowed to manage much of the finer details, particularly after it was clear that the terms of compliance were impossible for the collective to meet.

In this late period of the Great Crusade, all the easy targets for conquest of any significant note that were near the cores of the new great powers were already dealt with. Mighty threats such as the Greenskin Mega-Empire of Ullanor, one of the largest Assimilation Nodes of the Tsarkantic Machine-horde yet noted, a Great Khrave Kingdom, the Rangda Republic uplifted by the Slaugth purely to see what an Iron age society would do with being simply gifted the keys to the stars, and the Broken Sun Liquifiers all dealt with, the great powers could not help but run into each other.

And ultimately just as how the Imperium came to blows with the Sigmarites and their Holy Alliance, with the Interex and Q'orl and their Ergatocratic Cooperative Security Organisation, with the Sarhuadin and their Grand Empire, and many, many other rising or reborn powers, this would descend into violence. The comradely nations of the Collective battled with the myriad militaries of the Imperium, the Arcanorum, and the Mechanicus.

The likes of the Zavkom Union, the Asahikijin Domain, the Vudrani Commonwealth, the Tien Realm, the Ulaanorda, the Cosmic Bund, the Federated Jamaheer, the Nagatahnan Republics, and the Gojinguk-in Combine fought against the Astartes, the Imperial Army, the Cult Mechanicum, the Scholasta Arcana, Imperialis Militia, the Questoris Knights, the Arbites, and the Monarch's Talons to name but a few.

The war would go on for years without victory and increasingly grueling attritional warfare. With both sides operating at the end of their logistical ropes and having many other commitments, it came to be an unpopular and increasingly controversial war. Finally, Malcador the Sigilite proclaimed that the throneworld now sought peace, and offered a fair settlement as Hobgobbla Khan's menace to all sides rose into a titanic Waaaagh! A peace that would be agreed to by Yanwang Zhongli, the current Tian Dijun of the realm.

The imperials, particularly many of the legions that would later betray the Imperium, would rather than accept that their imperial aggression was wrong in the first place, come to believe the fault was with Imperial leadership. They believed the crusade was being abandoned by Politicians who had given up on a war that could have seen countless humans free from societies anathema to the compliance.

Even worse, Malcador's whispered words of a planned new League of States against the Skaven Under-Imperium represented nothing less than a faltering of faith in the Astartes. Why else would the Imperium start considering alliances and reversing its stance that there are no other nations, only the Imperium, the Dominion of the Mechanicum, and the Academy of the Arcanorum and its protectorates?

The Tien for their part now regarded the Imperium as a barbarous state full of deranged zealots led by amalgamated monstrosities that would impose a brutal hegemony upon existence in pursuit of a mad dream. They would consider the offer of an international accord to resolve further such disputes, and to perhaps coordinate against the Skaven who were deemed the greatest threat to the late crusade era order, but they would never truly trust the Imperium.

When the Horus Heresy occurred, the Collective was at first content to simply allow what was sown to be reaped, having better things to do than bail out the nations of the Occident from a mess of their own making. At least, until it was clear that Chaos was not being caught in a grinding stalemate, but was preparing for a move to tip the scales towards a new age of daemons and that Horus and Edda were not merely rebels who had let Chaos infiltrate their ranks.

Furthermore, the depth to which the Skaven, Dawi Zharr, Chaos Marauders, and Fimir (among others) had put their hand into subverting a mere stratocratic coup into a metaphysical conquest of the materium had come to alarm Zhongli and the presiding council, who asked the Supreme Assembley for a vote to intervene in what had become the Great War against Chaos. It was a contentious vote, but one that Horus had predicted the outcome of, for as soon as the vote had cleared, the powers of Chaos struck and war eternal would truly consume the stars.

While Horus and his Heresy would eventually be dealt with, eventually giving way to the Atrayan Apostasy and a new war with Undeath, the era of the crusade was over and forty thousand years of the Emperor and Empress' internment upon the Golden Throne and Silver Keep would follow. There would be no peace among the stars, only an eternity of carnage and the laughter of thirsting gods.

For tens of thousands of years, Tian'Chao has held as one of the great powers of the universe. A densely concentrated but vast realm with impeccable manpower reserves and well defended territory and a network of useful allies in the path of revolutionary spirit. Though its reign has not been problem-free, and war has been ever an eternal threat, the Realm endures.

But as the forty-first millennium of the ascension of the Emperor and Empress of the Imperium come to a close, the times have never been more dire. From beyond the rim of the Garden come endless invasions, the swarming Tyranids, the energy-based Shadanak, the silicate Krogathik, and the Mechanical Numerians to name some of the more famous ones, as well as countless beings who hope to escape them. The Garden itself continually grows, constantly bringing new contacts and powers at an expanding rate.

Old menaces would rise from the mists of time in ancient tomb worlds and from pocket dimensions as the Necrons and other creations of the C'tan drastically stepped up their activity to degrees that could no longer be dismissed as isolated incidents. Pockets of renegade Men of Iron, and isolates of older societies kept sequestered by long warpstorms and distorted floes of time would emerge as if specifically to haunt the present with the ghost sof the past, and in some cases many threats would emerge from the future; tossed back into the present by one means or another.

Old standby menaces such as the Hrud, the Greenskins, the Undead, Chaos, the Druchii and Drukhari, the Strangers and more were growing in strength and power, growing more unified, more powerful, more numerous. Ancient destinies and vendettas would be dragged up into the fore, and concentrations of old foes not seen in an age would stain the void with the blood of a universe at war.

New powers, hoping to make their mark on history, such as the Tau, the Drax, the Dracolith, the Ulumeathi, the Severan Dominate, and others all tried to carve their place in the sun. Many of these new powers rose in prominence to be counted amidst the mighty at speeds that were nothing less than astonishing. Pushing into the borders of older, more established nations growing increasingly strained by the war efforts in all directions.

Into this, you were born a bit more than two thousand years ago. The definition of maturity for dragons is an odd one, defined almost entirely by cultural expectations and standards. This goes double for those deemed to have been born of Xen Yang and Qiao Yin, in essence a new clutch of primarch like beings for the Realm.

You are a pair of relative youths among one of the oldest species in existence, Zhu Xianglong and his sister Zhu Xinyi. The Heavenly academy has trained you for much, and prepared you for more, for you are the Vermillion and Azure Dragons.

The Celestial Dragons, in essence, a physical sort of deity for dragon kind, sire new celestial dragons with a great deal of discussion and planning ahead of time and with rigorous schemata for their training into a Xian. Each is to embody a portfolio of metaphysical principles and philosophical stances. Each is to be a teacher and example for others, a guide as much as a leader, and each is to receive a great deal of careful education to ensure that they live up to the celestial realm's history of revolutionary wisdom.

And as a Prince and Princess of the realm, you have especially great heights to reach and especially grand expectations to meet. Of course, you have lived the lifetime of whole cultures by human standards. Your blood is in the veins of thousands of families through dalliances and pacts made with yourselves, and you have seen generations of humans come and go. Now though, is the time to take on the task of handling the situation at the Western Fringe of the Realm; close to the Eastern Fringe of the Imperium and thus to Ultramar and the Tau Spheres.


As a young master, you have received forces; a fleet and an army sworn to you by voluntary oath to help a recently proven Scion-Master's quest to bring about harmony and spread the Revolutionary Philosophy to the Stars. Zhu Xianglong and Xinyi will of course, face growing responsibilities and commands as the pair prove themselves. Not alone, as they will likely grow their retinue over time, but the expectations of the Realm, the working people, the society of the masses, and their parents Xen Yang and Qiao Yin, not to mention the Presiding council as a whole will grow to match them.

However, given their exemplary performance in both the military campaigns against the many threats of the Shangyang Expanse in defence of student nations; and in affairs of diplomacy and statesmanship in their service as Celestial governor and governorate premier of the Jiaodong province; they are expected to do well. Especially when one also considers their exemplary accomplishments in the Celestial Academies.

The Celestial Dragons while born with great, metaphysical power, are entrusted with great, metaphysical responsibility. They are expected to guide and lead by consent and acceptance, and with justice and fairness. To not rule as a despot, but to guide as a teacher. And one who promotes injustice can be evicted from their position by the people, and are expected to atone with long remedial courses and extensive struggle sessions.

As a student in the Celestial Academies, Zhu Xianglong/Zhu Xinyi was (Specify whether Xianglong or Xinyi):

Both siblings are also considered proficient to experts across most generic psyker disciplines.


In their military campaigns in Shenyang, Zhu Xinyi/Xiang was most famous for (Choose one per twin, specify which twin):

In their time in Jiaodong Zhu Xiang/Zhu Xinyi was most well known for (Choose one for each Sibling):


This will decide the specialities of your subfaction (The Twin Dragon Worthies)


Normally you start with two magnitude one fleethordes, and a "war purse" of 20 RP per turn plus an additional stipend of 20 from the celestial realm without needing any employed POPs (which will be explained in the rules post) for a starting income of 40, and every employed POP provides 1.5 RP. You will also start with 20 pops in need of settling with 5 coming per turn from the Celestial realm which will grow by an additional two naturally by the end of the turn. You will have two Magnitude One warfleets (effective magnitude 2 each), one for each twin.

Unlike before we're no longer counting exact numbers of units to lower the amount of math required and also so that we don't really have to think too hard about hull counts or troop numbers beyond "not typical sci-fi army tiny militaries". Rather the possible unit types in a roster will be listed, and the creation of new units will allow for new capabilities within the Order of Battle. Note that this is borrowed and modified from Cosmolux and still retains some of its references. When it refers to tier, you are Tier Extremis, the trait system and origin point system is not used and is replaced by character creation instead.




Turn Layout & Mechanics
First of all are the two types of turns in the game, and what you do in them. A strategic turn represents a span of time of one hundred years.

Strategic Turns

Tactical Turns
Ordinarily, the Strategic Turn will pass by itself without issue, but there are often difficulties in running certain operations. Fighting battles against powerful opponents, conducting difficult diplomatic negotiations, some things require a personal touch. In such circumstances, a tactical turn begins, where players get to direct their forces or other personnel on a lower level and try to make the most of a tricky situation. In cases such as battles, players may also request a visual map as a guide if they deem it necessary for their planning.

Resource Points:
Practically everything costs resources, but on the interstellar scale some things are below the level of abstraction. For everything that isn't, there are Resource Points. These come from two main sources. First, internal production, dependent on your amount of territory and how developed it is. Second, external sources, ranging from trade treaties to war reparations.

As RP represents the general industrial capacity and raw resources available over one hundred years as opposed to something like mere money, it cannot be stockpiled from turn to turn. Spare RP goes to things like consumer good production instead of being truly wasted, however.

Each player starts the game with a varying amount of either temporary or perminant RP production, representing either the initial stockpile of processed goods and initial industry that came with them on arrival, or the materials coming through a portal back to their home universe, depending on a faction's exact lore.

Population:
You need people to work your industries and staff your armies, for an army without any people on it tends to be ineffective. As well as your starting population stipend, population can grow over time, although at base population doesn't actually grow at a meaningful rate per turn. Population can be invested into, at a rate of five Production Points to generate one additional Population. This can represent everything from actual, if heavily boosted, population growth through a mixture of 'encouraged' natural birth, to civil development, increasing automation, and the mass production of robots to take over assorted jobs. Most notably, significant usage of cloning may be contributing to this growth if your faction has the technology.

Note that Explosive Breeders will both give you some actual population growth, increasing the natural growth rate from zero to 5%. Explosive Breeders also means that actively boosting population growth is cheaper, going down to three Production per Population Point Or to put things more simply:

It is through the employed population that one produces Resource Points that can be spent here and elsewhere. Baseline, one employed population point produces 1+(.2*(number of faction tier modifiers your faction has(tier ups count as tier modifiers, but the tier down doesn't), minimum zero)) Resource Points(RP) per turn. Please ignore the 1+(LOG10(employed pops + trade phantom pops)) that feeds into that simple calculation. Tian'Chao starts at Tier Extremis, on a similar level to the Leagues of Votann.

Note: the cost of a Population point cannot go below 2 RP.

Territory:
The most vital asset available to an interstellar civilization is territory. Planets and asteroid belts and stars are all exploitable resources that must be used to improve the industrial capacity of your faction. Unless otherwise specified, each TP is broadly identical once in your possession. Once you own a TP, you can develop its industry and defenses to improve your RP output and its ability to survive attack respectively.
Spoiler: Territory Improvements
First is your level of industrial development. Note that the costs associated are the absolute costs, so if you upgrade from a lower level then you may discount the costs by what you have already paid.
Also note that each territory can employ a certain amount of population. It is through this employed population that you gain more Resource Points, which each effective employed population point providing one RP baseline


Research:
Research is the means by which you make yourselves better at fighting and winning, since for simplicity's sake non-military research is by and large put into the background, with some exceptions that fall in a dual-use area such as creating countermeasures against various chemical/biological warfare systems or esoteric infiltration methods.

Unless you have the relevant drawback, you get one research slot for free each turn. You can invest RP to generate more on a per-turn basis, but while a bit of funding can go a long way, you only have so many scientists able to work at once, so increasing your research capacity becomes exponentially more expensive as your purchased slots increase and caps at five slots. The costs per slot are thus 0, 1, 4, 9, and 16, shifting up to costing 1 through 25 with the drawback. The exception is the Research Megaproject, which not only grants two research slots for free but also allows you to go over the slot cap.

There are two different kinds of research: Doctrinal Improvements and Revolutionary Breakthroughs.

Doctrinal Improvements:

In battle, the Celestial Realm has proven triumphant, but the conflict with the Orks has shown that the Tian'Chaoren simply do not have enough strong fast assets to deal with Ork teleporting armies before they destroy something important, and that their light assets frequently end up overwhelmed by Beast Saggaz and the Kult of Speed and thus leave the wider army very vulnerable.

So they take it upon themselves to try and find a means of developing and making use of more high speed assets capable of at least holding off the Speed Freaks long enough for reinforcements to arrive rather than give them a chance to run riot over the artillery lines. These fall under Doctrinal Improvements, which vary in cost from 1 to 5 research slots, the exact number being assigned by me depending on the difficulty and scale of the research project.

While the above projects are all about fixing notable weaknesses, that's not the only use. Strengths can be enhanced, new tricks such as stealth technology can be developed and implemented, as can ways of dealing with WMDs or infiltrators.

Revolutionary Breakthroughs:
All is proceeding according to plan, except the part where celestial forces forces keep getting trounced by nominally inferior formations that are able to pick apart the armed forces in detail, splitting them apart and forcing them to fight without order or harmony. To fix this, the twins need more than a simple gizmo, new units, or doctrinal adjustment. Instead, they start looking into means to concentrate and broadcast the power of harmony across a great distance to envelop whole battlefields in its waves so that it can be maintained even with a far looser formation. But this is no easy task.

Revolutionary Breakthroughs cost a full 10 research slots each, but have a correspondingly grand impact. Rather than improving your doctrine or granting new options, RBs simply make a segment of your forces better. They grant one pip, equal to half a Specialization, that can be spent on any subcategory of your forces to power them up. For example, the above project would be a Breakthrough affecting Esoterics.

Overall, both kinds of research are likely to be extremely useful in their own ways, and a good mix of the two is generally advisable to keep your forces competitive with all comers.

Megaprojects
As well as standard territory development, there are also far more impressive works of planetary and even stellar-scale engineering available to the suitably wealthy and determined. These are Megaprojects, ranging in scale from relatively small projects that are still much too large in scale to be automated away, to massive Megastructures and Gigastructures involve the establishment of vast resource harvesting operations in a Territory to fuel a single massive creation, although said creation may in fact be spread across many different star systems.

Each territory has a cap of one territory point, but can be bundled in groups of up to ten as a region, with the smallest type, kiloproject, only taking up a point while the project is under construction. On the other hand, a megaproject usually permanently takes up four points while a Gigaproject always consumes ten.






War Fleets
Last but certainly not least, your offensive military assets. Instead of being tracked individually or as an enormous mass, your armed forces are divided into War Fleets that are comprised of both ground and space units. They will also possess the necessary support staff, transport capacity, and general crucial background personnel needed to do their job. As a side note, they may also include blue water vehicles and infantry for use on certain worlds if available to the faction, but that's mostly a fluff thing as opposed to something you need to seriously care about.
Spoiler: War Fleet Mechanics
You may maintain, with your current research, up to ten distinct War Fleets at a time, and they may gain specialties over time that can help them in specific situations if they get consistently used in certain roles or take part in particularly impressive and memorable actions.

War Fleets cost 10 RP to create at Magnitude 1. Additional RP can be spent to create a War Fleet of increased Magnitude, with the increase in cost being directly proportional to the number of units in the fleet compared to your base, rather than being proportional to the Magnitude rating of the final fleet. For example, a War Fleet one Magnitude higher than normal costs 20 RP, one two Magnitudes higher costs 40 RP, etc. The exception is for when going up a Magnitude level multiplies the force levels by 2.5, in which case the final cost of the War Fleet is *also* multiplied by 2.5, resulting in costs such as 25 RP or 50 RP.

They also have an upkeep cost equivalent to 20% of their production cost, covering not only literal upkeep and personnel costs but also things like stockpiling for future campaigns and upgrading your forces with new technology.

Of course, if you take major losses in a campaign, that may reflect on your military's status. There are ten levels of damage, each representing another 10% of your War Fleet's forces being casualties:Battered, Bruised, Bloodied, Beaten, Battleworn, Savaged, Ravaged, Butchered, Crippled, and in exceptional circumstances Destroyed, which is quite self-explanatory. Technologies may add "buffers" that subtract from the normal casualties to create an effective casualty total, while offensive technologies might increase the effective casualties taken as a modifier.

By default, a War Fleet will repair two levels of damage every turn, and can repair more with additional linear investment. So, for example, it would cost 40% of the War Fleet's purchase cost to repair four levels in a turn, and 100% to go all the way back up from Destroyed to full readiness as you might expect.

Note that you can stockpile RP in anticipation of a major campaign that turn that might require a lot of repairs. Just allocate the RP saying it's for replacing losses inflicted this turn, and the The QM will assign repairs accordingly. Note however, that if you end up spending more RP than is needed, then 50% of it will be lost, while the remaining 50% will carry over to next turn.




Magnitudes above ten will scale up at the same rate. You can spend half again as much RP for a Fleethorde to start at "high quality" which increases the chances of getting edges in combats, decreases the chance of the enemy getting such edges, increases the effect of your advantages while decreasing that of the enemy's, increases the casualties it deals, and reduces the casualties it takes. Alternatively one can spend 25% less for a fleethorde to start at "low quality" which is the inverse. Fleethordes can be upgraded to standard or high quality later for the difference in RP cost. Maintenace costs rise or fall correspondingly.

Legions of Legend & Characters
Adjacent to the War Fleets system are your Legendary forces. The exact nature of a Legend varies heavily, as they are by-nature a heavily narrativized force, ranging from individual characters to elite strike craft squadrons to whole field armies (if they have an impressive enough rap-sheet and history behind them.) In general though, Legends tend to have a couple of "Traits" that can be used to broadly get across what they're good at and where they are best suited at (with some Legends even being able to cross over into working in Diplomacy or Intelligence operations.) Depending on what they accomplish, a Legend can gain new attributes or skillsets as their story expands to include their feats within this new galaxy. Keep in mind however: Legends are not immortal, especially not if used poorly, and for all their skill and power, they cannot substitute for an entire military.


Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the pursuit of your state's interests, be it through negotiations, agreements, and treaties, or through espionage, sabotage, and war. Or, generally, a combination of all of those and more. This simple system is meant to allow the easy and structured processing of your diplomatic efforts in the world of Vyranodasik.

The fundamental action of Diplomacy is the Diplomatic Action, which when declared consists of four things: the target, whether the action is friendly or hostile, what resources are going into the action, and a short piece on how you're carrying out the action including details on what you plan to accomplish.

Friendly/hostile is a choice of approach. A friendly Diplomatic Action is by default known to the opposite party with effort taken to not offend them in the process. A hostile Diplomatic Action is by default hidden from the opposite party, with no effort taken to avoid offending them should they learn of your actions. These are generalities that can be modified by your specific plan, such as having a battleship show up over a planet to force an open trade treaty.

Resources are how much money, how much time, and how many special resources you are putting towards this project. A diplomatic action demands at least 0RP and one turn, but further investment can increase the odds of your success. Special resources might include fleets, legendary heroes, advantages gained by previous actions, or other such things that you believe will help.

Finally and most importantly, is your plan. This should be about two to three paragraphs laying out what you intend to accomplish, and how you intend to accomplish it.

Based on each of these things, the QM will adjudicate the success or failure of your Diplomatic Action.


To aid you in your diplomatic efforts, some example Diplomatic Actions are provided below, including covering a pair of special cases marked with *s:

So, now you know how to change your diplomatic relations, but what do these relations do for you? This is answered by a simple system known as diplomatic tags. Each tag has a rating of 1 to 5 (or -1 to -5 for negative tags) representing the severity of that relation. The sum of each tag can be used as a simple summary of the relations between two nations, and changes in tags result from diplomatic interactions between the two nations.

Some example tags are given here:
[War!] x: The two factions are at war. A 1 in this tag might be border skirmishes or a cold war, while a 5 is an outright war of annihilation.
[Economic Integration] x: The two factions have opened the gates of trade. Add x trade population per TP of the party you are trading with. Should this treaty be broken, a penalty of 0.2x will be applied to your population's productivity for x turns, as you seek to crash-develop autarky.
[Teachers] x: The faction has in the past taught your people much, and you look fondly on them for this.
[Subverted Political Infiltration] x: Some of your politicians have reported attempted bribery from this faction in exchange for their support covering for certain operations, and are now quietly working with your intelligence agencies.

As might be noted, these tags can be very specific due to largely being made in response to the situations encountered, and as such there is no exhaustive list. They may have mechanical effects, or just represent how your people feel about the other faction, or may even represent advantages gained in espionage and counter-espionage.

You know each of the tags you have towards other factions via internal polling and knowledge of which treaties you've signed, and may gain access to knowledge of what tags other factions have towards you or other factions via diplomatic actions.

Combat System:

General Combat System:

Base casualty numbers: as a baseline, two warfleets of equal size and tier that specialize in the same things and go about combat in the same general way will each take 20%(one step) in losses in a normal fight against each other.

Actual stuff that changes that number should be split into postional, major, and minor advantages, with major advantages either causing or mitigating more damage than minor ones.
Advantages should be split into having an edge(+), having an advantage(++) and having Supremacy(+++) in a given area.
Note: up until Supremacy someone having an edge/advantage in a given area doesn't necessarily mean that their opponent cannot have an edge/advantage in that area as well, as warfare can be asymmetric and how you got said edge/advantage matters just as much as what said edge/advantage is in.

Positional advantages are the 'you're quite literally starting to overwhelm your target in a given area, spilt into Front Advantages and Depth advantages, and while normally casualties inflicted by these advantages are only equal to those inflicted by Major Advantages, having both Front and Depth Supremacy means that you've almost certainly won the fight, as your opponent is forced to either retreat or suffer immediate huge casualties.

Front: edges/advantages here means that you're managing to either push the front back into their own territory or stall out the enemies advance(if you're on the defense). This is generally the 'you're winning the grind as a whole' advantage, but can also come from consistently out-playing your opponents when it comes to the fights that are actually occurring, as your forces achieve local superiority/supremacy enough to make their theoretical advantages come to nought. When on the defense in heavily built up territory, the Defender almost certainly starts with some level of edge/advantage(or maybe even full Supremacy) here by default as said defenses work to better hold the line and stall out enemy attacks(especially when supported by mobile forces that can actually deal with high enemy force concentrations)

Depth: edges/advantages here means that you've broken through and are now raiding the enemies back lines, disrupting their ability to receive supplies, reinforcements, and maybe even proper orders depending on where the people giving the commands are relative to the front and how said orders are being given.


Major Advantages are dependent on strategy and tactics and on how your forces actually operate on a battlefield as a cohesive whole as the battlefield shifts back and forth and as both ground and void battles cycle through their assorted phases. Note: unlike in the earlier category and in the category after this, advantages in one area here can contribute to advantages in another, with how much said contribution ends up being up to QM discretion.



Unlike their more doctrinal kin, Minor Advantages are where unit specializations and doctrinal differences really get to shine, as these advantages represent qualitative/quantitative advantages in a 'my units of this category versus yours, go.' way. Although how said advantages are gained and where they are applied relies on doctrines almost as much as it does on qualitative/quantitative edges.
Note: all edges/advantages in one of these categories can contribute to getting edges/ advantages in one of the above major advantage category, with precisely where said bonuses end up going depending mostly on where said units focus doctrine wise.
AN: all categories listed here are meant to line up with the more general ones that a faction can have advantages in.

Space:

Macro-Capitals: Typically the Kings of Clash and Bombardment but poor in Skirmish, however they often have some means of preventing enemies from leaving before they're finished.

Capital ships: advantages here seldom ever cascade into Skirmish advantages, but can be added to Bombard and/or Clash depending on doctrinal differences.

Line Ships: advantages here can cascade into any area of the void battle, outside of maybe Disengage, which is purely doctrinal in nature. (which is to say Disengage depends on how one fights, not necessarily which categories you end up having an edge/advantage in)

Screen Ships: advantages here can cascade into any given area of the void battle, but usually favor Skirmish and are worse at Bombardment.

Smallcraft: advantages here can cascade into Skirmish and either Bombardment or Clash, depending on the nature of your Strike Craft (though Bombardment is generally considered somewhat easier.)

Support; Modifies the effectiveness of the rest of the fleet according to what is present at the battle.

Ground:

Aircraft: can contribute to any area, but Shock, Exploit, and Reduce are the most likely

War Engines: can contribute to any area, but Shock and Penetrate are where they are strongest, if with the caveat that some of the entities in this size range may not be fast enough to properly take part in/take advantage of said Penetrate area.

Massive Units: Are in a similar position to War Engines but trade some of their shock prowess for being better at exploitation than their larger counterparts, being better able to rummage around and hunt for targets of opportunity with more impunity than the more valuable war engines.

Artillery : mainly contributes to Shock, as they likely aren't fast enough to meaningfully penetrate any weaknesses and what comes after that.

Vehicles: mainly contributes to Penetrate, but can contribute to any areas of the battle, as armored spearheads are usually fast enough and heavy enough to take advantage of any opportunities that arise.

Infantry: universally effective, but usually worse at Shock than Artillery and worse at Penetrate than Combat Vehicles. Generally requires special forces-style units to have effectiveness at Exploit.

Support: Modifies the effectiveness of other units effectiveness, though specifics vary on what sort of Support is more common. Widespread and effective IFVs and APCs generally bolster Penetration and Exploit, while large amounts of heavy weapon proliferation may increase resistance to enemy Shock/Penetration.

Note: once again, these advantages and where they cascade to is highly situational, and in some cases some of the above Minor Advantages can cascade into each other as well as the more general Major Advantages.

Here's a living document that provides access to the assorted unit rosters that will be appearing this quest as a more practical alternative to updating like thirty different posts. Rosters will also increasingly have distinctive units separated from the general categorical entry. You are free to make suggestions so that these rosters get fleshed out sooner and to suggest ideas I might have missed or could consider cool but do try to ask me for the general vibe of each army listed here.

Celestial Realm of Tian'Chao

Space​

Macro-Capitals:

Leviathans: Though Tian'Chao is not as widely spread as the Imperium, its industrial output is better managed and its development is significantly denser, which coupled with Tian'Chao being of a higher tier of accomplishment, leads to Leviathans being far more ordinary for the Tian'Chaoren than the Imperium. A Leviathan can be many things, but in the modern era, as the Celestial Realm still has yet to fully undo the damage done by the Wars of Vengeance and the Long Night inflicted by the fall of the Eldar, Mankind, and others as well as the Great War of the Beast; they are generally meant to serve as a lynchpin for a large fleet in some way, shape or form. Such as the exemplary Dragon Sage class, a moving emblem of Tian'Chaoren's sovereignty and a means with which to control large sections of space. Dragon Sage Leviathans are generalist warships and mobile bases, and like most large warships, also serve as homes away from home for military forces who can live aboard them for generations, raising families and eating from the agricultural facilities within.

More specialist are the Wasp Throne Gigacarriers, which bring with them entire fleets of ships that thanks to not needing their own faster than light systems, can serve as devastating moving artillery or specialist equipment while the Wasp Throne can produce new craft from within its bowels like most Tian'Chaoren carriers, which while shared by other very large Tian'Chaoren ships, is something that carriers in particular excel at. Wasp Thrones are often used as flagships by those who prefer the immense command and control capabilities to the greater speed of a smaller ship. But in terms of sheer destruction, few rival the Haixio Annihilator type Leviathan and its shorter ranged Wudi De Bastionship type counterpart, the former of which pummels away shielding with gamma bursts, accelerated slugs, and electromagnetic lances before opening up with conversion beams, crusher warheads, and anti-matter munitions once the shields fail; while the latter draws in close, pulling in enemies with its secondary systems to be crushed against its wide array of turrets.

Juggernauts: Tian'Chao has always been one of the mightiest nations of the galaxies of darkness since the war in heaven, and even the painful recovery from the Fall brought about by the Eldar has not dimmed this outright. Tian'Chao's ability to produce mighty juggernauts in bulk is a testament to this as these decorated and ornate warships ply the void with their mighty bulk and serve as mobile enforcements of the rule of the dragons. With the size of the likes of War-Tortoise Juggernauts entering the triple digit kilometres, even incidental cargo capability is enough to allow them to enforce the dictates of the Presiding Council while still primarily focusing on stoic impenetrability in the face of foes who hope to contest their kilometres thick hull and multi-layered multi-type shields to silence their "Dragon's breath" gamma ray burst mega-cannons and devastating long-range nova batteries.

The Star River class Megacarriers act somewhat like smaller Wasp Thrones, though they have a greater emphasis on line ships than the parasite capital ships that the wasp throne brings to bear. The Star River also notably has the means with which to alter the warp and let Tian'Chao travel through the aforementioned star rivers, letting fleets move on artificial warp currents to get around. Though many other ships have this capability, Star Rivers can do it on a very large scale, even delaying enemy reinforcements or accelerating the arrival of those of the People's Revolutionary Celestial Navy. The Heaven's Spear class Juggernaut by contrast, prefers to be in the thick of things, where it can rake at enemies with its medium and short ranged weapons and drag foes towards itself where they will be faced with armour thicker than some mountains are tall and many layered multi-shielding.

Though certainly not swift, they are deadly at both Clash and Bombardment ranges; as closing enemies find no solace before withering electromagnetic disruptor repeaters and punishing star-lance turrets, and carry many strike craft suited for screening or harrying foes.



Superdreadnoughts: Jade Qilin class Superdreadnoughts are known for being surprisingly fast for large ships in the Tian'Chaoren navy, working to corral an enemy into the desired formations of the admirals and strategosi of the PRCN. Moving where the Iron Tiger type Superdreadnoughts are able to offer them support with longer ranged weapons and ample torpedo support and where Mantis Mother class Ultracarriers' waves of craft will be able to cover them, the Jade Qilin locks down movement and then starts hammering away with broadsides and dorsal turrets; pushing the foe towards the considerably slower Shield Turtle class Superdreadnoughts who are designed to help complete the immobilisation and then grind an enemy against their ranks. Superdreadnoughts as a whole are common in Tian'Chaoren's navy, and the ornate fleets of the people's navy can usually count on their presence in battles of significance.

Capital ships

Dreadnoughts: Tian'Chao's Dreadnoughts are its preferred line of capital ship, as opposed to the Imperium's preference for Battleships. This might be because Tian'Chaoren crews often include species larger than humans, or that the dragons prefer the extra room, but it may also be because they make use of the ability to engrave metaphysical properties more effectively on larger ships to allow for maximisation of the power of harmony and the effects that Wu Jin relics have on the ether. Dreadnoughts such as the Shadow Hare can strike from less expected angles to allow the mainstays like the Boar Tusks to do their work with hard hitting cannonades and extremely stubborn armour and shielding, moving in bristle packs interspersed with Scorpion Claw class Dreadnoughts that will move to the fore once the foe has been corralled to their proper position by the faster Shadow Hares and the endless harassment from the waves of craft launched by the Mother Hen class Supercarriers.

Battleships: Tian'Chao's mighty battleships are not quite as iconic to the navy as their larger vessels, but their crews are proud of them all the same. These battleships such as the Red Horse class tend to provide moving strong points in a battle that smaller ships can use to anchor themselves as they implacably ply the void. The Red Horse class offering potent Magnetic-Shields to augment the defences of nearby ships while gamma-particle cannon turrets and a swift firing "nova-bolt" cannon pound from afar to open a foe for conversion beam attack, their companion Blue Hare class ships of the Yang category raking enemies with devastating torpedo and broadside bombardments and preventing the foe from closing with the red horses in pairing with the line ships. Other ships follow similar patterns, such as the Mother Hen class heavy carrier being paired with the more generalistic White Fox class battleship that can respond to most threats decently well. As one might expect from a navy that is defined by patience, they prefer to force a foe to approach them with deadly bombardments to force the foe to come towards them or die uselessly, where they will then let the hardiest vessels move forwards and lock the enemy in an inescapable grind against an impenetrable wall that has removed their options to maneouvre while the long range ships fire continually upon sitting ducks.

Grand Cruisers: The Grand Cruisers of Tian'Chao are generally kept in the reserve lines of a fleet, more agile and thus able to respond to situations more quickly than other capital ships. Grand Cruisers will generally wait for the situation to develop before moving in to deal with situations as demanded. The Star Hare class Grand Cruiser, which is unusually short ranged for a Tian'Chaoren ship, is particularly good at this, moving to the fore once a brawl has been locked in and then slipping around the enemy to box them in and pin them against a wall of short ranged batteries to overwhelm their defences.

Line Ships:

Battlecruisers: Tian'Chaoren navies don't make the heaviest usage of battlecruisers, certainly less than the Eldar who have mastered the ship type. With the highly combined arms dependent and linked nature of the Celestial navy, the role where battlecruisers would excel in; bullying cruisers, is not a huge priority for Tian'Chao. Nevertheless they do maintain the usual spread of varieties for Nova Cannon, Lance, Carrier, Battery, and Torpedo attack in the Long Ox, Horned Bull, Swallow's Nest, and the Arrow's Quiver Class. These battlecruisers typically serve the role of countering other battlecruisers and providing larger vessel support to the cruiser formations. The idea of using them as ersatz capital ships really never comes to mind to most celestial admirals, who prefer using them as superheavy cruisers.

Cruisers: Unlike one of its greatest present day rival; the Imperium, the Celestial Empire's cruisers are tools in the admiral's kit rather than the mainstay. Though they are powerful tools, and the more well known battleships are always in need of their services. Tian'Chaoren cruisers are generally specialist vehicles that serve some manner of purpose the battleship and super-capital group requires more of. The Macro-battery and fusion jet equipped Salamander's Tongue Class cruiser for example, is frequently used to shore up needs in the clash with devastating rows of short ranged firepower, while the Torpedo and Gamma-Lance bearing North Star class Cruiser offers flexible long range firepower while moving to enclose the enemy fleet. Perhaps most well known though are the Rat's Snare Class Cruisers which project obstacles into the warp with the usage of Wu Jin compasses which not only allow for greater usage of magic by the Dragon Scions and interferere with that of the enemy's, but also interdict enemy escape efforts to ensure that the fleet need not give chase.

Destroyers: Destroyers are virtually always escorts in the navy of the Dragons. Serving to the Cruisers as the Cruisers serve to the Battleships. To them often falls the important burden of point defence as well as finishing an enclosement, and as they have no need to outpace the larger ships they trade away much of the typical speed of ships of this category in favour of more protection. The Iron Feather Class Destroyer in particular, designed as a simple, brutal short ranged combatant, is well known in particular for its capacity for punishment while the Mantis Striker Class is built to be able to withstand the splash damage of indirect nova cannon hits so that they can continue to fire their long ranged weapons into the fray even if caught within large AoE attacks. Lotus Seed class destroyers serve a perhaps unusual role of on-field repairs and healing so that the fleet remains able to fight even in intense and prolonged conflicts; helping recharge or restore shields or patching holes in hulls.

Screen Ships:

Frigates: Frigates are typically attached to larger ships during warp transit and then detaching when the fleet enters real space to serve as wardens for the fleet, each typically built around a single primary system and capacity such as a great wu-jin compass, torpedo bays, flak arrays, or other such duties as is the lot of the likes of the Star Crow or the Shark Spear class Frigates. Most of these frigates are manned entirely by constructs to not risk any actual crew in a task generally deemed to be of great risk. They are often regarded as the cavalry of the fleet and are some of its only reasonably swift elements due to not bothering with warp drives or life support, and can range farther away from the fleet to picket and skirmish from a greater distance.

Corvettes: Also manned by constructs as a rule of thumb, the Corvettes of the Celestial Empire are considered to be akin to expendable foot soldiers within the great melee of void combat, accompanying the Frigates and exploiting the opportunities their rigid intellects perceive as fits their current directives or the commands of their admirals. The Ant Jaw class Corvette; an infamous "leech" ship whose strange beam steals from the energies of shields and the binding energy of hulls and fires a restorative beam with that power into another ship is a particularly infamous example of this class, perhaps more so than the Archer's Eye Class Torpedo Corvette.

Sloops: Sloops are always piloted by constructs, save for a few better described as overlarge custom strike craft for the especially daring or firepower obsessed. The most famous sort of sloop is the "Chain Maker" which gains its name for being built around an Atomic Suppressor that shifts energy in the target to the extremities of the bubbles the beam creates, slowing and eventually stopping targets and also cooling them dramatically. The extremities of the bubble become increasingly hot as all energy crowds to the edges, but the effect is ultimately to prevent the foe from leaving, especially as swarms of Chain Makers concentrate their fire. Magnetic and shield projecting Chain Makers among others also exist, as do those built around more conventional weapons; but the overall goal is to force the enemy to partake in the terms dictated by the Dragon-taught.

Smallcraft:

Strike Craft: The Strike Craft of Tian'Chao are excellent and have a greater degree of emphasis than their imperial counterparts thanks to being so heavily relied on for Skirmish combat and accompanying the construct screens. Piloted and Construct Strike craft operate in harmony, the former more nimble and precise and the latter more enduring and bearing greater arms. The Eagle Claw class Fighter is easily identified by its quite sleek delta winged profile, and the dancer like grace its well trained pilots move in the midst of the swarms of swept winged and snub-nosed Clay Hawk class Heavy Fighters that rush forwards ahead of them to release gamma and fusion weapons or cryo-missiles. The Black Crane Class Attack Craft is a deadly manned strike craft that rakes across the enemy hull with guided missiles and strong plasma bursts in precise attacks while the White Heron Class Construct Bomber devastates the foe with magna-bombs and gamma-torpedoes to exploit gaps created by their fellows. Though these craft are certainly special, the Empire needs them to be, in order to deal with swift foes who refuse to be caught.

Landers: The landers of Tian'Chao are expected to provide much of the capacity of bringing the Tian'Chaoren's boarders into other ships. The Hornet's Sting Class Gunship is well suited to cutting its way into enemy hangars and clearing out a landing zone to attack. The Woodpecker class Assault Ram functions much like the Caestus Assault Ram, using a tandem conversion beam and melta cutter system that will first start blasting with the conversion beam from afar before the Melta takes over at close range to allow for a deep penetrating strike into the target vessel or structure and then disgorging hardened automata and warriors inside to board. Teleporters are also available, along with "Iron Egg" drop-pods and "meteor egg" guided boarding torpedoes for when rapid insertions are needed. As a general rule, Landers are designed to endure first and foremost, with the expectation of close cooperation with other strike craft clearing out landing zones more than their own armaments. While there are exceptions, these are rare things reserved for particular sorts of special forces.

Torpedoes: The torpedoes of the Celestial Empire are a plentiful lot, with many warships being primarily built around launching these space to space missiles. While many sorts of warheads are used, the most famou sare the anti-matter missiles, which deliver precisely what the name entails. These deal tremendous damage but are infamously volatile, as such the real trick to them like with all tian'chaoren antimatter weapons is quark inversion technology, which can convert matter into anti-matter and vice versa, usually before impact. Though they can be prematurely triggered to disastrous effect, this does increase their safety significantly. Also famous are the atomic suppression missiles which shunt all the heat in the target area outwards, creating a wave of heat and leaving behind a zone of extreme cold while also generally stopping the target, quite literally, cold.

Other

Fortifications: In space, Tian'Chao is infamous for its propensity to simply wall off entire regions with warp disruptors to force fleets to go through certain avenues, mandeville manipulators to bring them to killing fields, and layer after layer of starforts, surface to orbit weapons, and militarised space stations that will often smash a foe before the fleet arrives. The "Hong Bao" class Star Citadel is particularly famous, typically serving as nuclei for a three dimensional "pakfront" of defences that will concentrate defensive firepower in such a way that any advancing enemy will face attacks from their flanks as well as their front. Providing support to weapons platforms and waves of harmony amplifiers as well as their own banks of weapons, particularly their dreaded Conversion Beam arrays that can devastate foes from a distance and prompt them to close to shorter ranges.

Esoterics: In space as well as land, the Celestial Navy makes extensive use of powerful esoteric capabilities, including magic and the remnants of the technosorcery developed in ages past and glories starting ot be recovered. Strange devices within their ships work to channel their magics in more powerful and spectacular ways, amplifying what their rituals channel into things able to influence the outcome of battles at a naval scale. And the effect of harmony is in and of itself, an effect of magic, as things with an aspect of yin or yang make each other more than the sum of their parts. All phases of battle see the usage of esoteric powers, with only the likes of the Eldar, Dawi, or the Quetzal making heavier usage of them.

Support Craft: Wu Jin Compass Ships are some of the most famous Support Craft of the Tian'Chaoren navy, built to manipulate the winds of magic and the warp on a large, naval scale and allow for the rituals that the navy often relies on. While they must sacrifice long ranged armament themselves, Compass ships are ubiquitous in most fleets and are considered a vital lynchpin of the fleet, especially when paired with the Calm Waters Harmonizer ships which amplify the residual magics of the constructions of Tian'Chaoren to boost their abilities and ensure that the powers of harmony and augmentative magics are enhanced while repelling hexes. More conventionally, Mobile Forge Ships serve as moving factories and supply centres, dispatching resource collectors for their machinery to transform into usable resources, including components for bases, parts for new war machines or civilian infrastructure, and munitions for the often ammo hungry fleets. While Mobile Forge Ships ideally shouldn't be on the front line, they are very durable for their class in the hopes of getting a chance to be rescued if attacked.

Summary​

In space, the Tian'Chaoren navy is relatively flexible, but nearly always prefers to open up with bombardment severe enough to force an enemy to try to close to a clash on their terms. Skirmish is provided mostly by smallcraft and screen ships and the occasional faster large vessel, while the bulk of the fleet traditionally starts to move in a coordinated formation. The idea of the formation is for the vessels best suited to attack up close will lock down the enemy with their atomic suppressors and other forms of mobility limiting devices and their own implacable durability while allowing the rest of the fleet to continue bombardment at their leisure.

The general thesis of the navy is to deny enemies the ability to fight as they want to, and to force the foe to abide by the choking dictums of harmonious warfare, to lock them into a dance where their steps are already predetermined. The ability to move is restricted, enemies may be moved to certain places against their will, the arts of deception restrict their idea of what's even going on, and the formations of the fleet are shuffled so that they fight what the strategists of the Tian'Chaoren deign they may fight.

Problems arise if defeat in detail is turned against Tian'Chaoren. If crucial ships are taken out to disrupt the harmony fields and contingencies are frustrated, if the foe is able to deny the Tian'Chaoren the ability to dictate the terms of engagement at every turn, if the formations are broken up and turned to chaos; things can fall apart startlingly fast. In essence, they excel at bombardment, have good specialists at skirmish, are conditionally able to do well in clashes as long as they can continue bombardment and skirmish damage and keep order in the clash.

They excel in pursuit with their many means to limit mobility, but their approach to withdrawal is perhaps a bit odd as they prefer to withdraw by eliminating the enemy's ability to pursue rather than doing so by being particularly swift. If the enemy is able to shrug off or disable these mobility limitations, a retreat may turn into a debacle. As Waaagh! 'Eartkrusha demonstrated when the Greenskins' own traktor fields were turned backwards, somehow worked in reverse, and pushed away the Celestial Navy's immobilisation assets to run down the Tian'Chaoren navy and with lethal Kommando probes and tellyporta ships tear apart formations. Culiminating in the obliteration of the Provincial Fleet of Janyeng and overrun the entire province within a decade; with reconquest efforts still being ongoing.

Surface​

War Engines

Behemoths: Tian'Chao is famous as a builder of behemoths, such as the infamous "Legion Breaker" Heavy Olympian grade Titans that walk in the manner of men and do exactly what the name entails who can cause a cataclysm in a single swing of their swords or shatter the relics of ancient bygones in singular volleys. But one can also not forget the Wang Bao class mobile citadel city also strikes fear in the hearts of foes as they touch down and provide an instant military settlement and unbreachable fortress that can allow for patches of controlled territory anywhere the students of the Dragons care to place it.

Tian'Chaoren behemoths are sledgehammers to be deployed should the foe prove to be particularly vexing or if the situation seems to require far more force than anything conventional can manage and orbital bombardment, as it often is, is not usable. And for megastructure assaults, its even standard. Typically, where a behemoth walks, victory is expected to follow, with the military moving in the shadows of such monstrosities to exploit their all destroying wrath against the foe.

Colossi: It is often said that the People's Revolutionary Celestial Army of Tian'Chao walks in the Shadows of Colossi. The continent devastating fortress crawler, the Striding Champion Apocalypse Grade Titans that can look down on the peaks of some Imperial Hives, the Starbreaker Mobile cannons that serve as self-propelled anti-space artillery able to fire at different sections of ring worlds and more. Colossi of countless forms fill the ranks of the revolutionary army and they often deploy them into battles many would deem not worthy of even sending in Knights. But in the Tian'Chaoren way of war, the most merciful victory is the swiftest one, with the reasoning that the damage dealt by their deployment can be fixed later once the battle is won, but a defeat may delay any repairs for far longer.

Smaller machines and beasts will in essence, orbit the Colossi formations as they move forwards, screening them from anything that might be able to disrupt their operations while allowing them to fulfill their appointed purposes, and generally moving surprisingly fast due to the simple distance that their strides consume with every movement. Smaller forces enjoy protection from their powerful defensive screens and the wave sof harmony amplification they provide, letting ordinary men preform extraordinarily in their shadow and for the already great to become as unto heroes in their presence. With such prowess, it's small wonder then why they see such relatively regular usage.

Titans: The Titans of Tian'Chao are mainstays of its military; even more diverse than those of the Imperium, making use of great war beasts, automated Sentinels as well as megatanks and giant machines both humanoid and not. Even skirmishes can see the deployment of towering six hundred meter tall Ardent Warrior class Battle Titans; rivals to the Imperial Warlord Titan; deadly at both range and melee, or the menacing form of Popular Centurion Spider-Crawlers, Adamant Keep class Megatanks, or great Tiger-Serpents and mighty Iridescent War-Cranes. These are but a few of the many sorts of Titan scale war implements brought to battle by the Celestial Army that have helped make them infamous for the fact that even minor battles against them may see a Titan march. A particularly infamous tactic involves making use of overlapping their shielding together, pooling their strength and recharge rates to make for a nearly unbreakable wall of defensive power that allows the rest of the army to fight with impunity while soaking in the harmonic power of the titans.

Famously used at the battle of the Naujong Ring which saw the T'au anti-titan teams unable to stop the Vermillion Swallow Titan Banner Army when they gathered in formation and pooled their strength, the Tian'Chaoren troops at their feet picking off now virtually impotent T'au forces leftover from being raked over the coals by en massed Titan bombardment at their leisure. Though it is not infallible, as the battle of Dannang against the Leagues of Votann demonstrated as the Votann overwhelmed the shields with sheer firepower to leave the Titan Banner army unshielded for long enough for the Leagues to start tearing apart their formation before their defences could recover. Eventually leading to defeat and the Celestial Realm having to retreat and concede the precious dark age artificial world to the Kin.

Titans will see use at nearly every stage of a battle, even hunting down stragglers or exploiting the breaches created by the advance to tear through the lines of logistics that let most armies function. Some are even fitted with, perhaps audaciously, stealth systems to get close enough to enemies to attack with the element of surprise and do their bloody work before the enemy can get a proper, measured response.

Massives

Megaliths: The mighty Guan Yu tank is a colossus fitted with gatling electromagnetically assisted cannons that fire multi-tonne shells fast enough for an unaugmented human ear to be unable to distinguish between individual firings. The roar of their guns is earth shattering, and a singular sweep of their turrets is often enough to lay waste to whole armies and when massed, the sheer weight of shells they unleash is enough to overwhelm all obstacles, while their customisable secondary and tertiary weapons deal with the pests that might seek to flank or bother them; their harmonic fields and the charms engraved into their hull driving the Tian'Chaoren army to a great frenzy.

Ferrocotta Grand Sentinels infamous for their ability to reflect projectiles back at the sender, or even all enemy projectiles fired too close to them help to screen the advance of the army, wielding power halberds with almost lifelike grace whenever they aren't blasting away at enemies with crackling energy weapons and shockwave generators, while the Great Adamant Knights of the Celestial Army move with thruster assisted grace and agility, making use of scalding weapons and expertly wielded blades to hack through the great assets of other foes; with the colours of fallen enemy Knights and Stompas being points of pride to collect.

As a whole, Megaliths are monuments to the Tian'Chaoren military, living icons and moving symbols of their martial prowess that are able to walk among the troops and rally them in a way that larger machines are generally too distant from to do quite as intimately. As such, they tend to be attached in such a way as to be organically integrated into conventional banner armies rather than under their own special task forces unlike titans.

Giants: The Overlord Tank is one of the few tanks that can rival the Baneblade, with its twin E-mag Assisted Cannons speaking with deadly intent, side-turret thermobaric rocket pods, mini-turret mounted anti-infantry and aircraft rotary electromagnetic cannons that alternate between proton and electron streams, and vertical launch missile tubes all speak to a vicious desire to crush and destroy when the vehicle doesn't simply roll over lesser vehicles to crush beneath its tracks; its harmonic tower ensuring that those who fight near it will be blessed with the power of yin and yang.

The Scarlet Plume Knights are one of the most iconic classes of Tian'Chaoren Knight, akin to the Imperial Ceratus.Class, though like most Tian'Chaoren mecha, they are far more humanoid in proportion than the rather hunch back imperial war machines. Scarlet Plume Knights, well known for their pole-mauls and array of plasma weapons that can serve to suppress a foe long enough to get in close for a killing plow with the "dragon's breath" melta weapon in the head and then finishing them off with the hammer, while a small shield fitted one ach arm can be used to absorb some incoming hits even without activating their projection screens. And with such fearless advances, the rest of the army can move without fear, inspired by the breaches these valiant knights make.

In essence, Giants are lynchpins and mainstays of the army. Generally the Tian'Chaoren feel almost naked without using them, and tend to prepare a battlefield to swarm an opponent with them. Even in urban warfare and forestry conflict, the scions of the dragon will find way sto squeeze them in, especially the proud Automata and Knights of the Realm. Though that isn't to say their giant tanks and other such monstrosities are anything to sneeze at.


Superheavies: The iconic Zhurong Superheavy Tank fits a rapid fire gamma cannon with an array of secondary weapons, and the ability to channel the heat its operations make into a wide radius thermal pulse to clear away large numbers of enemies all at once. And these vehicles often pair with the spear equipped Iron-Clay Sentinels that fight either in melee or channel energy through their spears to attack from a distance whenever their missile launchers and "plasma breath" weapons might need some additional oompf, though they are perhaps most famous for their powerful magnetic harpoons to drag foes closer to them and prevent them from escaping.

The Iron-Clay sentinels also pair well with the Peacock Blade class Knight, the Tian'Chaoren equivalent to the ubiquitous Quetoris Fitted with primarily a giant scale Dao blade and an over-arm mounted conversion beam cannon, Peacock Blades can project additional energy barriers to help close the distance with a foe while rocketing forwards, usually seeking to cut in and cleave a worthy foe apart after suppressing them with their shoulder and eye mounted weapons.

Superheavies are present at all stages of combat, and the "march of giants" that the celestial empire is well known for can often be said to begin with its smallest and most humble of massive assets, with Superheavies often being used to scout out the enemy and get a feel for them in more force than lighter assets can.

Vehicles

Heavies: The Nuwa Heavy Tank is known for firing anti-matter shells. While extremely slow, it is armoured with as much material as could be fitted to it without making it too slow to do its job, and there isn't a whole lot that survives the Nuwa Heavy Tank for very long. Though its secondary weapons leave something to be desired, typically being relatively light secondary automated turrets there is a serious question as to whether it really needs them when the primary cannon has basically no bad targets. The long barrel and the stable platform of the very densely built vehicle also make it a surprisingly effectual sniper.

Main battle Units: The Qilin Tank of Tian'Chao is well known as one of the best purpose built tanks in the known universe with the exception of vehicles made by more advanced cultures such as the Dawi or Eldar. Fitted with a powerful shield and a powerful electromagnetically assisted cannon, the Qilin is exceedingly well armoured and decently mobile while packing the firepower to take out a Rogal Dorn tank quite reliably. The Qilin can be modified with other weapons, particularly with its secondaries used to suppress or deal with targets not worth the main gun's attentions. As a general rule, Tian'Chao despite its fondness for fortification warfare disdains sponsons and prefers side-turret pods, regarding the increased difficulty of maintaining the guns from inside as worth the benefits of a stronger overall armour profile.

Walkers and mechs are also common in Tian'Chao, such as the Iron Thresher class walker which was inspired by the myriad Spidery walkers of the UCCR; sometimes referred to by the memetic nickname of "Enemy Crab" from the Blood Pact. The Iron Thresher fits three independently rotating automatic grenade launcher turrets, a rocket pod, and power claws to allow it to suppress enemies from a distance, pummel them at medium range, and then tear into them close up, moving across even quite sheer surfaces with ease.

The Steel Soldier serves as a small form of knight, accompanied by the purely mechanical Metal Warrior; with Metal Warriors on melee and bringing with them a powerful shield to protect other units while their "eye" mounted gamma lasers and back fitted mortar work to encourage foes to close within the reach of a power weapon. The Steel Soldier by contrast functions as in essence, a giant blaze lancer, with appropriately upscaled weapons, using their Metal Warrior comrades as mobile cover.

Magical creatures such as Shishi and Vishaps also find a use in the Tian'Chaoren military, offering mystic powers to bolster the overall fortunes of the army and typically doing battle with other such beasts in close quarters.

Light Units:The People's Revolutionary Celestial Army has a number of swifter units, such as bike riding troops who can race across the battlefield to scout for weaknesses or close off avenues of escape and cut off lines of supply, communication, and reinforcement. Sacred hounds and Moon tigers are among the many sorts of tamed beasts of war that join with the Tian'Chao'ren military Flying beasts such as Longma and Pixiu also still provide a bestial presence in the light unit roster. However, light units in cathay are almost never going to be able to win a battle themselves. While they are present, they are generally strictly supportive forces such as reconnaisance, harassment, or cavalry troops; or they are relatively small in number.

Infantry

Super Infantry: The greatest forces of the PRCA have particularly strong descent from the wise Elder-Beasts such as the Longs, Xuanwus, Fenghuang, Baihu that allowed many of them to become the guiding Xian. Not necessarily only through blood, but also through spiritual connection and education to connect to the essence that the Elder beasts drink of; cultivating it through ritual, practice, training, a readiness of mind, and conditioning to unlock inner potential. Even those with blood from the elder beasts typically train and refine this potential, and descent is merely a short cut; not a guarantee. These Xiuxinzhe come in many forms and varieties, but represent the greatest hope for the future of the Jinyi.

The Longren and the others who have great kinship with the Elder Beasts also find a place here, having essentially metastatised into their own community within the great diversity of Tian'Chao and are a representation of how freely blood mixes in the Celestial Realm. Though not every Elder-kin will seek the life of a warrior or soldier, those who do command a powerful connection to the empyrean and a supernatural physique. But unlike the purposefully engineered Astartes, are not weapons of war and must harden their minds for that task the old fashioned way.

The Heavenly Autosoldiers form another clade of supersoldier in Tian'Chao; each a careful masterwork to produce an individual and mighty warrior engraved with enough alchemy, sorcery, wizardry, and psykery combined with carefully applied technological lessons and craftsmanship techniques to make them a closer equivalent to the Astartes than the other two. However creating one is a lengthy and costly process not taken lightly, and the Autosoldiers are considered valued comrades, not expendable unlike many other automata who are not designed to particularly designed to value their own existences due to their meatshield roles.

Commandos: The People's Revolutionary Celestial Army makes extensive usage of Commandos as a vanguard or stay behind force, with the Night Blade Order and the Lesser Crow Men being particularly famous examples of the silent death in service to the way of the masses. Commandos are expected to fulfill their objectives quickly so that the primary force can take advantage of their actions, rarely to win a battle in and of itself; and to deploy elsewhere once they are done. Stealth systems allow them to get through to places one might not expect them, and electronic warfare experts such as the Abacus Corps as well as non-humanoid specialists like Huoren Shadow Palms or Tanglongren Stalk-Sickles accompany these forces who practice the maxim of "all warfare is based on deception". The aversion to working too far away from the rest of the military though means that they rarely are sent out to do grand acts of sabotage far away, with the sorts of deep insertion missions the Tempestus Scions are famous for being largely unknown.

Elite Infantry: The Jade Banner Soldiers represent a significantly greater form of warrior than the standard Blaze Lancers. Jade Banner soldiers receive augmentations to allow them to push beyond standard limits, particularly in terms of reflexes, and also have greatly reinforced armour. Typically making use of gamma ray weapons, neutron projectors, Tian'Chaoren bolters, Star Plasma weapons, and a few other devices as well as energy augmented melee weapons, with some having power weapons such as Power Halberds, Power Fists, Power Swords or the like, Jade Banner soldiers also tend to carry deployable and portable shields on their backs that they can use to guard an advance or provide cover in an advance.

Tian'Chaoren Ogryns universally receive intelligence augmentations to better preform in a highly coordination reliant army and operating alongside other large Abhumans and Xenos, typically helping to provide an additional melee backing for the military while the Ivory Automata accompany the troops, making use of their incredibly durable frames to absorb punishment for the rest of the army. As a whole, Elite infantry are used as a living bastion, an immovable representation of the will of Tian'Chao that will not bow for any enemy.

Some more specialised Elites include Huoren palm warriors who excel at skirmish to a degree atypical in the Celestial army, flitting in and out of contact and making use of esoteric martial arts knowledge and potent close range weapons to cause maximum havoc; though in a manner much louder and more obvious than true special forces.

Specialists: The Peoples' Revolutionary Celestial Army makes use of many specialists. Falcon Troopers for example, harry the enemy from above with their flight capable suits and array of weapons well suited to scooting in and out of conflict. While melee is often handled by soldiers from the mantis like Tanglengren, whose burst like reflexes and additional limbs make them solid companions for the Axe Vanguard to wade into close quarters combat with short range and melee weapons as well as Shield Automata who can protect the rest of the formation. Crane Gunners, making use of immensely powerful electromagnetically assisted rifles and powerful shields, also provide deadly long range overwatch that can eliminate high priority enemies or put holes into hardened targets. Perhaps most infamous are the wheel-gunners, who make use of rotary e-mag guns to suppress massive amounts of enemies all at once; though can be fitted with other types of weapons as the situation demands.

As a general rule, Tian'Chaoren specialists function as emergency firemen who are deployed to answer needs either foreseen ahead of time by the tacticians or in response to transforming battlefield situations. Whereas Asuryani armies might prefer to use specialists as a mainstay and juggle the differing loadouts of these specialists to achieve the unravelling of the enemy, to the Tian'Chaoren a specialist soldier is a tool, but not the hand.

Line Infantry: The Blaze Lancers of Tian'Chao make up its most well known sort of line infantry. Fitted with an exosuit with shield augmentation somewhat similar to that of the Votann or the Dawi, a Blaze Lancer makes use of an Electromagnetic gun that shreds off the electrons of the gas packet used and launches the protons in a very hot stream; which unlike lasgun beams, is visible in non-dusty conditions. The electrons are channeled into the second barrel and launched once the proton stream is clear, producing the "one two" shot effect. Blaze Lancers also make use of specially treated blades and bayonets in close quarters, as well as the distinctive shoulder mounted grenade launcher.

Compared to a Cadian pattern Imperial Guardsman, a Blaze Lancer is far better armoured and armed, but is certainly a greater investment by the state. Non-standard weapons will include quad-barelled squad-automatic Emag guns that provide much needed suppressive firepower, starfist plasma guns, "beehive" alchemobaric rocket launchers that serve a role akin to flamers, conversion beams, and meltaguns to name a few. Blaze Lancers are generally human, mostly human abhumans (such as Felinids and Vulpinids), or near human species who can use the standard patterns of armour without modification.

Tian'Chao is a very diverse country though, and many other sorts of line infantry warriors. For example, the simian Houren are extremely agile and dextrous, able to dodge around the battlefield at great speeds and with tremendous reflexes, flitting around the lines of battle to strike at foes from unexpected angles. Almost in contrast are the Ferrocotta Automatons who are as immovable and stubborn as mountains and excel at holding lines to the bitter end, the machine men fighting alongside the armed forces to provide living walls where they are needed.

Cannon Fodder: Tian'Chao typically does not like to use Cannon Fodder unless things have gone wrong. The doctrine of revolutionary harmony may require that all people must have at least a reservist's familiarity with the means of war, but it also frowns on society existing for war. Nevertheless, mass producible, light exosuit equipped "People's Militia" can be levied if the need is dire, along with converted civilian Terracotta automatons. Making use of Lasguns, these soldiers are more akin to the Imperial Guard in equipment and loadout. However, they are expected to value their own lives rather than throw them away, and there is no shame in retreating to a better position as long as there are comrades ready to fill the gap.

In normal circumstances though, Tian'Chao does not use cannon fodder outside of smaller sorts of automatons that serve as companions for the general soldiery, to make use of terrain that larger soldiers cannot and to screen the flanks to ensure no surprises are coming. They are by no means a standard implement of the Peoples' Revolutionary Celestial Army and serve a supportive or desperation role. Only a crazy or foolish commander would use them as their main implement.

Support

Artillery: The Artillery of Tian'Chao is universal class. Cannons, rockets, missiles, Earthshakers, reflector beams and more line some of the most powerful and numerous artillery of any army in the Galaxies of Darkness during the 42nd millennium. The Type 04 Mobile Siege Cannon is fitted with a potent autoloader that can quickly replace the endless expenditures of electromagnetically boosted shells packing self-igniting "Fire Sand" rounds that follow the primary explosion with secondary conflagrations. Able to fit a great many types of shell, the Siege Cannon's electromagnetic boosting and excellent traverse allows it to be quite useful at direct fire as well.

Pairing well with the Type 14 Mobile "Iron Cloud" Launcher, which bombards a position with munitions that release alchemically treated metal dust capable of self-ignition in a manner akin to, but far more potent than thermobarics to obliterate enemies in cover. Often nicknamed the "Celestial Organ" due to the Iron Cloud's distinctive howl as it fires, a battery of these rocket launchers can annihilate whole advances or crush foes within their fortifications.

Agile foes in need of more precise bombardment face the Type 11 Starheart Strike Cannon, which smashes targets with deadly globules of contained plasma that the collapsing magnetic bottle will push with added momentum. These wheeled vehicles are also, by Tian'Chaoren standards, quite agile, and are also feared for their atomic suppression ability, slowing down the movements of enemies while building up ever larger amounts of heat within the affected area as the energy removed from the particles in the afflicted area has to go somewhere, rapidly cooling the targets while turning the rim of the afflicted bubble into a scalding inferno.

There are many more sorts of artillery for every purpose, anti-armour, anti-monster, anti-aircraft, indirect bombardment, direct bombardment, mortars, guns, howitzers, energy and physical weapons, missiles and shells and even earthshakers of course. Tian'Chaoren stands at a level of fondness for artillery that can rival the Dawi or the Imperium. But perhaps the most feared is the Type 39 mobile eradicator platform, which fires an inter-continental MIRV missile fitted with anti-matter warheads to wipe out whole sections of the battlefield at once. While anti-matter weapons are something of a specialty of Tian'Chao, these are meant to wipe the slate clean.

Transport: The primary purpose of the transports of the Celestial Army are to ensure that the whole of the army moves at an even pace, and that those assets that absolutely must arrive faster can get there at their appointed times. Keeping the army moving in sync is a far more important capability for an army as dependent on formation as the Revolutionary Army, and as such the Type 92 "Troop Crawler" is not designed to be quick, but to be able to ferry a large number of men in a durable platform that can keep up with the tanks. Releasing harmonic waves that can accelerate healing, the Troop Crawler also supports the infantry inside with its modular mounted weaponry, and augments the firepower of those who use its fireports, making them actually quite practical like most Tian'Chaoren fireport fitted vehicles. The "Helix" heavy transport gunship is also able to carry even their large vehicles from place to place, and similarly allows passengers to fire from inside with enhanced firepower, and the Overlord's standard configuration also comes with its own harmonic bunker. For something faster to accompany the cavalry divisions, the Waverider IFV packs both a potent electromagnetically assisted autocannon as well as an integrated missile launcher, and is importantly also amphibious and packs powerful counter-stealth detection systems to look for anyone trying to be sneaky.

Aircraft: The Celestial Army prides itself on its powerful air force for good reason, with integrated, organic support that is committed to the army's needs in every stage of a battle. The infamous Divine Crow heavy bomber lobs powerful missiles at an enemy, anything from alchemobaric warheads to incendieries to plasma to seismic; or the much feared anti-matter missiles for when the foe's absolute annihilation is a necessity. Crimson Bird Air Superiority Fighters fly high into the air, making use of both electromagnetic assisted cannons, an electromagnetic beam cannon, and rows of missiles to take down enemy fighters and ground targets not caught up in the Vermillion Falcon's sweeps with a ridiculously deadly conversion beam and long range multi-missile launcher to be finished by chin mounted meltas once it gets close.

The Plasma fusiliades of the Golden Hawk Attack Craft are well suited to wiping out entrenched enemies while missiles capable of multi-targeting are directed at targets too hard for the cloud-plasma bolts, clearing paths for the deadly Black Dog Light Gunship, whose twin rapid fire cannons can fire conventional or EMP rounds, anti-matter missiles and plasma casters on the ready for emergencies ether at long or short range as the quick craft move from one fire zone to the next. But perhaps the single most dreaded and outright annoying aircraft among many enemies of the Celestial Army is the Hopperfly Drone, which uses a combination of EMP and atomic suppressors to lock down selected enemies to be wiped out with impunity by the rest of the army.

As one can expect from a nation founded by many creatures inherently capable of flight, mastery of the skies is deeply important to Tian'Chao. It is one of the four pillars of the armed forces, alongside artillery, heavy assets, and armoured infantry. From the skies, Lantern Craft and assorted categories of slower moving Air breathing sky junks such as the Cloud Galley can also provide mystic assistance as well as steady, moving points of rallying for the faster gunships and fixed wing aircraft and radiate harmony to the troops below. All while also often providing long range fire support against foes who are at a poor angle for conventional artillery.

And many sorts of winged creatures will also do battle in the skies, a great many winged beasts and mystic birds will rise to the skies and contest them against anything that might seek to drive them from the air; keeping the skies clear with the assistance of coordinated ground to air attack. While the celestial army is not unbeatable in the air, as defeats at the hands of the Tyranids, Greenskins, Dark Eldar, necrons and others have shown; but it will never surrender the skies without fierce contest.

Assistants: Radiant energizers are used to bolster the spirits and the healing and repair rates of the armies of the Tian'Chaoren, while Mobile Craft Platforms help to establish bases, fortifications, and encampments along with the infrastructure the celestial army likes to fight with, without relying on predictable air drops. An injured soldier is considered as useless as a dead one, so there are many means of quickly patching up injuries and rapidly repairing damaged equipment to get the wounded back into service, particularly crystallised manifestations of Ghyran and Chamon that are cultivated and used in many forms of medicine and machinery; though other windstones are also used by the Alchemists to produce the needed salves and treatments. Mobile munitions carrier automatons also help provide supplies to the troops, carrying them in the place of the soldiers and offering support with their rotor guns, and are the base of the mobile squad assistance vehicle which mounts a normally crew served gun on a faster platform able to keep up with a mobile army and snow a foe in firepower.

Esoterics: Tian'Chao makes extremely heavy usage of many forms of sorcery, wizardry, and psychic powers as well as a number of strange technologies. From summoning the celestial spirits of their ancestors to fight alongside them or manifestations of the Tennen to manipulating fate and fortune with charms and augmenting their abilities and capabilities. Powerful offensive, defensive and augmentive spells and debilitative curses are mainstays of the Celestial Realms. Like most of the factions descended from the World that Was, they make far more usage of this power than the ones trueborn of the reality of the Galaxies of Darkness, suffused with it, inundated with the teachings of magic and the powers of the winds.

Fortifications: Tian'Chao's fortifications are rivalled by very few and second to even less. A realm defined by the might of its great bastion and the network of military outposts within the territory of its allies and guarding key nodes of its major trade routes. Thanks to its ability to rapidly assemble bases, structures, and fortifications on site even without the aid of orbital infrastructure, Tian'Chaoren fortifications can play a role even in offensives, including everything from walls to screen shields to a bewildering array of automated turrets. Just about every mobile weapon has a more powerful static defence counterpart to be used by the students of the Dragons to protect their revolutionary thought. Fortifications also will contain the means to supply the logistics of an army, so the typical Tian'Chaoren offensive involves a "base crawl" of infrastructure that ensures that no part of the army goes without the utmost in logistical support.

Individuals of Importance

Lords: Commanders in Tian'Chao are elected from pools of proven worthy candidates who have gone through the rigours of military academia; regardless of species, and work with extensive command and control systems to guide the armies of the Realm along with mystical support and divinations; with diviners and astromancers being frequently consulted to guide the best course of action. Mystic support and harmonisation are also provided to drive soldiers beyond what ought to be their limits, and careful strategems honed in aeons of war have provided a great deal of direction for future conflicts. How powerful a lord may be in combat depends greatly, an ordinary human strategist is leagues apart from a Shugengan or a Xiuzinzhe; and of course one of the Elder beasts who are able to at the very least, match greater daemons and significantly influence the course of a battle through raw power.

Heroes: There are a great many heroes in the ranks of the Celestial military, whether they are Dragons or other Elder creatures, experienced masters of esoteric arts, potent wielders of magic, champions of martial orders, or great Xiuzinzhe or especially storied Automata. They each play a great role in the overall army, providing in essence, a face to the army of the masses that receives a reciprocal relationship with them, providing and receiving the powers of harmony and synchronicity to accomplish the impossible and push the balances of fate towards the directions of righteousness, even if at great sacrifice.

Agents: The Onyx Crowmen of Qiao Yin, the Order of the Cike, The Commission of Quiet Whispers, the Society of Vermillion Words, and more provide an array of deadly and useful agents for the Celestial Realm. Unlike the Commandos of the Realm, these can be expected to go far beyond the realm's borders as spies, sabotuers, assassins, and more. Most are specially trained or made for their particular purposes, and are equipped as the job sees fit. Perhaps their most infamous task, particularly with the agents of the Society of Vermillion Words, is to spread the word of revolutionary thought in retrograde societies. To ensure the funneling of supplies and the provision of education for those who might be a fifth column for the ways of the Teachers and their allies and provide the foe with an attack from within their very own house.

Summary​

The People's Revolutionary Celestial Army is a highly versatile take-all-comers force, but it clearly prefers a certain sequence of battle; overwhelming firepower at the start to force the enemy to approach on the PRCA's terms, and then force them to try to overcome the immovable wall and irresistible force of extremely durable frontline assets that have ways to make it impossible to ignore them. All while giving free shots to the more destructive units that comfortably enjoy protection in their formation. Once the enemy has been shattered, the formation can orderly disperse into more discrete groups to begin the exploitation with continued offensives or vigorous counter-attacks, with the objective being to destroy the enemy's ability to continue fighting through the elimination of the lines of contact that hold the enemy army together and the seizure of the critical objectives. Then, they can turn around and eliminate the remainder of the enemy at their leisure.

This makes foes able to make unexpected moves quite vexing, being able to force them to break up formation with little warning. As the bitter and ongoing wars with Hive Armada Taotie showed, the capacity for the army to fall apart in dramatic fashion if its best-laid plans are ruined without the means of reorientating quickly enough is very much there. As the Presiding Council rallies resources against one of the greatest crises to hit Tian'Chao in an age against the colossal Hive Armada, the particular defensive weakness towards unexpected penetrations has been a painful reminder of the fallibility of the People's army. The Taotie; as the Tyranids are called by Tian'Chao; have very often emerged from unexpected angles or hidden genestealers and tyrannification helixes within their ranks and then struck when the time was right far more reliably than the egomania of chaos or the dark stench of undeath. And the introduction of discord into an army based on harmony will tend to unravel the army in short order.

Such has also been a priority against the Teleportation-loving Greenskins and the Dark Eldar and Necrons, as the need to control when and where the enemy may fight them is crucial. If they can be kept there, then the combination of the grinding forward wall and the deadly storm of firepower is something few foes can last against forever, and against the foes who can match or outdo them in such grinds; such as the Quetzal, the Dawi, or the Leagues of Votann they do have other means of waging war. But if they cannot adapt quickly enough to a disruption in their own lines they may stand to face bitter defeat.

Ogor Kingdoms Mercenaries (WIP)​

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Synopsis: From the mighty realm the Overtyrant Greassus Goldtooth to wandering mercenary tribes, the Ogors are justifiably respected and feared as powerful, albeit undisciplined and simplistic warriors. What they lack in technological grace, they make up for with sheer brute strength.

Focuses:
-Infantry
-Line Infantry
-Elite Infantry
-Individuals of Importance

Space​

Macro-Capitals

Leviathans: Ogor leviathans are typically either the bruteships of well-off tribes who have the resources and the aptitude for it, converted or amalgamated space hulks brought into operational condition, or enormous beasts tamed by the Ogor hunters to help guard their smash fleets. Trying to make standardised classifications of ogor fleets is an exercise in futility, as the Ogors don't really care to standardise to this degree. Rather, one can judge them based on how they're used. Giga-Roks are used as battering rams to break through formations and then serve as strong points, Leviathan grade Space Hulks are generally mass transports that are customised and altered to fit the needs of the tribehost fitted with the means of sending the Ogors to the surface and clearing away the chaff, Tyrant Ships are solid brawlers that usually try to get close, and the Void Leviathans used will generally bite, ram, spit, or otherwise attack anything they can get close to.

What is clear however, is that they aren't particularly agile and while they do have a lot of guns, they are not especially good marksmen, though unlike the greenskins they don't find too much humour in friendlyfire. They can go shockingly fast in straight lines however. Leviathans also tend to be steeped in Ogor magic, with some of the ships devoted to one of the Ogors' simple but mighty pantheon. Fire Leviathans radiate the heat of their Flaming God, Frost Leviathans leech energy and cast killing cold, Maw Leviathans take on the power of what they "eat", Iron Leviathans harden and strengthen other ships, and Gold Leviathans seem to rationalise and organise the Ogor fleets around them.

Juggernauts: Juggernauts are generally used as smaller versions of the Leviathan grade ships with a similar amount of variety and customisation. Due to their smaller size and more numerous nature, they are more likely to be customised in certain ways, but once again emphasise getting close to smash the enemy ship and then disgorge its hungry cargo onto the surface of the world they are interested in taking. Mega-Roks are usually gathered on site, while Bruiser ships and Juggernaut Grade Space Hulks move alongside huge Juggernaut beasts that rush ahead to get into grips with the enemy, often using large harpoons to reel in foes trying to outmaneouvre them or run away from them. Magic Juggernauts are also present, and Juggernauts also pack breeding facilities that allow for the beasts of the Ogors to emerge with surprising haste in violation of mass-energy conservation.

Superdreadnoughts: Ogor superdreadnoughts are once again, smaller versions of Juggernauts. Ogor Macro-capitals tend to be distinguished by the fact that they all radiate Ogor magic to some degree and Superdreadnoughts are at the moment, the smallest that can radiate it out as a large aura to cover at least an entire planet when specialised for the task while being too big to reliably land on a planet without a great deal of preparation ahead of time most Ogors don't care for, instead hanging from orbit. Maneater Ships, Super-Space Hulks, Huge Beasts and the like occupy this category.

Capital Ships

Dreadnoughts: Similarly to the Orks, Genestealers, and many others, the Ogors enjoy jumping on board any Space Hulk that happens to show up in their territory, eating the other inhabitants and taking over the entire thing if possible. Such ramshackle conglomerations are crude combatants, but the sheer weight of metal and guns can still destroy entire flotillas of lesser ships regardless of their poor accuracy, and the destruction left behind when one makes impact with a planet is something Ogors speak of in almost religious tones. Larger Mawships known as Bull Ships also fit into this category, as do a number of whatever appropriately huge space beasts the Ogors could breed and tame, able to land and then take off to cause all sorts of damage.

Battleships: The battleship-scale Mawship is the iconic Ogor means of Void travel, and is often compared to the Kroot Warsphere in role. In this comparison, the Mawship's more bricklike structure makes it far less maneuverable, but with superior acceleration, while its arsenal of macrocannons is shorter-ranged and less accurate than Kroot variants, but also more devastating when they hit and combos well with the ship's tractor beams. And while a Kroot Warsphere can do fairly stable landings, the Ogors prefer to send their Mawships on collision courses with the planet with only enough effort to slow down to prevent the ship from breaking apart, doing far more damage on impact but also making it much harder to take off again. Mawships are very variable in armament and layout, each up to the individual Ogor scrapheads overseeing their construction to decide. Some can thus have unusual capabilities. Big beasts are also common here, generally bringing in whatever intriguing abilities the Ogors desire, and often being able to simply land on the planet and rampage around it.

Grand Cruiser: Ogor Grand Cruisers are, much like how their Battleships are just smaller versions of their Dreadnoughts, just smaller Battleships and are used in the same way.

Line Ships

Battlecruisers: Like the Orks (and indeed, some suspect the source is the Orks, either from eating enough Ork Mekboys or possibly an invention of a particular genius Gnoblar), the Ogors have taken great fondness for finding an asteroid, hollowing it out, and making a "Rok", an improvised spaceship outfitted with guns, engines, and anything else the builders could get their hands on.

Ogor Roks are, if such a thing is even possible, even cruder than those used by the Orks, lacking the teleportation platforms the Orkoid versions are infamous for. They retain virtually everything else though, most important being the capability to crash down onto a planet, inflicting utter devastation on everything around it before unloading its cargo of hungry, bloodthirsty giants.

Smaller "biteships" also fit into this group, as do a number of void beasts. No two of them are entirely alike, and the Ogors' natural affinity for taming and enhancing beasts means their animal complement can be very varied.

Cruisers: Ogor Cruisers are really just smaller Battlecruisers such as Toothships, smaller Roks, Cruiser scale void beasts or the like.

Destroyers: Ogor destroyers are split into destroyer-scale roks, Nailships, and Destroyer scale void beasts. Most of the Nailships tend to be built around doing something in particular, such as ramming, firing torpedoes, using a big gun, or lots of guns, or even just ramming into planets and disgorging Ogors.

Screenships

Frigates: Due to being quite large, Ogors are generally unfond of being on smaller ships, as such Ogor Frigates are nearly always just void beasts domesticated into service, like Void Sharks or Magna-Eels.

Corvettes: Ogor corvette scale beasts are generally expected to hunt around for something that may be of interest, and are often accompanied by small hunter ships manned by a few hunters at a time who help keep the beasts informed of their duties. Once their foes are detected, they will typically wait to then start harrying the enemy fleet from unexpected angles once the battle is joined with somewhat atypical patience, while the beasts fly out to attend to their particular specialties.

Sloops: Ogor Sloops are their few attempts at strike craft or personal craft to drive through space, usually with gnoblar attendants and shoals of things such as the far-narwhal that can launch horns at great speeds at a foe.

Other

Fortifications: Ogors are rarely patient enough to just sit around waiting for an attacker and usually live the life of nomads anyway, sowing seeds and preparing animals on a world for later eating that they will return to when their instincts and those who stay behind tell them that its ready. What they have tend to be asteroids moved into orbit, managed by their strange magics and scrapheads, and then fitted with guns, while they encourage large numbers of dangerous tamed void beasts to make their homes in the space they wish to defend while also providing an extra food source in emergencies. Gnoblars tend to be used to guard these space fortifications, as well as the more patient and sedentary minded ogors and the minders of the animals. However, compared to the elaborate fortifications that can be set up by the Imperium or especially the Dawi, these are crude light.

Esoterics: Ogors, surprisingly for their appearances, are a very magically drenched race with a deep connection to the warp and their gods. Their powerful magics dedicated to their simplistic pantheon; Fire, Ice, Gold, Iron, Rock, Beasts, Sky, Water, Plants, Void, Scrap, and the Maw to name "the big twelve"; have significant elemental power. They take power from eating, both literally and metaphorically, their foes, and are masters of taming natural landscapes, even the weather of space and worlds. Magic can help with just about all things, making their beasts the match of mechanical constructs and allowing them to overcome their limitations, though it

Support Craft:

Small Craft

Strike Craft: To sum it up in a single word, Ogor strike craft capabilities are "nonexistent" outside of flying monsters. Ogors dislike cramped conditions that any halfway-practical strike craft would demand, while Gnoblars are too cowardly to make good pilots. As such, the Ogors have effectively nothing in the way of strike craft capability outside of the shoals of small space-borne creatures they have tamed and trained with their mastery over animal life. Most of these have limited means of ranged attack, and tend to be more a way to gum up an enemy's approach than to win strike craft superiority, and against the wrong enemy; such as the Tyranids, are literally free food.

Landers: Ogor Landers are, by the standards of Ogors, relatively sophisticated. Inspired by drop pods, they've created "fall-eggs" that can quickly shoot Ogors onto the planet out of huge tubes, and due to their size are devastating in and of themselves. Big enough to fit additional thrusters that trained birds can guide by tapping on a screen, they also can function just fine as boarding torpedoes, chewing into the enemy with big melta devices copied from the relatively simple Imperial devices to carve through the ground. Besides ramming their line and capital ships into the planet, they also have quite large landing ships that are capable of softer landings, copying from initial provisions of such vehicles in a distant past.

Torpedoes: Torpedoes are quite simple, and Ogors have a rather simple approach to them, a simple guidance system, a thruster, and something that explodes.


Summary
Ogor naval doctrine is a big dumb bull charge by big dumb brutes. They lack the lengthy roster of formal classes of other cultures, instead having a few models that are modified according to the needs of the tribe that vary up and down ins ize category, usually with the intent of vomiting out their contents of obese giants and even larger warbeasts and pushing anything in the way out of it and clearing away anything that would interfere with the invasion, the Ogor "navy" such as it is exists to transport and protect the ground forces and support them while the huge shoals of void fauna and flora that follow them around, tamed by their powers, tie down and try to drag down the enemy with their enhanced strength.

In this, at least, Ogor ships are well-designed and its space beasts are well-bred, with masses of armor plating and bulk to endure enemy defense fire and planetary impact. There tend to be plenty of weapons stacked on to fire back at the enemy and blast away defensive satellites, but their accuracy is more comparable to that of Orks, and the ships themselves are about as manoeuvrable as their crude, brick-like aesthetics would suggest. And while an Ogor ship is generally able to fend off enemy boarders relatively easily, given the massive populations within their hulls, offensive boarding can be more problematic if enemy ships are too cramped for them to move through easily.

Their void beasts are often the core of their fleets, and are an essentially endlessly renewable resource that they can quickly breed back to full number and restock with creatures their hunters tame elsewhere. On the balance however, the Ogor navy is generally a rather poor one, hugely reliant on magic to even the odds and poor at dealing with foes it cannot close to.

Ground​

War Engines

Behemoths: The largest Ogor monsters are those they simply land on the planet from the void of space, or are able to otherwise move between planets on their own, such as Elder Sandworms, or the epononymous Behemoths. A horned and tusked beast able to teleport between worlds and megastructures, controlling the surface of the land like an extension of itself and unleashing the might beneath the ground in magmatic fury. These and more fill out the Ogors' largest warbeasts, whose presence can devastate just about anything they face in front of them, radiating pure magic might.

Colossi: Adult Sandworms are some of the most infamous Ogor Colossi scale beasts that aren't their starborne creatures, producing delightful spice the Ogors are fond of adding to their food and can enhance their powers. Undermining the ground beneath enemies and causing enormous seismic disturbances or vomiting out dessicating waves of dust and space-warping furor that their elder forms use to travel between the stars once they get old enough. Also famous are the bipedal, silicoid, volcano like Pyre-Gods, an intelligent species of beings that the Ogors have wooed to their side and draw on massive reservoirs of raw Aqshy from, or their counterparts; the Cryocoloss.

Titans: Titans such as Stonegrinder Jotuns, the biometallic Metaspiders, multi-headed Keberotheriums, Lightning spewing Stormking Apes, fiery reptillian Megamanders and more fill out the Ogor roster of Titans as well as even larger varieties of Thundertusks, Stonehorns and more. Even if there aren't any animals that might seem to be usable, the Ogors seem to have a knack for very rapidly breeding animals into shapes that suit their needs. Ogor Titans are surprisingly common, with the magic of the ogors seeming to allow creatures to always have enough food available to thrive, but still often feel the pangs of hunger and thus a dependency on the Ogors; much like how the Ogors themselves never seem to fully outgrow their food supplies.

Massives

Megaliths: Ogor Megaliths are generally even larger beasts, such as special breeds of or more advanced individuals of the Stonehorn and Thundertusk genuses or the gigantic, six-limbed silicoid Diamondheads which can spray forth laserlike death from their gleaming crystalline faces or slice foes to ribbons and the frightfully large Glyptobels, huge shelled beasts that can fit huge amounts of guns on their back and whose crystalline growths can amass deadly, powerful amounts of electricity to go with their sonerous, earth shattering roars.

Giants: As expected, the Ogors have next to nothing in the way of technical expertise to construct an advanced Giant, instead once again relying on their Warbeasts. Here is where the mighty Stonehorn and Thundertusk reside, beasts of not only immense strength and resilience, but also more esoteric capabilities as well, with Stonehorns becoming ever-more resilient as they devour new and exotic metals, while Thundertusks can project chill sufficient to freeze armies of men and machines solid over distances normally associated with artillery guns. Giants, Jotuns brought into the service of the Ogors, naturally also fit here, serving as a very, very large sort of infantry man.

Superheavies: One of the main Superheavy of the Ogors, the Ironblaster, is essentially any superheavy-grade weapon the Ogors could get their hands on (usually from a vehicle they recently destroyed), attached to a crudely assembled platform which is in turn pulled by some beast of burden into battle. Such crude animal-propelled guns are perhaps less than ideal platforms, particularly given the very un-delicate treatment the Ogor Leadbelchers tend to give to these weapons, but it does mean that an Ogor tribe can throw in a surprising amount of heavy firepower at its enemies.

Vehicles

Heavies: Ogor Heavies include larger beasts such as their Ice Mastodons and Pyrotheriums, that can bring strange powers bred into them into the field of battle, charged with the winds of magic by Ogor breeding programs to cause special, predictable mutations and to act as conduits for the powers of the warp and magic. Heavy beasts can generally carry multiple Ogors on their back at a time.

Main Battle Units: Rather than vehicles, Ogre MBUs come from a menagerie of warbeasts. Ranging from temperamental adult Rhinoxen to the flame-spewing tank-sized Firebeetles to the common Mournfang cavalry, Ogor MBUs operate more as support for the infantry that make up the bulk of the tribe's fighting force, but can be quite effective if used correctly.

Lights: The main Light-equivalent for the Ogors would be tamed packs of Sabretusks, great feline creatures the size of a small car, and extraordinarily fast. While they lack durability in a battle of attrition, their sheer speed, stealthy demeanor, and sharp claws make them devastating when properly herded by an Ogor beastmaster. Other beasts also find themselves in this category, as do many of the vehicles Gnoblars make for themselves, including crude tanks.

Infantry

Supersoldiers: Ogor supersoldiers, are an eclectic group, originating from the diverse appetites and remarkable adaptability of the species. When consuming species with more esoteric traits, an Ogor will tend to take on aspects of those they eat, ranging from frost-breath when consuming ice-dwelling monsters (or fire breath when they drink enough Promethium) to regenerative properties, to teeth that can bite through Adamantium (a particularly common trait for Ironguts.) These various mutants are all officially classified as "Maneaters", getting their name from the first documented case occurring when observing Ogor mutations after consuming Space Marines.

Other examples include notable Ogor subspecies like Gorgers and Yhetees, which could theoretically also be classified as "Maneaters", but are common and distinct enough among all Ogor tribes to get their own designations.

Commandos: Ogors are not generally in a mood to be stealthy, save for the Hunters who provide meat for the tribe. Hunters can be surprisingly stealthy and sneaky, especially for enemies who would never expect something so big and so huge to even bother with stealth. With trained Gnoblar Trappers, Ogor Hunter teams will look around for stragglers, food, and anything that might be a threat to the tribe's advance, and tend to be rather strategic for Ogors. Hunters make use of weapons that can either be used silently, or cause maximum damage for a surprise, as well as a great many traps and tricks meant to force foes into killing fields of their choosing. Tractor devices are popular with Hunters, which can go from gently pulling in something to yanking so violently as to tear them apart.

Elites: Ogor elite infantry come in many forms, but some of the most famous are the Ironguts Ironguts. Ironguts are the classical elite Ogor infantry, made from better-equipped Ogors that are trusted by the local Tyrant. While the average Ogor's equipment is anything that can be scavenged or thought up by the Scrapheads, an Irongut's wargear is from the finest the tribe has access to, and often has purpose-built weapons designed for Ogor hands by more technologically advanced powers, plus large suits of actual heavy armor. Ironguts wielding crackling power mauls or roaring chainweapons the length of battle tanks are far from uncommon, as well as huge ranged weapons, with shotguns being a favourite.

Specialists: Leadbelchers are the closest thing the Ogors have to a ranged specialist, and are an eclectic mix of warriors armed with every ranged weapon the Ogors could get their hands on that's more common than a Ripper Gun. While great autocannons comparable to those found on Predator tanks are the most iconic Leadbelcher weapon, they will happily equip themselves with anything large, loud, and capable of widespread destruction. Beast Slayer Ogors meanwhile, as the name entails, specialise in quickly killing big things, using heavy hydraulic spears, rocket boosted hammers, and most famously explosive harpoon launchers that they use with more accuracy than their leadbelcher counterparts do,

Line Infantry: The average Ogor Bull that makes up the bulk of the tribes' infantry stands nearly six meters tall, taller than most Ogryns, and generally weighing far more from their sheer girth and gut. Bulls are far from the most brilliant combatants, but what they lack in brains they make up for in brawn.

For weapons, most Bulls are exclusively melee fighters, armed with a variety of massive clubs and any other hand weapon they can scavenge or make, though plundered or purchased Imperial Ripper Guns also have their place among the luckier members of the tribe.

Cannon Fodder: Aside from the Ogors themselves are the Gnoblars, though this Gretchin subspecies is so pathetic their only real battlefield contribution is as cannon fodder, mine-clearers, or emergency rations.

Support

Artillery: Ogor artillery is primarily direct-fire in nature from their Leadbelchers and Ironblasters, with few Ogors having the patience for accurate indirect fire, or enough ammunition not taken up by the ones at the frontlines for long-term sustained bombardment. In this role however, the Ogors can pump out a surprising amount of firepower in a relatively short time, and the nature of the ones wielding the guns means that they are surprisingly resistant to disruption. Gnoblars also often man artillery, which is their preferred place to be on a battlefield when possible, and while rather simple, do their work, and their tractor beams can also

Transport: Ogor transports are generally large beasts that they can dismount from in a hurry, but when the Ogors themselves use vehicles, nearly all of them also function as transports, whether vehicles patterned on dump trucks they have taken a liking to, looted vehicles they can climb on, or more purpose designed IFVs, though with the usual Ogor simplicity. The War-Roller is an infamous rolling fort with many guns festooned on it, built around a big gun, and with many doors and a metal awning covered open top the Ogors can quickly jump out of, and that the Gnoblars can seal up quickly if the Ogors think something bad is in the air by frantically cranking the window wheels.

Esoterics: Ogor ground based esoterics function much like their space esoterics, but with their power over the natural world it can manifest even more spectacularly. The ground rips open, fire erupts from the mountains, iron ore pulls into the surface to form walls to block off enemies, waves sweep aside foes or rivers recede from advancing armies as storms rack enemy positions. Their formations grow in power from what they eat, and from the terrain of the battlefield, growing in strength and turning their often rather blunt force into a potent master of the battlefield.

Aircraft: Ogors do not really bother with aircraft save for the occasional large airship that serves as a giant gun-bunker and transport, besides flocks of various sorts of flying beasts ranging in size from buzzards to enormous multi-headed wyverns whose heads belch volcanic fire and whose landings can crush hab-blocks and buildings. Ogor aircraft are not a core component of their attack forces, but their beastmasters can use them to tell them of where the foe is, they can harry enemies in the way or for the most powerful beasts, maul a foe's positions.

Fortifications: Ogors, being rather nomadic, aren't too big on mass building of fortifications, rather creating strongpoints they can use to keep tabs on the migration of herds, do trade, control access to food and water, take tolls, and do the sorts of work that require more sedentary work stations. The Ogor attitude towards fortifications is big, strong walls and big guns, with power fields being used to supplement them where needed. However, they don't tend to go for the sort of logically arrayed overlapping fields of fire of fortification lines, and their preference to keep wide farm fields and pastures on their planets also work at odds with militarising every square millimetre of them.

Assistants: Ogor assistants include the walking Aloe Vera Mobilis plantoids whose leaves produce a miraculous healing agent that can even regrow limbs and cure most infections; Trollheart Rams whose discarded "bloodfruits" can induce great regenerative abilities and power up the immune system to name just a few. In essence, they are creatures that produce something that can be eaten to achieve a certain effect, such as greater toughness, enhanced strength, a temporary healing factor, a panacea for current injuries or maladies, enhanced speed and the like.

Individuals of Importance
Lords & Commanders: Ogor leadership by the species' Tyrants, Grand Hunters, and Slaughtermasters generally involves a fairly low amount of strategic brilliance, and far more roaring, bellowing, and fearsome acts of brutality. A Tyrant rules by being the largest, fattest, and strongest Ogor in the tribe, towering over his subordinates and crushing anyone who gets in his way rather than outsmarting them, though occasionally an example of low cunning may emerge.

Slaughtermasters may not have the raw strength of Tyrants (relatively speaking), but their mastery of Ogor magic and religion gives them ample credibility as leaders as well.

Heroes: Heroes among the Ogors come either from the Elder Hunters who slay the mightiest of beasts and manage the Ogor warbeast menageries, or their spellcasters. Spellcasters can be divided into which aspect of Ogor magic they specialise in; including Firebellies, Frosthearts, and Butchers, with the Butchers who wield Gut and Beast Magic being much more common than the fire-wielding Firebellies and ice wielding Frosthearts. All of them however, are just at home smashing apart foes in close combat as they are in casting army-ravaging spells.

Agents: Night Hunters are Ogors who are skilled in the rare talent of infiltration, usually by posing as mercenaries; and of course, assassination. Often relying on the sheer implausibility that a species of five meter or more tall obese giants would even resort to such things. They are however, a rare talent, and aren't really fostered in a coherent doctrinal way.

Summary
An Ogor frontline assault has often been compared to a natural disaster, and this is a fairly decent metaphor: Ogre combat doctrine emphasizes brute force above all else to a greater degree than even the Orks.

Appropriately, this leaves the Ogors in their best position during the Shock and Penetration stages, where they ram through the enemy ranks under an avalanche of muscle and flab, smashing aside enemy defenses by sheer bulk.

At Exploitation however, the Ogors are utterly terrible outside of a few stand outs such as the Hunters. Few Ogor appreciate the tactics of deep operations, and those who do have the presence of mind to hit supply depots are more likely to focus on eating any rations they find instead of accomplishing broader military objectives.

On the other hand, at reduction the Ogors are terrifying, being extremely good at hunting down any fleeing enemies and making sure nothing is left. To run from the Ogors is to die tired. One must instead, hope that they have a feint of some kind ready to ambush the Ogors when they disperse to chase down a broken foe should holding the line be impossible.

Post reserved

Post reserved

Strategic Siutation

Territory Points Owned: 4
Regions of Operation: Kelesh Supercluster, Bentusi Cluster, Vay-Gir Galaxy
Current Income:
100 employed Pops=200 RP

25 RP worth of Trade with the Imperium
30 RP worth of trade with the Phoenix Kingdom
15 RP worth of Trade with the Kushan-Kiithid Confederation
15 RP worth of trade with Local Exodites
20 RP worth of Trade with the Leagues of Votann
25 RP worth of trade with the Karaz Ankor
40 RP worth of trade with the Spheres of T'au'Va
170 trade RP

30 megaproject income
30 Megaproject income
30 Megaproject Income
30 Megaproject Income
20 Base income
20 Trait income
30 Celestial Support income (boons and mission reward)

200+190+170=560

560 RP income+35 gift income

595 RP

Upkeep: -36 Tian'Chao fleets, -18 Mercenary Fleets, -4 Battle planetoids, -12 Defence upkeep=-70

Total income: 525 RP

Total Pops: 114 Pops, next turn growth: 11 natural. 14 unemployed.

Free Research Slots: 5

Military Assets

Fleethordes

• Baise De Fleet (Magnitude 2 Extremis, High Quality, Tian'Chao)
• Heise De Fleet (Magnitude 2 Extremis, High Quality, Tian'Chao)
• Huise Jandui (Magnitude 2 Extremis, High Quality, Tian'Chao)
• Caihong Jandui (Magnitude 2 Extremis, High Quality, Tian'Chao)
• Munch (Magnitude 3 Primus, High Quality, Ogors)
• Crunch (Magnitude 3 Primus, High Quality, Ogors)
• Kyndred of Karl of the League of Urist (Magnitude 3 Extremis, High Quality, Leagues of Votann, Mercenaries)
• Luigi's Redshirts (Magnitude 3 Primus, High Quality, Dogs of War, mercenaries)

Legions of Legend

• Vermillion Dragon Guard
• Azure Dragon Guard
• Shenyang Wu Conclave
• Meat Freezer Ogors
• Night Lotus Legion
• The Earthbreakers: A renown force of incredibly destructive siege warfare experts, the Earthbreakers are known for being able to challenge even Dawi Zharr hold worlds and breaking open the fortresses of the Iron Warriors and the Skaven. Using weapons carefully tuned by generations of Brokhyr, they are also masters of the defence and have built many fortresses that have endured for thousands of years.
• The Silent Band: A collection of Blanks and Pariahs that typically assemble piecemeal due to the strange effects that occur when they gather together, the Silent Band are a rare but proud lot. While maybe one person in a million has the combination of power, desire, and circumstances to become part of the Silent Band, even in the Kelesh supercluster alone there are a very large number of possible recruits to join their ranks. But each Silent Soldier is rare enough to be carefully augmented and presented with the best equipment available, and trained to the highest standard, but it is their ability to crush enemy supernatural abilities and cause empyreal armies to simply collapse in their presence that is truly valued, even if the dreadful emptiness people feel when they gather in large formations is terrible to experience to the point that suicide rates increase dramatically when they gather in bulk and Crypteks eager to create more Pariahs often hunt them.

Characters (Level 3)

• Zhu Xiang, Xian Long, Wizard (Knows Lores of Yin, Dragons, Fire, Power, and Revelation), Psyker, Sorcerer, Dragon Mode!, Massive, Flying, Immune to Fire
• Zhu Xinyi, Xian Long, Wizard (Knows Lores of Yang, Cold, and Harmony), Psyker, Sorcerer, Dragon Mode!, Massive, Flying, Immune to Cold
• Cheng Haoyu: Xian Fenghuan, Wizard (Knows Lores of Heaven, Light, Metal, and Death), Psyker, Sorcerer
• Cheng Kexin: Xian Fenghuan, Wizard (Knows Lores of Beasts, Shadows, Fire, and Life), Psyker, Sorcerer
• Dragra Steelbreaker: Ogor Overtyrant, Psyker
• Raug Meatspicer: Ogor Great Slaughtermaster, Wizard (Knows lores of Gut Magic, Beasts, and Cold), Psyker, Sorcerer
• Wang Chao: Xing, Baihu, Wizard (Knows Lores of Shadow, Death), Psyker, Sorcerer
• Wang Zi Rui: Xian Baihu, Wizard (Knows Lores of Light and Life), Psyker, Sorcerer
• Urist, clone of Urist of the League of Urist: Thrice-Urist as he's often called is a wisened Grimnyr who seeks experiences and ancient wisdom to bring to the Ancestor Cores, though perhaps a bit overly fond of his bru, he somehow makes using his Barrier technosorcery work even when drunk on enough alcohol to instantly kill an elephant. (Kyn, Psyker, Level 3)
  • Grants one additional High magic Action
  • Primarily utilises defensive or supportive abilities
  • Decent Duelist
  • Can contact the Ancestor Cores to reduce the cost of three researches per turn by a random amount.
  • Expertise can be tapped to shave off slot costs for esoteric projects and esoterica-mechanical interface
  • Reduces likelihood of perils of the warp
• Olga the Wise: A Brokhyr Technosmith of formidable pedigree, Olga has taken the Dawi art of runecrafting taught to the Kyn by the Dawi and integrated it into her works as part of a line of innovative clone lineages. Also an architect of significant talent and a multidisciplinary scientist, Olga brings many things to the table, though of course she never works for free. (Kyn, Engineer, Scientist, Level 3)
  • Provides a bonus to the usage or destruction of fortifications and artillery
  • Expertise can be tapped to shove off slot costs for mechanical, industrial, or conventional weapons projects.
  • Decent duelist
  • Reduces megastructure build cost by 20%
  • Offers one extra free research slot per turn so long as she is hired
  • Builds d3 random techno-artefacts per turn for character use.
• Luigi Garibaldi: Also known as the "man who laughs at death", Luigi is an old soldier with a university boy's face. Refusing to explain why he never seems to need new rejuvenant treatments or his habit of surviving what should have been certain doom and containing far more strength and combat prowess than his body should be able to hold; the truth is that Luigi is actually a Dark Age Android capable of Noospheric software transfer and using his nanyte "blood" to produce spare bodies over time that can be kept in "storage" as seemingly innocuous masses. Designed as an Assassin Synth in a now long lost age, his default appearance was meant to appeal to certain tastes in more delicately proportioned men to close to a target, study them in exacting detail, and then remove them. In the aftermath of the dark age and age of strife he's wandered on without a cause, going through many personas with Luigi simply being the latest out of many. A great commander and a master at making specific people very dead, Luigi is in de facto command of the local Magnificents. (Dogs of War, Dark Age Android, Level 3)
  • Top Tier Assassin duelist (Great stand up fight duelist)
  • Augments chances of seizing or increasing advantages while inflicting a penalty on the enemy
  • Gives a bonus to skirmish, penetration, exploitation, withdrawal/pursuit, commandos, specialists, screen ships, lights, and stealth.
  • Increased chance of locating Dark Age of Technology type relics and can more easily interface with them and reduces tech costs for reverse engineering such relics.
  • Immortal (Can return to action after being wounded/killed within the same battle, will never age out)
  • Gives a bonus to espionage actions, especially Assassination actions
• Giana Romano: Eldest daughter of Maria Romano, Giana lives for the thrill of adventure and the chance to amass fortune while deployed far from the formal territories of the Remean States. Her enhancements are, out of her vanity, mostly biological or subdermal, acquired at great expense and without altering the form of her body. Her highly baroque suit of power armour with its fluted plating and distinctive plating. However, much of her extreme drive to succeed is in actuality, born of trying to compensate for the aggressive unpopularity her pariah genes impose upon her. She rubs people the wrong way, every criticism people have in their minds gets blurted out, and the esoterically sensitive actively avoid her and she's had to settle for a lesser inheritance than the second oldest; Julia due to the impossibility of her serving as a good face for the household. However, it has driven her to seek out as many blanks as possible, to build a legion of them. (Dogs of War, Human Pariah, Level 3)
  • High Grade Blank (shuts down Esoteric abilities and Supernatural entities near her unable to overcome her blank magnitude), Top Tier duelist against casters she is able to shut down, good in assassination type actions, only decent in general combat against non-esoterics.
  • Gives a cost reduction to researching Blanks, Pariahs, Blackstone, and other forms of anti-esoterics.
  • Gives units she's attached to a bonus against enemy esoterics, esoterically corrupted enemies, and supernaturals whether defensively or offensively.
  • Increases the recovery time for banished daemonic (or similar entity) fleethordes, detachments, legions, and characters
  • Allows for early unlock of Null related technologies
  • Decreases the amount of Unreal Magnitude non-material enemies are able to call upon.

War Planetoids

• Two Category Zero Batches of Sunsetting Billows class Megacapital (Sunsetting Billows Class Mega-Capital.
  • Lore: TBD, looks similar to but is much bigger than most Tian'Chaoren macro and normal capitals with a notable bore hole affixed above the prow ram for the Tera-cannon
  • Primary System(s): Starbreaker class Tera-cannon (Wave-Motion Gun, devastates tightly packed fleets in a line)
  • Secondary System: Bastion Shield (Long range shield projector that can extend protection to itself or others in the fleet))
• One Category 1 Batch of Adamant Tortoise War Moons
  • Lore: TBD, Looks like a heavily urbanised planet that nevertheless has significant green spaces around it, Has two interlocking magnetic ring systems around it to give a sort of gyroscope appearance and has a lotus pattern formation for the Dragon Breath Annihilator Cannon
  • Primary System(s): Conversion Rocket Manufactory (Spams a macross episode's worth of massive warheads fitted with matter to energy conversion systems to Blow shit up real good), Dragon Breath Annihilator Cannon (Fires a torrent of Aqshy capable of scouring tainted foes or just incinerating everything in its path; very effective against supernatural foes or those without resistance to supernatural attack)
  • Secondary Systems: Interior Forge (Mitigates losses suffered by fleethordes its attached to through internal production), Harmonic Gigacaster (Projects a bubble of harmony around itself, stabilising space in reality distorted areas and amplifying assets it is near), Magnetosphere (Alterable magnetic barrier that can either serve as an additional shield, a tractor beam, or even magnetise enemies to the point of causing comedy in packed fleets or doing horrible things to enemy planets)

Research Project Suggestions

Here's a few research project ideas for how to format it and what you might want to consider investing in.

Breacher Automaton: While boarding focused automatons already exist, this would elevate their capabilities further with designs specially made for breaking into or preventing a breach into a fortified point such as a ship or fortress. Reinforced armour, a suite of close-range weapons, and additional limbs make them more suited for confined CQC, while the smaller package allows them to squeeze into more spaces. Provides greater chance of claiming an edge in clash and penetration actions. Cost: 3 research slots.

Ogor Armour: Provide Ogor units with more consistent armouring to allow them to better survive incoming fire with things beyond sheer physical toughness, as Ogors grow for as long as they live, this requires highly modular armour that can have components replaced as its wearer grows. Teaching the Ogors to use it and the Gnoblars to maintain it will also take time. But it will save many an Ogor life, and provide valuable experience in working with Ogor physiology. Reduces casualties suffered in Ogor infantry engagements. Cost: 2 Research slots.

Harmonic Broadcasters: Inspired by the Tyranid shadow in the warp and the Itzecan Astromantic interference, Harmonic Broadcasters will radiate the harmonic influence of Yin and Yang into the empyrean and into the dimension often known as "Leng" that the forces of the Strangers reside in. Taking existing technosorcery, these devices can reduce reality corruption, complicate the manifestation of supernatural beings, augment your own esotericists and forces, and also help function as interdiction of enemy comms and travel. Revolutionary Breakthrough: 10 Research slots.

Ogor Autobattery: Assists the Ogors with the provision of automated guns on their ships that can help overcome the often mediocre aiming capabilities of the Ogors and the Gnoblars, allowing for their barrages of fire to be, particularly at close range, be more coordinated and make it safer for Tian'Chaoren ships to fight where they're shooting without worrying about getting shot. Provides a greater chance of claiming an edge in clash actions and slightly increases likelihood of inflicting enemy casualties while reducing friendly losses. Cost: 3 Research Slots.

Anti-Matter Boosters: Systems that can inject anti-matter into ship reactors for a brief, intense boost of speed to allow for closing into an action, escaping an undesired one, or a brief augmentation to energy weapons output and shield strength. Enhances most space actions, but particularly clash and pursuit/disengagement. Cost: 4 slots.

Harmonic Broadcasters: Inspired by the Tyranid shadow in the warp and the Itzecan Astromantic interference, Harmonic Broadcasters will radiate the harmonic influence of Yin and Yang into the empyrean and into the dimension often known as "Leng" that the forces of the Strangers reside in. Taking existing technosorcery, these devices can reduce reality corruption, complicate the manifestation of supernatural beings, augment your own esotericists and forces, and also help function as interdiction of enemy comms and travel. Revolutionary Breakthrough: 10 Research slots. (Esoteric, Esoteric bonuses cut it down to 8 slots)

Psychoreactive Armour: We have many magicians and psyjers among our forces, and they are amongst our most valuable assets, in need of protection. This advanced armor uses psycho-circuitry to predict attacks and draws on the wearer's power to reinforce itself against them. 2 Slots (Esoteric, Augments individuals of importance and esoterics. Esoteric bonus cuts it down to one slot.)

Harmonic Scramblers: This shipborn E-warfare equipment harnesses the effects of our harmonic fields to disrupt enemy sensors, making targeting locks and teleport-boarding attempts more difficult. 2 Slots (Esoteric, General enhancement in defence, especially bombardment or boarding. Esoteric bonus cuts it down to one slot.)

Mech Conversion: The Orks are truly mad to think of this. Still mad does not mean impossible. Our technology is far beyond their scrap. Surely we can produce our own mech transformation. This will be limited to vehicles on the smaller side, but still useful. It could be a potent and unexpected force in the right places. 4 Slots (Mechanical, Improvements to Skirmish, Smallcraft, Aircraft, and Vehicles)

Firepower Improvement, One thing the Imperium has is firepower. Massive numbers of cannons thundering to kill the enemy on masse. Despite our technology advantage the Imperials have managed to hold an edge over us here. Still our engineers believe it can rectified. Some small alterations to our ship board weapons should give us a nice boost in that field. Going to interpret this as wanting a general improvement to Clash and Bombardment firepower: 4 Slots (Artillery)

Terracotta armies: Legions of automata governed by a single overmind, these units are a metal skeleton wrapped in alchemically enhanced clay. While their outer frame is frail and easily cracked, the skeleton underneath requires much more effort to destroy. These units are not made with the typical artisanal quality of typical Tien'Chao units. Indeed, they can be mass produced in automated factories, while their enhanced-terracotta skin can be made in bulk by even apprentice alchemists. (Mechanical, Improvement to Cannon Fodder units, improvement to boarding defence and attack. 3 slots).

Hornet-Nest: A tank size piece of machinery dedicated solely to housing wasp automata in droves. These inch-long fliers can be disassembled and stored easily, while reassembled quickly on the field. Each nest contains hundreds of thousands wasps parts ready to be constructed and let loose. Wasps are equipped with a laser stinger. Can be replaced with alchemobarbaric carrying lantern-flies or atomic suppressor carrying cicadas. (Mechanical, Improvement to Penetration and Exploitation and boarding defence and attack. 3 slots)

Chi-wen class frigate: Using harmonic resonance and built around a single shield broadcaster, this ship forgoes all offense in order to better defend the ships it is attached to. Especially useful against enemies with a high volume of fire. (Shielding, Improves ship durability and reduces casualties. 2 slots.)

Empowerment Project, Part 1, Biohacking: Begins to look at augmenting organic soldiers and populace, looking for useful traits to encourage and means of improving on the limits of biochemistry. Xiuxinzhe cultivation, the biology of the Tianren and their mixed blood descendants, existing augmentation regimens, and comparable programs from other polities will be looked at to provide a baseline. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, 10 slots -1 for Biology trait. Provides for a general enhancement of all biological units, increased casualty recovery, and improves health of biological pops, offers a credit towards a tier up. Opens further Empowerment project branches.)

Enlightenment Project, Part 1, Eyes of the Soul: Starts to look at how to spiritually augment the tutored peoples as was done in the past. Particularly in a way that is less time consuming than the current Ways of Enlightenment which rely on information often not-applicable to the current Pupil species with significant holes in the knowledge base. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, 10 Slots -2 for Esoteric Traits. Provides for a spiritual enhancement to units and increases resistance to corruption, offers a credit towards a tier up. Opens further Enlightenment project branches)

Tianren Cultivation Project, Part 1, Mysteries of the Past: The need to ensure that the Tianren, often known as the Tianshou or Tianjia; the Celestial peoples such as Dragons, Qilins, Fenghuan, Baihu, Xuanwu, Fuzhu, or the Tian-He to name but a few of the most prominent are raised to be properly resistant to corruptive forces and the diminished knowledge of the Celestial Path has ensured that the recovery from the Wars of Vengeance has been slow, and that the Tianren are taking longer to mature than they once did. This was not always so, and recovery of knowledge from the past and divining paths of the future may help their numbers recover. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, Tianren, Allows for larger numbers of Tianren units to be present in armies and pops which helps with most things, offers a credit towards a tier up. Enhances Tianren resistance to corruption. Opens further Tianren Cultivation branches)

The Iron Heart Project, Part 1, Steel Awakening: The Tian'Chaoren are well known for their fondness of creating automatons and A.Is, but their preference for spiritually empowered ones sets them apart from the more purely mechanical things of the Interex, UCCR, Votann, or Mechanicus, but can be compared to the Eldar or the Dawi. Understanding more of how a machine's mind can glow in the warp may aid in making them more reliably and better. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, Joint Project with Leagues of Votann, will offer a general improvement to mechanical units and technology, offers a credit towards a tier up. Opens further Iron heart branches.)

The Star's Wisdom, Part 1, Laws of Physical Understanding: Though their understanding of the laws of nature is extensive, it is clearly inferior to many. Understanding the laws of nature will allow for better power generation, better weapons, and better defences. It will also allow for a greater chance to understand many mysteries not rooted in the warp. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, Physics, will offer a small general boost to anything that derives its potency from physical sciences, offers a credit towards a tier up. Opens further Star's Wisdom branches and unlocks some new technologies)

Alchemist's Creativity, Part 1, Hermetic Lore: Alchemy is something that Tian'Chao prides itself in, not just simple physical chemistry but the mystic arts of transmutation and refinement. However true celestial Alchemy requires sorcery or at the very least some sort of Warp power. This limits the number of real alchemists who can exist to those who have the skills to avoid corruption from their art, and can lead to the formation of cults to Chaos, Darkness, Undeath, or other foul powers. Codification of this mystic knowledge may help. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, Material Science/Alchemy, will offer a small general boost to anything made of matter as well as to alchemical gubbins while increasing the portion of your troops and pops who can practice alchemy. Opens further Alchemist's Creativity branches and unlocks new technologies.)

Dreaming Mysteries, Part 1, Knowing the Unknowable: The Dreamtime, the more pleasant euphemism for what is more properly known as Leng by the Tian'Chaoren is a place that is deeply touched by the powers of the Dark Tapestry; the Strangers. Yet the Psionic gifts that it bestows are clearly of great value and power, albeit ones understood less than the Semiotic nature of calling upon the Warp through Sorcery, channeling the Winds of Magic in Wizardry, or channeling its might through Psykery. But they are needed to help battle against these eldritch terrors, and may hold the key to freeing the universe from the watchful eyes of the Abyss. (Revolutionary Breakthrough, Psionic, Enhances esoterics and individuals of importance, start awakening more psionic potential and adds some resistance to the influence of Leng. Opens further Dreaming Mysteries branches and unlocks some technologies)

Research Done

Ogor Autobattery

Anti-Matter Boosters

Ogor Armour

Breacher Automaton

Harmonic Broadcasters

Harmonic Scramblers

Psychoreactive Armour

Iron Heart Project pt 1

Chi-Wen Frigates

Artefacts

TBD

Bonuses

Zhu Xiang

• Abjuring Conjurer
  • Gains a major bonus to dispelling enemy magic effects or protecting your own assets
  • Can Lead rituals to summon elemental spirits with a high magic action or during a duel to bolster your forces
  • Gains a bonus against corrupted enemies or in purging corrupted areas, halving the RP cost if he is present
  • Bonus to teleportation type High Magic actions
• Dragon Warrior
  • Gains a bonus in duels with enemies he has met at least once before in some capacity, even psychic clairvoyance
  • Gains a bonus to fighting enemies in astral projection form, vital for exorcising daemons or battling the Strangers in their Dreamtime
  • When he dispells magic or counters a spell, the force of that spell has a high chance of being returned to the enemy for a catastrophic dispell
  • Allows for dragon blooded characters to temporarily take on dragon form, giving a boost to your super infantry and individuals of importance.

Knows Lores of Dragons, Yin, Power, Revelations, Fire, and Energy.

Zhu Xinyi

• Battlemage
  • Gains the Lore of Shadows
  • Increases in capabilities as an Esotericist, especially in melee combat
  • Confers greater bonuses to esoterics and individuals of importance
  • Significantly improves as a duelist, particularly against enemies that she is superior to either in esoterics or physicality or both.
• Skein Strategist
  • Becomes better at using divination psychic powers, sorcery, and magic, conferring a general strategy bonus to military deployments
  • Gains a bonus to positive interactions with Eldar
  • Can give predictions of what an enemy she is in the same battle with is likely to do, or what a negotiating partner may respond to an offer with
  • Greater chance of preventing enemy surprise actions or gaining surprises against the enemy whether in negotiation or war

Knows Lores of Water, Cold, Yang, and Harmony

Diplomacy

Positive
Allied with Craftworld Aeldari of the Kushan-Kiithid Craftworld Confederation and the Exodites of the Draeigh glade. Allied with the Asur Phoenix Kingdom Vay-Gir colonies
Hirers of Dagra Steelbreakers' Dragon Called Ogors.
Trading with the Imperium of Man
Trading with the Spheres of T'Au'Va
Trading with the Dawi Karaz Ankor
Trading with the Leagues of Votann

Character boons

Raug Meatspicer

• Trollguts
  • Has a permanent regenerative factor
  • Gains in physical strength and durability
  • Offers enhanced recovery to his troops (additional 10% free repairs)
  • Wounded Recovery Time reduced to One Phase (If mortally injured in a battle, will be ready to fight again in the next battle within that turn)
• No Voice in our Ears but the Maw
  • Gains a bonus against corrupted enemies or in purging corrupted areas, halving the RP cost if he is present
  • Gains a bonus against mind altering effects and helps protect units he is attached to
  • Can have up to 5RP spent before a battle to provide a random augmentation to the fleethorde with his culinary magic
  • Can receive missions from the Maw

Dagra Steelbreaker

• Bigger and Fatter
  • Counts as a massive unit in duels
  • Improves the morale of Ogors she is assigned to
  • Becomes more effective against enemy massive units
  • Gains a bonus to commanding Ogor massive and War Engine units
• Ogors my lord
  • Always have access to at least one Ogor mercenary unit to hire
  • Can challenge the Tyrants of other Ogor tribes to get them to switch sides
  • Chance of random ogor encounter replenishing losses or possibly even expanding on size
  • Ogors under her command have begun to grow smarter...

Chen Haoyu

• The Arcane Scholar
  • Provides an extra free slot of research
  • Reduces cost of Esoteric related researches
  • Allows for an additional high magic action
  • Learns the Lore of Time
• Compass Keeper
  • Doubles effects of Strategic Wu Jin Compass
  • Doubles Effects of Tactical Compasses
  • May, once per battle, alter the winds of magic to favour one and disfavour another
  • Increases Navigation Range to Cluster Level

Knows lores of Time, Water, Death, Heavens, Light, and Metal.

Chen Kexin

• The Beast Shaman
  • Reduces cost of biological research
  • Reduces cost of Spirit related research
  • Allows for an additional high magic action
  • Learns the Lore of Space
• The Immortal Phoenix
  • Has a permanent regenerative factor
  • Gains in physical strength and durability
  • Offers enhanced recovery to her troops (additional 10% free repairs)
  • Wounded Recovery Time reduced to One Phase (If mortally injured in a battle, will be ready to fight again in the next battle within that turn)

Knows lores of Space, Fire, Life, Earth, Shadows, and Beasts

Wang Chao-Xing and her brother Wang Zi Rui; both of them being cunning Baihu and fantastic spymasters and assassins. Whether in their "tiger" form or their humanoid shape, the shapeshifting twins are at home whether gathering secrets and making deadly orders, or dealing with problems themselves or guiding those who can deal with them to their appointed places. Long-time friends of Zhu Xiang and Xinyi, their peppy demeanour seems at odds with their roles as spymasters and assassin keepers, but helps to disarm many into thinking they are less dangerous than they really are.

• The Wang twins can be assigned to espionage actions with a high degree of success, are skilled in assassination character duels, offer bonuses in skirmish and exploitation in any fleethorde they are part of.
• They are at their best in duels where they have the freedom of movement or the element of surprise. They suffer more in knock-down, drag out fights.
• The Wang twins can passively gather intelligence reports on infiltratable enemy factions even without any ordered Espionage actions, potentially giving you an advantage as you go through the different galaxies of this game.
• Chao-Xing and Zi Rui offer bonuses to faster or stealthy units in a fleethorde in general, giving it the potential to secure a vital edge in engagements where this is important. They also offer bonuses to researching anything stealth or subterfuge related.
• Receive the "Night Lotus" Legion of Legend, compromised out of a task force consisting of the most stealth capable ships, vehicles, soldiers, and agents who are masters of ensuring the will of the Jianyi is carried out without anyone being the wiser. Extremely adept when committed to espionage or sabotage actions and especially powerful in dealing with enemy legends and renowns and are deadly in pursuit/disengage, skirmish, as well as penetration and exploitation.

Wang Chao-Xing

• The Pink Tiger
  • Gains, the Lore of Yang
  • Reduce Cost for Stealth or Espionage related research
  • Confers a bonus to fast or stealthy actions
  • Allows for one Espionage Action per turn to be taken for free with maximal RP bonus
• The Death Rose
  • Gains a major advantage against any enemy character already engaged in a duel with someone else
  • Gains a bonus to sabotaging Planetoids and superweapons
  • Penalizes enemy individuals when able to operate freely and is involved in the same combat
  • Increased chance to catch retreating enemy characters when involved in the same combat

Wang Zi Rui

• The Green Tiger
  • Gains, Lore of Yin
  • Reduce cost for Detection or Scanner related research
  • Confers a bonus to discovering or countering fast or stealthy actions
  • Allows for one Counter-Espionage Action to be taken for free with maximal RP bonus
• The Giving Fangs
  • Gains a major bonus to helping any friendly characters engaged in a duel
  • Gains a bonus in countering enemy sabotage
  • Increased chance for your characters to withdraw from a duel without further injury when involved in the same combat
  • Can automatically block one enemy assassination action per battle

Character Profiles

For simplicity's sake and also because this is warhammer, we are using a modification of 40k's game engine for character duels, using a D12 for greater granularity

This means that statlines are divided as follows


Equipment uses the following table


We use something of a modification of Horus Heresy here since it was designed to facilitate character duels. With some of the following differences: Each integer of toughness vs strength difference pushes the to-roll by one step (from wound on a 4+ to wound on a 5+ to wound on a 6+ if Toughness is greater, or wound on a 3+ to wound on a 2+ if strength is greater). If the toughness is 3 higher than the strength the weapon does one less damage to a minimum of zero, and for every step above two the weapon does one more damage.

For WS, every odd integer of difference subtracts one step for the superior party's to hit roll (6+ to hit becomes 5+ to hit) while every even integer adds one step for the inferior party to hit (6+ becomes 10+ in WS6 vs 10), if to hit falls below 2+, allow for rerolls as per BS (WS14 vs 6 may hit on a 2+ or a reroll of eleven or twelve if it misses the original roll) and the reverse for the inferior party if it rises above 6 (the WS6 party fighting the WS14 one may hit on a 12 but must reroll sixes, missing if it rolls a one or two).

All applicable saves may be taken with a wound being negated on any of them.

Unlike 3-7e 40k but like 8-9e 40k stats above 10 can very much occur.

I might use D10s or D12s instead of D6s since we can afford to be a bit more granular but I'd have to redo a lot of math.

Note that because these statlines are more simulationist/less concerned with competitive balance than tabletop 40k, statlines will not be the same as the TT.

As a baseline, here is the standard imperial Guardsman

Flak Exoarmour: Provides a 5+ armour save, one additional strength, toughness, wound, and attack, one shield wound, and improves movement by 6.

Rapid Fire: May fire twice listed attack value if in half range, and may charge after firing.

As you can see the average Guardsman is pretty poor at killing other guardsmen. To get through three wounds with armour save 9+, hitting two thirds of the time on average and wounding only half the time, they'd need 16 shots on average. Contributing to a tanky, grindfest sort of combat that tends to strongly encourage closing to melee where at three attacks per phase (Laspistol and Combat Knife) they will almost certainly do more damage. Of course, Riflemen are glorified ablative wounds for weapons specialists and the Lasgun is meant more for long range or to deal with chaff not worth firing a grenade at.

A basic untrained Chaos Dreg is as follows
And their gun is as follows


A gun so shit that it actually improves the armour save of the target. WS and BS4 are the baseline for a completely untrained human and most Chaos warbands cannot be bothered to provide any sort of military education for people who are supposed to die en masse anyway, especially since their (generally bloody) demises serves as fuel for their magicks and they may as well die making problems for somebody else rather than just die at a sacrificial altar.

Dregs can't hit for shit and take just one lasgun hit to kill on average while they need three shots to hit the Guardsman on average, three shots to wound the guardsmen, and two to get past the armour save for eighteen shots to knock off a single wound; and need to do this three more times for fifty four shots in total. This results in Guardsmen annihilating Cultist Dregs in hugely disproportionate numbers.

Conscripts are at WS6 and BS6 due to having well; basic training, but Guardsmen are picked from the most promising of a PDF's troops and so are better soldiers.

But then, here's a space marine.


Ceramite Power Armour: Armour Save 5+, Invulnerable Save 10+, Adds +2 Strength, Adds +2 Toughness, 42Shield Wounds, Adds 6 movement, Adds 2 attacks and wounds, reduces incoming damage by 1 to a minimum of one (before toughness modifiers).

Rapid Fire: May fire twice listed attack value if in half range, and may charge after firing.

Variable Ammunition: A space Marine may switch out their standard rounds for the following

A space marine is a titan of warfare who will mulch most of what's put in front of him, and since their chainsword is S User+2 AP-4 and they get Cleave (To hit rolls of eleven or twelve generate another attack, and on a kill, on a 7+ they may attack again) and damage d3 and they can shoot their bolt pistols into melee, getting into melee with them is even worse as it just lets them melt large numbers of enemies even faster while making it much harder to properly stymie them with weight of numbers by limiting the number of people who can attack them at once.

At WS4 a Cultist dreg may as well forget about hitting the space marine. And they have only a one in twelve chance of wounding, a one in three chance of getting past the armour save, a two in three chance of getting past their power armour's shields, a two in three chance of getting past FNP, and then the space marine has a two in three chance of just recovering the lost shield wound anyway. Then the poor cultist has to do this seven more times in one phase because IWND and Shield Recharge fire off at the end of every player's turn (so twice) so they may very well have all their progress erased.

I cannot be stopped

Post is an ever-growing work in progress.

What are the Galaxies of Darkness?​

G.O.D is a long running personal project of mine that's a rather expansive reimagining of 40k and a merger of it with its sibling series; Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar that at first started as "what if instead of starting age of sigmar the refugees of the Old World went to a 40k AU?" that then grew into a more and more expansive project that transformed 40k into a multigalactic setting and added and expanded on a great many factions. While the 40k factions' broad strokes remain similar, they are generally universally more capable, powerful, and have greater usage of their weird shit. The Imperium for example has a great many new original legions, astartes of all genders, and also its own colleges of the winds of magic for example as well as new weapons befitting the greater scale. The general thesis remains much the same, but they have reached grander heights with greater resources. However the Imperium is notably not the only human majority/plurality country around the galaxies of darkness, not by a long shot. From "could have beens" like the Interex surviving, to migrants from Fantasy battles, to entirely original societies that developed somewhere in the margins of the vastness of space.

Ultimately, it's a race to try and prevent the usual cycle of Warhammer Settings from occurring once again; the slide towards the end of all things and the descent into the abyss as a long-standing status quo begins to break down at extreme speeds and history starts happening at a rate that none are fully in control of. Of the doom spiral of every great society being a more pathetic imitation of the last, with every fall leading to more and more being lost and every rebirth being paler and more hollow than the last. All the while menaces to the very notion of organised society growing stronger and stronger until at last all that's left is monsters wrestling for the scraps of a universe devoid of anyone able to appreciate it for anything but resources to blow up other things and hopefully, the universe restarts to try again and then decline again. But what if this didn't have to be the way of things? What if there could be freedom from the cycle of birth, decline, death, and rebirth? What if we could rise to surpass what came before, and live life for life's sake?

That is the question of G.O.D, where there is nobility even in the darkness, and flickers of hope in a reality born of the deaths of two. A second chance, a chance to do it bigger, and better, and to break the curse of hubris and folly.

Q: What are some of the major factions?

A: All the major 40k factions are here in forms you'd recognise. Grander, larger, stronger, reaching greater heights by the greater expanses of the garden compared to the milky way, but ultimately recognisable. Some aspects of history have changed, but the general course of things remains the same.

As for new factions, they can be divided into three categories.

The first are Expanded minors, such as the Q'Orl, the Thyrrus, the Hrud, the Draxians, the Interex, the Slaugth etc which are taken from the margins of hidden lore and expanded on dramatically into major power players. Generally if there's something cool in the obscure margins of 40k lore you can expect I'll expand on them into something I think is worthy of the concept.

The second are imports from Fantasy and often Age of Sigmar, even if there's already a 40k counterpart. These factions are nearly always high in density of magic compared to 40k native factions as a signifier of their origins and a way to differentiate them from their native counterparts. The Shadow Eldar of Malekith for example, exult in Dark Magic with the shielding of the imported Cytharai whereas the Dark Eldar do not use their psychic potential at all. The Dawi are steeped in the craft of the warp, while the Leagues of Votann lean much more towards classic scifi. Similarly their aesthetics tend to be more archaeofuturistic, a future of the WHFB world that never was or the AoS setting that probably won't be.

These include the various human majority or plurality polities of the Warhammer world, the High Elves who founded a new Phoenix Kingdom of Eldar who still seek to hold territory, the Shadow Eldar who have their own witch kingdom, the Skaven Under-Imperium, the Dawi Zharr, the Ogor Kingdoms, the Lizardmen, the Asrai who in alliance with the Fey Sylvaneth are not merely punching bags like the exodites normally are, the innumerable legions of the Undead whether they are Nagashites or the Settra venerating Golden Revenants formed of embittered Men of Gold smarting over the fall of their capitalist society and so on so forth.

Then there are the wholly original factions. The classically lovecraftian Strangers who came from Beyond, attracted by the magnitude of Orikan's rewriting of history to avert the end, the more Vampire count like Cruorans who splintered off the Necrons, Tyranid subvarieties to consume other things besides carbon-based biomaterials, some new made up polities like the UCCR and so on so forth. These are perhaps the most variable in aesthetics.

I'll be providing lore over time to explain things, while also preparing a general document to give a brief overview. I'll also be drip feeding content, and am open to contributions and omakes on this topic.

Some timescale things are changed mostly for personal preference, like the War in Heaven "beginning" in a sense, far earlier and ending at about the time Dark Energy overtook the gravitational pull of matter roughly when our Solar System began to form and the present date of M42 not being determined by the Gregorian calendar's year count but instead by the Imperial Year, with year zero being when the Emperor Atham and Empress Erda began their work, with the Imperium being founded in M28, thousands of years after they begun their preparation to bring humanity back from the brink of the old night.

Due to astroengineering meaning that Earth, or Terra as it is called now, no longer orbits around the sun at the same speed it used to (for one thing Sol isn't in the same part of the Milky way it is now IRL and for another thing, Terra has had so much stuff built up on it that most of its mass is in these structures that make Terra a strange, honeycombed sphere with the old planet at its centre, like the big city in BLAME!), years are no longer defined by Terra's orbit but instead by a decimal Solar week (ten rotations of Sol) which comes out to roughly the same amount of time that our years do now but with no leap years due to astro-engineering to slow the sun's rotation and reduce its output of unwanted electromagnetic activity.

This is partly because I think it's really weird that the Imperium uses the same year zero as the Christian Calendar and also because I want a greater sense of mystery about the pre-Imperial eras. What the date actually would be by the Gregorian Calendar is largely unknown to modern humanity and to be frank most don't really care. It is a bit more than 420,000 years into the future though.

The revised timeline is

13.7-9 billion years ago; Pre War in Heaven era
9-3.9 Billion years ago: The war in heaven
3.9-2.6 Billion years ago: The Aftermath war
2.6 billion years ago to 200,000 years ago: The Long peace
430,000 Years Ago: Rise of the Emperor and Empress
420,000 Years Ago: Beginning of Human space exploration, start of age of Gold
420,000-320,000 Years Ago: Reign of the Men of Gold
320,000-32,000 Years ago: Dark Age of Technology
41,000-16,000 years ago: The Wars of Vengeance
32,000 Years Ago: Wars of Iron, Psyker Blooms
26,000 Years Ago: Human civilisation collapses, Age of Strife Begins
16,000 Years ago: Fall of the Eldar, Foundation of the Imperium
13,000-11,000 years ago: Great Crusade
11,000 Years ago: Horus Heresy, Atrayan Apostasy

I have no idea why I'd need 10 reserved posts but here we go

The Dragon Masters and the Great Devourer​

Comparing Tian'Chaoren to other major human majority or plurality polities was a common hobby among those obsessed with figuring what could be the most powerful one of the many nations of man. Common choices were with the Interex or the Imperium, though the truth is that none of the great powers could afford the cost of actually trying to conquer each other outright. More limited wars for strategic objectives and power plays yes, but all out war is something that only the insane want when there are countless other issues, many of which care nothing for politics. Cheif among these threats and the newest, are the Tyranids who come from beyond the rim of the garden.

When the Tyranids first started to invade the Garden, the Xian had at first deemed them of limited import. Hive Armada was massive yes, but invaders from beyond the rim of what was known came fairly regularly. Of course, the Astromancers tried to warn that the great bulk of these outrimmers came fleeing from the beasts, but the Shadow in the Warp obscured much of the early divination and the readings of fate were murky.

Interest in the potential Tyranid threat would increase for some time as the Behemoth bulldozed through most obstacles in its way. Regions of space cleansed of everything of value leaving behind only the strange but rich waste of the tyranids, but the Xian at first were more interested in how the Tyranids seemed to violate the conservation of mass, and what weaknesses of their foes may be revealed by the hive armada's passing. , But then Behemoth would be blunted at Ultramar. Not really stopped, but at least repulsed from one of the few Desmenses of the Imperium that could rival Solaris at the centre. Interest would then die down, with the Tyranids and the relatively minor encounters with far ranging tendrils of the Armada filed away as a matter for chroniclers to discuss.

Though the Tyrannic Wars for the Imperium had only just begun, only relatively light Tyranid forces had sought to assail the celestial realm or its sphere of influence, and if the Imperials could stop them, at however great a cost; then surely the Tian'Chaoren would do better. Of course, with the poor state of the flow of information between the Imperium and realm, a lot of the finer details went under the radar, unreported and unsaid. Such as the connection between the Hive Armadas' various subcategories of more overt forms that consumed different things, the classic Tyranids things useful to omni-metabolising carbon based biology, the Lithovores silicates and minerals, the Dynaphages energy, the Kyberdons metal and machinery, and the Mindwyrms generated by the Gestalt Chorus scrubbing for souls; and the Genestealer Cults that represented the advanced guard of the Tyranids.

Those who thought that the Behemoth was all, or even an a remotely significant portion of the Great Devourer were fools. And as the Jinyi got onto other business, smaller Hive Armadas had already set their sights on the bounty of the Celestial Realm. The first signs would be the fleeing of Skaven clans who had long been an issue for the down-southwestern fringes of the celestial realm for Tian'Chao's client states and the Celestial Realm itself.

The other would be the spread of cults that went by a thousand names, that said that the teachers were hoarding secrets or that they spoke the true teachings or had great lost lore. The Civilian Guards would of course, investigate for signs of infiltration by Chi'an-Chi, Tzeentch to the Imperium; but found no evidence of either him, the Strangers, or the influence of the Necrarch Vampires. Of course, this was a flawed investigation to begin with.

The Cults would spread as an assortment of secret societies that would seek to predate on the desire to know the unknowable, and those who sought shortcuts in the paths of enlightenment and those looking for political support for pet causes. Usually starting very innocuously, but growing to prepare the way for greater troubles to come. The Gestalt Chorus would seed such cults well in advance of its arrival, gathering information to be fed into its endless chitter and chatter by the links that the Patriarchs had to the great chorus.

Elements of what as assumed to simply be a minor Hive Armada; Naga, though most known for its conflicts with the various fractions of the Splintered Eldar, would also strike at Tian'Chao in greater numbers than the Behemoth. Naga's psychic monstrosities would consume many sectors and prefectures, the orderly navies of the Celestial Realm struggling to deal with the screaming, swirling chaos that the Tyranids brought to battle while Genestealer Cult infiltration fed vital secrets to the new enemy.

Lictor-Ships able to hide from most forms of detection, ships using consumed biomass to alter themselves to evade and endure the incoming barrages and get close, and the flexible, lifelike turning capabilities of Tyranid ships allowed the "Taotie" as they were called for their gluttonous nature, to worm their way within formations. The Shadow in the Warp cloyed the mind and altered the flow of the winds of magic, the chitter chatter of the largest network of connected minds in the universe drowning out all else, the hallways of ships flooded with monstrosities who came out of every wall and pore amidst seas of acid they were immune to but even vehicular armour would be digested by.

And an unspoken thing of the Tyranids is that the massive is ordinary for them, with large numbers of huge and powerful hive ships pushing their advance with deceptive cleverness and perfect coordination. Tactics that once worked would be adjusted to and countered, weapons that once seemed to be cure-alls were met with the requisite adaptations. While changing around weapons and often simply raw firepower worked, the rolling wave of Tyranids simply outmassed the Tian'Chaoren provincial fleet by a massive margin and the Tyranids were better at finding and then exploiting weakness than even the renown strategists of the PRCN.

On the land it was much the same, perhaps even worse as the Tyranids' preferred way to begin an assault on planets and megastructures was to simply carpet the entire surface in Tyrannocytes, Mycetic Spores, and other sorts of beasts while their mutagens infected and transformed fauna and flora. Trees twisted into birthing wombs, lakes roiled into spawning pools, the grass would grow hungry. While there were plans for dealing with all angle attacks, the sheer magnitude of it that the Tyranids practised was a great initial shock.

The Elder Long Tao Tse Tung, well on his way towards achieving Xian state; would arrive at the request of the Provincial Council which was facing calamity as the Tyranids consumed the capital system of Yelantai. With a huge wave of reinforcements, including Ogor mercenaries and Vudrani allies would drive back the Naga. It was noted by Tao that the Tyranids seemed most interested in those undertaking the path of the Xiuzinzhe, with the brain eating lictors, malanthropes and other "intelligence gathering" organisms expending significant effort to capture them. His report to the higher councils would be dispatched, recommending a greater vigil for the Tyranids and the cults that rose up in their wake, but with the Eldar pushing the Naga away further, the precautions taken were relatively minimal and mostly taken in the Up-Southwest.

More Hive Armadas would come over the decade, with old ones seemingly reaching new tendrils into the new universe from unexpected angles. At first they seemed to conform to a general Down-southeasterly approach from the known universe; due down-southwest of the general borders of the realm, and most defensive arrangements were built around that assumption. Zhao Ming's requests for more forces to guard his compass direction against this threat would be met fairly half-heartedly, with the other commitments of the realm taking priority.

Skirmishes with the Taotie would continue. Some smaller than the brush with the Naga, some larger, such as the arrival of Hive Armada Kraken a century after the halting of the Behemoth. The diffuse tendrils of the Kraken would worm their way across the universe, fanning out, isolating stretches of space in the shadow in the warp and then closing the pocket once bolstered with the resources harvested. The protectors of the great bastion that block off the Greenskins, Chaos dregs and other terrors due up-north, mid-north, and down-north of the realms of the black tortoise direction would find themselves assailed by Tyranids at many times.

While the great enchantments of the bastion would keep even the Tyranids' realspace FTL from simply bypassing the chain of fortified provinces in altered space; they would crash into the depths of these militarised realms with terrifying force after displacing a tidal wave of greenskins and chaos tribes ahead of them. History would repeat itself once again, with the Tyranids worming their way into the harmonic order of the Dragon Pupils who would struggle to keep up.

Miao Ying however, would intervene more personally, taking her personal banner Armies and fleets and bringing in forces from the UCCR and the Ursun worshiping folk of Kosmoriye to bolster her forces, along with intervention forces from the Eldar Craftworld Confederation of Teigharae to push the Kraken back into conflicts with the other denizens beyond the bastion. This increased alarm, but the Kraken would again be blunted, seemingly caught in a status quo of give or take as more colours of the Tyranids arrived, and conflict with them became a regular fact.

Leviathan would come in the biggest initial wave yet from entirely unprecedented angles, confirming suspicions (albeit ones that most had desperately wanted to believe were not true) that the Tyranids had in essence, surrounded the Garden and could come in from just about any direction, moving through intergalactic space where there were few means of detecting them before descending into less empty parts of the known universe and reaping their harvests.

At the behest of the government of Vudran, the southern armies would be dispatched to aid the nation of thirty three million gods and ensure that other potential threats would not be able to exploit the situation; such as the greatly irritating T'Au or the Nagaji and the Imperium.

However, towards the close of the final century of the 41st millennium, by far the greatest Tyranid invasion of Tian'Chaoren space would come in from multiple directions at once as a new Hive Armada emerged, dead set on the Celestial Realm. Named for the same gluttonous beast that the Tyranids as a whole were named for, Hive Armada Taotie would put the realm in its greatest state of military crisis in thousands of years. The onyx skin and dull yellow armouring of Hive Armada Taotie would darken many provinces at once, even attacking from within the Empire's largely controlled core of space while besieging important allies such as the Solar Domain of Ahikyo and the Interex.

While forces loyal to the ongoing 13th Black Crusade, Waaaghs! Ghazghkull and Grom, the Skaven, Nagash or the other lords of Undeath; and the rising creations of the C'tan among countless others also threaten the sphere, it has become impossible to ignore that Tian'Chao's current greatest threat is Taotie. It also finally forced a reckoning with a need for the pace of reforms to increase significantly and for altering the painstakingly created plans for the advancement into the next millennium. Losses have already been high, and the Taotie are threatening realms that have rarely known or prepared for conflict to deadly effect.

As Hive Armada Leviathan has been to the more westerly powers, so has Hive Armada Taotie, an unprecedented crisis and threat and an explosion of war across countless fronts that have irreparably damaged the ongoing status quo. One that has been severe enough to call the attentions of all the original, eldest Xian; the survivors of Malus, and demand the lion's share of their focus in coordinating the Jinyi against the the menace from all sides and the genestealers from within.

As the elder xian and the councils pool their resources with allies to deal with the innumerable threats besetting one corner of the Sphere or the other, younger Xian have sought to find ways to tip the scales by going exploring for things that may advantage the overall realm and its allies. Even if its as simple as more territory that can be claimed either as virgin space or from the likes of the Greenskins, Chaos, or other things that there is no dishonour in simply sweeping out of the way.