The Ten Kingdoms

In my last post I've laid out all the seperate things I will need to create before I can start running my campaign. Looking at the list, I could take 2 different approaches; I could start by thinking of interesting characters I want to have in my setting, then decide where they belong and from there extrapolate how the world will look or I could start by figuring out how the world should look, then figure out why that is en which people are responsible for that. Both approaches are valid and it really comes down to personal preference. For me, this is designing the world first, then figuring out what kind of people run the show as I find it easier to create NPC's that fit in a kingdom, then find a kingdom that fits with NPC's I've created.
This does not mean that I don't already have some NPC's in mind that I want to implement.

Now that I've decided to start by creating the world first, I want to decide on which kingdoms I want to create. Do note that everything I present is still subject to change. A decision I make now could change next week, when I find some new inspiration or if I suddenly see a flaw in my design I missed before. The main thing I want to focus on when designing the kindoms, is that they are memorable, recognizable and have a specialty.

Originally when I started with designing the kingdoms, I had decided that I wanted 3 kingdoms as protagonists, 3 kingdoms as antagonists and 3 neutral kingdoms that could be recruited as allies for either side. When creating the map, I found that having a tenth kingdom actually fit a lot better than only having nine. I might cut out one kingdom if I can't make it feel unique enough, but I don't think that will be an issue.

The first thing I wanted to do, was to decide on how to name my kingdoms. A name is very important and I want the right names that fit well in the setting. Seeing as I want to play in China, I want to use Chinese names for the kingdoms, that sound and look different enough for us westerners to remember. Most of my NPC's will have names in English or Dutch (most likely English) because I fear that having too many Chinese names will confuse my players.

In most games I've ran in the wuxia genre, I often use animals in names, because they give certain associations with traits. For example, Red Dragon and the Mantis Minister are sitting opposite each other at a feast. To me (and probably a lot of people), Red Dragon looks as a strong, noble and powerful person. The Mantis Minister is more subtle, probably lean and dangerous when you don't expect it. I have not given any descriptions at all about these characters, but just using animal names, I can evoke what kind of people they are. (I will use this when designing my NPC's as well). For that reason, I want to associate each kingdom with an animal.
The ten animals I chose: Bear, Wolf, Spider, Horse, Swan, Dragon, Eagle, Pig, Bird of Paradise and Monkey.

For each kingdom, I decided to write down some keywords that describe the kingdom, as well as the most important source of income for the kingdom. The reason I want to source of income is to get a view of the economy of each kingdom and the entire region of Shen Zhou. I won't be doing much with the economy in my game, if anything at all, but knowing where the money flows will impact how alliances form naturally as well as how certain military decisions will be made, but more on this in later blog posts.

Below you will find a table with the name, animal, traits and source of income of every kingdom.

Name	Animal	Traits	Source of income
Kui	Bear	Hardy and sturdy fighters, mountaineers	Blacksmithing
Sanzuwu	Eagle	Just, fierce, impulsive	Carpentry
Mamien	Horse	Traders, hard workers, messengers	Leatherworking
Luduan	Wolf	Tactical geniuses, great at small unit fighting	Trade of game
Tianlong	Dragon	[Emperor], noble, wise, traditional rulers	Tailoring
Bashe	Spider	Stealthy, assassin-like, masters of poison	Mercenaries
Peng	Bird of Paradise	Mystical, magic/rituals, protectors	Rituals/Magic
Xiao	Monkey	Entertainers, brewers, fireworks experts	Fireworks/Alcohol
Taotie	Pig	Extremely rich, bureaucrats, advisors, fertile lands	Farm produce
Jian	Swan	Sailors, trade with the west, largest produce of tea	Western trade

As martial arts are a big part of the game, I find it important that each kingdom has their own focus in which aspect of combat is most important as well as which weapons are preferred by each kingdom for their kung fu. I will go in further detail in either a post about the kingdom, or when discussing the martial arts. For now it is enough to know the focus and weapons, so it makes it easier when I go into more detail.

Below you will find a table with the combat and weapon focus for each kingdom.

Name	Animal	Combat focus	Weapon focus
Kui	Bear	Strength and grapples	Unarmed and big weapons
Sanzuwu	Eagle	Speed	Unarmed/claws
Mamien	Horse	Endurance and mounted	Unarmed (kicks)
Luduan	Wolf	Tactics/strike	Sabers
Tianlong	Dragon	Power	Armour and classical weapons
Bashe	Spider	Stealth	Daggers/needles
Peng	Bird of Paradise	Magic and mobility	Spear
Xiao	Monkey	Dodge	Staff
Taotie	Pig	Toughness	Swords
Jian	Swan	Elegance	Flexible* and fans

*flexible weapons are weapons that have a rope or chain to make their movements unpredictable, such as a whip.

The information in the tables above is subject to change. I might find that a certain clan should have more focus on a different weapon, I will not hesitate to change this. I am also lacking some weapon types, which I might add to the clans. I can imagine the Sanzuwu kingdom to also focus on archery for example. I might even give the Peng kingdom the bow as a weapon focus, and add the spear to the Mamien kingdom.

As always, if you have any questions or you would like to discuss one of my choices, be free to leave a message or contact me. In my next post I will discuss the making of a map for the ten kingdoms and I expect to post this halfway through the week as these maps are done with the material I have so far. I hope you enjoyed this post and I hope you're excited as I am to see these kingdoms fleshed out.