Banner of Xen Yang, the Dragon Emperor of Grand Cathay
The Dragon Emperor, whose personal name was Xen Yang[12], the Celestial Dragon,[13] and who was also known as the "Celestial Dragon Emperor,"[1a][1b] is the co-ruler of Grand Cathay alongside his wife Quai Yin, the Moon Empress. Both the Dragon Emperor and his wife are actually immortal Cathayan Dragons and powerful spellcasters who are able to magically take Human form.[11]
The Dragon Emperor and his consort ruled over Grand Cathay from sometime before -1800 to 1999 IC, with a short break during their disappearance from 1999 to 2387 IC. After 2387 they ruled Cathay until the ultimate destruction of the world of Mallus by Chaos in 2528 IC.[4a][12]
At present, the Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress spend most of their time in the Celestial City that floats majestically above the crowded streets of the capital of Wei-Jin, contemplating the future of the empire. With his consort, the Dragon Emperor rules directly over their empire's central Imperial Provinces, leaving the mundane tasks of day-to-day rule and administration of all the other provinces of the empire to their five Cathayan Dragon children and the various Human nobles, military commanders and bureaucrats who assist them.[12]
Quick Answers
What is the personal name of the Dragon Emperor?
Who is the co-ruler of Grand Cathay alongside the Dragon Emperor?
What is the true form of the Dragon Emperor and his consort?
What are the Dragon Emperor and his wife able to do due to their magical abilities?
Who directly rules the empire's Imperial Provinces in Grand Cathay?
History[]
A jade Cathayan Dragon figurine, which Tzarina Katarin Bokha used to represent the forces of Grand Cathay to the troops of Kislev. Note the Dragon is wearing a breastplate and has pauldrons, and holds a globe in its hands.
The Dragon Emperor Xen Yang and his wife, the Moon Empress Quai Yin, are immensely old, having existed on the world of Mallus even prior to the arrival of the Old Ones and their reshaping of the planet. They were not pleased when the Old Ones moved the planet closer to its sun, warming the climate and making it less comfortable for Dragons such as themselves, most of whom are now in hibernation as a result. They were also not pleased with the coming of Chaos during the Great Catastrophe, which they blamed on the unnecessary meddling of the Old Ones with the natural order.[12]
The Dragon Emperor is said to have unified the Men of the myriad ancient states of the Far East into the Celestial Empire of Grand Cathay in the distant past, sometime prior to -1800 IC. In that ancient time, he and the Moon Empress took a much more active role in leading Grand Cathay, and this was the time during which the Great Bastion, a gigantic fortified wall, was first constructed to protect the Cathayan people from the predations of the marauding, Chaos-worshipping Northmen tribes of the Hung and Kurgan, who dwelled in the Chaos Wastes. It was also at this time that the great magical constructs of the Terracotta Sentinels were first created under the Cathayan Dragons' direction to aid in that defence.[4a][12]
From 1999 to 2387 IC, the Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress disappeared from Cathay. During this time, their children quarreled with each other, and Cathay effectively became divided into a collection of bickering, warring individual states. At the height of the crisis, the Monkey King claimed the throne of Grand Cathay in the Celestial City. This finally caused the Dragon Emperor's children to end their in-fighting and face the true threat to the empire, and the crisis ended when the Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress returned and reclaimed their thrones.[12]
The Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress "have a plan" and are "working towards something." This may or may not be in the best long-term interests of the people of Grand Cathay.[12]
Nature[]
The Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress are revered throughout Grand Cathay as great leaders worthy of obedience and adoration, and speaking ill of them is a quick way to get oneself killed by the common people. Additionally, as enormously potent spellcasters, the Emperor and Empress' magical power is comparable to most of the gods of the mortal races such as the Elven and Old World pantheons.[12]
However, they are very much not deities themselves -- in the sense of being created in the Realm of Chaos through the belief of mortals -- and they do not wish to be worshipped in a religious sense. In fact they are older than most of the gods of the mortal races (eg: Sigmar) and view them with a degree of contempt as relative newcomers to the scene.[12]
As a result, the religious worship of any gods is unpopular in Grand Cathay and although the Cathayan common people do venerate their ancestors and many small shrines to these spirits can be found in the people's homes, this ancestor worship cannot in any way be considered an organised religion.[12]
The Dragon Emperor seems to be magically linked in some unknown fashion with the massive structure of the Great Bastion.[12]
The Lore of Heavens is said to be the Dragon Emperor's favoured lore of magic, with Cathay's astromancers being said to have become experts in harnessing it due to the Dragon Emperor's affinity to the Wind of Azyr.[14]
Imperial Family[]
The Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress have nine children, who are also immortal, shapeshifting Cathayan Dragons like themselves. Five of these offspring are known to rule various regions of Grand Cathay, handling all of the day-to-day administrative tasks for their parents.[12]
Other Cathayan Emperors[]
The Dragon Emperor is said to be immortal, but the names of several different emperors of Grand Cathay are known in historical records. Only some of these scholars believe that he is an actual Dragon in the form of a man.[1a][1b]
This discrepancy has been explained as scholars of the western regions of the Old World being confused about various different titles in the Cathayan language for the same Dragon Emperor. They did not understand, or perhaps could not even comprehend, that Grand Cathay has been ruled for its entire history by a single being who is an immortal, shapeshifting Dragon instead of a long line of mortal rulers of the same family, as in the west.[11]
In fact, the Dragon Emperor truly is an immortal Cathayan Dragon in Human form, who has ruled Grand Cathay since its founding many thousands of years ago.[11][12] However, the names of the following different emperors of Cathay have been erroneously recorded by western scholars of the Old World:
- Xen Huong - The Cathyan emperor Xen Huong is said to have ruled around -2748 IC. During his reign, the neighbouring Ogre tribes who had maintained peaceful relationships with Grand Cathay started to devour Human children along the border. Xen Huong's coven of astromancers may have had a hand in the arrival of the comet that crashed in the Ogre homelands and drove them westwards. That comet brought the Great Maw, the deity of the Ogres, to the world.[2a][3a][16]
- Wu - Emperor Wu of the Wu Dynasty was supposedly crowned in 1676 IC. In 1690 IC (the fourteenth year of his reign[5a]) he sent a large fleet to invade and conquer the Southlands[5a][5b] in order to compete with Araby in the spice trade to the Old World. The invasion ended in utter failure due to two great typhoons that dispersed and sunk the fleet. It was probably this same Emperor Wu who met Ricco and Robbio's large Tilean expedition in 1699 IC[6a]. In the end Wu hired its members as barbarian mercenaries to protect the western borders of his empire against the Hobgoblin hordes. This name is now believed to actually have been a mistranslation on the part of Old World scholars, as "wu" means "great dragon leader" and is simply one of the Dragon Emperor's titles. In truth, the Cathayan official who was involved in this episode was the Sea Dragon, Yin-Yin, the Cathayan Dragon daughter of the Dragon Emperor who was the Lord of the Eastern Provinces of Cathay and the Admiral of the Grand Dragon Fleet. It was Yin-Yin who ordered the Cathayan fleet to invade the Southlands in the hopes of securing a monopoly over the spice trade to the Old World from the Arabyans.[12]
- Zhang-Jimou - Emperor Zhang-Jimou's wives were saved from the Executioner Cult of the Jade Pearl by the Questing Knight Leofric Carrard.[9]
- Pu-Yi - The Emperor Pu-Yi led Cathayan forces against Hablo Khan at the Battle of Xen-Tu, but was defeated when the Great Horde of Hobgobla Khan arrived.[10a]
Trivia[]
In Mandarin Chinese, the Dragon Emperor's personal name, Xen Yang (申阳), is written with the characters 申 (shēn - "to extend, to prolong; the divine") and 阳 (yáng - "brightness; the Yang element; the sun"), which can be translated as "Extended Brightness" or "Divine Sun."[15]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Rulebook (7th Edition)
- 2: Warhammer Armies: Ogre Kingdoms (8th Edition)
- 2a: pg. 22
- 3: Warhammer Armies: Ogre Kingdoms (6th Edition)
- 3a: pg. 8
- 4: Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos (7th Edition)
- 4a: pg. 38
- 5: Warhammer Armies: Lizardmen (5th Edition)
- 6: Warhammer Armies: Dogs of War (5th Edition)
- 6a: pp. 85, 92-93
- 7: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition: Children of the Horned Rat (RPG)
- 8: Warhammer: Rulebook (6th Edition)
- 8a: pg. 176
- 9: Guardians of the Forest (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- 9a: Epilogue - Season of the Knight
- 10: White Dwarf 231 (UK Edition)
- 10a: pp. 10-11
- 11: An Introduction to Grand Cathay (Total War: Warhammer III) by Ben Barrett
- 12: Full Interview With Warhammer 3's Lead Writer Andy Hall - Total War Warhammer 3 - Lorebeards Podcast October 12, 2021
- 13: Total War: Warhammer III (PC Game)
- 14: Total War Blog - TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER III GRAND CATHAY ROSTER REVEAL
- 15: Reddit - Chinese name translations for all confirmed Cathayan Dragons
- 16: The Great Maw (Short Story) by L. J. Goulding