Unnamed Wuxia Sandbox Setting: Eastern City and Character Origins Part 3

Just a because a city looks cleaner, safer and more 'orderly' doesn't make it any less terrifying. On the opposite end of that trade road and main gateway into the Empire's more populous lands is the Eastern City. Its people love to frame themselves as more traditional, orderly, educated and less barbaric than their neighboring city but it is little more than a face, for this seemingly more quiet city is also host to great violence and cruelty. Its cruel masters fancy themselves as more loyal and patriotic to the Emperor yet ultimately possess a very selfish and self-justifying philosophy.

The East City

Art by Yujiang J

The Eastern City is clad in a veneer of civilization, compared to its westward cousin. However, in spite of looking more calm, orderly and clean it remain just as much a place of misery and poverty. Very little truly ever change across the lands, after all.

It is the place where travelling scholars, poets and artists enter the region of the sandbox. It is also where foreign goods disappear from the region forever and into Imperial lands and where soldiers and magistrate arrive when the region somewhat attract the Emperor's attention. Yet just like the West City, its people are corrupt and self-serving and have learned to navigate the politics to ensure food, money and more conveniently vanish before it ever enter the gates officially. Then bandits and the West City are blamed. Underneath their mask of being law abiding, honest and loyal the folks of the East City are increasingly hostile to the Emperor for they believe they know better and that, perhaps, the Empire would be better off under a more direct influence from their best thinkers.

Artist unknown.

The Jade Society

Skills: Martial Arts and Scholar

Style: Shower of Flowers

Virtues: 

• Piety (Legalism?)
• Xin (Honor)
• Chou (Revenge)

Officially the Jade Society is a twin-branched society, with one hand being scholars, merchants, priests and various nobles of some variety while the other hand consist of loyal and patriotic soldiers. As the counterparts to the Righteous Bulls the two overlap quite a bit in that they both frame themselves as Emperor-loyal and righteous folks. The difference is that the Righteous Bulls frame themselves as heroes of the common folk (which they harass and oppress just as much) while the Jade Society frame themselves as more noble and less willing to consort with lowlife and stranger. Both are ultimately self-serving criminal societies with martial artists. The Jade Society believe that the land and its people have gone astray and are increasingly in need of a strong, guiding hand which just so conveniently happen to be them. They are hoping to slowly convince Imperial authorities to side with them and 'reform' the Eastern City, although this reform would easily come off as extremely bloody and oppressive to anyone not in their good graces. While they may appear as kinder and more refined than the brutes of the Righteous Bulls, anyone who seriously offend the Jade Society can expect a spectacularly painful death.

While they are not as numerous as the Righteous Bulls, they boast many more gifted martial artists in their rank. The Jade Society, for all its flaws and smugness are nonetheless defenders of the people, albeit in their own way. They strongly despise bandits, raiders and sorcerers. This has put them at odds with the Bulls and the Exile clan, the latter of which they view as little more than the dangerous remains of an upstart group of corrupt would-be-bandit-kings.

• While it may not initially appear as such, the Jade Society are expected to be an antagonistic faction in their own way. Their loyalty is to themselves and their own self-proclaimed ideals and it is very likely any wandering hero-type character might take offense to their cruelty or dislike of certain practices. Someone who pick the Jade Society as Sworn Enemies is likely to be someone they have wronged in the past. In particular, a member of the Beggar Sect is an enemy of the Jade Society by default.
• Ex-members of the Jade Society are those which have fled the group, as it rarely tolerate dissent against its more orthodox teaching and ideas. Becoming a convert to Buddhism (or even worse, something even more exotic!) is also a surefire way to get kicked out of the Jade Society.
• It is possible to work as allies to the Jade Society and something akin to a 'freelancer'. However this would automatically make the character and enemy of the Righteous Bulls, Beggar Sect and Exile Clan.

Artist Unknown.

Black Claws Assassin

Skills: Detective, Scout and/or Thief

Style: The Black Claws Assassins lack any particular style of their own and simply steal and teach whatever they can!

Virtues:

• Xin (Honor)
• Chou (Revenge)
• Hen (Ruthlessness)

Little more than cruel killer for hire and assassins, the Black Claws are nominally aligned very loosely with the Jade Society not out of any sense of true loyalty but simply through their connections. It was with the help of the Black Claw Assassins that the Jade Society helped accelerate the downfall of the Exile Clan and it is with their help that they can sometimes get rid of people who are a bit too loyal to the Empire. While it isn't quite the case just yet, the Black Claw Assassins hope to one day completely consume the Jade Society from the inside and rule them as their puppet master. For now they are loosely-speaking allies, although some branches fight each others here and there. They have little love for the Righteous Bulls or the Beggars either, which they see as little more than idiotic scum. They also have little love for incompetent Imperial forces or authority figures which they might deem weak and inept.

The Black Claw Assassins, for all their cruelty, are at least honorable if only by assassin standards. While the organization as a whole can be cruel and uncaring, individual members are expected to show a modicum of loyalty, respect and reciprocity to those which do help them. However given their twisted nature, most Black Claws Assassins are left to self-define how exactly this code of honor manifest. For some it simply boil down to 'You help me so I won't stab you in the back' while others go as far as to give their lives for the loved one of a fellow warrior of their sect. It is likely that its lower ranking members are more honorable than their vile superiors but, as always, loyalty is a must.

• Much like the Jade Society, the Black Claw Assassins make excellent Sworn Enemies and are well suited to an antagonist role. Being killers of all stripes, they have quite the high body count and have enacted many extermination of growing sects or schools which might upset the balance of the region. In addition, members of the Righteous Bulls and Beggar Sect are instantly enemies to the Black Claw Assassins.
• The Black Claw Assassins are an incredibly varied group and their various sub-groups can cover a variety of assassin archetypes, from brutal masked thugs to brothels secretly training its ladies to be dangerous killers. Any character could have one point been a member of the Black Claw Assassins and should this option be chosen they are going to have problems even setting foot in the East City.

The Beggar Fraternity (East City Branch)

Artist unknown.

While nominally the same faction as the Beggar Fratenity of the West City, these members navigate somewhat different local politics. The Eastern City is notoriously cruel to its beggars at the worst of days and cruelly indifferent in the best of days. The poor, the infirm and the insane are quite disliked as degenerates by the Jade Society and the Black Claw Assassins. The Righteous Bulls are somewhat easy to avoid and trick but Jade Society's dislike (and inability to get rid off) of the beggar population in the East City make things more difficult.

As a result, many of the members of the Beggar Sect in the city are part what is called the 'clean cloth' division and are members of ordinary society secretly trying to help those in need and the Beggar Sect. Many of them hide among traders, merchants and couriers who travel the countryside to and from the twin cities. Others work as woodsmen or similar outdoor jobs which invariably bring them back to the city to exchange their goods.