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Warhammer Grand Cathay hype and important elements to consider when designing a fantasy Chinese army
🕑 Added 2021-02-13 14:43:42 +0000 UTCHappy Chinese new year!
As it turns out, Grand Cathay has been confirmed as one of the starting factions of the upcoming Total War: Warhammer III! Much joy to be had.
With that being said, while I am very stoked by the news and have high hopes for Creative Assembly, I also understand that it is very difficult to make a Chinese-themed fantasy army "feels" right. So I put together a list of opinions/suggestions/references (or wishlist?) as a rough guideline. It should be noted that this list is not setting-specific, meaning that (hopefully) it is applicable to any fantasy setting.
Yes please!
The strategist
The living and literal embodiment of the adage "the pen is mightier than the sword", no Chinese-themed army will feel complete without a few strategists at its helm. These squishy but sharp-minded war leaders are a unique feature of Chinese-themed army.
Keep in mind that in a fantasy setting with magic, a strategist should be distinguished from generic wizard/spellcaster (I literally can't stress this enough) by either using special abilities like stratagems and battle arrays (see below), or failing that, at least a different kind of magic. Some particularly gifted individuals can be both though.
Giant war drum/war drum array
Although military musicians and battle drums were used by nearly all cultures/historical armies, giant, horizontally-arranged war drum/drum array mounted on raised wooden platform is particularly associated with the Chinese. The beating of war drum is as iconic to Chinese war movies as blowing of war horn to Western ones, so this one is a must-have.
Multirole cavalry
One thing I dislike about many historical/fantasy war game titles is that cavalry units are often forced into the dicthonomy of heavily armoured shock/melee cavalry ("knights") and unarmoured skirmish/ranged cavalry ("mounted scouts" or "horse archers" etc.), which in my opinion is quite boring and unimaginative. There's more to cavalry tactics than skewering people on lance pole and harassing arrow shower. What about close range power shooting? What about shoot then charge? What about shooting WHILE charging?
Chinese cavalry (as well as most Eastern cavalry and even some Western cavalry) were just as skilled in the art of sword, mace, glaive and lance as they were with bow and arrows, which allows them to fulfill multiple roles and adjust to different tactics.
As a side note, with the notable exception of Song Dynasty, most significant Chinese dynasties like Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing were pretty cavalry-centric (high cavalry-to-infantry ratio for a given military campaign), even though infantry still outnumbered cavalry in total numbers.
Wuxia
Why yes, because everybody was kung fu fighting!
Joke aside, Wuxia can be a great addition to any Chinese-themed fantasy army. In their most basic form, wandering swordsmen fulfill the role of lightning fast and extremely deadly auxiliary infantry, relying on dodges, parries and deflections rather than heavy armour for personal protection. The Incredible wealth of Wuxia literature also opens up nearly limitless customisation options such as assassins, poisoners, beastmasters, puppeteers, gadgeteers, healers, cultists, and even sonic attack/mind-controlling musicians.
Keep in mind that due to their social status, Wuxia characters almost never found themselves in the position of army leader. As auxiliary, they should not outnumber the generic rank and file, or take over roles that are supposed to be fulfilled by them.
"Supernatural" battle array
Warfare in the fascinating world of Classical Chinese Novels often involve complex battle arrays that are less military tactics and more feng shui applied to warfare. While seldom explicitly treated as magical in-universe, they can nevertheless bestow seemingly supernatural qualities to the armies performing them ranging from misdirection to invulnerability (which translates to buffs and debuffs in game terms). This makes battle array a great and unique addition to any Chinese-themed fantasy army, especially as part of the repertoire of the strategist's abilities.
It should be noted that battle arrays as described in classic novels are closer to pre-battle deployment (i.e. van, main, rear, wings etc.), rather than battle formations (i.e. hollow square, line, flying wedge etc.). They are actually not as crazy as you might think.
Use with caution
Exotic animal/mount
Most fantasy armies will have access to a few exotic beasts of war or mounts inspired from mythology and folklore for the coolness factor. However, just because some fantastic beasts are drawn from the same mythological source doesn't mean that they can fit together thematically. For example, a warrior king of a medieval fantasy kingdom may ride to battle on a majestic griffin or a Pegasus, but never a Cerberus, even though all of them are inspired by Greek mythology.
Since a Chinese-themed fantasy army will almost always feature a heavy dragon motif, it is advisable to just give it Chinese dragon and other creatures closely associated with dragon, such as Qilin and dragon steed, instead of some random monsters from Classic of Mountains and Seas that no one has ever heard of.
Staff-swinging magic monkey
Although the Monkey King is one of the most popular and enduring Chinese cultural symbols, his status as a powerful but mischievous monster, rebel-turned-Buddhist monk, and main star of his own story will make him a difficult fit in most human-majority armies. Even with severe nerfing, such being is generally too powerful and intelligent to be tamed/enslaved by mere humans, too alien and unpredictable to lead them, too proud to play second fiddle to someone weaker than him, and too rebellious to submit to someone stronger.
Panda
Giant pandas as a popular Chinese cultural symbol only takes root in the relatively recent past, which makes them difficult to fit into fantasy settings derived from older Chinese myths without sticking out like a sore thumb. Moreover, pandas are generally viewed as peaceful, soft and cuddly, and more than a little derpy, all of which are very undesirable qualities as far as "army" and "warfare" are concerned. This makes an army that includes panda in its roster or worse yet, an army of pandas, hard to be taken seriously.
Shaolin warrior monk
Although historically Shaolin Temple did maintain a number of warrior monks, and at times even sent out warrior monks to war, warrior monks were few in numbers and generally served as auxiliary troops supporting a larger military campaign. When designing a Chinese-themed army, care should be taken to not make them too spammable or take over roles that are supposed to be fulfilled by the rank and file.
Personally, I prefer to limit them to either a customisation option of Wuxia (see above), or a variant unit of one.
Xianxia Immortal/Swordsage
Xianxia characters tend to be overpowered, but if done well they can still be a great addition to a Chinese-themed fantasy army. They can be distinguished from Wuxia by being, well, "magical", as well as being primarily ranged combatants (they usually rain swords on their enemy). In general it's better to use video games, TV dramas and movies as reference as these tend to be less absurd than cultivation web novels.
(A small trivia: Xianxia as a literary genre actually predates modern or "new school" Wuxia. The progenitor of Xianxia genre, Legend of the Swordsmen of the Mountains of Shu, was written in 1930-1948, and is itself a part of "old school" Wuxia genre. The novel series was so influencial that all major "new school" Wuxia writters/founders like Jin Yong, Gu Long and Liang Yusheng were heavily inspired by it, so it can be considered the precussor of "new school" Wuxia as well. On the other hand, age of internet Xiuzhen/Cultivation genre is merely a malformed offshoot of Xianxia, overdosed with cocaine and social Darwinism.)
Yin Yang and Wu Xing
One thing I disliked about Total War: Three Kingdoms is that the developers try to shoehorn the concept Wu Xing/Five Elements into nearly every aspects of gameplay just for the sake of it. Just because something is inspired by Chinese culture doesn't mean that one should stick Yin Yang and Wu Xing to literally everything.
Terracotta warrior
The aesthetics of Qin Dynasty and terracotta warriors generally clash heavily with that of the later dynasties, so unless the fantasy army specifically draws inspiration from Qin period, it is better to just leave the terracotta warriors (or terracotta warrior-inspired units) out completely. However, if they must make an appearence in a setting that is inspired by later period(s), it is better to depict them as long forgotten ancient automata or undead that are hostile to the currently living Chinese-themed faction, rather than as part of its army roster.
From a "in-universe power balance" standpoint, large scale use of military automata (or golems, constructs, robots, or whatever) in a fictional setting can only be justified if at least one of the following criteria is met:
- The overall technology or magic level of the setting is high enough to allow widespread use of automata by everyone, thus preserving power balance.
- One particular faction has a very significant leg up in technology/magic over its peers, which explains why only that faction has exclusive access to automata. This is usually balanced out by the fact that such faction tend to be portrayed as a fading power that is forced to use automata to supplement its dwindling numbers, or a relatively weak "new kid at the block" that tries to leveage the advantages of automata so that it can compete with older, established powers on a more even ground.
- The automata are themselves a faction, either because their creators are dead/missing, or they rebelled against them.
A "fantasy China" generally won't be the most technologically advanced or magically attuned faction of the setting to justify having exclusive large scale access to automata, and is large and populous enough to do fine without it.
Chu Ko Nu
Did you know Chu Ko Nu was only used for the grand total of one time in Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, and only as trap? That's the extent of its significance in the story.
Crossbow never enjoyed the same prestige as jian/sword ("The Gentlemen of Weapons"), dao/sabre ("The General of Weapons"), qiang/spear ("The King of Weapons") and gun/staff ("The Ancestor of Weapons") in Chinese culture. As such, when adapting "peasant" weapon such as Chu Ko Nu into a fictional setting (where rule of cool is more important than historical accuracy) so as to represent the specialty of a real world culture, it will need a little extra help in the coolness department. Giving Chu Ko Nu to a bunch of grunts that can be easily slaughtered will only make the already unimpressive weapon even more lame, and when the ICONIC weapon of a faction is perceived as lame, something has definitely gone very, very wrong.
In short, Chu Ko Nu is fine to include in a Chinese-themed fantasy army as an interesting gimmick, magic item, or in the hands of "cool" units such as assassins or gadgeteers. However, giving it to the grunts (or worse yet, replacing normal crosbow with Chu Ko Nu) is unquestionably an absolutely awful design choice.
Avoid these
Japan
Reminder that samurai, daimyo, shogun, ashigaru, rōnnin, sōhei, ninja, kunoichi, geisha, rikishi/sumo wrestler, kannushi/shinto priest, miko/shrine maiden, onmyōji, yamabushi, shugenja, oni, tengu, kappa and yuki-onna aren't Chinese.
Not that there's anything wrong with creating a fantasy faction based on a mashup of several real world cultures (it's fantasy after all). However, for the most part China has neither an iconic warrior class/tradition/culture (such as knight and samurai), nor an especially memorabe mythology/pantheon (the Celestial Bureaucracy is called BUREAUCRACY for a reason). Carelessly throwing together elements from other cultures into "fantasy China" will, more often than not, lead to added elements heavily overshadowing the Chinese base, eroding its identity and uniqueness rather than adding to them.
Dynasty kitchen sink
I have already ranted about this in my impression of Katai Empire range, but there's no harm in repeating myself. Yes, randomly mixing bits and pieces from multiple dynasties/eras into one faction always results in a jumbled mess of suck.
It should be noted that this specifically refers to aesthetics and theme, rather than technological level, magic, or in-universe strength of the faction. It IS possible to design an aesthetically coherent "fantasy China" with steampunk gadgets or crazy magitek.
Overplay the spiritual and mysticism aspect
Aloof mysterious sifu that speaks in riddles and teaches enlightement has no place on the battlefield. Military men should be, and tend to be, earthy and no-nonsense.
Comments
GreatMingMilitary
I am very much aware that current Cathay lore has a lot Japanese stuffs, which IMO is bad. Doubly so when Nippon exists in the lore as well. Ogre, Clan Eshin, Elves etc are more non-humanoid "fictional fantasy cultures“ that have some east asian elements in it, rather than themed after a specific culture. >>Aloof mysterious sifu Elves that are mysterious and speak riddles has been a staple of many fantasy settings, there's nothing wrong with that as they do not reflect a real world culture. As for Eltharion the Blind, blind swordmaster is more of a Japanese trope than a Chinese one (i.e. Zatoichi), although they do occasionally show up in Wuxia. The trope does have a place in a warfare-focused setting though. The Wuxia counterpart of Zatoichi and "handicapped badass" trope is the one-armed swordsman (the Shaw Brothers trilogy) rather than a blind one. >>Onmyoji While it has its root in Daoism, Onmyoji as a profession is unique to Japan. In fact, despite being made by Chinese developer, that Onmyoji mobile game is explicitly set in Japan, and every character/shikigami in the game (except the Kyonshii siblings which are Chinese hopping corpses, but they dress Japanese anyway except for the little sister) has Japanese name and drawn from Japanese folklore. Tropes are not bad, and I am fine with silliness, dark humour, and grim-darkness in Warhammer setting as long as they are handled well. That said, it's better to take notes from how the culture in question generally poke fun at itself, than have someone else poking fun at it. While I can't be 100% certain since I am not Japanese, the example about samurai comitting seppuku over liberal values will probably come off as either weird or offensive to them. There are no shortage of comedic depiction of seppuku over the silliest of reasons from Japanese works though, and a good one shouldn't be difficult to find or adapt.
1000 Jutsu
A "Monkey King" has also been mentioned fighting the Dragon Emperor in Warhammer Fantasy lore but not much has been made of it. Interestingly in Age of Sigmar (A reboot of Warhammer Fantasy so not the same as Total War), there is a blunt weapon wielding cloud riding character coming out for the Elves https://twitter.com/HokutoAndy/status/1351815210546282501
1000 Jutsu
It wouldn't be Warhammer Cathay to avoid Japan though. The Ogre Kingdoms have Cathayan Longswords, giant katanas, which they got from Cathay. Cathay already has Tengu, they're mentioned in the lore fighting for the Dragon Emperor against Chaos. Tengu imagery then comes from Chinese garuda and winged beaked demons that attend Arhats. As for panda people, that feels very modern, they got popular after some Roosevelts shot them. >>Aloof mysterious sifu that speaks in riddles and teaches enlightement has no place on the battlefield This is already done by the Warhammer Fantasy High Elves, the Loremasters of Hoeth. There was also a blind kungfu master swordsman elf who had special stance based powers. In general a lot of East Asian imagery is already done by the Elves ( I talk about it here https://twitter.com/HokutoAndy/status/1335863560954499072 ) Lore-wise, the High and Dark Elves raid and trade with Cathay more than the Empire does. The Old World human Empire then get their Cathayan silks from Elf traders in Fantasy Amsterdam, or Araby. >>Onmyoji That comes from Taoism though, and now China's "Yin Yang Master" is a hit series that adapted Japanese Onmyoji to China. Warhammer Fantasy's High Elf mages are already "Samurai" styled too, which probably means Omyoji because they didn't know that word in 1980's England.Jes Goodwin design notes talk about the 'samurai' look of Elves particularly mages. Warhammer Fantasy's Empire is already a mashup of different Europeans, same with Bretonnia. They'rea lso filled with parody so the Bretonnian peasants are filthy without shoes, the Empire is filled with crap covered rat infested streets and ratman empires right underneath them because they're filthy in general. I hope some of that humor can be brought to Cathay too. Like in the 80's they made fun of bullshido by having a samurai character commit seppuku doing a headstand in a bucket of water because he was angry at his peers being too liberal. I'll do my own patreon entry on the history of the Far East in Warhammer Fantasy, will show you when it's done.
