And already we have our first battle report, including a situation report on the Huaxia region of Xiandao’s polar expanses. This comes to us from Richard Rohlin and his Texas gaming crew. As you will read, things are already getting out of hand.

In the Northeast of Xiandao’s main continent (region name: Huaxia) is a peninsula bounded on its polar side by the Jade River and to the southeast by the Bay of Nanyue. Its coastal lowlands are the ancient homeland of the Xia people, who in their ancient history and legends claim to have ruled over the whole world of Xiandao, during the time of the Five Emperors, and given the world its name. Three ancient cities, overtopped by graceful plastigranite walls and ferroglass pagodas, stand as a testament to the achievements of the Xia at the height of their civilization: Xianyang and Daliang (on the sea coast) and Kai (overlooking the Bay of Nanyue).

Between these three cities, verdant but rugged highlands are home to primeval forests, nomadic herdsmen, and the fortress monastery of the Order of Our Lady of Jade, a small order of Templars who have sworn their lives to the service of the True Faith. Clad in plasteel power armor, they use rapid deployment techniques such as short-range teleporters to offer succor to pilgrims, as well as to their more peaceful monastic brethren in the region.

When the Blessed Concordance broke out, the city governments of Xianyang and Daliang both officially censured it, but did little else to check the advance of the rebels, and there have been rumors that the ancient nobility of those cities, never fully accepting the True Faith, have actually been funding the rebellion and ensuring that the world’s planetary defenses were taken offline. Smaller and more isolated, Kai – the first city in the region to accepted the True Faith when it came to Xiandao – has held strong, thanks to the tireless clerics of the Cathedral of St. Li Ban of the Silver Net. There are fears, though, that the nobility in all three of their cities will dig into their ancient arsenals in the hopes of using the present disturbance to eliminate their rivals – something which could potentially prove disastrous for the whole continent.

Recently, word arrived at the Monastery of Our Lady of Jade that a powerful Xianyang nobleman known has Shu of the Ten Thousand Graces had sent a detachment of his family’s prateorial cohort to re-open Silk Dragon Base, a store of his family’s xenobiological armaments which had lain unused for centuries, banned as they were by the Pax Dei. With no other loyalist troops in the region, Grandmaster Nikephor took a small force of warrior monks, including his personal retinue of the Penitent, especially zealous warrior-monks wearing Cataphract Plate which made use of short-range teleporters to come to grips with their foes.

Grandmaster Nikephor encountered the Ten Thousand Graces on the outskirts of the Silk Dragon Base. The Ten Thousand Graces were occupying a strong position, but the Penitent were able to utilize their short range teleportation to get in behind the barricades. Weathering the storm of pulse weapon fire, the Cataphracts cut down all before them, and the remaining Ten Thousand Graces withdrew as their lines of supply and communication were cut off. The Order of Our Lady of Jade was left in control of the Silk Dragon Base, but found that someone had already ruptured the ancient Interdict seals placed upon its doors. Now, Grandmaster Nikephor faced the unenviable task of finding out who had gotten in—or out.