MatHaz
patreon
Writing Blog - The Beginning of the Storm Dragon Empire Civil War
🕑 Added 2023-06-30 12:00:09 +0000 UTCThe disappearance of the Black Dragon was followed by much confusion and a very frantic search. The followers of the Black Dragon, many of them cultivators of great power, refused to accept his disappearance. Some left the Storm Dragon Empire in search of him and never returned. Others, once it became clear that the Black Dragon would not return, simply left, disappointed and disillusioned.
After these events, Qing Jianjun, youngest of the three imperial siblings, was crowned emperor.
This led to a period called the Year of False Peace.
Though Qing Jianjun had become emperor, things were not well behind closed doors. Having spent several years fearing his oldest brother, then learning to be utterly terrified of his second-oldest brother, Qing Jianjun had grown up to be a very paranoid, very nervous, and very indecisive man. He was not as impressive as his brothers had been, and that was painfully obvious to everyone at court.
Many people, especially the former supporters of the Black Dragon, held Qing Jianjun in contempt and often defied his authority in various ways. Others sought to manipulate the new emperor for their own ends, having realized how easily influenced the man was.
As this happened, great unrest arose among the populace. With many of the strongest families in the empire dead due to the Black Dragon’s machinations and the army significantly weakened after his disappearance, chaos had begun to spread across the country. This was not helped at all by the in-fighting in the palace, which led to rampant corruption and ineptitude in all areas of the government.
Sloppy officials failed to properly collect taxes in some remote villages. At the same time, many towns suffered at the hands of greedy tax collectors. Some cities even began to “forget” to give the emperor his due.
It could ultimately only end one way. Angry at the carnage caused by the Black Dragon and the new emperor’s incompetence, cities began declaring themselves free of imperial authority, perhaps thinking that the emperor wouldn’t be able to do anything.
They were wrong.
The army was dispatched almost immediately. However, this did nothing to quell the rebellious attitude of the people. In some cases, the brutality with which the army enforced imperial authority only further enraged the governors and city lords.
More cities declared independence and even formed alliances with each other. Some governors even started to claim they could trace their ancestry back to the royal family, which made them the legitimate emperor. All this led an already paranoid and fearful Qing Jianjun, at the suggestion of his advisors, to give the generals the power to wage war on all traitors without requiring imperial permission, effectively giving them nearly complete autonomy.
Utter chaos followed.
In the ensuing war, it was the remaining followers of the Black Dragon who quickly distinguished themselves as the dominant forces of the battlefield, and eventually they were the only forces.
When the dust settled, only three were left.
The Three Heavenly Generals of the Storm Dragon Empire.
–From the works of Historian Wei Long–
AN: Hadn't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd fix that. You can leave questions in the comments to be answered in future Q&As.
Comments
Causal Chain
If there was a glass in his hand, he’d have shattered as all his muscles coil at once and his blood pressure rises. -> If there was a glass in his hand, he’d have shattered **it** as all his muscles coil at once and his blood pressure rises.
lenkite
Well, technically the current Emperor also has a reply to that: If your father did his job, I wouldn't be here either.
sapassde .
A little saddened by the fact it might be rewritten but I will be happy to read it either way, looking forward to whenever you get to writing it again.
Mat Haz
Just throwing this out there, it's entirely possible he already wrote it but hasn't published it and is waiting for the right time.
Mat Haz
Well, it's embarrassing to admit, but originally, I had put Nine-to-Five on hiatus because of how busy I was. It was supposed to be a short hiatus, but it just kept dragging on since I couldn't unbusy myself. Now, I'm thinking of rewriting the story since it was always meant to have a faster pace than AXRMY, but that wasn't happening because I was always writing the chapters in a rush. I announced I was thinking about rewriting Nine-to-Five near the beginning of the year, IIRC, but I still can't find the time to just sit down and do that.
Mat Haz
Surprising as it might be to believe, any similarities are largely unintended.
burning_the_paper
I'm kinda curious how much about the Storm Dragon Empire was inspired by the events that led to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms?
sapassde .
Interesting, I had wrongly assumed that the 3 generals were really all that mattered but now old factions coming from those who left after Liu Jin's reveal either to test, support, or deny Liu Jin join the possible acquisition of the general armours as things I'll be really looking forward to seeing. Even though there is already something like old powers returning in Qing Jin (grandpa)'s friend returning the clash of perspectives between the Duke and any kind of other subordinates coming back to the country they left to rot appeals to me. Those who left while being at Heaven or Emperor Realms even might be rejected by Liu Jin as bad in the same negligent way the Jianjun is. Now on more not story related comments I imagine this is one of the things that'll be eventually posted in SB at least in Informational? Also if you don't mind me asking whats up with Nine-To-Five's lack of updates, on here and on RoyalRoad.
Tobias Hammeken Arboe
Honestly that seems to be the case for a great deal of this story xD
Mr R
Yeah, Jianguo messed up on so many levels. Maybe Mat could explain the mess of his abdication by Jianguo's dao demanding he purge the disease i.e. himself immediately. If he didn't leave, his dao would cripple/kill him and then the country would go to hell. Or he could leave immediately and hope to redeem himself somehow. EDIT: Is that true Mat? If not, then what did cause Jianguo to ruin things even further by vanishing?
Mr R
In General He's territory, perhaps. But in General Dan's? I doubt that's the case. Doubly so if Wei Long is a madlad staying in Murong Bang's territory.
StarBat
Jin will be like. "If you fking did your job. I WOULDN'T BE HERE."
Yoav
Tbf to qing jianju. Everyone would be that bloody wrecked after what happened to his life. In here we also see the failure of jiangou first hand. Leaving without preparing his brother for the job was quite possibly the worst mistake he could have done.
almostNEET
No way is this Wei Long writing about the current emperor and using adjectives like "paranoid", "nervous", "indecisive", "not impressive", etc. This document is most definitely written under a different ruler.
SV
The question is whether Wei Long is writing this before or after Liu Jin arrival? If it is after then there may be another excerpt when this arc has concluded.
Yoav
We already suspected that i believe
Valerian
A paranoid, fearful Emperor that lives in dread of Usurpers and claimants. Liu Jin will not be greeted well if he ever makes it to the Imperial Palace.
