Board Thread:Custom Lore Development/@comment-26535281-20170427003114

Xinese mythology is a pretty broad and overarching 'thing' full of many different gods, concepts, and heroes.

Let's start with some basic concepts, Tiandi being the first. Tiandi is the supreme heavenly deity from which everything is born both good and bad, dark and evil, Yin and Yang.

Under Tiandi come his Heavenly Servants (Valar) which form the core of Xinese religion. Each god is given a 'cult' of worship dedicated to them and each are given hosts of Sages, holy days, and so fourth. Here is a list of the gods:http://middle-earth-roleplay.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:249489

Under the gods are the Celestial Servants (Maia) which each Heavenly Servant has thousands of. Think of them as minor gods. Like there is a overarching god of the ocean but each sea has it's own lesser god that is a servant of the ocean god.

Now for the four heavenly directions/four Heavenly Dragons. Each Heavenly Dragon represents a season, direction, virtue, and a vice. Each Dragon also has a animal servant. The Dragons are as follows with their roles:

Meng Zhang:

Spring, East, Humility, Pride, and his servant being the Blue Serpent

Ling Guang:

Summer, South, Patience, Anger, and her servant being the Jade Crane

Jian Bing:

Autumn, West, Diligence, Sloth, and his servant being the White Tiger

Zhi Ming:

Winter, North, Liberality, Greed, and her servant being the Black Turtle

The Dragons can be seen as a force of Yin and Yang. With each having a virtue they gift to the righteous, but also having a vice they curse (Or bless if you ask some) to the unfaithful or wicked. Think of them as cosmic assholes that just love to mess with people for fun.

The Dragons are kept in check by the 5th Celestial Dragon (Not listed before as she does not have a season, direction, ect.) She is known as Oryu and is the mother of all Dragons (Save the Cosmic Dragons) she is the Dragon of the center and the divine protector of the Emperor. She is also the holder of the Mandate of Heaven and can bestow and take away it's authority.

Now for some Celestial Bodies! There are two major ones (You can probably guess what they are) when one sets the other rises and vice verse they are the Cosmic Dragons Yin and Yang who hold each other's tails in each other's mouth keeping a balance over the world. As you can guess one is almost completely white and one is almost completely black but each have a small patch of the other's color. This shows that even good has bits of evil and evil has bits of good.

Stars are pretty important as well some constellations are those of the Immortals gifted a spot in on of the heavenly realms (The 12 divisions of the universe), others are the Heavenly Dragons themselves (The Planets), and others are mythological beings such as the silver river, Youi's arrow, and many others.

Although not technically a Celestial Body it should still be covered, the Heavenly Pillars!

The Heavenly Pillars (Of which their are six) come in two groups the Four Pillars of Destiny and the Pillars of Heaven. First lets cover the Four Pillars of Destiny, they are the corner stone of one's destiny determined by the year, month, day, and hour of one's birth. Each Pillar is lorded over by a divine judge who will judge one's life and determine if they may enter heaven or not. They are also seen as the guards of destiny and the after life thus the Four Lords of Destiny are also the Four Guardians (With a statue of each placed in the four corners of a tomb or shrine). The Pillars of Heaven are a bit different. They are what keeps the realms separated (Heaven, Earth, and Hell/Underworld/Hades/So many other names) that's about it...

Now finally lets look at some important mythological figures!

The Two Sorcerers/Blue Capped wise men/Many other names are a pretty important duo in Xin. They came to Xin long ago and spread many great gifts and inventions. It is said they first started both the Zhia religion and also of teaching Yu the Engineer in his art.

The Eight Immortals are a legendary group (With each given a place in the Heavens). They are split into two groups the Five Swords Men and the Three Legendary Scholars. They are credited with bringing the birth of both the Xinese Culture but also in a way the Empire (As they created the Eight Kingdoms before Xin became a Empire).

Shi Huangdi is a Legendary and god like figure in the hearts and minds of Xin. He is the first Emperor, that is all that really needs to be said.

Thoughts on all of this? 