Jade-Blooded

2023-03-05T21:28:50Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:256B:FD8A:9F3C:1064: /* Canon? */

The Jade-Blooded are an unpublished additional [[Vampire Counts]] Bloodline (type of vampires related by a lineage of being turned leading back to the very first vampires) for [[Warhammer Fantasy]], making them non-canon but still technically part of the IP. It should be noted that they could be considered loosely canon due to certain [[Black Library]] mentions, as discussed below.

Created for the Night's Dark Masters supplement for [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]], later released by Steve Darlington (the co-writer with Jody MacGregor) on its own.

=History=
When [[Queen Neferata]] perfected the eternal life experiments of [[Nagash]] by inventing Vampirism using her Elixer, she invited her most trusted servants of the court to join her. [[Harakhte]] was one of those servants.

While Neferata's cousin [[Ushoran]] was her spymaster, being a schmoozer who was popular among the nobility, it was Harakhte who enforced her will on the populace in his duties as Chief Justice and High Executioner. He created the entire justice system of Lahmia consisting of 900 Scriptures which were enforced zealously by the establishment. In extreme age as a human, to the degree that nobody actually knows his true age other than himself, he took a myriad of drugs magical and mundane to survive. This continued as a Vampire, as anything to improve his health was consumed as often as possible.

For unknown reasons before the fall of Lahmia he decided to turn twelve of his most trusted servants into Vampires and head east along the Warhammer Silk Road to [[Cathay]] AKA China. Whether this is because he knew of the advancing living Nehekharan army or not is unknown. These servants inherited his frail physical health, and likewise had to rely on constant medical treatments to maintain a semblance of health. Eventually all in the Bloodline wound up with cloudy eyes, translucent skin, and bright green blood which gives the Bloodline its name, as well as using his 900 Scriptures as the tenants of his bloodline.

Once he arrived he established a network of spies in each of the thirteen provinces of the nation, although each one of his servants betrayed him and sought power for their own instead. Harakhte managed to destroy four of the traitors before Cathay was divided into several nations. Some are ruled by his servants directly, some use political puppets, and some are ruled by unknown entities. Each one is in a constant state of scheming and planning that would make [[Tzeentch]] require a chart to keep track of, while each pursues the perfection of both traditional ritual and of adherence to the 900 Scriptures.

==Canon?==
Note that in other continuity, Neferata's Cathayan servant is an emissary from foreign lands named [[Prince Xian Ha Feng]] who she sends to Cathay to set up a network of control. Her entire cast of original Vampires other than those from the primary Bloodlines (Ushoran, [[W'soran]], [[Abhorash]], and in later continuity [[Vlad von Carstein|Vashanesh]]) changes in every description of the origins of the Vampires with some having entirely different names, or are dropped or forgotten in every work.
Xian Ha Feng may in fact be considered the canon version of Harakhte and the Jade-Blooded could potentially be canon due to Xian Ha Feng's adventures and influences other than giving Neferata control of the east in the modern day was left undescribed.

Andy Hall (lead writer of [[Total War: WARHAMMER]]) has affirmed that Jade-Blooded Vampires exist in Cathay in this interview [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr-waUnCZ7g].

=Relations=
Thanks to very little fluff, their political relations are largely unclear.
* [[Chaos]]
In some works Chaos is described as having a foothold on the power in Cathay, Tzeentch specifically. Cathay is also described as having a "Dragon Emperor" that has a human form (and may or may not be a dragon that can assume a human form). The Jade-Blooded seem to be a combination of Tzeentch and Nurgle, so their lack of continuity may be from Games Workshop trying to keep the Chaos storyline that they never explored an option, or writers being inspired by the unused Jade-Blooded story. At any rate, the two are not mutually exclusive and are almost certainly enemies since Vampires and Chaos generally do not get along ([[Heinrich Kemmler]] excluded).
* [[Ogre Kingdoms]]
Since Ogres are a constant threat to Cathay, the Ogres are likely enemies to be exterminated.
* [[Orcs & Goblins]]
Greenskins are also a threat to Cathay, and thus are likely pests.
* Vampire Counts
** [[Lahmian]]
Although they have little contact with Lahmia, they still maintain loyalty to the tradition of what Lahmia itself once was and since Neferata canonically controls a large chunk of Cathay she is either a rival for power or an ally to some factions; more likely both at once.

=Armies=
Every Jade-Blooded is revered as a living god by a cult of human followers, while for Undead they prefer Zombies and Wights.
Jade-Blooded themselves prefer to avoid combat, transforming into [[Snek]]s to escape conflict. Everything involved in the Jade-Blooded is poisonous, from the snakes to their claws, their bite, even the air around them; every contact causes the Wasting Disease from which nobody survives which the cults call a blessing (ensuring that all victims touched by a Jade-Blooded die) and befuddlement as if they smoked some REALLY potent narcotics. Some Jade-Blooded have entirely lost the ability to fight or even kill, becoming like ancient infants that their cultists bring victims to with a pre-slit throat for them to suckle from. Others are more refined, having blood harvested by their cult from offerings which they mix into a hookah to imbibe their smoke.

While technically forbidden from creating new Vampires, it is not a Scripture so the rule gets violated. Backstabbing is as common as [[Skaven]] for lower Vampires, keeping the Jade-Blooded the smallest Warhammer Bloodline.

While the physical prowess of the Jade-Blooded is low to non-existent, they gain quite a bit in the trade-off; they can control the minds of thousands of subjects with their voice gestures, far beyond any eye-contact vampire glamour. All Jade-Blooded can hover and fly easily.

Due to never serving Nagash and thus never being cursed for failure, the usual Vampire weaknesses of Sigmar's emblems, flowing water, garlic, and lack of reflection do not affect them.
Unfortunately they do suffer from their own unique weaknesses thanks to their original sire's state. These include varying degrees of blindness, weakness to an herbal concoction of sticky rice which diminishes their powers, and a counting compulsion. They also sometimes suffer from allergies to certain metals, Warpstone, tears of mortals, water itself, [[Warpstone]], and still are weak against sunlight. It is unknown if consuming the heart of a Dragon like the [[Blood Dragons]] would cure any of these.

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Vampire Counts]]

Miao Ying

2023-03-05T21:26:46Z

2A02:1810:4E2C:A900:256B:FD8A:9F3C:1064:

{{Whfb-stub}}
[[File:Miao Ying Cathay Total War Warhammer 3 illustration.jpg|400px|thumb|right|As she appears in [[Total War: WARHAMMER|Total War: Warhammer 3]]]]

Miao Ying, also known as '''the Storm Dragon, ruler of the Northern Provinces, Supreme <s>Matriarch</s> [[Musclegirl|Dommy Mommy]] of Nan Gau, Daughter of the Dragon Emperor, Sentinel of the Great Bastion''' and '''[[Prince Imrik|Dragon Waifu]]''' is one of the two Legendary Lords for [[Cathay]] in Total War Warhammer Three and one of the first playable Cathay characters in any Warhammer property.

She is the oldest child and daughter of the Dragon Emperor and the Moon Empress who rule over Cathay, and runs the actual country along with her siblings while mommy and daddy chill out in the sky city above Wei-Jin. She is the one in charge of the Great Bastion protecting Cathay from Chaos invasion and is arguably the most powerful of her family barring her father and mother. In addition to being a dragon she’s also a powerful wielder of Yin and Life magic (yes, I know Heavens would have made more sense, complain to CA, not me) hence her title of Storm Dragon.

She is described as cold and aloof in her bio, which makes sense as she likely wouldn't care that much for the humans who die every day at the Bastion and probably considers them expendable. Once the cities of Nan-Gau and Po-Mei got into an arms race on who can produce the best warships for the sky fleet, resulting in bloody espionage, sabotage and murder on both sides. Miao Ying caught wind of this and grew angry, not because of the pointless loss of life over a dick measuring contest (that's basically a rounding error as far as Dragon Waifu is concerned), but because it stopped arms shipments to the Bastion. So, during an altitude race between the two cities, she started a storm, slapped both balloons out of the sky, stared at both cities angrily, and flew away. The cities got the message and ceased their bullshit. She also has an interest in war machines and a cold relationship with her brother to the west, [[Zhao Ming]].

Unlike the other Total War OCs, [[Cylostra Direfin]] and [[Kostaltyn]], the community seems to have warmed up to Miao very nicely. This is probably due to her being the first playable Cathay character we have ever seen and her awesome Dragon transformation in the trailer. Either that or... people are horny. It should be noted there is an absurd amount of mod on the Steam Wokshop [[PROMOTIONS|amping up her beauty]] (with a madlad even doing one that progressively corrupts her by Slaanesh and alters her model over the campaign). Some of these mods were there mere ''days'' after the game launched, before there was even an official mod workshop, or modding tools made aviable.

Its somewhat clear that the remaining dragon siblings are based on the Chinese Four Symbols, with Zhao Ming being clearly the Western White Tiger of metal and Li Dao the southern Vermilion Bird of fire. With some light digging, Miao Ying is the Nothern Black Tortoise of Water. some times depictions symbolize a mescaline turtle with a feminine snake tail. you can argue lore of Life would make sense for her as it's the only lore that directly manipulates water at least going by old school Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2nd ED. You may then question why [[Yin-Yin]] who is Admiral of the Grand Dragon Fleet and represents the Azure Dragon of Wood not be the life dragon? Because the only water bending spell only exist in the way back in GW's history for one lore and it looks silly if the Water turtle didn't have a lore tangentially related to water magic and [[Yuan Bo]] not be the heavens dragon.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image: Miao ying.jpg|Miao Ying shows the other Dragon Children the pecking order of favouritism with daddy.
Image: Miao_Ying_cosplay.jpg|Cosplayers are on point.
Image: Miao_ying_Heilian.jpg|As are fanartists (and now Kairos discovered he likes being stepped on)
Image: Miao Horny Mod.png|Seriosuly, y'all need to lay off the horny.
Image: Miao Ship.PNG|Miao deserves better and here's why.
Image: Miao Old World.jpg|Her [[Warhammer: The Old World]] sketch, looking like she's going to find whoever made the horny mod of her and give them a slow, painful death.
</gallery>

[[Category:Total Warhammer]]
[[Category:Cathay]]

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Jade-Blooded

Miao Ying