The Khitians are well known for their inventions and love for knowledge, and in particular, astronomy. Imperial astronomers watch the sky, recording down strange sights, new stars and the movement of the constellations, for omen and signs. The greatest of all astronomers were one known as Taidezi, who had observed a great white flash in the sky and prompting warning the Son of Heaven of an impending invasion by the horse nomads. Unfortunately, the Emperor ignored Taidezi, and those nomads devoured half of the northern country. Now Taidezi’s records are studied zealously by astrologers, even though he had been dead for more than three hundred years.
- A few records of Taidezi arrived at Ellesland, probably smuggled out from the country (for those are all considered Imperial treasures) and sorcerers, sages and scholars are scrambling to get their hand on it. Meanwhile, Imperial agents from Khitai have arrived, determined to retrieve the star charts at all cost. If the adventurers meet them, the agents would explain it is more than a matter of pride – the charts itself contain the exact arrangement of “A Doom of the Sky”, a time when the “celestial lights are in disharmonious accord” which made it easier to summon demons and fiends to the world.
- A merchant, gifted with a star chart of Taidezi from a high ranking Khitian officer, had a few of his scholarly friends examine it and all went away puzzled. The stars are all in a strange arrangement which does not match those of western astrology and the scholars come to the conclusion that either there is something they didn’t know or the chart is a fraud. Yet when the merchant accidentally hang the chart in front of a mirror, certain of the arrangement begin to form Khitian characters! What is the secret hidden within the star chart?
- Taidezi did more than just record down the arrangement of the stars. He reconstructed them, using the resources of powerful warlords, sorcerers and Imperial Ministers whom were his patrons. He predicted the time when he would die, and retreated into the Sixty-Four-Fold Celestial Formation, a hilly and forested region of natural wonders, with iron pillars erected at certain positioned. If one would climb the Mountain of the Heavenly Wonders and looked down, those pillars would form the major constellations of the Khitian sky. Yet why did Taidezi create such a formation? There are legends that this formation actually channeled the raw Yin and Yang enegry towards its centre, and there Taidezi still live, observing and studying the stars. If the adventurers are in need of sagely advice, Taidezi and the Sixty-Four-Fold Celeistal Formation is a place to go.
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