(China as Qin Shi Huang, Prince difficulty, standard size pangaea map)

I. BEGINNING

The Divine Emperor surveyed the city of Beijing. The place was ideal - the Yellow River provided his people with fresh water, and right to the West was a natural rice field, which would feed many and let the people multiply. To the Northeast lay a deposit of a kind of stone he knew was well suited for construction. Once the wisest men of the tribe had found out a way to effectively extract it, they would start putting it to good use.

A messenger arrived. The Divine Emperor recognized the man. It was Tien, one of the fastest runners that had followed the party of warriors which had set out to explore the surroundings.

-Exalted Emperor, I bring a report from the scouting trek. The site we have colonized in your great wisdom is on a peninsula, with the sea to our North, South and East. In the West there is a huge mass of land. There, we found many things. New crops and animals which make good eating. However, on our way we encountered strange peoples of pale skin and round eyes. One in the Southwest, lean, dark-haired, fair-limbed ones calling themselves Helleni. Another in the Northwest, a people with long, blonde hairs and bears, and a most raucous manner. These call themselves Teutoni.

The Divine Emperor withdrew to his chambers to contemplate these things. Beijing was a fine start, but with its population growing as it did, he knew it could not sustain them for ever. After a night of contemplation, he returned to his throne room the next day to make an announcement for his assembled underlings.

-People of Beijing! Our scouts have reported of strange tidings. In the West, there are great treasures we would be wise to claim for ourselves. However, there are also strange peoples there, whose intentions we cannot possibly know. Therefore we must be vary, and prepare for the possibility that they be hostile. I want one out of every ten males to take up the club, and the rest to feed them and see to their needs so that they can focus fully on training the martial arts from now on.

Accompanied by a cheering mass of people, the settlers proceeded through the main street towards the city gates. The population of Beijing had grown beyond what was needed to work the now-irrigated rice fields down the river, and the quarry up in the Northeast. At the fore of the column, a company of warriors marched. Overlooking it all from his balcony, the Divine Emperor was pleased.

The people of the Middle Kingdom were a spiritual lot. In order to give them a place to properly venerate their ancestors, the Divine Emperor ordained that a great outdoor shrine should be built for this purpose, called the Stonehenge. The ministry of labour allocated all free craftsmen to the project, as well as had a road built to the quarry. It took ages to finish it, but when it was done, it was a monument unlike any the world had ever seen.

One day, the Divine Emperor received word that the settlers had arrived at their destination. They had founded the city of Shanghai. Soon, samples of the bounty of that place was brought to the Imperial court: a golden yellow crop of which good bread could be baked, and fat animals with white and black spots called cows whose meat made a fine addition to the Imperial kitchen.

In his wisdom, the Divine Emperor decreed that a road be built to connect Beijing and Shanghai, so that all of his people could enjoy these treasures, and that the people of Shanghai could be sent the native rice his people had grown up with.

Stranger yet was another discovery by the wise men of Shanghai. There was another large species of animal in the area, brown, four-footed beasts they called horses. They were poorly suited for eating, being leaner and sinewier than the cows, but well suited for war. The warriors of Shanghai had tamed these horses, training them to pull them in chariots from which they could swiftly strike against their foes, smiting them with their clubs.

The Middle Kingdom flourished for a while. The wise men invented a way of expressing words with signs, allowing them to pass on their knowledge to others willing to learn. A third city was founded between Beijing and Shanghai, this one named Guangzhou.

However, dark times would be ahead of the people of the Middle Kingdom. The tribe of Hellens had formed a settlement right to the South of Shanghai. Their leader Alexander, a megalomaniac unaware of his rightful place under Heaven, declared war on the Middle Kingdom. Abundant in chariots, the Hellenistic army struck against the pasture at which the horses of Shanghai were kept, slaying anyone who tried to bring the horses in. In a blow, the Middle Kingdom had lost its best weapon.

The Divine Emperor was most distraught about these ill news. He withdrew to his chambers to meditate and contemplate the matter. After three days he emerged on his balcony, as he used to when he had important matters to announce. A crowd had assembled in the yard below. So spoke the Divine Emperor:

-Hard times await the Middle Kingdom. However, we shall resist! Let all the wise men in the land develop new, better weapons. And until they have done so, we will fight them with our clubs. The clubs were good for our ancestors, let us make them proud of us and show we can fight with them as well. To arms! Serve the Middle Kingdom! Establish the order decreed by Heaven on the Earth!