Information Thread for Potential New Cathay Units

**PaulH** · February 01, 2017, 06:28 PM

Information Thread for Potential New Cathayan Units

The travellers that return from Cathay tell tales of great golden pagodas and the inexhaustible armies of the eastern despots. They bring exotic spices and finest silks, gleaming gold, luxurious porcelain vases and all manner of strange and wonderful items from the Kingdom of the Dragon, glimpses of the mysterious glory of the distant and rich orient. They also bring tales of jade cities and high temples where mystics probe the movements of the heavenly bodies and the positions of the stars, of the scholars who inscribe every word ever uttered by their divine Emperor. Many strange creatures are said to live in the land of Cathay, from serpentine dragons to gigantic living stone dogs which guard the temples of the multitudinous gods of Cathay. Records of travellers tell of the thousand, thousand footsoldiers of the Emperor, the mystic brotherhoods of monks who can kill you with a touch of their hand, and the strange monkey warriors living high in the Mountains of Heaven. Most of these tales are highly fanciful, but certainly the Empire of the Celestial Dragon must be a wondrous and rich place, but until the trade routes to the east are safe it will remain a realm of legend.

Military, Celestial and Technological Regiments and Notables

Lords and Heroes

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Celestial

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Infantry

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Cathayan Pikemen = ”Under their eastern warlord, Fengshen Ku, the Hundun marauder clan belonged to the Dreaded Wo tribe and were made up of mounted members of the respected sword clans and their retainers that formed hordes of pike-wielding supporters. With their black, lacquered armour, pairs of curved long swords and iron masks – forged in expressions of horror and dismay – Fengshen Ku and the sword clan of the Dreaded Wo were a dark and determined force. Archaon had been told by Vayne that the Hundun very much resembled the celestial warriors of the Dragon Kingdom, manning the empire-spanning wall of the Great Bastian, which kept the marauders of Chaos at bay.”
Archaon: Everchosen novel by Rob Sanders

Cathayan Sword Clans = ”Under their eastern warlord, Fengshen Ku, the Hundun marauder clan belonged to the Dreaded Wo tribe and were made up of mounted members of the respected sword clans and their retainers that formed hordes of pike-wielding supporters. With their black, lacquered armour, pairs of curved long swords and iron masks – forged in expressions of horror and dismay – Fengshen Ku and the sword clan of the Dreaded Wo were a dark and determined force. Archaon had been told by Vayne that the Hundun very much resembled the celestial warriors of the Dragon Kingdom, manning the empire-spanning wall of the Great Bastian, which kept the marauders of Chaos at bay.”
Archaon: Everchosen novel by Rob Sanders

Bannermen (Crossbows) = Cathayans using crossbows are mentioned in Captain Yin-Tuan’s story.
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Yin-Tuan
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wi...ayan_Bannermen

Bannermen (Greatswords) = Oath-sworn and stalwart warriors that wear emerald green back banners, wield long curved swords, wicked polearms and crossbows, and are famous for standing their ground however badly outnumbered.
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160531201250

Bannermen (Spear and Shield) = They are known to wield long blades of thousand-folded iron, wickedly curved polearms. They also carry lacquered "tiger-shields", probably named after a tiger stripes pattern painted on their surface,
https://forums.totalwar.com/discussi...-nippon#latest
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wi...ayan_Bannermen

Hill Tribesmen = They’re fierce apparently.
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cathay

[b]Palace Guard[b] = Once led by Captain Yin-Tuan, obviously they protect the Dragon Emperor so are likely very elite.
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cathay
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wi...ayan_Bannermen

Peasant Bowmen = Potentially just Bowmen.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmG9RHAWMAAwHsd.jpg

Cavalry

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Ki’lin Knights = Knights that ride on the backs of the Ki’lin, a kind of fire dragon horse.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmG9RHPWIAEVtsm.jpg

Knights of Cathay = Heavily mounted horsemen from the far eastern lands of Cathay.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmG9JqxWQAAZcDG.jpg

Knights of Cathay (Firelances) = ”Dozens of handguns, thrice-pistols, Arabyan jezzailachis, antique flintlocks and Cathayan firesticks lined the shelves.” Used in chinese history by cavalry at times.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmG9JqxWQAAZcDG.jpg
Dreadfleet by Phil Kelly - Chapter 3

Temple Dog Riders = They resemble nothing so much as a cross between a giant pekinese and a lion. In times of war, the power of the temple gods is channelled into these statues to animate them. It is a great honour to mount this divine animal, indicating that the rider has found great favour with the gods. About the size of a horse, the Temple Dog retains some of the properties of stone, giving it a very tough skin and tremendous weight.
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Temple_Dogs

Specialist Ammunition

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Constructs

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Foreigners

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Artillery

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Cannons = Gunpowder technology is known in Cathay, and is used both in ornate, snarling-mouthed bronze cannons that shoot clusters of bronze javelins.
http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cathay

Imperial Artillery Squadron = They appear to use giant firework rockets, much like the Empire Helstrom.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CmG9RHPWIAEVtsm.jpg

Siege Train

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"The only realistic solution to breaking massive fortifications is to employ a formidable siege train which includes siege engines of gigantic proportions capable of smashing down the strongest walls, gates and towers quickly. These machines are so huge that they cannot easily be constructed in the field. Instead, they must be manufactured in advance, often in pre-fabricated sections which can be transported in wagons, on ships, or stored until needed in fortresses."
https://i.imgur.com/SZ5PSHZ.png White Dwarf 155

The Giant Battering Ram = "The giant battering ram is cut from the tallest and strongest tree in the realm and shod with a massive iron or bronze head. Hundreds of men are needed to pull the ropes that swing the ram to strike a gate or fortress wall. One blow will smash great oak doors like matchwood or crumbles masonry into powder, collapsing towers and walls like sand castles. The hides of a thousand beasts form its canopy, protecting the operators from the arrows of the defenders."
https://i.imgur.com/SZ5PSHZ.png White Dwarf 155

The Great Cannon = "The great cannon is a cannon so big that the ruler will have to make special measures to get hold of enough metal to make it. All the bells in the realm or all the cannons of the fleet may have to be melted down to provide enough bronze to cast a single great cannon. It is so monstrous that hundreds of oxen are required to pull it."
https://i.imgur.com/SZ5PSHZ.png White Dwarf 155

The Monstrous Stone Thrower = "This is a catapult operated by a massive counterweight which swings a long shaft and hurls a boulder a very great distance. The huge boulder will smash any ramparts that it strikes. The catapult is made of thick timbers to withstand the stress and strain, but the parts can be transported individually on wagons and are lashed togehter into a catapult in the siege lines."
https://i.imgur.com/SZ5PSHZ.png White Dwarf 155

The Siege Tower = "Hundreds of wagons are required to carry the pre-fabricated timbers that make up the siege tower, and when these are put together the siege tower will be raised higher than any known wall. Bolt throwers shoot out of port holes on each of its many levels. A drawbridge or spiked corvus is ready on the top of the tower to be dropped on the enemy battlements allowing attackers to swarm across, constantly reinforced by a steam stream of soldiers."
https://i.imgur.com/SZ5PSHZ.png White Dwarf 155

Specialist Ammunition

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Monstrous Beasts

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Naval

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Added Units:

Arcane Arrow (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)
Arcane Bodkins (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)
Blood Arrows (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)
Hail of Doom Arrows (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)
Hell Shafts (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)
Knights of Cathay - Firelances (Cavalry)
Seeking Arrows (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)
Temple Dogs (Monstrous Beasts)
Wings of Death Arrows (Infantry - Specialist Ammunition)

Removed Units:

None yet

**PaulH** · October 25, 2017, 05:53 PM

Special and Named Characters

Here is contained a full list of every possible Legendary Lord or Legendary Hero that I could find for Cathay, excluding those who are long dead. I have split them into different categories for each Cathayan Faction and whether they suit being Lords or Heroes, so it is easier to know which they are best suited to being added to, if someone wished to add them to the game. Without further ado, here we go.

Cathay

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Added Characters

Emperor Pu-Yi (Cathay - Faction Leader)
Tong Po (Cathay - Lord)

Removed Characters

None yet

**PaulH** · August 05, 2018, 04:54 PM

Magical Weapons, Armour, Amulets, Scrolls and Other Items

This section deals in those magical items that can be used by this faction. This is by no means a full list, I doubt I'll ever get that, but it will provide modders with information if they wish to add new magical weapons, armour and items into the game to be used.

Common Magic Items

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Magic Weapons

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Talisman

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Arcane Items

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Magic Armour

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Magic Standard

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Mythic Items

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Dawnstar Sword = ”Legend goes that this blade was forged in the first rays of light to strike the world. The energy of this auspicious enchantment remains embedded deep within the burnished blade, waiting to be called forth once more in a blaze of glory.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Blade of Last Resort = ”This sword has ever had a twisted sense of humour, seeking out overmatched heroes and aiding them against a chosen foe. However, the Blade of Last Resort draws its strength from a victor’s glorious lifeblood; those that best an opponent with its aid themselves have scant moments to live.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Dodecahedron of Continental Drift = ”Said to have been left behind by the Old Ones, this peculiar object can be used to remake the world. Each alteration to the Dodecahedron’s external matrix is reflected on the land around the user. Its ill-considered use can easily prove catastrophic…”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Fozzrik’s Floating Fortress = ”Though Fozzrik’s magical aptitude led him to become a wizard, he never lost his love for architecture. Many of the Old World’s cities have been built around immaculate structures that Fozzrik created from stone and sorcery, but more prized by far are his floating fortresses - buildings that move under their own power and sprout defences to repel intruders.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Woodwaker’s Wand = ”Once upon a time, all the woods in the world were linked. Some say this great forest was alive, in a curious sort of way, and that every tree that now grows retains a portion of its vigour and intelligence just waiting to be revived.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Living Deadwood Staff = ”Arboreonecromancy is a little-practiced branch of wizardry - any mystic crazed enough to attempt it normally transfers his attentions back to raising zombies and skeletons, rather than undead trees. However, legends tell of the Archmage Sycamo, ‘The Daemon Carpenter of Estalia’, who not only perfected a method of reanimating trees from their residual elements, but also filling them with astounding vigour. Much of Sycamo’s work has, fortunately, been lost to the intervening aeons, but the Living Deadwood Staff never stays missing for long…”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Giantkin Helm = ”After constantly being told ‘We expect big things from you’ by his Elector Count father, Heinrich von Roth spent much of the family fortune commissioning an artefact that would help him achieve greatness. Alas, he was to learn that when dealing with wizards, precision of diction is just as important as largesse of payment.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Windcatcher Prism = ”This peculiar bauble was crafted long ago, its purpose very much tied to storms of magic. Once a particular Wind of Magic rises to a certain cataclysmic level, the Windcatcher Prism absorbs and rechannels a portion of its power, bestowing the bearer - and his immediate allies - with an avataric aspect of the ascendant Wind of Magic.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Paranoth’s Piquet Fence = ”Paranoth was a famous travelling mage, who trod every road ‘twixt Cathay and Naggarond. Naturally, only a particularly foolish wizard would journey such roads without defences, so Paranoth wove himself a sorcerous fence to defend his encampments whilst he and his companions slept.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Rockcharmer’s Flute = ”Androgast Gildheim was the first man in the Empire to master this granite flute, but its origins lie hidden in the mists of time. Some say that the Rockcharmer’s Flute was used to destroy the old Dwarfen realms, others that it sank the fabled realm of Seidon. However, the most popular tale concerns a drunken Halfling, the Rockcharmer’s Flute, a jug of lamp oil, a plate of sausages and the accidental creation of the Grey Mountains.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Wyssan’s Weighted Dice = ”This set of weighted dice is one amongst many forged by Arctovian Wyssan over the course of a long and (unsurprisingly) successful wagering career. At the bearer’s command, these skull-marked cubes play havoc with the laws of causality; turning certainty into bleak misfortune.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Arabyan Puzzlebox = ”This elegantly crafted container houses many hundreds of glittering gemstones, each with the power to harness the Winds of Magic if used in the correct manner. Alas, the user can never truly be sure that the compartment he has opened will contain the gems he needed.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Black Book of Ibn Naggazar = ”Ibn Naggazar was a brilliant, if somewhat maniacal, Arabyan sorcerer. Whilst it is unknown whether his madness sprang from isolation, too many attempts at creating intoxicating ‘elixirs’ or the honeyed promises of whispering Daemons, there can be no doubt that he was utterly insane. No rational wizard would create a book inked on the skin of his closest family, much less constantly follow its advice.”
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...WhndVE0VklZZDA Storm of Magic

Silverstone Axe = ”In the ancient barrows that dot the Empire, huge enchanted axes forged of gromril, known to ancient men as Silverstone, have been found. Inert until the storms of magic howl, these axes are so heavy that only the strongest warriors can lift them and then impact shakes the ground, knocking armoured warriors from their feet while against wizards their effects are even more potent as the winds of magic lash and recoil at their blows. When a storm of magic rages these weapons are brought to the battlefield once again to bring down the titanic beasts set loose upon the world.” - Magic Weapon
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...V96TFBvQ1dNZGc Monstrous Arcanum

The Crucible of Horrors = ”No one knows from whence the Crucible of Horrors came, but contained within the flash of twisted meteoric iron is a vortex of seething black energy which screams like the torment of damned souls. This deadly artefact has been sought out by many down the centuries, and it has passed through the hands of many tyrants, arch-sorcerers, wizards and kings, and at its use the destruction of cities and slaughter of armies has been laid. When unleashed the power of the crucible is erratic and dangerously unstable, but it can unleash devastation and even create nightmarish doppelgangers of slain monsters to fight at the wielder’s bidding. The power of the Crucible of Horrors is treacherous however, as more than one would be conqueror has found to their cost.” - Enchanted Items
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...V96TFBvQ1dNZGc Monstrous Arcanum

The White Sistrum = ”There are many night-haunted legends originating from the foetid jungles and deadly wastes of the far hinterlands of Khuresh. Stories abound of the dread Snake Men and the foul and nightmarish Blood Naga queens who rule there, and it is a realm where men are no more than hunted prey, and blood and souls are the only coin in trade. Rarely do artefacts of this fell civilisation reach the Old World and all are steeped in blood and misunderstood power. One such artefact is the White Sistrum, a strange ivory-grown, drum shaped like an hourglass, whose discordant music brings madness and death, and evokes the terrible rites of the Naga.” - Arcane Item
https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...V96TFBvQ1dNZGc Monstrous Arcanum

Added Items

Battle Stone of Le Marquis (Arcane Items)
Bufo’s Hex Scroll (Arcane Items)
Freezing Death Spell Jewel (Arcane Item)
Lifestone of Ashraaz (Arcane Items)
Power Stone of Le Marquis (Arcane Items)
The Mystic Shield of Brag (Arcane Items)

Removed Items

None yet

**PaulH** · June 12, 2019, 01:49 PM

Lore Information Regarding Cathay

When a series is being continuously updated for a quarter of a century there is bound to be a massive amount of lore that has been created for it. This is an attempt to collate important snippets of lore that I have found during my research into units. I am presenting these in note form rather than in quote form due to the sheer amount of information that is potentially able to be displayed here, but I hope that it will prove useful or interesting to you regardless.

General Information

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