LA T'ien Ch'i, Barbarian Kings

The Celestial Empire is crumbling. Constant invasions from the barbaric khans have all but destroyed the Imperial Bureaucracy. The Imperial family has been replaced by Barbarian Kings. The Imperial Guard is no more and the cavalry of old has been replaced by skilled barbarian horsemen. Ancestral worship is popular once more and priest-mages of barbarian heritage who lead the Ancestor Cult are replacing the priests of the Bureaucracy. With the displacement of the eunuchs from power, conscription has fallen out of use.

"T'ien Ch'i is obviously influenced by China…. Chinese history is rich and there is plenty to draw upon. Daoism and its five elements, inner alchemy, and quest for longevity inspired the Masters of the Way as did the T'ien Shih—celestial master—of institutional Daoism convert into the Celestial Master of T'ien Ch'i. Heroes come in plenty in the Chinese tales and the Seven Immortals are all interesting figures. Sun Wukong and his friends are perhaps even more so. There is plenty of stuff to expand on should I or a merry modder find the time. Finally, T'ien Ch'i has been inspired by movies from Hong Kong, China, and Korea." – Illwinter

If you are considering picking this nation to play, what should you know?

LA T'ien Ch'i's commanders provide an excellent and easily-available army leader in the form of the Khan, who can be recruited in any plains, farm or wastes province.

While its mage roster is capable and provides great crosspaths, it is also really expensive. T'ien Ch'i lacks efficient researchers or casters, having to shell out 310 gold for mages that reach at most two levels in any one path of magic. The Ancestor mages are all both sacred and old, so an Unaging bless can be useful to reduce encumbrance and prevent them from dying as quickly to old age.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Mounted Scout 35 10 1	Stealthy (50) Skilled Rider (2) Mobile Archer	For the same cost as an ordinary Scout, LA T'ien Ch'i's Mounted Scout is far more mobile, often being able to sneak through two enemy provinces in a turn instead of just one. However, it does need to be recruited in forts, and indie Scouts are very easy to find in the Late Age.
	Steppe Horse	Animal
	General 110 38 1	Skilled Rider (2) Mobile Archer	The General is a mobile, 100-leadership commander. It is easy to recruit in forts and good for leading fast-moving armies of cavalry. However, it is outclassed by the foreign-recruit Khan.
	Armored Steppe Horse	Animal
	Khan 190 44 2 + Recruit in non-fort Plains, Farms and Wastes	Pillager (5) Skilled Rider (4) Mobile Archer	Despite being a considerable step up from the General in terms of gold cost and recruitment points, the Khan is far easier to recruit due to being available in non-fort plains, farms and wastes. It has 150 leadership and provides a slightly better morale boost to units under its command than the General (+1 ⇒ +2).
	Cataphracted Steppe Horse	Animal
	Ceremonial Master 65 3 1	1 Sacred	Ceremonial Masters are interchangeable with indie Priests, which are probably better as indie Priests can be recruited outside of forts (independent type allowing) and Ceremonial Masters cannot.
	Master of the Way 190 1 2	111100%9 Sacred Need Not Eat	Masters of the Way are rather expensive for their paths, but their randoms are usually useful (albeit unpredictable) and they are LA T'ien Ch'i's cheapest mage by quite a margin.
	Ancestor Smith 310 16 2 + Recruit non-fort in Highlands and Mountains	2111100%13 Sacred Forge Bonus (1) Old Age (67/50)	Ancestor Smiths are reliably useful due to their 2 paths, which allow them to cast most of the Earth buffs with only Summon Earthpower. Their melee skills are also remarkably good, giving them some thugging potential, although their Old Age penalties reduce these somewhat. Their randoms are all quite good: Death can spam skeletons, Air can cast Rain of Stones, Astral opens up the Earth/Astral crosspath, and Nature opens up forging opportunities. Outside of combat, the Master Smith's Forge Bonus (1) makes it an efficient forger, improving LA T'ien Ch'i's gem economy in a gem-starved age.
	Spirit Master 310 11 2	1211100%13 Sacred Supply Bonus (20) Old Age (127/100) Spirit Sight	Spirit Masters provide access to Nature buffs and some utility spells such as Web, Swarm and Relief. Due to their Nature/Death crosspath, they can cast Venomous Death, a potent counter-thug spell. Earth and Astral randoms can boost in combat using Strength of Gaia or Power of the Spheres, allowing casting of 3 spells, or 4 with a Thistle Mace. While Air randoms are not that useful, Death randoms can still summon skeletons after casting their buffs.
	Ancestor Guide 310 11 2	1211100%13 Sacred Supply Bonus (20) Old Age (67/50) Spirit Sight	Ancestor Guides are reliable skellispammers. All of them can cast the really annoying Wind of Death with a Skull Staff, but the Air randoms are probably the most useful for this as they allow T'ien Ch'i to utilise the busted Cloud Trapeze into Wind of Death strategy; consider Twiceborning these to preserve their magic. Astral randoms can forge items like Duskdaggers for counter-thugging.
	Celestial Master 310 5 4 Capital Only	12111100% 10%15 Sacred Need Not Eat	Although the Celestial Masters of LA T'ien Ch'i are considerably weaker than their earlier incarnations, they provide reliable access to moderate Water magic as well as communionable Air and (potentially) Glamour, opening up the possibility of Wailing Winds. Astral randoms get to 2, allowing the forging of Starshine Skullcaps. Celestial Masters are a useful source of magic diversity, though a few of their randoms are overshadowed by the more focused paths of the various Ancestor mages.

• Celestial Chastisement (Evocation 5)
  3
  A gem-less version of Control, inficts some damage and then takes control of the target. Only works against Magic Beings. A lot of good units are Magic Beings.

• Internal Alchemy (Alteration 5)
  21 and 10
  Reduces the caster's age by 15 years but has a chance to give the caster insanity.

• Sword of the Five Elements (Construction 3)
  11 and 22
  Grants the user Reinvigoration and a lot of Attack and Defense. Useful on a Mage to protect himself and reduce Fatigue; because of the low price, you could mass-produce them to give to all of your Communion mages. Other weapons have better DPS effects.
• Armor of the Five Elements (Construction 3)
  11 and 22
  Light but high-PROT armor that grants +4 HP plus minor resistance to Fire, Shock, Cold, and Magic. It's useful on thugs since the resistances it provides offer some survivability against a broad array of thug-killers (Incinerate, Lightning Bolt, Frozen Heart, Mind Burn, etc.).

See Magic Access. These guides supplement the summaries at the top.

No easy access to any of the major boosters.

No recruitable access. The hero, Lu Tung-Pin - Immortal has 1.

Highest Starting: 2 Ancestor Guide (1 in 4) or Celestial Master (1 in 5)

Tome of High Power Unique
21 Celestial Master (1 in 5) +
22 The hero, Li T'ieh-Kuai - Master With The Iron Crutch

Highest Starting: 2 Celestial Master or Master of the Way (1 in 5)

Trident from Beyond Unique
22 Celestial Master (1 in 5) +

Contact Naiad
21 Celestial Master (1 in 5) +
Naiad has 3

Highest Starting: 2 Ancestor Smith

The Tome of Gaia Unique
21 Ancestor Smith (1 in 4) + or
12 Spirit Master (1 in 4) +

Highest Starting: 2 Celestial Master (1 in 5)

Coin of Meteoritic Iron
21 Ancestor Smith (1 in 4) +

Tome of High Power Unique
21 Celestial Master (1 in 5) +

Golem Construction
21 Ancestor Smith (1 in 4) +
Golem has 2

Ether Gate
11 Ancestor Smith (1 in 4), Spirit Master (1 in 4), or Ancestor Guide (1 in 4) +
Ether Lord has 3 in 4 chance of 3 or 1 in 4 of 4

Highest Starting: 2 Ancestor Guide, Ancestor Smith (1 in 4), or Spirit Master (1 in 4)

Highest Starting: 2 Spirit Master

Contact Naiad
21 Celestial Master (1 in 5) +
Naiad has 3

The Tome of Gaia Unique
21 Ancestor Smith (1 in 4) + or
12 Spirit Master (1 in 4) +

Moonvine Bracelet
12 Spirit Master (1 in 4) +

Highest Starting: 1 Celestial Master (1 in 5) or Master of the Way (1 in 5)

No national access.

Ether Gate
11 Ancestor Smith (1 in 4), Spirit Master (1 in 4), or Ancestor Guide (1 in 4) +
Ether Lord has 1 in 4 of 1

Contact Lamia Queen
22 Spirit Master (1 in 4) +
Lamia Queen has a 7 in 16 chance of at least 1

Awaken Treelord Limited Amount
2 Spirit Master +
Treelord has a 1 in 3 chance of 1

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Nations
Early Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Ulm • Pyrène, • Marverni • Sauromatia • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Mictlan • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Agartha • Tir na n'Og • Fomoria • Vanheim • Helheim • Niefelheim • Muspelheim • Rus • Kailasa • Lanka • Yomi • Hinnom • Ur • Berytos • Xibalba • Mekone • Ubar • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Therodos
Middle Ages	Arcoscephale • Ermor • Sceleria • Pythium • Man • Eriu • Ulm • Pyrène • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Machaka • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Asphodel • Vanheim • Jotunheim • Nidavangr • Vanarus • Bandar Log • Shinuyama • Ashdod • Uruk • Nazca • Xibalba • Phlegra • Phaeacia • Ind • Na'ba • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Pelagia • Oceania • Ys
Late Ages	Arcoscephale • Pythium • Lemuria • Man • Ulm • Marignon • Mictlan • T'ien Ch'i • Jomon • Agartha • Abysia • Caelum • C'tis • Pangaea • Midgård • Utgård • Bogarus • Patala • Gath • Ragha • Xibalba • Phlegra • Vaettiheim • Feminie • Piconye • Andramania • Pyrène • Zemaitia • Atlantis • R'lyeh • Erytheia