T'ien Ch'i is obviously influenced by China. I couldn't even resist the name Spring and Autumn, from the period of the same name in Chinese history. 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 movies from Hong Kong, China, and Korea. - Illwinter

The Celestial Empire has not yet been founded. The magic of The Way permeates the realm and reclusive mages conjure Celestial Beings to do their bidding. Nobles wage war upon each other for honor and glory. A few chosen warriors and mages dedicate their lives to training in the Way of the Five Elements. The deceased are worshipped and village priests conjure the dead to ask for guidance and aid. It is a time of legends.

How the nation plays and what it is good at should go here, aka why would it be cool to play, what's good about it (in general terms) and where they falter.
How does this nation compare to other similar nations with similar units or specialties (sacred heavy, elves, communion nation, blood nation, research, economical, forging, stealth, thug based, etc.)

In comparison to other nations, EA T'ien Ch'i Is the most human-centric of the Early age. Bosting Well armored linemen instead of the primitive armour most other nations were. Of all the T'ien Ch'is over the ages EA Has a lot of units that would love a Heavy bless. Their mage line up, although expensive are very versatile in what spell they can cast. Held back by having their best mages and combat units being cap only.

General description of the units in the nations rooster, any standouts, shared qualities aka temperature, any foreign rec, what makes a good basis for planning around

description of the workhorse options, for the sake of sanity better skip the clearly subpar and generic stuff (no h1 unless special qualities, no 40, 60 leadership dudes that are average, no scouts

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Scout 25 4 1	Stealthy (50) mountain survival Forest survival	scout for scouting.
	Noble Commander 105 45 1	Trample Mounted	your only decent national troop leader despite being expensive. That increased price comes from riding a well-armored Chariot. His greater calling is in PD, as one point in defense will give you a unit that will trample over many minor invasions.
	Master of the Dead 70 2 2	11 7 Sacred Spirit-Sight	Cost-efficient Research monkeys of the nation. He has sum proficiencies if facing some skelli-spams. He can perform Minor Death spell for support but But become truly important when you Researched Wrath of the Ancesters and start spamming meme blessed ghosts.
	Master of the Way 135 1 2 + Foreign Rec	111100% 9 Sacred need not eat	Decent mages you can also recruit outside forts. They make up most of your mage core as low-level casters using gems to cast lv 2 spells. In combat, They are all Frozen Heart spammers. Air randoms Summon Lesser Air Elementals and cast Lightning Bolt and Orb Lightning if a Storm is up. Astral form communions, and Natures Can restrain enemies and chaff with Swarm.
	Master of the Five Elements 255 1 2 Capital Only	1111111100% 17 Sacred supply bonus(10)	The embodiment of Jack of All, Master of None. Has a single Lv2 in one natural path and lv1s in all others. You pay a lot for versatility with so many spell in their fingers, but may pay is self back if you mix up their scripts to adapt to your opponent's plays. These masters find themselves as adaptable general use mages. and good at site searching.
	Celestial Master 320 2 4 Capital Only	112122100% 10% 100% 19 Sacred need not eat Spirit-Sight flying	The Grandmaster mage of T'ien Chi. Flying mage that Can have a lot of interesting crosspath with acid being a guarantee. They are the center of armies and communion, Flying around bringing magic superiority were they go.

description of the workhorse options, for the sake of sanity better skip the clearly subpar and generic stuff (common indie like units with no gimmicks), merge units into a single description entry if functionally similar battle roles with only minor differences in gear.

Line Troops are made up of 3 tiers of body armour. Even the lighter armored grunts are well protected from Arrows. Whatever the breastplate, almost all wear Half Helmets which negates the majority of damage inflicted to the head.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Footman 10 9 9		Light infentry that trades a shield for a longer two handed spear. Will repell most units and other spears. Requires the least amount of resources, so most spamable.
	Footman 10 11 9		Man with a big slashing damage weapon. Not well protected or proficent at hitting above average defecne targes, They are good at hacking apart monsters and very low defece armoured soldirs.
	Footman 10 11 9		A main stay mass line unit. Avrage Prot with a Tower Shield that negates most damage.
	Archer 10 12 9		Having Composit bow in the EA can kill alot of units with low armour plus out range and better protected then enemy archers.
	Medium Footman 10 14 9		The inbetween light and Heavy armour. Has better Prot then Leather but without addtion encumbrance or Combats speed penalties like Full scale. its preferable to Spam numbers or go with the Highest protection. Can be siutationly viable if you need above avrage body armour but not be more averly effective if a fatuge cousing enchanment is up.
	Medium Footman 10 14 9
	Heavy Footman 10 20 9		Heavy armour for the Early age. If you have the resources, they can outgrind most humanoid troops. You do suffer higher encombrence which can be used agenst you.
	Heavy Footman 10 20 9
	Horseman 20 11 24	mounted	Like indie Hource archers but with better stats. cost more recruitment points, but use full as flanke attackers.
	Noble 45 45 46	trample mounted	Cost alot in terms of Gold, resources and RP, but worth it for Trampling through infantry while protected by thier high Prot and Def. A mass of them can help you expand early game mowing through indies.
	Warrior of the Five Elements 35 6 31 Capital Only	Sacred resist fire(5) resist cold(5) resist Poison(5) resist Shock(5) strength of the spring(50) ambidextrous(2)	The one of your main punchy units in the early game. In melee, they blend most things that come in contact with, have High defense, A wide aray of resistance, and more HP during the Spring. They are held back by being expensive in Rec points, Low prot, low hp in winter, not to mention limited to capible prevents them to be masseable enought to to keep up with the demands of late game. Still a Useful unit to boost your armies killing power in the earlty and midde game.

As T'ien ch'i, You get immortal Mages. They have human stats but useful but still useful for Light thugging and other units. Keep them way from Soul Slayers.

Sprite	Unit Name	Special Attributes	Comments
	Ho Hsien-Ku - Immortal	12 11 Sacred immortal Supply Bonus(20) Healer(1) Ethereal flying Female	Her primary ulity is being a medic. True Healer is usful for fixing up important injured commanders. Being Ethereal helps with survivablity but not much else new in combat.
	Lu Tung-Pin - Immortal	11232 19 Sacred immortal ambidextrous(3)	He is A Celectial Master that randomed Astral 3, and practiced his leadership and Fighting skills. He can lead beig armys, be a light thug with his high att & def skill (held back by Human HP). If you don't have a proper pretender, you can use him to empower and climb higher into Astral.
	Li T'ieh-Kuai - Master With The Iron Crutch	222 17 Sacred immortal Fear(7) Old-Age(865\500) Spirit-Sight plague carrier(5) Start Affliction(100)	Decript

national spell or summon cost and usecase, judgment if it's good.

• Call Ancestor: Conj 1, 1. ( Ancestral Spiritx1) the Signature spells of Master of the Dead. Spamming out a weak Sacred ghost with a paralyzing attack.
• Wrath of the Ancestors: Conj 7, 1 1. ( Ancestral Spiritx20+[2/lv]). Improved Call Ancestor, Spamming Ancestral Spirit for death gems. Ancestral Spirit good in large numbers if you give them a bless weapon bless or the explosion bless(with some Fire Resist).

• Celestial Servant: Conj 1, 11 1. ( Celestial Servantx1) not a spell you want to cast. Requires a Celestial Master to summon a Bag of HP with High strength but will quickly die in combat. not something to wast the time of a two fort turn cap only mage on.

• Ambush of Tigers: 3 Conj 3 for 10 (summon Tigerx10+[lv]). Fast moving two attacker. Can flank.
  
• Herd of Buffaloes: 2 Conj 3 for 10 ( Buffalox5 + 1/2 [lv]).

• Heavenly Rivers: Conj 3, 11 12.( Demon of Heavenly Riversx3). Beserking Demon giants with really good prot and will Spater most things with their Great clubs. Easly summonsed by Master of the Way.

• Celestial Hounds: Conj 4, 11 4. ( Celestial Houndx2). Flying Patrol dogs. Useful if you need a lot of patroling like catching glamoured enemies. Die quickly because of lower prot, Could mass them for better harnessing results? Raiding with Celestial Masters.

• Heavenly Fires: Conj 5, 11 6 ( Demon of Heavenly Firesx3). Only castable by Celestial Masters. Flying Firemen. Flimsy protection but throwing their Big fire wheels. Most useful when used in flying raiding partys.

• Call Celestial Soldiers: Conj 6, 21 15. ( Celestial Soldierx5) Summon a good number of Sacreds with beefy stats and a hard hitting clave.

• Contact Huli Jing: Conj 6, 2 30. ( Huli Jingx1) powerful and very stealthy Fox Spy mages. She is likely to get a large spread of crossmagic, likely to possess 5 to 6 total paths. In addition to raiding, she can shadow your armies then pop up enxspentacnlty to lay down big spells like Mass Regeneration and Foul Vapors

• Internal Alchemy: Alter 5, 21 10. Reduces the caster's age by -15 years but has a chance to give the caster insanity.

• Celestial Chastisement: Evocation 5, 3. A gem-less version of Control, Inficts some damage and then takes control of the target but only works against magic beings. A lot of good units are Magic beings.

You have a large spread of mage, having all the paths except Blood, but Rarely Anything thing above a 2 with the exception of Water. They have large Flexibility in what their cap mages can cast but nothing too hight.

T'ien Ch'i Would love magic boosters. Robe of The Magi and Ring of Wizardry are must-have late game to give greater power and Flexibility to your Master of the Five Elements and Celestial Master

T'ien Ch'i can make the boosters for Water, Nature, plus one for Fire and Astral. the ones that require Earth need some empowerment to forge.

You can summon Naiad and Huli Jing to break into Higher nature, and Kokythiad into Death 3

What is the best spell you can use in combat. What spells the best support your national lineup, Is their weakness that you need to fix? Any tricks you should be aware you have?

T'ien Ch'i's Mages are very flexible but the good ones are limited by being restricted to the capital. Tactics involving Master of the Dead and Master of the Way are to Spam Smaller spell and use gems to cast Lv2 spells.

The cap mages are flexible but their limited number forces you to think carefully about what conflicts to put them in and how they are scripted.

Master of the Five Elements Will always have one path they are good at and can cast a Load of different spells. Just giving them a or a Celestial Master gems so they can cast Earth Power, Phenix Power and Strangth of Gaia, put up Storms Can vastly increas what spell they can cast.

What is the best ritual you could cast. Are their any globals you want up, any units you should be summoning? Are there any Generic rituals few nations can cast?

Do you have any National items(Construction Level, Price, and required Paths). Any unique generic items few other nations can forge? What item would be useful on your unit lineup (non-standard recommend thug gear)?

• Sword of the Five Elements: Const2, 11, 22. Grants the user Reinvigoration, and a lot of Attack and Defence skill. Useful on a Mage to protect himself and reduce Fague. (thug weapons has better DPS effects). Because of price, could mass-produce them to give to all mages in a communion.
• Armor of the Five Elements: Const2, 11, 22. Light but high prot armour that grants additional minor resistance to Fire, Shock, poison, and Magic. Useful on thugs.

*Chi Shoes: Const2, 1, 4. Let the wearer make an additional attack. Useful on High strength units but completed with more important Boot items like better map movement, quickness.

do you have a game plan? Anything you should always be working toward? Any National weaknesses?

What kinds of scales dose your nation like? Do they require any to function? Any blesses your sacreds would like? Do you desperately need an awake expander? Examples of Pretenders?

How to expand, potential pitfalls and how to get around them, obvious weakness strength, how much do you have to focus on war/infrastructure

what is the first big research rush, what is the first big powerspike, where do you shift recruitment to? what are the big magic diversity issues, are there particular globals you should gun for

How do you close out the game if you are in it, is the high-level research stuff you can do uniquely well, does your nation fall off, aka do you have to force things to conclude swiftly

youtube of someone discussing the nation
guide page on steam??
forum thread or AAR