Middle Kingdom

In 1938 CE in the Radio Noir timeline, World War II has already begun. It will still take more than a year until the fighting truly spills into the mundane and triggers the first truly global conflict. The ancient Ascension War is now fought on a scale undreamed of only a century earlier. War cabals are everywhere, operating under the authority of Traditions, Conventions, Old Houses, powerful chantries, and even the Nephandi. The Order of Hermes is split down the middle, and the Council of Nine is plagued by mistrust and internal feuds.

Nowhere is the Ascension War fought more bitterly, and more openly, than in East Asia. For centuries, the Technocratic Union has been fighting their way into the Paradigm of the Middle Kingdom. Their best tool being colonialism. The Syndicate’s British East India Company has dug deep into local paradigms from Bombay to Beijing, and with them, the New World Order has been able to establish houses in every ancient capital on the continent.

China, wracked by mundane invasions and rampant corruption, has become the first battleground. The ancient Chinese Paradigm is now under attack from within, as well as without, and the Wu Lung is uncompromising in their refusal of accept the Technocratic paradigm. The Elemental Dragons fight for their vision for the future, the Wu Lung to preserve the past, and the Wu-Keng for survival. The Technocracy is well established, as is the Japanese Tetsukiko.

Under the leadership of the General of the Iron Chrysanthemum, Kishimoto Ryunosuke, the militant order has been aggressively pushing Japan from a feudal state into industrialism. This drive began in the 1860’s and has resulted in the Tetsukiko being able to exert almost unlimited control over the Empire of Japan. The goal for Japan is to defeat the USA in a war, and the Tetsukiko’s goal is to install the Yama King Mikaboshi on the Imperial Throne. Both goals depend on Asia being brought under Japanese control within years.

Every Awakened and Fera on the Japanese islands must swear an oath of allegiance to Kishimoto Ryunosuke. The alternative is a night-time raid by the feared Iron Guard. In Korea and Manchkuo, Awakened are rounded up and brought to concentration camps, while Fera are hunted down and killed.

The invasion of China in 1937 did not turn out to be the month-long campaign the Army had promised, and in 1938, Japan is getting sucked deeper and deeper into the vast and timeless Chinese interior. Their advances and atrocities have united old enemies in China, and already wizards fight openly.