Chen dynasty

Territories of the Chen dynasty are highlighted in green.

The **Chen dynasty** (陳) are the ruling dynasty of the Dark Realm of Han, from 2018 onwards, and the State of Xandu (now known as Xishan) from 2019 until 16 May 2023. It historically has significant influence in the military and economic development of Old Xandu under the former Huang dynasty (not a royal dynasty, but rather a de facto ruling one).

The Chen dynasty's territories do not have a formal, shared bureaucracy. They also maintain several military forces formally serving their own states, though all realistically fall under the command of the overlord of the Chen Empire.

Chen rule over the northern-western plains and the Xandunese east coast deteriorated rapidly throughout early 2021 in the aftermath of the second major outbreak of The Great Plague as local populations rose up against the government or died out. Chen forces retook Fort Han at the cost of losing Shanjing to Thornia, but managed to regain all of Greater Shanjing due to in-fighting within Thornia.

Throughout early 2023, the Chen Empire supported several separatist movements, namely the Trabovonians and the Sovereign Sons of Dobresia, within Great Thornia. These movements sparked the War of the Three Regions, another civil war, within Thornia and eventually led to the victory of the Thornian government and the rise of the Thornian Empire. The Chen escalated the war in April 2023 and recaptured most of Xandu and even the eastern coast previously donated by and lost to Ume. All of Xandu and the coastal territories were later lost.

## History

### Old Xandu

*See: Xandu*

Weihan was a general in the Xandunese Army during the heyday of Old Xandu during Ray's de facto rule of the state. He was responsible for the development of Xandu's defence strategy against the burgeoning Umic state. He eventually split off from Xandu to form the Dark Realm of Han, with himself being the first Dark Lord.

Weiryn, Weihan's sister, was responsible for the construction of much of the eastern half of Shanjing. She developed a shopping district and envisioned colourful and practical housing developments in the city.

### Dark Realm of Han

*See: the Dark Realm of Han*

The Dark Realm was founded south-west of Xandu and was a de facto buffer state between Xandu and the then-newly-independent Tyavyli. Under Weihan, the realm's resources were dedicated to the construction of the yet-to-be-completed Fort Han, the largest military installation in the world. The realm also underwent an aggressive foreign policy against Tyavyli, and maintained cold and distant diplomatic ties with Ume.

The realm was briefly under the rule of Wu (Goh) dynasty when Weihan abdicated and designated Jia Ren as his successor. Jia Ren was quickly deposed after a major scandal and Weihan returned to the lordship.

From mid 2019 to December 2019, the Dark Realm was a member of the Holy States and its successor, the League of Palus. In late 2019, Ray formally declared the Xandunese state defunct, thus triggering the League of Palus to quickly annex the territory. Then Provisional President (and eventually Hegemon) Clarence immediately awarded Xandu to Weihan and created the short-lived Free State of Xandu (the only time the Dark Realm of Han and Xandu were legally unified).

The Free State did not survive for long as Weihan invoked the Article of Secession in the League's constitution to withdraw only the Dark Realm from the league.

### State of Xandu

*See: State of Xandu*

Xandu became the State of Xandu in December 2019, with Weihan as its governor. The state was an important source of wealth for the western regions of the League of Palus due to its extreme hills and intensive agriculture. Between 2020 and 2023, the Chen Empire repeatedly lost and regained Xandu to the Thornians. The Thornians established a series of puppet regimes in Xandu, ranging from puppet governments ruling over existing power structures, or even establishing new puppet states like the Free City of Shanjing.

The entire country fell under Thornian rule during the 2023 Chen-Thornia War. For the first time in its history, Xandu was divided up into multilple provinces, annexed into Thornia-proper. Within a week, the Army of the Dark Realm recaptured most of Xandu except for the mountains in the north-east. Xandu's territory was also expanded to include coastal territories previously lost to Ume.

### Western Expanse claims

The land claims in the Western Expanse borders the northern frontier of the Dark Realm, the north western mountains of Xandu, and stretch northward to the large swamps of the expanse.

Around the time of the dissolution of the Free State of Xandu, Wey Yao (governor of Umia and Mayor of Cataracta) conducted an expedition around the plains far north of the Dark Realm's historical borders and claimed them on behalf of what was then the Free State. As the claims were made around the same time as the Free State's dissolution, it was unclear whether the land claims belonged to the Dark Realm or Xandu.

Many of these claims eventually faded into history as the Chen Empire invested itself heavily into the military and economic situation on its border with the League of Palus, and later the Thornian Empire.