Qiyan Agula

**Qiyan Agula** (乞颜•阿古拉, *Qǐyán Āgǔlā*), also known as **Qi Yan** (齐颜, *Qí Yán*), is the Prince of the Grass Plains and one of the main characters of *Jing Wei Qing Shang.*

After being orphaned during the Wei invasion of the Grass Plains, Agula swore to get revenge for the slaughter of her family and the destruction of her homeland. She disguised herself as a frail scholar named Qi Yan to become an official within the Wei court and destroy the kingdom from within. Yet despite all her scheming, she was appointed Fuma to Nangong Rang's daughter, Nangong Jingnu.

## Appearance

Born to a father from the Grass Plains and a mother from the Wei Kingdom, Qi Yan has a mixture of features from both ethnicities, but is noted to look more like a person of the Wei Kingdom and very little like her father in comparison to her mother. When she was a child, her hair was kept in many small braids that hung loosely. As an adult, she is tall, and has a so-called manly stature due to a mix of puberty-blocking pills and her grass plains blood; however, she is also "soft and flimsy" and thought of as weak and delicate. Her face is extremely androgynous, and there is a thin scar crossing her left cheekbone to the side of her nose from a riding accident during the early years of her marriage. She has a piercing hole in her left ear left over from her childhood. She has "inky brows" and "long and dense eyelashes". Her most notable features are her amber eyes.

Qi Yan wears a wide variety of outfits throughout her lifetime. As a child in the Grass Plains, she wears a small coat of beast belt, shoes of cow leather, a small scimitar, a small bow, many small braids, and a single silver earring on her left ear. As a student, she wears washed-out, patched navy blue set of robes with a simple trunk at her back. By the time she reaches the palace exam, she wears an ivory set of scholar robes with an azure blue overall and scholar's cap. Early on as the ZhenZhen Fuma, she wears the uniform of a third-tier fuma: a garnet brocade interwoven with silver thread, with red-crowned cranes embroidered at the lapel, wide sleeves embroidered with clouds that reach the knees, a jade belt, and four belt accessories: a ring of white jade, a piece of jadeite, a five-color sachet, and a fish charm sachet depicting a leaping fish with a ball of smoke in its mouth. She also wears a set of high cuff boots with silver embroidery up their sides. At another point, the third-tier uniform is mentioned to be a purple brocade with garnet embroidery. She also wears a set of azure robes when Xiao-Die recovers her memory, plain black robes at Nangong Wei's funeral, and white robes with cloud embroidery at Nangong Rang's death. Her disguise when meeting her spies or affiliates is typically composed of silk black robes, and she carries a sword when she meets with Li Qiaoshan. As the Vice Minister of Works, Viceroy of the Jin Province, the Head Examiner, and until her ascension to Imperial Husband, she wears the uniform of a court official of third-tier or above: crimson robes with fish sachets. She carries the jade tablet, twin fish sachets, and jade accessories of a first-tier official, and is gifted (but not mentioned to use) the ivory tablets of the imperial family. As Head Examiner, she carries the Imperial Sword. Her ceremonial outfit as the Imperial Husband includes a simple rose-gold phoenix crown with a single phoenix holding an eastern pearl the size of a pigeon egg in its beak, a loop of 99 pearls with one turquoise bead, a white jade thumb ring, a belt of cooling jade, a golden phoenix bracelet, a 7-bead belt accessory, and a set of elaborate red robes. The robes have cloud embroidery at the sleeves, the depiction of many beasts submitting along the skirts and hem, and an open-winged phoenix accepting their submission at the chest. The set comes with boots with flame embroidery at the shaft and base. A yellow version of the robes is mentioned for daily wear, noted when she travels to Huainan in yellow robes, foxfur, and a dragon-phoenix hairpin. As the BeiAn Noble, she wears literary scholar attire with a rose-hold crown. At the end of the novel, she wears a long, washed-out, patched white overall with a strip of cloth to keep her hair up.

## Personality

She is single-mindedly focused on her vengeance, and considers herself a cold-hearted villain. However, she is not unreasonable nor blinded by her past trauma, as she recognizes that the common people of the Wei kingdom can not be blamed alongside the royal family for her tribe's obliteration. Qi Yan is also an extremely hard worker, which is demonstrated when she was studying in the nameless valley — she became fluent in the language of the Wei, became a master at calligraphy, etc. in those years, and later was appointed as the Flower Seeker in the palace exam. Her brilliant mind allows her to mastermind multiple plots to achieve her goals.

## Goals

* Kill all Nangong Imperial family
* Kill Nangong Jingnu (failed)
* Win Nangong Jingnu's heart
* Eradicate Lu family
* Take revenge for the grassplains people
* Protect Qiyan Nomin

## Crimes

* Murder (serial)
* Attempted genocide
* Fraud
* Tax fraud
* Gender theft
* Kidnapping
* Identity theft
* Abuse of power
* Treason by conspiring against the state
* Treason by deceiving the court
* Treason by deceiving the Emperor Nangong Rang
* Treason by deceiving the Emperor Nangong Jingnu
* Treason by poisoning the Emperor Nangong Jingnu
* Treason by inciting violence against the emperor
* Treason by verbally confessing a third party or parties to commit terroristic acts, threatening violence, malicious harassment, physically harming or killing the Emperor Nangong Jingnu in the future
* Aiding and abetting
* Psychological abuse
* Endangerment
* Child endangerment
* Arson (serial)
* Drugging
* Nepotism
* Corruption
* Usurpation
* Obtaining an official position in the royal court through illegal means
* Price gouging
* Taking hostage
* Bribing
* Assault
* Money laundering
* Framing/slandering/incrimination
* Threatening
* Manipulation
* Gaslighting
* Mass murder
* Forgery
* Evidence tempering
* Blackmailing
* Incitement
* Fraternizing with the enemy
* Perjury/Making false statements to the officials
* Witness tampering
* Commination
* Illegal marriage
* Attempted infant murder
* Regicide

## Powers / Skills

* Charisma
* Horse telepathy
* Horse riding
* Calligraphy
* Chess
* Exceptional intelligence
* Lying
* Strategy
* Manipulation
* Playing xiao
* Archery
* Literary talent
* Political intelligence

## Hobbies

* Riding horses
* Convesing with the horses
* Playing chess
* Calligraphy
* Reading
* Writing

## Trivia

* The name Agula is of Mongolian origins and means "mountain".
* Since birth, she has lived under the presumed identity of a man, because her father wished to seal her mother as the Khatun of the tribe officially. Thus, she was given the wolf king tattoo on her chest.
* Her calligraphy can be considered at a master's level, and her works, penned under the alias of "the hermit shepherd", are highly sought after.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 77
2. ↑ Chapter 2, 76
3. ↑ Chapter 76
4. ↑ Sohu, https://www.sohu.com/a/147699527\_645084 and MGL9, http://www.mgl9.com/post/1241.html
5. ↑ Chapter 1
6. ↑ Chapter 15