The Children of the Red Flag

**Nuo Taifeng and The Children of the Red Flag**

*“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.” – Sun Tzu*

The voyage by boat to the Sacred Harbour of Hong Kong is a perilous one. Ancient chthonic leviathans dwell in the deep, rising occasionally to swallow a ship whole and vicious storms scour the surface of the sea tearing apart any vessels too frail to withstand them. But perhaps most fierce of all are the pirates of the Red Flag Fleet and the one who stands atop them all: Nuo Taifeng, Storm Tyrant of the China Sea and Queen Mother of The Children of the Red Flag.

Blessed with the gift to control the weather and oceans she has amassed the greatest pirate fleet the world has seen since *Ching Shih* herself sailed the seas. Members of the fleet are bound by a code that severely punishes wrongdoings against one of their own, but they denounce the laws, divine or otherwise, of the rest of the “civilised” world. Particularly those of the Divine Bureaucracy.

The Children of the Red Flag operate out of a massive pirate fortress called *Zijin Cheng* built in what remains of the Philippines. From this redoubt they pillage the trade routes in and out of Hong Kong attacking merchant and imperial vessels. Many of the pirates become *Baijing*. Hunters who seek out and capture or kill magical creatures from the ocean or islands. Their extremely valuable parts are sold on for use by alchemists and apothecarists.

As the strength of the Red Flag Fleet has grown, tensions have risen between them and the Divine Bureaucracy. Conflict between the two factions is rising and more and more skirmishes are occurring on the open water, often catching unfortunate civilian vessels in the crossfire. Many feel that this recent escalation may lead to all out war between the Imperial Navy and the Children of the Red Flag so both sides are feverishly hunting for talented or powerful individuals to aid them in getting one up on the other side.

[ The legend of Nuo Taifeng is normally recounted as a folk tale;

*Many years ago, a poor fisher-girl left harbour with a small crew in her late father’s **junk**. Many hours passed and their catch was meagre, so the young fisher-girl told her crew to sail them further out. All would be well she said as her father had always told her that the biggest fish needed the deepest water. And so, they sailed further but soon a great storm overcame their little boat. Her crew shouted as the wind scythed through their sails and waves crashed into their side. The little fisher-girl clung to the mast, eyes closed as lightning flashed overhead. The heavens roared in her ears and she could no longer hear the cries of her crew. Soon too the noise of the storm began to fade, and the sun’s light crept through her eyelids. The little fisher-girl opened them to find herself in eye of a great typhoon and before her appeared **Sihai Longwang**, The Great Dragon King of the Four Seas. Upon her he bestowed a great gift with which she was to become his champion upon the waves. And then, he was gone and so too was the typhoon. The girl sailed home alone and without a single fish. But it did not matter, for she was returning with something far more precious, and soon, she wouldn’t be a fisher-girl at all.* ]