Hanguo

By this point, we've covered every notable location from the overworld of Dragon Quest III. This does not mean we've covered every location in the game - if cramming an expansive open world into an NES carttridge wasn't impressive enough, they crammed two in there. Apparently, the original Japanese release used every single megabyte of storage space on the cartridge, and it shows. But we'll get to that later.

For now, we've explored the implications of the setting and its potential for the tabletop, extrapolating on throwaway pieces of NPC dialogue to construct what is in my opinion a pretty compelling sword and sorcery setting, well suited for hexcrawling - really, DQ3 is in itself a good example of what a hexcrawl campaign could look like. We've in particular highlighted the History's Greatest Hits nature of Erdland, detailing how the setting freely mashes up counterparts of real-world cultures from a variety of different eras to create an effect not dissimilar to the works of Robert E. Howard. It's a world where ancient Rome, medieval Britain, Vedic India, and even the American colonies can coexist at the same time, as though blending together all the parts of history conducive to fantastic swashbuckling adventure.

One culture that's notably absent, however, is China. If you look at the world map, the area between Dharma Abbey and Zipangu is largely wilderness. You can make out the vague approximations of the coastline, but there are no cities or dungeons in that region. There's an inn around where Korea would be, but that's about it. Obviously, if we are to look at the map with the conceit that it is only a representation of the setting necessarily limited by game mechanics rather than a exact diagetic recreation, it would be silly to assume this region truly is uninhabited wilderness. Humans have a habit of settling in places, and the area has open plains and a large central river that could easily support agriculture, perhaps even on the level of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. And those patrons at the inn had to get there from somewhere.

I think it's reasonable to assume that there would in fact be a civilization there, perhaps even a large and powerful empire. We just don't visit any of its settlements in the game because none of them had anything important enough to Erdrick's adventures to warrant a stop. For the purposes of The Saga of the Ortegids, I'm going to invent a new empire here, one I'm calling Hanguo.

I have a few factors motivating my train of thought here. For one, I'll admit to finding Chinese history and mythology a deeply fascinating subject that I wish more fantasy would draw from. The wuxia genre alone has some very compelling ideas, tropes, and motifs that go virtually ignored outside the country of origin. But it would also give an explanation for an otherwise incongruous part of the setting.

One aspect of the settings of the Dragon Quest games that I find particularly interesting is the role of martial arts. In DQ3, one of the playable classes is the fighter. In D&D terms, they're actually what would be called a monk - D&D fighters are instead called warriors. They deal more damage than any other class when unarmed and have the best critical hits, but they can only use a minimal selection of weapons and armor. In exchange, some weapon types, like katars, are exclusive to them. In the concept and promotional artwork for 3, they're always drawn in Chinese attire - even in the Western NES manual, they're basically drawn in the same outfits they're wearing in the Japanese art. In later games, there are other characters belonging to this class, with similar abilities, including Alena from Dragon Quest IV, my personal favorite character in the entire series; in addition, martial arts tournaments make appearances here and there. Despite this, these characters and events are more often than not placed in the same medieval European setting as everyone else, and no one seems to find it strange. It's just another fact of the setting that Chinese-influenced martial arts show up right alongside knights and wizards.

I always found the inclusion of monks as a default D&D class strange. To me, the class is so grounded in orientalism that they more often than not seem out of place in a typical medieval European setting. But I've never really minded it in Dragon Quest, probably because it blends into the general mashup of historical and cultural influences, and it instead becomes a charming quirk of the setting - a reminder that this isn't the Middle Ages we're used to. We can make it make more sense in The Saga of the Ortegids if we presume that these martial traditions, and their associated trappings, originated from Hanguo and spread from there.

I don't think martial arts and martial artists would be limited to Hanguo, though. On the contrary, I'd lean into it and have martial arts schools as far west as Portoga. If you can recruit martial artists in Aliahan, either they or their traditions must be well-traveled. Furthermore, there's a grave in the Romalian city of Kazave noted as the resting place of a man who killed a bear with his bare hands - and if you visit at night, his ghost admits that he actually used a set of iron katars, which can be purchased at the town's armory and equipped by fighters. Since we aren't holding ourselves to how things work in the game, this doesn't necessarily mean this man was a martial artist, but I feel like that would be an interesting angle. As I've stated before, one thing I find interesting about the world of DQ3 is that despite the disparate cultural influences of the various regions, everyone seems well-connected to everywhere else, and they're equals in terms of technology and socio-political influence, causing everything to become somewhat of a melange. Having kung fu practitioners in the equivalent of Europe is certainly consistent with this.

Thus, I would imagine that Hanguo's cultural sphere extends well beyond China's did in the real Middle Ages. I'd posit that most of its power would come from trade - geographically, it's set up to be a wealthy country, with the river giving access to the sea, and it's close to Baharata, which is noted as an important trade center itself. It might maintain something like the Silk Road, stretching far into the west and allowing dissemination of goods and ideas. This could easily be the setting for the PCs being tasked with playing caravan guards. It could even be the framework for an entire campaign, visiting stops along the way on the journey between the east and west.

It's likely that Hanguo, like Romaly and Manoza, would be a successor state to the bygone Aliahanian Empire. The aforementioned inn is linked via portal to a temple in the Southlands, suggesting to me that both are built on Aliahanian ruins and make use of the portal network that linked their various colonies. In addition to giving license for ruins and relics in the area, it would explain their well-connected nature - and potentially establish a rivalry between the three powers over who is the true successor to ld Aliahan.

The Elemental Faith

Elementalism is, of course, not the only religion practiced in Quel'Ahma. There are populations of Pantheonists there, and temples to the gods can be found in many major cities, often catering to foreign visitors (and consequently most prominent in Al-Riyah). There are even some people, often in remote or tribal regions, with customs comparable to the Old Faith. And Quel'Ahma is also home to the mystic traditions of the Covered Path, a philosophy dedicated to the pursuit of transcendence from earthly concerns. But it is Elementalism that comprises the Quel'Ahman state religion, underpinning much of Quel'Ahman society and informing and legitimizing the caste structure of its society, and it is certainly the path practiced by the majority of its citizens.

Elementalism is quite different than other religions, especially those of the north. The faithful do not direct their worship to any sort of entities, such as gods, spirits, or ancestors, but to the cosmos itself.  The pursuit of Elementalism is not to serve the whims of higher beings. It is to live in harmony with the elements, and to strive toward achieving the perfect balance of the elements within one's being, as much as is possible for one to do in their station in life. Elementalism does not assert the gods do not exist (given all the miracles they have performed, that would be a foolish assumption) - rather, it cites that even the gods are prone to the vanities of mortals, and thus are not worthy of worship no matter how powerful they are. It contends that gods are not above the fabric of the universe, but a part of it, and just as subordinate to it as mortals are.

In the pursuit of perfection, the Elemental Faith is characterized by logic and rational thought. Its tenants are outlined in the Four Books of the Elements, a collection of holy texts and observations by generations of holy men, which describe the nature of the elements, their role in making up the universe, and how they influence life, as well as how their balance affects both individuals and the world. The elements are each associated with all things in life - the cardinal directions, personality traits, the bodily humors, and so on - and this tradition has influenced alchemy and science, as Elementalism encourages one to understand the natural world in order to best live with it and understand how to master it. Quel'Ahman society is in itself an attempt to create the perfect order in accordance with Elementalist teachings, as is reflected by the privilege given to genies and genasi for their perceived greater purity, and how the four emirates are laid out to correspond to the four elements, organized spatially according to what the Four Books hold to be in proper balance.

However, there is plenty of room for interpretation. The Four Books of the Elements are comprised mostly of anecdotes, parables, and philosophic musings, sometimes even apparently contradicting one another, and with little effort to explain themselves. Some anecdotes are older than others, and some come from sources believed less reputable than others, but they are included within the body of the text nonetheless. It is thus up to the individual to interpret the texts and what they mean, and to determine how perfection can be achieved with the information they impart. Many scholars in Quel'Ahma study the texts obsessively and debate their meaning, and it is an important task of the genasi elite to interpret the Books and judge how they may be used to apply policy - something that has, in the past, sparked wars over differing interpretations.

Elementalist places of worship are built around examples of the elements. Though some have drawn parallels between Elementalism and the worship of sacred sites found in some Old Faith traditions, Elementalists do not truly worship examples of the elements so much as they worship the elements themselves. A specific rock or a holy fire are only parts of the great cosmic forces that compose the universe, and when Elementalists venerate such things, they do so as extensions of the greater elements, standing in for something much bigger and harder to comprehend - at least to outsiders. That said, these objects are valued for their purity, and to move or handle them requires complex rituals to ensure this purity is not disturbed. Each temple venerates a specific element, according to the direction in which it is placed, and where it is located. Thus, temples west of Tasshen, including those in Al-Riyah, worship the wind. These elements must be kept pure, and great measures are taken in order to do so.

A typical wind temple contains a sanctum that is kept open to the sky, placed to the west and faced by worshipers when addressing their prayers, but this sanctum may only be entered by members of a priestly class to keep the wind as pure of other elements as possible, and those who face it must veil their faces and wash their hands and feet so they do not contaminate the air with the impurities of their sweat or breath. When it rains (rare in Quel'Ahma, but it still happens), the opening of this sanctum must be covered with a cloth so that the air is not polluted by rainwater, and this cloth may never be used twice to prevent any lingering residues of past rains from entering the site.

Because Elementalists worship no gods, they are not granted powers through prayer. In the Lunar Lands, most clerics actually learn their spells through study in a temple rather than direct divine intervention, and Elementalists also observe traditions of magical training so that their priests are better equipped to understand the cosmos. Use a Way of the Four Elements Monk to represent the average adventuring Elementalist priest. A Pyromancy Sorcerer could also represent a priest dedicated to fire.