Writing Blog - The Beginning of the Storm Dragon Empire Civil War (Patreon)

The disappearance of the Black Dragon was followed by much confusion and a very frantic search. The followers of the Black Dragon, many of them cultivators of great power, refused to accept his disappearance. Some left the Storm Dragon Empire in search of him and never returned. Others, once it became clear that the Black Dragon would not return, simply left, disappointed and disillusioned.

After these events, Qing Jianjun, youngest of the three imperial siblings, was crowned emperor. 

This led to a period called the Year of False Peace.

Though Qing Jianjun had become emperor, things were not well behind closed doors. Having spent several years fearing his oldest brother, then learning to be utterly terrified of his second-oldest brother, Qing Jianjun had grown up to be a very paranoid, very nervous, and very indecisive man. He was not as impressive as his brothers had been, and that was painfully obvious to everyone at court.

Many people, especially the former supporters of the Black Dragon, held Qing Jianjun in contempt and often defied his authority in various ways. Others sought to manipulate the new emperor for their own ends, having realized how easily influenced the man was. 

As this happened, great unrest arose among the populace. With many of the strongest families in the empire dead due to the Black Dragon’s machinations and the army significantly weakened after his disappearance, chaos had begun to spread across the country. This was not helped at all by the in-fighting in the palace, which led to rampant corruption and ineptitude in all areas of the government.

Sloppy officials failed to properly collect taxes in some remote villages. At the same time, many towns suffered at the hands of greedy tax collectors. Some cities even began to “forget” to give the emperor his due.

It could ultimately only end one way. Angry at the carnage caused by the Black Dragon and the new emperor’s incompetence, cities began declaring themselves free of imperial authority, perhaps thinking that the emperor wouldn’t be able to do anything.

They were wrong.

The army was dispatched almost immediately. However, this did nothing to quell the rebellious attitude of the people. In some cases, the brutality with which the army enforced imperial authority only further enraged the governors and city lords.

More cities declared independence and even formed alliances with each other. Some governors even started to claim they could trace their ancestry back to the royal family, which made them the legitimate emperor. All this led an already paranoid and fearful Qing Jianjun, at the suggestion of his advisors, to give the generals the power to wage war on all traitors without requiring imperial permission, effectively giving them nearly complete autonomy.

Utter chaos followed.

In the ensuing war, it was the remaining followers of the Black Dragon who quickly distinguished themselves as the dominant forces of the battlefield, and eventually they were the only forces.

When the dust settled, only three were left.

The Three Heavenly Generals of the Storm Dragon Empire.

–From the works of Historian Wei Long–

AN: Hadn't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd fix that. You can leave questions in the comments to be answered in future Q&As.