Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Empire Characters

Ta Hun Kwai
"My tanks are almost at your doorstep! It will not be long until you hear their thunderous treads!"

-Ta Hun Kwai, "destroying" a "Guardian" Hubbard Fixer

General Ta Hun Kwai was the oldest General during the Civil War and a great contributor to the Empires Tank divisions. He firmly believed the last shot to gain victory will come from the well-oiled barrel of a Battlemaster or an Overlord Tank. Kwai modernized the old obsolete tanks Lurensia gained from the Voshkod to make them formidable combatants in their battle against the Guardians, and later the Voshkods in the split.

He also upgraded his personal tank divisions further, creating the Warmaster Tank as a newer version of the Battlemaster with advanced autoloaders and improved armor near the end of the war, although those tanks never reached the phase of full-scale production to completely replace the Battlemasters. Among the newer weapons of the Empire arsenal also were tanks with huge flamethrowers, as well as the monstrous Overlords.

Kwai commonly watched a battle he attended in his personal modified Overlord named The Emperor, which was the most powerful weapon the Empire had at that time, excluding artillery, which would replace the Overlords for the Elsword's Royal Force, and later the first Guan Yu. He was thought of as being arrogant, as he always, even on the verge of defeat, stuck stubbornly to the same tactic of throwing more tanks at the enemy, believing that he would triumph in the end. He was more than once almost killed due to this behavior. Defense positions placed right would smash his tanks but he would just send more of them. Even among his fellow generals, this was considered wasteful.

After the nuclear fire which saturated the country in the final battle of their split from the Voshkod, only a handful of Empire outposts remained intact. The fate of General Kwai remains unknown, although many believe he is hiding somewhere, developing new tanks to fight for the Empire. But truth can be stranger than fiction, and Kwai is still alive - although in an area no one would expect he'd be.

In the middle of the nuclear strikes between Lurensia and Voshkod, Kwai was actually being shuttled via a special Helix helicopter to the trenches, in an attempt to break the infamous fortifications there. Modified to carry his personal Guan Yu Tank, the Helix was unfortunately recently captained by a young Lurensian pilot by the name of Choi "Wrong Way" Young Wan. When, in the midst of flying to the battle, an atomic bomb almost knocked the Helix out of the sky, Kwai ordered Choi to get him and more importantly his prized tank to the closest safe location.

What happened in between is unknown (except possibly to Choi Young Wan), but after nearly a day of solid flying the Helix, Guan Yu, General Kwai, and Young had somehow successfully landed in a place safe from nuclear bombs - Fodlan International Airport. Low on gas, under immense suspicion from the air traffic controllers there, and strangers in a strange land, the duo had no choice but to flee in secret to the streets of Fodlan.

Fortunately, anti-Protectorate sentiment in the area made the two men, tank, and helicopter less suspicious - they too, when asked, could safely say in faltering English that they heavily disliked the Protectorate, and would fight against them if called, and utter quick prayers to Kane or Seiros when needed.

Currently, Choi and Kwai have set up a small "business", as distasteful as it is to both of them. Operating out of a small empty lot near the beach, Kwai's Most Honorable Pocket Tank Arena allows anybody who drops by and pays the ability to command modified Hubbard Do-It-Yourself Fixers and RC vehicles (changed to resemble a variety of international war machines) in a fierce miniature battle against their friends or even Kwai himself. Kwai currently plans to only continue keeping up the charade until he can raise enough money to rent an aircraft and enough fuel to make his way back to the Empire - until then, he can be seen operating the Arena and sipping boat drinks on the Fodlan beaches.

Tsing Shi Tao
""No bombs?" Who could think of such a thing?"

-Tsing Shi Tao mocking Lurensian anti-war protesters while aiming an Armageddon at them

General Tao was more than any other Empire General, a great friend of explosions. Whenever he could set off an explosion, it made him happy, but even better was when the explosion caused the death of an enemy. Tao contributed greatly to the Empire's artillery divisions during the course of their wars.

He was stationed in Base Ox, (Chengdu), where he experimented with the old Lurensian tradition of fireworks when he was just a mere Red Guard himself. His interest sparked upon letting a few grenades explode, taking the lives of 3 Aquilan soldiers. Later, when he got promoted, he stayed at Base Ox and made it the main facility for explosives.

Here, he developed the Armageddon Cannon, the largest single vehicle the Lurensian fielded during the GVAW. Its 800mm gun could devastate whole columns of enemy tanks while being out of reach of nearly everything. This design, while successful, had the flaw of being very, very slow and unable to defend versus small foes near it or aerial units at all.

Tao, however, continued to research even more potent and explosive weaponry. His main tactic stayed fielding massive amounts of smaller artillery supported by at least 2 Armageddon Cannons to shatter any opposition before they arrive. He got backed up by (Mao) himself because Tao lost only once in his entire career.

And once nuclear fission was developed Tao was interested in the discovery. This was to be his possible downfall, for soon after Tao became obsessed with the idea of using this discovery to create a weapon that will let them split off from the Voshkod. Becoming responsible for the creation of the Empire's many (controversial) nuclear weaponry, from the nukes to the loathed radium weapons. His greatest prides being the Yan Wang, a nuclear MRL on wheels, the Death Hand, a mobile nuke howitzer, and the Nuclear Storm, a building that launches 13 nukes.

According to his medical files, Tao seems to suffer serious mental health issues, intensified by his extreme sense of patriotism. This probably explains the regrettable incidents he was responsible for (the Mudanjiang Disaster in 2007 and the destruction of an Aquilan base on Lurensian soil in 2017 among others). The Ministry of National Defense itself fears that his irresponsible actions will trigger a Third World War one day but his tactical genius makes him a too valuable asset to be truly put out of the equation so the Empire instead keeps an eye on him, an Aquilan envoy is also watching over Tao to make sure he will not do anything that could endanger the interests of the Aquila.

It would, ironically, be the nukes he so worshipped to also be responsible for his death. As during the final battle of the Gilneas Rebellion Tao had personally entered combat in his personal Yan Wang, the "Yama", to personally destroy the MLA "Scorpion" Cell, it was said that he laughed like a madman as his nukes obliterated the MLA forces. So deep into his bloodlust that he failed to see the Cells leader, Aziz, charging at him in a tanker truck filled to the brim with explosives until it was too late. And even when he destroyed Aziz before he could make impact he was close enough that the ensuing explosion, combined with the damage the Yama sustained earlier, had ignited his vehicle's ammunition which created a giant explosion that eradicated everything and glassed the ground in a half-mile radius.

Safe to say. There was nothing left of Tao to bury. With his more sensible officer Fraya, who didn't join the final battle, becoming the new general of the Nuclear Division by the fact that all of those who ranked higher than her had died with Tao when the Yama exploded.

Shin Fai
"I have enough men to crush you without firing a shot!"

-Shin Fai yelling impotently at curious recruits

On the battlefield, Elsword's greatest resource is the millions of individuals in uniform, and if there was only one man in the entire Elsword Empire Army with limitless dedication, it would be Fai, better known to his troopers as "The Anvil". Only the bravest and strongest soldiers served in his literally endless legions of men. Fai specialized in the deployment of infantry and can mobilize four divisions in twenty-four hours thanks to a streamlined, and sometimes brutal, command structure. Fai's infantry were well-trained and well-equipped compared to the other elements of the Empire's Army, and discipline is very strong with his army, and officers and infantry who can maintain it are rewarded. Supporting his endless legions of soldiers were Gatling Crawlers that transported his soldiers to the battlefield quickly.

The General has developed advanced field training programs for the Red Guard and elite operatives. Military analysts credit the speed and professionalism of General Fai's peacekeeping units with preventing the (Taiwan) Conflict of 2009 from becoming a global war. His divisions feature several weapons and transport systems unique to the Empire Army.

After Elsword emerged as a new superpower upon her victory in the split from the Voshkod in (insert) V.C., Fai became interested in biotechnology, especially in cloning after searching an old Asur base, abandoned during the War of the Beard. In fact, he is one of those responsible for developing cloning techniques in Lurensia (although the Collective is the pioneer). Hence, he is able to create massive amounts of equally strong and loyal Empire infantrymen without the need of training them. These clones are originally from the real Empire soldiers available but the original counterparts do not know it as Fai kept it a secret from the public eye in fear of an uproar on human cloning which is already his main resource.

One might even say his troops could rival that of the Voshkods infantry, and Fai can deploy a horrendous amount of troops to the battlefield, swarming them with elite soldiers that even artillery would have problems taking out. There is a saying of "Quality over quantity", but for Fai, he has both. Quality soldiers and quantities of quality soldiers.

But nearing the end of the Elsword-MLA war Fai would have to forcefully retire, with his second in command Evie becoming the new general, when his forces converge on (insert) when the MLA general stationed there, Abdul bin Yusuuf, detonated a stolen Empire nuke in one last act of defiance. While Yusuuf had died in the blast Fai had miraculously survived, thanks to his suit, and was quickly rescued.

For his heroics and actions, he was flattered with praise, with many of the Empires people showing admiration for him, and took him back to Tai Shan for the education and appreciation of all. He'd even be housed comfortably, and watch and train the future generation of Empire soldiers while being open to the public. Well, not all of him. Just his head, the rest of his body was too damaged and irradiated to be saved, but the Empire is still researching the possibility of giving him a cloned body.

Leong Leang
"Suicide is not a tactic."

-Gen. Leang, berating a Voshkod defector

The youngest of (Mao's) Generals, Leong Leang was once the head of the experimental technology branch of the Empire Army. Based in the mountains of (Himalaya), Leang was a mysterious general, often referred to as The Tigress by both friends and foes. Under her watchful eye, captured technology from both Voshkod and outsiders was studied, reverse-engineered if possible, and then distributed to friendly forces.

Leang was centered away from much of the action in the Split, her role one more of support in truth than pure assault, but the effects of her base's studies were felt throughout Lurensia. To her base came every unknown technological piece fallen into the hands of Red China - laser pointers, vacuum tube answering machines, breathable liquid packets, and even a Syndicate-made computer or two.

With these, Leang was able to, against great odds, create several workable weapons and improvements to vehicles and use them to augment small numbers of the Empire forces. Though seemingly minor, each improvement put together was able to turn even the cheapest, scrappiest Battlemaster Tank into a terrifying assault vehicle - indeed, a Leang-augmented tank or soldier's kit was gifted out only to those troops that had earned (Mao's) personal blessing, a tribute to how rare but effective they were.

After (Mao), she was the second-highest target for assassination by the Voshkod - yet the inhospitality of her location and her refusal to ever get into battle was enough to keep her from ever being killed or even engaged in battle.

But her entire career would go up in smoke when the Heralds, thanks to a prophecy, deemed her a potential threat that needed to be cut off at the head. After over a month of solid searching, a cultist of Slaanesh finally managed to locate the hidden facility that Leang was located in, seduced the leader, and then left.

Shortly thereafter a great scandal of her was revealed and she was discharged from command of a Special Weapons division. Leading to the young, recently commissioned General Huang Lin Bao, followed by Lunalu and Hu Tan Mau, to take over who proceeds to further improve the division.

Hu Tan Mau
"Trust me, comrades, I'm a businessman."

-Mau reassuring his comrades

Born as the son of a wealthy (Hong Kong) businessman belonging to the growing Luresian upper-class, young Mau grew up in an ambiance of great prosperity and privilege that smoothly transitioned into his military service, which he chose over a private business career out of personal interest rather than patriotism.

Thanks to his father's extensive network of practical relationships in the Party, he eventually found his way into a Special Weapons division based in the cold (Himalayas). Formerly under the command of the whimsical General Leang and the pyromaniacal Bao, the division was found in a pathetic state, being less of a functioning combat unit and more akin to a combination of odd mishmash of various half-baked, underutilized, prototypes and several foreign weapons attained by dubious means for the sake of experimentation and in many cases sheer novelty and fire-spewing weapons that violate nearly every international law and ineffective designs built for the sake of causing fires to the complete atrophy of other promising experiments.

Getting this unit back into proper shape and beyond would prove to be a tough challenge which Mau, a curious and playful man by nature, accepted in order to put his management skills to a test. A few years later, his division had risen from the ashes like the proverbial phoenix, fielding cleverly customized variants of mainstay Empire weapon systems with the addition of advanced ECM resonators, highly refined incendiary compounds, and tactical nuclear weapons. The most famous product of Mau's ingenuity is the Han Gunship, Lurensia most advanced, highly modular assault helicopter that is fully compatible with any of these weapons.

In the meantime, Mau had also invested a lot of time and dedication in his studies on warfare, including the ancient teachings of Sun Tzu, allowing him to excel in several simulated exercises even against experienced Chinese commanders. Now, after decades of peacetime service, Mau is looking at the possible prospect of fighting his first real battle, should (Beijing) finally come to a decision to side with one of the warring factions. Though as Lunalu has more experience Mau works as her second in command.

Bao Jin
"..."

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Having lost his parents in the infamous student revolts of the late 1980 V.C., Jin grew up in a state orphanage where he was raised to be an upright and loyal citizen in service of the Party. As a result, the rapid changes that Lurensia underwent after the turn of the millennium proved difficult for him to cope with.

When a new generation of political leaders launched the famed "Modern Way" program which introduced new civil liberties and further increased the nation's already booming export economy in the late (insert), Jin was once again expected to quietly adjust his view of the world accordingly, for two plus two no longer equaled five but rather three, in a figurative sense. The young officer cadet subsequently gave up on questioning politics, his mind finally becoming one with the Party doctrine which was always in the right; past, present, and future.

A living proof of the success of Lurensia's endeavors in the field of social engineering, he soon found his way into the Ministry of State Security's Secret Police, where the same methods of control were applied on a massive scale to maximize the loyalty, efficiency, and happiness of 1.4 billion people.

When MLA separatists openly threatened the Empire's safety, Jin was among the most zealous upholders of law and order, rooting out enemies of the state with maximum prejudice. Wherever he and his unit of crack electronics experts, cunning propagandists, and goose-stepping enforcers appeared, dissent was wiped out of existence, and only the will of the Party, the collective faith of an invincible people remained.

Now, with the MLA successfully purged from the Empire sphere of influence, Jin has been reassigned to the outermost border province of Heilongjiang in order to keep a close, watchful eye on the Voshkod and to ensure the safety of ethnic Lurensian that make up an ever-growing portion of the population in Eastern Eorzea.

Xing Chen
"..."

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Also known as the "Hammer", Chen's military career started with him as just another one among thousands of blindly naive, utterly expendable Red Guard infantrymen. His trial-by-fire came in (insert), when a then-obscure Central Canthan fundamentalist group known as the MLA detonated a five-kiloton stolen tactical nuclear device in (Beijing) during the grand military parade in celebration of the Empire 70th anniversary from the Split. Chen was a member of a rapid response force that was among the first Empire units called to the scene where he witnessed untold horrors that would continue to haunt him for the rest of his life: With thousands of soldiers and civilians incinerated, (insert) turned into a glassy crater and the (insert) completely leveled, the Elsword Empire had stepped into the limelight of history and kicked off a conflict that would go on for the better part of the decade, changing Lurensia and the rest of the world forever.

Subsequently, Chen was at the forefront of countless bloody battles, ranging from Downtown (Hong Kong) over the destruction of the Heaven of Lurensia Dam to the frozen mountains of the (Himalayas) which he only survived by a combination of sharp senses, an iron will, and sheer luck. His resilience and fanaticism to hunt the MLA to hell and back impressed his commanders who soon turned him into a heroic figure in military propaganda stories and put him on a fast track to promotions.

Now, more than two decades later, Chen stands at the top of his own army, commanding thousands upon thousands of brave young men and women much like himself back in the day to restore Lurensia honor after the debacle against the Voshkod forces at (Kurmuk).

Huang Lin Bao
"..."

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Bao was born in an isolated village near the Datong volcano site. His family was part of an ancient local cult devoted to Zhu Rong, the God of Fire, many of his ancestors were even the cult leaders. For thousands of years, the cult used to sacrifice human beings by throwing them into the volcano to "appease" their god and "get his favors", although it was believed that the Datong volcanoes were officially inactive for 100 000 years. In spite of the cult's questionable ethics, the village's isolation from the rest of Lurensia kept it safe from the imperial authorities who didn't bother to interfere. The cult lasted until the end of the Luresian Civil War in 1949 when (Mao Zedong) took over, resulting in a political cleansing of the Luresian territory. The cult was then abandoned under the threat of a penalty of death.

Bao's great-grandfather was the last cult leader and was sentenced to death for having opposed the communist government's demands, along with seven other members, thus definitely putting an end to the cult. Still, some traces of the cult remained deeply in the village inhabitants' spirit, especially in Bao's. He discovered his twisted passion for fire during early childhood when he burned ants with matches or made the sun a lethal weapon with the use of a magnifying glass at the age of 5. As he grew up, he was an utterly unruly student, dangerously experimenting with fire in chemistry classes, playing games in which his schoolmates were literally risking their skin or doing pranks involving fire to his teachers. Everyone at school was so scared of him that the headmaster expelled him when he was 16.

Bao's parents couldn't take his behavior anymore and sent him to the army in hopes that he would get more discipline. And so started his military career. After two years in the army - where he earned more self-discipline (although it hasn't been easy for him at the beginning and even harder for the drill sergeants) - He attended the Empire National Defense University at (Beijing). Leiong Leang was also part of his promotion, it was even rumored that they were secretly dating, there was no proof to these rumors however.

There he studied the art of war and the effectiveness of incendiary weapons, his favorite subject. Three years later he elaborated interesting theories about incendiary weapons and how to make them more powerful and effective - his religious knowledge from the ancestral Cult of Zhu Rong also contributed to his work - and even started giving conferences about his theories. That attracted the attention of the Luresian military leaders who immediately offered him a good place in the army in exchange of his contribution to the improvement of the Luresian military power. He became a Triple A general at the age of 21, coinciding with Leang scandal and thus replacing her.

He grew into a little more mentally stable man and met a woman whom he married six months later. Although he had the reputation of being like a volcano (calm on the outside and boiling with rage on the inside) he lived a happy life with his beloved and beloving wife, until the MLA War started in 2013. During a military parade in (Beijing), MLA terrorists began their attack with suicide explosives, killing hundreds of civilians and soldiers and injuring many more. Bao was attending the parade and his wife was among the civilians. When the first MLA waves stroke, Bao desperately looked for his wife in the confusion. He eventually succeeded in finding her and tried to take her to safety but a truck exploded near them. The explosion instantly killed Bao's wife and burned his left hand to the third degree. The loss of his wife was more painful to him than his injury, to the point where he went berserk, got in the first unoccupied Dragon Tank he could find, and burned down every MLA fighter on his way, it took hours to his superiors to finally calm him down.

Since then, he swore to never find rest until the MLA is completely eradicated from the surface of Gaiaterra. Eventually, the MLA was defeated by the Aquilan and Luresian coalition and the world knew a decade of peace. In this period of peace, Bao was entrusted with the responsibility of a small Experimental division thanks to his contribution to the Luresian incendiary weaponry and moved his base into Datong's largest volcano crater, the "only place where he feels at home", where he secretly experimented new weapons. In 2023, the MLA resurfaced and declared war to the Aquila and EMpire once again. But this time, Bao was prepared to obliterate them with his newest creations: the Zhu Rong, an artillery tank that can shoot magma, and the Atmospheric Lens, a gigantic magnifying glass sent into space to turn the sunlight into a lethal weapon.

It would be his obsession in destroying the MLA that would also lead to his demise. As at the tail-end of the MLA-Empire war, Bao's Division was besieging the last stronghold of General Huchum when the general stormed out of his fortress in his personal Desert Cruiser in an attempt to escape and Bao, in his desire to kill Huchum, ignored his superior's advice and charged in to kill the general himself that lead to a bloody battle of steel and fire as both generals and their forces fought in their personal vehicles. Eventually, Huchum retreated back to his base, and Bao, despite feeling that it was a trap, pursued. Culminating in his final battle as he and Huchum fought, even as the base started to go up in flames until they were reduced to fighting with their fist, tired and bloodied, ending with Bao smashing Huchums face into a molten steel vat and finally collapse, laughing like a maniac as he choked on the fumes, followed by the burning base falling on top of them.

Due to the base being burnt to the ground, neither forces could find their general's body, and the base was destroyed, though currently it remains an empty plain. But there are rumors that the spirit of Bao and Huchum still fight within the spectral ruins of the base, forever fated to fight each other until the day the MLA/Empire is completely destroyed.