Pyrrhic Victory takes place in a vast world constantly at war. Yet across the war-torn lands exist those trying to survive each day. There are still natural gems of beauty scattered around the world, little pockets of untouched landscape rarely encountered but always treasured. Let us take a tour of the world Pyrrhic Victory is set in and see what remains when war is over.

The first part of the tour showed us Shuicheng, the very first city which the Rupani nation built when they migrated out of the swamps. The tour of Shuicheng began here, and you can see the rest of the sights of Shuicheng at http://merakigames.ca/category/world-tour/shuicheng/.

Welcome back, hopefully everyone has had their fill of touring the Chu’shi Mae? We have time to see one more ship before this caravan moves on. Quick show of hands, the ramming ship just pulling into the south end of the dock, or the scouting ship on the north end?

Ramming ship it is! This is the Zhujing – one of our newer versions of the Jianjing class ramming ship. For those not from Rupani, the jianjing is a large sea whale which stalks the deeper reaches of the Zitan Morai. While their pods don’t tend to come too close to our shores, it is quite common for them to smash ships to timbers if they stray too far. When Rupani first moved to the coast the jianjing were uncommonly aggressive and were hunted and killed in self defense. Alas, as their numbers dwindled they became even more territorial and aggressive and are likely to smash any wood, boat or otherwise which they find floating in their waters. The jianjing is deadly by all measures – nearly as large as the Chu’shi Mae and with a long horn in the center of it’s head – the beast can smash most ships to pieces, or drag them with it into the depths while skewered on their horn.

Why do I tell you all this? Well, the Zhujing is inspired by these masters of the waves! What better inspiration than a whale that can destroy even our mighty ships when riled up?

The Zhujing has a thick hull in the front to allow it to bash into approaching enemy ships, often splintering and floundering ships in a single hit. Like her namesake, the Zhujing has a jianjing horn attached to her hull to skewer an enemy ship, holding them in place if need be, or withdrawing and leaving a wide hole in the hold. As if that wasn’t deadly enough the Zhujing has a pair of oil pots on her prow, allowing her to ram the enemy and leave them ready for flaming arrows from the archers on her deck.

The Zhujing is significantly smaller than the last two ships as she needs to be swift in the current. Unfortunately this means a real jianjing would shatter her pretty easily, but enemy ships don’t stand a chance. The Zhujing works perfectly against nigh any enemy ship. Of course, this doesn’t include the Kosekyan navy – with their cheap floating shipwrecks, they can easily waste a few to take out a Jianjing class ship without being bothered or slowed.

Artwork By: Cedric Cunanan

Pyrrhic Victory takes place in a vast world constantly at war. Yet across the war-torn lands exist those trying to survive each day. There are still natural gems of beauty scattered around the world, little pockets of untouched landscape rarely encountered but always treasured. Let us take a tour of the world Pyrrhic Victory is set in and see what remains when war is over.

The first part of the tour showed us Shuicheng, the very first city which the Rupani nation built when they migrated out of the swamps. The tour of Shuicheng began here, and you can see the rest of the sights of Shuicheng at http://merakigames.ca/category/world-tour/shuicheng/.

Look far over there, at the other end of the docks. See the massive rowboat?  It’s hard to tell from here, but she is even larger than the Xunsu’yu. Come, Driver, take the caravan closer so we can all take a look. This is a wonderful and fortunate day for us all indeed!

Look in awe upon the famous Chu’shi Mae, the oldest Artillery ship still in service. This relic has shattered and battered more enemy fortifications and ships than any ship in the Navy’s history, although it seems she has all of her spoils of war below deck at the moment. With no less than four Yundoh Lun’wui on board to guide and manoeuvre the ship, the Chu’shi Mae can bombard enemies and escape before the stones land. The Chu’shi Mae has no sails but she does have many soldiers and slaves manning the oars – between them and the Yundoh Lun’wui the ship glides quickly forward and is rather manoeuvrable for her size.

She has the deadliest stone throwers our shipcrafters and siegemasters can attach to a ship. The Chu’shi Mae hauls three mangonels and at least thirty shots a piece in order to quickly bombard an enemy ship or position. Each mangonel can be aimed and fired independently to maximize the area under siege. Not even the lunatic pirates or Kosekyan navy would dare sail directly into a hail of stones from the Chu’shi Mae and her sister ships.

Artwork By: Cedric Cunanan

Pyrrhic Victory takes place in a vast world constantly at war. Yet across the war-torn lands exist those trying to survive each day. There are still natural gems of beauty scattered around the world, little pockets of untouched landscape rarely encountered but always treasured. Let us take a tour of the world Pyrrhic Victory is set in and see what remains when war is over.

The first part of the tour showed us Shuicheng, the very first city which the Rupani nation built when they migrated out of the swamps. The tour of Shuicheng began here, and you can see the rest of the sights of Shuicheng at http://merakigames.ca/category/world-tour/shuicheng/.

Welcome back, it seems everyone is accounted for. I can see from your faces that some of you made a trip to Z’in Seafood like I suggested to receive a proper Rupani welcome! Excellent, be sure to bring friends and family and show them how delightfully tasty the Open-Faced Fish Sandwich is, hmm?

I see some of you are eyeing the ship behind me – that is the Xunsu’yu. She is a ship of our unstoppable Rupani Navy! Unfortunately we can’t get a tour of the inside of the ship, a security measure for which I’m sure you understand. The Xunsu’yu is an infantry transport, and as you can see she has both oars and sails. Both the sails and oars are necessary to give her the speed and maneuverability necessary to catch enemy ships or to quickly dock at a port for a seaside invasion.

As the Xunsu’yu carries no weapons, archers on board shoot arrows at enemy ships while soldiers leap from the deck onto enemy ships. With almost a dozen hatches for infantry to charge up on deck, our soldiers can remain safely away from enemy arrows until the time they’re needed. As our soldiers are adept in the water, there is little fear of them drowning even if they miss the ship or the enemy ship sinks – but we try to capture enemy ships if possible. If nothing else, the supplies help lengthen a campaign and the ship can be modified into something closer to a proper Rupani vessel. If an enemy ship is simply too big to capture, or it is a Kosekyan vessel, then we simply use flaming arrows from as far away as possible. I’m not allowed to tell you how big the Xunsu’yu is, but I can say that there are no rivals in any other nation except Kosekya.

Before we leave Shuicheng, we shall tour some of the other ships in the Navy; we should be able to find at least one of the four main ships in the port somewhere.

Artwork By: Cedric Cunanan