Cloudmist Territory

Biodata

Geography

• Violet City is the destination Chen Mo and Liushuang head toward after escaping pursuit across the Xinpo River 50.
• Cloudmist lies north of their escape route through South Pass Territory. During their final flight, Chen Mo and Liushuang know this general direction but lack reliable knowledge of the intervening roads, cities, and terrain 50.
• Travel from Creek Moon is lengthy. The delegation’s original return itinerary runs through White Stone City, across the Dark Forest by airship, through Green Pine Kingdom, and into the Emerald Duchy—a journey exceeding 1,000 kilometers and expected to take more than twenty days 36.

Government and Noble Household

Succession and Political Connections

• Liushuang is twenty-second in line to inherit Cloudmist Territory. Her position is treated as having little practical prospect of succession, with twenty male heirs ahead of her 10 25.
• The ruling family is distantly related to Emerald’s ruler. Its branch stands approximately six or seven hundred places down the Emerald Duchy’s succession 45.
• Liushuang’s maternal ancestry connects her to elven and beastman leaders. Marquis Valen considers these blood ties valuable enough to justify a personal effort to capture her 45.

Notable Representatives

• Commandery Princess Liushuang — Noble heir and nominal head of the traveling delegation. Despite her status, practical decisions are generally made by her senior attendants 10 32 39.
• Captain Peiwen — Guard captain and fourth-tier Golden Scale Swordsman. He handles external affairs and exercises primary authority over military decisions; he dies protecting Liushuang’s escape 11 12 39 46.
• Master Locke — Healer, spellcaster, and alchemist who shares responsibility for the delegation’s decisions. He treats Chen Mo’s arrow wound and later dies during the retreat 11 32 39 49 50.
• Lady Linda — Chief lady-in-waiting, etiquette instructor, and manager of internal affairs. She previously served Liushuang’s mother and has attended mother and daughter for more than twenty years; she is mortally wounded defending the survivors 10 32 48.
• Luke — Hired mercenary guide whose local knowledge also helps Chen Mo navigate travel and mercenary work 13.

Military

The forces accompanying Liushuang are a household escort, not a documented total for Cloudmist’s army.

• Discipline: The escort maintains formation even against stronger professionals. In South Pass Territory, eighteen warriors divide immediately into three six-man groups when Peiwen orders them to prepare for combat 39 43.
• Relative strength: Cloudmist is smaller than South Pass Territory, which has seven cities, more than eighty towns, over one million inhabitants, and a sixth-tier marquis 43.

Customs and Heraldry

Noble Protocol

• Lord’s banner: Depicts a surging sea of clouds and swirling patterns. Smaller banners identify the backgrounds and affiliations of the delegation’s leaders 34.
• Formal invitations: The delegation sends Chen Mo an elaborate family-crested calling card, sealed credentials, and Liushuang’s signed and sealed meeting request in a gilded gift box 34.
• Reception ceremony: Silver-armored guards stand in rows with lowered weapons to welcome Chen Mo to the temporary camp 34.
• Commercial propriety: Rather than simply retaining Chen Mo’s two engraved gold pieces as payment, the delegation compensates him with twenty gold coins and charges only two silver coins for passage 14.

Cloudmist Territory Audience Ceremony

The ceremony taught to Liushuang requires the following actions 11:

• Place the right hand over the heart, palm inward, and bow fifteen degrees to signify loyalty.
• Remain bowed; those in hunting clothes hold their hands at their sides, while those in dresses perform a prescribed half-curtsy.
• Lower the gaze to the ground roughly three paces before the lord and his wife, then wait for permission to rise.

History

First Dealings with Chen Mo

Liushuang’s party first encounters Chen Mo while camped in woodland. At Kajia’s insistence, Liushuang permits Locke to treat his arrow wound. The delegation subsequently allows Chen Mo and Little White aboard its chartered airship after Locke examines Chen Mo’s unusually engraved gold pieces 10 11 12.

At White Stone Outpost, Liushuang inspects Little White and gives Chen Mo a fifth-tier healing medicine. He reciprocates with a thermite grenade—a gift that later saves the delegation from an orc commander 14 25.

Longwind Hills Ambush

Orc wolf riders attack the delegation in the Longwind Hills. Peiwen realizes that their avoidance of the central carriages indicates a deliberate attempt to capture Liushuang. After being defeated and captured by Moglu, the Bonecrusher Vanguard, Peiwen kills him with Chen Mo’s thermite grenade 24 25.

The survivors distrust Creek Moon’s investigation into how the attackers secretly landed at Xiasha Port. Peiwen refuses a federation escort and waits at Boulder Fort for Cloudmist’s own reinforcements 32.

Alliance with Chen Mo

The delegation formally invites Chen Mo to visit. Peiwen thanks him for the grenade, while Liushuang offers three more healing pills for his teacher. These medicines are gifts from her maternal family, not Cloudmist property 34 35.

Chen Mo joins the return journey and asks for help finding magical instruction. Liushuang later signs a fifty-year agreement transferring her future supplies of Life’s Eternal Song to him. Cloudmist’s party also protects him from the Zircon Family’s pursuing knights 35 36 37.

Wartime Retreat

An airship crash forces the delegation to abandon its planned crossing and take the eastern overland route toward the Bloodred Corridor. News then arrives that Green Pine and Creek Moon have declared war on the Emerald Duchy, trapping the travelers in enemy territory 37 38.

Peiwen’s cavalry attacks the pursuing Gaoshi squad, and Chen Mo helps him kill Tikpot. Chen Mo agrees to remain after Peiwen promises an independent territory, a pioneering-knight certificate, and an introduction to a magic teacher, conditional on Liushuang’s safe return 39.

The reduced party abandons its baggage and disperses nonessential personnel. With Chen Mo’s summoned weapons and reconnaissance equipment, it breaks through Green Luo Mountain Pass, acquires enemy uniforms, and reaches the Crystal River after twelve days. Finding the bridge route compromised, Peiwen leads a river crossing into South Pass Territory 39 41 42 43.

Destruction of the Escort

Marquis Valen organizes a manhunt for Liushuang and uses staged fighting to lure Peiwen into a trap. Peiwen dies without revealing her hiding place, signaling Chen Mo to honor their agreement and take her away 45 46.

After Peiwen’s death, Chen Mo’s authority over the survivors weakens. Eliel betrays their position, leading to a battle at an abandoned village. The attackers are repelled, but the last loyal guard dies, Linda is mortally wounded, and Locke suffers fatal injuries 47 48 49 50.

Chen Mo and Liushuang continue alone in the amphibious Flying Shuttle. They evade Gaoshi’s guarded bridges by crossing the Xinpo River elsewhere, then head north toward Violet City in Cloudmist Territory 50.