The Dragon-Emperor

The Dragon-Emperor is the immortal sovereign of Grand Cathay, the Son of Heaven, and the living keystone upon whom the harmony of the entire empire depends. Part man and part dragon, he has ruled from the Celestial City since before the memory of any living thing, and the Cathayans hold that he will reign until the very end of the world. He is not merely a king but the axis of his people's cosmos, the mediator between heaven and earth whose balance keeps the two great winds of magic in harmony; when the Dragon-Emperor is strong, Cathay prospers, and when he is threatened, the whole realm trembles.

At his side reigns the Moon Empress, his consort and equal, and their children are the dragons of the Celestial Court who guard the provinces in his name. The Dragon-Emperor rarely takes the field himself, for his place is at the heart of the empire, holding its harmony against the ceaseless pressure of Chaos, yet the tales say that when he rouses to war in his full dragon-majesty, no power in the world can stand against him. Ancient beyond reckoning, wise, and terrible, he is at once the father, the god, and the unbreakable centre of the oldest empire of men.