Summary

Excerpt from Li-She Wan's "Travelling Merchant"

Home, Tiangchou, it is good to return home. I see the tribes have arrived for the festivities.The villages on the outskirts of the cities have grown manyfold. It will be hard to enter the inner city. The Mandara, she who rules is always more worried at this time about invasion or revolution. Tiangchou the city of dreams, where during the day the factories are busy working to produce the best goods, by night the employees fight for their prestige. I see my first pale rat within 300 yards of the city and greet it, giving it blessing and praying that my ancestors watch over me. Perhaps this rat was once my grandfather and I hope his omens bode well for the market ahead. He follows us and only leaves after I throw him some food. The animal pens are full and the market beyond heaving with people, buying and selling, winning and losing. Outside the city there's gold to be made, but I will be forced to enter and to take the Mandara's notes as I really need to buy more porcelain and some more high quality leather.

As we approached it all came back, the rebuilt wall separating the inner city from outside. Each ring visible from the road, slightly higher than the last. At the top the silver palace of white marble, shining brightly under the sun. The barrack houses nestling just below, below that black factories billowing smoke and the merchants ring with the fine houses and silk hangings with my own house. I wonder how long it would take for the Yakuza to claim his percentage of my profits, this time I knew what would happen if I refused, I still see the bloodstains in my sleep.

The pits, I remember the faces of the condemned, who fight, death or to live for another day. The animals, screaming in pain, howling in victory. The smells of the pit, the betting, who draws first blood, the first to fall, the first to die. I wonder what the vogue is this year, what fetishes the owners are using to draw the gamblers.

Tiangchow, the city of dreams and nightmares, fortunes to be made and lost, lives on the line.

Contents

---

History of Tiangchou(A brief history of Tiangchou from the official histories of Master Morlin and a timeline)

Layout of Tiangchou(A brief description of the layout of Tiangchou, describing the various areas within the city)

Culture of Tiangchou (A description of the culture within Tiangchou from Art through to Supersticions)

Economy and Politics of Tiangchou (A description of the economy, trade, laws and government of Tiangchou)

Tribes of Tiangchou (A brief description of each of the tribes surrounding Tiangchoi) 

People of Tiangchou (Some biographies of key individuals living in or around Tiangchou)

Organisations within Tingchou (bief description of some organisations resident in Tiangchou)

Places within Tiangchou (Brief description of some key locations with Tiangchou, including a map of the CIty