Arcane Legions

For centuries the Han emperors have been entombed with armies ready to come forth and serve when the emperors would rise again. After the Night of Mists, the Emperor Wu has become the first Han emperor to win the allegiance of the terracotta legions of spearmen, who awakened from their eternal slumber, imbued with the souls of fallen Han soldiers who’d sworn themselves to the emperor’s service upon their deaths. The souls are tied to the terracotta bodies until the body is destroyed; then the souls return to the nearest magical artificer who can fashion or repair the fallen soldiers, and the souls can be placed into new bodies.

The spirit Nüwa, a half-snake, half-woman some claim fashioned the original Han people from the yellow clay of the earth, knows the secret to creating and giving life to the terracotta soldiers, and she has carefully trained a small cadre of artificers to maintain the terracotta legions. Nüwa herself moves with the Grand Army, providing Himiko a virtually endless supply of reinforcements as she needs them.

The souls inhabiting the terracotta spearmen are pleased to be risen in the service of a Han emperor and fearless in combat. They do not require much support—merely clay and water and the magics of Nüwa to animate them—and though their bodies are fragile, their strength in numbers cannot be matched by anyone other than the undead legions of Cleopatra and Antony.