Tsien Chiang

Tsien Chiang was a necromancer who formerly lived somewhere in Kara-Tur and later became the darklord of I'Cath in the Demiplane of Dread. Though lost from Kara-Tur, her name survived there as practically a byword for evil.

History
Tsien was born the only daughter of a prince of the province of I'Cath. She was intelligent, proud, and fearless, and despite her father's thinking that women were only good for making children and forbidding her from receiving such education, she secretly learned the military arts from veteran fighters and killers and magic from mighty wu jen masters of necromancy, as well as poisoncraft. At this time, she became fascinated by the number four, and its mystical relationship with death. Yet still her father belittled her ambitions, and her indignation soon turned to an intense hatred of first her father and then of all men.

She eventually murdered her father with a concoction of four lethal and agonizing poisons, and then used her magic to turn her mother and three brothers into imbeciles. Thus, Tsien Chiang was acclaimed the ruler of I'Cath by the local elders, who would rather see her as lord than one of her feebleminded family members. She soon ruled that province as a notorious and utterly inflexible tyrant.

Nevertheless, many men sought marriage to the beautiful and powerful lord and came to her as suitors. Tsien Chiang accepted only high-ranked samurai and when she had four suitors at a time, she demanded they fight to the death in an arena. On the rare occasion one man survived, Tsien claimed this unfortunate as her husband, did with him as she willed until they had fathered a female infant, then slew him through trickery, magic, combat, or poison. Once she had had four husbands and had had four daughters, Tsien declared she would receive no more suitors, if any even remained. In any case, as her beauty faded, men grew less attracted to her, and she detested them all the more. Of her four daughters, three of them—named Hate, Scream, and Spite—grew to be evil like Tsien, but foolish and easily controlled by her, and served as her handmaidens. The fourth was an unbearable disappointment, for she was of good heart: Nightingale, who was named for her sweet singing voice.

Tsien began to fear death as she noticed herself age and her beauty fade. She gathered the finest sages from all over Kara-Tur to help her uncover the secrets of the number four to her satisfaction in many hours of discussion and research. Almost all were unsuccessful and so she had them slowly tortured to death. One however suggested looking to the trees for answers, as they had seen the passing of the four seasons countless times. This was an idea that appealed to Tsien—rather than torture that sage, she had him killed relatively quickly, by being chopped into pieces with the remains consumed in the fireplace. Very few sages visited I'Cath after that, and fewer still ever returned.

In time, Tsien Chiang was the most dreaded, distrusted, and despised individual in all of Kara-Tur. As a tactical genius and supremely powerful wizard, she handily defeated the neighboring princes who allied against her and attempted to overthrow her evil rule, taking their lands as her own and making her one of the most powerful persons in Kara-Tur too. Those who didn't attack her, the emperor, local princes, and rulers of other lands, were compelled to pay homage to appease her, but those lords too were often murdered. Because of binding oaths of loyalty from her clan to the emperor that she did not dare break and was begrudgingly forced to uphold, Tsien spared the emperor, but she was feared even by him.

Among this tribute were a number of fruit trees from the kings of southern Kara-Tur. Keeping only four of these plants alive, Tsien enchanted them with dark magic, so they smelled of death and cursed those who came close. She cultivated these into four groves that were centers of hideous suffering and misery for those caught within. In addition, Tsien demanded from the emperor four bells, the biggest in the empire and all sacred relics housed in great shrines. The fearful emperor granted them to her, despite the angry protests and curses of the priests and his people. She used her powers to place the spirits of her four daughters, Hate, Scream, Spite, and Nightingale, into the four bells, as well as a part of her own spirit to ensure that her daughters could not escape. Her daughters' soulless bodies survived, but completely under their mother's control. Because the bells were forged to be used by the immortal gods, imbuing them with part of her spirit finally meant that Tsien and her daughters' bodies never again aged a day. The corrupted bells became known as The Bells of Evil and Lament and Tsien rang them four times a year in hopes of hearing the secret of the number four in their sound.

Still suitors came to claim the hands and hearts of Hate, Scream, Spite, and Nightingale, and all were forced to kill each other for the entertainment of Tsien and her three evil daughters. The survivors were killed off in more inventive ways. Over many years, Tsien used the remains of these suitors to build herself a ghastly palace: the structure made from their bones, the walls painted with their blood, the carpets weaved from their hair, and the clothing from their skin and flesh. The floors cried in madness and pain when stepped on. A giant-sized backgammon board had dice and pieces made from fingernails and skulls. Even the broken promises of men, "the one substance that the world has in limitless abundance", she used to erect a tower. While Hate, Scream, and Spite liked it, when her despairing and horrified good daughter Nightingale complained, her empty body was beaten.

Even the gods despised Tsien—for her lack of faith, her desecration of their shrines, and the beatings she gave Nightingale, whose voice they loved. They plagued I'Cath with storms whenever Nightingale was beaten. But prideful Tsien disdained even them. She hated the gods, whom she believed were deliberately withholding the truth of the number four from her.

Finally, Nightingale dared question Tsien four times, and for this she was beaten four times, once each by her three sisters and then by her mother, who this time tried to utterly destroy her body. Nightingale cried out for mercy and help, and thick fog enveloped the bone palace. Certain the gods were working to cast her down to the Nine Hells, she blasphemed against the gods and denied them. When the emperor finally plucked up the courage to intervene, she laughed and killed him, thereby breaking her sacred oaths of loyalty. Nightingale's body escaped destruction and was imprisoned in the Tower of Broken Promises.

With these four ultimate sins, the fog that had engulfed her palace tore the land of I'Cath out of Kara-Tur and carried it into the Demiplane of Dread in the year 732 BC. The dark powers of that place made it a domain there, with Tsien Chiang as its darklord. No one else lived there except her, her daughters, and their remaining victims.

She was not sure where this place was, let alone what it was, but she was eager to start conquering it. Over the years since, Tsien Chiang cultivated her powers, became one with the land, and gathered monstrous creatures and evil spirits to serve her, such as tree spirits as her servants and handmaidens.

All she needed next were some new bones to fix the walls and some fresh blood to give them a lick of paint.

Personality
In her youth, Tsien was fearless, proud, and spirited, as well as keenly intelligent and disobedient to her strict father. She grew to have an unbreakable will and a drive to dominate everything and everyone, and to be sadistic, cruel and selfish. Tsien was also a determined misandrist, as a response to his disdain for women. She wanted to force all men to submit to her will, or else destroy them. Even those men who did pay homage and swear fealty to her did not survive her and her daughters long. She hated all visitors to her realm and only those who paid homage with impressive gifts might be allowed to depart again and keep their lives. It was very unlikely she'd make an agreement with anyone, least of all men.

Above all, she was obsessed by the number four, which in her language used the same character as the word for "death". This held mystical significance: the four winds brought storms, ice, dust, and heat, and the four curses of despair, malice, misfortune, and pestilence were written on scrolls of the gods. Some people, those familiar with the secrets of life and death, feared the number four where it occurred, while a few, such as Tsien, were fascinated. She was driven to learn its secrets. She believed that death was all powerful compared to life, as was darkness to death, that the numbers held the key, of which four was the greatest, and that by mastering the secrets of the number four, she too would become all powerful. Thus, every terrible thing Tsien did, she did in fours.

Powers
As well as being a mistress of dark magic, since becoming a darklord of the Demiplane of Dread, Tsien could transform herself into a terrible evil treant. She could look through any tree in the land to spy on trespassers. Despite her control over the land, she apparently lacked a means of closing the borders of her domain. She commanded great magic and wielded only a dagger. She could only be slain when all four of the Bells of Evil and Lament were destroyed, and this took at least a disintegrate or limited wish spell. Otherwise, she reformed in a few minutes, fully intact and with all her spells.

Activities
She believed her powers kept the gods out of domain, not knowing they were absent altogether, and maintained her warding spells.

Description
Though famously beautiful in her youth, Tsien was described as sharp-featured and hard later in life as her iron will and dominance shone through.

Background
Being created for the Ravenloft campaign setting with largely unconnected lore, it is unknown where in Kara-Tur that Tsien Chiang lived and I'Cath originated, or even when in Kara-Tur's history it existed. There is no I'Cath province, no characters named Tsien, and no clans named Chiang in the setting lore. The Chinese name suggests Shou Lung or T'u Lung, but this is not a necessity. The comparatively recent date in Ravenloft's timeline suggests a recent, mid-1300s DR origin on Toril, but correspondence between the setting timelines is unknown and ambiguous. The slain emperor is unnamed, and none of the modern emperors of the major powers died a violent death by the Kara-Tur setting date of 1357 DR. In contrast, the Tree of Venom grove is said to be centuries old. It is possible these events occurred after 1357 DR, though later history is thin. T'u Lung is known to have lost two emperors in the following 18 years, so it seems a candidate. Otherwise, I'Cath may originate in one of the other smaller, undetailed nations of Kara-Tur, such as the Warring States.

Tsien Chiang and her daughters play a prominent role in a number of the 4-edition Living Forgotten Realms modules as a pawn in Shar's grand scheme to rule the multiverse. These are CORE2-11 "The Sign of Four", EPIC3-3 "The Tangled Skein of Destiny", EPIC4-1 "Shooting the Moon", EPIC4-2 "Age of Ruin", and EPIC4-3 "Dark Hearts of Madness". However, as these were released after the end of official support, these are not deemed canonical to this wiki. They may be downloaded from the Living Forgotten Realms website.

A wholly new Tsien Chiang and I'Cath were created for 5-edition's Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, but these have no Realms or Kara-Tur relations and thus are also not considered canon to this wiki. Only the original 2-edition version is presented above.