SinghSong
Minstrel
The world-building for this AH Wuxia story's heavily inspired by the real-life story of the Qigong Boom, along with the establishments of Falun Gong and Zhong Gong by their respective founders, Li Hongzhi and Zhang Hongbao, and some (but not all) of the claims which are still being made by both of them today IRL- i.e, Li Hongzhi's assertions that his Mastery of the Void enables him to walk through walls and make himself invisible, that space aliens walk the Earth, with modern science's de-legitimization of Qigong as 'pseudoscience' (along with advocacy for race-mixing along with 'alphabetism') having been part of the aliens' ploy to overtake and subjugate humanity, as well as claiming to himself be an alien who transferred its soul into a human body, who has come to help humankind from the destruction it could face as the result of rampant evil; and Zhang Hongbao's proposed alternative Qi-based universal laws of science, including the 'spirit-matter dialectics' theorem (that both spirit and matter have objective existence and can transform into the other under certain circumstances), and a universal law of motion according to which all objects or matter could be subdivided into 'Yin' or 'Yang', with any thing or act which contravenes it "pre-determined to bring eventual disaster", and theories of 'promotion-restriction-inhibition-transformation' derived from the Five Elements.
So then, to set the stage for the world-building of this story, it's basically set in a parallel timeline, which only diverged from our own due to the scenario of its basic premise- in which either of these two movements' founders (or even both of them- or alternatively, the leader of another entirely fictional movement during the Qigong Boom, with an OC as its founder) was actually telling the truth. Or are close enough, at any rate; so that, even if they were delusional/BS-ing with most or all of their claims in this world, the practice of Qigong, aka 'Cultivation', offered by at least a few of them, actually works in the real world (though it only begins to have any noticeable effect in the late 60's, and be truly effective in the mid 80's, for reasons which'll only be explained later on, thus preventing any earlier butterflying away of world history by such variables as a successful Boxer Rebellion). In this world, the 80's-90's 'Qigong Boom' isn't mere pseudoscience or merely a new-age religion/spirituality popular movement as it was in ours, but instead ushered in the onset of an "Age of Cultivation" instead. As such, as in our TL, but to an even greater extent, since they pose an exponentially greater threat, on account of Qigong/'Cultivation' actually working and conveying practioners with superhuman abilities (albeit limited to Wuxia, or western RPG- i.e, max level D&D Monk Class- power levels at most, rather than full-blown Xianxia protagonists' ridiculous 'destroy this continent with my pinky finger' self-proclaimed power levels), as well as the subculture 'going global' and attracting a markedly greater number of formal and informal practitioners in this TL than in our TL, the authorities (starting in the PR of China, but with much of the rest of the world following suit as well) began instituting systematic crackdowns upon all Qigong organizations for their perceived challenges to the authority of the state, the status quo of law and order, and the threats which 'Cultivators' pose to national security.
The practice of Qigong gets widely prohibited, and even criminalized in many nations ITTL. The Shaolin Temple is among those institutions to have been officially disbanded, but as of the start of the story (in which they play a key role), it continues to operate in exile from its new HQ in Nepal- having re-established its primary base of operations there after the hand-over of Hong Kong, supported the Nepalese Royal Government in the Nepali Civil War, and thus facilitated their ultimate victory over the Maoist insurgency, along with King Dipendra’s subsequent rise to the throne (having risen to become an advanced disciple of the Shaolin Temple himself) and Nepal’s return to being an absolute monarchy ITTL. Under the leadership of Venerable Master Shi Yongxin, the 30th generation abbot of Shaolin Temple (born Liu Yingcheng, forced ITTL to formally take office significantly earlier than IOTL, in which he only took office 12yrs after he’d been appointed heir-apparent to the abbotship of Shaolin in 1987), the global expansion and commercialization of both Shaolin Kung Fu and of Qigong’s still proceeding apace in the early 2000’s- in accordance with his espoused beliefs that "commercialization or industrialization, whatever term you use it, is a path leading up to the truth of Zen. My vision is that Shaolin will eventually become a source of consolidating people's confidence and wisdom"- in spite of its increasing illegality, with the Shaolin Temples in places like London and Berlin continuing to operate openly (albeit with the advanced Qigong classes only offered in secret to a select few, and extremely questionable methods being employed to identify and recruit those who possess the innate ability to practice Qigong), but other branches forced underground.
However, this was, of course, often hypocritical- more than a few political leaders (along with plenty of business and/or crime leaders) of more dictatorial dispositions have also adopted Qigong techniques in this world to increase their own strength, vitality and longevity; mostly illicitly, with these including more 'dark'/'demonic', explicitly taboo practices, techniques and methods to enhance themselves, such as the primary motive and advantages cited by the Falun Gong organ harvesting scandal IRL- namely, the premise that the superior efficacy of Qigong practioners' organs can be transferred to non-practitioners via organ transplants (especially kidney transplants, with practitioners' kidneys allegedly being storage organs/'cores' for Yuan Qi, the type of Qi responsible for promoting and enhancing the physiological functions of the Zang Fu/internal organs, the Jing Luo/meridians, and tissues of the body). Among the more notable of these were such figures as Kim Jong Il (who's still alive and well in this TL), along with Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (all three of whom are also still alive and in power in this TL, having effectively became what's known in the genre as "demonic cultivators", and acquired increased strength, power, vitality and longevity primarily by way of regularly cannibalizing dead practitioners' kidneys; which are supplied to them predominantly by the PRC, with the Chinese having established an even stronger grasp over Africa as a result of dominating this illicit trade in harvested practioners' organs in our TL, with Mobutu's Zaire being the PRC's oldest and most useful African ally, and with Idi Amin having successfully overthrown Musaveni to reinstall himself as ruler over Uganda with the support of the PRC and Zaire in the early 90s).
Thankfully for the MC though, the UK, where he was born and grew up, isn't one of those where Qigong's been criminalized, nor harnessed to force the implementation of increased authoritarianism (not quite yet, at any rate, at the point when this story starts, and the first arc of this story takes place, just after the turn of the millennium). But this world has already gotten a lot more violent than our TL's world, at the same stage in history. The membership, and average 'cultivation level', of several emergent 'Cultivation Cults', aka 'Sects' still continues to grow inexorably in the shadows in spite of (and in many instances, because of) having been widely outlawed. And a few of the most powerful, ambitious, radicalist and/or megalomaniacal of these Sects' leaders share the sentiment that the time to overthrow society, and establish a New World Order under their leadership, is nigh. As this story stands thus far, it's sort of an SI light novel, starting off relatively small, and also drawing a bit of inspiration from the superhero genre (with the first story arc, wherein the teenage central protagonist decides to use his self-taught abilities as a Qi user, along with his fighting skills, to take up vigilantism and try to tackle local street-level crime, making significant headway but also drawing unwelcome attention to himself, both from the authorities and from shadier elements farther afield).
So then, to set the stage for the world-building of this story, it's basically set in a parallel timeline, which only diverged from our own due to the scenario of its basic premise- in which either of these two movements' founders (or even both of them- or alternatively, the leader of another entirely fictional movement during the Qigong Boom, with an OC as its founder) was actually telling the truth. Or are close enough, at any rate; so that, even if they were delusional/BS-ing with most or all of their claims in this world, the practice of Qigong, aka 'Cultivation', offered by at least a few of them, actually works in the real world (though it only begins to have any noticeable effect in the late 60's, and be truly effective in the mid 80's, for reasons which'll only be explained later on, thus preventing any earlier butterflying away of world history by such variables as a successful Boxer Rebellion). In this world, the 80's-90's 'Qigong Boom' isn't mere pseudoscience or merely a new-age religion/spirituality popular movement as it was in ours, but instead ushered in the onset of an "Age of Cultivation" instead. As such, as in our TL, but to an even greater extent, since they pose an exponentially greater threat, on account of Qigong/'Cultivation' actually working and conveying practioners with superhuman abilities (albeit limited to Wuxia, or western RPG- i.e, max level D&D Monk Class- power levels at most, rather than full-blown Xianxia protagonists' ridiculous 'destroy this continent with my pinky finger' self-proclaimed power levels), as well as the subculture 'going global' and attracting a markedly greater number of formal and informal practitioners in this TL than in our TL, the authorities (starting in the PR of China, but with much of the rest of the world following suit as well) began instituting systematic crackdowns upon all Qigong organizations for their perceived challenges to the authority of the state, the status quo of law and order, and the threats which 'Cultivators' pose to national security.
The practice of Qigong gets widely prohibited, and even criminalized in many nations ITTL. The Shaolin Temple is among those institutions to have been officially disbanded, but as of the start of the story (in which they play a key role), it continues to operate in exile from its new HQ in Nepal- having re-established its primary base of operations there after the hand-over of Hong Kong, supported the Nepalese Royal Government in the Nepali Civil War, and thus facilitated their ultimate victory over the Maoist insurgency, along with King Dipendra’s subsequent rise to the throne (having risen to become an advanced disciple of the Shaolin Temple himself) and Nepal’s return to being an absolute monarchy ITTL. Under the leadership of Venerable Master Shi Yongxin, the 30th generation abbot of Shaolin Temple (born Liu Yingcheng, forced ITTL to formally take office significantly earlier than IOTL, in which he only took office 12yrs after he’d been appointed heir-apparent to the abbotship of Shaolin in 1987), the global expansion and commercialization of both Shaolin Kung Fu and of Qigong’s still proceeding apace in the early 2000’s- in accordance with his espoused beliefs that "commercialization or industrialization, whatever term you use it, is a path leading up to the truth of Zen. My vision is that Shaolin will eventually become a source of consolidating people's confidence and wisdom"- in spite of its increasing illegality, with the Shaolin Temples in places like London and Berlin continuing to operate openly (albeit with the advanced Qigong classes only offered in secret to a select few, and extremely questionable methods being employed to identify and recruit those who possess the innate ability to practice Qigong), but other branches forced underground.
However, this was, of course, often hypocritical- more than a few political leaders (along with plenty of business and/or crime leaders) of more dictatorial dispositions have also adopted Qigong techniques in this world to increase their own strength, vitality and longevity; mostly illicitly, with these including more 'dark'/'demonic', explicitly taboo practices, techniques and methods to enhance themselves, such as the primary motive and advantages cited by the Falun Gong organ harvesting scandal IRL- namely, the premise that the superior efficacy of Qigong practioners' organs can be transferred to non-practitioners via organ transplants (especially kidney transplants, with practitioners' kidneys allegedly being storage organs/'cores' for Yuan Qi, the type of Qi responsible for promoting and enhancing the physiological functions of the Zang Fu/internal organs, the Jing Luo/meridians, and tissues of the body). Among the more notable of these were such figures as Kim Jong Il (who's still alive and well in this TL), along with Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (all three of whom are also still alive and in power in this TL, having effectively became what's known in the genre as "demonic cultivators", and acquired increased strength, power, vitality and longevity primarily by way of regularly cannibalizing dead practitioners' kidneys; which are supplied to them predominantly by the PRC, with the Chinese having established an even stronger grasp over Africa as a result of dominating this illicit trade in harvested practioners' organs in our TL, with Mobutu's Zaire being the PRC's oldest and most useful African ally, and with Idi Amin having successfully overthrown Musaveni to reinstall himself as ruler over Uganda with the support of the PRC and Zaire in the early 90s).
Thankfully for the MC though, the UK, where he was born and grew up, isn't one of those where Qigong's been criminalized, nor harnessed to force the implementation of increased authoritarianism (not quite yet, at any rate, at the point when this story starts, and the first arc of this story takes place, just after the turn of the millennium). But this world has already gotten a lot more violent than our TL's world, at the same stage in history. The membership, and average 'cultivation level', of several emergent 'Cultivation Cults', aka 'Sects' still continues to grow inexorably in the shadows in spite of (and in many instances, because of) having been widely outlawed. And a few of the most powerful, ambitious, radicalist and/or megalomaniacal of these Sects' leaders share the sentiment that the time to overthrow society, and establish a New World Order under their leadership, is nigh. As this story stands thus far, it's sort of an SI light novel, starting off relatively small, and also drawing a bit of inspiration from the superhero genre (with the first story arc, wherein the teenage central protagonist decides to use his self-taught abilities as a Qi user, along with his fighting skills, to take up vigilantism and try to tackle local street-level crime, making significant headway but also drawing unwelcome attention to himself, both from the authorities and from shadier elements farther afield).
Myth Weaver
Istar
