Notes for The Jade Paramour
From Torg Adventure
Chinese Steampunk
a female jade sex automaton, she starts cold, but she warms up to you.
Steampunk China is filled with wonders of Chinese ingenuity, including magical marvels. The Chinese use mysticism/alchemy to combat British technology.
It's also the China of opium dens, press gangs, and European domination of Hong Kong and Macau.
Chinese History
- Qing Dynasty
- 1644 to 1912
Also called the Manchus.
- First Opium War
- 1839 to 1842 - British pushed opium on Chinese, Chinese government didn't want it.
- Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864)
- Brought on by 1st Opium War. Bloody civil war between Chinese heterodox Christians and the Qing government. Perhaps 25 million died.
- Second Opium War
- 1860
Hong Kong History
- 1839 - British occupy Hong Kong
- 1860 - British occupy Kowloon
- 1898 - Treaty giving Britain a 100-year lease on HK
Plot Ideas
A negotiator for the 1898 Treaty or the 1860 sessation of Kowloon or trade delegation is treated to a night with the Jade Paramour.
British have clockwork/steam automatons as bodyguards. Cartridge guns.
Chinese bureaucrat wants to study and maybe replicate bodyguard, so he entices the trader with the Jade Paramour, an alchemical sex golem.
Research
- 19th century China
- Chinese alchemy
- Trade negotiations in China in 19th century
Chinese Alchemy
The pursuit of immortality by elixirs.
- Waidan
- Outer Alchemy -- potions, elixirs made from things outside the body, base metals to gold, cinnabar
- Neidan
- Inner Alchemy -- positions, breathing, meditation from inside the body, yoga, Qigong
Characters
- Basil Bonewright III, poor aristocracy turned rich trader
- Wu-Li Pow, Chinese bureaucrat
