Liao, 942
貂と蓮
Two roads leave Kaifeng.
A pixel-art tactics RPG set in the Khitan empire. You play Ryeon, who runs a prince's household and never picks up a weapon. The war ahead is in the History of Liao, and most of it will go the way the book says. Where she goes after it is her decision.
A snowbound road to the southern frontier
A cart has dropped into a rut on the road to the emperor's camp. Prince Ruan is pushing on the tailboard. Hulan, who runs his herds, tells him all he's doing is packing the slush into ice.
Ryeon was taken from the Balhae capital when it fell, sixteen years ago, and grew up a scribe in the library of Ruan's father. Now she runs Ruan's household. The cooks and grooms answer to her, and so do a number of things Ruan has never been told about. She has counted the exits of every room she has been kept in. She hasn't used one yet.
Later this year the new emperor of Jin will write to the Khitan emperor and call himself his grandson, but not his subject. The war that follows lasts until 947.
You play Ryeon. She doesn't fight. In battle you see what her people see, and she gives the orders that move the line.
Five years from now, at Kaifeng, she will have to decide which way to go.
Kaifeng
Ryeon has to decide where she goes next, and who she goes with.
Ryeon stays with Ruan and goes north into the empire, whose court lives in tents and moves with the seasons. Her place beside him will put her between him and her own people.
秋冬違寒，春夏避暑，隨水草就畋漁"In autumn and winter they leave the cold, in spring and summer the heat, and follow water and grass to hunt and fish." The Khitan court. History of Liao (遼史), juan 32
Ryeon leaves Ruan and goes east to the Balhae survivors, whose envoys stop appearing in the Chinese records after 936. She tries to make a kingdom out of their refuge without making it the empire they ran from.
臣祖考守節不降，與眾避地"My forefathers kept faith and did not surrender, and took the people into refuge." A king of Jeongan. History of Song (宋史), juan 491
After Kaifeng the two roads never meet again.
All of these come from the Chapter 1 build as it runs today. It isn't finished, and some of it will change.
Work in progress · Chapter 1 build · November 2026
Ruan, Ryeon and Hulan were children in the novel. By 942 they're adults sharing one household, and the empire has plans for all three of them.
You play her
Taken from the Balhae capital as a child, she grew up a scribe in the library of Ruan's father. Now she runs Ruan's household. The cooks and grooms report to her, and so does a good deal that never reaches Ruan.
In battle. She never fights. Her people decide how far you can see. Her orders can re-form a company at once, rally a wavering one with the drum or unsettle an enemy's, and swap two companies in the line.
In her first seven days here, as in every room she had been put in, Ryeon had counted the ways out. Three doors. Six windows. The smoke hole belonged to the birds.
Prince of Yongkang
The emperor's nephew, and a fine mounted archer. He wears a black cloth over his left eye. He is generous, and he likes the generosity to be seen.
In battle. He leads the horse archers. He can't see to his left, so whoever you put on his left matters.
儀觀豐偉，內寬外嚴，善騎射Imposing in looks and build; easy-going inside, stern outside; a good mounted archer.
The herds and the scouts
She grew up on the steppe and chose her chestnut horse herself. She talks to horses more easily than to princes. She can't read, so she keeps count of the herd in tally notches.
In battle. She rides ahead with the light cavalry and the scouts. The fresh horses she brings decide how long your cavalry can keep going.
後ろから押すのはやめてよ、阮。Stop shoving at the tailboard, Ruan.
Emperor of the Liao
Ruan's uncle. In 936 he made Shi Jingtang emperor of Jin, and the two of them swore to be father and son. Jingtang's heir is less respectful.
In the story. He decides where the camp goes. Most years it goes wherever his war is.
兀欲はおまえの減らず口が気に入ったらしい。Wuyu finds your tongue entertaining. Let us see whether you remain so clever when someone hands you a thankless job.
They join for their own reasons. Some you spared. Some rode into camp one evening and asked for work. A few of them are lying.
There are no random fights. Each of the 26 battles is either recorded in the histories or written into the story, and each one has its own job. The first is getting a cart out of a ditch.
You can pause at any time to give orders. Companies march and wheel as ranks of individual men. They break when they're hit in the flank, usually well before they've lost many men.
If you'd rather watch, put the battle on Auto and the captains will fight it for you.
Ruan's household is an ordo: tents, herds, a smithy, a kitchen, guards. Between battles you decide who works where. A hot meal before a fight gives every company more stamina. Rested horses mean more remounts.
When the season changes, the camp packs up and moves, and what it can do depends on where it stops.
是冬，駐蹕赤城。
That winter, the court stopped at Chicheng.
History of Liao, juan 4, for 942
Not written yet.
蓮Each season ends with one line written like an entry in the History of Liao. While history holds, it is the real entry.
At a few named turning points you can change what happens. From then on your entry is printed next to the real one, so you always know how far you've moved from the book. Each road has its own endings.
Your companies go from one battle to the next. They gain experience, and they keep their losses, so a company mauled in one fight starts the next one short. Bonds between generals come from the evenings in camp.
Campaign maps of the steppe, Hebei and the Central Plain, Liaodong, and the Yalu. In winter the rivers freeze hard enough to cross. In summer there's grass for the horses.
It moved a finger's breadth.
指一本分は動いたぞ。
Your boot slid a finger's breadth. That wheel hasn't turned since it dropped into the rut.
あんたの靴が指一本滑っただけだよ。車輪は溝に落ちてからピクリとも回ってない。
All 8,717 lines were written in both languages at once. The Japanese uses the novel's own readings for names.
The dates in the game come from the History of Liao (遼史) and the Zizhi Tongjian (資治通鑑), cited by juan. When the story invents something, the notes say so. After 942 this list gives only places and dates. The rest is for playing.
The Khitan take the Balhae capital. Its king comes out of the gate in white, leading a sheep.
Deguang makes Shi Jingtang emperor of Jin. They take each other's hands and agree to be father and son.
執手約為父子History of Liao, juan 3
A new emperor in Jin writes that he is Deguang's grandson, but not his subject.
稱孫，不稱臣History of Liao, juan 4
A battle fought in a north-east gale, with the dust so thick that midday went dark.
風益甚，晝晦如夜History of Liao, juan 4
Two armies and a bridge over the Hutuo River, in winter.
The capital of Jin. The first part of the game ends here, and Ryeon chooses a road.
Volume 1: A Door Facing East第一巻 東向きの戸
Spring, 926. From the wall of the Balhae capital, a girl watches her king walk out of the gate in white mourning, leading a sheep. Her father is in the white procession behind him. Five days later, the city burns.
It follows Ryeon, Ruan and Hulan as children, from 926 to 932, between the Khitan court, conquered Balhae and Heian Japan. It started with one line in a Japanese chronicle: in 929 an envoy from a kingdom that no longer existed came ashore in Tango, told his examiners one thing and then the opposite, and was sent home. Nobody knows why.
Volume 1 is finished. It's free to read online, illustrated, and there's a manga. You don't need it for the game, but you'll know these three better if you've read it.
The game picks up in 942, ten years after the novel ends.
By Tetsujun 鐵盾
The game is the novel's sequel, and it's set in years the History of Liao covers closely. So the work started with the record: dates, offices, battles, what people wore. A few rules have held since then.
| Lines of dialogue, each in English and Japanese | 8,717 |
| Scenes | 628 |
| Named characters with sprites | 35 |
| Battles written for the road north | 26 |
| Endings on the road north | 3 |
Scripted and reviewed through all three endings, with a personal story for every general.
Cast, horses, animals, cities, the camp and four campaign maps in four seasons. Polishing continues.
Playable in the engine from the title screen to its last scene: 14 scenes, two battles, the household and the campaign map.
943 to 947: the ring hunt, the invasions, the wind at Baituan, the bridge, Kaifeng.
The four acts that follow Kaifeng. The Balhae road is partly written and comes after the Khitan one.
No release date yet.
Volume 1 is finished and free to read, in English and Japanese, with the manga alongside it.