The Glorious Restoration (ASOIAF/Ming Dynasty Quest)
is a A Song of Ice and Fire Forum Quest run by The Crimson Lord and hosted by SpaceBattles.com.
The quest started with our Protagonist, Wei Gang, a Ming Garrison Commander and his troops of several thousand soldiers from the late Ming era finding themselves miraculously transported into an unknown land. With the prospect of being cut off from their homeland and beset by hostile barbarians from every which, it's your duty to keep your men alive and, if possible, thrive in this new land.
It's a good thing you brought plenty of gunpowder.
The Glorious Restoration contains examples of:
- A Thicket of Spears: Ming Heavy Infantry use this as their preferred tactic using pikes and spears.
- Bestiality Is Depraved:Ogedai claims he "saw [the Dothraki] fuck their horses." Li Ruzhong attempts to sanitize this by translating it as that he saw them treat their horses as though they were their wives. In response Tumennote asks "Do you southerners not fuck your wives?"
- The Berserker: Wanyan Aguda whenever he fights Barbarians.
- Boomerang Bigot: The reason why Wanyan Aguda has "The Barbarian Who Hates Other Barbarians" trait. He's a Jurchen, a group of whom the Chinese usually consider barbaric. Yet it doesn't stop him from hating all the other "barbarians" such as the Mongols, Manchus, and now the Dothraki.
- Bow and Sword in Accord: Our basic Ming Infantry fight in this fashion, though they aren't very good at it.
- Church Militant: The Red Pilgrims, liberated Dothraki slaves who have mistaken Wei Gang for the earthly incarnation of the Lord of Light. While without any proper weapons or training they receive a buff anytime a gunpowder weapon is used near them or when Wei Gang does something heroic. They've proven their effectiveness in the second battle against the Dothraki where they absolutely mauled the enemy khalasar.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- The Ming's army is a proper combined arms army with infantry, artillery and cavalry while being decently trained and armored. The Dothraki are a bunch of people who prefer going into battle without any armor and consider tactics to be cowardly. Do the math.
- Wanyan Aguda's "duel" with Volcquo is perhaps the most extreme example of this in the quest, with the Storm that Walks defeating the Bloodrider with a single punch.
- Elite Mooks: Wei Gang's army has three varieties of them:
- The Jurchen Royal Guard that form Wanyan Aguda's retinue are modeled after the tiefutu note of the Jurchin Jin Dynasty and are the heaviest cavalry at Wei Gang's disposal.
- The Elite Liaodong Cavalry of Li Ruzhong, the finest Mongolian auxiliaries in the Ming's armies.
- Qi Ji Min's Qi Household Troops, the most elite infantry in Wei Gang's army.
- Fragile Speedster: The Dothraki eschew armor, and as such their warriors are as swift as the wind and about as durable as tissue paper.
- The Generic Guy: Wang Yun, the most normal man among Wei Gang's subordinates.
- God Guise: A group of freed slaves mistake Wei Gang for the earthly incarnation of R'hllor, Lord of Lights, God of Flame and Shadow due to the Ming's use of gunpowder weaponry. This group joins the Ming in the second battle as a unit of Red Pilgrims.
- Gone Horribly Right: Wei Gang's attempt to make his men accept Wanyan Aguda torturing Volcquo to death with a Rousing Speech results in his men gaining a burning hatred for barbarians and brutally massacring their Dothraki prisoners.
- Heavily Armored Mook: Wanyan Aguda's personal retinue the Jurchen Royal Guard are explicitly based on the Iron Pagoda Cavalry of the Jurchen Jin dynasty, and like them they fight as superheavy cavalry.
- Hollywood Tactics: Turns out charging headlong while shouting like maniacs is not a good tactic against any opponent who use half their brains. One such example is when the Dothraki chose to charge uphill against Wei Gang's army who's in entrenched position. The Dothraki got shredded for their effort.
- Horse Archer:
- Li Ruzhong's double strength retinue of Elite Liaodong Cavalry are these, picked Mongolian auxiliaries mounted on the finest horses the Ming can provide. Unlike their Dothraki opponents they are well armored, well trained and well disciplined. They've already proven their worth in the very first battle, causing the Dothraki's herds of horses to stampede through their camp.
- The Dothraki possess these as well, though they do not use them effectively as their best archers just join in the pell-mell head on charge characteristic of Dothraki tactics. Part of the reformed Dothraki troop tree is correcting this issue.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: A longstanding Dothraki cultural tradition. Allyia uses this to get the captured Dothraki to sign up with Wei Gang.
- Language Barrier: One of the biggest problem the army faces is their incapability to understand the local's language and vice versa.
- Macross Missile Massacre: In their second battle the Ming perform the Early Modern equivalent of this, unleashing hundreds if not thousands of rocket propelled arrows upon the Dothraki.
- Master of None: Basic Ming Infantry are noted to be this. They're expected to fire bows, fight in melee and operate light artillery and by being made to do so many different tasks they're good at none of them.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In the real world the Ming army is nothing special, especially since the Ming is already in a terminal decline at this point, meaning their military is in a much worse state compared to their golden era thanks to corruption and instability. However, in the ASOIAF verse they might as well be invincible, since they're the only one who have access to gunpowder weapons. Not to mention that so far their only enemy is The Dothraki who are much weaker and dumber compared to barbarians The Ming (and various other dynasties) regularly faced against.
- Red Baron: The Storm that Walks for Wanyan Aguda, seemingly a counterpart to Gregor 'The Mountain that Rides' Clegane.
- Rousing Speech: The Interlude I shows how Wei Gang is so good at it he ended up throwing his army into an orgy of gratuitous violence against the captured Dothraki soldiers.
- Tactful Translation: Li Ruzhong makes a belated attempt to translate Tumen saying that Ogedai saw the Dothraki fuck their horses as that Ogedai saw them treat their horses like their wives.
- World's Best Warrior: Wanyan Aguda was a serious contender for this title on Earth and remains one on Planetos, having a personal combat ability so high he can meaningfully influence the outcome of a battle through sheer personal combat ability. For Tropers unfamiliar with A Song of Ice and Fire there's only one other person in the world who can make such a claim, and that's the Mountain that Rides, Gregor Clegane.
