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From the earliest times, men have been aware of the divine spark within them, the Avatar. In the Far East, as in Europe, men pursued this divine spark in various ways: religion, magic, philosophy and science. But while Europe was a patchwork of polities and cultures, giving rise to a diversity of rival Traditions, a great unity was achieved in the Orient.

Encoded in the Akashic Record is a vision of prehistory that is neither fact nor myth. The Celestines of Dragon, Phoenix and Tiger came before nascent humanity and bestowed upon it their gifts. The Akashics view all Avatars as having flowed from these Celestines: Dynamic from the Dragon, which is yang and full of energy; Pattern from the Phoenix, which is yin (not fiery like the western Phoenix) and passive; and Questing from the Tiger, which is active, aggressive and restless. There is also a fourth Celestine, the Qilin (Chi-lin) or Ki-rin, sometimes called the Unicorn for lack of any suitable western analogue, which represents the Primordial Essence. The Qilin did not come before humanity in the First of Days. It is said that only when enlightenment, Ascension, is reached will one meet the Qilin.

The Chinese call this prehistory of legend the Xia dynasty, allegedly the period predating 1600 BC. The Technocracy has worked hard to erase all trace of this era; no archaeological evidence of it exists outside the traditional histories of the Chinese. The interest of the Technocracy in the matter is in no small part due to the Technocracy's presence in China since its earliest days.

During the Shang dynasty, the Akashic Brotherhood developed its theory of the reincarnated Avatar, inspiring the growth of ancestor worship in the Orient. The theory also led to the Himalayan Wars of 900-600 BC, when the Akashics declared war against the India-based Euthanatos for interfering in the cycle of reincarnation. Many splinter groups emerged from the Wars, including the Ahl-i-Batin, but also Tantrism and possibly Buddhism.

With the Brotherhood focussed on the Himalayas, the proto-Technocracy gained ascendency in China. Although they had previously worked with the Akashics, they resented the Brotherhood's dominant position and sought their own view of Ascension. The start of the Himalayan Wars coincided with the weakening of the Zhou dynasty. From 900 to 770 BC, the Zhou dynasty faltered before the onslaught of rival states to whom the Technocracy gave the secrets of bronze, previously a Zhou monopoly.

The ensuing Spring and Autumn Period was one of constant warfare. Kingdoms rose and fell while the rival magickal traditions battled. The Euthanatos attacked and destroyed part of the Akashic Record, driving the Brotherhood from its bases in the Himalayas. The Technocracy began hardening the Gauntlet in China - by the late 6th century BC, the annalist Cai Mo is recorded to have lamented that dragons were becoming fewer and fewer. New weapons were also developed by the Technomancers: the crossbow, iron weapons and armor, and the use of horses in warfare. But the Brotherhood and its protege, the Qin state, finally triumphed. As punishment, the Qin emperor Shi Huangdi ordered all books except those on agriculture, medicine and divination to be destroyed. Their texts and plans gone, the Technocracy was deemed to be no longer a threat.

Thus around 200 BC, China became a unified empire under the Qin, as much the work of the Brotherhood as that of the Qin rulers. In the next two millennia of its existence, the Chinese empire became inextricably tied with the Brotherhood's fortunes. The Technocracy, once again in a subservient position, co-existed uneasily with the Brotherhood. Many of their devices made their first appearance in Chinese society, including the magnetic compass, paper and paper currency, the moveable type printing press, the hydraulic clock, the seismograph, mechanized cloth production, iron casting and of course gunpowder. In war, they designed siege towers, primitive tanks, bombards and flame-throwers. Early Progenitors experimented with the art of bonsai, silkworms, goldfish and other animals. By 1300 AD, China was on the brink of the ideas and technology which would later create the Industrial Revolution in Europe.

Buddhism meanwhile filtered into China from India. Its arrival was greeted by a mixture of curiosity and fear. Buddhist philosophy appealed to the Brotherhood, but it was also held as suspect because it had come from India, the land of the Euthanatos. Buddhism, however, became widespread in China by the 5th century AD, becoming accepted alongside the ethical philosophy of Confucianism and the Akashic-inspired mysticism of Taoism. Under the Akashic influence, the Chan (Zen in Japanese) school of Buddhism was developed in China and exported to Japan. In contrast, Buddhism largely disappeared in India, possibly because the Euthanatos opposed its doctrine of non-violence and escape from the Wheel of Reincarnation.

Buddhism became the vehicle by which the Brotherhood brought its philosophy to Japan in the 5th-8th centuries AD. Similarly, it helped consolidate Akashic influence in Tibet, where it undermined the authority of the Tibetan sacred kings, the Spu-Rgyal, who followed the shamanistic religion of Bon. The Akashics thereafter re-established their chantries in the Roof of the World which had been lost in the Himalayan Wars over a thousand years ago. In Tibet, the Brotherhood also developed the Vajrayana or Thunderbolt Way, a form of Buddhism steeped in magical practices.

The Akashic Way also spread to the rest of East Asia, inspiring martial art forms and meditative practices in Korea, Indochina, the Philippines and Malaya. The centers of the Brotherhood, however, remained in China, where eight major sects of martial arts were developed in similar fashion to the Houses of the Order of Hermes in Mythic Europe. These included the fabled monastic Shaolin sect, the Taishan sect, the Kunlun sect, the all-male Wudang sect and its female counterpart the Emei, and the Beggar sect.

In the 13th century, imperial China came under siege by barbarian invasions of the Khitans, the Jin, the Xi Xia and finally the Mongols, who established themselves as rulers of China in 1271 AD, giving themselves the dynastic title of Yuan. The Akashics and the proto-Technocracy accused each other of supporting the invaders, bringing about the final split. The Technomancers retreated from China and moved westwards along the newly-opened Silk Road. They arrived first in the Abbasid Caliphate, where they shared their science and mechanical know-how with the Arabs, and then went to Europe, where they introduced the Oriental inventions of gunpowder and the printing press. After the Yuan dynasty, China virtually came to a standstill in technological progress.

The Mongol Yuan dynasty planted the seeds of isolationism in China, partly because of the shock of occupation by an alien power, and partly because the Mongols opened new overland trade routes between East and West, as their new empire spanned from China to Europe. Through these routes, the Celestial Chorus, the Ahl-i-Batin, the Euthanatos, the Order of Hermes and the Cult of Ecstasy all began penetrating Chinese territory. The Akashics were in the meantime weakened, as the Mongols persecuted the martial art sects in China for resisting their rule. The Brotherhood moved its center of power to Tibet, which had been saved from the Mongols by the diplomatic skill of the Sa-Skya Lama. The Brotherhood was also cut off from its brethren in Japan, which was subject to wave after wave of attacks by the Mongols. The Mongols never took Japan, but the Japanese Akashics were effectively isolated. They began developing their own practices, nurturing the newly emergent feudal society in Japan to inspire the samurai caste.

The Yuan dynasty was short-lived and was soon toppled by the Ming rulers, who once again had the assistance of the Brotherhood. The first Ming emperor had served in a monastery and was a disciple of the Way. Returned to power, the Akashics began a programme of isolationism to drive out the foreign Traditions. The overland routes through Central Asia were closed. The Great Wall, originally constructed in the Qin dynasty, was rebuilt as a sort of Gauntlet to seal off that which did not fit into the Akashic paradigm. Despite the initial success of a series of great sea voyages undertaken by a member of court, the Brotherhood had the emperor ban all such journeys.

The Ming dynasty, however, ended in corruption, possibly due to the insidious influence of the Brotherhood's enemies, the Euthanatos, masters of Entropy. The last Ming emperor hung himself in 1644 and the newly-united Manchu tribes invaded from the northeast. With cruelty and violence, they established their new dynasty of the Qing. Once again the Brotherhood and the martial art sects resisted, but could not halt the Manchu advance. Like the Mongols, the Manchus punished the Brotherhood severely for its disobedience, but the Manchus went further to actively destroy all martial art sects. Even the ancient chantry of Shaolin was besieged and burnt to the ground. Much of the Brotherhood retreated again to Tibet, but some stayed to organize secret societies to resist the Qing. Many of these secret societies eventually outlasted the Qing dynasty, but their autonomous nature made them susceptible to corruption and many evolved into the present-day criminal Triads.

In 1793, the Technocracy returned to China in the form of the British mission led by the Earl of MacCartney. The Syndicate was the first Technocracy Convention to attempt recapture of China. Unable to persuade China to buy manufactures, the Syndicate worked with the Progenitors to develop the ancient medicinal drug opium into a highly addictive narcotic by mixing it with smoking tobacco. The success of the narcotic alarmed even the Qing court, and in 1839, the Opium War erupted. This merely gave the Technocracyan opportunity to demonstrate the power of its new weaponry in crushing the Qing soldiery.

The Technocracy's victory over China was a cause for grave concern in the recently-created Council of Nine. The various Traditions now attempted to inspire rebellions to assist the Brotherhood in opposing both the Qing and the Technocracy. The Celestial Chorus encouraged the pseudo-Christian Taiping Rebellion, while the Ahl-i-Batin inspired revolts among the Muslim tribes of western China. The Akashics regathered their strength for one great event, the so-called "Boxer" Uprising of 1900. The "Boxers", as they were called by Western observers, were exponents of the martial arts. In a futile attempt to reverse consensual reality, they believed that their skills would render themselves invulnerable to bullets.

The Qing rulers, feeling power slipping from their grasp, turned to the Technocracy for help. The Technocracy crushed the rebellions, but the Qing had outlived their usefulness. In 1911, the last Qing emperor abdicated. The Akashics were too weak to take hold of the opportunity: the failure of the Boxer Uprising had drained their resources, and the Qing in one last act of spite had invaded Tibet by force in 1906. Fortunately, the Technocracy did not anticipate the scale of the anarchy which followed. China succumbed to chaos for the next four decades. The Technocracy found its hands full with two World Wars, as Sleeper societies unleashed the fury of technology against one another.

Neither the Traditions nor the Technocracy took control of the Middle Kingdom in the end. In 1949, the Communist Party assumed power. It employed the tools and weapons of the Technocracy, but also rejected Western values and penetration. The Akashics did not benefit either; they were identified rightly or wrongly with the imperial system, and in 1959, Tibet was invaded and occupied by the Red Army. The Technocracy attempted to reassert its influence through spies and agents, and in 1966 manipulated the Cultural Revolution in an ambitious and vicious attempt to wipe the Brotherhood out completely. The plan quickly went out of control, and the Akashics managed to survive it although with great losses.

Ironically, the Cultural Revolution created as much xenophobia and ignorance about the Technocracy, and preserved consensual reality in much of China in favor of the Akashics, who now hide in their mountain retreats. A new battle may be unfolding as China slowly opens her doors once more to the outside world, but for now, the Brotherhood waits in its secret chantries and mountaintop monasteries.