Post by Esdeath on Jul 17, 2017 23:58:00 GMT
Hello, Ishtaria! I'm your host, Esdeath, and this is Know Your Units! The poll from the last issue spoke loud and clear, so buckle up! This is gonna be Zhuge (Liang)!
(so is this picture)
Historical Information
For those that slept since the last issue (total scrubs), Zhuge Liang was a Chinese regent and Chancellor for the Shu during the Three Kingdoms Era. As regent, he had the Emperor's power at his command until such a time that the Emperor was ready to rule.
Zhuge Liang was born in what is today called Shandong. Upon becoming a man, he received the courtesy name Kongming. From a young age, he surrounded himself with the bright minds of his time, such as Huang Chengyan, who eventually became his father-in-law.
During a time of war (basically the story of the Three Kingdoms Era), Liu Bei was in need of a strategic advisor, and he needed one nearby. At the time, he was in Xinye County, which was in the same province Zhuge Liang was living in. Xu Shu, a scholarly statesman and former vigilante, served as an advisor for a year and later advised Liu Bei to use Zhuge Liang for that role.
Liu Bei became highly dependent on Zhuge Liang, which angered Generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Zhuge Liang became renowned for his strategies. Liu Bei, dying, gave a great honor to Zhuge. He told him to serve his son Liu Shan, and that he should take over the kingdom if the Shan was incapable of taking his father's place. After many years of service, Zhuge Liang died due to illness brought on by exhaustion and stress. Before he died, he proposed that Fei Yi (remember his role in the story of Jiang Wei) and Jiang Wan take his place.
In-Game Description
Remember what happened in Midland? The brave warriors, led to victory by that Knight. All while, unbeknownst to them, the Chancellor was there in the shadows. With her astonishing intelligence, she was there to support them. Is there something more behind that smile on her face?
Like other recent story characters, the description primarily focuses on the events of the associated campaign. In this case, it's the stretch of story in Midland. It was her efforts that ensured that the Knight and Co. didn't die in the final fights of the chapter. Her tactics were unmatched, even by the cunning mind of the Wicked One. Ultimately, Zhuge Liang saved the day, not the player. Her wisdom borders on prophetic rather than "skillful planning", considering that she planned around Jiang Ziya's mind control and the plan to free Formalhaut. She definitely is not someone you want to play any games with. She knows how to beat you before it even begins.
Skills
Multi/Rush Skill: Eight Stone Sentinels- According to legend, Zhuge Liang combined ancient mysticism with his strategic genius to create the Stone Sentinel Maze using the power of Bagua (this will come into play later). The maze is mentioned in other Chinese tales, usually involving some form of magic, like allowing friendly troops to pass straight through and trapping enemies inside.
Unique Skill: Kongming's Trap- Taking advantage of not giving Zhuge Liang's courtesy name elsewhere, Silicon Studios chose to dedicate her unique skill to what is essentially the condensed description of who the historical Zhuge Liang was: a brilliant tactician named Kongming. The skill behaves about as you'd expect it to, considering the nature of Liang's work. It debuffs enemies, rendering them powerless to fight against the brilliant strategist.
Power Play
There are 3 Power Plays featuring Zhuge Liang,one for each stat.
Attack Boost: Jiang Ziya- both of these ladies are based on ancient Chinese strategists. Attack is their specialty.
Health Boost: Liu Bei- Liu Bei was basically Zhuge's boss. Happy waifu, happy laifu (health boost)
Skill Boost: Jiang Wei- Zhuge was Jiang Wei's superior. Their skills complemented each other, inspiring this Power Play.
Image
Zhuge Liang is one of those characters whose every detail is significant. Her clothing, like that of Jiang Wei, is that of an ancient Chinese scholar. She has silver hair, which is commonly used as a symbol of wisdom, to drive home the point that she's a knowledgeable planner. To emphasize the scholarly aspect of her character, they have her holding long scrolls riddled with various symbols of Chinese and Greek (mathematics) origin. Using the power sealed within the scroll, she's summoning the green symbols that you see floating in the air. Those are Bagua. To the ancient Chinese people, these symbols were the keys to everything. They were used to aid people in all aspects of their life, using magic in conjunction with human intent to fulfill their desires and needs. The multicolored flag flying behind her is a tribute to the flag used to weaken Formalhaut (the 'meat and potatoes' of Zhuge Liang's plan). As said earlier, recent story units focus heavily on the story they affect. Although the original flag was gold, this one is green, gold, and black, personalized to fit Zhuge Liang's color scheme (SS probably thought solid gold would clash with all the green). The last detail to look at is the feather duster she's holding. Why would a battle strategist hold a feather duster instead of a weapon? After some interesting research, I found that feather dusters have been used as 'hidden weapons' by the Chinese for quite some time. As it turns out, this is the ideal weapon for someone like her, assuming that it's made properly. Conventional Chinese feather dusters aren't for killing, just child discipline.
However, if I've learned anything about the Ancient Chinese, it's that they can turn the most innocent of objects into lethal instruments of death. How would you like to be stabbed by a metal version of this thing because a girl didn't want to give you her number?
Also, it should be noted that it is a rarity to find artwork depicting Zhuge Liang that does not include him holding a duster like this.
Another final fun note is that the artwork of Zhuge Liang is heavily based on the depiction of him in Dynasty Warrior.
That's all for this week, folks. If you have any questions or corrections on this KYU, let me know!
Also, I plan on going through and updating existing KYUs for units that have been given new cards as well as converting the KYUs that were only posted on Reddit to our beautiful BBCode. Be on the lookout for these changes in the coming weeks!
(so is this picture)
Historical Information
For those that slept since the last issue (total scrubs), Zhuge Liang was a Chinese regent and Chancellor for the Shu during the Three Kingdoms Era. As regent, he had the Emperor's power at his command until such a time that the Emperor was ready to rule.
Zhuge Liang was born in what is today called Shandong. Upon becoming a man, he received the courtesy name Kongming. From a young age, he surrounded himself with the bright minds of his time, such as Huang Chengyan, who eventually became his father-in-law.
During a time of war (basically the story of the Three Kingdoms Era), Liu Bei was in need of a strategic advisor, and he needed one nearby. At the time, he was in Xinye County, which was in the same province Zhuge Liang was living in. Xu Shu, a scholarly statesman and former vigilante, served as an advisor for a year and later advised Liu Bei to use Zhuge Liang for that role.
Liu Bei became highly dependent on Zhuge Liang, which angered Generals Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Zhuge Liang became renowned for his strategies. Liu Bei, dying, gave a great honor to Zhuge. He told him to serve his son Liu Shan, and that he should take over the kingdom if the Shan was incapable of taking his father's place. After many years of service, Zhuge Liang died due to illness brought on by exhaustion and stress. Before he died, he proposed that Fei Yi (remember his role in the story of Jiang Wei) and Jiang Wan take his place.
In-Game Description
Remember what happened in Midland? The brave warriors, led to victory by that Knight. All while, unbeknownst to them, the Chancellor was there in the shadows. With her astonishing intelligence, she was there to support them. Is there something more behind that smile on her face?
Like other recent story characters, the description primarily focuses on the events of the associated campaign. In this case, it's the stretch of story in Midland. It was her efforts that ensured that the Knight and Co. didn't die in the final fights of the chapter. Her tactics were unmatched, even by the cunning mind of the Wicked One. Ultimately, Zhuge Liang saved the day, not the player. Her wisdom borders on prophetic rather than "skillful planning", considering that she planned around Jiang Ziya's mind control and the plan to free Formalhaut. She definitely is not someone you want to play any games with. She knows how to beat you before it even begins.
Skills
Multi/Rush Skill: Eight Stone Sentinels- According to legend, Zhuge Liang combined ancient mysticism with his strategic genius to create the Stone Sentinel Maze using the power of Bagua (this will come into play later). The maze is mentioned in other Chinese tales, usually involving some form of magic, like allowing friendly troops to pass straight through and trapping enemies inside.
Unique Skill: Kongming's Trap- Taking advantage of not giving Zhuge Liang's courtesy name elsewhere, Silicon Studios chose to dedicate her unique skill to what is essentially the condensed description of who the historical Zhuge Liang was: a brilliant tactician named Kongming. The skill behaves about as you'd expect it to, considering the nature of Liang's work. It debuffs enemies, rendering them powerless to fight against the brilliant strategist.
Power Play
There are 3 Power Plays featuring Zhuge Liang,one for each stat.
Attack Boost: Jiang Ziya- both of these ladies are based on ancient Chinese strategists. Attack is their specialty.
Health Boost: Liu Bei- Liu Bei was basically Zhuge's boss. Happy waifu, happy laifu (health boost)
Skill Boost: Jiang Wei- Zhuge was Jiang Wei's superior. Their skills complemented each other, inspiring this Power Play.
Image
Zhuge Liang is one of those characters whose every detail is significant. Her clothing, like that of Jiang Wei, is that of an ancient Chinese scholar. She has silver hair, which is commonly used as a symbol of wisdom, to drive home the point that she's a knowledgeable planner. To emphasize the scholarly aspect of her character, they have her holding long scrolls riddled with various symbols of Chinese and Greek (mathematics) origin. Using the power sealed within the scroll, she's summoning the green symbols that you see floating in the air. Those are Bagua. To the ancient Chinese people, these symbols were the keys to everything. They were used to aid people in all aspects of their life, using magic in conjunction with human intent to fulfill their desires and needs. The multicolored flag flying behind her is a tribute to the flag used to weaken Formalhaut (the 'meat and potatoes' of Zhuge Liang's plan). As said earlier, recent story units focus heavily on the story they affect. Although the original flag was gold, this one is green, gold, and black, personalized to fit Zhuge Liang's color scheme (SS probably thought solid gold would clash with all the green). The last detail to look at is the feather duster she's holding. Why would a battle strategist hold a feather duster instead of a weapon? After some interesting research, I found that feather dusters have been used as 'hidden weapons' by the Chinese for quite some time. As it turns out, this is the ideal weapon for someone like her, assuming that it's made properly. Conventional Chinese feather dusters aren't for killing, just child discipline.
However, if I've learned anything about the Ancient Chinese, it's that they can turn the most innocent of objects into lethal instruments of death. How would you like to be stabbed by a metal version of this thing because a girl didn't want to give you her number?
Also, it should be noted that it is a rarity to find artwork depicting Zhuge Liang that does not include him holding a duster like this.
Another final fun note is that the artwork of Zhuge Liang is heavily based on the depiction of him in Dynasty Warrior.
That's all for this week, folks. If you have any questions or corrections on this KYU, let me know!
Also, I plan on going through and updating existing KYUs for units that have been given new cards as well as converting the KYUs that were only posted on Reddit to our beautiful BBCode. Be on the lookout for these changes in the coming weeks!