#qixingzhou

[chinesewizarding-xianxia]

Uniforms: Qixing Zhou, Fengyin, Chongyun, and Jishan

Each school has a uniform, but the extent to which students are expected to wear or modify it depends on the school. The sects as a whole have no ‘set’ uniform – except for employees of the businesses associated with the sects, only students need to have one, and they are normally worn during inter-school competitions and events.

Chongyun Sect

It was founded in the late 700s during the Tang Dynasty, which favored extravagance and colorful clothing. The school changed its name and even its location over the next two hundred years. The uniform today is derived from Song Dynasty, which favors reserved elegance and straight, slender lines.

Women:

Unlike the other dynasties, women in the Song Dynasty could wear trousers, usually paired with a beizi (a long jacket with narrow sleeves). The colors are subdued like the photo below, though the Chongyun Sect’s uniform doesn’t have as many patterns.

Men:

They wear Song-style yishang (cross-collar top + wrap-around skirt), with a dachang (open-fronted robe, not pictured) for more formal occasions. The colors should probably match the women’s uniform, but I couldn’t find a photo lol.

Qixing Zhou Sect

The Qixing Zhou Sect decided to keep Ming Dynasty fashion as its uniform. Their colors tend to be whites and reds. Qixing Zhou is quite strict about its students wearing the uniform when in class (except when dealing with magical creatures - wear whatever is comfortable and you don’t mind getting damaged beyond the point magic can repair it) or traveling outside the sect. Outer wear for when it gets cold is up to the student.

Women:

Women wear an aoqun (袄裙), which is composed of a cross-collar top and a waist-high skirt. The top is not tucked in; in the Qixing Zhou Sect, a short top is standard. 

Men:

The men wear a yuanlingpao, a round-collar robe, paired with a belt.

Fengyin Sect

They wear rather plain clothes not restricted to a single dynasty. You will actually see Fengyin students wear their uniforms the most out of all the sects, since they often play at events and orchestras that require them to wear it.

Women:

Women wear a ruqun (top + skirt). It’s similar to the aoqun, except the top is tucked into the skirt. The top is white, the bottom is a pale grey-blue.

Men:

See above. The men’s version of the ruqun is known as a yishang. Their top is the same as the women’s, but black.

Jishan Sect

The Jishan Sect’s official uniform is from the Ming Dynasty in which it was founded. The Jishan Sect, however, does not require the uniform to be worn during any time except inter-school events. Some people choose to wear it all the time, others prefer their own clothes.

Women:

A cross-collar aoqun with a long top and a green skirt.

Men:

The men wear a green and white yishang, which is the men’s cross-collar top with a wrap-around skirt. 

[chinesewizarding-xianxia]

Qixing Zhou Sect – 七星周宗

« Tag • List of Posts • Glossary • All Schools »

Overview

The Qixing Zhou Sect is, foremost, the leading sect in the field of spellwork and enchantments. A long history of refining, developing, and pushing the limits of spells, talismans, rituals, and wards has given the Qixing Zhou a well-deserved reputation as the most prestigious of all sects in magical China. Gaining acceptance to this school is considered the most difficult despite the relatively large amount of seats available per year. Although it is the largest sect in the country, competition to enter is fierce. Qixing Zhou's graduates are prized in the workforce of various fields and, oftentimes, graduating from this sect is a requirement to enter certain professions.

History

[source]

The sect was founded by the Zhou clan, a magical noble family that settled in Qixing Valley, which is located in modern day Wansheng District, Chongqing. The precise location of the Qixing Zhou Sect is a closely guarded secret known only to the sect elders and the members of the Zhou clan who still manage the sect’s transportation division. The ancient enchantments, spells, and wards that protect the compound are still intact to this day, protecting it from any and all outsiders. Admittance is dependent on swearing an oath to never reveal the true location of the sect to anyone, not even one’s closest friends or family.

Grounds

[source]

The Qixing Zhou Sect is located in a long, winding valley in Wansheng – itself an area of secluded mountains and gorges, dense forests, and numerous waterfalls and caves. It boasts impressive, elaborate architecture surrounded by the valley’s steep cliff faces. However, renovations and expansions throughout the years have led to buildings of different styles according to the era they were built in. The sect is divided into five areas, each centered around a central courtyard and named according to the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations.

Autumn Courtyard

The Autumn Courtyard is in the west, the main building of which is called the White Tiger Hall. The sect’s main administrative offices and buildings are in this area, surrounded by a large courtyard where assemblies and other events are held. This courtyard also hosts many buildings for libraries and study rooms as well as the Examination Hall, the cafeteria, and the infirmary.

Winter Courtyard

The Winter Courtyard is in the north and the location of the sect’s residences. The teachers, staff, and disciples all live here. Due to the Qixing Zhou Sect’s affluence, there is enough room for each disciple to have their own room. A few alumni also live here every year, some to continue studying under their mentors, other to develop their skills in preparation for their chosen career.

Spring Courtyard

The Spring Courtyard is located in the east and contains the sect’s classrooms along with many smaller courtyards used for practicing a variety of spells. There is also a small spot that overlaps with the southern area, the Summer Courtyard, which is for learning about magical creatures. This area leads into a manmade, wooded forest that wraps around the southeastern corner of the sect.

Summer Courtyard

A majority of the Summer Courtyard is devoted to the aforementioned specialty involving magical creatures. The other buildings host additional classrooms as well as a small marketplace where trusted outside vendors, normally alumni, sell some wares to the disciples. The sect’s businesses operate out of this area, most of which is used as a loading dock of sorts to transport the talismans and other magical items they craft to the outside.

Businesses

[source]

The Qixing Zhou Sect is financially one of the wealthiest sects along with the Jishan Sect. Qixing Zhou employs its teachers, alumni, and even advanced disciples in their seventh year to craft talismans, wards, and magical items to sell in various auxiliary businesses in wixen towns and villages. The Qixing Zhou Sect has somewhat of a monopoly on this industry, as their products can be trusted. They have both low-cost to high-cost items, from simple household spells to very complex ones used to catch or repel magical creatures.

In addition, the Qixing Zhou Sect runs a rather profitable business by raising magical creatures for various purposes - some to harvest for potions ingredients, others as pets, and others yet as part of research, breeding, or conservation programs.

Members

The majority of Qixing Zhou disciples choose classes in subjects related to the career they wish to pursue, but this is not always the case, as a fair number of disciples take a well-rounded course load instead.

Notes

七星 (Qīxīng), meaning “seven stars”, is the region where the sect was founded. 周 (Zhōu) is the name of the clan that founded it. 宗 (Zōng) is one of the words for a sect.

(Sources: Top, Middle, Bottom)

[chinesewizarding-xianxia]

Qixing Zhou Alumni: Han Shang

Name: 韩尚, Hán Shàng

尚: to value, to esteem

Gender: Male

Birthday: April 4, 1985

Lineage: Half-blood

Wand: Willow wood, xiezhi hair

A magizoologist known for both his exceptional skill with dangerous creatures and his leadership abilities. Although he is distant and particularly unforgiving, he is also acknowledged by the Chinese wixen community as an excellent teacher. Several rumors circulate from year to year regarding the amount of money the Qixing Zhou Sect must dish out to keep him from leaving given that Han Shang actually hates teaching.

He is talented, but known to be ruthless while holding justice in high regard. He is the type who will place righteousness before family and clearly knows the line between love and hate. Many speculate that this originates from his days as a student when he was wrongly accused and manipulated by his peers. 

Since childhood, Han Shang has lived with his aunt and uncle and their three children. He believed for many years that he is related to them through his mother’s side of the family – his aunt Han Rong’s younger sister’s son – but he is actually the child of his uncle’s eldest brother, a Fengyin wix who committed several crimes for which he earned a life sentence. He has never quite forgiven relatives for their deception, which caused him more than a few issues during his school years.

His willow and xiezhi hair wand is an unusual pairing for his personality. The willow is flexible and yielding whereas the xiezhi ruthlessly determines truth from lies. The wandmaker who matched him to it predicted, as the word for ‘willow’ sounds similar to ‘distance’, his life to be full of partings but the rigidity of his beliefs would support him.

The real reason he stays at Qixing Zhou is because Lin Changfeng, the previous teacher of his class and also his lover, wished to retire and needed a replacement.

Image Source: Here

[chinesewizarding-xianxia]

Qixing Zhou Alumni: Lin Changfeng

Name: 蔺昌逢, Lìn Chāngféng

昌: prosperous, flourishing

逢: to meet by chance

Gender: Male

Birthday: October 10, 1973

Lineage: Pureblood

Wand: Gingko wood, dragon heartstring (Chinese Fireball)

Lin Changfeng is member of the Lin family, which is known for producing excellent spellcasters. They regard him as a disappointment for pursuing magizoology despite the fact that he became the youngest to ever teach the subject at Qixing Zhou. He was driven to study magizoology because his younger twin brother, Lin Changning, was more talented in spellcasting than him.

A cold and severe person who holds petty grudges, Lin Changfeng is difficult to get along with let alone befriend. He is paranoid and wary of others, which compels him to lash out at them before they can harm him. Unknown to most, he was once more trusting and naive – his father’s infidelity and several lesser events in his childhood led him to conclude that people cannot be trusted and he must gain the upper hand or be the one to suffer.

He only got a teaching position because the last teacher, who had been with Qixing Zhou for thirty years, died from a transportation mishap involving a taotie. Lin Changfeng, whose family had thwarted each of his attempts to find a job, was asked to take over for the rest of the school year. Although students disliked him and he was, in hindsight, a terrible teacher, he has been a great asset to the research division of the sect where he now works. His current project involves the properties of mo pelts and yaoguai environmental adaptations.

He is always invited to the family’s major gatherings by his younger twin, but Lin Changfeng always assumes his brother does it to mock him and never attended until Han Shang forced him to do so.

He doubts his own abilities in casting spells, but he has a good propensity for adapting spells in the heat of the moment that he could have refined if he hadn’t switched focus.

That photo would be of his younger self. There’s a 12 year gap between him and his lover, Han Shang.

Image Source: Luo Yunxi (Ashes of Love)