Grandmother Pei

Grandmother Pei

(Person)

Aliases

Pu Yae Men

Alignment

Lawful evil

Ancestry/Species

Human (Tian-Shu)

Class

Monk 13

Gender

Female

Homeland

Peijia, Bachuan

Deity

None (atheist)

Organization

Sun Chamber

Born

4639 AR (age 85)

Source: Dragon Empires Gazetteer, pg(s). 19 (1E)
Tian Xia World Guide, pg(s). 53, 58 (2E)

As of 7224 IC Grandmother Pei (pronounced pay), born Pu Yae Men, is the autocratic ruler of the autocratic nation of Bachuan in Tian Xia.

Background

Pu Yae Men was her family's only survivor of the brutal post-revolution re-education camps. The sixth and last wife of the nation's founder, Grandfather Pei, the beautiful young woman married her husband when she was only 16 and eventually gained an appointment to Bachuan's governing Sun Chamber. Upon Grandfather's death in 4668 AR, Pu Yae Men, now 29, ascended to chairmanship of the Sun Chamber, outmaneuvering many older, more experienced politicians.

Now known as Grandmother Pei, she had become a zealous believer in her late husband's philosophy. Her time in re-education camps inspired her unrealistic optimism in the Pei philosophy and made her willfully ignorant of Bachuan's structural weaknesses. She turned the nation toward a much harsher vision of the Pei philosophy than Grandfather Pei had ever intended, and Bachuan's prestige in international relations and trade sank under her brutal, expansionist rule.

As she aged and became an elderly leader, she sought to spread Bachuan's secular gospel throughout Tian Xia by whatever means possible. Her fiercest hostility was directed to the neighboring nation of Hwanggot, and while violence had yet to break out, all-out war loomed for years on the horizon.

By 7210 IC Bachuan's failures had accelerated. Grandmother Pei stopped attending government meetings, which raised concerns that her health, and her grip on the nation, was slipping away. The vacuum of power was filled by the Sun Chamber's division into six competing factions, and tensions built until the unexpected arrival of Shui Jing from Po Li in 7215 IC.

Shui Jing worked her way socially into the good graces of the Pei family and successfully championed reforms that loosened Bachuan's worst autocratic excesses, eliminated indoctrination into the Pei philosophy and opened its economy to private investment, and shared power between factions by dividing Bachuan into six municipalities.

As of 7224 IC Grandmother Pei remains the official leader of the Sun Chamber and Bachuan, despite rumors that a woman resembling Grandmother Pei boarded a ship bound for a monastery in Zi Ha. Official documents still require and receive her signature, which are delivered to the Pei Estate near the Sun Chamber Council Building in Peiji and returned days. It is not known whether such documents are truly signed by Grandmother Pei or forged.

Relatives

According to the posthumous testimonies of Pei Wei Ye, the last daughter of Grandfather Pei and any of his other wives, Pu Yae Men had turned Grandfather Pei against his other wives and their children. Her alleged treachery is believed to be why Pu Yae Men became the only surviving wife, and why most of the remaining stepchildren eventually took their own lives. Pei Wei Ye's scandalous revelations could not be proven and were released only after her own death by accidental overdose, from which she rose as a ghost in the Pei Family Ossuary and continued stoking protests and political chaos against the Pei family.