I am sorry for you if you find those models really offensive….
…but as a German, I can assure you, you’ll get used to it😆
Just look at GW ‘german inspired’ armies in WHFB or 40k or watch Hollywood films.
Maybe it’ s better to take a game not too serious.
Equally there’s plenty of instances of dogs being highly regarded in Chinese culture. The zodiac, people born in the year of the dog are considered loyal and exuberant. Some ethnic groups within China have a myth of being created by a dog. A dog also provided grain to humans and invented agriculture. Dogs are loyal companions in a number of myths, and very highly regarded. Dogs have been in China for many many thousands of years and were used by hunters just as they were everywhere else.
There’s also the fact that frankly the Xirkaali are a) Hemicyons, not dogs, and b) not Chinese, despite the arguments. They’re a fantasy race and explicitly inspired by a number of things, particularly Mongolians. Claiming that the Mongolian armour is basically Chinese is disingenuous. The Hwacha is Korean, and claiming that Korea is ‘too much like Chinese’ is deeply offensive. It’s very important to listen to other view points, but they still need to have some factual basis to them.
I feel like there’s not much more can be said about whether the Xirkaali design is inherently offensive to some Chinese people. We’ll need to wait and see whether this issue has legs. I think so far I have only seen two people raise it as an issue online, which is not a number that allows us to reach many conclusions.
To move things on-
Do we know if any maps confirm the Tetsumo Shogunate are neighbouring with the Xirkaali Empire?
In terms of theming, it would make sense, in that we have a pan-Asian but more Mongol / Chinese themed faction, and then a Japanese-themed Shogunate next door.
So we know they’re ‘vampiric’, we know they have a Shogun…What else? Samurai, ashigaru, maybe Oni… Tengu flying infantry…?
Isn’t the dog one of the chinese zodiacs?
And do the 1/12 being born as a dog feel ashamed, unworthy and are treated like that?
I can’t imagine that.
I could imagine instead that the dogs were chosen - among other things- because dogs are famous in western countries, funnier than dragons and tigers, more unique and because of the attributes associated with dogs (even as a zodiac).
Dogs (or people born in the year of the dog) are seen as loyal, follow justice and valor, are humble and follow a strict morality.
And when I listened to the background of this army, these traits fit very well to what Mantic wanted to represent.
I’m born in the year of the dog too, (and a scorpion - never trust a scorpion) but I don’t bother.
I don’t feel insulted by a lot, especially not because of a tabletop army…
Ah, I feel insulted by the paint job of the humans.
I can’t paint very good and don’t do it, but even I can paint weird looking “eyes” like that. But because it looks shitty, I would not paint them like that.
And professional painters earning money for that should do better.
I like the style and nearly all of the models very much.
I don’t like the price, especially for the two warmarchines. If you pay 5€ more you get 2 humans and 2 ogres more, they look way better and are from superior hard plastic. But they are from GWs Cathay range.
That’s an interesting point.
While there are new maps, I don’t know of any that have been made available yet.
I presume that vampires and other (I assume associated) undead are inherantly (darkly) magical; which would imply fundamental emnity between the Xirkaali Empire and Tetsumo Shogunate.
Article discusses the artwork, inc maps. Only the big world map is shown in the post, but talk about one covering the eastern realms, which I presume will be in Invasion.
Given the magic hating nature of the xirkaali, wonder how things will pan out in the longer term with the magic resilient and non-magic using (in the strictest sense) halflings?
Clash of kings 24 I’m sure it was there that it was further east.
the mantic article history says Neighbouring Factions were/include
Mughaal
Seafaring salamanders of kong (guessing smaller less scaly salamanders from the short story)
Yamatero empire
Also mentioned on mup eastern dwarves (neither free or imp) and orcs. Ratkin and goblins been fleeing) so probably a lot of races are everywhere).
On the map you can see Xirkaali written west and south of the central lake. Upto the mountain ranges.
It looks like yamatero looks south east of Xirkalli, perhaps the shogunate is the Japan type island.
One thing that Is noticeable is the sheer size of the empire compared to the factions that we know.
Huge waves of Xirkaali ready to sweep away any resistance (perhaps they might use this to kill off factions that aren’t moving into 4th)
Elf lands are pretty sizable but as we know are split, nothing really gets close. Safest place might be in the abyss itself. Best chill out there while factions are smashed to bits.
We’ve all made our points, clarified them as well as practical and cited reasons to dismiss the opposite point of view.
It’s a stuck argument that’s only going in circles.
Agreed with the above, time to move on from the Asian theming - definitely just going in circles and hearing the same points at this stage.
The size of the Xirkaali Empire was discussed by Ronnie in a recent MUP podcast (Yes, I do still listen to some new pods on 4th, I guess…).
He was saying they’re vast basically, they’ve got “so many” soldiers that the other factions are all going to have to re-evaluate what’s happening with their existing strategies. Seems to be where it could drive consideration of an alliance down the line… (Ronnie keen to point out that this is separate to rules for allies, which don’t seem to be returning).
It seems the Xirkaali identity has three characteristics for me (none of which relate to the Asian theming, incidentally)…
Thread has been moderated somewhat, pardon to those affected. Let’s not repeat ourselves on long rants, please.
Yeah it’s quite shocking how large this new player is in the story.
not one of those small empires then? 
Kind of makes you wonder how noone knew about them until recently 
Liechtenstein was an Empire and not exactly large
By the looks of it, the only land routes are either across Ophidia (which isn’t the safest) or via a big mountain range in the north. By sea you hit the formerly uncharted bits with ‘here be dragons’ on it and fall foul of the Trident Realm?
The elves clearly knew it was there with their magic map, but were obviously too stuck up (or self conscious of the looks of their plastic range ) to tell anyone!
Interesting few bits about the Xirkaali faction in MUP 157 (with Clint Werner).
Clint mentioned that there were Xirkaali troops coming from “within” the Empire, like the Yan, and contrasted these with guys who are more “vassal state” troops… The biggest thing mentioned, for me, was that there are Xirkaali-aligned “Eastern Dwarves” who are outside the Empire, a vassal state, on the borders, and under Xirkaali protection.
These Eastern Dwarves were described as being an off-shoot of Dwarves with no contact with the Imperial or Free Dwarves, and more or less doing their own thing. This is really quite fun, can’t wait to see these guys.
Clint described the Xirkaali hemicyons as being influenced by Ancient Greece and medieval Mongols.
To add to the above, at the tail end of that episode Clint mentions that there are also Orcs at the edge of the Xirkaali Empire, in a “pseudo vassal” condition, and that they are “kept in line” by the Xirkaali in a sneaky way.
At this stage I wouldn’t be surprised to find out there is a vassal Elf state bordering the Xirkaali, a vassal Halfling state and so on… They need to be careful not to overdo this.
This was always a question on how widespread the original races of the world are.
Like if humans are all around the world, everything of a similar age should be around the world as well. No real reason why humans settled in all places during several thousand years of history but Dwarfs and Elves did not.
Of course overdoing the “vassal state” concept would still be a problem so not everyone being under their control in that region would be good.