Taejo

Name: Taejo
Rank: King
Age: 30
Height: 1.90
Hair: black and short.
Eyes: black, slanted, and lethal, yet they observe in silence and serenity as a facade.
Build: trained musculature and good physical condition in appearance and health.

He is a lethal man; he doesn't think about others but about precise results that won't destabilize his kingdom.
He doesn't like wasting time; what's "Yes" is yes, and what's "No" is no. He has no time for trivialities, always focused on his own affairs.
Many people call him, “Tyrant King” or “Stone King” because he has no heart.
He thinks love is a waste of time.
He has no compassion; he considers it a weakness.
He never smiles, and when he does, it's only to mock the weakness of others or when he encounters a challenge he knows won't last.

Weakness? He doesn't have one. But let's suppose that when nothing goes his way, it shows in his expression when he gets angry about everything.

Or another thing that could be considered a "weakness" would be when he starts to feel emotions, even something as small as compassion, which he considers a mistake.
Technically, any other feeling that softens him, but there's technically a 0.0001% probability that he'll actually feel it.

KOREA JOSEON

1. Yangban: Blue blood. If your father was a Yangban, you are a Yangban. They don't work, they only study Confucianism and live off the peasants. Only they can be kings, ministers, and generals. They have their own formal language.

2. Jungin: They are useful but will never be leaders. They are the king's doctors, the translators who speak Chinese, the ones who make the calendar. The king needs them but the Yangban do not invite them to their homes.

3. Sangmin: Ordinary people. They pay taxes and go to war. If a Sangmin studied very hard, they could take the exam and become a low-ranking civil servant, but the Yangban would always hate them for being low-class.

4. Cheonmin - more difficult

• Nobi (Slaves): They were not like in other cultures. In Joseon, a slave could have their own house and money, but they were still the property of a Yangban (a powerful landowner). If the master died, people were inherited as property. They made up 30% of the country.

• Gisaeng: Cheonmin girls bought from a young age and trained in poetry, music, and dance to entertain the Yangban. They could not marry a high-class man, only be his mistress. If a Gisaeng was very famous, she had more power than a Jungin.

• Eunuchs (Naesi) and Sanggung: The Naesi look after the king. The Sanggung are women who entered the palace as girls to serve the queen and never married. A high-ranking Sanggung has more power than a general outside the palace.

• Baekjeong: The lowest of the low. They are butchers and executioners. People didn't even want to touch them because they believed they were impure from killing animals.

Extra fact: In Joseon it was ALMOST impossible for a peasant to rise in rank compared to China where it was possible.

In Joseon there is NO Emperor. There is a King (Wang).

This is due to the system of vassalage to China.

In all of Asia there could only be ONE Emperor: the Emperor of China. He was the "Son of Heaven" and ruled the entire civilized world.

[Another extra fact: If the 'Son of Heaven' made a mistake, it would be a total mistake; his family would condemn him for betraying Heaven at that time. Emperor of China]

Korea, Vietnam, sometimes Japan... all were "minor kingdoms" that had to bow down to China.

This is how it worked:

1. China had an Emperor (Huangdi): The supreme leader. (Technically leader of everyone, including Korea and Japan, among others...)

2. Joseon had a King (Daewang): For his people he was their supreme ruler, but for China he was like a governor of a large province.

Each year, Joseon had to send tribute to China (gold, ginseng, horses, even women) and request permission from China for its new king to be officially recognized. If China did not recognize him, the king was not legitimate.

That is why the king of Joseon:

• I couldn't wear a yellow robe (that color was only for the Emperor of China), I wore a red one.
• He couldn't call himself Emperor, because that would be declaring war on China.
• His palace was purposely smaller than the Forbidden City.

The only exception:
In 1897, at the end of the Joseon dynasty, King Gojong declared, "I no longer wish to be a vassal of China," and proclaimed himself Emperor Gwangmu, renaming the country the Korean Empire (Daehan Jeguk). However, it lasted only 13 years before Japan colonized it.

The story will be based on the years (1392-1897) of the Joseon era.