Mingjun

The Mingjun (Chinese for 'Luminous Army') was a paramilitary organization founded by Fang Jun in 1067, for the purpose of hunting down and exterminating remnants of the vampire Neo-Heilong Empire in China.

Fang Jun was inspired to start the organization shortly after his conversion to Manichaeism in 1065. He saw the vampires as forces of darkness who sought to destroy the light within humanity so that they would be forever bound to material existence. He believed that the vampires did this on a subconscious level out of anger of their own bondage to the material world.

The Mingjun was a major player in the Great Collapse, serving as a stand-in government when the Tang dynasty collapsed as a result of the rapid invasion of the Neo-Heilong remnants.

The Mingjun disbanded with the ascension of Fang Jun to the throne as the Emperor of China, with the high ranking members of the organization becoming the basis of the new Ming dynasty of China.

Founding
The founder of the Mingjun, Fang Jun, was born in a small village in southern China. Fang was raised by a Buddhist father and a Christian mother, and it is believed that this was the origin of his antipathy towards both religions in his adult years. Fang was subject to great abuses by both of his parents as a child, before running away at the age of 15, to the city of Nanjing, where he etched out a meager survival before he was taken in by a Manichaean order.

At 18, Fang formally was baptized into the Mingjiao Manichaean order.

Fang wrote that he felt "reborn" after his conversion, and sought to devote himself in service to mankind. Fang came into contact with vampire hunting organizations around this time, and partook in one, before splintering off with his own small group of followers, who he termed the Mingjun, who he modeled off of Christian crusader groups that were known from stories spread by Persian and Arab traders to China.

Early Years
In its first few years of existence, the Mingjun served similarly to other anti-vampire organizations. They investigated supposed vampire or "dark arts" activity and used evidence to put the accused on trial, deciding either to exonerate or execute the accused.

The Ming attracted attention, however, due to their highly organized nature, and their adherence to the increasingly attractive creed of Manichaeism, which the Ming were partially responsible for turning from a secretive sect to a mainstream religion in China once again.

The influx of new recruits, many of whom were former military, allowed the Mingjun to grow into the powerful paramilitary organization it was at the time of the Great Collapse

Role in the Great Collapse
When the Neo-Heilongs lead their attack on the Tang, the Mingjun were one of the few organizations to stand their ground against the vampries, actively participating in military action against them.

The Mingjun established a capital for their military government over China at Nanjing and held on to most of southern China through the conflict. The Ming were known for their ruthlessness in the war, actively targetting anyone they suspected of being affiliated with the vampires for execution, often in horrifically brutal manners.

The Mingjun were able to finally drive out the last of the vampires from China with the battle of Zhongdu in 1115, where the Ming took control of the royal palace and killed everyone inside.

In their victory over the vampires, the people began to recongnize the Mingjun as being ordained by heaven to rule, and on that date Fang Jun became the first Ming emperor.

After the War
After the Great Collapse, the Mingjun was officially disbanded, with the highest ranking members being elevated to nobility under the new government. The common members of the army were reorganized as the official state military of the Ming, and turned into unlanded gentry, the first time in Chinese history that the status of Soldiers became a high class position.

Ideology and Beliefs
The Mingjun was founded on the basis of an extreme form of Manichaeism, an Abrahamo-Iranic syncretic religion that originated in the 3rd century in Iran. The Mingjun believe that the forces of Darkness were at their peak power, and threatened all life with eternal damnation to rebirth unless they actively fought against them at all levels. The Mingjun stressed strict morality, a strict self-care regimen, and military action against any dark forces in the world. All members of the Mingjun were obliged to take baptism into the Manichaean Church and to be an actively practicing Manichaean. Members of the organization were strictly forbidden from having children, but were allowed to marry and have sex. Members of the order were sterilized upon entry as a result. Notibly, the Mingjun allowed marriage between members of the same sex and gender, and encouraged such pairings as they were "pure, free from the sin of procreation".

The Mingjun saw all religions other than their own to be abominations and were actively persecutory towards Christians and Buddhists, and later towards Muslims when they arrived in China in significant numbers. Christians and Buddhists who were identified in Mingjun captured cities were forced to either convert to Manichaeism or die.