Membership: General Sheng

Purpose: Formerly serving Qin Shi Huang in conquering other lands and peoples.

Aliases: Loyal Ten Thousand

Affiliations: Prince of Orphans (John Aman), Qin Shi Huang

Enemies: Qin Er Shi and those who manipulated him;
    formerly Prince of Orphans

Base of Operations: Presumably Feng-Tu/Fengdu/Diyu;
    formerly trapped within a temple in China's Yunnan Province;
    formerly mobile throughout China;
    active 230-210 B.C.; imprisoned thereafter within the temple until recent years (Modern/Heroic Age) and then passed on to afterlife

First Appearance: Immortal Weapons#5 (January, 2010)

Powers/Abilities: Each of the Ten Thousand were considered to be worth a hundred lesser men in combat.

    They wielded spears and swords as well as being masters of hand-to-hand combat.

    As astral beings, they could fly and were able to harm corporeal beings but could not be affected by most corporeal beings (even Iron Fist).

History:

(Immortal Weapons#5 (fb) - BTS / Real world history) - <230-221 B.C.> - Qin Shi Huang -- via his Loyal Ten Thousand -- conquered all of the other warring states and unified all of China, taking the role of its first emperor.

(Immortal Weapons#5 (fb) - BTS / Real world history) - <210 B.C.> - After Qin Shi Huang's death, his son Qin Er Shi ascended. Weak and fearful, Er Shi was manipulated by greedy men who convinced him to turn on the very warriors who helped his father unite China.

    Er Shi lured them to a temple in the Yunnan Province, allegedly to ready for a campaign; instead he imprisoned them via magics. He set a dragon, apparently from K'un-Lun, to act as the temple's guardian and to make it impenetrable.

(Immortal Weapons#5 (fb) - BTS) - In recent years, the dragon grew old and feeble of sight and mind, straying from her duties and slaughtering a nearby village.

(Immortal Weapons#5 - BTS) - Feeling that when the dragon failed and the Ten Thousand could be set free, there may be massive disaster, the Prince of Orphans (John Aman) enlisted Iron Fist (Daniel Rand-K'ai) to stop the dragon while he helped the Ten Thousand move on to the next plane.

(Immortal Weapons#5 - BTS) - Via the "Mountain Strength Blow," Aman shattered the door to the temple. Aman subsequently greeted General Sheng, telling him to awaken and that a well-deserved peace was at hand. Reviving, General Sheng asked who he was, and Aman told him that he was a warrior and a friend, and that his journey had ended, as the traitor Er Shi was long dead. He advised Sheng that it was time to lead his legion to the next world.

    Striking out at Aman with his sword, Sheng proclaimed, "Never!" and then told Aman that there was no next world while treachery lived in this one: "I remember betrayal. Dishonor! If the false emperor is gone, then his warriors will bear the burden! Arise my legion. Vengeance is ours!"

    In response, the spirits of the Ten Thousand began to emerge from their statue-like forms. Destroying those that attacked him, Aman grabbed Sheng's sword, telling him to hold and telling him that he was a true warrior and had not given less than expected; however, he had been too long imprisoned and now burned only with rage, not sense.

    As Aman told Sheng that he and the Ten Thousand would pass into the shadow lands one by one, the roof of the temple shattered as the dragon, subdued or slain by Iron Fist, crashed through it.

    Drawn by the grandeur of Kumming City, the spirits of the Ten Thousand departed the temple and flew toward it, and Aman appreciated that they would destroy it. However, as the mist that empowered him was what allowed him to face the Ten Thousand, he told Iron Fist that he could do nothing further.

    As Sheng ordered that they leave no man, woman or child alive until Er Shi's head paraded his stick, the the Ten Thousand attacked the Kumming City's population.

    After Aman reiterated that Er Shi was long gone from the Earthly plane and that here Sheng would only find the doorway to heaven or the path to oblivion, Sheng ordered the Loyal Ten Thousand to attack him.

    Aman battled the Ten Thousand until Sheng summoned him, telling him that his people were owed two thousand-fold in blood vengeance for their betrayal and imprisonment.