Shandong

Shandong (Chinese: 山东), is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the East China region.

Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese Buddhism, and Confucianism. Shandong's Mount Tai is the most revered mountain of Taoism and one of the world's sites with the longest history of continuous religious worship. The Buddhist temples in the mountains to the south of the provincial capital of Jinan were once among the foremost Buddhist sites in China. The city of Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius, and was later established as the center of Confucianism.

Shandong's location at the intersection of ancient as well as modern north–south and east–west trading routes have helped to establish it as an economic center. After a period of political instability and economic hardship that began in the late 19th century, Shandong has emerged as one of the most populous (95,793,065 inhabitants at the 2010 Census) and most affluent provinces in the People's Republic of China with a GDP of CN¥5.942 trillion in 2014, or USD$967 billion, making it China's third wealthiest province.

Seven Sisters (Forgotten Realms)

The Seven Sisters—fictional characters of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting of the Dungeons & Dragons Role Playing Game. The sisters are epic level characters (characters possessing nearly super-human levels of skill and power) of differing abilities, most of which involve some form of spellcasting and use of magic. Created by Ed Greenwood, they have been featured in multiple novels, games, and officially created scenarios by an equally large number of authors/game-designers.

Publication history

Some of the characters that would later be identified as members of the Seven Sisters were first introduced in the original Forgotten Realms boxed set (the Grey Box) for 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons, where they were described as a group of powerful sisters, though they were not yet revealed to number seven. Only Alustriel, Storm, Syluné, and the Simbul were described in this first appearance. In this early incarnation the concept of their connection to the goddess of magic Mystra does not appear to have been developed yet, as, for example, Storm is listed as worshiping the god Milil. Over the years, through additional sourcebooks, the full nature of the Sisters was revealed, as the concepts of the Sisters' full membership, purpose, and importance to the world of the Forgotten Realms was gradually fleshed-out and finalized.