Kao Meng De

Patriarch of the Kao clan, which ruled Tsao-Wa province in Northwest Fa-Bul, during the reign of His Magnificence, Kai Tsao Shou Lung Xsia Chin, Who Soars with Dragons and Rules All Under Heaven. Kao was a devotee of Sung Chiang, revering the God of Thieves as a paragon of human achievement; a divine example of promotion by way of ability rather than birthright.

Kao had powerful allies throughout the Empire, in particular he had a strong bond with the Liang clan by way of Liang Jian Min's daughter Shu Zhen, whom Kao took as a wife. By way of showing honor and favor to Jian Min, Kao had his second wife poisoned and turned into a frog, then exiled to Gin-Koku-Shima. In this way Kao was able to install Shu Zhen in his second wife's place, rather than allow the daughter of a powerful samurai languish as a mere concubine.

Though in name Liang Shu Zhen was Meng De's wife, she was actually the lover of (and in love with) Lord Kao's third son, Zi Huan.