Introduction

This story takes place in a Parallel Universe. The separation point between our universe and the one you are about to read of was when the six Amulets arrived on earth. This was about fifty years before the founding of the Chakri Dynasty in Thailand (6 April 1782).

Thanks to the presence of the Amulets, Thai kings had much more influence in the Karen and Shan states on their northern and western boarders between Siam and Myanmar (Burma). Consequently, the British eventually took over a much smaller Burma than in our universe, as the Karen and many of the Shan states were eventually joined to Thailand.

The French, though they took over much of southern (lower) Lao (Laos), didn't acquire the Luang Prabang and Black Thai kingdoms in the northern (Thai) part of Laos. They also got a much smaller Cambodia, called Lower Cambodia. The Thai retained the land there that they had ruled for well over a hundred years. That area extended from the Gulf of Thailand in the west at Had Lek, just south of Trat overland through the coastal mountain range to the headwaters of the Stoeng Pouthisat River and then followed the river to Tonle Sap Lake, splitting Pouthisat Province. It included all of the land north of the Pouthisat River including Batdambung Province. After crossing the lake it included Siem Rep (Angkor Wat), Preah Vihear, Stoeng Treng, and Rotanah Kiri Provinces all the way to the border with Vietnam. This area was called Upper Cambodia.