The protagonist (based on Wu Zetian, China's only female emperor)
Wu Yuanzhao is a 14-year-old from a declining noble family who enters the imperial rear palace as the lowest-ranking concubine. She refuses to accept the fate that history has written for her — or perhaps she embraces a different interpretation of that fate. Over the course of two games, she transforms from a powerless girl into the most powerful woman the empire has ever known.
As the protagonist, Wu Yuanzhao doesn't have a traditional 'route.' Instead, her character develops based on the player's choices. The five attributes in RtE II (Strategy, Ambition, Resilience, Determination, Prestige) determine her capabilities and which endings are accessible.
Wu Yuanzhao is the protagonist of Road to Empress and Road to Empress II — the character whose every decision you make across both games. She begins the story as a 14-year-old from a declining noble family, entering the imperial rear palace as the lowest-ranking concubine, and she is based on Wu Zetian, the only woman in Chinese history to rule as emperor in her own name. Understanding Wu Yuanzhao matters because she is not a fixed character: her capabilities, her relationships, and even her moral compass are shaped by player choice. The version of her that reaches the final chapter can be a compassionate reformer, a ruthless strategist, or anything in between — and the ending you get is the game telling you which woman you actually built.
Wu Yuanzhao starts at the very bottom of the rear palace hierarchy. She holds the rank of Cairen, a low-ranking concubine, and arrives with nothing but a fading family name — the Wu clan was once noble, but by the time she enters the palace its influence is mostly memory. Chapter 1 spells out what that position means in practice: the rear palace operates on unspoken rules where proximity to the emperor is power, isolation is a slow death, and trust is the rarest currency. A newly entered Cairen sits above the servants and below everyone who matters.
Her arc across both games is a climb through that structure. In Road to Empress I she survives sixteen chapters of banquets, hunts, prophecies, and faction wars, gradually transforming from a girl reacting to events into a woman who shapes them. Road to Empress II opens with a striking reversal: Wu Yuanzhao has taken the veil at Ganye Temple after the Late Emperor’s death, and the prologue presents a single decision — fight for a return to power or walk away entirely — that determines whether the rest of the game is a battle for the throne or a search for a life beyond the palace walls.
Wu Yuanzhao is typed INFJ, the same personality type as Li Zhi, and the pairing is deliberate. Two people who read every room and see through every facade must keep deciding whether to be honest with each other or keep playing the game. Her defining traits — an unbreakable will, a strategic mind, a refusal to be defined by others, and the capacity for both compassion and ruthlessness — are not just flavor text. They describe the range the game actually permits the player to explore.
In Road to Empress II, her personality effectively becomes a stat sheet. Strategy, Ambition, Resilience, Determination, and Prestige are the five core attributes that gate her capabilities and determine which endings are reachable. Two players can finish the same chapter with meaningfully different protagonists — one building quiet institutional power, another accumulating raw ambition — and the endings available to each will differ accordingly.
As the protagonist, Wu Yuanzhao appears in every chapter, but several documented beats define her arc:
Her endings map the full range of who she can become: Phoenix Over the Realm, RtE I’s true ending where she and Li Zhi rule as equals; Sun and Moon in Harmony, the RtE II equivalent; A Gentle Farewell, where she leaves the palace on her own terms; Silent Courtyard, the most common first-playthrough bad ending; Shattered Crown, RtE II’s worst outcome; plus Another Life and Ganye Redemption on the side-story track.
Wu Yuanzhao has no traditional route — her “route” is the sum of your choices. Players report that the true ending demands near-perfect execution: maximum Li Zhi favor across all sixteen chapters, completing Xi Xin’s loyalty questline in Chapters 9–10, saving Princess Gaoyang, solving the moon character riddle, and succeeding at the critical QTEs. Most players need two to three playthroughs, and the game is deliberately designed that way.
Two practical notes. First, the Chapter 1 garden encounter is worth only +1 favor, but it starts a chain that makes the true ending significantly easier — don’t skip it. Second, in Road to Empress II, attribute balance matters more than raw accumulation: maximizing Ambition while neglecting Strategy is the documented path to Shattered Crown. In most playthroughs, steady investment in Strategy and Prestige keeps the widest range of endings open.