Ostensibly the ghost of Qin Shihuangdi, Yu Huang is the first, last and sole emperor of the Yellow Springs. His power was sealed by elaborate funeral rites (in life, he was obsessed with immortality), including an army of 10,000 terracotta soldiers who followed him into the afterlife as his immortal guard.

Some time after arriving in the underworld, the real Yu Huang was destroyed, replaced by a Malfean lord. Since that time, the Malfean has ruled as Yu Huang, and has applied his creative talents as dictator of the Asian dead.

As a ruler, Yu Huang is an absolute monarch. His government is harsh and largely corrupt, interested primarily in acquiring as many relics and as much jade as possible, whether through mining or punishment. His empire is militantly expansionist and fiercely racist, with Chinese at the top of the social pyramid and non-Chinese primarily waiting to be converted into white jade. Personally, Yu Huang is a sadistic martinet with delusions or artistic adequacy and an obsession with grandiose projects involving levels of Moliate that would terrify most Tzimisce.