Story of Yanxi Palace takes place during the Qianlong era, which directly precedes the time period of Succession War.
The Emperor in Story of Yanxi Palace is the Qianlong Emperor (乾隆帝). He is the younger version of KK Cheung's character from Succession War.
The initial Empress in the series is Qianlong's first Empress. She was a virtuous queen whom Qianlong loved dearly. Unfortunately, she died of illness during the thirteenth year of his reign.
- The brother of the Empress is Feheng (傅恆). He is the father of Fuk'anggan (福康安) (Kenneth Fok in Succession War) and Fu Changan (福長安) (Joel Chan in Succession War).
After the first Empress died, Charmaine Sheh's character becomes the second Empress. However, she later abruptly falls out of favour with the emperor for unknown reasons.
The main actress in Story of Yanxi Palace will become Qianlong's concubine, reaching the rank of Imperial Noble Consort (皇貴妃). When the second Empress died, Qianlong did not name another empress and she served as the de facto empress.
- She is the mother of the Jiaqing Emperor (嘉慶帝) (Shaun Tam in Succession War) and was posthumously honoured as Empress when he was named crown prince.
- She is also the mother of Qianlong's 17th son (Jonathan Cheung in Succession War) and 7th daughter. The 7th princess was married to Mongol nobleman, Lavan Dorji (拉旺多爾濟) (Andrew Yuen in Succession War).
The younger version of Angelina Lo's character in Succession War appears in Story of Yanxi Palace as Noble Lady Ying (穎貴人).