Terracotta soldiers

The terracotta soldiers were thousands of terracotta statues of soldiers found in the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, located near Xianyang, later known as Xi'an.

Construction
In the 3rd century BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi was promised by a Japanese wizard that he would become immortal if he followed a certain set of instructions. These included the construction of a sacred space near Xi'an, wherein the emperor, his generals, and eight thousand others would take up their positions in the tomb on the seventh full moon of the year. During a conjunction between Earth and a distant area of space, the minds of the emperor, his generals, and the eight thousand were copied by the Mandragora helix. The terracotta army was created to house the copies of these minds when they were used years later. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger) The Fifth Doctor told Erimem that he delivered the Terracotta Army to the Emperor during his third incarnation. (AUDIO: No Place Like Home)

At some point, the soldiers became a mobile robot army controlled by Meng Tian's warp converter, which were waiting for the activation signal. (COMIC: The Immortal Emperor)

In 210 BC, the Second Doctor's companions Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield discovered the Terracotta Army. (AUDIO: The Emperor of Eternity)

"A couple of centuries BC", Meng sent out the activation signal to awaken the Army so he could take control of Earth. They were stopped when Meng accidentally destroyed the warp converter in the Emperor's palace during a fight with Qin Shi Huang, which caused an explosion that buried Qin Shi Huang and the Army. According to the Tenth Doctor, the soldiers would remain statues until the excavation of the Emperor's throne room around the early 21st century. (COMIC: The Immortal Emperor)

In 1863, the mind copy of the emperor was activated by the Mandragora Helix, taking over the body of Abbot Wu. In 1865, he returned to his tomb and the terracotta warriors were activated too, with the minds of the eight thousand soldiers. These soldiers proves a formidable foe for the likes of Major William Chesterton, however they were defeated after Barbara Wright and the First Doctor proved to Qin Shi Huangdi that he was controlled by the Helix, causing the Helix to be expelled and the terracotta army to fail. (PROSE: The Eleventh Tiger)

On 27 July 1928, Edward Grainger, Carter, Ambrose and Bryce Convey tried to steal the Terracotta soldiers. While Carter and Grainger tried to take the statues by plane to Calcutta, Convey and Ambrose took the long way, getting out of China on foot. (PROSE: Falling from Xi'an)