Post by Flak on Mar 20, 2005 22:02:51 GMT -5
Shinobi Ascension
Mythology:
The flow of life is an ever-growing length of fabric, woven carefully by the many hands of the dual god Nijin, deity of life and death. Over the millennia his deft fingers have sewn in threads of bad and good fortune and will, malice, benevolence, everything on either side of the spectrum of what is good and evil. So long as good and evil would remain in equal amounts within the fabric everything would be in order and nothing would be wrong. And if there would happen to be too much good or evil, if an imbalance were to occur, the fabric would be distorted.
Beneath the god of life and death lie his four subordinates, the great legendary spirits, the Tiger, Phoenix, Tortoise, and Dragon, rulers of wind, fire, earth, and water respectively. They preside over the four islands in their human incarnations as the rulers of the four separate nations. These spirits live as benign influences, keeping their respective spheres of influence within the bounds of good morality and the elements favorable to all. They helped to determine the amount of good and bad sewn by Nijin into the fabric of life, and thus help to determine the fate of all that exists.
However, as more good is placed into the equation, so must misfortune and malice be placed into the balance. Thus as an abundance of good blesses the land and strays from the middle path, evil is spawned to pull it back in, lest existence be thrown into chaos, and visa versa. So thus, lying in wait to appear in the mortal world are the crow, opposite of the phoenix; the bear, opposite the tiger; the salamander, opposite the tortoise; and the snake, opposite the dragon. They would take up their residence in this plane in a similar fashion to the benevolent spirits – their wills would inhabit the same bodies of those spirits. They would live in this world, sharing the bodies of its rulers with their counterparts, constantly struggling for control.
In addition to the benign and malicious great bestial spirits are beings not necessarily concerned with either good or evil, and more interested in their own amusement. Masters of trickery and disguise, these beings, the kitsune and the tanuki, in the forms of a fox and a raccoon dog respectively, disguise themselves among the human populace playing petty tricks and jokes.
Setting:
Our story will take place on the islands of Japan in some unknown time. The four main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu are split between the four kingdoms Tori, Kame, Tora, and Ryu, each country lead by a leader who acted as a conduit for the land’s divine spirit’s will. Tori, land of the phoenix, controlled Hokkaido. Ryu, land of the Dragon and neighbor of Tori, reided on the Northern end of Honshu, while Tora lies on the island’s southern end. Kame, land of the tortoise, took its place on the smaller islands of Shikoku and Kyushu.
The time is one of the newly discovered engine, basic electricity, and architecture following purpose rather than aesthetic. Oil lamps line the cobblestone streets as people study texts by the light of an electric bulb within their homes. Buildings, in whatever shape suited a region’s weather and purpose and patched to repair any damage, were seldom elaborate and always fitting to support its inhabitants. Great, black trains fed by fire and brimstone thundered along the great tracks linking towns and counties while their nimbler cousins roamed the electric tunnels beneath cities, slowly humming along to bear the majority of the citizenry to various destinations.
The peoples of the islands had no reason to fight foe as long as they could remember, so science never needed to bear them past developing traditional blades, chains, and staves, but combat was no stranger to the nations’ people, who prided themselves over their not yet required mastery of strength, stealth, and arms. Young men and women were always eager to train in military arts, sometimes to impress, sometimes for feelings of strength.
Furthermore, for the inhabitants of the islands, life was bliss. Their fishing, rice, and manufacturing industry had long been able to provide the local governments with enough money to import enough to keep the citizenry well fed, clothed, and sheltered. Due to this general prosperity, relations between the people and the governments and between the separate governments of the land flourished. Over time, alliances were forged and friendships made. Each country stood up for another, providing supplies when one had an abundance and another a lack or sharing any new information it gained or anything else it could do to help its ally.
However, this streak of good fortune has apparently ended, and things are no longer as they have been. Flooding of the isles and fires caused by lighting have wiped out much of the nation’s crops, and the catches drawn in by the fishermen were too poisoned for consumption. The workers of the factories, often from foreign lands and fearing the worst, fled the islands to hammer out a better living in their homeland. The islands underwent a general depression and a large-scale famine. Crime rose as people stole and murdered to feed themselves and their families, and general anarchy broke out. Some saw this as the herald of the Kingdoms’ ends, but their fears would soon be dispelled as the fish regained their health and the next harvest came in, as bountiful as ever. However, it would not be the end of the misfortunes and evils to plague the islands.
As peace was restored slowly over the next few years, a new evil stirred in the four kingdoms. Corruption started to break out within the government. Sometimes it was just a little stealing from the treasury, at other times it was the slaughter of a family for thinking the wrong way. The kings of the four countries themselves had an inward battle between good and bad, as seen by their vastly varying actions. As it is now, the Tori and Tora have silenced their lines of communication with the Kame and Ryu, and visitors to the two countries have not returned, though their arrival home has been overdue for weeks. Even more, there have been strings of recent raids against towns in the Kame and Ryu by bandits. Though the until-then unused soldiers of Kame and Ryu have been fighting them off for weeks, now, it was only recently that they were able to catch one such raider to find out an ominous fact – the bandits were all from Tori and Tora. Worried that their treaties may have been broken and their alliances betrayed in the case that the land of the tiger and phoenix had been backing the attacks, the Ryu and Kame sent envoys to the two renegade nations inquiring into the matter. They are yet to return, and there is no information on the matter. Fearing the worst of their former allies, the lands of the tortoise and dragon now ready their troops for a possible war as they send out scouting groups of shinobi to infiltrate and investigate the Tora and Tori.
The Game:
You will play as a warrior, whether shinobi, samurai, or other, in one of the countries in the islands of Japan. As soon as you choose your side, you must relinquish contact regarding your non-allied countries with whomever may be in those countries, so as to preserve the hidden plots and strategies. Your job is to follow your country, or, depending on the actions of your country, your own morals.
Keep in mind that not everything is as it seems, and there may be workings you have no comprehension manipulating events beneath the surface. Trust not anything at first glance, look beneath the beneath.
Mythology:
The flow of life is an ever-growing length of fabric, woven carefully by the many hands of the dual god Nijin, deity of life and death. Over the millennia his deft fingers have sewn in threads of bad and good fortune and will, malice, benevolence, everything on either side of the spectrum of what is good and evil. So long as good and evil would remain in equal amounts within the fabric everything would be in order and nothing would be wrong. And if there would happen to be too much good or evil, if an imbalance were to occur, the fabric would be distorted.
Beneath the god of life and death lie his four subordinates, the great legendary spirits, the Tiger, Phoenix, Tortoise, and Dragon, rulers of wind, fire, earth, and water respectively. They preside over the four islands in their human incarnations as the rulers of the four separate nations. These spirits live as benign influences, keeping their respective spheres of influence within the bounds of good morality and the elements favorable to all. They helped to determine the amount of good and bad sewn by Nijin into the fabric of life, and thus help to determine the fate of all that exists.
However, as more good is placed into the equation, so must misfortune and malice be placed into the balance. Thus as an abundance of good blesses the land and strays from the middle path, evil is spawned to pull it back in, lest existence be thrown into chaos, and visa versa. So thus, lying in wait to appear in the mortal world are the crow, opposite of the phoenix; the bear, opposite the tiger; the salamander, opposite the tortoise; and the snake, opposite the dragon. They would take up their residence in this plane in a similar fashion to the benevolent spirits – their wills would inhabit the same bodies of those spirits. They would live in this world, sharing the bodies of its rulers with their counterparts, constantly struggling for control.
In addition to the benign and malicious great bestial spirits are beings not necessarily concerned with either good or evil, and more interested in their own amusement. Masters of trickery and disguise, these beings, the kitsune and the tanuki, in the forms of a fox and a raccoon dog respectively, disguise themselves among the human populace playing petty tricks and jokes.
Setting:
Our story will take place on the islands of Japan in some unknown time. The four main islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu are split between the four kingdoms Tori, Kame, Tora, and Ryu, each country lead by a leader who acted as a conduit for the land’s divine spirit’s will. Tori, land of the phoenix, controlled Hokkaido. Ryu, land of the Dragon and neighbor of Tori, reided on the Northern end of Honshu, while Tora lies on the island’s southern end. Kame, land of the tortoise, took its place on the smaller islands of Shikoku and Kyushu.
The time is one of the newly discovered engine, basic electricity, and architecture following purpose rather than aesthetic. Oil lamps line the cobblestone streets as people study texts by the light of an electric bulb within their homes. Buildings, in whatever shape suited a region’s weather and purpose and patched to repair any damage, were seldom elaborate and always fitting to support its inhabitants. Great, black trains fed by fire and brimstone thundered along the great tracks linking towns and counties while their nimbler cousins roamed the electric tunnels beneath cities, slowly humming along to bear the majority of the citizenry to various destinations.
The peoples of the islands had no reason to fight foe as long as they could remember, so science never needed to bear them past developing traditional blades, chains, and staves, but combat was no stranger to the nations’ people, who prided themselves over their not yet required mastery of strength, stealth, and arms. Young men and women were always eager to train in military arts, sometimes to impress, sometimes for feelings of strength.
Furthermore, for the inhabitants of the islands, life was bliss. Their fishing, rice, and manufacturing industry had long been able to provide the local governments with enough money to import enough to keep the citizenry well fed, clothed, and sheltered. Due to this general prosperity, relations between the people and the governments and between the separate governments of the land flourished. Over time, alliances were forged and friendships made. Each country stood up for another, providing supplies when one had an abundance and another a lack or sharing any new information it gained or anything else it could do to help its ally.
However, this streak of good fortune has apparently ended, and things are no longer as they have been. Flooding of the isles and fires caused by lighting have wiped out much of the nation’s crops, and the catches drawn in by the fishermen were too poisoned for consumption. The workers of the factories, often from foreign lands and fearing the worst, fled the islands to hammer out a better living in their homeland. The islands underwent a general depression and a large-scale famine. Crime rose as people stole and murdered to feed themselves and their families, and general anarchy broke out. Some saw this as the herald of the Kingdoms’ ends, but their fears would soon be dispelled as the fish regained their health and the next harvest came in, as bountiful as ever. However, it would not be the end of the misfortunes and evils to plague the islands.
As peace was restored slowly over the next few years, a new evil stirred in the four kingdoms. Corruption started to break out within the government. Sometimes it was just a little stealing from the treasury, at other times it was the slaughter of a family for thinking the wrong way. The kings of the four countries themselves had an inward battle between good and bad, as seen by their vastly varying actions. As it is now, the Tori and Tora have silenced their lines of communication with the Kame and Ryu, and visitors to the two countries have not returned, though their arrival home has been overdue for weeks. Even more, there have been strings of recent raids against towns in the Kame and Ryu by bandits. Though the until-then unused soldiers of Kame and Ryu have been fighting them off for weeks, now, it was only recently that they were able to catch one such raider to find out an ominous fact – the bandits were all from Tori and Tora. Worried that their treaties may have been broken and their alliances betrayed in the case that the land of the tiger and phoenix had been backing the attacks, the Ryu and Kame sent envoys to the two renegade nations inquiring into the matter. They are yet to return, and there is no information on the matter. Fearing the worst of their former allies, the lands of the tortoise and dragon now ready their troops for a possible war as they send out scouting groups of shinobi to infiltrate and investigate the Tora and Tori.
The Game:
You will play as a warrior, whether shinobi, samurai, or other, in one of the countries in the islands of Japan. As soon as you choose your side, you must relinquish contact regarding your non-allied countries with whomever may be in those countries, so as to preserve the hidden plots and strategies. Your job is to follow your country, or, depending on the actions of your country, your own morals.
Keep in mind that not everything is as it seems, and there may be workings you have no comprehension manipulating events beneath the surface. Trust not anything at first glance, look beneath the beneath.