Prologue
The nation of Tenkai, led by the once-Emperor Hifumi, has fallen. Once bound together under one banner, the land has since been left fractured by the assassination of their leader and the ensuing power struggle. The ministers and warlords bickered and fought, and in a single motion the land was left divided. Those who returned to their homes built up castles and armies, and thus began a great civil war. For ten years they fought, consuming the land in fire and brimstone...
Until finally, only nine banners remained. Nine clans leading their own men, finally seeing that the commonfolk were beginning to grow weary of the fighting and seemed to be on the verge of rebelling, chose to lay down their arms—if only temporarily—and rebuild.
And rebuild they did.
It has been fifty years since, and the lands of Tenkai remain divided. But even so, a single spark could easily reignite the flames of war, and consume everyone once more...
Tenkai
Toukai is a land of humans and youkai—the two coexist, though occasionally under more dubious terms. The land upon which the nation was founded is somewhat isolated from those nearby, with mountain ranges and deserts to the west and the ocean to the east; ultimately, this means that foreign intervention or involvement in their affairs is all but impossible.
In short, these domestic affairs are to be settled by those living there and them alone.
Provinces and Clans
The lands of Tenkai have been divided into nine major provinces, each led by a single clan. They are, as follows:
- Mifu (美風) Province — Amami (天海) Clan
Bordering the eastern ocean, Mifu is very intertwined with maritime matters. The bounty of the sea supplies the people with what they cannot gain from the land, and ease of access to salt means that bartering for what else they need from other regions is fairly commonplace. - Miwatari (神渡) Province — Izumo (出雲) Clan
A landlocked region with equal parts forests and hillsides, Miwatari is more famous for being a spiritual center for the people of Tenkai as a whole. Shrines and temples dot the landscape, often run by one of the many practicioners of onmyodo that the region teaches. - Yamakawa (山川) Province — Shisui (酒々井) Clan
Surrounded by hills and mountains, Yamakawa's natural borders allow for it to place focus onto agricultural developments. Behind the rugged landscape that protects them lie plentiful fields and, arguably, some of the best alcohol in the nation. - Hakkou (八綱) Province — Shirogane (白鐘) Clan
With access to beaches and ore-rich veins, Hakkou is one of the premier locations to obtain ore from. Excess ore is often traded off for the sake of supplying the people who live therein, but all else is funneled towards arms and armor. - Nohara (野原) Province — Tsuchimaru (土丸) Clan
Nohara is, more than any other region within Tenkai, known for it's abundance of horses and the power of it's cavalry. Boasting more than enough land to tend to animals, the region's ability to cross large swathes of land easily means that they can defend or attack on a whim if the need arises. - Hinomiya (火ノ宮) Province — Ibara (茨) Clan
Unlike many of the other provinces, Hinomiya is powerful because it functions as a natural chokepoint and buffer between Mifu and Hakkou. That status means that they are allowed to play both sides and benefit from the trade within while also deterring either region from pushing towards the other. - Haruki (春樹) Province — Rinka (林下) Clan
A region that truly embodies the bounty of the land, Haruki is filled with forests and fertile farmland; such abundance means that they supply many of the other regions with food (incidentally more often than not), which means that no other province wants it to fall into another's hands. Their abundance also allows them to invest in luxuries, leaving its people better off than more (or, at least, those who can afford said luxuries). - Myojin (明神) Province — Wadatsumi (海神) Clan
The land of the former capital. Though once ruined and razed to the ground, the people of the province have begun to rise from the ashes of their former glory, supplied in part by the discovery of a precious metal whose properties they are apt to keep under lock and key. With access to the ocean in the south and enough farmland to feed its people, most of the other regions have left the province well enough alone, but with a careful eye trained upon its residents at all times. - Gekkou (月光) Province — Takasaki (鷹) Clan
Covered in mountains and hillside forests, Gekkou is far more difficult a region to advance on. Most of those who live here do so by foraging off the land, and the winding paths and low visibility mean that most others would choose to leave the province and its residents be more often than not. However, they do not necessarily thrive off the land, either, leading many groups within towards either trading with those close or towards less... 'Agreeable' methods of negotiation.
So... In short, this is an idea for a fantasy Sengoku Jidai (aka Warring States or 'that thing with Nobunaga') RP that takes place in... Well, what is effectively fantasy Japan if it had a landmass the size of China.
Oh, and with magic, obviously. And technology somewhat closer in nature to that of the Heian era than that of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (so no firearms).
Ideally, players would start out in one (or, if the numbers are too large to allow for just one, two) of the provinces mentioned above and inevitably get swept up into the fervor of war, but those matters can be more easily set up after I see what a tentative cast and player count would look like.
The idea is mostly fleshed out at this point (or so I believe), but if you have any questions, feel free to ask. For those already interested, however, here is a form to get ahead of the curve if you so choose.
