Without Heaven [OOC + Signups]

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Okay, as promised here are the plots I've come up with for our main storyline.

PLOT A
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It's been five years since the Three Blades of Dominion were formed and the shogunate begins to realize the threat they pose to the mainland. However with the country still in shambles after the last civil war, the government's attention and resources were focused elsewhere. Small raid parties composed of sub par warriors were sent to the island to capture these war mongering individuals but none of them succeeded or returned to the mainland. It was mostly just a show to make the masses believe that the shogun was doing something about the demons of Ritenkyo.

Things changed when the son of a particularly influential daimyo was slain during one of these raids. The daimyo started stirring up the citizens of Edo to demand more drastic actions from the government in dealing with the Three Blades.

Rumors of an upcoming war spread amongst the citizens of Ritenkyo. Some fishermen claim to have seen battleships bearing the shogun's banner sailing towards the island. Others gossip about the body of Three Blades loyalists turning up dead in the morning, assassinated by government spies. The island is in complete unrest as war looms over the horizon.
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PLOT B
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The people of Ritenkyo have always maintained a cordial relationship with the Wokou (Japanese Pirates) roaming the surrounding seas. The pirates provided trade goods while the island provided them with a place to stay without fear of persecution. It was a win-win situation for the Wokou and Ritenkyo.

But all good things must come to an end. Several vessels from the neighboring countries (China and Korea) bombard the pirate port of Ritenkyo and demand that the people of the island surrender all Wokou and conspirators. Ritenkyo is now pressed to choose between losing its means of trade or risk starting a naval war with the pirate hunters.
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Please vote on which plot you'd prefer as our main storyline. Once everyone has cast their vote, I will put up the IC board and start this party~!

As usual feel free to leave comments, questions, and suggestions regarding these plots.
 
I'd say plot 2
 
hmmm, yes, getting a good idea of the island's rough geography will help us in positioning our characters. It's not exactly uncommon for japanese port towns to become capitals and major trading cities so I agree with the idea of having a big official port city, but I think it actually ought to be the inverse of what you described vong.

The big, nice, clean port should be the one under the blades' control. It would still totally have the whorehouses and drug dens (opium specifically wasn't nearly as popular in japan as it was in china. In fact the tokugawa shogunate specifically cracked down hard on that particular drug because they saw how the British forces used its import to cripple imperial china and take it over in all but name, and they weren't about to fall for the same trick) but also be better managed, better funded, more organized and running by its own set of unlawful but upheld rules.

The imperial port, on the other hand, would be a pretty run-down place managed by the members of the Japanese government that the rest of them don't like or don't want o deal with (basically a punishment assignment). It makes sense too. the imperial port would be imperially funded. why would the Japanese government bother building a nice big town and spend money maintaining it if, as far as they're concerned, it's just a landing point for them to dump people who would be better off just starving to death on that island afterwards. They have better things to spend imperial funding on than a prison island's port city.

That kind of lax and incompetent government oversight is exactly what the three blades would have needed to come into power, and controlling a pirate port in which they could do international business (I imagine that ritenkyo would be open to korean and chinese criminal trade as well) would be exactly what they need to stay in power and become a threat to the shogunate (since once we get international trading under our belts, Ritenkyo then stands to become its own autonomous nation. And an autonomous nation can make its own military. A military initially comprised of pissed-off ex-military members of your country is usually not a good thing down the road).

Also, if Muramasa's workshop is to be successful, it stands to reason that ritenkyo ought to have access to quite a few iron sand deposits to maintain production. Since iron sands form in volcanic stone such as granite, it stands to reason then that Ritenkyo should be home to a dormant or inactive volcano from whence these iron sand deposits may have come from. So my suggestion is that the pirate port should serve as the head quarters of at least one of the three blades and it should be located fairly close to the mountain/volcano for ease of access to those iron sands. I think the three blades should be in the same town but not operate out of the same head quarter. The reverend would have his high-temple (which i guess would also serve as the de facto meeting point for our group when we need to hold council), Muramasa would have his workshop, and Kitane can have a small but fortified castle (unless someone else can think of something more fitting for him). That way the three blades can project a unified front without actually having to deal with one another too often.

So yeah, my suggestion in bulletform

1) a badly managed imperial port with terribly lackluster and ineffective governmnet officials running it.
2) a well-run, successful pirate port hidden on the other side of the island that falls under the Three Blades' control and is one of the primary reasons for the japanese government to start seriously fearing the three blades' control.
3) a volcanic mountain located closer to the pirate port.
4) a couple farming/fishing communities
 
hmm, well I will wait until everyone has cast their votes for the plots before commenting myself.


EDIT: Oh wow, I had put up that long comment before even seeing that there was a page 5 to this thread lolol. you guys were busy while i was sleeping i see.
 
Vonghese said:
Iwanami Kōjien

The Most Holy man on the island, according to all but himself. Kōjien is the leader of the island's Shinto priests. He's a very kindly and humble old man, who always goes barefoot and works his ass off to support whatever community he's passing through. Aito is a great admirer of him. He's a gentle soul who wouldn't hurt a fly. Very old, but highly skilled in the healing arts.
Click to expand...
sounds like takuan soho.

though, i thought that the reverend had consolidated his power by making a cult. why would there be any shinto priests on that island? Let alone enough for kojien to be the leader of? it seems it would be seen as a threat to the cult's power, no?
 
I have been following this development from the beginning and I am very interested to see how it plays out. I have a relatively full plate of RP but I think I could manage a minor character [if we could find a place for one].

@SecretsLiesMurder Would you be open to a second for Shiro? I imagine running a criminal organization might be strenuous for just one young woman.

I have no opinion on the plot scenarios since they all hinge on the same basic principles.
 
Can I reserve a spot please? :)
 
It's true that the Mana cult is the most dominant religion in the island but I would understand if there still some shinto practitioners in Ritenkyo. They'll have to be real sneaky about it though since the reverend is intent on making Mana the only faith in Ritenkyo. It could be that Kōjien's circle of shinto worshipers are under the protection of Aito which the reverend has yet to deal with.

I haven't found any good templates yet for maps but I can make a section for the various locations in Ritenkyo. I'll be naming most of the places except for the volcano and Kirose's castle/villa. @Buio and @Solar✹Blitzfang43 will be the one to name those places.
 
reading them again, I think I prefer A as well, since it allows us to have china and korea (well, their criminal underbellies anyways) as background potential allies, which would lend credibility to the shogunate thinking of us as real potential threats. where B has those same forces now actively singing us from one end, leaving us vulnerable to a pincer attack from the shogun.

though I think a few tweaks might benefit A considering the new characters we have. After all, shigane is an undercover agent of the shogun right? What if he had other business besides just trying to return Kirose to the shogun's side? That could still be his main personal motivation of course but, borrowing from our GM's earlier idea, what if that daimyo's son had been captured as a PoW instead of killed outright? Shigane could be an agent (possibly part of a team if other players want to make shogunate-loyal charcters?) whose 'official' assignment is to infiltrate ritenkyo's population as a fake prisoner and extract the hostage so that the shogunate can attack Ritenkyo more seriously without fearing the hostage's execution. Thoughts?
 
I vote for Plot A as well; we've already got a lot of characters with issues of loyalty, and having to fight against the shogunate would be a real test for them.
 
Some characters are conflicted, but others couldn't give a rat's ass about the rest of the island unless there was the promise of getting payback on the Tokugawa shogunate. I vote Plot A.
 
Well then I guess i'll switch my vote to plot a after seeing all these reasons.
 
Plot A, because to outside parties, attacking Ritenkyo directly is a bad idea. Even if it's not controlled by the shogunate in practice, it still is in theory. They wouldn't know that Ritenkyo isn't really valued by the shogunate, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. And Plot B seems like a better arc for later, once the island has been properly established as independent of the shogunate and self-sufficient. (Outwardly, anyway. So all doubts about the island would have been dispelled by now.)

... Does any of that make sense? I'm really bad at explaining things.

(Also my CSs will be up soon. It's kind of a mix-and-match, with three bios separate from the rest of the CSs. If I could get feedback on which character would be best suited to the RP that would be awesome.)
 
yeah, ritenkyo would technically still be japanese soil, so china and korea couldn't attack it without the shogunate's permission.
 
kaguya_hime-1436664.jpg

Name:
Fujiko Shinomiya

Alias/Titles:
Japanese Wisteria

Age:
25

Gender:
Female

Profession:
Geisha/Underground boss

Likes:
flowers in clusters, tea, sweets, gardens

Dislikes:
mess, liars, rain, seafood

Bio:
Ever since she was in her mother's womb, her fate was already sealed and planned by her parents: she was chosen to be born as a geisha. She grew up in a family of men with her father and two brothers as a samurai while her mother was a geisha who was sold at the highest bid of all time.

She was trained as a perfect wife and a geisha at a very young age which includes intensive and painful training. She sleeps using a takamakura as a pillow and plays Shamisen after her hands are soaked in cold snow. She learned how to cook, sew, read, everything that could make her the perfect girl.

She didn't want to be a geisha nor the perfect girl. She wanted to be a samurai, just like her brothers. She would often sneak out of her training and just watch her brothers train, copying their moves from afar. When her older brother discovered about this, he gladly taught her how to use the kaiken and the sai, keeping it a secret between the two of them. Her younger brother on the other hand, taught her about the poisonous plants in the garden resulting for her other skills to develop.

Years passed and Fujiko is now a geisha and she was not happy about it. She became extremely busy performing and entertaining in social gatherings and tea houses that she felt empty, like a part of her was missing. True that she made her family happily but how about her happiness? Doesn't she deserve to be happy as well?

She was on her way home from a social gathering when a drunk guard offered her to take her home. Declining his offer, she was roughly dragged into a dark alleyway and started to grope her, leaving trails of hickeys around her neck and chest as she struggled. Seeing that he won't budge and the guard really has a malicious intent, she quickly grabbed her kaiken hidden beneath her obi and stabbed him on the neck before running away and deciding to leave the town to save her family from humiliation.

Fujiko was adopted by an okiya after the incident and became a sought-after geisha once again. She wasn't happy about it at first but as time goes on, she learned to love and enjoy it. Her customers always gave away useful information when their drunk or by using her eloquence for conversation. In no time, she eventually became the owner of the most prestigious tea house in the Street of Flowers with her customers flooding in for the entertainment and art. Not only is she one of the most sought-after geisha, she is also the underground boss in charge of keeping the peace on the said street.

Weapon(s):
Kaiken, Sai, poisonous plants, needles

Fighting Style:
Fujiko never fights anyone without reason but if she did, expect it to be quick and clean. She hated blood all over the area thus choosing the Sai to jab her opponents in the solar plexus.

She uses her plants and needles when dealing with her lying customers, stealthily killing them by cooking them food or pricking them with needles.

She is also an expert-swordsman but she rarely uses a sword on fights. For her, she believes that swords are just for men.

She prefers hand to hand combat but likes to use her weapon to stab the solar plexus. She fights clean but uses dirty tricks only when she's in dire need.

Note: If there is anything you want me to edit or change, please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you~
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Sai were farm tools used in Okinawa, no samurai would even have a concept of using one as a weapon.
 
She could be highly skilled in the use of a kaiken, a dagger. Maybe she carries a blowgun as well to deliver her poisoned darts, and her hair pins could be poisoned as well.

Tantojutsu--the art of knife fighting.
 
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