All Things Bright and Beautiful

So what have I been doing recently?  Writing things.  Lots of things.  Not as many things as Jason Enos though.  I managed to get some testing of the Ito Clan things this week and was quite impressed by the results.  That midline on the table is a such a dangerzone.

I’ve put together a draft of the power structures and organisations of the Jwar Isles.  It’s very interesting to see where individual characters intersect with rules and lore.  For instance, Hagane and Itsunagi went to the same koryu (sword school), which only accepts left-handed students and is also why they both use dual katanas.

The setting timeline is still quite jumbled, but it’s getting there.  The most accurate history comes concerns the Takashi and Ito families; the other factions have fairly abstract event timings.  A lot of recent events have no order to them.  There's also a lot of different sources for the information, from store blurbs to tidbits from the short stories.  Here's Minato Jung's background from Rise of the Kage, combined with his blurb from the store:

A hulking beast of a man. Minato cuts an imposing figure as he strolls across the docks of Ryu casually swinging his most unusual of weapon choice, a message to those that would defy the peace he is entreated to ensure. For long years though Minato was the scourge of many a dock across the Jwar Isles. Nowhere he dropped anchor could truly be considered a safe harbor when he was drinking. Finding himself in a cell awaiting punishment for his latest crime, he was to be shipped to one of the Dragon clan’s labour camps; a fate far worse than execution. The Takashi’s though, upon hearing of his exploits, performed a masterstroke when they offered Minato a position with their guard. His fearsome reputation and background allowed him to quickly rise through the ranks and he now runs his own guards with the same success he used to have for causing trouble.

Although trained in the ways of the Samurai, Minato was always destined to follow his own unique path. A brute of a man, more at home in a water house than the courts. His body tells the stories of countless battles, wearing each scar proudly as a mark of honour to his physical prowess. That is not to say that he is all brawn, a cunning and clever leader, hiding from the Prefecture in plain sight. In battle he wields his trademark anchor, launching it through the air making it appear as light as a Tengu feather. Those unlucky enough to be caught by his attentions sent sprawling, dazed and disorientated.

Okay, what does this tell us about the timeline?  Minato terrorized the docks of a lot of different places until he was captured by the Prefecture.  He was given control of the docks of Ryu and charged with bringing them to order, which he did.  All the time though, he maintained loyalty to the Jung.  There's no mention of the Dragon Wars, which ended a decade ago, but Minato is probably in his late thirties or early forties, so he would have lived through that time period.  He was in Ryu when the Tsunami washed over Takashi clan territory, and probably began to move more openly in support of the Jung in the chaotic period that followed the natural disaster.

As for recent events, the Tsunami is only mentioned in the Prefecture faction description, and a lot of the characters should be grounded in the Dragon War - nearly all the characters in the game were alive during the Dragon Wars, most of them are old enough to be active participants in it.  Once the storyline gets introduced (if it gets introduced) I would expect both events to come to the forefront and have a much larger gravitas on how a lot of characters behave.