Canon Rokushima Taiyoo Info?

[High Priest Mikhal]

The title says it all. Having looked up the homebrew on Mistipedia I would like to find out if there is much of anything canon on the domain besides a few NPCs and a spell in VRA before I get involved with a story there in the Lost Journals I've been anticipating for some time.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

nope, that's about it. The place has never really gotten much elaboration in canon.

You might be interested in Ryan Naylor and Chris Nichols' "potential canon" Scattered Lotus Archipelago cluster:
http://fraternityofshadows.com/forum/vi ... 18#p198218

[Bluebomber4evr]

For canon info, you've basically got: the Red Box, Ravenloft 3rd Edition Campaign Setting, and the Ravenloft Dungeon Master's Guide, and the stuff from Van Richten's Arsenal that you've already mentioned.

There's an NPC in Heroes of Light, but that book has a lot of canon/continuity errors so the whole book is probably apocryphal at best. Having said that, there's not much in the way of canon for Rokushima Taiyoo, so using that NPC probably would not cause any problems for you.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

There's another NPC in Ravenloft Monstrous Compedium, Vol II.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Figures that there wouldn't be much. Domains with a distinctly East Asian theme seemed to fall by the wayside. Since I've got a copy of OA I can make things up as needed with the aide of the discussion by Ryan Naylor and Chris Nichols.

I would recommend someone consider taking a long, hard look at the entry for Kazazumi on Mistipedia. The open and institutionalized trade in kidnapping women for sale as concubines is extreme even for me--who has skirted the edge of shady regarding the Grandma Rule several times. Plus it's not historically accurate. The Portuguese were the ones who made such into an institution. That's all I'll say about it. It's a topic too ugly to go into.

[Bluebomber4evr]

There's another NPC in Ravenloft Monstrous Compedium, Vol II.

If I remember correctly, that NPC is a chiang-shi from Kara-Tur, however.

I would recommend someone consider taking a long, hard look at the entry for Kazazumi on Mistipedia. The open and institutionalized trade in kidnapping women for sale as concubines is extreme even for me--who has skirted the edge of shady regarding the Grandma Rule several times. Plus it's not historically accurate. The Portuguese were the ones who made such into an institution. That's all I'll say about it. It's a topic too ugly to go into.

Yeah I remember that, and I had a lot of objections to it. The person who made it originally posted it on Rokushima Taiyoo's main page as well.

[The Giamarga]

HPM are you aware of the Kaidan setting?

[High Priest Mikhal]

Sorry, I don't use Pathfinder so the Kaidan setting (apt name for it, BTW) I'm not familiar with. I am familiar with Kaidanshu. The collection of stories Kwaidan, and the 1967 film of the same name (also called Ghost Stories), are excellent examples of the genre. There is a 2007 film called Kaidan but I've not seen it. Many Japanese horror films (original versions, not the American versions) are pretty faithful to the elements of the older stories. Ringu and Ju-On in particular. The Fatal Fame series (there were two more sequels that never saw release in America) is also a good example. Tension, the gruesome but not gory, the unseen, and fundamentally undefeatable forces.

But as I said in my prior post, I like the ideas of Ryan Naylor and Chris Nichols of Rokushima Táiyoo's evils being largely human in nature. Not there are no supernatural horrors but just like in the Core those are usually the exception and not the rule. The nature of water in Kaidanshu, reincarnation of sinful souls, and possession of people and places I plan on exploring. I wish I'd looked up looking when Rokushima Táiyoo emerges from the Mists before starting studying things; the Lost Journals are currently at 736 BC while the domain didn't emerge until after the GC took place in 740. Ah well, Sri Raji is around and I've been compiling ideas for that domain as well.

[Ryan Naylor]

There's another NPC in Ravenloft Monstrous Compedium, Vol II.

If I remember correctly, that NPC is a chiang-shi from Kara-Tur, however.

Yes, but he lives in Rokushima now.

Well, "lives."

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I would recommend someone consider taking a long, hard look at the entry for Kazazumi on Mistipedia. The open and institutionalized trade in kidnapping women for sale as concubines is extreme even for me--who has skirted the edge of shady regarding the Grandma Rule several times. Plus it's not historically accurate. The Portuguese were the ones who made such into an institution. That's all I'll say about it. It's a topic too ugly to go into.

Few things:
1) Remember that anyone can edit Mistipedia. That means a) you can freely disregard anything homebrew someone puts there, and b) you're free to edit anything you find objectionable, or at least start a discussion there to voice your objections.
2) historical accuracy has never been Ravenloft's strong suit. why start now?
3) There are a lot of ugly topics out there. Some of them make for good horror stories.

With that said, I've gone ahead and toned down that page a bit, in addition to making it gender-neutral, and adding a bit of a warning. I hope that suffices.

[High Priest Mikhal]

A warning and toning some things down is all I really expected. It's also unrealistic to say that the trade was, and sadly still is, limited to just women. If it's going to be discussed (not here, okay?) then all the brutal, unvarnished facts should be laid out.

That said, let's officially close this thread. It's served its purpose.

[The Giamarga]

I would really suggest you look into Kaidan. There's a few freebie products. It's a great gothic/Asian/Japanese horror source to adapt to RL and/or 3.5 rules.

[MichaelTumey]

Thanks for the mentions, Giamarga.

Kaidan extensively uses the works of Koizumi Yagumo (Lafcadio Hearn) the author of Kwaidan, which the 1967 movie is based. In fact one of the shorts in Kwaidan - Mimi Nashi Hoichi (Hoichi the Earless) is the founding story to the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror (PFRPG). The ghosts Hoichi encounters in his story are the ruling family of Kaidan (Antoku and the Taira house).

Yes, its Pathfinder, but there's plenty of people using the material for their OA 1e/2e/3x games, L5R, Iron Kingdoms and many other game systems. All the fluff and background text are based on Japanese history, folklore, and ghost story tradition. Some consider supplements like Way of the Samurai and #30 Haunts for Kaidan as being resource material for any oriental game. I've even been approached by Iron Crown Enterprises Publishing to either release Kaidan as a HARP/Rolemaster version or license it to them for use. I chose Pathfinder due to my game design familiarity with 3x, and at the time there were no Adventure Paths set in Golarian's orient. Of course Paizo eventually published the Jade Regent adventure path, but I was commissioned to create the original hand-drawn map of their capital city (think Tokyo) called Kasai, and I wrote some of the City of Kasai gazetteer.

If you opted not to use the included class archetypes, much of the rest of Kaidan rules is not PF specific, rather stand-alone as their own subsystem - so it easily fits in not PF games.

Cultural authenticity was a primary motivation in the design of the Kaidan setting.

[High Priest Mikhal]

I may have to look into it then, MT. When I have some free time and money (my budget is being eaten alive by some chronic health problems).

A little off-topic but is there a particular reason for naming the capitol and the Gaz "fire?"

[Bluebomber4evr]

There's another NPC in Ravenloft Monstrous Compedium, Vol II.

If I remember correctly, that NPC is a chiang-shi from Kara-Tur, however.

Yes, but he lives in Rokushima now.

Well, "lives."

I forgot about that!