Rokushima Táiyoo hooks and other such stuff
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2017 3:30 pm
Lately I've been toying with a few ideas for fantasy stories that take place in Japan, but with a twist on real-life events. And given my association (RPG loyalty) to Ravenloft, there's an opportunity to convert some of those ideas to Rokushima Táiyoo.
I'll lay the basics of some of them out here for readers to ponder, and hopefully they will do the same. Thread continuity, in my view, is unnecessary, so for the sake of adding potential to Rokushima Táiyoo (a woefully underdeveloped domain) do what thou wilt.
Ripping (and completely bastardising) a bit of history out of the Edo period of Japan (1603-1868), but not being a slave to its point in time (thus making the ideas available to a dark ages domain), there are a few things that I'm going to (suggest to) superimpose over Rokushima Taiyoo:
1. National Isolation, or, Sakoku.
Let's open up Rokushima Taiyoo to the Core for no reason other than to shut it down.
Some trading posts have sprung up on the islands over the years (name your domain and make it so), and chartered companies have enjoyed their first real taste at economic liberty and politics (some are thus walking a razor's edge with their benefactors!). Two to five ships per year, per trading post, seems like a decent amount of traffic. Yet a side effect of this interaction with the Rokuma is the trading of both cultural ideals and religious beliefs. Concerning the latter, there has been a great push by missionaries to "educate" the Rokuma, to wake them from their "spiritual slumber". Conversion rates are steadily rising, and the shujin, each with their own reasons, are not happy. At all. Reasons can vary as you see fit. Loss of control/production due to the questioning of authority/status quo (which may mean loss of profit to some of the more greedy-minded individuals), a fear of the Kami (and thus the Rokuma) being demonised (again, could boil down selfishly to a fear of loss of control/profit), insulted pride/great anger at the sheer audacity of these foreigners, etc, etc.
On some islands it is now law: worship of these foreign devils is now an offence punishable by death. Yet just like the Kakure Kirishitans of Edo Japan, some groups have gone underground to continue their worship...
A new war is waged, and blamed squarely on the foreigners (it has to, if one is to gain back order).
Trading posts are shut down (burned), its employees all under suspect of collusion (at best). Public executions are daily. Torture is the preferred method of creating loose tongues (and here we have finger-pointing-just-to-end-the-pain, just like during the Inquisition). Ansasshia are bound to missions like a hound to the fox...on and on the shujin go.
Eventually, Rokushima Táiyoo shuts down its borders. Mainlanders who land on the islands are put to death without trial (if they are caught). The spiritual purge, war, continues on (with some success)...
But not all islands follow the same rule of law. As the shujin disagree with one another on many points, so do they on the results of this isolation. A few trading houses, under heavy restrictions, have sprung up in recent years, some by cloak and dagger. Travel, although limited for the foreigners, is again possible (PCs will not be cut-off from this domain, just watched very carefully).
Out of time. I'll add more later. Feel free to add your own. Please.
I'll lay the basics of some of them out here for readers to ponder, and hopefully they will do the same. Thread continuity, in my view, is unnecessary, so for the sake of adding potential to Rokushima Táiyoo (a woefully underdeveloped domain) do what thou wilt.
Ripping (and completely bastardising) a bit of history out of the Edo period of Japan (1603-1868), but not being a slave to its point in time (thus making the ideas available to a dark ages domain), there are a few things that I'm going to (suggest to) superimpose over Rokushima Taiyoo:
1. National Isolation, or, Sakoku.
Let's open up Rokushima Taiyoo to the Core for no reason other than to shut it down.
Some trading posts have sprung up on the islands over the years (name your domain and make it so), and chartered companies have enjoyed their first real taste at economic liberty and politics (some are thus walking a razor's edge with their benefactors!). Two to five ships per year, per trading post, seems like a decent amount of traffic. Yet a side effect of this interaction with the Rokuma is the trading of both cultural ideals and religious beliefs. Concerning the latter, there has been a great push by missionaries to "educate" the Rokuma, to wake them from their "spiritual slumber". Conversion rates are steadily rising, and the shujin, each with their own reasons, are not happy. At all. Reasons can vary as you see fit. Loss of control/production due to the questioning of authority/status quo (which may mean loss of profit to some of the more greedy-minded individuals), a fear of the Kami (and thus the Rokuma) being demonised (again, could boil down selfishly to a fear of loss of control/profit), insulted pride/great anger at the sheer audacity of these foreigners, etc, etc.
On some islands it is now law: worship of these foreign devils is now an offence punishable by death. Yet just like the Kakure Kirishitans of Edo Japan, some groups have gone underground to continue their worship...
A new war is waged, and blamed squarely on the foreigners (it has to, if one is to gain back order).
Trading posts are shut down (burned), its employees all under suspect of collusion (at best). Public executions are daily. Torture is the preferred method of creating loose tongues (and here we have finger-pointing-just-to-end-the-pain, just like during the Inquisition). Ansasshia are bound to missions like a hound to the fox...on and on the shujin go.
Eventually, Rokushima Táiyoo shuts down its borders. Mainlanders who land on the islands are put to death without trial (if they are caught). The spiritual purge, war, continues on (with some success)...
But not all islands follow the same rule of law. As the shujin disagree with one another on many points, so do they on the results of this isolation. A few trading houses, under heavy restrictions, have sprung up in recent years, some by cloak and dagger. Travel, although limited for the foreigners, is again possible (PCs will not be cut-off from this domain, just watched very carefully).
Out of time. I'll add more later. Feel free to add your own. Please.