Nakumatou: northern province of the Bando Peninsula of the True-Named Empire. Houses political revolutionaries exiled from the heart of the Empire and forcibly resettled. The Nakumatou monks are known for their tattoo magic, their esoteric spirit-summoning techniques, their fine swordsmiths, and their meditative, internal martial arts skills. The Nakumatou people are roughly equivalent to the Shaolin Monastery. Their Sun Guard are renunciates of family and home, devoted to religious study and military training, ascetic warriors in the service of higher justice. Investigators in Nakumatou will be assumed to be new political refugees from distant corners of the Empire.
Koroshima: the central province of the Bando Peninsula, consisting mainly of mountain villages, the paranoid natives of Koroshima are known for their separatist politics, illusionary and deceptive powers and combat styles, and the foreign trade conducted from pirate ports at the peninsula’s tip. Their two primary militant factions are the Akuryu or ‘darkblade’ assassins, and the mountain-ranger, commoner-trained Suzuki riflemen. Koroshima natives come closest to the traditional depiction of ninja as black-clad acrobatic killers. Investigators in Koroshima will appear as foreign pirates from the secret ports.
Nakamiyo: the southern province of the Bando Peninsula, the Nakamiyo people are hidebound traditionalists with strict inner hierarchies and traditions of ancestor worship. previous rebellions lead to the Nakamiyo being forbidden swords and firearms, which lead to them developing a wide variety of subtle, easily disguisable weapons or empty-handed martial arts techniques. Hard martial artists, Nakamiyo natives are similar to the aristocratic clan families in modern ninja anime, with colorful magics, and historically bear some resemblance to the Okinawans under Japanese rule or the Koreans under Chinese rule. Their mercenary force of free warriors is the Mibugumi. Investigators in Nakamiyo will be presumed to be peasant conscripts, likely seeking training under the Mibugumi.
All three provinces answer to the Bando Shogun, and while all are vaguely answerable to the mainland and its Imperial Bureaucracy, they’re deliberately a backwater under martial rule to keep separatist elements under control, and all must compete with one another for favored status with regard to taxation, military privilege, and chance to enter the bureaucracy. This means they oscillate between tight-knit outcasts shunning the mainland, and fiercely combative rivals currying the favor they need for safe, prosperous lives.
Bonus points to anyone who gets the dumb puns made in this.
For those who served on the Panlong in The Labyrinthine Shoal...'True-Named Empire' is one possible translation of En Zhenming. Geography and causality preclude any overlap in infiltrators, they are likely in the same world.
World Info
Koroshima: the central province of the Bando Peninsula, consisting mainly of mountain villages, the paranoid natives of Koroshima are known for their separatist politics, illusionary and deceptive powers and combat styles, and the foreign trade conducted from pirate ports at the peninsula’s tip. Their two primary militant factions are the Akuryu or ‘darkblade’ assassins, and the mountain-ranger, commoner-trained Suzuki riflemen. Koroshima natives come closest to the traditional depiction of ninja as black-clad acrobatic killers. Investigators in Koroshima will appear as foreign pirates from the secret ports.
Nakamiyo: the southern province of the Bando Peninsula, the Nakamiyo people are hidebound traditionalists with strict inner hierarchies and traditions of ancestor worship. previous rebellions lead to the Nakamiyo being forbidden swords and firearms, which lead to them developing a wide variety of subtle, easily disguisable weapons or empty-handed martial arts techniques. Hard martial artists, Nakamiyo natives are similar to the aristocratic clan families in modern ninja anime, with colorful magics, and historically bear some resemblance to the Okinawans under Japanese rule or the Koreans under Chinese rule. Their mercenary force of free warriors is the Mibugumi. Investigators in Nakamiyo will be presumed to be peasant conscripts, likely seeking training under the Mibugumi.
All three provinces answer to the Bando Shogun, and while all are vaguely answerable to the mainland and its Imperial Bureaucracy, they’re deliberately a backwater under martial rule to keep separatist elements under control, and all must compete with one another for favored status with regard to taxation, military privilege, and chance to enter the bureaucracy. This means they oscillate between tight-knit outcasts shunning the mainland, and fiercely combative rivals currying the favor they need for safe, prosperous lives.
Bonus points to anyone who gets the dumb puns made in this.
For those who served on the Panlong in The Labyrinthine Shoal...'True-Named Empire' is one possible translation of En Zhenming. Geography and causality preclude any overlap in infiltrators, they are likely in the same world.