Kingdom of Jade

Well I am currently running an adventure in the KoJ, and have been talking to Don Incognito whose next adventures heavily features a character from there. As such obviously some detail is getting added there to a place i nthe transitive isles that is currently more vague then most.

During the process I spoke with some of the judges, and specifically Graf who had a lot to do with concepting the kingdom. A lot of what we've used is stuff from some of Graf's old posts that were never added to the wiki.

I'd like to kind of talk over some of that stuff, as well as some of mine and Don's stuff and then hopefully put some more meat into the Wiki.

This first quote is some stuff that Graf fired off to me in a message, and I found it clarified a lot of what was in the Wiki.

Graf said:

The genasi were orginally a nobal caste in the kingdom of jade. The ruler of Jade, the emperor, was served by a corps of dragonborn as his loyal warriors, and each of the noble houses ascended in order to the empereroriship. Each was associated with an elemental dragon.

The coming shadow destablized the emperor and the dragonborn military claimed power as shogun and supported ostennsibly by the Iron dragon. While some of the genasi refuse to bow to the iron emperor many of them, landless minor nobles, have embraced the new authority projected by the Iron Shogun. The third iron shogun presided over a cultural Renaissance of sorts, albeit a very constrained, minimalistic one. It embraced (zen-like) art and culture as a way to resist the influence of the shadow and maintain their civilization during a state of near perpetual war. The current shogun, the fifth, is attempting a similar Renaissance.

Jade means purity and was associated with the emperor. Eventually jade is pure but vulnerable. The new philosophy of the empire emphasizes strength and devotion to a great cause; destruction of self to a certain degree Its called the way of iron.
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Graf's Discussion Thread Post RE: KOJ



Beyond that there are two characters with histories involving the KOJ, my own linked in the bottom of this post and Cross.
The only other existing information thus far is stuff I have cooked up for my adventure and a character featuring strongly in Don's adventure.



A couple things worth noting from my own thus far are that I have introduced several prominent figures Including:

1) Lao Teshlyn who is a court magus of some sort (whether singular or part of a group was left open). She is a water Genasi wizard, and a member of one of the only ruling noble families to not dissent with the rule of the Dragonborn.

2) Hedorai Litora is a personal aide to the Iron General (the current shogun). He is a powerfully built Dragonborn with many scars, but his abilities are unclear.

3) The Iron General is the leader of the dragonborn military (The Iron Legion) and the only development that I have done beyond what Graf gave me was to give him several interchangeable titles including "The Platinum Shogun", "Wielder of the Thousand Edge Blade", & "5th Savior of the Kingdom of Jade.

Beyond that I have created a town near the edge of contested territory between the Kingdom of Jade and the Oni, suggesting the Oni do have some sort of physical holding, but have done little to define the shape or location of this town.
Anyway that's what I've got for now. If nothing else I'd like to see a lot of what Graf wrote up, and the few persons of interest added to the wiki. Thoughts?

*cough*

My next adventure will NOT take place there, but rather will heavily feature a character of some importance to the region.

Just, ya know, FYI.

lol my bad Don, post edited

Well, I will point out that there are at least a couple other characters who have histories in the KoJ.

Janus Reinhardt
Atreus D'torian
Solon Tobari
Goeth Tobari

So, there's a bit more in character backgrounds, though most of them are fairly vague, probably because the region in general is vague. There could be other characters, but I can't think of them offhand.

Overall, I like it. I definitely like the Kingdom of Jade having an Asian flavour, and so I like that you're keeping that. But honestly, I'm far too tired at the moment to say anything much more substantial than that.

The information that I add is fairly light. It deals specifically with Gouki and the Red River Company.

1) Gouki is the human ruler of the Iron Ring (Turtledome's meaner older brother), and he was dispatched by the Iron Shogun to Daunton in order to help finance the war effort against the Oni. Gouki sells the dead bodies to Rinch the Riser, who in turn sells them to various necromantic forces across the Isles. The cash flows back to the Shogun, paying for food, supplies, and foreign mercenaries, including...

2) The Red River Company. A group of Daunton mercenaries that have been fighting in the Kingdom of Jade for nearly four years. They are so named after their heroic stand at the Battle of the Han, where it is said that the rivers ran red with the blood of the oni for three full days after the fighting stopped. The company is currently taking a break from their campaigns, and the boys are relaxing in the Isles. They're a rowdy bunch of hard-fightin', hard-partyin' soldiers on shoreleave, and their antics have caused more than a few headaches for the local Daunton government. Their departure has forced the Iron Shogun to find some, *ahem*, less formal mercenaries to take care of the various odd jobs that need taking care of in wartime.

My only though Don is maybe the Shogun isn't exactly aware of "how" the funds are being procured. He's supposed to be a sort of Puritanical guy, savior from the shadow etc. Seems a lil unethical bit of a thing for him to condone perhaps?

And glad you think so too Sessadore! I'll take a look at those backgrounds, was going on out of date info I guess.

The Iron Shogun doesn't know exactly what Gouki is doing to procure funds, only that its working. Were he to find out, he would most likely be disgusted, perhaps going as far as to order his death.

Don Incognito said:

The Iron Shogun doesn't know exactly what Gouki is doing to procure funds, only that its working. Were he to find out, he would most likely be disgusted, perhaps going as far as to order his death.

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I like that. I was thinking along the same lines as ukingsken, that it seemed an out of character thing for the Shogun to support. Consider my concerns satisfied

[FONT=&quot]Haruka Sato is also from the Kingdom of Jade. I had some thoughts regarding the existance and nature of cults in the Kingdom, which I will organize and write out some time in the next few days.
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Sweet! I just loved the Kingdom when I made my character and at the time almost no one had done anything when I first joined up. So I wanted to expand on it and kind of make it a corner of the isles that I could flesh out through DM'ing and playing. Glad to see other people digging on it too. And my concerns are satisfied as well Don.