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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 1210" data-attributes="member: 79">Rokugan meets the Forgotten Realms, you know it had to happen. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />  It took some squeezing, but I put Rokugan in NW Kara-tur. The Golden Way now connects Thesk and Rashemen to the lands of the Unicorn Clan in Rokugan. PC's are subtly encouraged to be Rokugani, using the classes from the OA book until the Rokugan d20 book is finally out. Forgotten Realms characters were also allowed for the L5R impaired. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Overview: The Emerald Empire of Rokugan stretches along the coast of Kara-tur and deep into the interior. 30 million subjects ruled by a Emperor of divine blood. By Imperial Edict, all contact with the outside world was prohibited, unless explicit permission was given otherwise. It's an ordery empire where the only conflict is order/honor v chaos/dishonor. And with the Shadowlands, a realm of evil and corruption where the taint reaches deep into the earth itself. Anyone dying in then Shadowlands rises as a zombie within a day. The living are subjected to the Taint, a corruption of the body and spirit that can only be prevented by carrying jade.Starting Point:The Year is 1157 Rokugan Time, 1372 Forgotten Realms Time. Emperor Toturi I rules in Otosan Uchi, capital of the Emerald Empire of Rokugan. His 31 year reign has seen unprecedented upheaval and conflict. Two years of Clan Wars preceeded it, leading to the death of the last Hantei Emperor and Toturi's rise to power. Then just two years later Toturi was kidnapped and the five year war to preserve Rokugan's past and soul raged, ending in the battle at Oblivions Gate. The Sun and Moon died and were reborn. Then the ten year Spirit War was kicked off by the reborn Hantei XVI in an attempt to return the Emerald Empire to the divine bloodline that had ruled it for 1,000 years. Finally defeated in a great battle that destroyed Beiden Pass, Hantei XVI gave in but managed to convince Emperor Totuti to have one of his son's given the Hantei name and brought up on Hantei XVI's estates. The empire has had seven years of peace, but it's only a lull before the next storm.For nearly 300 years caravans traveling along the Golden Way have linked the Forgotten Realms with the Emerald Empire. At first merely a trickle, the trade has grown as the Unicorn were granted official permission to trade with the outside. The Golden Way begins in Telflamm in Thesk, winding through Rashemen and the Hordelands before ending in Bugaisha. Once a simple fort, Bugaisha is the only location in the Emerald Empire open to trade with barbarians and has grown into a merchant's town that bursts to life with each new caravan. The town is ruled by Shinjo Jyaku, an energetic samurai who has explored as far as Thay, Rashemen and Thesk and who is now entrusted with the key to the Unicorn?s fortune in the west.To the south a small group makes it's way across the Heigen Yuki (Snow Plain), though in the hottest part of the summer there is no snow in evidence. The leader of the group is Hiruma Toshio, a young Crab Clan Samurai carrying a letter from his father ordering him to Bugaisha to serve under Shinjo Jyaku and help strengthen the present tenuous alliance between the two clans. Traveling with him is a friend simply called Sho, a former Crab Samurai whose lord and family were lost to the Shadowlands, leaving him a Ronin. Most curiously, a large monkey follows as well. A gentle and spiritual creature from a far off race called Vanara, he's often treated as a pet or curiosity. In truth he's a Shaman, repaying a debt to one of Toshiro's ancestors and following a vision that said his destiny lies far to the north.To the west a caravan slowly creeps over to wastelands, unerringly drawn to Bugaisha. Like so many other caravans, it is filled with merchants drawn to the gold that gives the Golden Way it's name. But this caravan has something more. A woman named Mir has wandered far from her home in the High Forest, exploring to the limits of the Forgotten Realms and beyond, making her way as a bard and healer. She's a worshipper of Silvanus with silver hair, golden eyes and an aura of otherworldliness about her. Verick volunteered as a simple caravan guard for the trip but his appearance hints there is Rokugani blood in his past. He speaks Rokugani nearly like a native, but his chosen weapon is a double sword?a study in contrasts. Almost unnoticed, a moonelf named Volar has paid his way to accompany the caravan across the Hordelands. He?s traveled far from his home in Evermeet in the pursuit of knowledge and now his path takes him even farther, all the way to the Emerald Empire. And what's a delegation from the Red Wizards of Thay doing with the caravan? There's no Thayan Enclave in Bugaisha?.</blockquote>

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