Finally drafted a setting. How much (or little) will go into the core book is still up in the air, but here's the setup for folks who want a ready made environment to play in:

For a while there was finally peace.

The five most powerful clans did not make peace so much as fight each other into exhaustion. In that moment of their collective lowest point a summit was held and representatives from the Shihai, Daigo, Sanko, and Rakurai clans met, hammering out an agreement that would benefit each according to their strengths. The fifth clan, Kunimi, would come to terms soon after, with a multi-clan force approaching their mountain stronghold, Akiyama.

An economic boom followed. Sea routes reopened as roving navies went from looting to protecting. Trade grew as roads were formally established to allow for the quick and safe movement of goods across previously contested lands.

At the center of it all was Mizuwa, Shihai’s ancestral home and recognized capital of Country. From Mizuwa, four major roads spread to each of the other clans’ capitals, Kunimi’s Akiyama in the far northern mountains, Daigo’s Nakashi in the west, Rakura’s western port city of Kawaminato, and Sanko’s Yanagi in the plains to the east. Jointly staffed stations built along these routes protected and monitored transit, many turning into towns and cities of their own, luring families, nobles, and the underbelly looking to enrich themselves in this new world.

For the first time in memory, a generation was born and raised knowing only peace.

But trouble seethed under the surface. Lucrative sea routes were too ripe to be ignored, and pirates from the outer isles began to feast. Tension grew among the clan fleets as excuses for delayed actions were seen as cover for lack of concern. When a Daigo crew mutinied and turned their ship on a Rakurai trader, old rivalries reared their heads once more.

Inland, banditry skirted around the stations of the main roads, making the wilds off the beaten path unsafe to travel alone or unarmed. Temples and estates more secluded and bypassed by the main roads became havens and hives for groups of bandits and thieves. Clan efforts to confront these elements met the same distrust and tension as they found at sea. Every bandit a clan captured claimed loyalty to a competing clan, smiling even as the executioner’s blow came down.

Shihai Takauji, daimyo of the Shihai Clan, called for the disarmament of the peasantry to ensure only samurai warriors carried weapons, hoping to limit the ability of others to turn to banditry.

Clans Sanko and Rakurai raised their voices in protest, both more dependent on peasants to boost their military strength to match that of the other clans. Takauji did not budge, and his soldiers began confiscating weapons of travelers passing through Shihai manned stations.

In response, Kunimi Takao made the bold move of declaring every one of Clan Kunimi’s citizens samurai, allowing them to carry arms while conducting their daily business. In response, Takauji declared that samurai were to be restricted from farming, mining, or other jobs left to the peasantry and that no trade would be sanctioned with clans who could not prove that their goods were not produced by samurai.

Takao had enough, recalling all of the Kunimi Clan’s people to within its borders, even removing forces from all external jointly managed stations. Enraged, Takao sent out a call to rally the other clans in the name of unity but his calls went largely ignored, with only Clan Daigo submitting a token force to assist in guarding a few of the stations abandoned by Kunimi warriors.

It wasn’t enough, and bandits swarmed the undermanned northern stations between Mizuwa and Akiyama. Supplies of ores and minerals from the mountains narrowed to a trickle that still managed to set sail from Kunimi ports to Kawaminato. Rakura inspectors ignored Takao’s trade restrictions, but the supply wasn’t enough to keep even the clan’s economy and cities growing.

Powerful families and estates within the clans began to have their faith shaken, with some defecting, creating small fiefdoms of their citizens, lands, food, and loyal soldiers. Mercenary bands began to form from defecting warriors, bandits looking for a more honest living, and peasants who saw their lands stolen or absorbed by competing families and clans.

The Sanko Clan would devolve into a multi-faction civil war as families fought for resources or power they desperately craved. Daigo ships began halting and boarding traders out of Kunimi to confiscate the ore and minerals before they arrived at Kawaminato, and it wasn’t long before war was declared openly on the seas.

Shihai Takauji, seeing the work of his ancestors crumbling around Mizuwa, saw wisdom in Kunimi Takao’s actions and pulled his forces and people closer to the capital. Vassals were ordered to send family members to the capital as guests, perhaps a polite word for hostages, in an attempt to ensure stability and loyalty.

Clan Daigo, their navy reeling from Rakura and Kunimi ships, sent an envoy to Mizuwa to seek assistance from Shihai. Desperate for the resources and stability needed to maintain a nation, Takauji went further and secured an agreement that arranged for his eldest son, Akio, to be married to Daigo Kamako’s only child, Tomoe, forming an alliance that would be further cemented under the leadership of the couple’s future child.

The land and sea was once again covered in war as clans and families battled one another while holding off bandits and pirates and hoping to survive.

Contact between the clans became limited, but years after recalling their citizens, Kunimi went quiet. Travelers brave enough to venture along the bandit plagued northern routes found abandoned stations and towns, none able to get close enough to Akiyama to return with any updates on its condition and the state of the Kunimi Clan.

Those who did come back brought tall tales of monsters lurking within the shadow of the mountains.

While leaders of the southern clans ignored these stories, Shihai Akio set off to investigate, leaving a pregnant Tomoe behind with the promise of his swift return. News of Akio’s death to unidentified forces would reach Capital the same day as the birth of his son, Daichi.

Shihai Takauji would never learn of his son’s death, or his grandson’s birth, a bandit raid catching his party as he traveled to Nakashi. Takauji’s retinue would be killed to the last, and rumors of Clan Daigo’s involvement would spread in hushed whispers until Daigo Kamako claimed control and absorption of Shihai holdings, evidence to many of his deceit.

Surprisingly, his daughter Tomoe would speak out against him, declaring her son the rightful heir and herself as regent until he would come of age. Neither Kamako nor Tomoe made any overt moves to further challenge the other, leaving a tense status quo across their holdings.

Now, the new year dawns. An aging Kamako still claims dominion over Daigo and Shihai and has named his son, Takashi, three years Daichi’s junior, as his heir. Daichi, under his mother’s guidance and the tutoring of Shihai military leaders, is preparing to lead with his coming-of-age mere months away. Rakurai ships rule the seas, raiding and harassing coastal towns, and Sanko infighting appears to be easing, with many families rallying around Sanko Hatsu, a young woman with claimed lineage to the gods who created the islands.

And all look to the mountains, wondering when Clan Kunimi – or something worse – might emerge.

Thumbnail: Totoya Hokkei, Boat navigatng Izu Province, c. 1830, woodblock print, color ink on paper.