This setting has some significant divergence from the standard Rokugan setting. Much of what you know about the base setting will be applicable, but some things changed quite a lot.

The land that would one day become known as Rokugan was once ruled over by creatures both more mystical and animalistic than man. The Kumiho lived free in the forests, Kappa swam carefree in the rivers and lakes, Tengu leapt from mountain top to mountain top while the Zokujin burrowed out caves within those very mountains digging for glitering gems, Oni and their Dokkaebe servants built castles and played out warfare in which they would wrestle or hit each other with clubs to decide who was the biggest, and the Ningyo ruled over the seas. Even people from outside the lands such as the serpentine Naga, the ferocious Raskshasha, and the playful Vanara would make their way into the lands and carved out spots for themselves. In the south, the Nezumi dug burrows and saw only beauty in both yesterday and tomorrow, and further south still the Trolls built themselves a wondrous civilization with tall cities.

It was a land of diverse people and ways. Though it would be a stretch to call it a land of peace, there was balance between all these peoples. That was until the humans arrived. No one can say exactly where the humans came from, but all the lands outside Rokugan seem to have already been overrun by them before they came to Rokugan. The humans did not come as conquerors, not intentionally at least, but came to make a new life for themselves.

But the human population grew quickly. They were cooperative and organized as opposed to the often self-interested peoples who occupied the lands. As the humans worked to expand their holdings, to convert more land to farms, quarries, and mines to support their slowly growing civilization-- the other peoples were slowly pushed into the corners and shadows of the world. Even though most individual humans were no match for the other peoples in combat, when violence erupted-- it would ultimately result in a victory by the humans.

And so over a millennium, the humans came to dominate the lands before slowly fracturing into tribes-- each violently opposed to one another and only looking out for its own interests. It was during this time of disunity that demigods fell from the sky.

Akodo, Bayushi, Doji, Hantei, Hida, Shiba, Shinjo and Togashi. 8 demigods, Kami, claiming to be the children of the sun and moon themselves, coming down to earth as shooting stars. Emerging fully grown and offering to lead humanity to a better path. Each of them found tribes that swore fealty to them and took on their name-- begining a practice of carrying family names that was until then unknown to humanity within those lands. The mortals who most impressed the Kami would also be immortalized by being allowed to choose other mortals to carry their name.

Those who carried the name of the Kami and their finest servants would become a social class privileged above those who did not receive such distinction and honor. Those who carried a name became known as the "samurai" those that served the kami while those who did not were merely peasants-- whom the samurai wholly possessed, but hope of some day ascending to becoming a samurai was not entirely lost if they were to prove themselves above their station.

Those who rejected this new order either fled north where they created a separate culture known now as Yoban and its people the Yobanjin, or they fled south to a land that would soon become one of darkness.

No-- not 8-- 9. For the last of them fell not within the land that would come to be known as Rokugan, but far further south-- crashing directly into the center of the Troll City of Volturnum. The Trolls themselves had already turned to dark arts, to the powers of Jigoku, in a desperate bid to push back the ever growing threat of humanity. Perhaps they were the ones who were responsible for the fall of the kami. The final child landing in their city seemed to bury a hole directly to Jigoku itself.

The fall of the 9th Kami into Jigoku transformed him into a Champion of Jigoku and erased his name from living memory-- for if his name had been remembered, he could have been freed from this fate. The Trolls, who knew to fear the influence of Jigoku, were corrupted by its influence and lost their minds to it, becoming little better than jabbering animals. The Dokkaebi who lived in the surrounding lands similarly fell when they became fearful of seeing the large Trolls become corrupted and became what is now known as Bakamono.

This corruption of Jigoku began to spread further and further as it was feared by mortal beings, corrupting the land and turning it into what was known as The Shadowlands. Only those mortals, often the very humans who fled from the other Kami, who swore fealty to the Kami now called Fu Leng and the Nezumi who didn't know they should fear corruption were immune to being transformed into jibbering monsters by its corruption.

Within the empire, the 8 Kami once again met to decide how to rule this empire. Although Akodo proposed that they duel among themselves to decide who should rule this empire, Togashi objected. He proposed instead they they create a shrine to pray to their mother, Amaterasu, for guidance. The other Kami were swayed to Togashi's request and the shrine was built. When the Kami prayed, an incarnation of Amaterasu descended from heaven-- the mother of all-- to guide this new land and its people in the best way to live.

To each of Kami she assigned a role.

To Akodo, she assigned the task of training the people of Rokugan to best be able to do battle in any war should it come to their lands and threaten their people.

To Bayushi, she assigned the task of ferreting out the enemies of their new Empire that hid within the shadows and plotted to undo their work.

To Doji, she assigned the tasks of feeding the hungry and discovering new ways for the people of the empire to best express themselves in ways that would not cause strife.

To Hantei, she assigned the task of writing a code by which people could live in harmony and deciding how best to justly deal with those who would disobey the code.

To Hida, she assigned the task of protecting the empire from the ever growing threat of Jigoku.

To Shiba, she assigned the task of protecting those humans who were most dedicated to the spirits and getting the spiritual and the mundane to work together in harmony.

To Shinjo, she assigned the task of discovering those who lived beyond the bounds of Rokugan and creating friendly relations.

To Togashi, she assigned the task of discovering the deepest, hidden secrets of reality so that Rokugan could always have the power of truth on its side.

These roles were far from arbitrarily assigned-- the choices the Kami had made and those they had gathered around them made them each most suitable for those roles.

Within a century the children of Hida could hardly hold back the Sahdowlands anymore and Togashi came by a truth that he told his mother. That the people of the empire would need to face their wayward brother if the empire were to live in peace, then their wayward brother would need to be faced in battle. However-- if the Kami themselves faced him, it would spell doom for the empire. Those who faced him would almost certainly die in the process, only perhaps one would return and one would surely be corrupted. Each Kami had to choose the finest of heroes among their mortal followers to face Fu Leng.

The 8 champions of the Kami were selected and went to the Shadowlands to face Fu Leng. They were victorious-- and just as Togashi had predicted, only Miya returned to the empire alive to tell the tale of their heroism. However after rushing back and telling the tale, he too soon succumb to his wounds and exhaustion and died.

And so the empire was afforded 1000 years of peace. The Shadowlands remained calm enough to be contained by the Children of Hida, who came to be known at the Crab Clan.

However, conflict soon arose within the empire. The assigned roles given to the Kami soon became muddled-- each having their followers take on aspects of the roles assigned to the others. Shinjo led her followers out of Rokugan to explore the world beyond leaving only a  small number who were soon pushed out of their lands by the children of Akodo, who came to be known as the Lion Clan.

Amaterasu herself retreated more and more from the realm of mortals even as her shrine became a palace and her palace became a city known as Taiyoushi-- until only the Clan Champions could ever lay eyes upon her or be audience to her words. Soon doubt began to form over whether the will of Lady Amaterasu was being carried out. It was the children of Hantei, who came to be known as the Owl Clan, who were the first to use force to take over the city and the son of Hantei, Genji, who became known as the first Shogun of Rokugan-- the single individual who would be allowed to meet with the Empress and convey her will to the empire.

As the Kami began to slowly retreat from the world, those they left to lead their clans began to bicker and war among themselves. The Hantei Shogun was soon enough overthrown by an Akodo Shogun. Over the centuries that passed, the position of shogun was traded among the children of Shiba known as the Phoenix Clan, the children of Doji known as the Crane Clan, the children of Bayushi known as the Scorpion Clan and the children of Togashi known as the Dragon Clan. Once the children of Shinjo, known as the Unicorn Clan, returned 700 years after their absence-- they too briefly held the position.

Of those clans born of the original 8 Kami, only the Crab Clan never ascended to the position of Shogun-- with their lands simply being too far from Taiyoushi to lay claim to it and their military attention solely focused on their enemies in the Shadowlands to the south.

In those centuries that passed, many other families were added to the Great Clans to honor heroes who performed great deeds or to form organizations the Clan needed to further advance their interests. Countless minor clans were formed by organized collectives of samurai, or those who would lay claim to that title, who were able to unite under a single leader. One of those minor clans who laid claim to large islands off the coast, the Mantis Clan, even advanced its interest to such a degree that the Great Clans found it more beneficial to recognize them as part of the council of Great Clans rather than continuing to acknowledge them merely as a minor clan.

As the empire began to fracture more and more among diverse groups of humans with diverse interests, the long-lost non-humans slowly began to eek through the cracks and make their impact felt on Rokugan- mostly through influencing various mortals. While it is still a special and rare thing to encounter a tengu or oni or kappa, they have become more the things of travelers tales than things of pure myth.

And so a thousand years later Rokugan stands-- the Empress still technically in charge of the empire, but while for centuries her will has been expressed through the Shogun-- the position has recently become vacated through recent political and military disputes from which none of the 8 clans have risen victorious for more than a couple months.

Meanwhile the 9th clan-- the "Spider Clan" which serves only Fu Leng rather than the Empress has become more active on the other side of the carpenter wall. Rokugan faces its most uncertain future ever. Has the time for the end of this empire come?

This is the time in which you have been born.
This message was last updated by the GM at 20:13, Mon 08 Feb 2021.