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Post by Mirumoto Nanashi on May 7, 2018 20:58:27 GMT 10
I think that's a question only you can answer, Nanashi :3 I honestly didn’t expect Nanashi to survive long enough to find her.
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Post by M'thack-kir on May 7, 2018 23:51:04 GMT 10
Ah, well yeah, that sorta depends on a few factors, eh?
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Post by Mirumoto Nanashi on May 8, 2018 1:11:34 GMT 10
My whole job was to Gun Fu them to death and fix the toaster. (Thanks Shinwa). Death was a high probability.
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Post by Shinwa on May 9, 2018 1:19:01 GMT 10
OK. I guess I promised to explain what Shinwa was. It makes me sad because I love the concept and I'll never be able to use it again.
OK. Level 0: Shinwa was born a ronin.
Level 1: Shinwa was a monk from the Order of the Sword and Book. His powers and purpose, etc, were perfectly typical of members of the Order of the Sword and Book. But what was the Order of the Sword and Book, and why the heck was I not playing a Crane? I always play Crane.
Level 2: So yes, the Order of the Sword and Book itself was a cover organization created when the Kakita family decided to say 'So Sorry' and turn themselves into Ronin. The Order of the Sword and Book is, functionally, the Kakita family interacting with the world. But why?
Level 3: You can't have Kakita without artisans, so Level 3 is a story and you need some history. Long, long ago, during the Crab/Crane wars, the Kakita Artisans were forced to fight. They intercepted a Crab army at a pass, and there was no hope for survival. The headmistress of the Academy, Kakita Wayozu, joined with a handful of remaining artisans, and, setting the duelists to defend a bridge over a narrow ravine, began to create. The artisans infused their entire selves, body, and soul into....something...and when they were done, both the Crab and the remaining Crane were gone. All that remained was a single book in an unknown language, depicting the Crab army. Some say they were trapped in a world of imagination....http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Kakita_Wayozu
They were.
Many centuries later, as technology and the magic of the kami combined to make the first radiant weapons and similarly powered tools of death, the Crane, with their shugenja sworn to complete pacifism, were left technologically far behind. The Emperor's power also waxed and waned, as the power of the Shogun grew. It reached a point in history where politics and diplomacy were unable to fend off an attacking army of the Lion. The Lion descended upon the Kakita lands, determined to drive back the Crane to Otosan Uchi, and they were armed with deadly new weapons that the Crane blackpowder and swords could not hope to counter. Kuyden Kakita fell again, and the entire staff and leadership of the Academy were trapped in the school nearby. And, they too, as before, turned to the act of Kakita Wayoza.
But it couldn't be a historical novel. That had been written before. Their world was being destroyed with new fangled weapons and technology. Surely, there was a story in that technology. Of ships that flew between the stars and empires that spanned galaxies. They created a science fiction novel. When they were done....well, at least it might be imagined, that the field was empty. The Crane who had remained. The attacking Lion. The Unicorn and Scorpion and Crab who had served as allies to the two two clans. The Phoenix and the Dragon who had tried to mediate. Any number of heimen and eta....all gone. Maybe a book remained in its place.
But the Kakita would never know. Because they were no longer on that field of battle. They were now responsible for a galactic empire that spanned the stars. And every one who had been on that battle field now had parts to play in this new story....and parts, as characters, that were indistinguishable from the parts that had been created from nothing. And none of these others remembered who or what they had been before they had become trapped in the story.
Except the ones who wrote it.
At first it seemed fine. There was time. Time to figure out how to get out. What the ramifications were to the celestial order. If a soul died while trapped in a book, was its soul removed from the wheel of incarnation? Had so many souls been trapped that the empire was suffering without its heroes? What if key souls were trapped, here, that were needed to save the Empire in the future.
And what if the story wasn't perfect? Stories aren't supposed to go on forever. They are supposed to reach a thrilling climax and then end. If it did not end, if it was stuck, it will become corrupt and stagnant. Already there were developing signs of ongoing corruption of the story. Things that made no sense. Samurai choosing to pollute their own environments. And not to mention Rokugan Pop....that had to be a mistake.
The story had to have gone wrong.
First, the Kakita had to separate itself from the Crane. The Crane who were trapped in the delusion of the story, would surely order the Kakita to alter the story in their favor if they knew they could. As ronin, they were given freedom to not openly favor their clan so. And then...investigation. Days of Thunder were a good ending. If they watched and encouraged the heroes for a few...but they always failed. The stories kept going wrong. This one looked like it might be their last chance to break free of the plot. If it didn't work...well...this is just a dream, right. It might have a rougher waking up than hoped....
Shinwa was following/working with Kiru because he realized that the name magic of the nezumi had a lot of similarities to the magic used by the Kakita to create the book. Maybe if there was another way, the real souls could be separated from the fiction and there wouldn't need to be such a violent end. He hoped, anyway.
As for the anti technology stuff....Technology and the "rules" worked for Shinwa, as long as he belived they did. But when you know the whole thing is a work of fiction, it's easy enough to choose to twang your suspension of disbelief and have it fall apart.
If he ever did have to end the story...the technology dependent Empire was going to find out that having to return to the old ways could lead to a very heroic ending.
So thats it. It was goofy. But I enjoyed it lots and I'm sad to see it go.
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Post by Mirumoto Nanashi on May 9, 2018 22:06:57 GMT 10
So Shinwa was delusional and from a section of Ronin monks that fancied themselves above there station and happen to stumble on some uncontrolled Name magic.
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Post by M'thack-kir on May 9, 2018 22:15:33 GMT 10
Well, that's their theory, anyway. When I was elevated to co-GM status and briefed on this, I kinda looked askance at Emerald. He just calmly said that there's a lot of evidence to suggest the Kakita had the situation wrong, so, hmm.
Shinwa was so cool to play with~~ (not that others weren't!)
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Post by Shinwa on May 9, 2018 23:24:46 GMT 10
Pretty much. Delusion was much more likely, granted.
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Post by Mirumoto Nanashi on May 11, 2018 14:29:00 GMT 10
For the record, Nanashi is not his real name.
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Post by M'thack-kir on May 11, 2018 18:08:37 GMT 10
As far as Kiru was concerned, Nanashi didn't even know his real Name. The Names of the three most important humans to Kiru were, according to translation from Name Magic:
Shinwa's true Name: Wind Seeks Allegories Mirumoto Nanashi's true Name: Compassionate Vagabond Shiba Itsuki's true Name: Flawed Beauty
Gonna start a separate AMA thread. I encourage others to do so too if they wish~
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