Jigoku (TCG)

Jigoku

Jigoku, the Realm of Torment, also known as the Realm of Evil, was the twisted counterpart of the true underworld, a realm of punishment for evil souls. The Dark Realm was a corrupted realm whose hordes roamed the Shadowlands under the sway of Fu Leng. Its minions unrelentlessly attacked the Kaiu Wall, the only safeguard between the Shadowlands and Rokugan. It was known that oni were denizens of this realm.

Creation

In the beginning the world was formless and fluid. Eventually, the lighter parts separated out and became the Heavens, and the heavier parts sank down and became the earth. When the world was named by Onnotangu and Amaterasu, and new gods and beasts appeared, the mazoku demons of the underworld toiled beneath the earth to oversee the souls of the dead.

Appearance

Jigoku

Jigoku was a dark, sprawling network of caverns and pits where oni carved dens for themselves out of the rock. It felt oppressive and entrapping, but its structure was actually mutable for oni clever or powerful enough to manipulate it. Therefore, the landscape was forever changing. Numerologists suggested there were eighteen levels of Jigoku's hells, but this had never been confirmed. Jigoku was a labyrinthine maelstrom of pain and suffering, with rivers of blood, mountains of bone, and countless horrors. It served as a prison and place for wicked beings to suffer for their crimes and, eventually, be rehabilitated. Those with true wickedness in their hearts and whose deeds were undeniably vile were thrown into Jigoku as oni after being judged by Emma-Ō. Those evil dead who rehabilitated could be reincarnated as animals or other lower beings.

Devolution

Denizens of Jigoku

Jigoku was a bastion of just reward and rehabilitation, but it eventually devolved into a breeding ground for evil plots of corrupt demons who twisted Jigoku's machineries toward selfish and destructive ends.

Fu Leng

Fu Leng fell from the Heavens and plunged through the earth to Jigoku itself. The corruption of Jigoku spread from the hole in the earth to the surrounding lands, and demons followed in his shadow. Fu Len's fall had freed the inhabitants and had cast Jigoku into chaos. A dark flame of jelousy and resentment burned within Fu Leng's heart, a beacon to the evil powers imprisoned within the underworld. This caused the Kings of Hell to lose control over their wards. The portal between both realms was known as the Festering Pit of Fu Leng. It might be that the malign powers in Jigoku sought to enslave Fu Leng, but he was a divine being. This allowed him power over Jigoku in turn, resulting in a malevolent and supremely dangerous symbiosis. Fu Leng and Jigoku brought out each other's worst tendencies, and the prisoners conquered the dungeon. Jigoku was no longer a penitentiary, but a fortress. There it sat the Fortress of Fu Leng, his seat of power.

Taint

A significant portion of Jigoku bled into the Realm of Mortals, into a place Rokugani call the Shadowlands. The Taint was the corruptive power associated with the Shadowlands and Fu Leng, a physical manifestation of Jigoku's hold on the mortal realm.

Yomi

Yomi's impregnable borders had kept Jigoku's evils in check, but Fu Leng's fall into the underworld ruptured those borders. As Fu Leng, saturated in Jigoku's evil, increased his power and influence, Jigoku encroached further on Yomi, even capturing several unlucky sorei, who suffered there to this day.

Prophecy of the Order of the Seven Thunders

A prophecy foresaw that roughly every thousand years a conflict between the champions of Ningen-dō and Jigoku would happen, on a day known as the Day of Thunder. The Order of the Seven Thunders would be formed by seven Rokugani mortals, who championed the Mortal realm, and the two forces combated each other to determine which side would be in control for the next millennium.

Day of Thunder

Then came the Day of Thunder. Because the Kami so loved the Thunders, they petitioned Heaven that the fallen Thunders might ultimately live alongside them in Heaven instead of risking corruption in Yomi. The stewards of the Heavens went further, transporting the entirety of Yomi and all its sorei into the sky, where Jigoku's defilements could not reach them. Yomi was safe, but the underworld was lost to Jigoku, save for Meido. Emma-Ō, his Kings of Hell, and their loyal mazoku descended from on high to reconquer the world below. They seized the levels now known as Meido, Gaki-dō, and Tōshigoku from the forces of Jigoku. Ningen-dō became a buffer zone between Jigoku and Yomi.

References

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