Kin no Kawa

River of Gold

The River of Gold was a Rokugani river.

Trade

The lifeblood of Rokugani commerce, the River of Gold, was named for the golden coins that flowed from the trade conducted along its banks. The river coursed through the very heart of the Empire's largest city, Journey's End or—as it was better known—the City of Lies. Merchant ships stood to earn fortunes for their patrons in the Great Clans by shipping goods and commodities from Journey's End, past the Three-Man Alliance Plain and Kitsune Woods, all the way to the fell where the River of Gold emptied into Earthquake Fish Bay.

Appearance

The Kin no Kawa was a wide, slow-moving river with its headwaters in the mountains on the northern edge of Scorpion lands. It flowed south before emptying into the ocean near the Yasuki estates. At one time, the river was the Scorpion's primary trade route, earning it the name River of Gold. The waters of the river were clear and bright until it bisected Ryokō Owari Toshi, the "second-largest" city in Rokugan and the hub of the opium trade. The river widened there into the Bay of Drowned Honor before continuing south. South of Scorpion lands, the river forked. The smaller branch run east to the ocean, while the main trunk of the river continued to wind southward. The Fox Clan's palace was built overlooking this juncture. The last navigable stretch of the river ended at Clear Water Village and below that, the river became an impossible tumble of rapids and waterfalls. Innumerable towns and villages had sprung up between these major cities to profit off of the bounty of trade flowing along the river.

Piracy

Such was the temptation of wealth that many of the villages on its shores straddled the line between trading and plundering. Each season, merchants from the Scorpion's Bayushi family and the Crab's Yasuki family raised funds and beseeched their daimyō for aid to fight back the river pirates. With Mantis Clan raiders growing bolder by the year, the Bayushi and Yasuki were forced to work more closely together. Meanwhile, the Bayushi used their vassal Rokugo family to control gaming parlors and black markets along the river, profiting off the very pirates that the public face of the family was devoted to fighting.

History

The monsoons of 1122 affected the part of the River of Gold which run between Crab and Crane lands, which flooded and disproportionately affected the Crab lands, which lacked any wetlands to absorb the extra rainfall.

External Links

• Along the River of Gold (Meditations on the Ephemeral)

References

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