Rokugan (TCG)

Emerald Empire

Rokugan is the central location of the Legend of the Five Rings universe and is sometimes referred to as the Emerald Empire. The five elements of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Void were in a precarious balance during the times of conflict.

Creation

Rokugan Unification

Rokugan was the name given to the lands where the Kami fell from the Heavens. Their inhabitants, the humankind, had been created shortly before when the blood of Lord Moon mixed with Lady Sun's tears. Prior to the Fall of the Kami, the human population of what would become Rokugan was primarily nomadic groups and small agrarian communities. Humans lived scattered across the world in tribes, worshipping the Fortunes, the gods of human endeavors, and their priests traveled the spaces between human and spirit and beast. These peoples lived in small villages, although in a few places there were towns. They made pottery without pottery wheels, and they forged crude tools and weapons from bronze. They clothed themselves in hides and woven grasses, and they hunted in and gathered their sustenance from the forest. A few tried their hand at cultivating small swaths of the wild grains and beans they found. The language employed characters derived from the script of the Land of Four Rivers along with elements of other local languages.

Lands

The Emerald Lands, or “Rokugan” in the tongue of its people, comprised a vast, majestic countryside that stretched nine hundred miles from the pine valleys and snow-capped peaks of the Great Wall of the North mountains at one end, to the austere Carpenter Wall standing vigil along the country's desolate southern border. Beyond the Wall lied the Shadowlands, a blighted land tainted by the influence of Hell itself. At its widest point, Rokugan measured six hundred miles, from the Sea of the Sun Goddess in the east to the Burning Sands in the west. From the Shadowlands in the south to the Burning Sands in the north, from the Twilight Mountains in the west to the Islands of Spice and Silk in the east, Rokugan had stood for over one thousand years. Somewehere across the sea were the Ivory Kingdoms.

Political Landscape

Rokugan was a feudal society: all of the land belongs to the Emperor, who bestowed the rights of stewardship on champions and daimyō within the Great Clans, who in turn pass on the tasks of administration to lesser ranked samurai. Rokugan was divided into various-sized provinces, each controlled by distinct groups. The largest groups, and the largest areas, were controlled by the clans of Rokugan -- groups of families descended largely from a common ancestor who had inherited control over their respective tracts of land, as well as the people living on them.

Great Clans

Seven families descended from the Kami ruling over other families descended from those who swore fealty, and each of these seven Great Clans served the Emperor. As guardians and politicians, each clan fulfilled their role in society and were as varied as they were powerful. But all were bound by the same code of honor, the way of the warrior, the Code of Bushidō. Honor was valued above all else.

For over 1,000 years, the Great Clans have served the Chrysanthemum Throne according to their unique strengths and weaknesses. The Great Clans each supported the Emperor, but inter-clan conflict was inevitable — both in the Emperor's courts and on the battlefield.

• Crab Clan
• Crane Clan
• Dragon Clan
• Lion Clan
• Phoenix Clan
• Scorpion Clan
• Unicorn Clan

Minor Clans

Minor Clans were sometimes created through a schism from a larger clan, an accident of inheritance or geography that created a new separate entity in need of Imperial recognition. They might also be created by the Imperial Court, sometimes as a reward for an individual samurai's great honor or service, or to create a family to assume responsibility for a particular location, task, or secret.

Clan Families

Each family gravitated toward a certain role or duty within the clan, although it was common for families to trade promising students who show talent in an area that differed from that of their ancestors.

Imperial Families

In addition to the clans, a very powerful faction in Rokugan are the Imperial Families. The Emperor of Rokugan had no clan of his own, but he did have his own family, the Hantei family, and three families that served his interests directly: the Miya, the Otomo, and the Seppun family.

Rōnin Families

Some rōnin were granted their own family name, such as the Tsi family.

Weather

Weather was maintained by the Elemental Dragons, who oversaw giant divine machineries that cycled the seasons and the rest of weather elements. Much of Rokugan was temperate. The lands of the Lion and Scorpion enjoyed the full range of the seasons. Scorpion lands on the windward side of the Spine of the World Mountains received more rain during the warm months and more snow in the winter, while Lion territory enjoyed clearer skies overall, with sufficient rainfall to nourish its fertile plains. The cool northern lands of the Dragon and Phoenix experienced mild summers and biting winters. The coastal lands of the Phoenix were more temperate, and the high elevations of the Dragons were even colder; some Togashi monasteries remained snow covered throughout the year. The lands of the Unicorn remained much warmer than those of their neighbors, thanks to the warm winds that blowed down from both the western end of the Great Wall of the North mountains and the Spine of the World Mountains. The southern lands of the Crane and those of the Crab were generally the warmest in Rokugan, with climates reaching the subtropical. The coastal region and the Crab lands at the foot of the Twilight Mountains were particularly humid and rainy.

References

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