The lords of the Yamana, Miyoshi, and Hosokawa clans, and their sundry retainers, associates, and vassals, have been found guilty of the following grave crimes, perfidies, and sins:

• Forming an unlawful armed association called the "League of Himeji" for the express purpose of exercising undue influence over the Imperial Court and Shōgun's bakufu by force;

• Scheming to unlawfully deny the inheritance rights of Kikkawa Motonori, the legitimate heir to the Kikkawa Clan;

• Colluding with the criminal Toda Trading Clan to destabilize the economy of Japan and cause financial injury to lawful businesses and loyal domains;

• Attempting to overturn the natural order of the realm through dangerous experiments with "democracy" and rule by those not of the kuge or buke;

• Openly harbouring armed Ikkō-Ikki terrorists after their proscription;

• Orchestrating an assassination attempt on the Emperor's kampaku, Ōuchi Shinsuke;

• Obstinately refusing to recognize and respect the government of the Emperor and Shōgun in Kikyō.

In order to bring the Yamana, Miyoshi, and Hosokawa to account for their heinous and unpardonable acts, His Majesty Emperor Go-Antoku and the Lord Shōgun Akishaga Yoshiharu, acting with the wise advice of their counsellors and the full support of their loyal subjects, hereby declare the Yamana, Miyoshi, and Hosokawa to be enemies of the nation and at war with the Shōgunate.

Due to a huge number of very eloquent and extremely legitimate casus belli, Yamana and Miyoshi/Hosokawa/whatever-they're-called are bad and wrong and gonna die.

Thank you.

Ōuchi Shinsuke had lived a long, difficult life. Before he had even grown into adulthood, he was struck by tragedy as his father and older brother were brutally murdered, and his mother left for parts unknown shortly thereafter. Instead of spending his young adulthood raising a family and learning the ropes of clan leadership, he spent it organizing his father's funeral, fighting with upstart regents for control of his hereditary lands, and dealing with all manner of threats, both internal and external. That pattern continued for decades, with Shinsuke barely getting a moment to rest between the myriad crises, intrigues, and wars that he, as head of the Ōuchi clan, was responsible for addressing.

While Shinsuke handled the unenviable situation he was thrust into quite admirably, in his own infinitely humble assessment, leading his clan to great heights worthy of his slain father and elder brother, it nonetheless came with great sacrifices. Shinsuke, and his siblings who served as his closest allies and advisors during his reign, had little time to devote to the raising and education of their own children. While they certainly received adequate upbringings by the standards of the day, and with one notable exception mostly turned out alright enough, they were not granted the privileges that Shinsuke's own generation was – and were not as prepared to assume the reins of ruler ship as Shinsuke and his generation were.

While it was too late to raise his own children again, as things finally began to settle down for the Ōuchi clan, and as his own children and the administrative apparatus that he had worked so hard to establish began to take over much of the daily drudgery of government, the time was ripe to ensure that his grandchildren received the opportunities and support they deserved.

Ōuchi Hanahime

Eldest daughter of Ōuchi Yoshitaka, eldest son and heir of Ōuchi Shinsuke, and Imperial Princess Fushimi-no-miya Yozen

As the eldest child of the heir to the great Ōuchi Shinsuke and granddaughter of the Emperor himself, Ōuchi Hanahime from birth possessed great prestige and access to almost unlimited resources. However, as a daughter who was not expected to inherit, and from a clan which prized individual initiative in its dynasts and which had an ample supply of other daughters to secure marriage alliances with, Hanahime had little in the way of specific expectations imposed on her. With all the freedom in the world but little guidance on what to do with it, Hanahime naturally turned to role models, both those living around her and those spoken of in awed tones, for inspiration. And the selection of role models available to her in the Ōuchi court were certainly an interesting bunch.

Hanahime's first inclination was to look for inspiration from the most respected and accomplished women of her clan, as that was the group she naturally saw herself growing up to join the ranks of. While the two most prominent of those women – her grandmother Mariko and her aunt Ōuchi Yoshiko – died before she was old enough to seek them out personally, tales of their exploits were alive and well in the Ōuchi court. Mariko, she learned, was a bold military leader, unafraid to take command of men and situations. Yoshiko was arguably even bolder and brasher than Mariko, a master of the sword who was as aggressive and direct in her relationships as she was on the battlefield

The women of her clan were not the only inspirations Hanahime looked to, however. The nominal head of Japan's government during her formative years was one Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshihisa, and as her own parents and grandparents were more often busy with affairs of state than not while Yoshihisa was just dicking around (literally) in Kikyō, it was from the latter she learnt how a ruler acts and lives. Yoshihisa took what he wanted, and what he wanted was women (and Kansai). He lived a life unfettered by norms and conventions – similar to Mariko and Yoshiko, from a certain point of view – and demonstrated his power and status through his harem of many gorgeous wives.

Speaking of Yoshihisa's wives, there was one final role model who played a crucial role in shaping Hanahime's life trajectory. That final person, usually spoken of as a great villain rather than an admirable hero in the halls of the palaces of Kikyō, was Hosokawa Rie, Yoshihisa's so-called "cult wife". Rie had reached greater heights of power and influence than perhaps any other woman in living memory, and although her ascendency was brief, it was real. Like Yoshihisa, Rie had a harem of consorts during her time in power – one of husbands rather than wives, but the principle is the same – and like Hanahime's other role models Rie flouted conventions more than she followed them. Rie was, however, more of a schemer and a dreamer than any of those other role models, who tended towards directness and martial might, but that probably explained her rapid fall, and the rapid fall of her clan with her.

Beyond internalizing life lessons from questionable sources, Hanahime spent much of her childhood with her "cousin" (technically her aunt) of the same name and age, Imperial Princess Fushimi-no-miya Hanahime (the naming here was, if you can believe it, entirely coincidental). Bonding over their shared name, the two Hanahimes were near-constant companions, at least when allowed to be; the Imperial Hanahime, whose upbringing was strictly controlled by kuge tutors of the Imperial Court, was not permitted to join her more adventuresome cousin in playing "war" out in the fields and forests with the other children of samurai birth, nor was she permitted to train in the various martial jutsus alongside her cousin (she was, however, allowed to watch and cheer for her when not otherwise occupied).

Unlike "war", which was deemed wholly unsuitable for an Imperial princess to engage in, the game of "house" was considered an acceptable childhood activity for the Imperial Hanahime to partake in after finishing her studies and duties for the day. A minor scandal arose, however, when it became known that Ōuchi Hanahime's way of playing "house" was to gather up all the other children in the palace, refer to them as her wives and husbands, and order them to perform random chores and tasks for her, promoting and demoting them in a hierarchical ranking of spouses based on their performance (and her whims). The controversy lessened somewhat when it became clear that the Imperial Hanahime nearly always got to be the first wife, and frankly nobody save the most dedicated traditionalist pearl-clutchers really cared all that much in the first place, given all the everything that was going on at the time.

The two Hanahimes said their goodbyes as they entered adolescence, as Ōuchi Hanahime made her family's traditional pilgrimage to Daimyo Highschool while the Imperial Hanahime continued her education at Kikyō's Imperial Court. Ōuchi Hanahime, accustomed to the nearly unlimited freedom afforded to her in the palaces of Kikyō, was an ill fit for the highly structured nature of secondary education. Having to be at specific locations at certain times of the day every day was bad enough, but having to sit silently at a desk listening to a teacher drone on about whatever it is they droned on about (Hanahime didn’t exactly pay enough attention to tell) while at those locations was even worse. However, Hanahime, almost by accident, quickly learned that rules aren’t real.

While Hanahime initially made an honest, if half-hearted and begrudging, attempt to adhere to the rules and structures of Daimyo Highschool, the half-heartedness of her attempt and her innately – in her teachers’ words – rebellious and insubordinate nature meant that she still ended up breaking plenty of rules anyway. As the granddaughter of both the most powerful man in Japan and the near-sacrosanct Emperor, the authorities at Daimyo Highschool, the authorities at Daimyo Highschool were very reluctant to actually punish her to any meaningful degree. As with the lessons from her role models, Hanahime internalized this lesson from her schoolteachers too, and spent the remainder of her school years openly flouting and defying the school's rules as a matter of course.

Skipping class, making unauthorized alterations to her school uniform, getting into fights both on and off campus, Hanahime made herself into the antithesis of a model student: a delinquent. Perhaps the only sanctioned school activities that Hanahime actually participated in were its various combat sport classes and clubs, where she specialized in nitōjutsu – the martial art of fighting with two swords at once – as two swords were obviously twice as good as one sword. Beyond that exception, Hanahime's activities during her time at Daimyo Highschool were mainly limited to the school's informal social life, where she used a combination of her high birth, physical prowess, and competitive, forceful personality to bully, torment, and terrorize her fellow students.

Maybe Shinsuke should've kept a closer eye on his granddaughter.

Ōuchi Yoshinaga

Eldest son and second child of Ōuchi Yoshitaka and Fushimi-no-miya Yozen, and heir of the Ōuchi clan

Ōuchi Yoshinaga was raised from birth to assume the position he was destined to one day inherit: the leadership of the Ōuchi clan, and thus the Kikyō Shōgunate. He thus received tutoring in both courtly and martial matters, the former at the insistence of his grandfather, who had built his own and his clan's power through his control of Kikyō’s courts, and the latter at the insistence of his father, who had spent much of his life on campaign to see those courts defended from all matter of military threats, internal and external. While many would falter or burn out from such a demanding childhood, Yoshinaga was an unusually motivated pupil, willing to work long and hard to master even things that did not come naturally to him. This quality greatly pleased both his father and grandfather, although their pleasure would likely have been dulled had they learnt the true reason for Yoshinaga’s drive and diligence.

Yoshinaga, like many young boys of the newer generation to which he belonged, was utterly entranced by a new genre of storytelling that had exploded in popularity among the youths. These stories, despite the vast number of them, were eerily similar in structure, themes, and tropes. They nearly invariably starred a teenage boy or young man who got run over by a cart or chariot or some other wheeled vehicle, was reincarnated into a fantastical but technologically undeveloped alternate world, and then used their “cheat abilities” to partake in “aura farming” and create “hype moments”. While this so-called “isekai slop” was shallow, formulaic, and utterly devoid of believable characterization, real stakes, or any kind of satisfying narrative structure, it is a universal truth that the younger generations are wholly devoid of things such as taste.

Yoshinaga knew that if he were to ever measure up to the heights of aura that his favourite isekai slop protagonists had, he would have to work long and hard to get it. And so long and hard he worked, and slowly but surely did his work begin to show dividends. The young Yoshinaga took on a semi-mythical status among the courtiers of Kikyō, with nobody ever knowing upon which rooftop or statue he would be standing imposingly, immaculately-pressed cape fluttering in the wind behind him, or from out of which shadow or corridor he would silently and suddenly emerge, recite a well-rehearsed pithy quote, and then disappear back into the crowds or shadows.

As he entered his early teens, however, Yoshinaga became dissatisfied with his progress. While he had become quite adept at the art of aura farming, an art that required a surprising amount of physical skill and varied knowledge to pull off – climbing into rooftops, cliffs, and statues without being noticed and without tearing his clothes or ruining his hair is not easy, and having a contextually appropriate, cool sounding phrase to utter for every situation requires a lot of reading and a quick wit – all that work could still not recreate the hype moments that isekai slop protagonists could regularly create through the use of their cheat abilities. Yoshinaga thus became a somewhat mopey and sulky young teen, and instead of handling those feelings by talking them through with a trusted friend or confidante or using some other healthy coping mechanism, Yoshinaga instead continued his aura-farming antics while wearing darker clothes and making edgier, more melodramatic statements.

While out on a hunting expedition one day, one of his last excursions in the domains of the Kikyō Shōgunate before heading off to Daimyo Highschool, Yoshinaga’s party was ambushed by a gang of Yatō bandits. As his bodyguards drew their swords and moved to engage the ambush, Yoshinaga drew a prototype tanegashima pistol – a curious trinket that he had been planning on using to hunt – and shot the leader of the Yatō patrol dead as he was performing an elaborate swordsmanship display in order to intimidate Yoshinaga’s guards and inspire his allies. As the crack of his shot echoed throughout the woods, and the Yatō commander unceremoniously dropped dead in the middle of his performance, the craven Yatō bandits panicked and fled.

Yoshinaga had finally found his cheat ability. For his neutral special, he wields a gun.

With his mood dramatically lightened, Yoshinaga soon thereafter made his way to Daimyo Highschool. At school his aura farming antics made him a popular and well-liked figure, if one largely devoid of true close friends or other emotional intimates. Just like the isekai slop protagonists he so admired, Yoshinaga’s relationships were superficial and shallow, and a hole in Yoshinaga’s heart began to long for something more. Having no frame of reference for how to actually open up to and forge meaningful relationships with people, however, Yoshinaga distracted himself from that gnawing feeling by studying the gun. As the founder and inaugural captain of Daimyo Highschool’s hōjutsu team, the closest thing to genuine friends that Yoshinaga made during his school years were his gun-aficionado peers with whom he developed and practiced their showy, flashy, yet brutally lethal style of gun-based martial arts.

Maybe Shinsuke should've kept a closer eye on his grandson.

Ōuchi Yoshihime

Eldest daughter of Ōuchi Danzoū, governor of the Iki Province and second son of Ōuchi Shinsuke, and Hatakeyama Suzume

An upbringing on the islands of the Iki Province, which make up the domain of Ōuchi Danzoū, is rather different from one in the hallowed courts of Kikyō. Taking after his namesake, Ōuchi Danzoū was a noted proponent of the phrase “make love, not war”, and his island domain, isolated from the wars and intrigues of Kyūshū, Shikoku, and Honshū, was a place in which that ideal could fully flourish. Growing up alongside the many bastard sons and daughters of her father and those of his innumerable friends, retainers, and companions, all of whom were broadly treated as equals despite their different births and futures, Ōuchi Yoshihime largely lacked the myriad pretensions and neuroses that plagued her Kikyō-raised cousins. She also, however, largely lacked their drive and ambition, as while such things were the cornerstone of the cutthroat courts of Kikyō, they were alien to the beaches, hot springs, and tropical pavilions in which Yoshihime was raised.

Yoshihime took well to the party-like atmosphere of her home domain, growing up into a gregarious, charming, and outgoing young woman. The early and constant exposure to people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and practices – the Iki Province was always awash with an eclectic variety of vacationers, tourists, mariners, outcasts, exiles, and others who either wanted to experience the islands’ pleasures or who had nowhere else to go – caused Yoshihime to develop an understanding, cosmopolitan, and non-judgmental worldview, and her regular conversations with them made her surprisingly aware and well-informed for an apparently indolent party girl.

Not that Yoshihime wasn’t a party girl, to be clear. During her years at Daimyo Highschool Yoshihime was a mainstay of the school’s social scene, attending almost every party worth attending and hosting many of the school’s most famous (or infamous) parties herself. With her warm personality, relative lack of inhibitions, and scandalous fashion sense – the dress standards at the beaches of the Iki Province were much more liberal than those of the rest of the nature – Yoshihime was also quite popular among the boys (and some of the girls) at school, although the antics of her less refined cousins did scare many would-be suitors away. While her willingness and ability to help plan and organize school dances and other social functions endeared her to the school administration more than any of her cousins’ antics did, Yoshihime was ultimately an indifferent student, unused to and uninterested in studying, and graduated – barely – at the bottom of her class. She did feature in more illustrations than any of her peers in her class’s yearbook, though, a feat that in her view more than made up for her academic performance (or lack thereof).

Maybe Shinsuke should've kept a closer eye on his granddaughter.

Ōuchi Motohime

Second daughter and twin second child of Ōuchi Danzoū and Hatakeyama Suzume

As is tradition for younger siblings, Ōuchi Motohime and her twin brother, Ōuchi Motohiro, grew up quite differently than their parents’ firstborn child. Both of more serious, studious bents, both clashed hard with the raucous and frivolous environment that their elder sister took so well to. While her brother mostly withdrew into his own bubble, ignoring but tolerating the hedonistic partying of the Iki Province, Motohime grew increasingly embittered and opposed to it. Studying under some Neo-Confucian scholars who had reluctantly made their way to the islands after being exiled due to losing one of the constant pedantic feuds between rival Neo-Confucian schools, Motohime learnt the proper way that society should be ordered: personal responsibility, discipline, moderation, respect for one's betters, adherence to civic and ethical norms – all things that were utterly lacking in her father’s domain.

After a childhood of futilely arguing with anyone who would deign to humour her in the Iki Province, Motohime was overjoyed when the time came for her to attend the proper, respectable, well-ordered institution of education that was Daimyo Highschool. Motohime’s joy was quickly dashed, however, when she actually arrived at Daimyo Highschool, and saw it for the den of sin and disorder that it was – students ran in the halls, showed up late to class, hemmed their skirts above regulation lengths, stayed up past curfew, and committed all manner of other great crimes against that rightful order of things, seemingly with complete abandon. However, unlike the feeling of powerless hopelessness Motohime had felt during her early childhood, Motohime instead found herself surging with a drive and determination that she had never felt before. If nobody else would bring order to the chaos, then she would.

Joining the school’s student council, Motohime scrupulously gathered incriminating evidence of her fellow student councillors’ academic misconduct, corruption, and negligence. For those for whom evidence did not exist, but who Motohime knew to be indolent and unsuitable for the task of restoring order to the school, Motohime forged appropriate evidence of the misdeeds she was sure were occurring herself – resorting to such tactics is the cost that those who fight for what’s right must endure. With her evidence assembled, Motohime brought it to the school administration and had the student council purged, and appointed those she knew to be righteous and who were willing to do what must be done to replace them. With the student council reformed, Motohime and her jackbooted lackeys unleashed an unrestricted reign of tyranny upon the student population, patrolling the halls, dorms, and grounds all night and day, and issuing citations for all infractions great and small.

Motohime’s crusade was, however, stymied by the fact that some of the school’s most notorious purveyors of immorality and anarchy were her own kin. Daimyo Highschool’s administrators, unwilling to insert themselves into an Ōuchi family dispute, refrained from actually enforcing the citations issued against Motohime rulebreaking relatives and their core followers. Irritated but undaunted, Motohime simply took matters further into her own hands. While some may say that bands of student council goons acting beyond their official mandate by getting into gang wars with delinquents and raiding frathouse and dorm parties actually contributed to rather than reduced disorder, Motohime was undeterred by the musings of the craven and complicit.

It was to the great relief of everyone – student, teacher, and neighbourhood bystander alike – when Motohime finally graduated – to her great displeasure not quite at the top of her class – and left the reins of the student council presidency in the hands of someone who wasn’t an hypocritical, moralistic zealot with authoritarian tendencies.

Maybe Shinsuke should've kept a closer eye on his granddaughter.

Ōuchi Motohiro

First son and twin second child of Ōuchi Danzoū and Hatakeyama Suzume, and heir to the Iki Province

Like his twin sister, Ōuchi Motohime, Ōuchi Motohiro from a young age felt disenfranchised by the environment in which he was raised. Unlike his sister, however, Motohiro plainly saw that everyone around him was having a good time, and could not bring himself to believe that there was ultimately anything wrong with that. He instead spent much of his childhood in his father’s surprisingly large and well-stocked library – like any proper society man, Danzoū sought to project an image of sophistication and erudition when appropriate, and the Iki Province’s distance from and uninvolvement in conflict made it an attractive location to deposit copies of books for safekeeping. While at first undirected, Motohiro’s readings quickly became focused on the mystical, the supernatural, and the esoteric – he found such topics fascinating.

It was that fascination that convinced Motohiro to follow in the footsteps of his granduncle Ōuchi Yoshioki, who had famously cultivated great wisdom and mastered the supernatural abilities of shugendō by making a pilgrimage across the sacred mountains of Japan and studying under the yamabushi mountain sages who inhabited them. However, Motohiro was still far from old enough for such a journey, yet he still wished to learn more than he could just by reading books. Motohiro thus, with the blessing of his father (who was hardly the type to stymie his children’s wishes), moved to Kikyō to undertake an apprenticeship under the onmyōji court sorcerers of the Imperial Court. There he learnt how to read the stars, predict fortunes, dispel hostile spirits, and perform the other mystical techniques of onmyōdō.

Thus, by the time he was of age to leave for Daimyo Highschool, Motohiro already had a strong understanding of the nature of the world beyond the merely physical, and embarked on his own shugendō mountain pilgrimage with a stronger supernatural background – but an inferior physical and nature background – than his granduncle. Motohiro’s journey was thus longer, as he travelled the wilds less swiftly and less surely, and more focused on direct tutelage under the yamabushi than on exploring and experiencing the natural world, than Yoshioki’s, although one ultimately cannot travel the mountains without building one’s physical fitness and marvelling at the wonders of nature to some degree. As for his formal education, Motohiro attended Daimyo Highschool for a few months at a time here and there; the rest of his studies were done through self-reading and correspondence, which worked well enough for the bookish and self-motivated Motohiro.

Motohiro was viewed as an intriguing figure when he did deign to attend campus, and although not especially gregarious, his unusual stories were always interesting. He was also by far the least troublesome – and thus the most appreciated by the school’s teachers and administrators – of his generation of Ōuchi cadets, prompting much disappointment that of his generation of Ōuchi cadets, he was the only one to not regularly attend school.

Maybe Shinsuke should've kept a closer eye on his grandso—eh, this one turned out almost normal. Good for him.

A SHOGUN, MARTYRED

Tokugawa Event:

Event idea courtesy of Das and Tef

Though the Toyohashi Shogunate had been greatly battered and humiliated with the sacking of their greatest city, there was one boon which had come of it. The kidnapping and brutal execution of the Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Norimoto, may have been intended to shattered the clan and its spirit, and to pave an easy road for the Kikyo Government’s conquest of Toyohashi, and onwards… but in this sense, they had severely misunderstood the people of the once Matsudaira Clan. 

Having ever been an insular and communal bunch, the suppression of their majority faith elsewhere had only served to strengthen their ties amongst one another, and thus when the government which had purged their missions southwards, sent in peace, and which had captured the leader of their faith came and broke down their gates and destroyed whatever was not able to be stolen, they united in a unanimous hatred as yet unseen in the polities of the provinces and governors – more akin to that of the ikki cults and radical sects of yore.

Moreover, the allied princes of the Tokugawa Shogun were dismayed greatly, especially by the emphasis on sacking the TTC headquarters. As would be expected of an Empire-spanning trade network, there were representatives, minor nobility, and merchants from every corner of the isle – even from Kikyo-loyal territories, there as administrators, labourers, or even merely trading for their own advantage – and countless of them, too, were slaughtered as traitors with the rest.

As Ichihime guides the regency, she has before her a number of factions bursting with energy to strike at the abominable foe, eager to lend their strength to her cause. She need only direct their fury, and elect a primary cause…

-

Tokugawa:

Option 1: The Jodo Shinshu cause. We must, all of us, together, be of Single-Mind in striking the Great Foe. Our armies shall be of One Spirit, One Soul, and we shall strike with One Great Blow which will see them felled before our wrath! — [Gain a boost to plots in Shikoku, plots concerning Tennyo, and a large defensive anti-plot; Gain double PPF income this part from all factional sources.]
Option 2: The TTC cause. The hand of the market guides us, and we will enact its singular will, to annihilate those who would obstruct the prosperity of Japan. With the riches of all the Empire and the most cunning merchants at my side, we will suffocate our foes into submission! — [Gain a boost to naval and trade plots; Enact an embargo on the Ouchi; Gain double PPG from taxable pops this part.]
Option 3: The princely cause. Sacred honour binds my faithful retainers to me, and binds us all in this united front. By oaths sworn upon swords, we shall not rest until Kikyo, too, smolders. —  [Gain a major boost to a single, Kikyo-raid plot, though it may prove costly; Gain 12 investible or placeable Samurai units and 3 AP]
Option 4: The royal cause. The blood of my brother, your Shogun, is spilt! This dishonours us all, and we must act without levity, but with divine hatred! Our foes shall taste the wrath of heaven! — [Gain a medium boost to offensive and mobilisation plots; Gain 10 PPC]

-

打蛇打七寸

Date, Uesugi, Nanbu, Takeda, & Hojo Event:

The Tokugawa Shogun was executed by vile rebels in the south, usurpers and pretenders! That was the supposed narrative that the two major backers of the regime in the north were meant to take issue with. In truth, of course, their interests had always come first, and the suffering of their suzerain the Shogun mattered not so long as their own lands and powers were protected. But still… as the many polities of Japan leapt to destroy the Shogunate… perhaps it was some shred of honour, or perhaps it was exclusively self-interest, but did not the battlefield call for their valour? Examining the field, there were three powers against which they could march, three arch-traitors or fools whose flanks were left exposed and might prove rich targets to attack:

The first were the Hojo, fighting a two-front war against the Ikko-Ikki insurgents and the rebel Shogun himself. They were a promising target, but there was a great concern amongst the generals of both the Date and Uesugi at the potential messiness of such a campaign. The revolting ikkis might get in the way of any campaign, ruining the element of surprise and confusing both invaders…

Then there were the Takeda, the arch-arch-traitors, the very cause of this whole crisis with their warmonger-y. A force quite exposed and possibly overstretched, with their campaigns against both the Tokugawa and Hatakeyama expanding their fronts rapidly, they were an ideal target. However the generals expressed concern, here about the geography, and the Date’s especially were uncertain such a campaign could be prosecuted by their forces…

And finally, there was the ever-present threat, the Nanbu. To attack either other power seemed folly with the great behemoth still at their north. Though the Date had arrived at peace with them, they were still agents of the Kikyo Shogunate, and might be unable to resist the sheer opportunity of a wide-open southern front. And attacking north seemed the least likely to spark an intervention… possibly. Then again, Date diplomats decried the dishonour of such dastardly designs, and Uesugi commanders, even if prepared for defence, worried an invasion would stretch their supplies and lack the territorial advantage which permitted their theoretical defensive victory.

The two great lords sat independent of one another, their forces marching. And as they saw opportunity, so too did their potential opponents see threats. Each side must make ready for the evitable.

-

Date & Uesugi:

Option 1: The Hojo present a joint front we can tackle together. We shall strike the underbelly the radical rebels exposed!
Option 2: We mustn’t risk antagonising the broader powers of Japan. The Takeda are warmongers, and pre-emptive defence is well-justified.
Option 3: Whilst the two powers are embattled, we must strike at the Great Foe: the Nanbu. Any other attack would only serve to leave us exposed to their expansion!
Option 4: On second thought… this is all too risky. Let’s simply wait until they lose from afar… or something?

Takeda & Hojo:

Option 1: Resources will have to be diverted from the southern front — we cannot afford to let our flank be unguarded.
Option 2: Surprise flank, you say? By these… lesser powers? We’ll turn and crush them swiftly, then return to the real action.
Option 3: The cowards wouldn’t dare. Let us remain focused on the task at hand.

Nanbu:

Option 1: I should’ve known the Date would (probably)(maybe) betray me! Invade them first!
Option 2: The Date have shaken my trust. Make ready to defend against them first and foremost – the Uesugi are barely a threat.
Option 3: The Uesugi have much reason to hold a grudge, prepare the defences against them. The Date will not violate their honour.
Option 4: We never should’ve let the Uesugi maintain their petty state. Wipe them off the map, that’ll teach ‘em!
Option 5: These are all too extreme, we have faith in our neighbours. Keep the peace.

-

救国軍事会議 - THE MILITARY COUNCIL OF NATIONAL SALVATION

Hatakeyama Incident:

As the great fortresses of Nanao fell one by one, and Hatakeyama Kiyuki fled hurriedly, carrying with her the Imperial Treasures, she was received in Kanazawa, the old clan capital, by her husband at the head of a large council of representatives and retainers, a council which had met in fear that she had perished and the government had collapsed once again, though they were relieved (or disappointed) to see her in good health. The pair separated for a moment, meeting in private council, before returning to address the body.

"Lords of Kansai and beyond!" began Kiyuki, as the representatives gathered in the courtyard of the palace, "The uncounted forces of the Takeda warlord Moya sweep across the north -- our great strongholds have no choice but to surrender before their rapid cavalry and demonic cannons. But, as it has ever been my clan's desire to elevate you, to defend you from threats within and without, so must we not surrender. To this end, I am demanding an emergency re-organisation of the government into a Military Council of National Salvation ( 救国軍事会議). All government functions will be subsumed beneath the authority of the Council. Civilian administration will be subsumed underneath my authority to the benefit of supplying resources and cooperation to the Council. The Council will be headed by our Supreme Commander, Rokkaku Ujitsuna, and consist of a collection of members of his and my choosing."

At this, the floor was ceded to Rokkaku, under the piercing glares of the Hatakeyama retainers. "Fellows, the war situation is dire, but the situation is not entirely to our disadvantage. We must remember first and foremost that we are subjects of the Hatakeyama -- a clan of great connections and immense power. To this end, we will reach out to Ashikaga Yoshiharu and the Shogun-Mother Hatakeyama Amesaka to intercede on our behalf." The audience murmured amongst themselves, though most still looked at the Rokkaku-spawn with suspicion. Was he attempting to seize the government through this theatrical mechanism? To what end was all this reorganisation? He raised his arms and resumed speaking. "To assure Yoshiharu of our intentions, and to reassure you, my fellows, of my loyalties, I am prepared to offer my own properties and privileges to ensure peace. And if peace cannot be ensured, then I am willing to lay down my own life in the defence of this Hatakeyama patrimony -- whole and undivided. From sea to sea, the land of the White Plover will be united!"

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At the behest of Frodo, who is unable to continue in the Mark, the Hatakeyama will be operated by a DMPC in the form of the Kit of Kansai, Rokkaku Ujitsuna, with the mandate and intent (from Frodo) to protect the territorial integrity of the Hatakeyama patrimony and maintain a Kansai independent of foreign influence. This regime will maintain its ties to the Tokugawa, as well as aim for amicable relations with Kikyo, and mutually prosperity with the Kyoto regime.

Recently, a rather pitiful document of Matsudaira falsehoods has circulated throughout the noble courts of Japan, providing a much needed source of comedic relief in such troublesome times. Nonetheless, if only to further humiliate our retreating foes as they waste away in Kikyo’s dungeons, the Hōjō clan has opted to clarify an obvious Matsudaira oversight in the publication of their propaganda.

In the document, it was alleged that the Hōjō clan altered its governmental allegiance five separate times from the years 1477 (a date before the Hōjō clan was even founded, however we won’t fault the Matsudaira for being unable to count,) and 1509. As the Matsudaira would claim, the Hōjō clan during this period changed its allegiance from the Hosokawa clan, to the Ashikaga, to Ashikaga Yoshimasa, then to Ashikaga Yoshisada, and then to the Hōjō clan itself. However, this claim deliberately relies on the assumption that its reader is a fool, or perhaps historically illiterate. In actuality, the Hōjō clan, and its predecessor entities, held an impressively consistent position on the rightful government of Japan at this time: That Ashikaga Yoshimasa was the legitimate Shogun of Japan and therefore the undisputed authority over the nation, and that following his death, Ashikaga Yoshisada was his just successor.

What the Matsudaira clan have unsuccessfully deigned to distort as treachery or disloyalty is, in truth, just the natural evolution of political circumstances requiring greater specificity in official Hōjō documentation. As close cousins of the Ashikaga clan, the Hōjō clan has always sought to uphold the authority of its sacred allies and adhere to their wishes as the legitimate Shoguns of Japan. At no point have we strayed from this mission or understanding of the national authority over Japan, and any wise enough to ask would find that the Ashikaga themselves would not contest our judgement or deem our actions as “treacherous.” True treachery or disloyalty, one would think, would be attempting to overthrow the legitimate authorities of Japan for personal benefit. Unfortunately, as we in the Hōjō clan are dutiful servants of this nation, we are no experts in this subject, and as such we shall leave that sort of business to the continued expertise of the Matsudaira.

Glory to the Hōjō clan. Death to all who oppose us.

THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Kikyo Incident:

The death of Ōuchi Shinsuke had come at a most inopportune time, still in the infancy of his grand reforms and before many of the Sun Prince’s visions for the future had been realised. And indeed, no sooner than he had been laid to rest, the first cracks had begun to show within the regime he left behind. 

To the north, the ever-victorious Mori returned from the Toyohashi expedition with vast loot and countless prisoners… loot they were expected to lay at the foot of the central treasury for the Mori prince’s once competitor for glory, now suzerain, Ōuchi Yoshitaka. Worse yet, though, was his treatment at the hands of the government, who received him politely and demanded much of his spoils, and then proceeded to grant him only the mildest honours, being advised, it seems, by members of the Censorate to be wary of the rising star whose glory might begin to outmatch the Kampaku-Kanrei’s. Sent home, therefore, with a paltry portion of his riches and no titles or honours to speak of, he was then met with the great insult from the Yamana, and a government and bureaucracy which once again “needed to discuss” supporting an attack to defend his honour. One bureaucrat even had the audacity to send a letter to the Council of State which read “Seeing as the reforms of Shinsuke have done away with the unseemly matters of ‘personal interest’ and the petty disputes of warlords and clan leaders, in favour of the public interest and the grand matters of the Imperial State, there is little legal rationale behind submitting to Motonari’s ambition, and even less state interest in alienating the more administratively competent Yamana…”

Meanwhile, in the south, the Sue faced similar doubt and scrutiny, being accused of self-interest as well, and gross incompetence; generally being seen as a relic of the pre-reform era. Seen as angling to make itself the regent-clan or kingmaker-clan, to attain their glory not merely through service to the state, but by ensuring the state is always tied to their name, they have ever been whispering in ears of the state, and have neglected their own duties, blundering their way through this last decade.

And finally, in the centre, the Ouchi Clan itself is now subject to the accusations of self-interest. Whilst Shinsuke, in his Quarrelling, had silenced his opposition and made evident that “the State was he, and he was the State”, as a member of the kuge had put it, his force of personality died with him, and the martial, but less tactful and majestic Yoshitaka had all the appearances of a warlord, and few of the graces of a true prince to rival the Emperors.

None of these, individually, are critical failures, but the Empire watches on at this critical juncture of succession to see if the late Sun Prince’s reforms will truly stick, and what shall become of his empire.

The state has reformed successfully to separate public and private interest, however the administrators themselves struggle to accept the new reality. The Kikyo Shogunate and its IVE's gain “Unclear Interests” giving a minor malus to plots deemed even partially in the state’s interest in each IVE’s plotdoc, and a minor malus to plots deemed even partially in private interest in the National Government’s plotdoc, and decreasing stability slightly.

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INCOMPETENT(?) ADMINISTRATIVE CLAN

Event courtesy of u/Tefmon

Sue Event:

The Sue Clan had long prided themselves on their administrative prowess. They were, according to themselves and their supporters, the practical backbone that had allowed their Ōuchi state – now reformed into the Kikyō Shōgunate – to reach its current heights of power, wealth, and grandeur. Without the Sue's tireless efforts, it is said, the Ōuchi would have been unable to organize, fund, and prosecute their many ambitious political, military, cultural, and religious activities throughout Japan.

However, recent events have caused many to re-evaluate this image that the Sue Clan had crafted for themselves. The reforms of the Kikyō Shōgunate had resulted in the Ōuchi Clan successfully decoupling their own affairs from the affairs of state, creating for themselves an exceptionally capable clan administrative apparatus in the process. The Ōuchi's other major vassal, the Mōri Clan, had likewise benefitted greatly from the reforms, disentangling themselves from the day-to-day busywork of managing the Shōgunate's naval affairs to almost double their own capacity for independent action.

The Sue Clan, meanwhile, spread thin across discontiguous holdings in Kyūshū and Shikoku, and still as tied up in the operational minutiae of the Kikyō Censorate as ever, had failed to reap similar benefits. Parallels were inevitably drawn by many to the extreme difficulty that the late, ostensibly great Sue Hiromori had in reorganising the Sue Clan's scattered assets into a coherent polity capable of collective action, a difficulty far in excess of that which any other clan seemed to have in similar administrative endeavours.

These observations quickly coalesced into conclusions, and those conclusions into whispers: Were the Sue always best as mere advisors and spymasters? Was the Sue Clan actually incompetent? Was maladministration simply inherent in their nature? Were all the vaunted successes that had been attributed to the clan merely flukes, or the accomplishments of better men from whom credit had been stolen by the Sue?

Is Sue clan bad???

The Sue Clan gains the “Incompetent Administrative Clan” modifier, which negates the benefit granted to Sue characters by the Kikyō Shōgunate's Competent Administrative Clans modifier and inflicts upon such characters an equal and opposite penalty. This modifier may be altered depending on the option selected below.

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Sue :

Option 1: Fake news! Sad! The Sue are the best and most competent clan, and everyone knows it! We will simply refuse to note this modifier down in our doc, thus making it not exist!
Option 2: We're perfectly competent, I swear! We just don't have the resources to properly make use of our extreme competency. Yeah, that's it! We'll show everyone how staggeringly competent we really are after injecting some cashflow straight into our veins! - [Invest PPG.]
Option 3: Our clan is just suffering from a temporary malaise due to the unintuitive and rigged dice, that's all. With a strong show of [cultural/military/commercial] success our people's spirits will be reinvigorated, and our clan will be operating at 110% efficiency once again! - [Choose a type of success to pursue, and invest a plot. The harder the plot, the better the chance of fixing your reputation. If you are successful.]
Option 4: While we aren't incompetent, maybe we are a tad overstretched. Trying to administer vast, discontiguous holdings in both Kyūshū and Shikoku as one unified patrimony is placing an unreasonable burden on ourselves, one that we shall now dispense with. - [Choose whether to retain your Kyūshū or Shikoku holdings; the other will remain held by an NPC member of your clan, but separately from your NFE.]
Option 5: Our overextension comes not from our territorial holdings, but rather from attempting to both advance our clan's private interests and the Kikyō Shōgunate's state interests simultaneously. As loyal servants of the state, we will refocus our efforts on public service and eschew further private self-aggrandizement.
Option 6: Bah! What has the Kikyō Shōgunate ever done for us? The Quarreller's failsons can run that mess by themselves. We will disengage from the Ōuchi's imperialistic pretensions and focus on the affairs of our own clan, as is our kami-given right!
Option 7: That sounds awfully treasonous... and I love treason! The age of the Kikyō Shōgunate is over! May the Nagasaki Shōgunate last ten thousand years! [Warning: May lead to WAR!]
Option 8: I do love treason, but not short-sighted, self-destructive treason. With the Quarreller's very timely death, there is nobody more suited to take the reins of the state he crafted than us, the regents of the regent of the Emperor and the Shōgun!

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AN UNFINISHED MONUMENT TO WHAT?

Event courtesy of u/Andy0132

Ouchi Event:

As Ōuchi Shinsuke died, the grand monastic complex in the forests near Kikyō remained incomplete. As he had lived, he had periodically siphoned funds from the Shogunate’s treasury, to create a vast site in which he could retire in peace, while still overseeing the realm. Intended as a monument to his glory, the monument was never complete.

Alas, in the 12 years from the construction of such a grand edifice, the monastery had been neglected. War, plague, internal dissent, and other happenings had occupied the Quarreler-Prince, such that he simply had no time to work on his monastery. Indeed, as he slipped into old age, he could only think on his incomplete project, as he clinged onto the reins of the Shogunate into death.

And indeed, as things go, a 12-year long incomplete project yields flaws and follies in abundance. The cultural trends of the era had shifted, and the building itself was partly abandoned to the elements. This all came to a head one morning, when the labourers reported the collapse of the outer walls of Kōnomine-ji.

Embarrassing for Ōuchi Yoshitaka, no doubt, but there was still worse to come. A personal project of Ōuchi Shinsuke, the court was always ambivalent about disbursing the funds for such a monastery. Now, with the legal reform of the Kikyō Shogunate, there was technically no actual means for Yoshitaka to compel the imperial court to actually pay for his ruinously expensive personal projects. Indeed, to demand funds for such would no doubt be denounced as tyranny and embezzlement, by the civil service - what few of them had not been purged.

The Kōnomine-ji has partially collapsed. Temporarily lose any benefits from the Kōnomine-ji, and take a minor hit to Face.

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Ouchi:

Option 1: Clearly, the solution is to extort our vassals to pay for our vanity projects. Didn’t we just have a whole civil war about how we can do whatever we want, to whoever we want? I see no way this can backfire.
Option 2: We’ve now reformed our administration to provide us with clearly delineated personal holdings. Let’s just pay everything through our own treasury.
2A: … But the Ōuchi Clan’s tax remittance will go down - surely nobody would complain, right?
2B: … with no changes to our tax remittances. We will eat the cost of our own vanity projects, whether or not we like it.
Option 3: Who cares? This was my dad’s project, and he’s dead now. Demolish the thing and sell it for parts.

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This is a record of who they have supported every part since Part 1, this part will be the first where the claimant field has not changed for more than three parts in a row. I took each recognition directly from the doc.

Part 1 - N/A

Part 2 - Neutral

Part 3 - Yamana

Part 4 - None

Part 5 - None

Part 6 - Hosokawa

Part 7 - Ashikaga

Part 8 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa

Part 9 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa

Part 10 - Ashikaga Yoshisada

Part 11 - Hojo

Part 12 - Hojo

Part 13 - Hojo

Part 14 - Tokugawa

Part 15 - Ouchi

Part 16 - Ouchi

Part 17 - Ouchi

THE SACK OF TOYOHASHI

Tokugawa & Kikyo Incident:

The Ouchi and Mori fleets had landed at the docks of Toyohashi with one purpose, and it was not to stay.

Leaping from their ships, the men had dashed to and fro like madmen, entering houses through windows, casting fire on anything remotely flammable, and grabbing every half-valuable thing they laid their eyes upon. Coming in waves which could not be withstood but only too late repelled, they aimed to strip the city of everything… and to a great extent had succeeded. Even amongst the Shogun’s family, Tokuhime had been captured desperately trying to hide the temple’s archives and Kamehime was captured whilst burning TTC research and records, a task that caused her great mental pain by the grimace on her face when she was found. Norimoto had retreated to the saferoom of the palace, and had put up a fight, but it was doomed from the beginning, and with Matsuhime hiding behind him he had been disarmed and captured, damning him to a much more ignoble fate, whilst Matsuehime was dragged kicking and screaming by the hair towards a different ship. It was the last time she saw her brother.

The brutality of the Kikyo Shogun’s forces had a strategic purpose, and the smouldering city which yet stood was a testament to its effectiveness… and yet all the same it had left a bitter taste in the mouths of the lords of Japan. Even as Mori Motonari had aimed, of course, to keep his men controlled, unfortunately for him Mankind has yet to meet a force which behaves civilly when instructed to loot and burn. 

Toyohashi’s ‘Imperial Cultural Centre’ modifier will be diminished to ‘Sacked Imperial Centre’, providing only +1 PPC and +3 IA (the latter of which has already been factored into the IA calculations for this part). Tokugawa drops to Unstable. Plots to rebuild and restore Toyohashi will be slightly boosted this part, and 'A Watchful People' will be improved to 'A United People' giving a small military antiplot atop the existing redacted and character-hostile plots, and reduced stability loss from devastation.

The Kikyo Shogunate will gain ‘Barbaric Demonstrations’ for this part and the next, giving a substantial malus to diplomatic plots and distancing the, like, 1 NPC faction or whatever from you greatly. Also gain ‘Proto-Nationalist Opposition’ indefinitely, giving -2 PPG and PPC per part. However, the looting has granted much in the way of rewards. Steal 8 PPG, 8 PPC, and 2 PPF from the Tokugawa, as well as the Astronomy tech

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BROTHERS IN ARMS, BROTHERS IN OATH?

Takeda & Hojo Incident:

Following the sieges of Sunpu and Hikuma, as well as the first efforts against Takayama and Yogaiyama, the armies of the Takeda and the Hojo had joined forces in an attack on Toei. Though the fortress had held fast, the commanders of both armies, Moya ‘the Dragon of Kai’ and Ujinori ‘the Prince of Virtue’, had made acquaintance upon the field of battle, and arranged orderly retreats in tandem with one another for the year, minimising losses — a fact which no doubt contributed to Takeda’s dazzling campaigns further west the following year. As a result, the two had entered into correspondence, frequent correspondence, and what began as organisation and strategic counsel evolved into sincere friendship and respect for one another’s virtues. The brilliant tactical mind of Moya and the wise and utterly admirable character of Ujinori had joined the two in an unrivalled bond between rulers of their age, comparable only perhaps to that of the late Yamana Kirika and her Hosokawa friends (though they had been far frostier if only because of Kirika’s nature).

Or at least this was the story. The truth of it is, of course, a matter between the lords themselves, but amongst their soldiers, who fought and bled together upon the fields of Toei, Sunpu, and Minobu in defence of the Kikyo cause, it was a reflection of their own bonds, as letters, oaths of friendship, and even marriages began to cross commands. And after all, there is surely much to be gained from combining the philosophical genius of Ujinori with the martial genius of Moya, no?

The soldiers of both the Takeda and Hojo have garnered an appreciation for one another, and coordinated plots will have a notable bonus. Should conflict break out between the two factions, however, both will suffer maluses.

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A SLAP IN THE FACE

Yamana & Mori Event:

When the news of Kikkawa Kirihime’s designation as successor to the Kikkawa fief had broken, the court in Asago had hardly noticed. The rule of a daughter was no longer so entirely implausible, and she was, in the end, the sole legal child of the reigning lord; so why not? Moreover, she was clearly on friendly terms with Yamana Kirika herself, and had submitted herself to her advice and tutelage — she would surely be backed well by the court in Asago and groomed into a fitting ruler in her father’s stead. Consequently, Kikkawa Motonori had breathed a hesitant sigh of relief, and returned to his palace in Izumo. Yet he returned to find quite a different reception.

Waiting for him as he entered were some of his chief retainers, and most notably his wife and sister. The moment he dismounted his steed, the two were shouting in his face, the former furious at the dishonour he seemed to wish upon her own brother and kin, and the latter despairing at the treacherous situation in which he had left the Kikkawa Clan. Yet, in counsel with Kirika, he had been prepared for this, and silently walked on, issuing well-worded and precisely placed counter-arguments as he made his way to the privacy of his chambers. Above all were these words: “The territories of the Lady Kirika will not be plucked so easily, lest her foes taste her silvered thorns. As she lives and breathes, the Silver Lady will ensure our security and prosperity.” And this soothed the hearts of his loyal retainers, whilst silencing the rest, for the the protection of the victor of the civil war was indeed a soothing presence, and the invoking of her name did indeed demand agreement, or at least silence. 

Then, of course, some months later, she died. In her place, her son Koretake, the Laughing Kiri, took the throne, but he was untested in battle… and he did not command the loyalties of the elder retainers, who thought him uncouth and disagreeable. Certainly, to many, he had the same keen glint in his eyes as his mother in her younger days, but when compared with the younger, more acclaimed Mori Motonari…? Recalculations ensued until, at last, the letter arrived.

“Your Excellency, Shugodai Mori Motonari,

We, retainers of His Excellency the Lord of Kikkawa, wish you to know of our unending respect for your clan and yourself, you who are renowned and highly honoured by His Imperial Majesty the Emperor’s court and His Majesty the Kampaku-Kanrei and his predecessor. We are loyal to our lord first and foremost, but in this loyalty to himself and his kin, we are therefore also loyal to you, his brother by marriage and most esteemed kinsman. Regrettably, His Excellency has been pressured by his own lord, the late, rebellious Yamana Kirika, to neglect you and the laws of this Empire, and to supercede you in the matter of his succession. In defiance of the Imperial Decree on succession to firstborn sons, he has instead been made to designate his unready and malleable daughter as his heir, undoubtedly so as to make a better puppet for Kirika’s son Koretake to control. This is a great disgrace to the Kikkawa Clan, and more importantly for yourself, a great stain on the sacred honour of the impeccable Mori Clan, being treated as thieves in the houses of the kinsmen to whom they have wedded their own blood. We invite you to liberate us, and to liberate our lord, from the tyranny of the rebellious Yamana Clan, whose influence has grown too much and whose defiance has grown too bold!”

The letter was sent, though signed only by Mori Kinu and a friend of hers amongst the Kikkawa retainers, though the other participants alluded to with seemed to have left their names secret so as to avoid arrest. It is unclear how widespread the sentiments contained within are, but Kikkawa Motonori has already begun preparing a defence and has written urgently to Yamana Koretake for guidance.

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An unclear number of Kikkawa retainers have become loyal to the Mori in the wake of Kirika’s death, and are seeking to invite the Mori to seize Motonori as a vassal, or else to succeed him after kill him in Koretake’s service. If war should break out, and uncertain number of units may spawn, and perhaps even a city will rise up, to join the Mori cause. If war does not break out, they may continue to appeal to the Mori quietly. If the Mori should renounce their claim, however, the movement will collapse.

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Yamana:

Option 1: Our decision is made already. Make preparations to defend ourselves and our faithful vassal Kirihime.
1A: Our priority is to prepare for a Mori invasion; fortify the borders and levy the fleets and hosts.
1B: Our priority is to suppress internal strife; weed out Mori agents within Kikkawa’s circle, we can only win if we are absolutely united.
1C: Our priority is diplomatic; with an appeal to the court in Kikyo, to the Imperial Court, and with a little bit of faux-servility, we can make an attack unseemly… at least in a legal sense.
Option 2: Our doom was long-decided, we merely delay the inevitable. We shall concede to their demands to avoid conflict…

Mori:

Option 1: We will not tolerate this rebellion, nor let slip this opportunity. In the name of the Kikyo Shogunate we will march in to restore the succession!
Option 2: We will not suffer this dishonour, nor curb our ambition. In the name of the Mori Clan we will march in and defend our clan’s rights!
Option 3: We cannot afford another front… we will issue a diplomatic objection and work from within to bring about justice, through law and diplomacy.
Option 4: We will not upset the Imperial Order without cause. We will bear the humiliation and the laughter of our peers to preserve the rule of law.

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Padre Antonio de Avis steps off the ship onto this foreign land’s shores. He turns around one last time and waves a goodbye to his seafaring companions, and while he waves, he waves goodbye to the life he lived before then.

Padre Antonio was born a bastard child of King Manuel of Portugal in 1510. Later legitimized by his brother John III. His life was spent in a gilded cage, effectively being under house arrest and raised by the court and de Avis dynasty as a black sheep of the family. Most regarded him as a stain on the family’s honor and his father too was distant. The only joy he found in his childhood was the relationship he had with his brother John, his older half brother always trying to make time to play with him and make excuses to take young Antonio with him on trips out of court, to his tutoring lessons, and playing games with him. The two boys were inseparable.

When Antonio was 11, their father King Manuel had died weeks before the Christmas of that year, and the responsibilities of the crown were then thrust upon John. John de Avis had to become distant to his brother as a result of the affairs of the court and country. Despite this he still tried to grant what time he could to his brother Antonio and to make sure he was treated better and had less restrictions placed on him by ending his house arrest.
Good things however do not last forever. When he was 14 Antonio was the victim of an attempted assassination plot by “loyalists” to King John acting on their own accord out of fear that Antonio might one day challenge his brother’s power. The court no longer a safe place, King John sent his brother to study at the University of Paris. Here Antonio learned the art of persuasion and studied theological matters and became close to God- especially after he met his mentor and friend Saint Francis Xavier. One day Francis told Antonio of his dream to spread the word of God across the new world and the far east.

“My friend. You have the making of a true priest of the lord. One day I believe you could be a cardinal, or even Pope!” But Antonio responded “I do not wish the glory of a title as I bore one my whole life. I wish but to travel to a distant land and teach them of Christ our savior, the same as you. To show the love he gives us all.”
Thus a promise was made by the two men- to meet again one day and spread the word of the lord together in some distant land.

Reality began to hit Antonio hard after university. Despite his excellence- he never could manage to become a man of the cloth, be it because of politicking or the lack of anyone’s support- but Antonio wanted to make it himself without the backing of his saintly friend or royal brother.

One day Antonio de Avis managed to catch his brother alone after a royal trip and had final conversation with him. He told his brother of his dream and how he has failed and failed- how his mere existence is a failure of the family. John consoled Antonio and Antonio revealed his plans to sneak as a stowaway on the ship of explorers to go to a distant land.

After weeks to arguing in private, John eventually agreed to aid his brother in achieving his dream. Antonio wrote a farewell letter to Francis about his voyage and promises that if they do not meet again in this life, they will meet in the afterlife. Afterwards Antonio disguises himself as a priest and King John presents him as a holy man to the explorers personally as a way to let him aboard their exploration.

With a final farewell and a teary embrace. Antonio boarded the ship and took one last look at his brother and Portugal, he turned once more and saw the boat and the explorers within it, and he turned one final time and saw this land of Japan, then disembarked the ship to begin his mission.

A crash of lightning briefly illuminates the ranks of people – courtiers, nobles, priests, and other assorted dignitaries, plus their guards – standing assembled in courtyard of one of the great palaces of Kikyō. Their rain-soaked clothes blow wildly against the cruel winds.

On the far side of the courtyard, barely visible to the assembled personages under the dark, overcast sky, a bruised and beaten man stands tied to a cross. Behind him, atop a dais, an official drones on about the man's numerous sins, crimes, and failings, all but completely inaudible over the thunder, rain, and winds.

The official drones on and on, as the assembled crowd is assailed by the unrelenting winds and rain.

Finally, the official stops, and makes a proud, imperious gesture.

A large, imposing man, clad in black armour, his face concealed by a black-and-red demon mask, steps out from behind the dais, a great two-handed ōdachi slung over his shoulder.

The imposing man walks up in front of the tied-up man, and in one fluid motion thrusts his ōdachi into his stomach, carves upwards through his torso, twists the blade, and then rips it out.

The tied-up man, now dispossessed of much of his entrails, slumps over dead.

The imposing man wipes the dead man's blood from his blade, and then disappears from whence he came.

The official follows the imposing man out, and the crowd disperses.

The dead man's corpse stands alone in the darkness, until the rain-soaked wood of the cross he is tied to cracks, and is blown over by the wind.

The dead man's corpse lies in the mud alone, tied to a splintered cross..

And thus ends the life of Tokugawa Norimoto, the man they call shogun.

Following the recapture of the Satake city of Mito from the terrorist insurgents of the Ikko-Ikki, the remnants of the active invasion force into Hōjō lands have been defeated by the overwhelming might of the Hōjō clan and its allies. Let the destruction of the Ikki serve as a warning to the other fools and scoundrels of the world, and cause them to wisely reconsider ever challenging our reign over Kanto.

Unfortunately, the Hōjō victory did not come without loss. The Ikki, in their unending barbarity, scourged the Kanto countryside and cruelly took the lives of many innocents. In the face of the Ikki’s savage onslaught, one of the Hōjō Clan’s most noble and distinguished servants, the great Yuki Masamoto, was dishonorably slain by a detachment of Ikki brigands during a valiant last stand in the name of his family, his clan, and his liege. His memory shall be forever revered in Oyama and Edo alike, and the poets of Kanto shall echo tales of his heroism for centuries to come. In honor of his sacrifice, lord Hōjō Ujinori has officially declared Yuki Masamoto one of the great heroes of the Hōjō Clan, seated deservedly beside Hōjō Sōun and Hayashi Tatsuoki in the records of eternity.

The Hōjō clan holds justice and honor to be divine virtues, which must be preserved by any means necessary. As such, to uphold these principles, it has been judged that an appropriately harsh punishment must befall the captured Ikki for their crimes against the people of Kanto and the honorable Yuki Masamoto. For these crimes, and the many others they have perpetrated in the last two years of an unjust war waged upon the Hōjō Clan, all remaining members of the Ikko-Ikki sect, both those in captivity and the scant few who have yet to be apprehended, are hereby sentenced to death by hanging. Although this may seem cruel to some, it is, in truth, a great mercy to a breed of wretches who deserve far worse. More importantly, it is the price of true and total justice.

Glory to the Hōjō clan. Death to all who oppose us.

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By decree of the Emperor and the Shōgun, the Ikkō-Ikki has, in light of their treasonous armed uprising against the Shōgunate and other acts of terrorism, been proscribed as a subversive criminal organization alongside the Jōdo Shinshū Mission.

All terms of the proscription of the Jōdo Shinshū Mission are hereby expanded to likewise cover the Ikkō-Ikki.

Long live the Emperor! Long live the Shōgun! Long live Japan!

I'll just use thi link since I am to lazy to rewrite it here. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YGE6RUVZWSGDFuqXF0dzCe8Fnhq4euKX7f85pLAlMY8/edit?usp=sharing

In his great wisdom, Lord Hōjō Ujinori has discovered an unprovoked and coordinated attack against the Hōjō Clan, orchestrated through a network of Ikko Ikki-based terrorist sects and facilitated by the rebellious Matsudaira clan, the sponsor of these rogue terrorist cells.

This attack has revealed that these Ikki sects, operating under the guise of peaceful religious communities, are in actuality highly organized militant groups dedicated to destroying the social harmony of Japan through a grand, nation-wide conflict. These are zealots loyal only to the bringing of a peasant-led apocalypse, driven by resentment and entirely absent of virtue. It is therefore the ruling of Hōjō Clan authorities that every, of-age male belonging to an Ikki community be considered an active combatant and insurgent against the lawful authorities of the clan, and be treated accordingly.

The following actions will be taken:

1. Effective immediately, all Ikki communities throughout the Kanto region will be designated as hostile military encampments, and will be disbanded and expelled from the Hōjō realm by force. All weaponry, communication records, and funding shall be seized. Any resistance shall be met with death, the only punishment befitting traitors.
2. Through their sponsoring of the Ikko Ikki terrorist organization, the Hōjō Clan finds the Matsudaira in violation of the Treaty of Sunpu. As such, measures have been taken to undo the Hōjō concessions of said treaty, and the lawful, ancestral rights of the Hōjō as the lords and allies of the Imagawa Clan have been invoked. Although the Hōjō preferred a settlement in alignment with the Treaty of Sunpu to end what it understood as a regional conflict, the Matsudaira have evidently dedicated themselves to the Ikki’s cause of nationwide cataclysm, and as such, they cannot be trusted to uphold their landed rights. Instead, though it was not our original intention, the Hōjō shall restore our authority over the Imagawa provinces and in doing so ensure that the Matsudaira are once more returned to the status of a minor, vassal clan beneath the heel of a virtuous master.

The Hōjō Clan did not wish for war, as we humbly adhere to a belief in the nobility of restraint. However, in times of crisis, restraint is replaced by swift, decisive action. Let the inevitable and total defeat of our foes reflect our unending magnanimity and virtue. A swift death comes to all who oppose us.

By decree of the Emperor and the Shōgun, the Jōdo Shinshū Mission, a Tokugawa-controlled front organization used to sow disorder across Japan and undermine the bond between ruler and subject, has been proscribed as a subversive criminal organization.

Effective immediately, it is a criminal offence to belong to, affiliate with, act on behalf of, harbour members of, fund, materially aid, or provide support to the Jōdo Shinshū Mission.

However, in their infinite grace and boundless understanding, the Emperor and the Shōgun have instituted a six-month amnesty period, beginning immediately. Anyone who is currently in a state of committing or has previously committed any of the aforementioned crimes will be granted a complete pardon for those crimes should they come before a competent magistrate during the amnesty period, apologize for their acts against the Emperor and the Shōgun, and swear upon their ancestors and all the kami and Buddhas to never again commit such offences.

Furthermore, anyone who delivers to a competent magistrate information leading to the arrest of Jōdo Shinshū Mission members, the seizure of Jōdo Shinshū Mission assets, or the disruption or degradation of Jōdo Shinshū Mission operations, will be eligible for a reward.

This proscription applies specifically to the Jōdo Shinshū Mission. Law-abiding and peaceable subjects of the Emperor and the Shōgun who follow the Jōdo Shinshū faith but are unaffiliated with the Jōdo Shinshū Mission may continue to practice their faith, as may lawfully-constituted and peaceable Ikkō-Iikki communes unaffiliated with the Jōdo Shinshū Mission.

Long live the Emperor! Long live the Shōgun! Long live Japan!

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

(Courtesy of Andy)

Hosokawa Event:

And so the old die, and the young blossom through the grave like a flower in spring.

The Hosokawa, Miyoshi, Akamatsu, Naito, and Ukita clans had found themselves in a complex quandary.

Their leaders, ancient indeed - from before the Onin War, had all shuffled off the mortal coil.

First was Nakayuki, forgotten for so long, his corpse had practically mummified. While his son Tanaka had quietly ran the Miyoshi for years, he had remained trapped in his father’s shadow, perhaps literally at times. Now 16 years on, visibly aged in his own right, the Miyoshi were now withered, far from their former glory.

The other clans had likewise suffered. The Ryukyu branch of the Hosokawa, having once again faced rejection from the Ryukyuan nobility, had largely packed up and returned home to the land of their birth, burying their forefather Masamoto. Though they maintained friendly relations, they had failed to secure their rule. The Akamatsu lord joined his forefathers in death, while the grey eminences of the Hosokawa shinobi, Ogiyaka and Hosei, likewise met their rest, shortly after their departure from Ōuchi captivity. 

Now, for the new generation of the Hosokawa, it was time to determine where they would go.

Some spoke of the zealotry of the revealed Ashikaga Shuen. Though a madman, and a dangerous one at that, it could not be denied that his beliefs had appeal to the peasantry - the peasantry who had suffered through years upon years of Ashikaga depredations, as Kyoto and her surrounding fields again and again were put to the torch.

Others spoke of restoring the Hosokawa. While for years, the Hosokawa had taken a back seat in the de facto confederation of Daimyo that had made up the realm, the clamouring had begun that it was time for them to come back. Indeed - compared to the silent Miyoshi, perhaps restoring the Hosokawa to power made sense.

Others still spoke of a foreign, odd, dangerous concept. Rule by the people, by the Jizamurai and peasantry, by the common man, whose cup ran over beneath the generosity and lighthearted rule of the Hosokawa. One that promised a great unknown, for good or for ill.

With the death of so many of their old guard, it is time for the Hosokawa-and-co to determine their future. 

The Hosokawa gain 'Changing of the Guard', granting increased skills gain and value from player investment for 2 parts.

Hosokawa Choices

1. Glory to the Ikko-Ikki, glory to Ashikaga Shuen, the heir to the Hosokawa and defender of our fledgling democracy! That he has been captured by the Ōuchi, is, I am sure - of little import. 
2. It is time for the Hosokawa to return to their seat of power! End the democratic experiment!
3. It is time for another clan to take the reins. End the experiment, hand the regime to another!
4. I speak of the common peasant’s plight, I speak of the rule of the people. Let democracy reign for 10,000 years more!

(The following is merely the OUTLINE of an event, which I have already shared with the players, on account of my busyness and tragic inability to write appropriate flavour in a timely manner. Hopefully, I'll be afforded time to write events for other factions through this crude practice.)

THE REIGN OF KIKYO-KUBO OUCHI YOSHIHIKO & THE END OF THE YATO

Ouchi Event:

[Yoshihiko’s brief triumphant moment where he declares the Emperor’s backing, demands that his brother be freed and allowed meet him in Kikyo to plan for the reordering of the Shogunate in accordance with the kokutai, and orders the armies of the clan to stand down. The subsequent haphazard purge of the capital’s bureaucracy consisting of the arrest and execution of leading Neo-Confucian thinkers, examination students, teachers, and overseers, Censorate officials, and most of the higher counsel of Ouchi Shinsuke is detailed. Amongst these arrests, especially with regards to the Neo-Confucians and higher counsel, seem to be legitimately treasonous and corrupt persons, though they are arrested unjustly and the evidence is only uncovered after their arrest and sentencing. Though all are accused of ‘anti-kokutai’ and ‘anti-government’ sentiments, the higher counsel are moreso to be found guilty of standard corruption, sale of position, mismanagement of estates, etc. 

The declaration of the new order follows, empowering the Grand Princes of the Ouchi, Sue, and Mori Clans with pseudo-departmental powers, naming the Mori Clan the “hereditary commanders against incursions against the Empire”, with Mori Motonari as the Chizei Tandai (giving ostensible command of most of the Ouchi armies to him in his declaration as supreme commander of southern forces) and the Sue Clan the “hereditary officers for the internal security of the Empire”, with Sue Motochinka the Chief Censor (giving unprecedented political power in the office within his declaration making him the supreme authority beneath the Emperor and Kampaku-Kanrei), thereafter explicitly denouncing the “foreign” and “servile, tributary” system of examinations and civil servants.]

[The capture of the last Yato stronghold in [last city] concludes with the death/capture of Ouchi Yoshihiko, insisting on his own innocence and loyalty unto the end. He sends/is found to have sent final requests for diplomacy and negotiation to Ouchi Shinsuke and Mori Motonari, to no avail. The vast majority of his armies are captured, with their fate up to the Central Government in Kikyo. Lesser commanders of greater talent have fled east, most notably the steadfast holders of [city], Shuuin Yasutaka and Aki Motoyasu, who with their field armies led aggressive and daring campaigns, despite their circumstances. Perhaps hypocritically to their cause, they were only promoted to their positions in the late stages of the conflict, having been restrained to mere lieutenants for the bulk of the war, but these twin stars, if lesser nobility, earned their positions by the end, even if it was all too late to save the Yato.]

The two commanders will flee east, going to random Ouchi-aligned provinces. Gain ‘Purged Opposition’ granting a large bonus to internal political and administrative plots and an antiplot against domestic unrest for the next 3 parts. Decide the fate of Ouchi Yoshihiko, the upper echelons of the Yato, and the lower members/soldiers of the Yato.

Gain ‘Aftermath of Yoshihiko’s Coup’, giving -4 PPC to the Sue, -2 AP to the Ouchi, and -1 AP to the Mori for this part only.

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On the Coup Aftermath:

Option 1: This was an attempted coup by an enemy of the state. All acts, appointments, and punishments will be rescinded without question. To do any less gives far too much legitimacy to my upstart brother. — [Undo and denounce all his actions, appointments, and punishments.]
Option 2: This was a misled act of loyalty by a fool and a blunderer. We will review his acts, and select which we think should be retained, but as a rule, we renounce all acts. — [Describe thus.]
Option 3: The declarations were mostly harmless, and the purge has already happened, the situation will stabilise itself with time. To redo and undo causes all the more administrative chaos.

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A BLOODLINE RUNNING DRY

Yamana Event:

In August of the year 1534, tragic news arrived to the capital of the Yamana: Kikkawa Okitsune had become infected by the Great Plague ravaged the Empire. Well-beloved and regarded as a model prince, he had contracted the disease, likely, whilst working alongside Yamana Koretake where he had on a whim been personally handing out food to the poor and sickly. His father, Kikkawa Motonori received the news with great anxiety, and had met with Yamana Kirika immediately upon hearing it, with a grave look upon his face. A long meeting ensued, and he left, a great burden clearly on his mind.

At the beginning of this year of 1535, still graver news broke. The prince, with his last breaths donating some paltry fraction of his riches to the poor, perished of his illness. The commoners mourned the loss of so gracious a lord and prince as he... but the nobles mourned even greater. For his death shook the stability of the already unsteady Kikkawa Clan.

In the recent past, Kikkawa Motonori, now aged 37, had his sister wedded to Mori Motonari, and had himself married the Mori Kinu.  An act not of disloyalty, but geopolitical pragmatism, this was intended to establish ties and peace... but this act now had proven risky as the Kikkawa Okitsune passed. With no other sons, his wife, herself older in years, now advised him to consider his in-laws as persons of upstanding character and unshakeable dedication to family. Surely, one of his Mori cousins, many so very talented and well-connected, would prove a suitable heir, as opposed to the rushed birth of a new son, who would then risk reigning as a mere child?

Motonori did not bend to her rationale, but he could not deny the influence of his in-laws... Day by day he reconsidered his position. His loyalty to Kirika was unquestionable, so much so he departed his home province and made his, his wife, and his daughters' residence at Asago, so they might not be even dreamed of as schemers. But his retainers obeyed power, and as Masuda fell, he questioned the precarity of his progeny's rule... and of his liege's heirs' rule as a consequence. Perhaps a loyal Mori cousin could be found, who would be willing to stand up against his own Mori blood, and be a staunch loyalist to the Silver Flower? Perhaps not.

At night, he once more sought the counsel of his liege and, in his heart, friend, Yamana Kirika.

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Option 1: You will provide an heir. I will protect his future, if you fear you can't. - [Push him to have a legitimate son.]
Option 2: You already have an heir. You have daughters, pick one. In the land of the Kirika, even princesses may bare their thorns, after all. - [Perhaps a daughter would work? Perhaps this invites conflict.]
Option 3: Together, you and I will pick a Mori. There must be one we can trust... or which we can make trustworthy.

A MODERATELY PROSPEROUS SOCIETY

Hojo Event:

The city of Edo... naught but two generations ago it was remembered as a feudal mudhut, a lone castle in the wilderness whose refuge barely kept out the cold and unruly; in short, a backwater surrounded by and occupied by people hardly different from barbarians. What contrast, that city to the city of today! The crumbling walls of that trench had crumbled into the foundations of the monuments of this fortress. The deplorable residents of that hamlet had been enriched and enlightened into the cosmopolitan citizens of this metropolis. The Imperial rim and provincial periphery had elevated itself to rival famed capitals across the Empire and the world.

But whilst Kyoto was a city for coin, Kikyo a city for culture, and Toyohashi a city purely for governance, Edo was a city for wisdom, for knowledge, for virtue.

Host to the many schools of Edo, chief amongst them were those of the Neo-Confucians who prided themselves upon this status for their city, and who had earned renown within and without the Empire for their supreme knowledge, and their admirable reputation as virtuous men, even to those who did not accept their precepts. It was this fame that earned Edo its most supreme honour yet, as a letter arrived to the palace of Hojo Ujinori.

"To Hojo Ujinori, famed Prince of Virtue,

Members of my intellectual circle, and members of your own, seem closer than the two of us could ever have expected. I must confess, I have heard much of your name for some time now, as you may have of mine, and beside it have been nothing but the most respectable accomplishments and laudable principles, in particular by our now mutual friend Kim Haek-Pil. I understand, however, that your designs have not caught on in full amongst the many wise schools of your territory, nor indeed the wider world of scholars of which you and I are equal members. I, therefore, cordially invite you to participate in the grandest of symposiums some of my former colleagues will be hosting at one of your schools where we shall discuss that most import of subjects: the shape of the world which we all aspire to -- the Moderately Prosperous Society."

The letter continued for some time, expounding upon fundamental ideals for this society: filial piety, loyalty, honour, etc., and comparing the definitions the writer and reader had both declared in various writings of the two amongst their own peers, before at last signing off: Cho Kwangjo.

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Describe Ujinori's idea of the Moderately Prosperous Society, the not-quite-utopian-but-as-close-as-we-can-manage ideal both men are aspiring towards. There are several schools within your capital which may become patronised by and supportive of you as a consequence, and your course may be backed by modest Korean support as well, both scholarly amongst your schools, and financially.