The History of Kokubura

Map of Kokubura

Hajime ni (The Beginning)

Not twenty centuries ago the Tourmaline Throne lie at the bottom of a vast ocean, unseen by any who breathed air and knew the sun.

With the birth of the goddess Iganari from a flask of the gods' sake, Kokubura was also raised from the depths of the sea, forming an island chain in a vast ocean where there was none before.  Offended by the intrusion, Shei-wan, the Sea Dragon who Does not Sleep, threatened to sink the islands.  Instead Iganari sacrificed herself, committing a ritual seppuku that bound the land to this world and satiated the dragon.

Iganari's islands were not void -- they were the land of spirits.  The spirits, emboldened by their primogenitor's sacrifice, traveled the seas and land of Wei and brought to the island varied creatures, and in some cases, became like them.

The last creature who made Kokubura its home was human.  Brought not by spirits but by their own sails and vision¹, they laid on the land a rich nation that spread from north to south.  In that nation poetry was as common as the sword, polite demeanor more important than martial strength.

During that time, the great spirit Marok devised a plan laid by fire gods to set the sky alight, both day and night.  Marok gave them battle, eventually falling in what is now known as the Kainuik Wastelands, though not before arresting the fire spirits' intentions.  Korobokuru shaman still pay homage to two grand mountains they claim to be Marok's chin and Marok's toe.

Kokubura no Kibo (Kokubura's Hope)

But the spirits still dwelt in Kokubura.

And some of them fell, losing their original destiny to the fear of chaos and disorder.  Tainted by their wider travels to anarchic realms, some had returned to Kokubura with creatures for the menagerie.  Yet the sickness they displayed remained dormant until the very beings they had brought with them gained in number and power -- and called forth the latent forces within the spirits.

A great battle remembered as Kokubura no Kibo, the Hope of Kokubura, was fought in the Spirit Realm between those who remained true to the sacrifice of the goddess Iganari and those who had been corrupted.  Though confined to the Spirit Realm, shamans of the humans and other races knew well enough that terrible changes were happening all about them.

Within a year after the war's inception, it poured out of the Spirit Realm into the Material.  The human nation of Kokubura was put under siege by the fallen spirits and their charges.  It was at this time a new race of humanoids, the vanara, were brought to Kokubura to secure the connection between some of the holier cedar forests and their counterparts in the Spirit Realm.

Of note, the ancient kingdom of Miusha was washed away in a tsunami called upon by the forces of law.  The wave was so great it removed the mountains separating the Tai Pho and Shau Lai mountain ranges. In Miusha's place there now lies only a marshy wasteland. 

Invasion

Hearing of the great rift between the Material and Spirit Realms, the Wu-Lai Emperor from across the sea sent a great fleet to assist the cause of law.

But before the fleet could reach the islands, the war ended, nobody the winner.

Finding the hostilities at an end, the great admiral decided instead to take Kokubura for the Wu-Lai Emperor, and landed in Makura and occupied the island.  His next target was Marahiru, the capital of Kokubura.  But as he sailed his fleet up the southern end of Takara ken, a great storm swept across the waters and sank Wu-Lai's ten thousand ships.  Great geysers and whirlpools still haint those straits.

With the threat from the mainland dissipated and Kokubura no Kibo at a standstill, the nation of Kokubura finally had a chance to look in on itself... Whereas Kokubura once stretched from the Kainuik Wastelands to the southern tip of Makura, it now remained only in small pockets throughout the land.

Moreover, humanoid and monstrous kingdoms now stood at the very gates of Kokubura's recovering cities, and although weakened by the ravages of war themselves, these threats were nevertheless pertinent.

Yoban Senso (Barbarian War) and the Makuran Dragon

During Kokubura no Kibo and subsequent invasion from the mainland, korobokuru barbarians had been treated as equals to humans, but after the threat had passed they were relegated to lower rank.  They thus waged a second struggle, the Yoban Senso, with the human nation of Kokubura.  

Soon afterward a great unknown menace to Kokubura arose.  Seeking once again to part the rift between the Spirit Realm and the Material, a great dragon -- some say Shei-wan the Dragon Who Does not Sleep herself -- appeared over Makura, the site where Iganari's blood first spilt.  Causing her to become mortal, a band called simply The Companions ventured to the Spirit Realm and fought a precarious battle in which only one of The Companions survived.  The dragon lay defeated.

Though the divide between the Spirit and Material worlds was open only briefly, another race came forth, the nezumi, who now also inhabit Kokubura.

Denouement

The Companions last wandered this land nearly two hundred years ago.  In that time the korobokuru have been pushed back beyond the Sheng mountains.  Though that fight has tempered, barbarian tribes still stage reprisals, pouring out of the Kainuik Wastelands to harry and raid.

Threats to Kokubura do not sit idly, however.  A cataclysmic eruption removed several impassible mountains in the Shau Lai range, revealing a sizeable and mysterious city called Kora.  Inhabited not only by humans but other fanciful and even dreadful creatures, Kora remains separate from the nation.  Some rumor that its is the offspring of ancient Miusha.

Of recent note, the first official emissary sent from the Tourmaline Throne returned from the mainland having not met the Emperor of Wei. The Emperor has apparently become of the missing.  Additionally, the vanara who once felt only secure in their holy groves are re-initiating contact with human society once again.

Timeline

¹ What, you thought they ate turkey?

The Wu Jen