Rokugan in the Shadows Ch 1: Gathering Dark

[~Corvus~]

The Wang-Liang shake their heads and look at each other.

"I think you have the wrong idea about this land; only the brutal survive. Few people can live a life free from its clutches and say they can find peace. You fight for what you get. If it is not humans, the it is the naga; if not the naga, then other spirits clamor for dominion of your space. The humans fool themselves into saying they protect the land.

Many hundreds of years ago, the Samurai slew a guardian of this area and blamed the deed wrongly on us. They had sealed the land with magic, binding it away and forcing its life-essence to the bidding of their shugenja. Even far away, we felt its recent stirrings, so we returned. The last few days, this city has endured a rebinding ritual that went afoul; the Kami, in its fury at being bound, reached out and subverted the magics. Now, the humans taste the kind of power forced on the Kami.

These docks? This area of the city? From the tenacity of the samurai here, this is the last area that has not fallen to the Blighted Walkers. All their friends, their neighbors? They are dead. They may struggle, but you would be doing them a mercy compared to the wrath of the Kami; if you'd watched them turning to the Blight, then you'd know.

But we know the spirit well, and it knows us. We have an agreement. Our return will bring us both peace.

Spoiler: Swami

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Jade sees many reasons to believe them.