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 Post subject: The Muhaki Family [New Tortoise Family]
PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:46 pm 
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This Family replaces the Kasuga Family as the main family of the Tortoise.

In 443 Hantei Yugozohime executed Agasha Kasuga upon his return from his transoceanic journey but let her uncle Otomo Muhaki step in as the founder of the Tortoise Clan, entrusted with the task to conduct external relations at Imperial discretion. Lord Muhaki adopted Kasuga's orphan daughter Genjiko, who became Tortoise Champion after his death in 473, but also had an epigone bastard with Sadahako, a peasant entertainer he had made the daimyo of the Someisa vassal family of the Muhaki. He loved her so dearly that he had convinced her grandniece Empress Hantei Retsuhime to elevate Sadahako to the position of a Minor Fortune upon his lover's death. As Sadahako was endowed with the longevity of the great turtle Shinsei's friend Someisa had allegedly turned into, Retsuhime died before her and her respective edict would be promulgated posthumously. Muhaki's only child, Saionji, was made known to the world as the son of Genjiko and her husband Zazu, a former Yasuki, but those few familiar with Zazu's homosexuality or the bitterness of that marriage long had reasons to doubt the heir's parentage.

In 500 both Genjiko and Sadahako died in Kolat assassinations. Both murders had the plausible deniability of being respectively an unfortunate accident and a natural cause as Genjiko had been lost at sea and Sadahako allegedly had had a cardiac arrest. As it happened while Saionji was in the Tarkhanate, Zazu assumed control of the Tortoise in Rokugan. However, right before the First Voyage of the Imperial Explorers Retsuhime's edict was revealed to public and Sadahako was proclaimed a Fortune. Public bickering between clandestine Kolat allies, Gusai Ryoshida and Muhaki Zazu, led to the relegation of the construction of the main temple of Sadahako outside of Rokugan, to be supervised by the Someisa. Zazu's will was that it would be Muhaki Berena, a Merenaese nobleborn companion of Saionji, secretly a Kharsite, to spearhead the effort.

The arrival of both the Explorers and Saionji at the overseas Tortoise holding of Kameyama Jima brought about the rejuvenation of the Tortoise. Hantei Jama recognised Saionji as the rightful Champion of the Tortoise Clan. While Berena showed little interest in acting on Zazu's orders, the Temple was quickly completed on the island thanks to the efforts of Agasha Utsusemi and Someisa Ran. After Sadahako manifested herself to Ran and conferred her blessing onto her, Saionji named her the new daimyo of the Someisa. With Imperial approval the Tortoise Champion took Berena as his wife in a ceremony at his true mother's Temple.

On Kamyama, a conspiracy to overthrow the failing dynasty of Merenae was born. In a series of events largely masterminded by Hantei Jama the heirs of key noble families of Merenae, Almeria, Arrigorriagakoa and Quijano, supported by Miya Edogawa in whom Teodoro Cornejo had reincarnated, embarked on an effort to rekindle the Xantellados, a failed conspiracy once headed by Teodoro Cornejo aiming at replacing the Merenaese royal house of Radeña with a scion of the Hantei. Saionji, encouraged by both Jama and his wife Berena, the heiress of the Quijano, and supported by the Imperial Navy, left Kameyama Jima to join the rebellion and stake his claim for the Merenaese throne based on his Hantei heritage as Fujiwa's grandson.

The arrival of the new Xantellados from Kameyama Jima tipped the scales of the ongoing rebellion. Saionji was crowned in Carceiras as King Salvador I. While there was little commonality between the rebels, in victory they engaged in quid pro quo that preserved peace under the new Muxaqui dynasty. The spoils were divided between the victors. The Crownlands passed onto the Muxaqui, but the Quijano under Queen Bellena have expanded their influence in the capital and institutions of the realm, securing key positions in Consejo Real and the Archdiocese of Carceiras, curbing extremities of the prior regime but making few concessions to the existing feudal social order. The crown endorsed commodities-based mercantilist policies favouring inland landowners with the direct Tortoise vassals of Saionji assuming near-monopoly in external trade, to the chagrin of domestic burghers and commercially inclined nobility.

The Brego, who had replaced the Cornejo four decades before, were purged from La Corna and Katarina, the bastard granddaughter of Teodoro Cornejo, had her hereditary rights to the Cornejo lands recognised by the King. As she was married with a son Sancho to Jose de Almeria, it led to the domestic alliance of both houses and the formation of their unified front along the western rim of the kingdom, except for the northwestern province of La Gueva (Gebu) cut out from the Crownlands and entrusted to the Someisa along with Kameyama Jima as their hereditary fief. King Salvador gave royal pardon to most of the former royalists who agreed to swear fealty to him, notably to the Alguria who were retained as the hereditary holders of Tartessos except for their key southeastern entrepot of Targara which in recognition of outstanding services to the Crown has been leased for 99 years to the Guisao (Gusai) family represented by Simon de Guisao (Gusai Susumu), who would serve as its governor. The Crown also let him keep the assets of Alguria merchant company he had captured during the succession war, creating a commercial caveat in the royal monopoly.

Under the Tortoise rule the quickest and most significant changes would occur in religious affairs and foreign policy. King Salvador accommodated the Abertzales by travelling to Arrigorriaga right after the war where he promulgated the Edict of Tolerance, introducing freedom of confession and religious practice across the realm, thus ending the persecution of the indigenous beliefs of Aberri. The mandate of the Inquisition was reduced to intra-faith affairs and its prosecutive powers transferred to the royal courts, what also was beneficial for Rokugani and Unicorn expats.
With the permission of the new Archbishop of Carceiras a new missionary congregation, the Society of Kharsis, was formed by Tertiero de Agaxa (Agasha Sanjuro), a Rokugani convert. It would aim at fostering modern education and promoting ecumenical dialogue across religions and cultures. All assets of the church in Aberri and La Gueva have been passed onto the Kharsuites, along with ecclesial universities in La Corteza (La Corna) and La Rosaleda (Tartessos). Padre Tertiero assumed the newly created missionary diocese of Santa Serena in Fuero (La Gueva), doubling as a place of the cult of Sadahako in the kingdom. The Kharsuite doctrine favoured the legitimacy of the new dynasty despite their foreign beliefs by seeking commonalities between the Faith of Kharsis, and Rokugani faith. The inevitable tensions within the Merenaese Church these changes have spurred, which are supposed to be resolved synodally, have also sent ripples across the region, drawing ire in the Sheel Kingdom, with calls for a crusade against heretics, but positive reactions in the Tarkhanate.

The legitimacy of the new king has nevertheless been undermined by the rumours and claims that he owes his fealty to foreign monarchs, the Emerald Emperor and/or the Khans. The disgruntled and disenfranchised sections of the Merenaese society, amalgamating into an unholy alliance of traditionalists and lower castes, whose appetite for empowerment has risen due to the success in toppling the ancien regime, have quickly formed the doctrine of La Independencia. While not explicitly rebellious, it has put significant pressure on the new king. As rumours of a mysterious La Consejo Oscuro have surfaced, the Inquisition was quietly repurposed to discover the identities of these opponents of the Crown, while the king himself endorsed the Abertzale idea of a small, victorious war as a way to consolidate the nation.

Indeed, under the newly appointed Royal Admiral Xavier de Arrigorriagakoa, the war-mobilised fleets of the kingdom have been quickly merged and refitted for a naval attack on the long-standing enemy, the Kingdom of Thrane. The Abertzale Admiral found an unlikely ally for this expedition in Katarina Cornejo who seemed to be favouring rapid naval expansion; the shipyards of La Corteza were crucial in preparing the effort. The casus belli seemed to be the renewed activity of Thranish pirates in Merenaese waters, and rumours of the ghost of Garen Hawthorne commanding them. Except... few Merenaese desired this war as the kingdom seemed to be facing greater problems than sea harassment, and the proponents of La Independencia have exploited those outlooks. They were partially silenced when Don Xavier's armada delivered, bringing about a brutal and crippling Second Sacking of Morriston, returning to Lekeitio in glory. The plunder from the city was presented back to the Crown as Thranish 'indemnities' for piracy. In result, Thrane withdrew her support for the Nyaskese in their defence against the Yodotai Crusade and sent the remnants of their navy against the Merenaese to seek vengeance. Naval engagements would continue.

The news about Saionji's ascendancy were sent to Rokugan by Miya Edogawa via a fast courier vessel, Isora's Glory. She arrived before the Winter Court in Ryoko Owari would be over, bringing an additional stir to an already busy political season. The immediate reaction was that most of the Tortoise abandoned Zazu and, come thaw, set sail east on the vessels remaining in Rokugan. Right after Oshogatsu 501, when the new Shogun led Imperial forces toward Nikesake, back into engagement with the Yobanjin invaders, Ikoma Meiran announced that based on the past precedence of Lion being responsible for the custody of lands of the Emperor abandoned and put in jeopardy by their former holders her Clan would assume control of Tortoise holdings. A blitz Matsu invasion led by Matsu Yasuhiro, newly appointed shireikan and the Lion Champion's betrothed, launched from the West Hub and Shiro no Yojin where the Lion troops had wintered, claimed North Hub, East Hub, Taimana Choryu, Shiro Kasuga and both towers on the White Stag, driving a wedge between Seppun lands and the capital and enveloping Otosan Uchi with a near-complete cordon sanitaire. Zazu ensured that the Lion met almost no opposition in seizing Tortoise holdings. Soon after, he swore fealty to Meiran as Kaeru Zazu and was given charge of the City of Rich Frog.

The Tortoise gained a kingdom, but lost their homeland.



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 Post subject: Re: The Muhaki Family [New Tortoise Family]
PostPosted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 12:58 pm 
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Joined: Sun Oct 02, 2016 2:58 am
Posts: 3783
Because of the bilingual nature of the Tortoise kingdom family names are presented with their equivalents. While in Rokugan they would all be considered vassals of Muhaki, in Merenae all except the Someisa have long-established separate identities. If the Tortoise ever assumes the Great Clan status they will become standalone families.

Muhaki/de Muxaqui Benefit: +1 Perception

Someisa/de Someza Benefit: As above. The Vassal Family Disadvantage applies.

Kihano/de Quijano Benefit: +1 Intelligence, or as above and the Vassal Family Disadvantage applies.

Arigo/de Arrigorriagakoa Benefit: +1 Willpower, or as above and the Vassal Family Disadvantage applies.

Arumeru/de Almeria Benefit: +1 Awareness, or as above and the Vassal Family Disadvantage applies.



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