History of Sakura and Reri Murakami
This is inexact, but I shall try to recall what I have learned of this place, during my tenure here.
The actual village of Sakura came into existence around the Black Lotus Dojo . At the founding, a woman named Reri operated as it's chief instructor, and many of the various personages who would later became important to it's history and it's governance - Ichigatsu, Akanma, Calypso and the other Wulv Family members - were part of its roster. I am aware in general that sometimes they would engage in fighting with other settlements on behalf of others, and perhaps they were part of some greater country, then, but Sakura as you see it today came about after a particular incident interfered in what might otherwise have been a relatively quiet and normal martial arts studio.
Reri, it seems, was a refugee of a place known as Kozakura, an eastern empire archipelago on the world of Abeir-Toril. For reasons that, as an amateur historian, I can not now recall explained, she was also barren.
But that did not stop her from that usual mortal, female, and very understandable desire. No one seems to recall th who helped Reri perform the ritual which impregnated her - for she and that person were the only two in the room at the time. But it was a dark working, and Reri, it seems, used the opportunity to take vengeance upon an old oppressor.
Between the ramblings of the mad Kuroshiko, the memory of Akanma Igarashi, and the recollections of Calypso and even her own husband, I cannot now tell you the full extent of that ritual. But as some here, I was sensitive to visions as a mortal, and this is what I saw -
I saw the theft of the soul of the Immortal Empress of Tenno, cut free by an assassin's knife. And I, years later, was not the only one who saw it. So did their generals, and many of their court.
Meanwhile it seems that Reri did become pregnant. The child, Himiko, survived the birth but her mother did not. Using onmyoji, or some sorcery unique to them, the Celestial Empire by that time had determined where their empress had been taken to - and the dojo found itself in a war with an Empire. Against this, the nation of Agalon sent airships rigged for war - in support of the then-lord Ichigatsu. Using these, and their own impressive martial prowess, the Dojo held the invaders at bay and he, and his soldiers, were able to protect his infant daughter. Yet, this defense was not a perfect one. I suspect that the death of Reri caused a rift within the dojo that would eventually drive Ichigatsu and Akanma to the paths which they, individually, took against each other - though again, what specifics remain have been muddled with time and the liability of memory, so that it's difficult for me to say exactly what occurred which drove them so far apart.
Kazan-no-ryu, the dragon spirit that inhabited the volcano nearby the dojo, fell victim to a poison. Ichigatsu, Calypso, and many of the dojo sought a cure for this malady - and Akanma, with a contingent of his own, struck the spirit down instead. His blade was indicated with the blood of the kami, and when the battle was taken to the ship of the Celestial general, Akanma severed his head as well.
But he had slain a Kami, and defied the dojo that he had been serving, and so when the war had finished so decisively, he was cast out of the town and raised Kageshima within the center of the river upon whose banks the town is built. Many of the soldiers and civilians who were caught up in the fighting, or who depended on the dojo for their work or susteneance, settled along the river bank as well - forming most of the town that anyone can now see has settled into the mountainside, as picturesque as anyone could like.
A thread of fate binds the town, now, woven around it's little Empress. Kageshima has sank, and Akanma is no more. The Dojo has fallen to little use. And the remnants of the Empire they struck down have settled in with them, causing a certain amount of civil strife. Criminals, nogitsune, and Yōkai of all sorts now haunt the forests surrounding our little town.
And something is coming towards us that, having passed out of mortality, I cannot actually see any longer.
I think that if I had to guess, we have not yet seen the full reckoning for Reri's desire and decisions. There is still the assassin, and the sorcerer, and the Lords to deal with, who do not see the face of a girl, when they view Himiko, but that of a memory seven years dead.
From the records of Hōkyō Valeria Wyrd
Comments