Umizu

Adapted and inspired from WotC's Journey's through the Radiant Citadel.
Residents of the city-state of Umizu enjoy their fair share of luck, but good fortune comes at a cost: a season of bad luck that arrives with the yearly monsoon. During this time, locals pray at shrines for protection against misfortune, and attendants keep a watchful eye for grim portents in the rains.
Set amid glittering turquoise waters, Umizu has long enjoyed prosperity that masks ever-simmering tension. Daimyo Hogishi Takemi does his best to rein in crime, but the city's lackluster bureaucracy is run by complacent samurai administrators and riddled with corruption. Crime syndicates control the city's underground trade and administer their own brand of justice. Meanwhile, the Southwest Whaling Concern, an influential merchant organization, builds a private navy and clashes with the Rurapo, an indigenous clan of tritons who monitor fishing and whaling activity. In the wake of the whalers' blatant overfishing, the Rurapo are divided on whether to renegotiate their treaty with Umizu or declare war.

Noteworthy Sites

Each city district features its own architectural aesthetics. The districts cling to volcanic islands connected by sturdy stone bridges, ferries, and steam-powered funiculars.

Bright Moon Pier

This collection of massive piers hosts a marketplace and is the haven of Umizu's premier criminal syndicate, the Safe Oceans Society. Most merchants here deal with the Safe Oceans Society eventually, whether to smuggle goods, avoid taxes, or quietly resolve conflicts. Society lieutenants run gambling dens disguised as tea rooms along the pier, while samurai and scoundrels test their mettle beneath the waves in underwater fighting rings. To avoid scrutiny, the Safe Oceans Society employs adventurers as independent operatives - while virtuous samurai-class bureaucrats hire them to investigate the syndicate's crimes.
Rurapo sometimes visit the pier to trade or sample crunchy Umizu pickles. Some have forged uneasy alliances with the Safe Oceans Society, providing illegal relics from sunken temples and shipwrecks.

Governor's Palace

A massive villa serves as the central administrative offices of Umizu and the residence of its mayor, Daimyo Hogishi Takemi. The palace is famous for Hogishi's elegant parties and for an annual poetry competition that draws nobles to Umizu - along with their bitter rivalries and personal guards.

Shrine of Storms

The Shrine of Storms is an ancient place of spiritual power. Cut deep into its island alongside residencies for the shrine's warrior-priests and libraries holding relics from around the world, the shrine is central to Umizu's many celebrations. Each winter, citizens gather for the Thunder Festival and honor the Turtle Sage - the guardian spirit of the islands - with three days of drumming, dancing, and prayer.

Life in Umizu

Umizu is a welcoming city, and many citizens hail from far-flung lands. Humans are the most numerous, with skin tones ranging from pale to medium brown, and with hair and eyes ranging from dark brown to black.

Social Mores

Umizu is a matrilineal culture with a preference for succession by women. Most families live in multigenerational homes, and the wealthiest favor polyamorous marriages, typically with a clan matriarch and several spouses of any gender. Powerful clans compete for prestige through formal dueling matches every few months.
Umizu has few taboos around sexuality and gender. Titles such as "daimyo" are gender-neutral, as are most names. Clothing varies by class status rather than gender - instead, people express their gender through perfumes. Bright citrus scents are feminine coded, musky wood tones are gender-neutral, and floral scents are masculine. Umizu has rigid sumptuary laws that reinforce the social hierarchy, restricting colors, fabrics, and styles of dress based on class.

Ancestor Spirits

Respect for the spirits infuses daily life. Native residents keep shrines to their ancestors in their homes and leave out offerings at dawn and dusk. They consult ancestral spirits before making life-changing decisions, but the perspectives of the dead can be just as flawed as those of the living. Disagreements in large family clans sometimes result in battles involving hundreds of ancestor spirits, with tumultuous consequences for their living descendants.

Seasonal Misfortune

The Demon Festival kicks off the summer monsoon season, marking a city-wide period of misfortune. Citizens visit the Shrine of Storms to purchase talismans of protection and beseech the Turtle Sage for good luck. At sundown, the shrine's attendants ride barges through Umizu's waterways, shouting taunts to draw out fell spirits while people dressed as demons dance on bridges and walkways.