Nippon2

that she is dead to her old family. After the ritual is complete and she emerges for the reception, she removes the white kimono to reveal a red one underneath – the colour of life, showing she is reborn into her new family. Once the ceremony is done, the newly wedded couple often spends a month apart, meditating on what it means to be married, before they take up their new household together.

When a samurai reaches the age of forty, it is traditional for him or her to retire from active service to the clan. This is not mandatory, however, and samurai in the more active and pragmatic clans will often continue to actively serve their lords long after reaching their fortieth year. High-ranking nobles and daimyo also tend to stay active longer than the normal time. A samurai who does retire will most commonly choose to join the monks, taking a new name and beginning a new life as a monk or nun. Such retirement is accompanied by an extended ritual celebration, in which family and friends commemorate the samurai’s deeds and bid him goodbye. At the conclusion of this ritual, the samurai shaves his head, a transformation symbolizing his entering a new life of religious contemplation. Not all retiring samurai join the monks, however – some of them instead remain with their families or their lords, living quiet but honoured lives, and offering advice and counsel when it is sought. Retired samurai may also sometimes return to active service, taking up their swords once more when a crisis or threat requires their attention.

The last ritual of every samurai’s life is their funeral. These, like everything else in Nippon, follow a strict protocol. By Imperial Law, all bodies must be cremated. Traditionally, a funeral takes place four days

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after death, and those four days are filled with prayers, as well as the burning of special scrolls filled with “last words” which are the final parting words of the living to the dead. The body is anointed and purified by eta, then kept in state with an honour guard until the day of the cremation itself. Special foods are prepared on that day, and relatives and friends gather to observe the funeral pyre, which is also blessed by shugenja and monks. Once the body has been burned, even more prayers are spoken, to speed the spirit of the departed on its journey to the afterlife. The immediate relatives gather at the pyre and use special chopsticks to remove the remaining fragments of bone from the ashes – these are placed in a crematory urn, which is kept in a place of honour for 35 days before finally being buried, an event accompanied by a final round of prayers, chants, and blessings.

RELIGION

The official religion of Nippon is called Jinto and has been so for thousands of years. During Nippon’s history it has existed as an amorphous mix of nature worship, fertility cults, divination techniques, hero worship, and shamanism and unusually it has no recognised founder. It is a religion of nature and spirituality and the belief that human nature is inherently good, and evil is thought to stem from the individual's contact with external forces or agents that pollute their pure nature and cause them to act in ways which are disruptive.

Jinto worship is centred on the reverence of the gods or kami. Kami may be anything that is extraordinary and that inspires awe or reverence. Consequently, a wide variety of kami exist in Jinto: there are kami related to natural objects and creatures -- the spirits of mountains, seas, rivers, rocks, trees, animals, and the like; there are

guardian kami of particular locales and clans; also considered kami are exceptional human beings, including many emperors. Evil spirits are also known in Jinto, but few seem irredeemably so. While a god may first call attention to its presence through a display of rowdy or even destructive behaviour, generally speaking, the kami are benign. Their role is to sustain and protect.

In a way Jinto is similar to the Old World religion in that it consists of a pantheon of deities. However, the priests of Jinto worship all the gods or kami as one rather than there being any single clerics of a particular god. Although some gods are more popular than others, such as the Sun Goddess Amateratsu for example, it is highly unusual for anyone to take on a monotheistic perspective. There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of gods in the Jinto pantheon which are discussed further in this chapter but suffice to say the Sun Goddess Amateratsu is one of the most preeminent of the kami as well as the divine couple Zanagi and Zanami who were said to have created Nippon.

THE TENETS OF BUSHIDO

All samurai are supposed to live according to a strict and demanding set of ethical principles known as Bushido (literally, the “way of the warrior”). They quickly came to be accepted by all the clans in Nippon, and as the roles of samurai evolved to include courtiers and artisans, the Code of Bushido evolved into a complete philosophical view of the role and duty of the samurai. In modern Nippon, Bushido is integral to almost every aspect of a samurai’s life, and the proper way to uphold the Code is a subject of continual discussion and debate among all samurai.

Bushido is comprised of seven Virtues: Courage, Compassion, Courtesy, Duty, Honesty, Honour, and Sincerity. These virtues are held to represent the proper way in which samurai should live and serve their lords. In its ideal form, Bushido values each of these virtues equally, and a samurai is expected to adhere to all of them with equal vehemence. In practice, however, few samurai can live such spotless lives. Moreover, every clan in Nippon views Bushido in a slightly different way, according to their respective views of duty, honour, and life. The true nature of Bushido is constantly debated within the courts of Nippon, and the true way to uphold its Virtues is seldom fully agreed upon even within the same clan. Every clan, has its idealists who try to uphold every Virtue no matter the cost, just as every clan contains a few dark souls who laugh at Bushido and flout its principles.

COMPASSION (JIN)

Compassion teaches samurai that, as the warrior elite of society, it is their duty to protect and guide the lesser folk of Nippon. In its most obvious form, this means offering military protection, guarding the commoners against bandits, criminals, foreigners, and the monsters of Haikido.

It is this form of Compassion which is most widely respected and revered in Nippon, for all clans recognize the importance of keeping their peasants alive and productive. Bullying or abusing those of lower station is an act unworthy of a samurai, even if the social order allows it.

Some clans take Compassion more fully to heart, however, and seek to offer guidance and help to the lower castes.

COURAGE (YU)

Courage is in many ways the most basic and universal of all the Bushido virtues, since every samurai is expected to be ready and able to die at a moment’s notice. The central importance of courage to a samurai’s life cannot be understated. A samurai must be prepared to fight and die without hesitation, whether at his lord’s command or simply due to unavoidable circumstance. Indeed, it is popular to say that a samurai lives at all times three feet from death, since that is the reach of a katana. But in truth there is no clan which ignores courage. All recognize that courage is important if their samurai are to fulfil their duties properly.

It should be noted that courage does not mean foolhardiness. After all, a samurai’s life belongs to his lord, not to him. A samurai who throws his life away in a useless and selfish gesture is not behaving honourably, but rather is failing in his duty to lord and clan. Indeed, there are many times when retreating from a fight requires more courage than merely staying and dying.

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COURTESY (REI)

Samurai are civilized men and women, not barbarians, and are expected to behave with courtesy and proper manners at all times. A samurai who shows undue emotion or rudeness is not only violating Courtesy but is also losing his face (on), disrespecting those around him and shaming himself. A true samurai remains courteous and well-mannered at all times, even when facing his bitterest sworn enemy, or provoked with vile insults and malignant behaviour. A samurai who openly insults others is showing his own weakness, which is why Nipponese courtiers endlessly practice the art of the subtle and indirect insult. Conversely, when a samurai is confronted with failures of Courtesy by those of higher station, his own honour is demonstrated by his ability to endure such provocations and avoid drawing attention to others’ failures. Nipponese as a whole make a point of ignoring those who engage in uncouth and improper spectacles, since to draw attention to such discourteous behaviour is to make matters even worse.

As one might expect, those who serve their clans in politics and the courts tend to place a very strong emphasis on Courtesy, since it is a vital element of social and political negotiation.

The most heavily political clans place a special value on Courtesy, although for some this is more for the Virtue’s tactical value in court than due to any moral commitment to it.

DUTY (CHUGO)

If there is a Virtue which competes with Courage for universal acceptance, it is Duty. A samurai must always be ready to serve his lord in whatever way is required, no matter what the cost. Death is the least that a samurai may face – he must be prepared to endure

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humiliation, dishonour, shame, and failure for the sake of Duty. He must remain faithful to lord, family, clan, and comrades no matter what temptations may fall in his path. A samurai who violates loyalty to his lord or clan is violating Duty, and such untrustworthy individuals are hardly worthy of the title “samurai.” Duty is the reason why love is so problematic for samurai, since a samurai in love will feel a conflicting loyalty to his (or her) beloved which may disrupt or diminish the fulfilment of duty.

HONESTY (GI)

Honesty is in principle the simplest of the virtues of Bushido, but also perhaps the most troublesome. Ideally, it would seem obvious that an honourable warrior should always tell the truth, and indeed, there are some families and clans which embrace Honesty with the same fervour as the rest of the virtues. Honesty is also strongly associated with justice, and thus tends to be a virtue admired by magistrates (or at least by those magistrates who take their duties to heart).

However, many other samurai, especially those who serve their clans in court, find that Honesty is often a virtue which must be danced around, or perhaps even violated, in order to fulfil their duties. Almost all those samurai who serve in the arena of court and politics practice the art of deceiving or manipulating their opponents while still remaining technically truthful, and some families make almost an art form of employing such tactics while still satisfying themselves that they are behaving honourably. Most highly political schools and families quietly accept that sometimes they will simply have to lie for their clan, and therefore tend to emphasize Sincerity far more than Honesty in their approach to Bushido, counting on their adherence to the other virtues to make up for their sometimes erratic observance of this one. The Scorpion, naturally, ignore Honesty altogether, and exhibit almost open contempt for samurai who strive to tell the truth or who follow the path of justice.

HONOUR (MEYO)

Both the subtlest and the most basic of the virtues, Honour teaches that every samurai stands in judgment over himself, at all times. Bushido is not merely enforced by social convention or superior authority, but by each samurai’s own heart and soul. A samurai without Honour cannot truly follow the other virtues of Bushido, for he is merely acting as others expect, not as his own sense of honour demands. Conversely, a samurai with true Honour will follow the ways of Bushido even when the society around him becomes corrupt and his superiors expect him to behave dishonourably solely because they command it. Almost all samurai in Nippon respect Honour, for it lies at the very heart of Bushido.

SINCERITY (MAKOTO)

Samurai are taught from childhood that they must express absolute sincerity in both word and deed. A

samurai who speaks on behalf of his lord in court, but does so in a lackadaisical or unconvincing manner, is serving his lord as badly as if he refused to speak at all. A samurai who shows a lack of dedication in his actions, who acts and behaves without absolute commitment, is a samurai who fails his lord and his clan.

Sincerity is regarded with particular admiration by political clans and families, but most samurai respect it.

THE CONCEPT OF FACE (ON)

Face is a vitally important aspect of samurai culture. It is intrinsic to the belief that samurai are exceptional persons, chosen by birth to serve the Empire in ways that mere peasants cannot. A samurai is expected to maintain self-discipline at all times, to control himself and to never show the sort of open emotions and out- of-control behaviour that characterizes “lower people.” A samurai who cannot control his emotions is a samurai who cannot serve his lord with honour and trust, for his emotions will override his judgment and loyalty. Thus, maintaining dignity and self-control is vital to a samurai’s life.

The ability to maintain this self-control, never showing one’s true feelings, is referred to as maintaining one’s on or “face.” A samurai who maintains face is a samurai who cannot be manipulated, a samurai who can deceive his enemies, a samurai who serves his clan without fail. By contrast, a samurai who loses face, who loses self-control, shames both himself and, worse, his family and clan.

Face is a purely samurai concept, one that is not expected of peasants and other common folk. Maintaining face is sometimes compared to wearing a mask, a mask which must be kept on every hour of every day, concealing one’s true feelings beneath on.

SHAME AND DISGRACE

A samurai who is shamed by dishonourable actions or loss of face will be expected, at the very least, to offer deep and sincere apologies for such actions. Typically, if the disgrace was fairly modest, the samurai will be punished in a non-permanent way – assignment to less prestigious duties, for example, or expulsion from the castle, court, or city where he misbehaved. Although such punishments are not lethal, they nevertheless represent a deep and profound shame for the samurai involved, who may well spend the rest of his life trying to redeem himself for his failure.

More extreme failures, such as a violent outburst, an attack or serious insult against someone of higher station, or a breach of duty or loyalty, are punished much more severely.

A samurai who commits such acts is quite likely to be ordered to commit seppuku (if he does not offer seppuku himself out of shame). On other occasions, such disgraced samurai may be expelled from family and clan, and thus made ronin. A samurai may also forsake his fealty and become ronin by his own choice

rather than face the prospect of punishment or seppuku, particularly if he feels he is not actually guilty.

SEPPUKU

Seppuku is a form of ritual suicide which samurai perform when they have been irretrievably dishonoured. By performing the ceremony and thus dying honourably, the samurai wipes away the stain of dishonour and leaves his or her family name clean and untarnished. It is important to remember that the main purpose of seppuku is to protect the family, rather than the individual. In Nippon a family is the repository of all the collective deeds and accomplishments of its members, and it is commonly said, “I have borrowed my name from my ancestors.

I must return it to them untarnished.” A dishonoured person thus brings dishonour and shame to the entire family.

By committing seppuku, a samurai spares his family from the shame of his deeds.

A samurai who is committing seppuku in a formal setting dresses entirely in white (the color of death), and traditionally writes a final poem, a death-haiku, before taking up his wakizashi to commit suicide. The ritual may be witnessed by the samurai’s friends or relatives, representatives from his daimyo, or other individuals. The actual suicide is usually performed by means of the wakizashi, the blade which symbolizes a samurai’s honour (although another blade can be substituted in a pinch). The samurai kneels and makes three cuts across his belly, disembowelling himself. In order for the ritual to be properly completed, the samurai must not flinch or cry out in pain. Since this is extremely difficult, by long-standing tradition seppuku is assisted by another individual, a “second,” whose task is to complete the ritual by beheading the samurai,

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ensuring he dies with honour. Serving as a samurai’s second is an important and honourable task, and the sword used to behead the victim is carefully cleansed with water beforehand.

Seppuku is usually not something a samurai can do at will. Samurai who are facing total battlefield defeat or the military annihilation of their bloodline, however, will sometimes commit seppuku immediately rather than face the eternal shame of utter defeat. Indeed, entire samurai families have been known to commit suicide under such circumstances.

More normally, however, permission to commit seppuku must be granted by the samurai’s daimyo, and cruel or intolerant daimyo have been known to deny seppuku and force their samurai to live with their shame.

Aside from acting to preserve family honour, the other form of permissible seppuku is to protest unjust orders from one’s lord. This form of protesting seppuku is known as kanshi, and must still be authorized by the daimyo. Most daimyo don’t care for such an act, but it is considered quite dishonourable and ill-mannered to refuse one’s samurai permission to commit kanshi.

Women of the samurai caste who are not bushi are permitted to kill themselves in a less painful fashion, known as jigai, in which they stab themselves in the throat with a knife. This is generally reserved for women who are courtier or shugenja.

Given the chance, they will bind their ankles together before performing this act, so as not to shame themselves with wild kicking during their death throes.

POLITICS

The way of the samurai is often considered synonymous with the way of the warrior. But in the Land of the Rising Sun, samurai do not serve their clans solely on the battlefield. Politics has been a vital element of Nippon’s history since its founding, and the negotiations and manoeuvres of courtiers have changed the Empire as often as war, if not more so. Indeed, skilful courtiers can sometimes alter the outcomes of wars after the battles are fought.

Although some bushi look down on courtiers and the subtle arts of politics, those who must serve their clans in court reject the notion that they are any less samurai than their warrior cousins. Courtiers must pursue their diplomatic struggles with the same courage and zeal as a bushi in combat, for their failures can be as catastrophic as a lost war, and their victories can bring glory and success to their clan without the need to fight a war at all. Failure in court can mean death as certain as failure in combat – courtiers must walk a perpetual knife-edge, working to obstruct, undermine, and destroy their opponents without falling prey to the same fate themselves.

Seasoned bushi who get re-assigned to court are often forced to admit it is just as taxing a field of conflict as warfare itself.

In Nippon, politics takes place primarily in the various courts of the Empire. Every daimyo and governor maintains a court in their castle or palace, inviting emissaries and visitors from other families and clans to attend and meet as their guests. The higherranking the host, the more prestigious the court, and the more important will be the political discussions and negotiations which take place there. The most prestigious court in the Empire, of course, is the Imperial Court, hosted by the Emperor and his chief advisors. Many courtiers spend a lifetime trying to win an appointment there. The heaviest political activity takes place during the winter, and just as the Imperial Court is the most important and prestigious of political postings, the Imperial Court is the most desirable of all courts to spend the snow-bound months.

Court, more than any other part of Nipponese life, is suffused with delicate etiquette and indirect speech. After all, diplomats speak for their clan, and have the weight and prestige of that clan behind them. A minor daimyo who insults or ignores a courtier without legitimate cause could well be forced to commit seppuku for his breach of etiquette. Nor is anyone so uncouth as to openly discuss alliances or treaties in open court. Trained diplomats employ hints and subtle conversational gambits to suggest a possible topic of discussion.

Much of the truly important and crucial negotiation at court takes place in private meetings, rather than in open chambers where others might overhear it.

Political agreements in Nippon are seldom expressed as written treaties, save when both sides wish to present a formal agreement to the rest of the Empire. More commonly, negotiations are handled through personal commitment and word of honour. Clans trust their courtiers to handle delicate situations, and courtiers in turn can call on the trust of their clan to give their word great weight. Indeed, minor daimyo or provincial officials may well have difficulty keeping their positions if a powerful, influential courtier speaks out against them to their feudal lord – especially if the courtier’s accusations turn out to be true.

A major part of politics in Nippon is the exchange of letters, and experienced courtiers spend much time and effort each day in composing and sending such missives to each other. A good courtier can maintain a steady flow of correspondence with dozens of people from across the Empire, dropping small tidbits of information to them and carefully reviewing the snippets of gossip they send him in return. For many courtiers, this network of correspondents can be just as important as the allies in their own court. Correspondence can build an alliance that lasts generations or begin a feud that lasts centuries. Indeed, a timely piece of information from the far side of the Empire can turn the entire course of negotiations, and a courtier’s fame and fortune can be founded, built, or shattered by a single letter.

Within the courts themselves, critics and blackmailers alike employ letters as their weapon of choice, and lovers use them as their most subtle but most direct gift. This continual flow of correspondence within a court is known as the “Game of Letters.” Unlike letters sent to and from those outside court, these letters are designed primarily to display skill and to manipulate others rather than to convey information.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Nippon recognizes many of the same crimes as other cultures – murder, theft, bribery, false witness, and so forth. However, in Nippon the identification and punishment of crimes is complicated by a number of other factors, most notably the social striations of the Celestial Order, as well as the Nipponese concept of what constitutes acceptable evidence of guilt.

Crime in Nippon is investigated and punished by magistrates, primarily clan magistrates appointed by daimyo and governors to maintain order and enforce the law within their provinces. These magistrates are usually assisted by a team of yoriki (lesser-ranking samurai), and may also recruit ronin or even budoka (armed peasant vassals) to help with the work of tracking down and punishing criminals.

It may be noted that most magistrates, whether they be clan magistrates or Imperial magistrates, are not chosen

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on the basis of ability. An appointment as a magistrate, like any other appointment, tends to be political in nature, and Nippon is full of magistrates who have only the vaguest understanding of the law and their responsibilities to enforce it.

The crimes which are most likely to attract the attention of magistrates in Nippon are violations of Imperial law, which are considered treason. These include maho and other forms of religious blasphemy, attacks on Imperial authority or Imperial personages, and so forth. Magistrates also investigate dishonourable conduct (brawling, public disturbance, lying to authority), violence against persons (assault, murder), corruption (theft, tax evasion, bribery), and organized crime (smuggling, banditry). Generally speaking, when dealing with these sorts of crimes, magistrates focus their strongest efforts against those acts which are committed within the same social caste (such as a peasant attacking a peasant, or a samurai stealing from a samurai) or which are committed upward across caste lines (e.g. a peasant attacking a samurai), especially the latter, which are considered a violation of the Celestial Order. Crimes committed “downward” – a samurai abusing or killing a peasant – are barely recognized as such, and usually punished with nothing more than an apology or a small fine. Of course, a samurai who makes a habit of abusing or killing peasants is violating Compassion, and may find himself challenged by other samurai who take their responsibilities to the lower castes more seriously.

Nipponese criminal justice is rather different from Western concepts – indeed, it could be fairly said that Nipponese justice is not really justice at all. In Nippon, all that matters is eyewitness testimony and direct physical evidence. Logical deduction and inference are not considered proper evidence, and the very idea of

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solving crimes or mysteries in such a way is largely unknown. Personal testimony is always the most important evidence of all, and the higher the social rank of the witnesses, the more weight their testimony carries. Thus the testimony of a single samurai will outweigh any number of heimin or hinin, and a daimyo’s word outweighs that of a low-ranking samurai. Direct physical evidence is also considered acceptable, although it is not seen as being nearly so compelling as testimony.

However, evidence acquired through magical means, by having a shugenja speak with the kami, is not legally admissible – the Emperor long ago decreed such evidence to be off-limits, lest powerful shugenja manipulate the spirits to frame their enemies.

Interestingly, while magical evidence is off-limits, torture is considered an acceptable method of investigation in Nippon, and most daimyo and magistrates retain the services of a hinin torturer to assist them in questioning suspects and eliciting confessions. Torture is not used casually, however, and under the Articles of Heaven it is considered improper to employ it on those who are weak and vulnerable, such as children and the elderly.

Once a criminal has been arrested, that criminal is expected to confess to the crime. A written confession is considered the closing document of any criminal investigation, and in its absence, a conviction requires special authorization from a daimyo or other figure of high rank. Once someone has confessed, the crime is solved and effectively forgotten – there is no mechanism for re-opening a case, and the very idea of trying to do so is considered improper by most Nipponese.

Crimes may be punished in a variety of ways, depending on their severity, and magistrates have some leeway in deciding appropriate punishment. Any really serious crime, such as murder, maho, banditry, or treason, is usually punished by death – hanging or beheading, typically, although for serious treason more gruesome punishments may be used, such as boiling in oil or crucifixion. If the criminal is a samurai and has confessed, he will sometimes be allowed to commit seppuku instead of facing the shame of execution.

Other crimes may be punished in a greater variety of ways, depending on the severity of the offense. Serious crimes such as evading Imperial taxes may still be punished with death or exile, but for samurai guilty of lesser offenses such as assault, petty theft, public nuisance, or harm to one of lower station, magistrates may employ modest punishments such as handcuffing, house arrest, fines, or public reprimand. Punishments for commoners are generally more severe than for samurai – a peasant guilty of petty theft might be subjected to a severe public beating, for example, and a merchant found guilty of a crime may have his business and livelihood seized.

If a samurai has been accused of a crime, but the evidence is inconclusive (especially if the accused and accuser are of equal social rank), a magistrate may authorize a duel to settle the matter. Once a duel has been fought and won, the matter is considered closed and no further questions can be raised.

DUELING

Nippon is a society ruled by a caste of armed warriors who follow a strict code of honour and etiquette. When a samurai is insulted or maligned, and even more so if his (or her) family, clan, or lord is the target of such insults and slanders, he will usually respond by issuing a challenge to a duel. Duels are considered the appropriate and socially acceptable response for any situation where a samurai feels that honour or reputation has been threatened or compromised. Indeed, failing to issue a duel means the original insult or slander is left unanswered, in effect making it true.

Conversely, once a challenge has been issued, the other samurai must either back down and apologize, retracting whatever slander he issued, or else defend his words with steel. Backing down, of course, is a tremendous loss of prestige and face, and a wise samurai will never issue an insult or accusation without being prepared to back it up in a duel.

Duels are not always to the death. Samurai are not supposed to throw their lives away without cause, and when the insult or offense which caused the duel is not of great magnitude, a duel to first blood, or until one combatant acknowledges defeat, will be considered sufficient. When the insult is serious, however, duels are always lethal, and end only when one (or both) participants are dead.

Regardless of whether it is to first blood or to the death, a truly honourable duel must be authorized by higher authority.

Typically, this requires the permission of each samurai’s daimyo, but other high-ranking samurai such as Imperial officials and district governors can often approve duels as well, especially duels to first blood. Magistrates also have the power to authorize duels to prove the guilt or innocence of an accused criminal. This is not to say that a duel cannot be fought without such permission. Unauthorized duels are a regular feature of Nipponese life, especially where samurai passions become involved, and while such duels are considered socially scandalous and improper, they are not punished in the same way as a murder. Typically, the samurai is subjected to little more than house arrest or a public reprimand.

Traditionally, any samurai who wears a katana is signifying his ability to defend himself, and if he is challenged to a duel, he must fight on his own behalf. A samurai who carries only a knife or a wakizashi (such as the typical courtier or shugenja) is signifying that he is not a warrior and cannot fight his own duels. If he is challenged, he can call for a champion to fight on his behalf. Likewise, if such a samurai issues a challenge to another, he is expected to have a champion available to fight for him. Usually, daimyo will supply champions for their samurai, although they may refuse to do so if they consider the duel to be fought over insufficient justification. Once the duel is resolved, the losing party is expected to share the fate of their champion, committing seppuku if it was a duel to the death.

Once a challenge has been issued and accepted, the challenged party will be permitted to specify the time and place of the duel (a custom known as the “rights of the challenged”). When passions are high, the duel may be accepted and fought immediately, but more typically the challenged party will choose a symbolic or beautiful location at some noteworthy time, such as dawn. In theory, a duel can be held weeks or months after acceptance – sometimes as much as a year, though never more than that – but delaying a duel in this manner is often considered a sign of lack of selfconfidence or even cowardice.

BLOOD FEUDS

Nippon is a society governed by honour, and samurai are expected to uphold that honour with steel. If a samurai is killed in an unauthorized duel, or through the incompetence or negligence of another samurai, the

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family of the fallen has the right to declare a blood feud against the one responsible.

Blood feuds may also sometimes result when it is impossible to punish a crime, severe insult, or other dire offense through the normal methods of Nipponese justice or duelling.

For example, if a samurai’s family was left impoverished and disgraced by the political machinations of another, he might declare a blood feud to avenge this.

When a samurai declares a blood feud, he must appear before his daimyo and request formal permission, much as with a duel. Few daimyo refuse, for a blood feud is considered an honourable and socially acceptable way to seek vengeance. The daimyo will issue a written authorization for the blood feud, and once this is done, a state of war effectively exists between the samurai’s family and the offender. Samurai pursuing a blood feud are expected to carry their daimyo’s written authorization with them, so as to prevent misunderstandings with the local authorities and magistrates.

Those who interfere with a blood feud are interfering with an honourable task, and may be dealt with as severely as the avenging samurai might wish.

A blood feud ends when the offending party is killed. At that point all violence is expected to cease and the avenging samurai should depart peacefully. Of course, death in a blood feud can sometimes result in another feud being declared in turn, as the family of the slain offender seeks its own vengeance.

Thus, feuds can escalate and grow until they encompass entire bloodlines for multiple generations.

WAR IN NIPPON

The Code of Bushido is also known as the “Way of the Warrior,” and although the Nipponese religion often focuses on peace and compassion, most samurai of the Empire are bushi, raised in the path of arms and taught to seek glory and fame on the battlefield. Minor wars and border skirmishes are a constant reality of life in the Land of the Rising Sun, where the different clans are constantly jockeying for power and influence, and major wars erupt with some regularity. During periods of crisis, such as the eras of the Clan War, war is nearconstant and major clashes of arms become a regular part of every samurai’s life.

ARMIES AND TACTICS

Nipponese armies are primarily infantry forces. The native Nipponese pony is not hardy enough to support full-scale cavalry warfare, although it can be used effectively for scouts or mounted infantry.

Thus, the only samurai who employ true cavalry tactics in Nippon are the Taneka, who imported full-size horses from Cathay. Other Nipponese armies developed some degree of anti-cavalry training and tactics, but their lack of full-size horses prevented them from deploying any large-scale cavalry force of their own.

The standard Nipponese military unit is the legion (daibutai), which comprises between 700 and 1,000 troops, commanded by an officer called a taisa (captain). Legions are divided into companies (kaisha) which number roughly 150-200 men, commanded by chui (lieutenants). Officially, legions are organized into larger forces referred to as armies, traditionally numbering 48 legions each, and commanded by a rikugunshokan (general) assisted by several senior officers known as shireikan (commanders). Every clan maintains at least one army, and the more militaristic clans can field three or four armies simultaneously. In practice, armies are more likely to be administrative and organizational in nature than to actually go into the field as a single unified force. Such large-scale deployments generally only take place during the Empire’s rare periods of unrestricted warfare.

When armies go into battle, regardless of their strength, it is the smaller units – legions and companies – which form the primary units of tactical manoeuvre. They usually deploy in rectangular blocks, wider than they are deep. However, the Nipponese generally do not have concepts like phalanx fighting or maintaining a “shield wall.” It is expected that once two enemy units collide on the battlefield, the soldiers on each side will engage each other in personal combat. Consequently, the Nipponese march and advance in a more dispersed and open formation than Old World armies, and

once contact is made with the enemy, any formation will quickly break down into a sprawl of hundreds of small melees. Thus, battlefield tactics tend to focus more on pre-contact manoeuvring, bringing more troops to bear on the decisive point through effective scouting and skilful march and deployment, and wearing down the enemy with archery and magical attack prior to engagement, as well as on successfully withdrawing and rallying units after combat.

SIEGES

The Nipponese prefer to meet their opponents on the open field, fighting glorious battles which earn the participants fame and honour. However, when an army is badly outmatched, or has already lost a battle, commanders will usually recognize the greater value of preserving their strength by retreating inside a nearby castle and enduring a siege.

For the most part, Nipponese siege warfare tends to favour the defender. Only the Batake, the undisputed masters of this sort of warfare, possess siege weapons in any significant quantity, and even their mighty catapults and rams can be hard-put to reduce a large, well-constructed castle. Usually, a siege will lead to a protracted stand-off, with the besieging army attempting to starve out the defenders, while those inside the castle wait and hope for relief by an allied army.