Okugai
The Isolated Empire
Battlemaps set in this location
The Aarosh Mountains
The Aarosh Mountains stretch across the far northern border of Okugai, forming the final threshold between the waking world and the dreaming realm of Spirits, known as Nocturne. To the south, the mortal world operates on logic, order, and predictability, but beyond the peaks lies a land governed by thought and emotion. In Nocturne, the landscape is shaped by the moods and ideals of the Oni and the Ninoten, formless spirits that embody pure concepts. When a river spirit grieves, its waters may spill over in sorrow. When a mountain spirit is enraged, the very peak might uproot and march for miles. The land is alive and ever-changing to reflect the shifting inner lives of its denizens.
The Aarosh Mountains stand as a sacred border between these two realities. The mountains take their name from Aarosh,the Queen of Griffins, a sovereign of the skies believed to possess the most advanced intelligence in all of Crudilex. It is said her wings rest on either side of the ridge, the realms granting her a mastery of both dreams and logic.
Saiichuu, City of Stilts
Saiichuu, the city of stilts, raised high above the ever-changing waters of a deep lake whose levels shift with the moods of the river spirit who controls the headwaters of Okugai. Entire districts rise and fall with the seasons, some disappearing beneath the surface without warning, only to emerge again days or weeks later. The city is suspended between water and sky, its walkways slick with moss and glowing softly from the lanterns of the oni-folk who call it home. Saiichuu is ruled by Shogun Yo, the Breathless, a vengeful spirit trapped within his samurai armor since the day of his death. He silently wanders the halls of his wooden palace, his soul bound by purpose: to exact revenge on the one who murdered him.
Like their Shogun, many of Saiichuu’s citizens are not entirely of this world. Spirits from beyond the Aarosh Mountains live among mortals here. They are bound by oath to obey the laws of men: to walk in corporal form, to respect time, distance, and gravity. But some
supernatural outlaws exist in defiance of these rules, slipping between the cracks of reality, tolerated only because enforcing such laws is nearly impossible. But those spirits who go too far can draw the ire of Houtizaru. This great Monkey spirit will venture down from his mountain and stalk the city’s shifting streets and rooftops. When he finds spirits behaving beyond what is possible for mortals he banishes them back beyond the mountains or binds them in servitude to toil in the soulstone mines of Yasumasa.
Oniglade
The Oniglade is a sacred forest of towering, vividly colored cherry blossom trees in the valley south of the Aarosh Mountains. Thick with the scent of spring and ancient magic, this forest is home to the Kagra oni, paper white ogre-like spirit-beings, and their less monstrous descendants, the Pale tieflings. Long ago, Oniglade was set aside by the Mushi Guardians and sanctioned by the Kozo as a sanctuary for the spirits of Nocturne and the Kagra oni alone as an offering of peace to end a brutal war between them and humans. Mortals are strictly forbidden from entering the forest, with one exception: a single marble tiled road that runs through its heart. Travelers may walk it only in the company of a Kagra guide. Stray from the path, and the Oni spirits are quick to remind intruders that peace here is conditional.
Though terrible in form, the Kagra oni accepted this land as their own in a legendary peace accord with the 19th Kozo during the Age of Myth. Since then, a single truth has echoed across centuries: a broken promise is an act of war.
Yasumasa
Yasumasa, the easternmost city of Okugai, is a hub of industry, built along the edge of the Aarosh Mountains and the eastern border of the country. It rises from the depths of open-pit mines that snake like rivers through the city. All carved to extract the rare and volatile amber Soulstones. Found only here this one-of-a-kind material capable of capturing the final breath of essence fleeing a dying body.
These soulstones, once harvested, power machines, weapons, and magic alike, making Yasumasa one of the most strategically important cities in all of Crudilex. However, the mining of these stones is perilous. The mines run deep, the stone around them is brittle, and cave-ins are common. Worse still, anyone who perishes in these depths risks having their soul trapped in an unclaimed stone, lost forever in the dark, never to reach the afterlife.
To mitigate this, the city relies heavily on the labor of the tabashi, a cat-like race of spiritfolk native to Nocturne who do not possess souls in the same way mortals do. Immune to the dangers of the soulstones in the mines, they have become the unwilling workforce of Yasumasa. The city itself is a tangle of scaffolds, chain elevators, and skybridges connecting shanties of corrugated metal and glorious tower penthouses. Its factories glow red through the night, and every wind carries the metallic stench of molten rock and ghostfire. Few places in Okugai are more dangerous, but none are more profitable.
Sunflower Glade
The Sunflower Glade is a serene valley south of Foo-dalk High, perched on the rim of the Chasm of Chains. It is an expanse of rolling green hills blanketed with towering, tree-like sunflowers. It is widely known as a sacred site, tethered to the presence of a powerful oni spirit, bound eternally to this place. There is a deep, magnetic spiritual current here. Spirits who cross beyond the Aarosh Mountains into the lands of man are irresistibly drawn to the center of the glade. There, beneath the swaying canopy of blooms, they are gently lulled into unbreakable slumber. These spirits do not perish, they dream forever, locked in a timeless state. It is said that hundreds, perhaps thousands, have succumbed to the glade’s enchantment over the centuries. The air itself is heavy with dreams of the spirits. Mortals are unaffected but fear and mythology surrounding the sleeping spirits keeps most away regardless.
Foo-Dalk High, City of Dwarves
Perched along the cliffs of the Dwalifel Valley, Foo’dalk High is the stony, wind-swept home of the Ohku dwarves, renowned wakestone golomancers, and feared warriors. The city is carved directly into the cliffside with rope lifts and terraces that overlook the valley. The Kozo of Okugai has never openly moved against the dwarves. While they once allied themselves with a rebellion against the nation. For this crime the Foo-dalk Daimyo was mutilated on the field of battle by the Kozo himself, and ever since has become an unwilling vassal Daimyo to the Bohai shogun. Many who oppose the Kozo believe there is a darker truth. Illegal, seditious rumors claim that the Kozo is secretly in debt to the Foo-dalk dwarves which prevented him from wiping them out completely for their part in the ongoing rebellion.
Marobu, Castle on the lake
Marobu is a colossal atakebune river vessel, more fortress than warship, anchored on the vast central lake of Okugai. Towering with wooden walls, bristling with banners and gunports, it is the seat of the merchant daimyo, Uborni, who controls and taxes all trade flowing up and down the river. This trade route is vital, as it is the primary artery through which imported food and supplies reach the inland regions of Okugai.
Unlike most holdings in the region, Marobu has embraced foreign technology and is the only domain in Okugai known to make regular and tactical use of firearms and cannons. Smoke-belching matchlocks and bronze cannons line its decks, giving it a terrifying advantage against any of the other daimyo that might challenge his authority.
Though it floats, Marobu is treated as a proper castle, with its own castle-town built on barges and linked by rope bridges and piers. It is as much a political center as it is a military one, with emissaries and merchants making pilgrimage to pay their taxes, offer tribute, or seek favors from the daimyo who reigns from within its lacquered, iron-studded chambers.
Katsune’s Shrine
The mountains that divide Okugai are among the most inhospitable and treacherous in all of Crudilex. Many claim one could travel from Kozoyari to Yasumasa by way of Saiichuu and back again before a group attempting to cross the mountains directly would be even halfway through. There is, however, one exception, the Shrine of the Kitsune. Tucked into an unmarked cleft in the rock lies a lonely torii gate, protected by a mysterious, fox-like spirit Kitsune. A being of unrelenting curiosity, Kitsune is obsessed with humans, and endlessly fascinated by their behavior, though she rarely understands them.
Beyond the torii lies a pocket dimension, a seemingly endless hallway lined with hundreds of tiny wayside shrines dedicated to the Kitsune from all over Okugai. Peering into these shrines one can see the outside of the corresponding shrine somewhere out in the world. At the far end stands a second torii that opens just outside the city of Yasumasa. It is, without a doubt, the fastest way to traverse Okugai. But there is a catch. Kitsune alone controls access to the path, and she despises those who come seeking only convenience. She will never open the way for anyone who directly asks to use it. Instead, travelers must win her favor, not by flattery or force, but by genuinely captivating her interest. To pass, one must convince her to offer to open the gate herself.
Valley of Echoes
Just north of the capital city, nestled above the fog-covered mountains, lies a land wrapped in dense mist and forbidden by the Kozo. This is the Valley of Echoes, a spectral region home to the mystical Tavern-Shi, home to the greater Ninotin, the Kami of Transcendence. Above the valley floats a solitary mote island, suspended in the air by the powers of the Kami. The island is a temple and a hotel for the dead, a place where oni guardians receive mortal souls and guide them through a gradual transformation. These souls, often unaware of their own passing, "check in" as weary travelers, slowly uncovering the truth of their condition as they are reshaped into oni spirits.
The transformation is not natural or easy. Most oni are not reborn mortals but primordial entities, native to the Spiritlands beyond the mountains. However, a rare few exceptional mortals are granted a second life in oni form. The process is resisted by many souls. Memories anchor them to the world of the living, and their minds struggle to adapt to a form not meant for them. Those who do not complete the transformation may become monsters, trapped between man and spirit, but the hotel will keep them and try to anchor their soul to one side or the other.
Chasm of Chains
The Chasm of Chains marks the northern boundary of Bohai, lying just beyond the road that leads out of the Yim Terraces. It is a canyon, a thousand feet deep and stretching for miles, carved like a wound in the world. It is perhaps most well known for the enormous iron chains that crisscross the chasm’s width at varying depths, anchoring themselves into the rock on either side. No one truly knows who placed the chains there, or how such colossal constructs came to be. The most widely believed tale holds that during the Age of Myth, ancient Kami spirits forged the chains to halt a rift in the land, that threatened to widen and consume all of Okugai.
Bohai, The Kozo’s Fortress
Along the western coast of Okugai, the land unfolds in vast terraced hills, climbing like giant steps up to a huge red fortress on the highest of the sea cliffs. Bohai is a castle city with massive walls protecting large plazas within. It overlooks the southern seas from high above, and all ships heading inland pass through its shadow. It is known for its military strength and houses the greatest of the samurai armies of Okugai. Drilled relentlessly and honed to a strict, orderly perfection, a discipline is reflected in all facets of life in Bohai. Its soldiers, collected from the nearby capital city when they come of age, are easily the most numerous of the three competing Shoguns. While no single shogun is considered above the others, the Kozo has only ever visited Bohai, sending a powerful signal to the rest of his army.
Wugui
Along the jagged seastacks and karst formations of the Okugai coast lie countless small jungle islands, densely packed with hopeful migrants seeking entry into the isolationist empire. Wugui island is the largest of these and is now the permanent home of a once-nomadic tortle clan. This clan has set foot on every known corner of Crudilex, except for Okugai itself. Wugui represents their final stop and greatest challenge. But the ancient, immovable bureaucracy of Okugai has made citizenship notoriously difficult to obtain, with traditions so rigid they are considered utterly unmalleable.
the Tortles of Wugui do not age in the traditional sense and have committed themselves fully to the painstaking process of each individually earning entry into Okugai. It is their hope that, someday, each member of their clan will pass through the gate of Kozoyari and complete their group's grand quest: to truly walk the entire world. Until that day comes, they live quietly and serenely together on Wugui.
Kozoyari, The Capital City
Kozoyari is the heart of the empire, the seat of power for the Kozo and the gateway into the rest of the country. As the capital, it stands as the focal point for much of the limited cultural exchange that occurs in Okugai, hosting the embassies of foreign nations such as Collora, Dawnfire, and Grand Nostradan. The empire, united under the leadership of the Kozo, faces constant tension from regional shogun and their samurai. These local powers are embroiled in ongoing border skirmishes, known as the 6th Shogun War, which is slowly but surely ravaging the countryside as all of the Kozo’s shogun generals and their daimyo make war amongst themselves.
While the war is well known to those who live outside the capital, it remains a public secret in Kozoyari. The city serves as the gateway into Okugai, both the first point of entry for foreigners and the central hub for all trade that flows into and out of the empire. The world is allowed to see Kozoyari as a show of force meant to conceal the true scale of the shogun wars and the dwindling military strength of the empire. It is in the streets and halls of Kozoyari that Okugai's leaders maintain a careful illusion of unity and unshakable control, despite the nearly endless infighting that lies beneath the surface.