Post by ravigen on Feb 12, 2016 5:05:52 GMT
With a tired sigh, Bakku leant against a rock outcropping, brushing the falling snow from the brim of his straw hat, looking up the incline and the line of Sandai monks marching into the mountains. At the top of the incline he could see Nodoka waving down at him. Waving down at him without a hint of fatigue.
Youth.
He growled something vaguely obscene before standing, they did have a purpose traversing these mountains. Ashigara, the place of purity, it had been lost to time with only a few writings to remind them of its existence and purpose. Ikegami Takahata, the clan’s founder and the holy warrior of Tenmu, had built the temple upon the mountain where he had received his vision to unite the clans.
It had supposedly been a grand temple built of enchanted stone and iron, rich tapestries had adorned the walls with a library filled with dozens of volumes of lore and history, chronicling the clan and the people from the beginning of their written history, their theories and study of magic, religion, ritual, and knowledge accumulated for more than a thousand years. It had training grounds for the Sandai and Nidai monks and served as the home to the Souhei council where the priests would meet and discuss the events of the year.
It had been a place of pilgrimage, study, reflection, and discipline, beautiful pools of water alongside planted sakura trees that bloomed pink in the spring and dispersed in the fall.
And then it had been corrupted, after a thousand years of peace, a civil war had erupted between two of the previous Ikegami Daimyo’s children, the younger had slain an elder priest after they had refused to endorse his side of the conflict. The very murder of a holy man at that site was a corruption of every instinct the Ikegami held dear and in the following weeks, the priests had left Ashigara, declaring it corrupted and went to the aid of the older sibling against the accursed defiler.
In the years that followed, the tragedy that had occurred there lingered in the memory of the Souhei, who had decided not to purify the grounds and declared a century of mourning. That century became two, then three and four, until Ashigara fell from the common memory as the priests turned to more conventional temples in the lowlands.
And then the Empire and the Vaekirate came and the memory of Ashigara dimmed even further, until when the Empire finally abandoned the North, the Ikegami finally found themselves free to worship as they had before and in the rush they had scoured for every bit of lore of their faith and Ashigara was returned to the common memory.
Now with Tanglemane defeated and driven off Naozumi had approved of Bakku and Nodoka marching off to search for the fabled temple. They had scraps of lore, of rumor and legend to guide them, it was a faint hope but a worthy goal, if they could find Ashigara, restore its glory, it would serve as a shining beacon for the Ikegami that their gods had blessed them.
One of the monks offered him his arm and Bakku took it gratefully as they ascended the steep incline, around them the snow was beginning to accumulate upon the mountaintop, winter would be here soon and they’d have to find the temple soon or else return to one of the villages for the winter and begin their search again.
One way or another they would find
Youth.
He growled something vaguely obscene before standing, they did have a purpose traversing these mountains. Ashigara, the place of purity, it had been lost to time with only a few writings to remind them of its existence and purpose. Ikegami Takahata, the clan’s founder and the holy warrior of Tenmu, had built the temple upon the mountain where he had received his vision to unite the clans.
It had supposedly been a grand temple built of enchanted stone and iron, rich tapestries had adorned the walls with a library filled with dozens of volumes of lore and history, chronicling the clan and the people from the beginning of their written history, their theories and study of magic, religion, ritual, and knowledge accumulated for more than a thousand years. It had training grounds for the Sandai and Nidai monks and served as the home to the Souhei council where the priests would meet and discuss the events of the year.
It had been a place of pilgrimage, study, reflection, and discipline, beautiful pools of water alongside planted sakura trees that bloomed pink in the spring and dispersed in the fall.
And then it had been corrupted, after a thousand years of peace, a civil war had erupted between two of the previous Ikegami Daimyo’s children, the younger had slain an elder priest after they had refused to endorse his side of the conflict. The very murder of a holy man at that site was a corruption of every instinct the Ikegami held dear and in the following weeks, the priests had left Ashigara, declaring it corrupted and went to the aid of the older sibling against the accursed defiler.
In the years that followed, the tragedy that had occurred there lingered in the memory of the Souhei, who had decided not to purify the grounds and declared a century of mourning. That century became two, then three and four, until Ashigara fell from the common memory as the priests turned to more conventional temples in the lowlands.
And then the Empire and the Vaekirate came and the memory of Ashigara dimmed even further, until when the Empire finally abandoned the North, the Ikegami finally found themselves free to worship as they had before and in the rush they had scoured for every bit of lore of their faith and Ashigara was returned to the common memory.
Now with Tanglemane defeated and driven off Naozumi had approved of Bakku and Nodoka marching off to search for the fabled temple. They had scraps of lore, of rumor and legend to guide them, it was a faint hope but a worthy goal, if they could find Ashigara, restore its glory, it would serve as a shining beacon for the Ikegami that their gods had blessed them.
One of the monks offered him his arm and Bakku took it gratefully as they ascended the steep incline, around them the snow was beginning to accumulate upon the mountaintop, winter would be here soon and they’d have to find the temple soon or else return to one of the villages for the winter and begin their search again.
One way or another they would find
